Reports coming in from all corners of the Internet state that many people are still having issues connecting to Blizzard’s forced-DRM-like servers to access even the single-player portions of Diablo III, which was launched at 12 AM this morning. It may just be me, but paying $70 for a single-player game that gives you nothing but an error message when you finally install it and boot it up seems like something that shouldn’t be legal.
Through their official company blog Bioware has given us a few extra details on how they plan to address the near-universal (hah, space) criticism for their “endings” in Mass Effect 3. In what’s being called the free “Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC”, Bioware will add “extended scenes that provide additional context and deeper insight to the conclusion of Commander Shepard?s journey“. There’s also a small FAQ in the blog post that essentially states once again that you don’t have to pay for the DLC and it in no way diminishes their “artistic integrity” by actually changing anything that fans have complained about.
While I’m glad that we’re getting an extra scene or two to beef up what was otherwise a rather unceremonious ending for such a large sci-fi series, I still feel that Bioware could be doing more to quell all of the nerd rage that’s simmering on the Internet. Unless one of the other theories that have emerged on the web about the nature of the ME3 ending are correct, it still is an undoubtedly lame way to end everything off regardless of whether or not it’s padded with an extra couple of minutes. A lot of people have said that it’s Bioware’s series and they can end it in anyway they want, and that’s certainly true, but you can’t deny that there are good and bad ways to end a long-standing series. If, for example, the Wii U Legend of Zelda game came out and after playing it for 60 solid hours a magical hippopotamus came out of the sky before you could fight Ganon and made him disappear while simultaneously turning you into a daffodil and that was the end of the LoZ series, most gamers would have some very justified qualms and questions about the ending. If Nintendo then patched this ending so that you saw all of the other characters also turned into various flowers and where Ganon was transported to it would indeed answer a lot of questions, but it still wouldn’t make the ending any more logical, tolerable, or acceptable.
We’ll keep you informed regarding any further developments with the ME3 Extended Cut DLC, but I can’t say my hopes are too incredibly high for an extra couple of scenes at this point.
Developer: Ubisoft Montréal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Adventure/Platformer
Players: 1
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC/Mac
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Hours Played: Less than 12
Game Progress: Finished main storyline
Ubisoft Montréal, famous for hit titles like Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy?s Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and many more came out with a blockbuster title yet again with 2008’s chapter of the Prince of Persia saga. Prince of Persia includes many of the timed attacks and wall running that the series is known for with the addition of new and exciting battle techniques, a fresh graphic style, and an epic story-line with excellent voice acting. Is the new Prince of Persia an instant classic that will entertain you for hours on end or a classic Ubisoft money-grab to play off gamers’ affections for an older series? Read on to find out.
Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of Bioware, announced today that they’ve been listening to all of the critics of Mass Effect 3’s approach to ending Commander Shepard’s saga and are “at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You?ll hear more on this in April. We?re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we?ve received. This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.“
You can see the rest of the letter from Dr. Muzyka to the gaming public on the Bioware Blog here.
I haven’t finished the game 100% myself (I’m currently at about the 96% mark), so I cannot comment on the validity of the enormous backlash that Bioware has experienced thus far, but I can say that I’m leaning more toward the legion of angry gamers considering some of the other shortcomings of Mass Effect 3 including the neglect of the Elcor, Hanar, and Vorcha and the laziness inherent in Tali’s “unveiling.”
Hopefully Bioware will come up with a good-will gesture of sorts to all of their fans that have remained so loyal throughout the series to alleviate the LOST-style grab-the-money-and-run feeling that is generally being conveyed by the gaming public. Of course they’re the ones making the game and they can end it however they want, but since they want the continued support of their fan and income base I think it’s a good move for them to do a little damage control.
Game Usagi will keep you posted on whether or not Bioware can successfully balance their “artistic integrity” with the integrity of the epic sci-fi tale they were trying to weave.
Developer: Supergiant Games
Publisher: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment (WBIE)
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1
Console: PC (Steam/Chrome), Xbox 360
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)
Hours Played: ~10-12 hours
Progress: Completed game with a good ending, completed all weapon challenge levels and fully upgraded most weapons
With the fairly easy availability of development tools for current generation of systems (particularly the PC), indie games are both figuratively and sometimes literally a dime a dozen. On occasion particularly exceptional indie games are picked out by publishing firms and given releases that rival that of AAA games in both scope and presentation. After being shown at the PAX Expo in 2010, Bastion became one of the lucky few as Supergiant Games struck a deal with WBIE that saw Bastion released on Xbox 360 as a headlining title for their “Summer of Games” promotion and on the PC soon after through both the Steam distribution platform and just recently as a browser game for Google Chrome. Does the final version of Bastion deserve the laud that provided it with a wide distribution and the full support of a large game publisher? Read on to find out.
[UPDATE 2: Things are generally working alright now on COD Elite, but everyone should take a lesson from this and remember that however many servers you have, you’ll always need more than twice as many. ^_^]
[UPDATE: Call of Duty Elite is still mostly down, but an update was posted that says that paying members will get an extra month of the service for free and the timeframe to register as a “founder” has been extended to the end of the month. Also, now they’ve implemented a waiting system that makes you wait in line to access the website’s error page. With this comes another GIF (!) so now users are getting twice the value for their money, huzzah!]
Behold the most expensive GIF available to gamers today. Normally to see this you have to pay for a $50 membership or buy a $99 game bundle, but Game Usagi has managed to get a hold of it for you for free!
For those of us who have yet to get Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (MW3), the prognosis for Beachhead’s premium stat-tracking and content delivery system Call of Duty Elite is rather bleak. The website that costs essentially as much as a game for premium access has basically been entirely down since the game’s launch at 12:01 AM this morning. When trying to access the site you just spent upwards of $50 for, all you currently see is a message saying that the site is down temporarily and the GIF that encompasses the whole of the website’s current features as shown above.
From my playing around in the game thus far, it’s been pretty good. I’m still getting my mind around the several extra layers of complexity and leveling that they’ve added, but overall I think this will be a worthy game once people who fork over extra money get more than a 2-frame animated web image to look at.
The official word right now is that they’ve been receiving more registration requests than they could have imagined in their wildest dreams and that has apparently completely shut them down. As we’re waiting with baited breath we have to wonder just how much money they were trying to save by skimping on the servers and hope that we get some kind of token apology for all of this when it’s over.
You can check the site’s status here or on their Twitter feed.
Developer: Eidos Studios – Montreal
Publisher: Square Enix
Genre: First-Person RPG
Players: 1
Console: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Hours Played: 20
Progress: Completed game and all side quests
The holiday parade of high profile video game titles starts this year with Deus Ex: Human Revolution by the talented people at Eidos – Montreal. This famed, futuristic role playing franchise sprang into being over 10 years ago on PCs and has become one of the most innovative RPGs in recent memory with a first-person perspective, futuristic setting and abundant freedom of choice. Now on “next-gen” consoles, is the latest iteration of the Deus Ex franchise worth your attention? Read on to find out…
