Rage Trailer, Uncharted 3 Multiplayer, Mass Effect 3 Audio

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy as hell lately. This week, you should see a few more posts. I'll be going over the Gears of War 3 beta, Portal 2, and if I can finally find a copy the GameInformer article on Mass Effect 3.

A few updates on some anticipated games for now though. First up is Rage from id Software and Bethesda.

Rage got a new trailer and while I'm still a little worried that it will feel too much like Fallout 3 or Borderlands, the trailer looked awesome. The gameplay looks fun and has a very smooth style to it. If the game plays the way it looks like it does, this will be a must-buy on September 13th. Gears of War 3 is going to have a tough contender that month.

Also, Bethesda announced an anarchy edition with free items that you can get if you pre-order the game. According to IGN:

The Anarchy Edition will allow players to access two special weapons, the Double Barrel Shotgun and the Fists of RAGE. Additionally, players will have access to the Rat Rod Buggy, which will replace your standard in-game buggy, and the Crimson Elite Armor, giving you an extra defensive boost.

I'm a little mixed on pre-order bonuses so please don't ask me my full opinion on this because I really don't have one. But it's there and here's the new trailer for your viewing pleasure.

Next, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception got a trailer for its multiplayer. For those of you who haven't played it, Uncharted 2 was undiluted awesome in every way. The single-player is one of the best campaigns of this gen and while its multiplayer felt a bit limiting compared to others on the market it still showed great promise and was much better than I thought it would be.

Uncharted 3 looks like it's going for greater customization this time around with different gun accessories, clothing colors etc. It's going to be difficult for Naughty Dog to top Uncharted 2 but they're one of the best and I have trust in them. If they can repeat the same great single-player and up the ante for the multiplayer, this is going to be an awesome addition to this excellent series. The beta will go online on June 28th if you purchase Infamous 2 or subscribe to PSN Plus and will be publicly available on July 5th.

Finally, some Mass Effect 3 updates.

While I haven't been able to find the GameInformer issue for Mass Effect 3 yet, they have been providing some updates on their site and about an hour ago, they put up a dialogue by the lead audio designer for Mass Effect 3, Rob Blake.

In the video he talks about how he's communicated with other EA-owned companies such as DICE (the guys behind Battlefield) about ways to improve the sounds in Mass Effect 3. They'll be using the same audio engine as in Mass Effect 2 but just improve it from there rather than changing the entire system like they did from ME1 to ME2.

To provide an example he showed the difference in the sound effect from the assault rifle in Mass Effect 2 and the assault rifle in Mass Effect 3 which sounds much more effective and vicious and also displays more of a feedback that you'd expect in a larger area, which is one of the things he was going for. Given that this is the last game in this stellar trilogy, BioWare is really trying to improve everything and I couldn't be happier with some of the stuff I've heard so far.

For those of you interested in seeing what the audio lead has to say, you can watch the video at GameInformer.


That's all for the moment. I'll be back to you soon with thoughts on the Gears of War 3 beta, first-impressions of Portal 2, and hopefully reactions to a GameInformer article on Mass Effect 3.