THQ Receives Stock Delisting Notice, Outlook Seems Dire

A couple of weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about THQ. Rumors were abound that the company was canceling ALL of its 2014 games. Add that to the string of layoffs that they have had over the last year and the Internet was definitely abuzz about the company. At the time of the rumors, I figured they had to be a bit more dire than the situation actually was, with the successes of Saint's Row the Third. It turns out that they are in more trouble than I actually thought.

Stories have been all over the Internet today about THQ receiving a stock delisting notice from NASDAQ. This means that since THQ's stock has been closing at under $1 for so long, they are at risk of being unable to be publicly traded anymore. While this isn't necessarily the death knell for THQ, they are definitely in trouble.

I am really bummed to hear this. THQ isn't the biggest publisher but I really like their tendencies to take a chance on some things that other publishers don't (Darksiders, Saint's Row, Metro 2033 and its sequel). I also feel bad for Relic and Volition, two extremely talented developers that could have issues if THQ folds.

Looking at their lineup, they need a few more winners and to cut some of the worse franchises they have like the Nickelodeon games and the ever-atrocious WWE Smackdown series if they want to continue to operate.

Resident Evil 6 Demo Coming! (But Inside Another Game)

Dragon's Dogma is a game I haven't really heard enough (or made the effort to learn) about to know whether or not its worth playing. In fact, as I write this, I can't even think of anything to say about the game itself. I'm sure I've read something about it but none of it has stuck. Knowing Capcom's recent luck with their newer IP's, I imagine I'm not alone.

Maybe seeing this attitude all over the Internet made Capcom decide to include a Resident Evil 6 demo with copies of Dragon's Dogma. Similar to Crackdown, it won't be included on the disc itself but will give access to the demo at some point in the future. Also similarly, I expect a lot of people will buy the game just to get at the demo.

Most disgusting about this demo is that it will actually be Xbox exclusive for about two months. The Xbox 360 demo will become available in early May and the Playstation 3 demo will pop up in early July.

This is a really bad path to tread down and really makes me wonder why a company would care about a goddamn demo. Is Microsoft really anxious for the exclusive rights to the RE6 demo? I expect they paid to have this arrangement work out and I can't really see why. It just sets a precedent for exclusive demos that I really don't want to see continue.

UPDATE: According to an article on Destructoid, Capcom is stating that the demo's exclusivity is in fact due to an agreement with Microsoft. They don't specify whether the company paid for the demo's rights alone or if it some dual marketing deal with the DLC also releasing first on the Xbox 360 (something I would bet money on). Either way, the demo will still release much later on the Playstation 3.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning to Include Online Pass

By now, most of you in the know have probably heard about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's inclusion of the now-standard online pass. It is still a bit weird to see it in a single-player focused game but it happens more and more now. The online pass for Amalur promises a full quest line that can only be gotten by buying the game new (or buying a pass with a used copy).

When asked about their inclusion of the pass, community manager Muse said that the pack had been developed with intents of being sold after the game's release and was not content simply culled from the disc. Instead of selling the quest line, they decided to give it to new purchasers for free. That would make it a bit less sleazy but CM's live to spin good press. Not sure I believe it as of yet. More likely, EA demanded an online pass and they scrounged up some content to meet the demand.

I'm still a bit annoyed whenever I see this happen. Does it really make sense to put an online pass in a single-player game that lacks any multiplayer? What about those people who don't have a Live account and only play those single-player games? Of course, we know why it happens - publishers like their money, after all.

I still wish that they could come up with something that doesn't require me to punch in a code before I can even start playing (especially when it's just a 200KB unlock key). Playing some new games is an exercise of patience after entering any pre-order bonuses, retailer specific bonuses, online passes, and day-one DLC included within. Add in the always necessary day one patch and it can take several minutes to get into a game. I just want to play my new games dammit!

Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition Content Coming to PC For Free

The Witcher series is one of the few sets of games that actually managed to do well just on the PC. CD Projekt Red made a couple of kick-ass RPGs with a very uncommon tone that shocked me the first time I saw it. Of course, Xbox 360 owners are finally going to get their hands on an updated version of The Witcher 2 on April 17. Coming along with the game is a bevy of updates and new content that promise to enhance the game past its original greatness.

I was a little bummed to hear about that content at first. I was an early adopter on The Witcher 2 and paid full price for the game. Hearing about content I wouldn't have access to unless I bought another copy sounded like a pain in the ass. Lucky for me (and all PC adopters), all of these updates will be coming to the PC version for absolutely free.

CD Projekt Red is hitting it out of the park again. First they make their game completely DRM-free and now they are providing an astounding amount of updates for absolutely no cost. Kudos to them for keeping up with their very generous trend of user-support. I can't help but wish more developers would be willing/able to support their games like this .

Norman Jayden's True Addiction

SPOILER ALERT: I will be talking about a few of the endings from Heavy Rain so if you don't want to be spoiled, you probably shouldn't read this.

I just played through Heavy Rain again after not having touched it since its release in 2010. Since then, I have become a bit more critical when playing games, in hopes of being a better writer. I found something I wasn’t expecting to find. Some of the things I saw during my second playthrough actually made me regard one of those characters in an entirely different light.

Norman Jayden is the FBI agent you control during the game, an agent sent to help investigate the crimes of the Origami Killer. Players get to control him investigating leads and putting together the case in the police way. Being part of the FBI means he has a neat little way-too-futuristic tool called ARI (Augmented Reality Interface) made up of a pair of shades and a special glove. Think Minority Report’s hand-waving interface mixed with a very sophisticated forensic tracker and full database on everyone in the world and you’ll know exactly what it is. Oh, it can also simulate virtual reality environments and has some little games.

Norman also has a little problem, an addiction to the drug Triptocaine, a little blue vial of some liquid future drug. Over the course of the game, the player is given the option to have Norman take the drug to calm his shakes or simply wait it out. But is he really addicted to the Triptocaine? Or is he, as I came to believe during my second playthrough of Heavy Rain, actually addicted to ARI?

No one in the game ever says exactly what the blue drug is for. All we know is that when Norman takes it, his shakes and blurry vision goes away. Couldn’t it be a drug that counteracts the negative effects of too much ARI use? Maybe he doesn’t want to take it because he thinks he can beat it on his own. He is worried about people noticing his little events but he probably doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him. The ARI technology also seems very high-end at this point and it’s possible no one else would understand what was going on. Seeing the vial might make people think he is a drug addict, even if Triptocaine was a prescription drug for ARI use.

Heavy Rain has a variety of endings for each of its four characters based on what you did in the game. Two of Norman’s endings are of particular interest to me in this argument. One of them occurs if you solve the case and save Shaun Mars, the last victim of the Origami Killer. Norman is shown throwing away his vial of Triptocaine and returning to his office at the FBI. He takes off the ARI glasses for a break and notices digital tanks, fragments of one of ARI’s game modes, invade his reality. This is a very clear tell that what Norman was actually addicted to was ARI and it is still affecting him.

The other ending of interest is what happens if Norman gives up on the case and Shaun Mars dies. Norman is shown in one of ARI’s virtual reality environments but without his glasses. He is talking to someone we can’t originally see but are eventually shown is another Norman. Norman then goes on to kill himself with a Triptocaine overdose out of guilt for messing up the case. Norman again sees ARI elements in his reality, an effect of overusing ARI to a point where it starts to affect his mind. Both of these endings make a point of using ARI assets to show his frayed mind and that can’t just be a coincidence.

There are a few points where I can see someone going “But wait, what about…?” One of these is the constant nosebleeds that Norman gets when not taking Triptocaine. That has to be a drug-related symptom, right? Not necessarily. Nosebleeds can be triggered by intense stress and an addiction to ARI could certainly cause that to happen. Another point of contention may be the overdose scene in that “bad” ending. Just because he overdoses on Tripto doesn’t mean it was a bad drug. It’s extremely easy to overdose on prescription drugs as well and it makes sense that Norman took more than the normal amount to try and get the ARI fever dreams to stop.

This clever little trick never occurred to me on my first playthrough of Heavy Rain. Seeing it now, it all seems so clear. We are never told what the drug actually does because that would make it extremely obvious. All the symptoms that Norman shows happened not because he was having Tripto withdrawals but because he wasn’t taking it to cope with the side-effects of ARI usage. Two of Norman’s four endings show him having an ARI-related hallucination.

The Ickiness of Using Dead People in Video Games

Reality Fighters is one of the expected launch titles for the upcoming Playstation Vita. In Reality Fighters, players are able to use the device's camera to take a picture of themselves and create a fighter that looks just them them. Once uploaded, the fighter can be adorned with a variety of silly gear to create a unique looking character.

There aren't just created characters in Reality Fighters. One of these unlockable included characters, as reported by Joystiq, will be none other than Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) from the Karate Kid series. The character obviously can't be voiced by Mr. Morita so a voice actor will imitate the man for the vocal effects.

I find this extremely icky. Ever since the inclusion of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero, I wondered what the appeal of including a dead person in a video game really is. Some may argue that it's an honor to be included in a product but if they are dead, why would they care? Not to mention the fact that companies only do it for the money and press around doing such a thing, not to honor that person. This is a trend I do not wish to see continue.

In fact, why do we feel the need to include real people in our games at all? Game developers have the ability to make ANYTHING they want as character designs and yet most of them make people based on other people or boring, bland stereotypes that we are all getting tired of. Take charge and mix things up, guys.

No Blizzcon for 2012

Blizzard has announced that, due to the multiple projects it is working on (Titan, WoW Expansion, Diablo 3, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm), it will not be holding its annual Blizzcon convention this year in Anaheim. This marks the first year since 2006 that they have not held the convention.

I'm glad Blizzard is one of those developers that knows when it has plenty on its plate. Them putting aside a somewhat meaningless convention in order to finish the two (three?) games that everyone is waiting for is very smart of them.

Hopefully that means we will actually see Diablo 3's release this year, although it gets less likely by the day with the lead developer leaving and the purported changes they plan to make to the game.

No Exclusive Character for Xbox 360 Version of Street Fighter X Tekken

Street Fighter X Tekken is coming out in just a couple months and the characters keep getting announced. Some of you may have heard about Cole McGrath from Infamous be exclusive to Playstation platforms. I hadn't paid much attention to this but today's post on Joystiq informed me that there hasn't been, and won't be, an exclusive Xbox 360 character reveal. Apparently, the developers wanted an exclusive character but ran out of time before they could reach a decision with the right people.

Wait a minute. Didn't Ed Boon from the Mortal Kombat team say something very similar about their reasons for not including an exclusive character in the latest game in the series? What is up with the lack of exclusive characters in Microsoft versions of fighting games?

I have a few theories. One of them is that Microsoft doesn't really believe in this fighting game thing and didn't want to pay for an exclusive character right in the games. Another similar theory is that Microsoft is more protective of its characters being in other franchises and wasn't willing to share. Or maybe the process behind a Microsoft character being licensed is much stricter than Sony's (wouldn't be surprised after hearing about the Cert process for XBLA games).

No matter the reason, it's still a little disappointing. The Xbox 360 is the most popular system when it comes to multiplatform games and it sucks that those players don't get anything for their devotion. I know that the Xbox controller is the least optimal for a fighting game but there are still plenty who try. If the blame for this is on Microsoft, they need to be more willing in the future.

New Longer Feature

Finally got around to writing a longer "feature" again. Just finished it and I plan to post it in the next few days after an edit or two. It will be much longer than my average post and investigates something I feel is very important to games.

Look forward to it soon!

How Much Time Do These Guys Have On Their Hands?

Like many people, I got into the Minecraft craze for a time. For about two weeks, I was playing it five or six hours a day easy. Then, I had to reformat my computer and lost my world (wasn't a way to back them up when I played). I tried to start over but it never got me in the same way. Every so often, I'll fire it back up for a little while but not for long. The biggest thing I've tried to do with it since then was an idea I had to rebuild the Serenity from Firefly but gave up about halfway through due to the difficulty I had imagining the right dimensions in block form.

Like my idea to build the Serenity, tons of people build things from other games and movies all the time. I remember months ago when someone had rebuild parts of Rapture and was amazed at the craftsmanship. Now, someone has gone out and rebuilt the entirety of Hyrule from Ocarina of Time and I am even more impressed. The detail is astounding and I can't even imagine the amount of time it must have taken, considering how long it took me to do the little I did for the Serenity.

Hyrulecraft, as it's called, is in Alpha status and can be downloaded to play on your own computer now. If you want to do so and/or see some footage from it, go to the link below.

Hyrulecraft Video

Resident Evil 6 This Holiday Season

I have been a fairly devout fan of Resident Evil ever since around the time Resident Evil 2 came out. My parents were divorced and one time, when I went over to my dad's house, he had a brand-new Playstation and Resident Evil 2. It took me some time to open up to the game but I really enjoyed what I could play of it over at his house. I didn't get to play enough of it until it came out Nintendo 64 later when I got my own copy and played it to death. Resident Evil 2 is still the game I consider the high-point of the series, especially the older-style games.

I have played every Resident Evil game that has released over the years and completed each of the main series games (didn't touch Outbreak much or the awful gun-game Survivor series). I miss some of the old days of RE2 and even the RE-make on the Gamecube. The newer games are fun but aren't quite the survival horror gameplay I know and love. Even still, I won't ever miss out on a proper RE title.

Resident Evil 6 was announced yesterday with a pretty long and interesting trailer. It shows a variety of gameplay scenarios and characters and is just as indecipherable as any of the newer Resident Evil games. Theories are abound on the Internet now and the one that sounds most likely is a three-way split in the game. The parts with Leon look more like the older REs, the Chris parts look a bit more actiony with a squad, and the mystery man with who has to be Ashley looks like RE5. If this theory pans out, that sounds like a very interesting game, with shifting perspectives throughout.

Part of me is a bit bummed that they could be bringing back the co-op gameplay from RE5. While I'm sure that game is extremely fun with a human partner, I rarely play games like that with others (I'm gamer friendless, what do you want?). Having to babysit Sheva was a bit annoying in some spots of the game and having to play inventory management between the two (nowhere near as interesting or fun as normal RE management) is a pain. Many of you may argue that giving her a sniper rifle made her godly but I still can't forget her tendencies to get in the way during the Wesker fight. Not to mention the lack of tension when you have a helper during the whole game.

Of course, either way, I'm in for a day-one purchase. Here's hoping Capcom continues the good trends from the last few games - new game plus, infinite ammo upgrades, and hilariously stupid plotlines - and knocks a few of the worst ones - partner AI and lack of atmosphere.

Time to Party Like It's 19...No, I'm Not Going to Make That Joke

The late 90's were a hell of a time for gaming. PC games were in their prime, consoles were on the up, and good games were coming out left and right. One of the most widely-accepted "best years of gaming" is 1998, a year that brought Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Starcraft and more. For me, as well as a lot of people, it is one of the most nostalgically pleasing times of my life.

Of course, trying to go back to those games now can be kind of hard. N64 and Playstation's 3D graphics look like absolute garbage now, pixelated all to hell and grimy to boot. On the PC, games like Fallout 1 and 2 and the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate 2, Planescape Torment, etc.) had very complex game systems that required a lot of time to figure out properly. As someone trying to go back to play some early PC games now, it can be a hell of a thing trying to figure out these not-at-all obvious control systems.

Bioshock Infinite's lead designer Ken Levine thinks that games weren't just more complex: they were actually a hell of a lot harder too. To honor this period of gaming, Bioshock Infinite will have a difficulty mode lovingly described as "1999 Mode" in which everything has been ratcheted up in difficulty. Not many details have been given yet but he states that managing resources will be a much more demanding task and that a Game Over screen can actually be reached, a rarity in today's games.

I love when games make their difficulty options more than smarter, more accurate enemies and mess with health values. Crysis comes to mind as a game that truly made its harder difficulties different, by removing HUD elements such as the crosshair and making all enemies only speak Korean. If this mode in Bioshock Infinite actually alters game mechanics to make the game more challenging, I applaud the developers. We need less Veteran difficulties from Call of Duty and more Delta difficulties from Crysis.

Saints Row the Third Review

The first Saints Row game was seen by many as a blatant rip-off of the Grand Theft Auto series. Volition took the open-world format that was made popular by the PS2 Grand Theft Autos and created a fairly decent clone. Sure, it was heavily inspired by the series but it played well enough to satisfy gamers waiting for the next GTA game. Grand Theft Auto IV and Saints Row 2 came out in the same year and it was at this point that a difference could be seen. While Volition had chosen to carry on with the crazy, Rockstar had opted for a more serious, character-driven story. Each game did what it did well but the two series didn’t quite do the same things anymore.

When Volition went to the drawing board for ideas for the third game in their series, they must have realized this new disparity. Someone must have said “Well, we have the over-the-top open world series now. Why don’t we just go as nuts as we can with it?” before the room exploded with ideas like giant purple dildo bats and auto-tuned pimps. Saints Row the Third is the product of Volition going completely off-the-rails with the tone and content in its game and it couldn’t make for a more enjoyable experience.

Saints Row the Third once again follows the Saints, top gang of Stilwater, and brings back familiar faces such as Shaundi and Johnny Gat. After their takeover of Stilwater in Saints Row II, they have become the most famous gang in the world, signing autographs as they rob banks and businesses. Perhaps finding crime in Stilwater too easy, they travel to nearby Steelport to rob a bank. Things don’t go the way they are used to and they soon end up in custody. It turns out that crime in Steelport is run by the Syndicate, a group that doesn’t take too kindly to the Saints’ actions against one of their banks. They offer the Saints a place in their organization – for most of their profits. Your character, leader of the Saints, doesn’t take too kindly to that and decides to fight back against the Syndicate and take control of Steelport.

The meat of the game is your standard open-world fare, with main missions to lead you through the story and side activities galore to keep you entertained should the need arise. Your cell phone is the key to starting any story mission, allowing you to begin one at any time without having to first drive to a specific point. As much as I would like to tell you some of the things you will do during the story, I won’t. Why? From my own experience, I shouldn’t. Each thing you don’t see coming will be that much crazier and hilarious if I don’t even hint at them. Trust me – go in blind.

Side activities are started by driving to various points on the map. Old favorites like Insurance Fraud have returned along with some others that are hit-or-miss. My personal pick is the Professor Genki activity, where you run through a gauntlet of enemies and try to kill as many as you can in a short period of time. Combos and shooting billboards will earn you more cash. It’s like The Club, only good. Of course, there are a couple stinkers, particularly the escort ones. Luckily, there is enough variety to always give you something to do.

Your cell phone is also used for the robust upgrade system where you can spend your hard earned cash from missions and owning property (works like in Fable 2 and 3, where you accrue money from property every so often). These upgrades range from simple health boosts to the option to call a homie to bring you a VTOL jet. Most of these upgrades have multiple ranks and this is where things get insane. Near the end of the game, you can start unlocking immunity to any type of damage and unlimited ammo for each class of weapons. These upgrades are essentially cheats that Volition encourages you to use. You are practically unkillable when you finish the upgrades (except in a car for some reason) and it makes the endgame remarkably fun.

If you’re like me, you never quite enjoyed the feel of Grand Theft Auto IV. Sure, Niko’s animations were extremely realistic and the cars drove much more like they are supposed to but I never had fun with that. Saints Row the Third is the complete opposite of that. On foot, things move quickly with a liberal sprint meter. Adding to the fun, holding the sprint button (rightfully named the awesome button by the developers) down modifies your actions. Jacking a car? You will jump through the window or windshield and kick the driver right out. Attacking a pedestrian? You might just drop kick them. It adds a bunch of pep to the game that makes being on foot tolerable. As for the vehicles, they are much looser too. Some of the larger vehicles are still slow but the mid-range and up cars all turn very loosely, allowing you to powerslide around corners and cover huge amounts of ground quickly. Much more fun than the stiff controls of GTAIV.

I did have a few problems with Saints Row the Third. On the Xbox 360 version, it gets framey regularly. On a few occasions, I had a guy (a boss, on one occasion) disappear and leave me unable to finish a mission. During one mission where I was escorting a friendly car from a helicopter, I shot a rocket at a chasing vehicle and had the smoking husk fly up and flip my helicopter over, forcing me to restart. Amusing as all hell but somewhat annoying. The biggest problems were the hard locks I had on no fewer than five separate occasions. I played this game long after the patch that was supposed to fix hard locks and still managed to encounter several. To its credit, the game checkpoints and autosaves rather liberally, so I didn’t ever lose much progress. I also found myself not caring and jumping right back in after the crash to play more, something I rarely do when my Xbox locks up.

On more than one occasion in Saints Row the Third, I found myself laughing simply at the absurdity the game had gone to. Sure, the characters are really well-written (Kinzie is a favorite) and the dialogue is often laugh-out loud funny but the truly memorable moments are when a character you just can’t believe comes along or your own character does something completely f***ed and no one blinks at how crazy it really is. I can easily understand why some people may be offended by it or put off by its seemingly juvenile sense of humor. I wish I could convince those people to give it a chance. Lucky for Volition, those people seem to be in the minority. Let’s hope they keep making these games crazier and crazier as the years go on.

New Graphics Card = New Computer

Oh, Ubisoft, you must be so irritated. Gamers clamor for your games on PC, wanting to play amazing titles like the Assassin's Creed series on a prettier system (or at all, for some). Yet when you release the games, you can't help but pile on the anti-piracy measures out of fear of losing millions on a game. Better relations with your customers might help but you ignore them wholeheartedly and ramp up the DRM instead.

In yet another piece of Ubisoft anti-piracy news, reports are starting to come in that Ubisoft's DRM is, shocker, a piece of garbage. Guru3D, a highly respected benchmarking site has been testing Anno 2070, a new game in the vein of Sim City or Tropico, and are reporting a rather odd occurance with the game. When they switch out graphics cards for a new test, the DRM registers that as a new computer and uses one of the three installs that owners of the game get. Since Guru3D tests games on a wide variety of machines, the game quickly refused to allow access and stated that all installs had been used already.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for Ubisoft DRM, something like this comes along. It probably isn't anything more than a bug but it certainly won't soften public opinion of them anytime soon. At this point, I'm kinda with Ubisoft on this whole PC thing. If they can't find a better way to make their PC ports, I'd rather they just stop trying. Crappy, DRM-saddled versions of games aren't appealing to anyone.

Bullying Pirates Is Not The Way

All gamers know that piracy is a pretty big deal. It is cited as one of the main reasons why PC development has been lacking compared to console games. SOPA and PIPA are directly related to companies being angry with piracy and copyright infringement. Ubisoft's hated DRM policies are their attempt at trying to cope with the losses. No one knows what the right means of attack really is. Most companies, like Ubisoft, try to go too far in their attempts.

CD Projekt RED, developers of the Witcher series, recently had a bit of controversy surrounding them when they tried to go after pirates of their games. They demanded compensation from anyone who pirated their games, stating that they had the means to find the thieves. Of course, they retracted these claims rather quickly, knowing that a vendetta against pirates wasn't going to end up with anything good. Most likely, it would just annoy the people who buy the games legally.

We can't just hold this one company to blame for such a crazy idea. According to Torrentfreak.com, multiple companies have tried this exact tactic in the past. Some of the companies include Ubisoft (big surprise, right?), Codemasters, and Eidos/Square Enix. Each of these companies have used IP-tracking to find supposed pirates of their games and sent cash-settlement letters to them. These letters are essentially threats, demanding compensation to avoid lawsuits.

This isn't the way to do this, guys. Bullying people around, even pirates, is just going to end up with bad publicity for your company. There have even been cases of IP-tracking being completely wrong, causing letters to be sent to entirely innocent people. I understand why these companies are frustrated and can sympathize with them. Still, this isn't the way to do things.

Mass Effect 3 Includes Mandatory Origin Install

Origin has been a point of contention amongst gamers. EA's Origin service is meant to be an alternative to Steam but only carrying EA published games instead of a wide variety of them. It isn't any more obtrusive than Steam but having another service running in my tray, one that I rarely use as opposed to Steam, is a bit annoying.

Today, it was announced that Mass Effect 3 would require Origin to run on PC. This isn't much of a surprise but is still a bit sigh-worthy. My original or "canon" save files are on the PC so I was planning on getting this version. I already keep Origin installed for Battlefield 3 so this isn't anything more than a minor annoyance. Lucky for gamers, there will be no install limits and only a one-time online check for the campaign. EA has come a long way since forcing gamers who wanted to redownload their EA games to pay a $5 fee for "insurance" past the initial download.

According to EA, Steam isn't out of the question but it doesn't seem likely. Ever since the big kerfuffle when EA pulled some of their games from Steam, Crysis 2 in particular, they have been selling their newer games exclusively on Origin. EA states that it is because of how Steam forces publishers to sell DLC through their store, a fact that EA doesn't really like. I just hope that DLC for ME3 isn't like it was for ME2, forcing me to go to a Bioware store where I have to add credit separate from any other account to buy the DLC and then download and install each piece of content individually.

The inclusion of Origin in Mass Effect 3 isn't surprising or overly offensive but it shows us again that EA isn't about to give up on it, no matter how well Steam does. Some of you may argue that Steam is a monopoly and deserves competitors. I haven't been burned by Steam yet (and have been by EA) so until they fuck up, I can't help but feel this way.

Shadows of the Damned Review

Suda51 is fucking crazy. If you’ve played any one of his games, you know that he comes up with the most random but creative gameplay scenarios in video games today. Unfortunately, those creative ideas usually come with a bit of iffy gameplay, proving that you can’t be a jack of all trades in the gaming industry. When he announced Shadows of the Damned a few years ago and said that Shinji Mikami would be onboard as the gameplay producer, gamers everywhere rejoiced. Standards were unbelievably high. While the game maybe didn’t quite live up to its potential (what game does?), Shadows of the Damned is still an engaging shooter with an unmatched sense of humor.

In Shadows of the Damned, you take control of Garcia “Fucking” Hotspur, a demon hunter with more attitude than Buffy and Dante combined. His girlfriend Paula has been kidnapped by Fleming, Lord of the Demon World, and he will do whatever it takes to reclaim her. Garcia gives chase and is soon joined by his ever-present companion, Johnson, second only to Wheatley as last year’s best British character. Oh, and Johnson is a skull. The game has you traveling through the demon world, with Johnson as your guide, on your way to Fleming’s castle to recover Garcia’s girl. A simple and overused concept but done well enough here.

The biggest strength of Shadows of the Damned is really its humor. It is unlike anything else on the market today and manages to make immature jokes about penises and feces charmingly funny. At one moment you might be laughably confused at a strange fact about the demon world (for example, goat heads somehow produce light) and at others you get an Evil Dead parody. The best examples of the game’s humor are these storybooks you find over the course of the game. Each of them precedes a boss fight and basically tells you the horrifying ways the next boss ended up in Hell. You don’t just read the storybooks – they are each narrated by either Garcia or Johnson. It is slow and somewhat bumbling but the readings and funny asides that they add are amusing enough to be worth it. It is the absurdity of this world – and the way the characters react to it - that makes this game anything but generic.

The gameplay itself mostly resembles Resident Evil 4’s style of shooting, although you can actually move and shoot in Shadows of the Damned. It isn’t very effective but still a handy trick when trying to stay out of range of some nasty demons. A combat roll that can be used at any time is also present and is extremely useful for dodging attacks. Johnson, in addition to your companion, is also all of your weapons. He morphs into a pistol, machine gun, and shotgun/rocket launcher with names like the Hot Boner and the Skullcussioner. The guns have a satisfying kick that only gets better as you defeat bosses and recover blue gems, the keys changing your weapons into new forms with new abilities.

Unfortunately, the aiming system itself could have used a bit more work. While the cursor doesn’t float around like in RE4, it never feels quite “on” either. Shots sometimes don’t go where you think they will, even when the cursor is right on. Getting headshots is supposed to be more challenging than body shots but when the aiming seems to be artificially made more inaccurate to do so it just doesn’t work. The game is never too hard – ammo and health is plentiful - but the aiming just isn’t as precise as some of the best in the genre and it can cause frustration in heated encounters.

A simple upgrade system is in place to make the weapons grow over the course of the game. White gems are the currency and you can spend them at drink dispensers (the health item of the game) and Christopher, a lovable half-demon who wants to bring Fleming down as much as you do. You can exchange white gems with him for drinks, ammo, and red gems. Red gems are the key to upgrading your weapons and can be spent at any time once you acquire them to increase things like your health pool or each weapon’s damage and ammo capacity. These gems can also be found in the world and there are plenty of upgrades to keep you eager for more gems for the entirety of the game.

The quality of the music can’t be ignored. Shadows of the Damned’s music evokes a style that is unlike anything you will probably ever hear in a video game. It meshes an overall Spanish theme with horror themes to make something unlike anything I have ever heard. The loading screen music is simple but I found myself humming it for days after I played the game (in my mind, the mark of a great soundtrack).

It's both really too bad and asking too much that Suda51 and Mikami didn’t make something unforgettable but Shadows of the Damned is still a good time. Some issues with the aiming system and some egregiously bad load times between sections make the game less than perfect and can try your patience. Even still, it is a singular experience that can’t be reasonably compared to anything else out there. You may not want to play the game but you’d be doing yourself a favor if you at least watched someone else play it.

DNS Blocking Removed From SOPA

If you've been keeping up on the SOPA and PIPA bills (and you should be!), you probably heard the good news today. Lamar Smith, a Texas House Judiciary Committee member, has removed the DNS part of SOPA from the bill. No better reason is given then he knows that with that part of the bill gone, it stands a much better chance of being pushed through. Kind of hard to applaud Smith's change when you know the reason behind it, huh?

DNS blocking was easily the most egregious part of the bill, allowing copyright holders to contact ISP's and have them block access to "offending" sites with little hassle. The ease with which a company would have been able to report such an offense was much too lenient and could have easily led to abuse from some of the more copyright-protective companies.

SOPA is still a major threat, a much too aggressive form of copyright protection that treads on censorship at times. Also, SOPA had the DNS part of it removed but PIPA still has it. It is too soon to call the bills dead at this point but we can feel a bit better from this point forward if the men behind them are more willing to change them than we thought.

Razer Announces Fiona Tablet

CES has been going on this week and there is plenty of new tech to drool over. I've never been one to really care much about general tech. The phone I use is a very basic flipphone with no camera. I do have an iPod Touch but bought one a long time after they came out. It usually takes a game device to make me start to salivate and eagerly wish I could get my hands on it.

Razer of course made an appearance at CES, one of the few companies I tend to be intrigued by when they go places. With promising tech like their extremely small netbook style gaming device, I can't help but perk up my ears when they talk.

Apparently, the company is also working on a tablet that will be powerful enough to run several PC games at decent settings. Nicknamed Fiona, videos of the device have been making the rounds. The one I have seen came from Destructoid and can be found here.

In the video, Skyrim is shown running on Ultra High settings and it looks pretty good for a tablet. I have no interest on playing my PC games on a smaller screen and rarely leave my house so the tablet is only a technological curiosity to me at this point. My only concern for Fiona is that the having to move a cursor around (watch the video) is a bit awkward and unwieldy. It's too far out to say anything about the device at this point but I am intrigued to see how the device performs and sells when it is released.

Online Passes Starting To Scare Resellers?

Online passes have become extremely common. Ever since EA first tried the idea of an online pass, effectively sidestepping at least some of the money lost to used reselling of their games, nearly every company has hopped on the bandwagon. It is rather rare to find a game without some form of pass needed to access the online content nowadays.

I'm sure that Gamestop was a little pissed when this trend started to catch on. Smart gamers will now buy a new copy of a game even if the used copy is slightly cheaper because having to buy the online pass would make it more expensive in the long run ($55 used "new" game + $10 for the pass or just $60 for the game new). When those customers buy new copies of games, game resellers can't make the huge markup profit they make on resold games. We have no idea how much this is actually cutting into Gamestop's profits, due to dumb consumers who buy the used copies anyway, but I can imagine it isn't a small number.

Destructoid reported today (from a story by MCV) that some U.K. resellers are apparently having a huge problem with online passes. So much of a problem, in fact, that they are willing to cut publishers in on used sale profits if publishers are willing to scrap online passes. Multiple retailers have stated that they would be willing to agree to such a deal if one was proposed.

Jim Sterling argues that maybe the publishers, the ones with all the money, shouldn't be so harsh on these game resellers. Maybe in other countries, where the resellers are smaller companies, this is a fair point. I can see why those companies would hate losing control of their biggest money maker. Now, if Gamestop starts to complain (not that I think they will) in the same way, I wouldn't feel sorry for them at all. They are a MASSIVE company at this point and some of their business practices are quite disgusting. Reselling a used game at 90%+ of the price, especially games where passes or extra content has been used, is a shitty thing to do, no matter how profitable.

Kudos to the publishers finally finding a way to slow game resellers cash cow to a grinding halt. Let's just hope they don't let the win go to their heads and try to shut down used sales completely. That wouldn't be good for any of us.

Clarification on Mass Effect 3's Difficulty Modes

Mass Effect 2 was easily my favorite game of 2010. I have played through it half a dozen times, with a variety of characters, and still have a good time each time I run through it. When I first finished the game, Mass Effect 3 couldn't have seemed farther away. I didn't (and still don't) know if it can live up to the hype that started to build almost right away.

Of course, Bioware released another game last year, in between ME2 and ME3. Dragon Age 2 sounded like it changed key things but overall, I had high hopes for a sequel to such an amazing game. Well, we all know how that turned out. Dragon Age 2 wasn't a broken game but it was a rushed game and heavily flawed because of its repetition. That was the first time that Bioware really took a hit and I thought they might be losing their stride.

As more and more coverage has come out around the game, I can't help but feel skeptical. The inclusion of multiplayer made me cringe and hope that resources weren't diverted from the important places to cram it in. The second Spike VGA trailer looked flashy but extremely boring to play (run in a straight line to hit a button!). Even though I didn't look at any of it, the rumors about the story leaks make things sound messed up in that department too. Things keep building against this game that make me skeptical, something I would never have felt for a Bioware game before DAII.

Casey Hudson, project lead on Mass Effect 2 and 3, recently gave an interview with Game Informer. Of most interest to me was the part about the difficulty choice changes they are making. It was revealed a few months ago that instead of difficulties like Normal and Hard, the game would have Action, Roleplaying, and Story modes. It seemed bizarre at the time and the interview sheds a bit more light on the change.

Story mode makes the combat extremely easy in support of getting through the story. Action mode auto-fills in dialogue, supposedly in a mix of Paragon and Renegade choices. Roleplaying mode sounds like it will be most like the games before it.

Hudson argues that some people like to either play the game without making dialogue choices and some would like to play the game but can't get a handle on the shooting. This still doesn't make much sense. Those who don't care about the dialogue could have just blown through it like the did in the other games. As for the Story mode, who would want to play a game with shooting in it if they couldn't get the shooting down? Are there really that many people who can't just knock it down to Easy and slog through?

These changes seem strange but I can see now that they aren't really harmful to the core experience. As long as we pick the Roleplaying mode, things won't be any different. I can't really fault Bioware for doing something different even though it isn't really something that matters to a large majority of gamers.

Here's a link to the interview if you want to read it. It's got some more interesting information in it.

Game Informer Interview with Casey Hudson

House Party! Woo!

Microsoft sure likes their Xbox Live Promotion events. Every year, it seems they add a new event to sell more of their Xbox Live Arcade Games. Summer of Arcade, House Party, and the Game Feast have all become yearly things. By that fact, it wasn't too surprising to see a trailer make its way around today for the newest House Party promotion (except that it's a little early).

The games purported to be in the House Party this year from the trailer are:

- Alan Wake's American Nightmare
- Warp
- Nexuiz
- I Am Alive

Destructoid pointed out the hilarity that both Nexuiz and I Am Alive, two games with very storied histories, are both finally coming out in the same launch period. As for Warp and Alan Wake, I am intrigued by what I've seen and heard about them. This certainly doesn't seem like the best promotion Microsoft has done but I am still looking forward to the House Party.

Amy's Odd Pricing

Amy is a game coming to Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade next week. From what I've seen/read, it seems to be a mash-up of survival horror games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill and Ico's hand-holding mechanic. You have to guide a little girl around through a dangerous area while avoiding or fighting off zombies. It doesn't seem like the most original game but it seems intriguing.

I was surprised to learn yesterday that the game is coming out already, next week in fact. Even more surprising was the fact that it will be on the Xbox as well, something I hadn't ever realized in any coverage of the game. I still planned to buy it on the Playstation 3 though, mostly because I don't ever play that system. However, something about the pricing made me hesitate.

For some reason, Amy will retail for 800 Microsoft Points on XLA ($10) and $12.99 on the PSN. The articles I've read have given the conversion rate between euros and dollars as one of the reasons and said that the Xbox version would be $13 if Microsoft Points actually did values like that (only $5 increments for Points). I was frozen a bit yesterday as I tried to decide which version I'm going to get.

Today, the company has stated that they are doing a Facebook poll to ask customers what they want to pay - the original price or the lower price. Amusingly pointless as that is, I expect to see both versions to match prices when they release next week. Very odd event all around.

How Surprising, Steam is Successful

It's common knowledge that a very high percentage of gamers love Steam. They offer an expansive collection of AAA, indie (probably the best place for them even), and now free-to-play games. They have daily sales, weekend sales, midweek sales, and their huge sale events with prices that are still unbelievable at times. The framework around Steam, particularly its overlay that is on each game, is brilliantly designed. The service keeps getting better and shows no signs of stopping.

I know the complaints about Steam. It's just another form of DRM. It's a monopoly that shouldn't be allowed to continue. Even still, it is the digital PC marketplace that all others aspire to be. EA's Origin came around because of Steam and EA's belief that their own games are worthy enough for their own store. Of course, they haven't come anywhere close to knocking the titan off of its throne.

How massive is Steam? According to reports today (mine came from Destructoid), their sales have increased by 100% in the last year. That is an unbelievable number, especially today. What makes it even more unbelievable is the fact that this has happened for the past six years before that year too. Steam is the golden goose and the main reason why we can say PC gaming is far from dead.

New New XCOM Game Being Made

I really like Good Old Games. My nineties were filled with video games but only of the console variety. My parents separated and I didn't have a computer at one of their houses until I was about 13 (15 for the one I lived with most of the time). Because of this, I missed out on the "golden age" of PC gaming. Good Old Games has let me find some of these older games, at a cheap price, and in an easy format to install to my computer. It is helping me experience my gaming history.

Of course, coming from today's age of gaming with its lack of challenge and over-explained mechanics, some of these games are nearly impossible to figure out. The one thing about an old game that can drive me away is the controls, as I hate having to struggle just to play the game.

One of the most disappointing of these that I can't get into due to controls is XCOM, a strategy game regarded as one of the best of all time. Everyone who played this game when it was released loves it and the fan outcry when the new X-COM was revealed to be an FPS was immense. I've tried on several occasions to figure the game out and just can't get my brain around it.

Lucky for me, I will have a new chance to experience this series. Firaxis, the developers of the hugely popular Civilization series, has announced they are going to make a new XCOM in the style of the originals. The game promises to be a fairly faithful remake of the classic and Firaxis promises to keep most of the original systems in place.

I might be more excited than the people who have been begging for a new XCOM game for years. Finally, I might understand why the XCOM series is so well-regarded and maybe, just maybe, it will inspire me to go back and finally finish the original.

New Gaming Site On The Way

I peruse a variety of gaming sites, probably more than I really should. In this day and age, every site just seems to cover the same stories one after another, with a very slight spin on it. A few sites manage to stand out but that is definitely the exception, not the norm. I really should just visit one but they all don't really impress me.

A new site is coming and it has the potential to be something very special. Recently, Joystiq lost three editors and everyone wondered where they might end up. It turns out that they went and hired some impressive talent for a new site sponsored by Vox Media.

The name of the site or any details really haven't been announced yet but the staff has. It includes Chris Grant (seeker of the talent), Justin McElroy, Arthur Gies, and Griffin McElroy from Joystiq as well as Brian Crecente from Kotaku and a few noticeable others. These are some well-known and well-respected names and I wish these men luck with their new site. I would love a more central news site to visit, one with more of a personality (Kotaku's dirty one doesn't count)

ESA Supporting SOPA

Video games recently won a huge victory in its rights. Back in July, the Supreme Court ruled that a proposed law that would have regulated the sales and rental of computer games to minors. In doing so, they would be taking rights from games that have not been taken from any other form of media, like movies and music (these are self-regulated). It was a major step forward in protecting games.

Now, we are looking at something even worse. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) doesn't just have to do with games but with all media. If the bill passed, organizations would have the power to censor and block websites showing anything they see as a violation of their copyright. It isn't a stretch to say that this could change the face of the Internet for years to come.

The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) was a key player in the July rulings. They stood their ground and supported video games in the trial, earning them a victory in the end. Imagine my surprise when I read that they are actually supporting SOPA instead of opposing it.

I could cite the bullshit reasons they give for wanting to support it, things like "we believe in protecting copyrights" and all that. It doesn't really matter. All that matters is now they are on the wrong side. Most of the companies they represent are being dragged along with this too. It is a chilling blow to the opposition of SOPA and I hope things don't get any worse.

A Missing Feature or a Smart Decision?

I've been playing quite a bit of Star Wars: The Old Republic the last few days (I want a max-level character so I can stop playing before I have to pay for another month). As I played, I kept noticing something I hadn't seen in a long time - people looking for group (LFG) in General chat.

World of Warcraft was like that at first. There were group quests all over the place and the only way to find groups for the instances and raids were to advertise either in the General chat channel or in the Looking For Group channel. I can easily remember the days of having to search for a group yourself in these channels if you wanted to get anything accomplished, especially at max level.

Of course, World of Warcraft has evolved to the point where players don't really have to do that anymore. It now has a tool that groups people together automatically when they choose to queue for a dungeon or raid instance. It pairs characters of the same level and balances the group to succeed. It was a major innovation for the game and has even evolved to go across servers to group people.

I was a little surprised when I noticed that TOR didn't have this. The game has been in development for awhile and the design document was probably finished a long time ago but an LFG tool seemed like something Bioware might have wanted to devote some resources to. The idea of casting about for others in a chat channel seemed almost archaic.

I don't like to group much in MMO's (I hate relying on others, if I can help it) but I have done a few group quests/instances here and there. As I ran these quests, I came to realize a second thing - the groups were much chattier and livelier than I had seen from World of Warcraft in a very long time.

My belief is that LFG has ruined a lot of the social side of the game in World of Warcraft. The LFG function was a convenient thing to add to World of Warcraft but it also facilitated quick groups that didn't have to communicate at all to succeed. I can't tell you how many dungeons I've run in World of Warcraft where no one says a word. It has become the norm to simply shut up and do your job, being rewarded with loot and quest progress in exchange.

It seems the simple act of forcing players to seek out parties with a bit more work has brought back a bit of the social element that has been slowly fading from WoW for years now. It is nice to join a group and chat a little in between the groups of mobs. It isn't necessary but it's nice to hear. The lack of an LFG tool in Old Republic may be inconvenient but it sure seems to make things more entertaining.