Month: January 2010

Gear Up For The Coming Storm In Mass Effect 2

Nabeel Burney 2 Comments

Mass Effect 2‘s release is imminent. The past couple of months has seen a barrage of media in the form of screenshots and videos in the lead up to the game’s January 26 launch. It’s still early, but reviews are starting to come in and so far the game has been maintaining a 90%+ rating in magazines like Official XBox Magazine and PC Gamer 1)http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/masseffect2?q=mass%20effect%202. So the hype machine is in full force for the much-anticipated sequel, it only remains for fans to decide which edition of the game to buy.

We’ve spoken before a little bit about the pre-order DLC, but BioWare has now detailed the various pre-order options available on their site. It’s not quite as ridiculous as it was with Dragon Age: Origins, but it does mean that fans will have to yet again decide between mutually exclusive sets of in-game items. There are two basic editions, Standard and Collector’s, and there is a Digital version of each which can be bought at various digital distribution outlets. Pre-ordering the Standard from Gamestop gets you the Terminus Assault Armour and Blackstorm Weapon, and everywhere else gets you the Inferno Armour.

The Collector’s edition consists of (along with superior box cover art): extra bonus discs containing a Making Of documentary and the soundtrack, the first issue of the Dark Horse spinoff comic Mass Effect: Redemption, a 48-page artbook, and an additional set of DLC armour, the Collector’s Armour. You may just want to pick the Terminus design based solely on how formidable it makes your Shepard look, but each of the armour sets has different benefits, like increased shielding or sprint speed, so it’s probably worth looking at the stats before choosing.

One item that will come with every version of the game is a single-use unlock code for something dubbed The Cerberus Network, which will be “a conduit for players to receive bonus content as well as daily messages and [Mass Effect 2] news.” 2)http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/21907/Mass-Effect-2s-Cerberus-Network-Revealed/. It sounds like it will be a platform for managing DLC in the game, much like what is being used in DA:O. There will be content available from day one, such as new missions and items, as well as the previously-rumoured extra companion, Zaeed. It’s most likely an incentive for customers to buy new copies of the game as opposed to used; a similar situation occurred with DA:O, which offered for download an extra character called Shale – who was by no means tacked-on, rather an integral part of the game. There will be more DLC down the line, like a new vehicle called the Hammerhead which will allow players to navigate planet surfaces.

While I’ve been trying to avoid most of the videos for fear of story spoilers, there are a few that neatly outline the game’s premise without giving too much away, one of which I’ve embedded below.
(more…)

References   [ + ]

Read More

Rockstar Will Be Rockstar

Martyn Zachary 1 Comment

The hot topic of the week was Rockstar’s Tiger-like, sudden fall from PR grace. The boulder started rolling downhill on the 7th, when a thick and elaborate blog entry, “Wives of Rockstar San Diego employees have collected themselves” was published at Gamasutra. The post was a call to arms by the wives of Rockstar employees seeking to highlight the workplace injustices perceived to exist at the studio. The post gained considerable momentum in the press and ultimately produced a circulated internal response on the 15th.

But that’s not really all: Springing up like mushrooms after the rain, we have actually received a barrage of various reports more or less in accordance with the Rockstar wives’ complaints. To recap, we have already discovered the dazzling Red Dead Dedemption (on the left), very much awaited here at The Slowdown, to have had an extremely arduous development path. We have also heard how there are other issues afoot at Rockstar San Diego and how Rockstar quietly settled a telling class action suit with over 100 employees the April of last year.

In addition, we have read subsequent allegations of how Max Payne 3, in development at Rockstar Vancouver, is being similarly mismanaged. We’ve written about Max’s questionable Brazilian wax before, so you can consider that more fuel for the fire. Be as it may, yesterday, Rockstar finally officially responded, though in veiled and indirect fashion, to the swirling sea of speculation above.

Their weapon of choice: A series of wallpapers.

(more…)

Read More

Rocketbirds: Revolution! Review

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

A finalist in three categories (Seumas McNally Grand Prize, Excellence in Visual Art and Excellence in Audio, with the amount of nominations shared only with Closure and Trauma) in this year’s IGF competition, Ratloop Asia’s Rocketbirds: Revolution! is looking to be the early bird that catches the worm this year.

At the end of its animated intro, “OBEY” reads imprinted in upper-case on the sides of two massive missiles standing upright, shining and erect, at once establishing a poignant scene of the promulgation of violence and power.

(more…)

Read More