DLC

Alan Wake No Longer PC Bound, Heading To 360 In May 2010

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

This will probably be the last update of Alan Wake that I will do here or on our Twitter, as the game has fallen swiftly off my radar with the confirmation that it will no longer be coming to the PC. This disappointing news came on the heels of other announcements by Microsoft at their recent X10 media event, including the release date and details of the collector’s edition of the now 360 exclusive. A new trailer, embedded below, was was shown off and the game was announced to be hitting stores in the US on May 18 and in Europe on May 21.

Pre-ordering the game will net you the ‘Bright Falls Bonus Pack,’ which offers “avatar gear, an Xbox LIVE theme, and a ‘making of’ video.” The Collector’s Edition will include a number of bonus items:

– Game Disc in box with unique art
– Exclusive In-Game Audio Commentary and Hints by Remedy
– “The Alan Wake Files” – a 144pg book that includes a short story written by Alan Wake and compiles the FBI dossiers investigating the events in Bright Falls, WA
– Exclusive Audio Disc with Soundtrack and Score
– Game Add-on token redeemable on Xbox LIVE for the first Alan Wake add-on content pack
– Exclusive Xbox disc with special content: Alan Wake Xbox Live Theme and Alan Wake Avatar for Xbox LIVE

The ‘add-on content pack’ possibly refers to the additional DLC promised earlier this year. The book sounds intriguing, providing substantial back story and detail to the world created by Remedy. I am impressed that there will be audio commentary, a feature very rarely offered by developers and one that usually proves insightful. After the jump, the new trailer unveiled at X10. It was nice knowing you, Alan.
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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.
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Mass Effect 2 Launching in January 2010

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

Mass Effect 2It seems Mass Effect 2 isn’t as far off as we thought. With the upcoming release of Dragon Age: Origins early next month, it was almost assumed that the titles would be spaced out a little further apart. But BioWare announced yesterday that ME2 will be following close on the heels of DA:O, dropping on January 26 2010 in the US, and 29 in Europe. The announcement came with details of the preorder options available and their in-game bonuses.

It’s been a relatively quiet month for ME2 as BioWare has been focusing its efforts on spreading the word on DA:O. With the almost ridiculous extent to which gamers have been given choices on preorder bonus DLC, it’s no surprise that the developer will be using some of the same ideas with ME2. There’s already a bit of cross-pollination with the Blood Dragon Armour (usable in both games) awarded in one of the DA:O preorder options, and now there are two more opportunities. Currently it looks like these options are available to US preorderers only, the choices being between getting the game at Gamestop, and everywhere else. The Gamestop bonus is the Terminus Armour and M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon, and the everywhere-else bonus is the Inferno Armour. Both outfits look quite dapper as you can in the screens below.

Terminus Armour Subject Zero Inferno Armour

As I mentioned earlier there has been less attention on ME2 as of late, though there is still media being trickled out from time to time. The latest trailer (embedded after the jump) introduces a new character, Subject Zero (pictured above), whom you can ask to join your ranks. This new video most certainly didn’t drop with any lack of ripples; the general “edgy” direction of the sequel’s promotion seems to have finally strayed a bit too close to the current debacle that is the DA:O marketing campaign. The knee-jerk reactions to this worrying shift were so drastic it prompted a cautionary counter-reaction from Martyn.

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Mass Effect Pinnacle Station DLC Released

Nabeel Burney Leave a comment

BioWare has released new DLC for Mass Effect, for the 360 and PC. Priced at $5, Pinnacle Station provides a new space station for players with a Spectre character to board and face 13 battle challenges, approximately 2-3 hours of content.

Pinnacle Station Pinnacle Station Bring Down the Sky

What makes this release interesting is the complete lack of a formal announcement from BioWare. The DLC was hinted at for months, leaked on the Swiss Live Marketplace, and then eventually released to the rest of the world with no acknowledgement from the developers. Moreover, the launch was less than smooth, with some users facing problems getting the mission to work 1)http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/bioware-looking-into-mass-effect-pinnacle-station-dlc-gli/. Additionally, this DLC pack is not free for the PC, which the first one, Bring Down the Sky was. There is a marked difference in the kind of gameplay offered in Pinnacle Station, being primarily a combat-focused mission with little story. Bring Down the Sky featured a meaty side mission, introducing the previously mentioned but unseen Batarian race. Whether or not this latest pack is worth your hard-earned bucks is most likely down to how much you enjoy the combat in the game 2)http://kotaku.com/5347695/mass-effect-pinnacle-station-micro+review-a-curious-experiment; here’s hoping that this progression (or would that be regression?) in depth doesn’t extend to the next pack, if there will be one.

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Left 4 Dead Crash Course DLC

Martyn Zachary Leave a comment

As most of you know by now, Valve announced the Left 4 Dead Crash Course DLC on the Steam news blog. I apologize for being this late, but we decided against posting the announcement due to the ghastly, nasty genericalness of the PR available:

[Crash Course] delivers new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay to both platforms. … While containing both Survival maps and a Co-operative Campaign, the primary goal of “Crash” is to deliver a complete Versus mode experience in just 30 minutes…

Left 4 Dead Crash Course Poster
Left 4 Dead Crash Course Poster

All this changed earlier today, though, when we had Destructoid jump to the aid in the form of an exclusive preview of the new levels. There are good news and bad news.

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