Red Dead DLC, Vampire Bloodlines Sale, Snake Eater 3D Delayed, and Battlefield 3 on Consoles

A few pieces of news before I leave for San Diego (though if the place I'm staying in has good wireless, expect a lot more blog posts this week).

First up DLC for Red Dead Redemption.

One of the best games of 2010, and of this generation as a whole, is still getting supported by Rockstar a year after it came out. This in the form of a new piece of downloadable content titled Myths and Mavericks. It's a multiplayer expansion adding new characters to play as and new maps the different modes in the game. Best of all, it's FREE!!! The DLC is expected to be released in September though I haven't seen a definitive date yet.

I don't expect it to outdo Undead Nightmare which, along with Lair of the Shadow Broker for Mass Effect 2, was the best DLC of last year but it is free, so I won't complain. And now I'm having fond memories of Undead Nightmare, what a great idea. Anyone else find it ironic that the alternate timeline of a zombie apocalypse was less depressing than the main story of the game?

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Often considered one of the great cult classics of the game industry, Vampire: The Masquerade-Bloodlines is now 75% off on Steam for the rest of the weekend. The game is currently on $5, and it is well worth that price if you enjoy a great RPG. In many ways it feels like a successor to Deus Ex.

I'm planning on doing a retro review on this game at a later date, but if you haven't had a chance to play it yet, go pick it up now while this deal is going. Also look for some internet patches to fix many of the numerous bugs in the game.

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The 3DS port for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater has been delayed to 2012. This news doesn't really concern me as I own Snake Eater (or the expansion, Subsistence) on my PS2, but as this game is one of my Top 3 games of all time, I never miss a chance to gush about its greatness.

With it's outstanding stealth gameplay, parody of 60s sci-fi films, excellent character driven story, and absolutely GUT-WRENCHING ending (I still cry), this game is a masterpiece. For those of you with a 3DS who have never played it but wanted to know what was so great about it, you'll have to wait a few more months, sorry.

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Finally, Battlefield 3 was a game made for the PCs which is why I'm getting it for the PC. However, DICE has come out to explain the ways they'll be cutting back on the console versions of the game. DICE has explained that they do not expect a huge difference but 64 players per game compared to 24 shows the limitations for the console versions.

Maps are also apparently going to be scaled back to allow the game to run at a consistent rate while still using the same graphical engine and power of the PC version with maybe a few cut corners. Like I said, while I'm mostly a console gamer, this is just a game that I feel was made with the PC in mind, so if my PC can take it then I'm a picking for that.

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Well as for the blog, I've currently got another retro review that I'll be posting later this week (not the ones I planned unfortunately), plus a new kind of review I'm doing for games that came out earlier this gen that I just never reviewed on here. Finally, my 100th blog post will be going up this week with a special tribute to one of my favorite franchises. Take note that it will be quite a long post but I've been planning to do this for months.

FemShep in Mass Effect 3, Bulletstorm Fails

A few weeks ago I talked about how BioWare was FINALLY placing Female Shepard into advertising for Mass Effect. I felt that she has always been overlooked especially given Jennifer Hale's superb performance in the last two games. BioWare had a vote on Facebook as to what the Shepard from the advertisements would look like and we've got a winner.

This Shepard vastly beat every other one that BioWare presented in the contest, outdoing the second place Shepard by over twice the votes. This isn't what my FemShep generally looks like. She has the default face with a different hairstyle and black hair but I like the blonde look.

Either way it's going to be great to finally see her get some attention because in my book, Commander Shepard is and always will be a woman.

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In the title above I note that Bulletstorm failed. Obviously I don't mean as a game as anyone who read my review know that I LOVED Bulletstorm. It had excellent gameplay, a surprisingly great cast of characters mixed with great voice acting (with the cast being led by Steve Blum and Jennifer Hale, how could it be anything less), beautiful scenery, funny (snark between Grayson and Trishka was awesome), and a combination of a lot of great game concepts that we've seen over the years. In the end, it had something that I feel a lot shooters lack nowadays: a lot of heart.

Unfortunately commercial-wise, Epic Games has said that Bulletstorm did not succeed. Dammit, I told you guys to pick it up ;). This is weird, as it marks the second game with similar ideas that Steve Blum has been the main character in that failed sales wise (MadWorld) and that game was also awesome, though that was definitely a bigger failure than this was.

While it may not be financially feasible, I'm hoping that Epic Games and People Can Fly bring it back for one last hurrah, especially after the cliffhanger ending that we got. Bulletstorm is one of my Top 5 games so far this year and was my favorite until Portal 2 came out. It had some great ideas that I feel can be expanded on, and I would love to see those characters back and also Blum and Hale back (though I'll probably be hearing them both again in Mass Effect 3). One last thing to finish it and make me feel as though it was concluded. Sorry Bulletstorm, I tried to get people to pick you up :'(

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I was planning on writing about how the Norway murderer has implicated video games (very tenuously) and how media is starting to jump on that and the ACL in Australia wants to ban any video games with violence, but out of respect for the dead there and because of just how idiotic the accusations are and measures people are requesting are, I've decided to just drop it here. You guys know my opinion on this matter and I feel that should be enough.

Releases in August

Before I start this, I want to say that I had a lot of faulty information on releases last month and I've completely changed sources to remedy that. I apologize and this month will be much more accurate. Anyways, let's get on with it.

AUGUST 2

• Amazing Adventures: The Forgotten Dynasty
• PC
• Developed by PopCap Games
• Published by PopCap Games

• Bleach: Soul Resurrección
• PS3
• Published by Sony (in Japan) and NIS (in North America)

• Limbo
• PC
• Developed by PlayDead
• Published by PlayDead

• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy HD
• PS3
• Developed by Ubisoft
• Published by Ubisoft

AUGUST 3

• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
• Xbox 360, PC
• Developed by Fuelcell Games
• Published by Fuelcell Games

AUGUST 4

• Scarlet Legacy
• PC
• Developed by onNet
• Published by onNet

AUGUST 9

• Sniper: Ghost Warrior (Extended)
• Xbox 360
• Developed by City Interactive
• Published by City Interactive

AUGUST 16

• Age of Empires Online
• PC
• Developed by Robot Entertainment
• Published by Microsoft

• Altered Beast
• PS3
• Developed by SEGA and Backbone Entertainment
• Published by SEGA

• No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and Feel Plus (doing the port)
• Published by Konami

AUGUST 23

• Call of Atlantis
• Nintendo DS
• Published by Easy Interactive

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Developed by Eidos Montreal
• Published by Square Enix

• Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked
• 3DS
• Developed by Atlus
• Published by Atlus

AUGUST 24

• The Lord of the Rings: War in the North (yeah I frakked this one up last month, sorry)
• PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Developed by Snowblind Studios
• Published by Warner Bros.
• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition
• Xbox 360
• Developed by Capcom
• Published by Capcom

AUGUST 28

• Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike Online Edition
• PS3
• Developed by Capcom
• Published by Capcom

AUGUST 30

• The Binding of Isaac
• PC
• Developed by Team Meat
• Published by Team Meat

• BloodRayne: Betrayal
• PS3
• Developed by WayForward Technologies
• Published by Majesco

• Bodycount
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Codemasters Studio Guildford
• Published by Codemasters

• ClaDun X2
• PSP
• Developed by System Prisma
• Published by NIS

• Driver: Renegade
• 3DS
• Developed by Ubisoft
• Published by Ubisoft

• Pirates of Black Cove
• PC
• Published by Paradox Entertainment

• White Knight Chronicles II
• PS3
• Developed by Level-5
• Published by D3 Publisher

AUGUST 31

• Air Conflicts: Secret Wars
• PS3, Xbox 360
• Developed by Games Farm
• Published by Kalypso Media

• Explodemon!
• PC
• Developed by Curve Studios
• Published by Curve Studios

• Rock of Ages
• PS3, Xbox 360, PC
• Developed by ACE Team
• Published by Atlus

My Pick

A few good looking things being released this month but a lot of them are just updates. Updates of good games at least, but still updates (including Altered Beast, my first ever video game).

For the last three months I've done this (or the only three months I've done this), it was hard to come up with a definitive pick of the month, for different reasons each month. May had three games that looked appealing to me, June had quite a few games but none of them really appealed to me, and July barely had any games. Finally we've got a slam-dunk, no competition, pick of the month and that pick is Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

The game just looks stellar. With multiple paths to each goal, in-depth RPG elements, a complex looking storyline and excellent art design, this looks a game worthy of the Deus Ex name. I've been highly impressed by everything I've seen so far. And for this reason, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is my pick for August.

Mass Effect 3 Updates, Talia in Arkham, Saint's Row The Third Trailer, and R18 Rating in Australia

Well a few news items out from Comic-Con, some of which I'll go into as the week goes on and after it's over. But let's start with the game that I'm most anticipating: Mass Effect 3.

The Reaper invasion will finally begin on March 6, 2012. The androids, intent on perpetuating the cycle of galactic genocide as they have done for millions (possibly billions) of years over, have been seen steamrolling over the galaxy with nothing standing in their way, and it's now up to Shepard, his/her squadmates, and dramatically improved gameplay to save all galactic life.

I haven't played a bit of Mass Effect 3 but seeing the gameplay has been blissful. At E3 they showed off the soldier and this time they showed off the Sentinel and Adept. I haven't seen any gameplay for the Adept yet (and I still haven't seen the Biotic Punch), but I did see the Sentinel who has a mixture of tech abilities and biotic powers. The biotics look to work the same way they did in Mass Effect 2, which isn't a bad thing at all. The level-up system looks excellent and pretty complex and involved for an RPG/TPS hybrid. I cannot wait to see it for the other classes primarily the Infiltrator and Vanguard, my two favorite classes.

If there's one thing I need to see improvement on, it's the enemy AI. BioWare stated that this game would be the most difficult in the series due to improved AI, but what I saw in this video didn't cut it. To be fair, it's not a completed game by any means and I can definitely tell that it's being played on a pretty low difficulty.

Also, you remember the situation with Wrex on Virmire (to those who played the game)? Well according to Casey Hudson there may be quite a few more situations like that depending on the choices made in the last two games and this game. Throw in Reaper indoctrination and it can be pretty difficult to imagine all squad members getting out alive.

SPOILER BELOW
One last thing I'm hoping to see before Comic-Con gets out, Kai Leng. I'm hoping for more information on Kai Leng. Kai Leng is a Cerberus assassin who appeared in the book, Mass Effect: Retribution, and is now being sent by the Illusive Man to kill Shepard and his/her allies. I want to see him because I want to get a taste for the potential fights with him because he's such a badass. Seriously the guy killed a KROGAN with just a knife and later SIX turians with just a knife. I'm hoping for fights with him that match the awesomeness of Tela Vasir in Lair of the Shadow Broker.
/SPOILERS

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Batman: Arkham City has been showing off a few characters this past week, both previously announced or surprises. A few days ago we got our first look at Talia Al Ghul. However, many of the gaming journalists were acting like this was a big surprise, like this was the first anyone's heard of her being in the game. Same with the voice actress, Stana Katic from Castle. Many are acting like this is the first we've heard of her voice the character.

Hate to break it to people and gaming journalists, but this information has been out there for months. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't mistaken before writing this and checked to see news on Talia's presence in Arkham City and I found confirmation of her being in the game from April and I didn't look very long for that information. Stana Katic was the same thing as she was also mentioned in the article.

Don't get me wrong, it's cool that we got a look at her, but this is not the first we've been told of her involvement in the game. So, here's Talia.

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Saint's Row: The Third has been looking great. With GTA now being more serious in tone, the Saint's Row series now feels like it has it's own identity separate from most other games on the market and the new one looks really fun. Anyway, a trailer was put up at the end of last week which gives us even more insanity than we already had. Here you go.

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Finally, after years of being treating it's gaming citizens like children and games themselves like children's toys, Australia is a few months away from instating an R18 rating for video games. The lack of an R18 rating has led quite a few games from being barred from the nation with Mortal Kombat being the most recent example. Even of the ones not barred, many are ridiculously censored (Left 4 Dead 2 anyone?). While at this point, I'm taking what they say with a grain of salt, it's good to see that they're giving some acknowledgement for their adult gaming citizens.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution Live Trailer, Battlefield 3 Multiplayer, Arkham City, and other Comic-Con Updates

Well I am NOT at Comic-Con which is a real pain in the ass, especially since I'll be in San Diego just a few days after Comic-Con has ended. Even worse is that a Mass Effect 3 demo will be there. FRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAKKKKKKK!

Oh well. I can still give updates from here so let's get started.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution looks phenomenal. The prequel to one of the most highly regarded shooters in history really looks like it's capturing the feel of the original with outstanding gameplay and deliciously complex conspiracy storyline about transhuman augmentation.

A live-action trailer was released yesterday and while it's not the first live-action trailer from the game and takes footage from the last one, it splices that footage with some of the purists, the ones protesting the augmentations. It's quite effective and gives a cool V for Vendetta vibe, which works great for a game like this that is trying to make both sides out as having flawed arguments and methods. Here's the trailer.

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Battlefield 3 got some updates yesterday and some more information about the multiplayer, particularly the Recon class (or Sniper class). In order to make the game more balanced and keep camping snipers from ruling the day, there will now be a glint effect. In other words the scope will be reflected by light which will allow others to find the sniper and take him out. There will also be sway and holding breath added.

Also dog tags will be back. First appearing in 2142, the dog tags have been quite popular and will be returning as collectible trophies from players that you kill up close. Finally there was also a video going over the Battle Log, which will track the stats in multiplayer and it's free.

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I am crazy excited for Batman: Arkham City and the Penguin was announced a few months ago as well and we've only seen still images of him so far. That is until yesterday when a new trailer was released for him. This game appears to be continuing the tradition that started with the Riddler of turning villains who are tough to make feel like serious foes, and making them truly threatening. Well, enjoy.

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Finally Prototype 2 has gotten a release date of April 24th, 20102. I'll be continuing to update as Comic-Con goes on.

BioWare Shows James Vega, Bastion Releasing Tomorrow, and Mega Man Legends 3 Canned

BioWare announced the new character and squadmate of Mass Effect 3, James Vega (originally Sanders), before they even announced the characters who would be returning. After months of waiting to see the character, we finally got our look recently and like with damn near everything BioWare does, people have been bitching about it ever since.

First, let me say this. I don't really like the look of the character either and was kind of disappointed by what I saw. He does look kind of generic and bland especially in comparison to the other colorful characters we've gotten (Jacob notwithstanding). However, he LOOKS which isn't necessarily the same as IS. BioWare is excellent with character development for most of their characters and it's stupid to judge him from a single static image.

Also I like the concept of the character: an experienced military veteran who knows the battlefield but has no clue about galactic politics. BioWare created him to be an identifiable character for new players in a universe with very complex politics. And for older players, it's also a good idea. As said, a character with not much knowledge of galactic politics, something that Commander Shepard has probably seen enough of to last him/her two lifetimes.

In past BioWare games we generally played as characters who themselves were quite clueless, new to the forefront and politics. In this one we'll be playing as a character who knows all too well how shady and obstructive they can be. The chance to give those lessons to a new recruit is appealing to me and it seems like a great chance to continue developing Shepard's personality as s/he gives his/her opinion on the political situations through our dialogue choices.

Still I would have loved it if he had looked like this:

Or this:

Good ol' Tarantino :)


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I praised the crap out of Bastion in my E3 coverage. The footage and gameplay that I saw from this XBLA downloadable title just looked excellent. I thought it wasn't coming out until early August but it turns out it's being released on July 20th, in other words today/tomorrow (depending on when you read it).

The reviews have been coming in and they all point to Bastion being an excellent action-RPG. If you have $15 lying around, buy some Microsoft Points and download this game tomorrow. I'll be doing it after I get off of work and will attempt to put a review up when I can.


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Finally, after many delays, Mega Man Legends 3 for the 3DS has finally been canned for good. The game, which was announced a year ago at Comic-Con, had been filled with problems since Keji Inafune gave the announcement and it appears that Capcom has finally had enough of the project and decided to scrap it.

CANCELLED!!!!!

Honestly, this doesn't really affect me. First I don't have a 3DS (yet) and second, I made it clear in my E3 coverage that I'm not a fan of the many Mega Man spinoffs. However I do know that Legends has its fans and they were anticipating this game, so I sympathize with you guys. Hopefully something else will be announced that will have less problems than this one did.

XCOM Strategy Outdated, Revelations is Missing 3DS AC Title, and Blog Updates

You know, there's been quite a bit of controversy of Take Two's reboot of the RTS series, XCOM, into an FPS game. I also questioned the wisdom of this decision in my E3 coverage noting that it looks too much like Bioshock (which already has a few clones of it's own and is itself a clone of System Shock 2) and that the change from a strategy game to a shooter was just too drastic.

Take-Two has responded to the complaints saying this:

Every studio we had wanted to do it and each one had its own spin on it. But the problem was that turn-based strategy games were no longer the hottest thing on planet Earth. But this is not just a commercial thing – strategy games are just not contemporary.

Okay, I understand wanting to have a commercial success with your reboot. I understand wanting to appeal to as many people as possible. I understand wanting to alter your game for modern times. What I do not understand is changing the ENTIRE FRAKKING GENRE of a series that had four successful games in the 90s and the thought that RTS games are completely out of style.

We had two notable examples of VERY successful RTS games last year and probably quite a few more but two of them stand out, each for different reasons. First there's Civilization V, a continuation of the Civilization series which was published by who? You guessed it, Take-Two. The game was both a critical and commercial success.

StarCraft II is another excellent example especially since it's the sequel to a game that came out in 1998 (2000 if you include Brood War). Blizzard did not change the formula for that game, they just gave it more modern touches. And it was (along with Mass Effect 2, Red Dead Redemption, and Super Mario Galaxy 2) one of the main contenders for Game of the Year awards last year.

In my mind, the notion that RTS games are "out of style" is just plain weak especially given the two examples above and quite a few others if you look into the PC gaming culture.

Last year, when the 3DS was shown at E3, an Assassin's Creed title was meant to be released for it at some point. The game, titled Lost Legacy, completely disappeared after that announcement (probably for the best as handheld AC games have sucked balls). The title eventually formed to become the final entry in Ezio's trilogy.

The basis for the 3DS game became the foundation for Revelations. It's not necessarily a huge news story, but I thought it was cool and decided to share it here.


Finally some updates on the blog. Unfortunately, not a lot of games that grabbed my interest have been coming out and I'm not seeing anything until Bastion and Deus Ex: Human Revolution come out next month. Because of this I'm going to be doing reviews of games that came out earlier this generation that I never reviewed because I didn't have the blog up (or because I just missed it in favor of another game).

Secondly, Baldur's Gate was meant to be my next retro review, but I've been having problems with it. Meanwhile I've been replaying Silent Hill 2 and I've also been playing the original Deus Ex for the first time. So those will be my next two planned retro reviews until I can get Baldur's Gate fully up and running.

Four Sci-Fi Actors I Want in Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect. It's known for many things: excellent storytelling, remarkably complex characters, powerful emotions, stellar writing and dialogue, an incredible universe and finally amazing voice acting. The Mass Effect series simply has some of the greatest voice acting ever recorded. You've seen me heap praise on Jennifer Hale's performance and while I do think she's the best, nearly everyone in the series is phenomenal.

But along with traditional voice actors we usually hear in video games, the series also has many celebrity voice actors such as Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Yvonne Strahovski, etc. Many of these are sci-fi actors which has helped make the series the nerd heaven it is. Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn from Star Trek, Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica, Adam Baldwin from Firefly, Claudia Black from Farscape, and Carrie-Anne Moss from The Matrix to name a few.

With the end of the trilogy coming closer I want to give a quick list of four sci-fi actors that I'm hoping to hear in Mass Effect 3. These will be placed in alphabetical order from the first letter of the first name. This is NOT a "Top X List", this is just for fun and I don't necessarily expect these to be followed up on (though I won't complain). So let's get started.

KATEE SACKHOFF 

From BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

Played KARA THRACE a.k.a. STARBUCK

Battlestar Galactica is arguably the greatest sci-fi series ever put on television. Incredible writing, characters and phenomenal acting. The show was about how the human-created cylons (they were created by aliens in the original series) rebelled against humanity and retreated for 40 years after a war. They strike back with a massive nuclear strike leaving only 50,000 humans left in existence. What follows is a show with unprecedented writing for a sci-fi TV series with gripping character development and some of the most striking allegories to the post-9/11 world since the Twin Towers fell, and I'm not just talking compared to other sci-fi series either.

My favorite character consistently was Kara "Starbuck" Thrace, who before the series started was the most controversial. Changing the Starbuck from the original series from a man to a woman was a controversial choice but it paid off brilliantly. Katee Sackhoff played the character with remarkable energy as a badass pilot but also an extremely flawed human being with many vulnerabilities and mental/emotional scars that keep building up over the series.

So why is her addition logical? Well a few reasons. To be fair, many of the Galactica actors are logical but she was just my favorite character. First off, there already two actors from Battlestar Galactica in Mass Effect: Michael Hogan (Colonel Saul 'motherfrakking' Tigh) as Captain Bailey in Mass Effect 2 who may or may not be back for 3, and Tricia Helfer (Number Six) as EDI in Mass Effect 2 who has confirmed that she will be back for 3.

Most importantly, the entire quarian-geth conflict is basically an entire plot homage to Battlestar Galactica. What I would love to hear is Katee Sackhoff voicing a female quarian marine maybe opposite of Kal'Reegar. It would be a frakking awesome homage and actress allusion to her most famous and greatest role.

NATHAN FILLION

From Firefly

Played CAPTAIN MALCOM 'MAL' REYNOLDS

Ah Firefly. The poster child for great television shows cancelled WAY too soon. This show didn't even get to finish its first season despite how awesome it was. Joss Whedon took the concept of space as a new frontier like the west and applied that literally to the universe. From that we got a 14 episode series (with only 11 aired) and a kickass movie called Serenity, one of the best sci-fi films ever.

The show was about a crew of outlaws on a Firefly class ship called Serenity. The main character was Captain Malcolm 'Mal Reynolds, a war-veteran of a war that his side lost with the galaxy now being ruled by the group he opposed, The Alliance. A character who does many shady things to stay alive and also loves sticking it to the Alliance but is also a good man at heart, and messing with his crew is the biggest mistake you could make. Nathan Fillion delivered a rousing performance as the captain in every episode and in the movie.

Nathan Fillion is probably the most logical additions out of all of these four actors on here. Not adding him to the cast would really feel like a missed opportunity, for four major reasons. First off, Nathan Fillion is a big gamer himself and a huge Halo fan. He's actually one of only two people besides Bungie employees who can wear a flaming helmet. You might have heard him in ODST and Reach as Sergeant Ed Buck. Second, Adam Baldwin who played Jayne Cobb in Firefly is already in Mass Effect playing the quarian marine Kal'Reegar (though I don't know if he's in Mass Effect 3).

Third, Mass Effect may not make a whole plot homage to Firefly like with Battlestar Galactica, but there are a buttload of Firefly and Serenity references. Hell, Zaeed Massani (downloadable squad member in Mass Effect 2) was basically there to make Firefly shout-outs. And a lot of the elements of the universe have inspiration from Firefly (Blue Suns anyone?). Finally, Nathan Fillion has WORKED with BioWare before on Jade Empire voicing Gao the Lesser. So, if you haven't yet BioWare, give Nathan a call and get him in this gorram game.

PATRICK STEWART

From STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Played CAPTAIN JEAN-LUC PICARD

Star Trek: The Next Generation is easily the most successful and popular spin-off of the original series and my favorite with Deep Space Nine following. I really don't know which I think is better, the original series or the this one. I think they're about on equal footing with each having some incredible episodes. Admittedly they also had some stupid ones also but I can overlook those. However, The Wrath of Khan is still the best movie.

As for Patrick Stewart, what's not to like about this guy? A Shakespearean actor, Captain Picard (obviously), Professor Xavier, who is also a Beavis and Butthead fan. Just try to imagine Patrick Stewart watching episodes of Beavis and Butthead. This guy's also get a kickass, perfect for a video game.

As for Mass Effect, there have already been two actors from The Next Generation as Mass Effect characters. Marina Sirtis (also Demona from Gargoyles which also starred Keith David who plays Captain Anderson in Mass Effect) played Matriarch Benezia, Saren's advisor and Liara's mother in the first game. Michael Dorn played Gatagog Uvenk and TOTALLY lived up to the Worf Effect, where his character despite being a huge krogan can be headbutted up to three times. Once by Shepard him/herself.  Whenever I see my FemShep headbutt him I laugh my ass off and love her that much more. Whoops, got a little sidetracked.

So we've got a history of Next Generation actors in Mass Effect. The real reason I want to see Patrick Stewart in this is that the last game I saw him in, Oblivion, felt like a wasted opportunity. He gave you the first part of the quest and was summarily killed off in the prologue. BioWare has shown they know how to utilize big name actors (although Bethesda has done so as well), for example Martin Sheen. Playing the Illusive Man, he gave a tour de force performance and was basically the driving force of the story in Mass Effect 2. I'm not saying Stewart would be that big, but I'd like to see him be done justice.

SUMMER GLAU

From FIREFLY and TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES

Played RIVER TAM (in Firefly), CAMERON and ALLISON YOUNG (Terminator: TSCC)

Like her Firefly co-star, Nathan Fillion, anything that Summer Glau appears in instantly becomes more awesome just because she's in it. For this reason it's strange that her two most famous roles were in television shows that didn't get anywhere near the audience they deserved. While the cancellation of The Sarah Connor Chronicles wasn't nearly as bad as Firefly (it at least got to finish two seasons, let alone it's first one), it was still an excellent series that got cancelled way to soon and was easily the best addition to The Terminator franchise since Terminator 2. And Summer delivered throughout the two season run.

The role most remember her for though is as River Tam in Firefly, the girl tortured by the Alliance for years to turn her into a killing machine (sounds kind of like Cerberus with Jack in Mass Effect 2) who is so traumatized that she's practically emotionally and mentally broken. She has some cools moments throughout the series that hint at her power and potential. But it wasn't until the movie Serenity that these cool moments became downright AWESOME as she becomes the biggest badass of the franchise. She's part of why that movie was so damn good.

As far as I know, she's never done any video game roles (don't quote me on that), but it's never too late to get her in one, especially one as sci-fi heavy as Mass Effect. And I've also got the perfect role for her: a biotic with cybernetic enhancements. This would be a perfect callback to her two most famous roles. 

The cybernetic enhancements wouldn't be perfect but it would still be a good shout-out to when she played a terminator in The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And of course the biotics would be a perfect shout-out to River. And of course, she would need to say somewhere, "I can kill you with my brain." I would love to see her in this game.

Actually I would love to see all of these four and more in Mass Effect 3. The series has made excellent use of sci-fi actors and non sci-fi actors in addition to the rest of the brilliant cast. It would be both great shout-outs to some of the greatest influences on the Mass Effect universe and the excellent acting ability of these four and other actors would enhance the drama I'm expecting for the conclusion. Obviously, it's BioWare's call and I'm not going to presume I know better than them but I would still love it.

Although, I still stand by my point that not getting Nathan Fillion would be a wasted opportunity.

Bill S978 Threatens Let's Plays, Rockstar and Team Bondi Splinter, and Bioshock Infinite Protagonist Shown

A few news items to get out of the way, so let's get started.


A new Senate Bill titled Bill S978 would make it a felony to put movies, television shows or video game footage on the internet. The bill has just been introduced but is causing a massive amount of controversy for a few reasons and I want to quickly give my two cents on it.

First let me say that I understand banning the posting of FULL movies or shows on the internet because when you watch those, you get the full experience. Little tidbits or usage of it for satirical purposes like the Nostalgia Critic does I don't agree with because you don't get the full experience of the movie from that.

The same works with video game Let's Plays which would be banned under this bill. When you watch a Let's Play, you're not getting the full experience. It's not the same as actually playing it, which is why banning them makes no sense at all. I've bought a few games because I saw Let's Plays for them and liked what I saw.

You could say I'm being biased because of my plans to do Let's Plays and maybe you'd be right but I'm trying to be fair here. Let's Plays are very different from playing a game. Banning putting games on the internet to illegally download I understand but not this.

Team Bondi, the developers behind LA Noire are having some real problems. On top of being under investigation for harsh management and mistreatment of employees, Rockstar Games has stated that they will not be working with Bondi again.

The reasons for this are because of the conflicts that were going on during the last two or so years of LA Noire's development when Rockstar stepped in to help Bondi finish. Rockstar was very adamant about poor design choices made by Team Bondi and had them fix them up while Bondi felt that Rockstar was limiting their creative vision.

Who is at fault here? I really don't know. But I doubt that LA Noire would have gotten done without Rockstar stepping in, even if it was primarily Bondi's game. But either way, this is going to be major trouble for Bondi. They're already being investigated for harsh management and with a solid publisher no longer willing to work with them, that really limits their ability at making games even more.


Finally, Bioshock Infinite looks awesome. For the last two games we've had a faceless and voiceless protagonist (well, actually Jack from the original talks a little). Now, we've got a protagonist who's going to be fully voiced and he's also got a face to go along with it. The face was shown for the first time in an image released a few days ago.

Booker DeWitt, the protagonist of Bioshock Infinite, with Elizabeth.

Bioshock Infinite is currently one of my Top 5 most anticipated games on the horizon along with Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham City, Skyrim, and Dark Souls. It's good to see they're going for a well-rounded protagonist and I'm curious to see where it will go.

Arkham City Footage and Box Art, Crysis for Consoles, Media Molecule, and Limbo on PS3 and Steam

Happy Independence Day for my American readers (which I assume is most or all of them) though I am a day late, sorry :)

I was planning on giving rebuttals to the criticisms of the Brown v. EMA decision but while writing it decided against it for certain reasons. The primary one is that I would be preaching to the choir and I've got better things to do. So in the meantime, I've got some news and footage to get out of the way so let's get to it.

Up above is the real box art for Batman: Arkham City. The box art that I posted up a few weeks ago with the Dark Souls box art was apparently not the true box art. I don't know the full details, but this is the real deal. It's definitely better than the one before with a better placement for the logo and a bit of a better view of the Gotham skyline with Wayne tower to the right. I like it.

Also 12 minutes of gameplay were posted the on Friday and while much of the gameplay we've seen before, it looks even more refined like a more skilled player is playing and why not put it on here? It just looks so incredible. So here you go.

Crysis 2 might be on the consoles but the original Crysis is still for the PC only. Apparently that won't be the case much longer as the ESRB has rated an Xbox 360 and PS3 edition of the original Crysis. So far, no release date has been announced for the console versions but the ESRB has pretty much outed them at this point.

Many PC players were disappointed with Crysis 2, to put it lightly. I personally have not played either yet though I do plan on playing the original at some point in the future though preferably on the PC. Crysis was made with the PC in mind much like the upcoming Battlefield 3 meaning it will almost definitely be superior on the PC. This just seems like an odd move for a game that was released four years ago even if Crysis 2 was a sales success.


Media Molecule, the creators of the excellent LittleBigPlanet series has decided to take a step back from the franchise that put them on the map.

A LittleBigPlanet game is currently being developed for the PlayStation Vita but is being developed by Double11 and Tarsier Studios. Studio director, Siobhan Reddy announced this at GameLab in Barcelona. She stated that Media Molecule wants to try new things and because of this they are, for the time being, stepping away from LittleBigPlanet.

The LittleBigPlanet series has shown their creativity and desire to think outside of the box and be innovative. For this reason, I greatly anticipate what they're going to do next.


Finally, Limbo which was originally a downloadable title exclusive to the 360 is now coming to the PS3 and PC via Steam.

For those who haven't played it, Limbo while short was one of the best downloadable titles of last year, probably second only to Super Meat Boy. The Playdead CEO, Dino Patti, confirmed that the title will make its way to the PS3 and PC sometime later this year though no definitive release date was given. A great game accessible to more people is a good thing and I'm glad non-360 owners will have a chance at it.