News for Mass Effect fans plus Games to Look Forward To

For those of you who don't know, I am really looking forward to Mass Effect 3's release. The first two were amazing and I really didn't have the same problems with the sequel as I did with Dragon Age 2. It still took time to complete and while it's true that many places were copied there was still a lot of content to get through, the story was awesome and what you did in the first game had a real effect on what happened in the second.

In case you are wondering why I compare Mass Effect, a sci-fi game, with Dragon Age which is a fantasy game, it's because both games are made by BioWare and both are RPGs.

News has just been released that Mass Effect 3 will not be released until the first quarter of 2012, between three and six months later than the original release date given of November 2011. Nobody wants to wait, especially with great games so sparse on the ground this year. The time it takes to complete a game appears to be decreasing, and we gamers are being left for longer and longer periods of time with nothing decent to play that we haven't already clocked. On the upside, hopefully this means that ME3 will be an even better game than it would have been if it were released in November.

It is easy to forget with the excitement over games like Skyrim, DAII, ME3 and Portal 2, that there are a whole bunch more games that look awesome on their way this year. Personally I'm really looking forward to Uncharted 3 and Batman Arkham City. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean is out on May 13th and I love the Lego games and the Pirates of the Caribbean films (not so much the games) so it looks to be a good one. I never played American McGee's Alice the first time round, but it seems like the kind of game that would be right up my street. Unfortunately the original game is both rare and expensive. However, with an ETA of June, Alice: Madness Returns looks to be a decent sequel and it comes with a copy of the original, and I'm assuming they've reworked it for the PS3 to go with the sequel. PC gaming isn't really my thing, aside from anything I don't have a working mouse.

One game that I'm really not sure about is Shadows Of The Damned. It could be amazing or awful, and I really don't think I'll know until I've played it. I could make a pretty safe assumption that it will be the same format as every other Japanese horror game, because playing through Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Project Zero (Fatal Frame to any non-Brits), Dante's Inferno, and I'm sure there are others, they all have the same menu and sound effects within the menu, even the same font. Project Zero is the game that stands apart because it is the only one of these which is truly scary, and the gameplay is very different in that the speed is slower, you can enter a 1st person view, and there is far less music involved. This doesn't necessarily make the game bad, you just have to look at the more subtle differences, like plot ;-) I could always be wrong, and the game sounds cool regardless.

Anyway, that thar be my stuff to look forward to this year. It only really comes to about six. DA2 is already out and I've already finished, ME3 is moved to next year along with Bioshock Infinite. I have plans to get Portal 2 as soon as I can find it in stock, and in the meantime I am finally playing Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Yes, I know, I'm really late. I just missed the bandwagon with that. I was all over the first 2 games, and I think I thought of it as more of an online multiplayer add-on than a continuation of the storyline.
I must say I've been watching The Borgias of late (the tv series with Jeremy Irons as the Rodrigo Borgia) and it adds a whole new depth to the story, so many of the characters are the same. It makes me want to replay Assassin's Creed 2 but I think I traded it in when my PS3 died.

So, I will be off now. Many things to do!

TTFN

Hell Thirteen
xoxo

News for Mass Effect fans

There's a new add on DLC for Mass Effect 2 coming out next Tuesday called "Arrival." The pack will set you back 560 Microsoft Points on XBox Live Arcade, £5.49 or roughly $7 on the PSN store and 560 BioWare points on the PC. - according to the Facebook page.


Mass Effect fans who have already downloaded the various expansions from BioWare will probably have mixed feelings about the upcoming add on, as Mass Effect is a great game and the more we can do within the Mass Effect universe, the better. However, this DLC is coming a long time after most will have set down their controllers and moved on to pastures new.
Previous downloadable content as been pretty short, a few extra missions that won't last a hardcore gamer more than a day. 


BioWare's other roleplaying giant, the Dragon Age series, brought out Origins: Awakening, which was a proper expansion that lasted some time at least, but cost as much as the original game. I would entertain buying a GOTY (Game Of The Year) edition, had I not already purchased and downloaded most of the available DLC for Mass Effect 2. Of course, with add ons purchased online, there's no way of knowing if they will be worth the money until they have already been purchased, and if you don't like it, there are no refunds and no way of selling them on. 


I plan to get Arrival and review it here, to help you decide if it's a purchase you want to make. In fact, I might as well review all available DLC for the game while I'm at it. There's just one problem - I lent my copy of the game to a friend.


No matter what this expansion brings, I think BioWare need to step up their game. Bethesda brought out two main expansions for their last installment in their Elder Scrolls series, Oblivion - The Shivering Isles and the Knights Of The Nine were proper expansions, The Shivering Isles in particular was my favorite thing to play in a role playing game ever. Then you get BioWare releasing things like Witch Hunt for Dragon Age Origins and it looks pathetic in comparison.


Until next time, buh-bye!