Planetside 2 Beta Impressions

Here is an article from Ten Ton Hammer with some thoughts on Planetside 2.

Unfortunately, these are not mine. I have been trying to get into the beta with no luck so far. I am really looking forward to this game, and this preview seems positive.

Update: The Planetside 2 beta NDA has been lifted, so expect to see many more details about PS2 in the near future. 

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut Release

The Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut is available today for download, says the Bioware Blog.

I was so looking forward to this game and was so disappointed by the crappy ending. After the controversy and Bioware's defense of their crappy ending, I lost all faith in them. However, I have to give them one last chance. And this is their last chance.

In truth, I have little faith that this downloadable content will save the series. They have been referring to it as an extended cut, something explain the ending. A good story should not need to be explained. I still do not understand how anyone with above 80 IQ can look at that ending and not see that it is crap. They would have done better to just admit they screwed up and fix it. I would rather wait six months for a proper ending then a rushed explanation of a crappy ending.

We shall see what they have done.

Update: Downloading the content now. I am afraid to look at the boards while I wait.

Next XBox Master Plan

A document was released a few weeks ago that purports to be the Microsoft plan for their next XBox.(direct download) 

CVG did an analysis of the document and claims that it is real. Although the document is from 2010, it is likely that, while some of the specific details may have changed, reading through this document should give us a good idea of what to expect in the next XBox when it comes out (likely) for Christmas 2013.

The full analysis can be found in this article.

The most interesting things to be included in the next XBox:

Cheating in Gaming

This is a great article about cheating in videogames and looks at a specific user, John in Canada (represent!). No, its not me.

A few of the commenters take the writer to task about his sympathetic view of the subject. I thought it was balanced portrayal. It laid out the facts and let the reader decide.

Some time ago I railed against the dearth of good journalism in gaming, the rah-rah press release article with the skeptical "..will it live up to the hype? Only time will tell." at the end to salvage what shred of the writer's credibility was left.

Kudos to Stephen Totilo for a piece of real journalism in the video game industry, a somewhat rare sight.

The Year of Halo

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will know that one of the most anticipated games this year will be Halo 4. More video of Halo 4 was released recently at E3 including the Halo 4 trailer

and this gameplay video

10 Years Playing Civilization 2

This is a great post by a guy who has been playing Civ 2 for 10 years. He is somewhere in the year 3991 AD and "the world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation". 

This is a great read for any fans of the Civ series and an interesting "what if". And let's face it, all of us played Civ because we wanted to see what would happen if we were in charge.

Even more interesting is the comments to the post after he asks for advice on how to rebuild the world.

A Dearth of Posts

I haven't been posting on this blog for the last few months. My wife and I recently added another kid to our family, and I have been very busy with that. However, things are starting to settle down and I have a few interesting posts on file and I will be putting them up and keeping this blog up much more regularly.

An Open Response to Dr. Ray Muzyka

The following is a response to this letter by Dr Ray Muzyka to Mass Effect 3 players.

To Dr Ray Muzyka, from a Mass Effect 3 fan

Thank you for taking the time to respond to the Mass Effect fan base regarding this controversy. You have every right to be proud of the work you and your company has done in the past. BioWare is a company that produces high quality games and has an excellent team behind it. I am sure most of the fans, even the ones presently criticizing Mass Effect would agree. I have been following the controversy regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3, and most of the criticism seems to stem from the last ten to fifteen minutes of the game. It is a testament to you and your company that you have released so many quality games over the years.

However, your comments do not address the key points brought forth by your critics, specifically the final ending of this trilogy. The final sequence seems to break some conventions of good storytelling. I would like to note a few examples:

Mass Effect 3 Ending Controversy - SPOILERS

It has been less than 2 weeks since the release of Mass Effect 3, a fan favourite series where you play the hero, Command Sheppard, out to save the galaxy from the threat of extinction by intelligent machines called Reapers. The Mass Effect series is notable for allowing players the maximum choice ever seen in this type of game. The choices players made in the first two Mass Effect games carry over to Mass Effect 3 and affect the story. 

Or at least this is what players were led to believe.

Are there alternative endings depending on what you do in the game?

It's not so much that there is a fixed set of alternative endings, but all of your choices really determine how things end up in the universe. So, how you approach the end-game, for every player, you're going to have a different set of results in terms of who is alive and who is dead, and which civilisations survived and which ones were wiped out.

Facebook, twitter and the ME3 Bioware Forums have been boiling with fan dissatisfaction regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3, billed as the end of the series. There are reports that a fan has lodged a complaint to the FTC. A Bioware forum poll has 91% wanting an ending change.

Do the critics have a point? Here are a few from the "sucks" side:

Article - 5 Reasons The Fans Are Right
Angry Joe Video - 10 Reasons We Hate Mass Effect 3's Ending 

And a don't be a whiner counter opinion from IGN.

Like or hate the ending, there are huge plot holes in the last 10 minutes of the game. I mean big ones. 

Even as I was playing the ending sequence, I suspected that it was all a dream. The lack of logic, especially from the "starchild" was too obvious to miss. In fact, this would be an awesome false ending, assuming that the present ending was an indoctrination attempt and only by choosing the "red" or destroy option, you would be allowed to actually carry on the fight to the Reapers. This is being called the indoctrination theory on the forums and is the only way I can see to explain the huge plot holes and logical inconsistencies in the statements by the "starchild". 

Here is an excellent discussion of the Indoctrination Theory. 
Update: And this Indoctrination Theory video is even better. 
Update: Angry Joe has an Indoctrination Theory video as well. This is also good and has some aspects about indoc theory that I missed.

The only thing that makes this ending make sense is that Bioware set up this false ending and there is still a piece of the game, the real ending, that they will release as DLC. I am not sure why they would do this. There was a large outcry with the release day DLC From Ashes, I cannot imagine why they would take out the ending for the game and release it later, unless it was the biggest joke played on gamers ever, or someone lost a bet. 

The only other assumption is that the writers really suck that bad. But the writing for ME 1 &2 is good, arguably some of the best in video games. ME3 writing is also good throughout the game, until the final 10 minutes. I greatly enjoyed ME 3 The writers did a great job of building up the tension towards the ending. I wasn't sure how it was going to end but, as Sheppard, I was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice, for the good of the galaxy. 

I wasn't prepared for what I got. This tweet sums it up.

Is there more in store? Check out this tweet.

Or this rumour that came out a few days ago. Treat this with a big grain of salt.

Copy and Paste Behaviour Ruining Game Journalism?

This is an interesting article about the state of video game journalism. The author, Torrence Davis, talks about how the big game sites simply copy and paste articles and do not do any fact checking and references this recent event where major game sites were fooled by 4chan.

Now, I'm not sure an enema is required, but incidents such as that one, plus uncritical previews and questionable,"happy-happy" game reviews, call into question the impartiality of some sites.

Where do you get your game information? Do you read the big sites?

I would like to put together a list of good, small sites. Please add your comments and link to small sites with integrity. 

I will get us started with Out Of Eight.