A couple of months behind the rest of the world, I finally managed to finish playing Mass Effect 3. Being late to the party meant that I got to hear all the controversy over the ending and first day DLC. BioWare had a near impossible effort to make everyone happy with the concluding part to such a great trilogy. Were they able to pull it off or were the public right that EA is the worst company in America? Continue reading
XBox 360
Video Game Review: Mass Effect 2 (or ME2: Modern Warfare)
My hard drive failure forced reprogression through the Mass Effect trilogy brings me to Mass Effect 2. After the launch of Mass Effect, BioWare was bought by EA, who were recently named the worst company in America. The apparent influence of BioWare’s new corporate parent is readily apparent in changes made between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (though we may never get the true story as to how much EA influenced the design of the game and how much of the changes were BioWare’s own choice). While Mass Effect could be described as an Action RPG, Mass Effect 2 edged toward Shooter RPG as many of the RPG elements from the first game underwent a complete overhaul.
Today, I review the second part of the Mass Effect trilogy with three year’s worth of hindsight and the accompanying DLCs. Continue reading
Video Game Review: Mass Effect (or When Hard Drives Stop Dead)
Let me set the scene for you: It’s the last Friday of January. My 2010 HP Pavilion laptop is my third consecutive laptop which starts to experience major issues. It still ran but it was slower than my nearly 30-year-old Macintosh SE. I tried starting it up when I get home from work but it’s dead. It won’t go past the splash screen. The hard drive has seized up and won’t go any more. Apart from some photos and some old radio show clips, I’ve lost nearly everything from the last two years of my life.
Why do I bring that up at the start of a Mass Effect review? I’m one of the many who played the Mass Effect series on PC. My three Shepards and two games worth of story were lost. When I got my computer back two weeks later (with a new hard drive), it was back to Eden Prime to stop the Reapers. And since I had to do everything over from scratch, I thought it would be fun to re-review Mass Effect some four years after coming out for PC (five years after XBox 360) to see how hindsight affects how we perceive the game and how it influenced games since. Continue reading
The Evolution of Video Games (Infographic)
Did you know that it’s been almost 40 years since Pong brought video games to mainstream popularity in 1972? Video games have come a long way since a white dot moving slowly across the screen. Today’s video games play in 1080p HD and in 3D with realistic graphics that could pass for a movie at a passing glance. So just how far have we gone over the last 40 years? This infographic explains. Continue reading
BioShock Infinite Gameplay Preview Released
The folks over at Irrational Games have released the first gameplay footage of their upcoming game BioShock Infinite. Fans of the first two games (like myself) will notice a few not so subtle differences between IG’s original BioShock and their second effort in the series (2K did BioShock 2 internally). But let’s take a look at this early footage and dissect it after the jump. Continue reading
E3 2009: Thursday Roundup
Sadly, we’ve come to the end of the 2009 edition of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. That doesn’t mean that we were short of things to talk about. Even on the final day, announcements were being made and new details were coming out about recently unveiled games. Continue reading
E3 2009: Wednesday Roundup
With most of the press conferences over and done with, the attention at E3 turns to the individual games. Over the final two days of the expo, we’ll take a look at some of games making waves. We also have a quick recap of the Konami press conference. Continue reading
E3 2009: Monday Roundup
Not only did Microsoft have their press conference on Monday, a pair of developers had their press conferences today. Two heavyweights also took to the main stage at E3: Electronic Arts and Ubisoft. As always, the two companies were expected to make big waves with some of their announcements and didn’t disappoint. Continue reading
E3 2009: The Microsoft Outlook
It’s that time again techno-folks. The Electronic Entertainment Expo opened to the public this morning. While Nintendo and Sony both have their usual big shows this year, Microsoft is expected to top them all. In the run up to today’s E3 press conference, Microsoft was rumoured to announce wholesale additions to the XBox 360 including a new interface, integrated controls with other home theatre equipment, and a host of new games. PC gamers were expected to be largely shunned by Microsoft. So what did Microsoft unveil at E3? Find out after the jump. Continue reading
The Lowdown 