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Mass Effect 3 Info Blowout: Infiltrator and Datapad Functionality with iOS

Alex Co — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:30:18 +0000

If you’re a Mass Effect fan, you’re in luck as we have a lot of news for you today. First off, EA has revealed that Mass Effect Infiltrator will be coming to iOS devices. It will be a third-person cover-based shooter that has you playing Randall Enzo, a Cerberus soldier who specializes in doing covert ops for Cerberus but becomes disenchanted with the organization and needless to say, he helps Shepard in his mission.

What’s interesting here is that playing Infiltrator and collecting intel in the game will help get your Galactic Readiness Rating up – and in turn, help you get a better ending in Mass Effect 3. Do keep in mind that EA has confirmed that you do NOT need to get Mass Effect Infiltrator to get ME3′s best ending.

Next up is Mass Effect’s Datapad app integration with iOS devices. BioWare says that it’s their “love-letter” to their Mass Effect fans. What it does is it acts the same way as the Codex in ME1 and ME2, but to avoid spoilers, it will only show areas, species and other things that you already have encountered. The way it works is it ties in to your Origin account so it can track your in-game progress. Not bad, no?

Both Mass Effect Infiltrator and Mass Effect Datapad have not been given a release date yet; although we do know that the Datapad app will be free.

Last but not the least, a reader in Joystiq has sent a GameStop receipt showing that he was able to purchase a $10 worth DLC for Mass Effect 3 called FromDust. It’s not known whether if this is for single-player or for multiplayer; all we know now is that the game already has DLC even before it’s released.

Do keep in mind that EA has not commented on the DLC as of press time and we’ll update the situation as it develops.

Mass Effect 3 will be out for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 this coming March 12.

A Brief History of First Impressions

Gavin Bard — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 03:30:48 +0000

Depending on who you ask, first impressions can either be incredibly important or just very important. There really aren’t a lot of people who will tell you a first impression doesn’t matter. For example, once a long time ago I went to send a resume and portfolio to a site I wanted to work for. I copy and pasted the website where my portfolio was located and sent it to the editor post haste. Only after I irrevocably hit send did I realize that the link I included was not to my portfolio, but instead was a link to award winning transsexual porn star Bailey Jay’s website.

Two days later I had the job- and that is the story of how I got hired by RipTen.

So, clearly, first impressions matter in the real world to real people, but do they matter to gamers? The almost ethereal and mystical creatures that we are? I’m sure this is something that 38 Studios is thinking about right now. With the first game that 38 Studios has had its hands in, Kingdoms of Amalur, less than 24 hours away, 38 Studios is probably crossing their fingers that the gaming public considers their debut a good one. Big Huge Games, the other half involved in Amalur’s development, already has made their first impression with the critically acclaimed semi-historical real-time-strategy Rise of Nations.

It is interesting to look back on companies in our little hobby and see what kind of first impression they made, especially since many of them were pretty inauspicious. At least I hope it is interesting, because I spent like two hours Googling this stuff when I should have been thinking of what I was going to write about today and was kind of hoping to make some lemonade out of my internet ADD. I hope my editor doesn’t read that last part. [Ed. - Sigh.]

Square – The Death Trap
In 1984, while Ronald Reagan was saving punk rock by doing all kinds of dreadful things in America, Japan saw the seeds sown that would eventually grow into one of most iconic game companies of all time. Before Square was their own independently operated company, they were the software division of Denyūsha Electric Company. I couldn’t find any confirmation if “Fargo North, Decoder” was involved in Death Trap’s production though.

The Death Trap was an interactive fiction game with adventure game mechanics for the PC-88. It involved the player inputting some simple commands and making some decisions in order to navigate the plot. A plot that, since it was the 80s, was of course related to the cold war.

The game sold so well that less than a year later, Square developed their a direct sequel to it named Will: The Death Trap II. Even in those early days, Square loved themselves some sequels. While Will didn’t sell as much as the original, it was still a commercial success. By the time Square developed their third game, the awesomely titled Cruise Chaser Blassty, they had become their own company. Now, you may not know this, but Square went on to develop a couple other games since then. You may have even heard of a couple of them!

Enix & Chunsoft – Door Door
Enix- the current ying to Square’s, well, other ying I guess- was established as a publisher of home computer games in 1982. They then employed the rather unusual, and eventually quite successful, tactic of holding design contests where they offered a whopping million yen for people who submitted the winning games. Enix used these contests to find talented developers and began to hire them for projects, many of which included polishing the chosen winners from those very same contests.

The very first winner, and thus the first game officially published by Enix, was a game called Door Door by Koichi Nakumura. Originally released on the PC-88 but eventually given a Famicom port, Door Door is a puzzle game with heavy reliance on platforming and strategy. You control a small creature in a baseball hat named Chun and try to keep him from being killed by a bunch of colorful aliens. In order to keep that from happening, you need to trap them by opening doors and then closing them after the aliens enter them. This is much more difficult than it sounds those, as doors can only be used once and then they are locked for good. Door Door is the literal definition of “Japan hard.” It was also wildly popular.

While Door Door was quite successful, a few short years later Nakumura would go on to found Chunsoft and, with another winner of Enix’s design contests by the name of Yuji Horii. would create a little game by the name of Dragon Quest. I’m pretty sure Japan has built statues in their honor because of that.

Capcom – Vulgus
Vulgus, aka Deadpool’s favorite Capcom game, was released for the arcades in 1984. Like a large amount of Capcom’s early titles, it is a vertical scrolling shooter. Comparatively to later games in the genre, it is very basic. There are no power ups, only a few levels, and even the difficulty isn’t as challenging as you would expect from a game like this. Eventually, Capcom would branch away from shooters and find their arcade success in other genres, namely fighting. Also I guess Mega Man is pretty cool too.

Of all the debut games here, this one might be the one the average gamer is most likely to have played. Vulgus has been included in numerous Capcom collections on everything from the Saturn to the PSP, as well as being name dropped in at least two Vs. Capcom games that I can think of. No idea if Deadpool will ever convince them to make that sequel though.

BioWare – Shattered Steel
Before BioWare found their fame in the wild world of RPGs, they started with Shattered Steel in 1996. Shattered Steel had far more in common with Mechwarrior than it did D&D, but it did still show the sparks of BioWare’s attention to detail within their games. Then again, you can’t really do a mech simulator game without having a pretty intricate attention to detail. They don’t make controllers with eight hundred buttons for those games just to be ironic, after all.

Shattered Steel wasn’t enormously popular or anything, but it sold well enough and thanks to its unique deformable terrain and zone based damage mechanics- two things that weren’t very common in 1996- it developed a cult following. BioWare would begin talking about a sequel to the game, but not before they created Baldur’s Gate, which would end up setting them down the path to becoming the developer we know and love them as today. I wonder how different the gaming landscape would have been if Shattered Steel would have been an immense hit? Probably a lot more Battletech games everywhere.

Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad.

UbiSoft – Zombi
In 1986 the gaming world wasn’t as super-saturated by zombie games as it is today. It also wasn’t as saturated by UbiSoft, as they had just popped into existence in the realm of wine and fine cheeses that we refer to as France. Those two Venn circles met and gave birth to Ubi’s first game, a piece of Romero worship by the name of Zombi for the Amstrad CPC. A brief piece of horror history for you- Zombi was the Italian name of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The late great Lucio Fulci would direct Zombi 2 in 1979, although it really wasn’t a sequel at all. I’d have greatly preferred a Zombi 2 game, mostly for a “press A to pierce a girls eyeball with a wood splinter” scene.

This particular Zombi shares a lot in common with Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. By a lot, I mean literally everything. It is a first person adventure game that plays much like a dungeon craw and takes place in a mall. Most of its major plot points are directly related to things that happened in Dawn of the Dead. It isn’t a bad game, but it is certainly majorly forgettable- and with the hundreds of games Ubi has published or developed since, it is no wonder.

Bethesda – Gridiron!
So, what kind of game do you think Bethesda opened up with? Did you say an American football game? No? Well you should have, because that is the right answer. Bethesda created the first physics based sports game and released it on the Amiga. It wasn’t pretty, even by 1986 standards. The players were crudely represented by dots and there wasn’t much else to the game, but it wasn’t supposed to look like a game of football- it was supposed to play like one. For the first time, the players had mass and speed. Dots would bounce off each other and break tackles in as realistic a way as possible in ’86.

EA would eventually notice and sign Bethesda on to create a follow up to the game. This partnership was not a friendly one though, as Gridiron! 2 Electric Boogaloo was never meant to see the shelves at your local Babbages. Bethesda suspected EA only wanted to get their hands on the physics in order to use them for their own upcoming Madden-related football game and would sue EA for $7 million. It seems that sometimes things never change.

Although I don’t think Gridiron! needed any patches, so maybe things do change sometimes.

BioWare Acclimatizing New Players to SWTOR With Tutorial Video Series

Jensen Walker — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:30:26 +0000

If you’re new to MMO’s, learning the ropes can be a difficult and daunting task. BioWare has set out to make players’ initial experience in Star Wars: The Old Republic as smooth and enjoyable as possible with a new series of tutorial videos.

The first video in this series is titled ‘Begin Your Journey‘ and covers the process of logging in to SWTOR for the first time, including selecting a server type, creating your first character and navigating your character’s opening conversation, narrated by Social Media Coordinator Eric Musco.

If you happen to be an old hat at MMO’s, you may still pick up a few tips over the course of the series.

You can view the first offering below, and find more information at the official site.

Mass Effect: Deception Rife with Errors, Bioware Working on Revisions

Ben Nanke — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:00:05 +0000

As a fiction writer myself, I know all to well how many errors are present in the first draft of a novel. Wonky punctuation, stilted syntax, and unclear plot are every writers bane. That’s why we have editors. However, it looks like Bioware’s Mass Effect: Deception, missed the editing mark by a wide berth.

In a post on the Bioware forums, publisher Del Ray apologized for the large quantity of errors included in the novel, and stated that they would be releasing another edition with the fixes in place. It sounds like the issues were more along the canonical lines, and that the story may or may not match up with the Mass Effect series of games when it comes to plot consistency. It hasn’t been announced yet when the next edition will be released, but if you’re already holding a copy of the first edition, you might want to keep it around. It could be worth something someday.

Here are Your Mass Effect 3 Achievements (Spoilers Abound)

Alex Co — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:00:02 +0000

Mass Effect 3 is easily one of the year’s biggest games, and in saying that, its achievements list is something a lot of people are curious about. Well, be curious no more, as we now have the complete list of Achievements the game has to offer – both in single player and in multiplayer.

Before you read on be forewarned. The list contains some massive spoilers, so proceed at your own peril.

You still here? Well, it’s your funeral.

Driven
5 Points
Return to active duty.

Bringer of War
10 Points
Chase down an assassin.

Mobilizer
15 Points
Bring a veteran officer aboard.

World Shaker
15 Points
Destroy an Atlas dropped from orbit.

Pathfinder
15 Points
Explore a lost city.

Tunnel Rat
15 Points
Survive the swarm.

Party Crasher
15 Points
Sabotage a dreadnought.

Hard Target
15 Points
Call down an orbital strike.

Saboteur
15 Points
Disable a group of fighter squadrons.

Arbiter
25 Points
Win a political stand-off.

Last Witness
25 Points
Extract ancient technology.

Executioner
25 Points
Defeat an old adversary.

Well Connected
15 Points
Send a warning across the galaxy.

Fact Finder
15 Points
Discover an enemy’s monstrous origin.

Liberator
15 Points
Stop a Cerberus kidnapping.

Problem Solver
15 Points
Evacuate a scientific facility.

Patriot
25 Points
Make the final assault.

Legend
50 Points
Mission accomplished. (1)

Shopaholic
10 Points
Visit a store in the single-player campaign.

Master and Commander
50 Points
Deliver most of the Galaxy at War assets to the final conflict.

Lost and Found
25 Points
Dispatch 10 probes to retrieve people or resources in Reaper territory.

Long Service Medal
50 Points
Complete Mass Effect 3 twice, or once with a Mass Effect 2 import.

Insanity
75 Points
Finish the game on Insanity without changing difficulty after leaving Earth.

A Personal Touch
10 Points
Modify a weapon.

Paramour
25 Points
Establish or rekindle a romantic relationship.

Combined Arms
25 Points
Perform any combination of 50 biotic combos or tech bursts.

Focused
25 Points
Evolve any of your powers to rank 6.

Recruit
10 Points
Kill 250 enemies.

Soldier
15 Points
Kill 1,000 enemies.

Veteran
25 Points
Kill 5,000 enemies.

Bruiser
10 Points
Kill 100 enemies with melee attacks.

Untouchable
10 Points
Escape a Reaper in the galaxy map.

Defender
25 Points
Attain the highest level of readiness in each theater of war.

Overload Specialist
15 Points
Overload the shields of 100 enemies.

Sky High
15 Points
Lift 100 enemies off the ground with powers.

Pyromaniac
15 Points
Set 100 enemies on fire with powers.

Eye of the Hurricane
10 Points
Kill a brute while it’s charging you.

Mail Slot
10 Points
Kill 10 guardians with headshots from the front while their shields are raised.

Hijacker
10 Points
Hijack an Atlas mech.

Giant Killer
10 Points
Defeat a harvester.

Enlisted
5 Points
Start a character in multiplayer or customize a character in single-player.

Tour of Duty
20 Points
Finish all multiplayer maps or all N7 missions in single-player.

Always Prepared
10 Points
Obtain two non-customizable suits of armor.

Tourist
5 Points
Complete one multiplayer match or two N7 missions.

Explorer
15 Points
Complete three multiplayer matches or five N7 missions.

Gunsmith
25 Points
Upgrade any weapon to level 10.

Almost There
15 Points
Reach level 15 in multiplayer or level 50 in single-player.

Peak Condition
25 Points
Reach level 20 in multiplayer or level 60 in single-player.

Battle Scarred
25 Points
Promote a multiplayer character to the Galaxy at War or import an ME3 character.

Unwavering
50 Points
Finish all multiplayer maps on Gold or all single-player missions on Insanity.

If you’re still with us, is it a good or bad thing that BioWare essentially made two sets of Achievements? One set for the single player and another for the multiplayer. Also, I think it’s safe to assume that the Trophy list for the PS3 version is exactly the same as this one – albeit, they’re named as Trophies and are scored accordingly in Sony’s ranking system.

To be honest, it took some willpower to not read the entire list. I only read parts of it for fear of spoiling the game for myself.

Now that Achievement list is here, that’s more proof that Mass Effect 3′s release is getting nearer and nearer. What are your plans beforehand? Replay ME1 and ME2? Read an ME spin-off novel? Try and create the ultimate Shepard character? Whatever it is, let us know in the comments!

Source: Xbox360Achievements (via NeoGaf)

Mass Effect 4? BioWare Says Hanging on to ME3 Game Saves “Wouldn’t Be a Bad Idea”

Alex Co — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:15:26 +0000

While BioWare has been quite vocal that Mass Effect 3 will be Commander Shepard’s final appearance in a Mass Effect game, that doesn’t mean the franchise itself will come to a halt once the trilogy’s complete. In saying that, BioWare wants you to hold on to your Mass Effect 3 save…just in case.

In an interview with Gamerzines, ME3 Executive Producer Mike Gamble stated, ”It wouldn’t be a bad idea (to keep your ME3 saves)” and he further added, ”Obviously I can’t say anything, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea…”

If you haven’t played a Mass Effect game before, the choices you make in the initial game will affect certain outcomes for the corresponding sequel. Does this mean that whatever we do in ME3 will affect certain situations in Mass Effect 4 – with, or without Shepard?

Are you open for more Mass Effect games even without the Commander? Should ME4 be on next-gen consoles? Sound off and let us know in the comments.

If you want to know how Shepard’s journey will end, pick up Mass Effect 3 when its released on March 12 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

SWTOR: PvP Rewards Update and Crew Skills Changes to Come in Patch 1.1.2

Jensen Walker — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:30:56 +0000

Ah, Biochem. No crew skill has been more contentious. You were the little crew skill that could, and because you were so plucky, you were swiftly embraced by the raiding masses.

And then you were nerfed.

The masses cried out in thoughtful despair: “WTF BioWare, Rakata Medpacs are useless now!”

To these voices rose the clamor of others who had not experienced Biochem’s sweet embrace, but envied it nonetheless. “Needs to be nerfed even more,” said they.

And thus it was.

In the latest upcoming patch notes for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Biochem unique Rakata stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, now equivalent to their Energized counterparts. The offset is that Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals are no longer bound to Biochemists, meaning they can be transferred and most importantly sold to other players. While this change isn’t likely to please everyone, it does position enterprising Biochemists for a windfall of credits in the weeks following patch 1.1.2.

Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller also confirmed that other crew skills would be tinkered with in the future to make them as attractive at end-game as Biochem has been. Zoeller has had a busy day on the forums, elaborating on the following patch note which caused some controversy:

The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.

The patch note left many wondering how this would be an improvement when it came to gearing up for PvP, as Champion bags currently only reward Centurion commendations which a chance at a random piece of Champion gear. The prospect of a reduced chance at the superior Champion gear left players up in arms. Fortunately, Zoeller stepped in to clarify.

It’s obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we’ll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7 Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

The cost of Champion and Centurion items are NOT changing.

This is a great change, as it will make gearing for PvP considerably less frustrating and time consuming. Further changes, including extractable base mods from purple items, ranked Warzones, critical crafting successes on orange outfits, more bind-on-equip schematic drops for artifice and other professions, increased relevance of augments and a better reverse engineering chance are currently planned for the next major content patch in Game Update 1.2.

For the full patch notes and other developer comments, visit the SWTOR forums.

Mass Effect 3 Demo Offers Temporary Free Xbox Live Gold Access

Alex Co — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:00:42 +0000

In a rather good move from publisher Electronic Arts and Microsoft, the demo for BioWare’s Mass Effect 3 will offer Xbox players free temporary access to Xbox LIVE’s Gold service – presumably, so players can try the franchise’s first foray into multiplayer.

In a post on BioWare’s official forums, Chris Priestly of BioWare states, “The demo of Mass Effect 3 will include a limited time Gold access when you download the demo.” Though no specifics like how the access will be distributed and for how long is still up in the air.

The demo for Mass Effect 3 will hit the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on February 14 and it will consist of a mission set early in the game’s campaign. If you bought Battlefield 3 new and used its Online Pass, the multiplayer component of Mass Effect 3 will be accessible on the same date. If not, it will be available at a later date on February 17.

Yeah, there are a lot of people complaining that the game has an online component, but at least this way they can try it AND then complain about how they’ll never play it.

Mass Effect 3 will be available this March 12 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Source: IGN

BioWare Announces Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit

Jensen Walker — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:00:35 +0000

BioWare will be hosting the first ever Star Wars: The Old Republic Guild Summit in Austin, Texas from March 4th – 6th 2012. Guild leaders from around the world will be invited to discuss the state of the game with developers and participate in Q&A sessions and roundtable feedback discussions.

While a good number of Guild Leaders have already been invited, space remains available for others to attend. End-game, PvP and Role Playing guilds are all to be represented, and if you fancy the chance to attend yourself, you’ll need to visit the SWTOR website and follow the link provided to submit an application.

While invitations are open to guild leaders all over the world, the summit will be conducted entirely in English. You must be 21 years of age or older to attend and are responsible for all your travel, food, and lodging expenses.

Applications close 11:59PM CST (GMT -6) on February 10th. Good luck!

BioWare Explains how Bugs and Exploits are Handled in SWTOR

Jensen Walker — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:30:26 +0000

In the latest developer blog for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Executive Producer Rich Vogel details the process of locating and fixing bugs, as well as preventing exploits.

BioWare employs a dedicated Live Support team consisting of of on-call engineers, designers, artists, and producers, who are available 24/7 to work on and resolve issues that crop up in SWTOR. Additionally, their in-game metrics tools allow the development team to pinpoint exploiters and determine the steps required to counter game-breaking problems.

Certain bugs can be harder to replicate than others, meaning those bugs which are more commonly experienced are likely to be addressed swiftly, while the more obscure or rare instances require a greater amount of effort to solve. In regards to response time, Vogel has the following to say:

Please remember, if we don’t respond publicly to a bug that does not mean we are not going to fix it. We want to make sure we provide a good playing experience to our players. That is why we have a large team of people working every day to bug fix and remove exploits from the game.

The blog is a fairly lengthy one, and you can read it in its entirety here.

Mass Effect 3′s Star-Studded Voice Cast Revealed in New Trailer

Garrett Hartman — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:30:45 +0000

EA and Bioware have released a new video for Mass Effect 3, which reveals the star-studded voice cast. In the video you will see Martin Sheen returns as the Illusive Man, Seth Green as Joker, Ali Hillis as Liara and Jennifer Hale as your Female Sheppard. Freddie Prinze Jr is a new addition and IGN’s Jessica Chobot voices new character Diana Allers.

Check it out below.

Mass Effect 3 is scheduled to hit retail on March 6 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

State of SWTOR: January Edition

Jensen Walker — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:30:36 +0000

It’s been a little over a month since the official launch of BioWare’s much anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, which means the time is right for a retrospective look at how the game has performed following its release.

I currently play a level 50 Smuggler on the Republic side of the fence, with a level 43 Consular slowly climbing towards 50 as well. Sadly, when it comes to the Empire faction, I haven’t had the time to get any character beyond level 13.

As far as the leveling process goes in SWTOR, it is hands down the best MMORPG currently on the market. While certain character stories are (subjectively) better than others, and they do hit a lull on certain planets, the roleplaying narrative does a good job of keeping you engaged in the story and the game. I could tell you ‘why’ I did the things I did on my Smuggler, whereas I’d be hard pressed to remember what I achieved in most World of Warcraft zones.

One of the more interesting facets of leveling in SWTOR is the increase in difficulty which comes at higher levels. I died quite a lot before securing my healing companion, and I kept dying afterwards. As a Gunslinger Smuggler, I wasn’t exactly able to take much of a beating or heal myself at all, so I imagine certain classes have an easier time of it, but certain planets (*cough* Belsavis *cough*) forced me to utilise every trick I had to win through solo content at times. While my list of deaths is long, I have to say I preferred taking my lumps as opposed to breezing through the content with ease.

Once I hit 50 I began to run my dailies, which take around 2 hours a day if you’re completing them all. Some of the Republic daily quests are poorly designed, requiring the deaths of certain mobs which are in limited supply, and this will become immensely frustrating as more and more players reach 50. Thankfully I’ll no longer have any need to run dailies after this week.

Daily quests are all good and well, but at 50 you’re able to leap into end-game content. I haven’t. Not out of a lack of desire, but instead a lack of guildmates and players at the appropriate level. Admittedly, I rushed ahead of the leveling curve on my server, and I’m fine with that. What I’ve read and heard suggests that SWTOR’s end-game is lacking for those interested in particularly difficult content. While this concerns a small portion of the total player base, it doesn’t really affect me or those still working towards max level. I’ll be running normal mode operations and hard mode flashpoints come February, and being able to see the areas and the story interests me far more than running the same operation on three different difficulty levels.

High end flashpoints and end-game operations were also plagued with bugs following SWTOR’s launch, and while that isn’t great, another benefit of tackling this content belatedly is that most of the issues will be rectified. If you’ve actually sampled the current end-game content, I’d welcome your thoughts in the comments below.

Instead of end-game PvE, I’ve been tackling level 50 PvP. The recent Ability Delay bugfix has made playing a cover class less frustrating in PvP, as now my blaster bolts will actually fire off when I press the corresponding hotkey, as opposed to my character crouching and doing very little. As I play on one of the few servers where there isn’t a giant faction imbalance between Imperial and Republic players, I’ve played a decent mix of all three warzones. Huttball and the Alderaan Civil War are usually enjoyable, but the Voidstar can be an exercise in pure frustration if your team lacks coherency or co-ordination. It’s certainly the warzone I like to see least.

CC/stuns are my other source of PvP frustration. You can and will be stunned often and repeatedly in SWTOR, and ten seconds of standing still is usually enough to guarantee your doom, unless you happen to be a tank or a healer. As a Gunslinger, I generally try to avoid being anywhere near heavy combat, but there are times (mainly in Huttball) where that is unavoidable. On the other hand, I quite enjoy knock backs. I have a few of my own, and being tossed off a ledge or thrown backwards isn’t as much of a death sentence unless you happen to land in a Huttball hazard or go flying off a Voidstar bridge. Both of these tend to involve a degree of precision, and I’ve killed a lot more people with my 360 degree knock back than have killed me. In fact, throwing people off ledges is probably the action I enjoy most.

While warzone PvP is fine for the most part, open world PvP is a mess. The problems with Ilum are well documented, and to be honest I never go there as there’s little point. I run my six PvE dailies and return to my ship. I have no doubt BioWare will properly incentivise Ilum in time, but at the moment, at least on my server, it’s a ghost town.

Finally, BioWare has rolled out series of bug fixing patches and the Rise of the Rakghouls content patch since launch, responding to various issues which have cropped up. For the most part, my play experience has been devoid of any crippling bugs. The only bug I regularly deal with is one which causes mobs to evade and reset. Others haven’t been so lucky. One of my guildmates recently ended up stuck inside her own spaceship, with the exit door refusing to function, and her emergency fleet pass on cooldown. Others were affected by the extremely frustrating party/guild chat bug, which caused them to be unable to see or type in those channels.

BioWare has been fairly proactive in countering these issues, and I expect that to continue over the coming months. As far as the recent content patch is concerned, I’m happy with what was added. It might not be enough for high-end guilds, but the majority of players have yet to even reach 50. February will see level 50 characters become the norm, and in a month’s time we’ll have a better idea of how end-game content and PvP is holding up.

Until then, enjoy SWTOR if you’re currently playing, and if you’re not, you are at the very least missing out on an enjoyable story-focused romp from level 1-50.

Mass Effect 3: Special Forces Trailer – Observe the Multiplayer Mode in Action

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:38 +0000

Bioware today released a new trailer for Mass Effect 3, which shows the multiplayer mode in action. Besides exciting multiplayer action, the trailer includes details about different races and classes you’ll be able to play as.

Mass Effect 3 becomes available March 6th. Watch the trailer below.

So what do you think about the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Mode? Is it something you look forward to or an unnecessary add-on?

SWTOR Ability Delay Issue Resolved in Latest Patch

Jensen Walker — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:50:18 +0000

Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller took to the Star Wars: The Old Republic forums earlier today to confirm the first of a series of combat improvements was rolled out to live servers in last night’s patch.

Feedback from players seems to indicate that the changes BioWare made have had a dramatic and positive effect on combat responsiveness.

Georg mentioned that further improvements to combat are in the pipeline, including:

As mentioned in my blog a few days ago, there are some additional fixes currently on our public test server as part of patch 1.1.1, which will roll out as soon as we’re satisfied with that patch.

We’ve heard your mixed feedback regarding the new cooldown animation that was part of patch 1.1, and we have improvements to the readability of that UI coming down the pipe.

We’re looking into improving the accuracy of cast bars. Their behavior should already be significantly improved with today’s patch, but we believe there is still room to improve.

We’re also working on improvements to the responsiveness of individual ability animations, including faction specific timing differences and issues where shortening an ability activation time does not properly shorten it’s animation.

You can read the entire post here.

Additionally, several other minor fixed were rolled out in patch 1.1.0b, and you can find them all below.

General

Implemented optimizations to improve performance on Republic and Imperial Fleets.

Classes and Combat

Significantly improved the delay when activating player abilities, particularly when in lower framerate situations. This allows for improved ability responsiveness in hectic combat situations.

Operations
General

Operations will no longer allow more than 16 Operations Group members to enter concurrently.

Karagga’s Palace

G4-B3 Heavy Fabricator will no longer respawn more than once if players have not defeated Karagga.

Fixed an exploit that would allow players to repeatedly loot the chest after defeating Jarg and Sorno.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that could cause graphical inconsistencies, which most often manifested as random screen “flickering.”

Mass Effect Action Figures Come With Mass Effect 3 Content

Justin Carter — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:30:08 +0000

EA puts out in-game content for their games in strange ways. In 2010, several of their games had codes in bottles of Dr. Pepper. For Battlefield 1943 , over 43,000,000 kills were made on the Xbox 360 version to unlock a new map. Now, Mass Effect action figures will come with DLC for Mass Effect 3. Like Activision’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, the figures will come with in-game content:

Bonus Downloadable Game Content: Each figure includes an in-pack card giving you access to downloadable in-game bonus content. Each figure contains different in-game content, exclusive to North American released product. Collect all 8 for the full experience!

The Bioware Store also points out that the content is randomized during registration. It could be new weapons, characters, character boosters, weapon mods, or upgrades. Some may even be for the co-op. Also worth pointing out is that this is for Xbox 360 and PC users only. Sorry, PS3 players.

Mass Effect 3 comes out March 6 for the Xbox 360, PC, and PS3. Expect a demo this Valentine’s Day.

via BigBadToyStore

BioWare Posts Updates on SWTOR Ability Delay and Ilum PvP Situation

Jensen Walker — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:01:26 +0000

In a series of blog posts on the official Star Wars: The Old Republic site today, Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller and Executive Producer of Live Services Jeff Hickman set about informing the community on steps being taken to address two current hotbed issues.

First up, Zoeller addressed the Ability Delay problem which has been plaguing players since launch. A number of issues which have been causing unresponsive behavior have been isolated, with two of three fixes scheduled to roll out in the next update. Identified issues include abilities which display as being on global cooldown actually being usable, instant abilities failing to trigger in frantic combat situations and general input delay most often encountered in but not exclusive to PvP.

Next, Hickman weighed in on the Ilum PvP situation which transpired following the patch earlier this week. While a number of players were able to gain disproportionate amounts of Valor due to exploiting Ilum’s mechanics (which admittedly was brought about by BioWare’s implementation), BioWare has decided not to initiate a mass rollback of Valor points as this would unfairly punish players who did not take part in the poor behavior encountered on Ilum post patch. Instead, anyone who is ‘found to have exploited the situation to an unreasonable degree will be investigated and actions taken as needed.’

Hickman goes on to assure players that BioWare’s in-game metrics are able to report precise details on where players were, what they were doing and what rewards they gained.

You can read the blogs in full over at the official site.

Here Are The Mass Effect 3 PC Specs

Justin Carter — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:30:10 +0000

Today, Bioware revealed what you will need for Mass Effect 3 if you choose to buy it on the PC. And from the sound of things, people aren’t too happy about having to buy the game through Origin and Origin only. The only thing that may change, Bioware Community man Chris Priestly said, will be the hard drive space needed. In the meantime, here’s what you’ll need:

Minimum Spec:

OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7
*Supported
chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please note that NVIDIA
GeForce 9300, 8500, 8400, and 8300 are below minimum system requirements, as are
AMD/ATI Radeon HD3200, HD3300, and HD4350. Updates to your video and sound
card drivers may be required.

CPU – 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent
AMD CPU)

RAM – 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7

Disc Drive -
1x speed

Hard Drive – 2.5 GB of free space

Video – 256 MB* (with
Pixel Shader 3.0 support)

Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible

DirectX
- DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

Recommended Spec:

OS – Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7

CPU -
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)

RAM – 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM
for Vista/Win 7

Disc Drive – 1x speed

Hard Drive – 2.5 GB of free
space

Video – AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce
9800 GT 512 MB or greater

Sound – DirectX 9.0c compatible

Mass Effect 3 arrives for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 on March 6. Expect a demo February 14, just in time for some in and out-game space love.

Via Game Informer

BioWare’s New Video Lets You Know What’s in Store for SWTOR

Jensen Walker — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:31 +0000

BioWare has released a new video for Star Wars: The Old Republic which details what players can expect to see over the coming months. Forthcoming content includes new warzones and flashpoints, an expanded Legacy system, UI customization and new guild features.

Rise of the Rakghouls was only the beginning of an epic storyline which concludes in the next major content patch in March. By the time of release, players will have access to ranked warzone matches,abilities and powers that can be unlocked via the Legacy system and much needed guild banks and UI improvements.

Take a gander at the video in which Game Director James Ohlen waxes lyrical on the future of SWTOR.

SWTOR’s Ilum PvP Woes: A Video Retrospective

Jensen Walker — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:30:16 +0000

Yesterday’s 1.1 patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic introduced new PvP combat objectives for Ilum which didn’t quite go according to plan.

Imperial players stormed the trenches of their Republic counterparts, entering enemy bases and proceeding to camp the spawn point, leaving the hapless Republic forces with little choice but to die and respawn repeatedly, or log out.

Obviously this wasn’t intended, nor is it in any way fair or balanced. It does however highlight the massive discrepancy in numbers between the Imperial and Republic factions on many servers, especially those designated PvP.

BioWare responded by rolling out an emergency patch last night which results an instant death when any PC attempts to enter the opposite faction’s safe zone on Ilum.

To be honest, it was always fairly obvious that many players would gravitate to the ‘cool’ and morally dubious Imperial faction long before the official launch, so the imbalance is hardly a surprise. While yesterday wasn’t fun for Republic players, it also served to highlight the unsportsmanlike mob mentality of the Imperial players who took part in such behavior. Again, this isn’t anything new. PvP in MMO’s brings out the worst in people. Speaking of which, you can view said behavior in the below video from SWTOR Republic player and Youtube user Suspaz.

Bioware Releasing Mass Effect 3 Demo on Valentine’s Day

Brandon Fenty — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:18:13 +0000

Bioware may have come up with the best Valentine’s Day present ever. A demo of the Kinect-enabled Mass Effect 3 is being released on February 14th.

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few years, Mass Effect is the story of Commander Sheppard, humanity’s last hope in the war against the Reapers to save the galaxy.

Girlfriends and wives everywhere mourn this news, as many of us guys will be playing the demo on that day. That is, unless your girlfriend is Stephanie Gutowski, in which case you won’t be able to pry the controller from her.