January 25 - January 29

Section: 

Watching the NFC Championship Game last night, I was surprised and somewhat excited to see an extended Mass Effect 2 trailer nestled into that ratings critical -- and certainly hyper expensive -- 2:00 warning commercial slot. As we sat and watched, my wife looked up and said, "that looks good, but I wonder what the game actually looks like in game."

"That is in game," I replied, and at that moment I began to realize how big EA and Bioware expect Mass Effect 2 to be. While I have not always been leading the Bioware bandwagon, is there a developer putting out bigger games that consistently get attention? Assuming ME2 doesn't tank, this could be two monster hits for one company in a handful of months. Imagine, for a moment, the manpower, the effort, the diligence and the resources it would take to co-develop Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age at the same time.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Bioware may or may not be putting out the best video games on the market, but they are without question the best managed development house in the business. Being successful has a lot to do with the guys upstairs making the right decisions and keeping the ship upright and sailing straight through an endless storm. The Doctors, Ray and Greg, are up there with Valve in my opinion from a pure leadership perspective.

While Mass Effect 2 is an easy game of the week for me, I had to double check this week's release of No More Heroes 2 on the Wii. Am I crazy or did that one sneak in out of nowhere?

PC
- Blood Bowl
- Mass Effect 2

PS3
- MAG

Xbox 360
- Blood Bowl
- Mass Effect 2

Wii
- Fast Food Panic
- Marines: Modern Urban Combat
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars

DS
- Imagine: Party Planner
- Legend of Kay
- Personal Fitness For Men
- Personal Fitness For Women

PSP
- Shadow of Destiny
- TNA iMPACT!: Cross the Line

Comments

I preordered Mass Effect 2 on Steam. I was all set to go trade in games and get it for the 360 and then I played the PC version of the first game. It was so drastically improved over the janky technically borked crap of the 360 version I couldn't be bothered to go out and pick up a copy.

Another win for Steam.

I think Blood Bowl for the 360 looks interesting, if it's anything like the old Genesis Mutant League Football / Hockey games.

"It's in the game,"

FTFY

I preordered ME2 on PC a couple weeks ago and have been cranking through ME1 this past week to finish the story in preparation. I originally played ME1 on the 360 but only got about halfway through the main story (was doing every side mission I came across) before moving on to other good games. Going back and replaying it on the PC has been so enjoyable, not that the 360 version wasn't, but the small changes BioWare made to the PC version really improved the experience IMO. This time I'm skipping all secondary stuff (assignments) and sticking strictly to just the primary missions, and I'm very near the end, so I'll be wrapping it up just in time for ME2.

I'm so stoked.

If they loosen up the dialog (it was a bit stiff) and tighten up the combat (it was a bit loose) then it'll pass my Goldilocks test with flying, goldy-like colors.

Ahhh who am I kidding? I'd preordered this bad boy a year ago. I certainly hope more people see what a JV effort Dragon Age was when Mass Effect 2 hits.

*duck and cover*

MeatMan wrote:

Going back and replaying it on the PC has been so enjoyable, not that the 360 version wasn't, but the small changes BioWare made to the PC version really improved the experience IMO.

It's not even just the changes. It's the performance. A 4 year old laptop with what is now a fairly ancient videocard in it runs the PC version of Mass Effect far smoother than the 360 version ever even comes close to running, and does it at a heck of a lot higher resolution.

For me the biggest change in ME1 going from 360 to PC was the faster loading, the lack of involuntary pauses when you go faster than intended between areas, and the 'disc read errors'. In second place would be the low detail textures that the game would swap to because of the limited console memory, leading to conversations where it would have to reload (from disc) the high detail textures every time the camera looks at a different character in the conversation.

Shadow of Destiny is coming to PSP? Why was I not informed? Seriously, I would recommend that anyone who is a fan of adventure games and missed it on last-gen systems (or PC) pick it up now. It's really good.

Also, No More Heroes 2? This is the week of unexpected awesomeness.

No More Heroes 2 is the game I'm taking off tomorrow from work to play, but I can see how it would seem to come out of nowhere: there has been little or no paid advertising for it. There was an interestingly insane developer diary and some fun trailers, but I think they're relying on word-of-mouth rather than going toe-to-toe with the behemoths.

I was surprised to see Mass Effect 2 getting such prominent mainstream advertising, and I wonder how it'll work out for them. I don't kid myself about AAA gaming being mainstream after being bombarded with Call Of Duty ads, but I didn't think they expected a sci-fi RPG to sell that many. Can't wait to see how it turns out... that's preordered too, but I'll wait until the weekend to start it.

I'm more excited for Mass Effect 2 than I have been for any game in a long while. And yeah, No More Heroes 2 is already out? For some reason I thought it was still several months out.

As we sat and watched, my wife looked up and said, "that looks good, but I wonder what the game actually looks like in game."

"That is in game," I replied...

Well 'in game,' sure, but not 'of gameplay.' So I'm in accord with the spirit of the wondering. An impressive production, but one that didn't sell me much at all.

Of course, I was not the target of that ad.

This is a damn good week. Mass Effect 2 is automatic. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom looks interesting. MAG would probably be a purchase if this was a slow time of year, and I might buy Blood Bowl.

I was turned off of No More Heroes by Shawn Elliott's impressions, and my Wii is on the fritz, but I might grab that one later on.

TheCounselor wrote:

I was turned off of No More Heroes by Shawn Elliott's impressions...

Is Shawn Elliott still writing somewhere? I can't keep a bead on that guy. Love taking in his perspectives though. Where's he writing now?

Sensical wrote:

Is Shawn Elliott still writing somewhere? I can't keep a bead on that guy. Love taking in his perspectives though. Where's he writing now?

Irrational games

Both my wife and I are crazy exciteed for Mass Effect 2. Last week, I jokingly said to my wife that we should both take the Wednesday off so that we could play all day. She just looked at me dead serious and asked if I was joking, since she thought it was a great idea. Needless to say, we've both taken off this week to catch up with Commander Shepard.

your wife is AWESOME!

Seconded! Your wife is very much AWESOME!

Anyway I did pre-order No More Heroes 2, until I learned my roommate's Wii was out of commission (it's at his parent's place, I assume playing divorce-mode of New Super Mario Bro. Wii). So I just decided to cancel that pre-order and save myself the money.

So until my pre-order for Bioshock 2 comes in on the 12th, I'll be playing another Bioware game called Knights of the Old Republic. That should tide me over...hopefully...

Sensical wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

I was turned off of No More Heroes by Shawn Elliott's impressions...

Is Shawn Elliott still writing somewhere? I can't keep a bead on that guy. Love taking in his perspectives though. Where's he writing now?

He's at Irrational Games these days. His impressions that I'm referring to were back when he was a regular member of 1UP Yours.

Mass Effect will be picked up tomorrow at 9:30 am, I can't wait otherwise there's not much else I will be picking up at the moment.

Does Blood Bowl on PC have SecureROM DRM?

On Steam, it appeared to.

Kinda wanted to go ME2 on Steam, but the Amazon deal on PC for $47-$10 game credit sealed it for me from Amazon. In effect it made the game $12 cheaper for a bit of inconvenience of having to load the DVD in the drive.

By the time I got around to playing ME1 the disc requirement had been removed.

Disgusting... taking a day off from work to play a video game! No wonder the world laughs at our work ethic!

Oh what the hell, work can wait... I've got a galaxy full of aliens to sex and kill. Normandy, warm up the engines, here I come!

No More Heroes 2? Already? Is this the best January ever?

Yeah, I don't often get games at launch. Mass Effect is pre-ordered, I should get it on Friday. And that's my last 'new' game purchase for 2010.

You lucky Americans get Mass Effect 2 today while the rest of us have to wait for 3 more days. The injustice!

MannishBoy wrote:

By the time I got around to playing ME1 the disc requirement had been removed.

The disc requirement never existed on the first one. It had online authentication instead.

Also, ME2 is awesome. That is all.

Nothing for me this week - thanks!

That little guy on the Mass Effect box art reminds me of one pissed off psychodelic Ewok.

Imagine, for a moment, the manpower, the effort, the diligence and the resources it would take to co-develop Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age and The Old Republic at the same time.

Fixed to emphasize the point. Bioware is by far my favorite company. Every game they make is a Day 1 purchase for me, and I have never been disappointed in them.

TheCounselor wrote:
Sensical wrote:
TheCounselor wrote:

I was turned off of No More Heroes by Shawn Elliott's impressions...

Is Shawn Elliott still writing somewhere? I can't keep a bead on that guy. Love taking in his perspectives though. Where's he writing now?

He's at Irrational Games these days. His impressions that I'm referring to were back when he was a regular member of 1UP Yours.

He also does a semi-periodic podcast called Out of The Game, and has just started up a new one at Irrational called Irrational Behavior.

Also, follow his Twitter Account (ShawnElliot). Every link he posts is priceless.