Earlier this week Bioware announced that they would “expand” Mass Effect 3′s divisive ending with a new DLC chapter that will hopefully get the legions of angry fanboys on the internet to put down their pitchforks. In a further gesture of good will, Bioware will also be providing the game’s first multiplayer expansion, entitled the “Resurgence Pack” for free as well.
Obviously if you aren’t already at this year’s PAX East in Boston then you most likely aren’t going, if you live in the area however there are still tickets available for Sunday. But if you don’t fear not, this year’s event, at least some of it, is being streamed live through Twitch TV. So instead of reading second hand accounts on blogs or 140 character Twitter feeds, you can sit back and enjoy some of PAX East’s content directly, from the comfort of your own home. Today alone there are over 70 different events planned covering everything from competitive gaming to table top games. So far almost 3,000 people are already watching, which is impressive considering only 800 were when I started this paragraph.
It’s hard to talk about Mass Effect 3 without bringing up its mess of an ending. As I stated in my review, it’s a damn shame that ME3 managed to screw up it’s conclusion while pretty much getting everything else right, and I know I’m not the only one who feels that way. EA and Bioware are aware of fan complaints (and the personal threats and insults,) and they’re going to try to set things right this summer with the release of the “Extended Cut” free DLC pack.
Depending on who you ask, Grasshopper Manufacture head Goichi Suda (better known as Suda51,) is either an auteur worthy of celebration or simply a hack. I’m personally more inclined to agree with the former opinion; I enjoyed Killer 7′s bizarre (yet meaningful) story, and I loved No More Heroes. So I’m already pretty excited for Suda’s next assassin themed game, “Killer Is Dead,” which was just unveiled in this week’s issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu.
At least according Ben Cousins the head of ngmoco a AAA mobile studio in Sweden. Cousins also worked on free-to-play projects at Sony, EA, and DICE, so he’s speaking from experience. Earlier this year while giving a talk at GDC, Cousins outlined what he sees as the death of the modern console. He pointed to the growth of companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook who focus on social platforms and smartphones, saying that their market share is growing, rapidly, and that they are siphoning the market away from more traditional consoles. But Cousins thinks that this is due more to monetization than anything else, as most of the games developed for Apple, Google and Facebook use freemium models. Now he’s outlined how console games themselves, and how we pay for them, are also changing.
I don’t know about you, but I liked Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. A lot of hardcore Castlevania fans hate on it unfairly because of its rebooted canon and the lack of involvement from traditional series producer Koji Igarashi (who has helmed the series every since the PS1′s Symphony of the Night,) but I thought it was a well above-average action platformer, and it was easily the series’ best foray into 3D. Well, like-minded fans rejoice, because members of Lords of Shadow’s development team are hinting that a new Castlevania is just around the corner.
Sure, Sega may be in a dire financial situation right now, but it doesn’t seem like they’re letting their cash flow problems get in the way of the business of making games (at least in Japan, anyway.) Sega recently filed several new trademarks in their home country, and one of them seems to hint that there’s a new Valkyria Chronicles game in the works.
THQ isn’t the only big publisher facing a financial crisis — Sega just reported a whopping 47% drop in profits for the past fiscal year, and unfortunately, that means that the Japanese giant will have to institute some drastic cuts in its workforce. Sega also stated that they’ll have to cancel several of their upcoming titles in order to focus on becoming profitable again (translation: expect more Sonic games and not much of anything else.)
Earlier today Amazon removed the upcoming 2D action-RPG/brawler hybrid Dragon’s Crown from their website and unceremoniously cancelled all preorders for the game, leading many to believe that the game had been cancelled. Thankfully, that doesn’t appear to be the case.
Feel like buying a game this week? Well, why buy one game when you can get three! Both Amazon and Target are running a sale this week that should make frugal gamers (read: broke-ass bastards) very happy.
Masahiro Ito was the art director and monster designer for Silent Hill 2 and 3. His work on those two titles have defined the look of the series. A fan showed him some screenshots comparing the original PS2 titles he worked on with Konami’s new HD re-releases, and he was surprised at how different the game looked. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a pleasant surprise.
Telltale announced today that the first episode of their upcoming Walking Dead adventure games will be available sometime during “late April.” Telltale’s episodic adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s bleak zombie epic will retail for $5 on PSN and Steam or 400 MSP on Xbox Live Arcade.
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