On the Download: Mass Effect: Infiltrator

Need to a little catch-up today.  Will be putting up two posts today.  On the Download right now and a special look at the Mass Effect series much later tonight.  So without further ado, let us get into this week's On the Download.

The biggest game to release this week was BioWare's final entry in their Mass Effect series, Mass Effect 3. Coinciding with the release of BioWare's epic sci-fi RPG, EA released Mass Effect: Infiltrator, a side story in the Mass Effect universe, for the iOS.  Mass Effect: Infiltrator follows Randall Enzo, a veteran Cerberus agent who captures aliens for experiments at a secret Cerberus facility.  When the Director of the facility goes to far, Randall vows to bring down Cerberus.  Mass Effect: Infiltrator is made by IronMonkey Studios, the developers of the critically acclaimed Dead Space game for iOS, so it is much similar to that game than the Mass Effect games for the console.  Mass Effect: Infiltrator is a cover-based shooter.  You move Randall with your left thumb and control the camera with your right thumb.  You shoot at enemies by pressing on a blue reticle over them and can switch between different weapons and biotic powers on the fly.  After each battle, you gain credits and can collect intel.  You can use credits to buy new weapons, abilities, biotic powers or armour and also upgrade everything listed above.  You can use the intel to boost your Galactic Readiness Rating, which plays into Mass Effect 3, or trade it in for credits.

Since Tuesday, I have been bouncing back and forth between Mass Effect 3 and Infiltrator.  It is amazing that by playing Infiltrator I can influence Mass Effect 3 on the Xbox 360.  So far I have been very impressed with Mass Effect: Infiltrator.  It perfectly creates a third-person cover-based shooter around the limitations of the iDevice's touch controls.  Also it runs beautifully.  In the few hours I played it, it only crashed once.  Sometimes the controls get in the way of making fast precise decisions when battles get too hectic and up-close and personal, but it never got to the point of frustration.  Overall, I am enjoying my time with Mass Effect: Infiltrator and hopefully will have a review of it up in the coming weeks.  If your a Mass Effect fan and have an iDevice, make sure to pick this game up it is worth the 7 dollar price tag.

Hump Day Music: Leaving Earth

Sorry, I did not put this post up after work last night.  I got home and decided to play some Mass Effect 3.  The next thing I remember is it being 2 o'clock in the morning and I really needed to get some sleep.  It is incredible how Mass Effect 3 can just draw a person like me in for hours at a time.  I got the Collector's Edition of Mass Effect 3 on Tuesday.  Included among the art book, the special edition comic, the lithograph and N7 patch is a download for Mass Effect 3's official soundtrack.  After having to wrestle with BioWare's social site to confirm that I indeed owned the Collector's Edition of Mass Effect 3, I downloaded the beautifully orchestrated soundtrack for this epic RPG.  I have not gotten a chance to listen to the entire soundtrack yet, but the tracks I listened to are phenomenal pieces of music.

Out of all the tracks I have listened to so far, my favourite is Leaving Earth.  This beautiful track plays when Commander Shepard and the Normandy leave Earth during the Reaper invasion.  As the Normady pulls away from the Vancouver dock, Shepard watches as the child tried the help broad a crusier, which upon take-off is blown out of the sky by a Reaper.  Right there we see sadness on Shepard's face as he cannot do anything to save that innocent child and innocent population of his home, Earth from the Reapers.  It is a tragic piece that uses the piano to really hit that sombre feeling and the huge tuba blasts to emphasize the Reaper's laser blasts.  Still keeping the sombre tone, the ending of the track embues hope as it the volume rises for a bit then fades out for the end of the track.  Leaving Earth is just one example how the developer's at BioWare expertly use music to engross the player in the story and heighten their emotions.  Honestly hearing this track play while watching the corresponding scene, it was hard not to feel sad and a little useless as there is nothing at this point and time that we can do to save Earth.

Launch Station: Mass Effect 3

Here we are close to seven years since BioWare announced they were planning a trilogy of RPGs for the Xbox 360.  An announcement that was extremely ricky considering nobody knew how the game would turn out and that planned gaming trilogies such as Advent Rising plummeted before even reaching the second game.  This day is a testament to incredible men and women who work at BioWare be it in their Edmonton, Montreal or Austin studio who over the past seven years took one unique intellectual property and made it one of if not the greatest stories told in this medium that we love.  From the first time we stepped foot on Eden Prime to choosing to save either Kaiden or Ashley to all the crew mates that we may have lost in the suicide mission on the Collector's Ship to our inevitable final stand against the Reapers, it will be our personal story as our personal Commander Shepard.  There has never been a game that has done this before and there will never be a game that will ever re-create it.  Come this day, March 6th, 2012, we do not just end the fictional character Commander Shepard's journey, we end for some their five year journey with these characters and this universe.  It is the day the Earth will fall and we will fight to take it back.  It is the day the greatest trilogy in gaming comes to an end.

Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of all the storylines and decisions players have made in the two preceding games.  You play as Commander Shepard, the captain of the Normandy and the first human Spectre.  Beginning immediately after the events of Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC, Shepard has been stripped of his rank and awaiting trial on Earth.  During Shepard's trial, the Reapers, an all-powerful race of machines that's sole purpose is to wipe all sentient life off of the face of the galaxy every million years or so, invade Earth.  Caught in all the turmoil, Sheppard flees Earth in order to seek the support of all the alien civilizations in the universe to make a final stand to take back the human home world.  BioWare has added three ways to play the story, Action mode (more focused on the combat than story and RPG elements), Story mode (emphasizes story over combat and RPG elements) and RPG mode (the regular way of playing Mass Effect).  These three ways opens up the series to more gamers than just RPG fans.  For Mass Effect 3, BioWare has put an emphasis on improving the third-person combat.  There are more options for moving around the battlefield as you can easily move through cover, climb ladders, jump over gaps, sprint for short periods of time and evade enemy fire by rolling.  The edition of the omni-blade for a devastating melee attack allows you to get up close and personal with your enemies.  For the first time in the Mass Effect series, a Mass Effect game features multi-player.  This co-op multi-player is called Galaxy at War and affects your Galactic Readiness Rating, which will affect the ending of the single-player game.  The co-op multiplayer is wave defense much like Gear's of War's Horde mode with a few additions. You and up to three others have to survive 10 waves against increasingly difficult computer-controlled enemies.  During certain waves, you have to complete a special task in order to collect credits that can be used to buy other races, weapons and powers.  At the end of 10 waves, you must defend the extraction point needed to win the complete your mission.  No matter if you win or lose, you gain experience to level up your character and all the credits earned during the mission.  The multi-player is sadly online only so you cannot play split-screen with a buddy.  For Kinect owners, Mass Effect 3 allows you to issue voice commands and pick dialogue choices by reciting your line of choice.

If you have been following this blog for the last few months then you know how excited I am for Mass Effect 3.  It is my favourite franchise of this console generation and I would go as far to say it is one of the greatest pieces of Science Fiction of this generation.  My Tuesday will be dominated in my Shepard's  quest to take back Earth and indulging in all the goodness packed in the Collector's Edition of the game. If you are a hardcore gamer, I cannot recommend this game and franchise enough.  Go out pick up Mass Effect 3 and show the world that gaming is not just about shooters and sports games.

Launch Station: Street Fighter X Tekken

Here we are.  The biggest week for video games in the first quarter of 2012.  GDC is talking place in San Francisco and a huge amount of games are releasing this Tuesday.  Tomorrow will see hardcore gamers, fighting fans, RPG fans, baseball fans and gamers of all kinds flocking to their nearest EB Games, Best Buy, Future Shop or possibly Wal-Mart to pick up at least one of the games that will release tomorrow.  Personally I will be at my local EB Games when it opens at 9:30 to pick up my Mass Effect 3 Collecter's Edition.  While Mass Effect 3 is a big game, it is not what I will be previewing in today's Launch Station.  That honour goes to the biggest fighting game since Marvel vs. Capcom 3 released last year, Street Fighter X Tekken.

In the past Capcom has joined forces with the likes of Marvel, SNK and Tatsunoko to create some great fighting games.  Now Capcom has joined forces with Namco to bring together the fighters of Capcom's iconic 2D fighter, Street Fighter and Namco's iconic 3D fighter, Tekken for two games, Street Fighter X Tekken (a 2D fighter developed by Capcom) and Tekken X Street Fighter (a 3D fighter developed by Namco).  Street Fighter X Tekken releases tomorrow for consoles while nothing for Tekken X Street FIghter has been showed off yet.  Street Fighter X Tekken uses the Street Fighter IV engine meaning that all the characters and environments share the same beautiful cel-shaped aesthetic that Street Fighter IV has. Each match in Street Fighter X Tekken is a two-on-two tag match.  The first player to have one of their fighter's health be reduced to zero loses the round and the first player to win the best two out of three rounds is declared the winner.  With each match being a tag affair, you can tag between fighters on the fly, which can lead to some incredible combos and special moves.  There are two new mechanics in Street Fighter X Tekken that can change the tide of battle for some.  The first new mechanic is the Gem System, which allows players to equip up to three gems that boost different stats.  There are six types of gems that you can equip; attack, defense, speed, vitality, assist and Cross Gauge (the name for Street Fighter X Tekken's super meter).  The second new mechanic is Pandora Mode, which can only be used when one fighter on the player's team has less than 25% health remaining.  You can sacrifice that character to activate Pandora Mode, which gives the remaining fighter increased strength and infinite Cross Gauge with one catch.  That catch being that you have to defeat your opponents before Pandora Mode runs out or you die.

I have never been that great at fighting games, but I have always loved them.  While Street Fighter X Tekken has pimped my interest, I am not going to run out and buy it.  Also I am going to wait a few months or so to see if Capcom plans on releasing an updated version of the game with all the DLC characters like they did with Super Street Fighter IV and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  If you are a fighting fan that has waited years for the chance to see Ryu fight Kazuya Mishima or Chun-Li fight Nina Williams, Street Fighter X Tekken is definitely that game for you.

Bit by Bit: February 26 - March 3

Work wise, this week was busier than usual.  I picked up a few more shifts at work, which changed my planned 19 hour week into about a 30 hour work week.  Between work and blogging, I did not have much time to play games this week.  At least I will get a nice pay check that will help fund school and pay for three new games I am buying in the next month.  The first of those release this coming week in Mass Effect 3.  Like I mentioned in Hump Day Music, next week has been deemed Mass Effect week here on Silver Bit.  So I hope you all enjoy.

Game of the Week
Considering that I did not play many games this week, it is really hard to pick a Game of the Week.  Because I have to pick one, I will say Mario Kart 7 is my Game of the Week.  Between spending time racing online and playing 150cc Grand Prix solo, I spent the most of my limited free time to play Mario Kart 7.  While I was introduced to the frustrations of Mario Kart's infamous rubber band AI that actually made me rage quit a few races, it was still satisfying playing online Mario Kart.  Playing against actual people is where Mario Kart shines.  Unlike the single-player Grand Prix mode, all you are concerned about is not finishing as you receive points for every position except last place where you actually lose points.  No matter where I placed other than last, I was never upset as I could do better in the next race.  I also have to commend Nintendo on making such a robust online for Mario Kart as I have never had any problems with lag or lossing connection.  If you ever want to race me in Mario Kart 7, here is my friend code, 0774-4254-9824.

Most Anticipated Game of the Week
If I did not say my Most Anticipated Game of this Week was Mass Effect 3, I would be lying.  Tuesday cannot come soon enough as I crave to finish Commander Shepard's story and take back Earth.  Also I cannot wait to get my hands on everything I get in the Collector's Edition of the game from the art book and soundtrack to all the exclusive in-game content.  All-in-all, Tuesday why aren't you here yet?!

Video of the Week
Last week, I put Mass Effect 3's incredible CG trailer as my Video of the Week.  This week it it is the launch trailer for Mass Effect 3.  The Mass Effect 2 launch trailer was the main reason I scoured Cambridge for a Collector's Edition of that game the weekend after it launched.  While I personally think the launch trailer for Mass Effect 3 is not better than the launch trailer for Mass Effect 2, it sure as hell is a great trailer.  Using only in-game footage, BioWare again has made a trailer that rivals the best movie trailers out there.  BioWare has been building two whole games to this one huge Galactic War and I cannot wait to see how it all turns out.

First Byte: Mass Effect 3

Over a month ago, I put up a what will become a recurring article that went by the tentative name of Demo Impressions.  Looking for the audience to help me out with coming up with the final name for demo impressions articles, I got only two suggestions both from my good friend Kent Power.  As you can see by the title at the top of the screen, the new permanent title of this recurring article is First Byte.  Considering that we are just days away from the release of Mass Effect 3, today I will be giving you guys my impression on the single and multi-player demo that has been out for the past few weeks.

Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in BioWare's trilogy following Commander Shepard's fight against an all-powerful race of machines known as the Reapers, whose only goal is to wipe all sentient life off the face of the universe every millions of years.  The single-player demo for Mass Effect 3 picks up right at the end of Mass Effect 2's Arrival DLC.  Shepard has been stripped of his rank and is waiting trial on Earth while the Reapers creep ever closer to the human home world.  You are brought to the head of the Human Alliance by Admiral Anderson when everything goes to hell.  The unthinkable happens and the Reapers land on Earth.  With the Human Alliance building in shambles, Shepard and Anderson must get to the Normandy before it is too late.  Armed with a pistol and an omni-blade, Shepard and Anderson crave their way through husks and other Reaper forces as gigantic Reapers destroy the landscape around them.  The sense of scale in this opening mission is just incredible as it is very hard not to at least stop and take everything that is happening around you in.  It feels like Earth is being invaded by humongous machines.  After activating a beacon and fighting a few waves of husks, the Normandy flies into rescue you and Anderson.  Anderson decides to stay behind in order to help the human resistance, but restores Shepard's rank before parting ways.  The single-player demo picks up much later in the story as Shepard, Liara and Garrus have to help Mordin escort the only female krogan in the galaxy safely to the extraction point.  Along the way you will dispatch the attacking Cerberus soldiers on the way to the final battle of the demo against Cerberus' Atlas mech.  The single-player portion of Mass Effect 3 feels unchanged from Mass Effect 2, which is a good thing considering how great the combat was in that game.  The environments are more vertical as Shepard can now jump over gaps, climb ladders and interact with other parts of the environment in different ways.  Also the omni-blade is an amazingly powerful new melee attack that is very satisfying.

For Mass Effect fans the story is above all else, but the meat of this demo is found in the multi-player segment.  In the multi-player portion of this demo, you get to two maps to play on, one enemy to face (Cerberus) and three difficulties to chose from (gold, silver or bronze).  You choose your class, your race and appearance then you are ready to play online.  Mass Effect 3's multi-player is wave-defense mode much like Gears of War's Horde mode with a few new additions.  You and three others have to survive 10 waves against increasingly difficult computer-controlled enemies.  During certain waves, you must complete a special task in order to collect credits that can be used to buy other races, weapons and powers.  At the end of 10 waves, you must defend the extraction point needed to win the match.  No matter if you win or lose, you gain experience to level up your character.  In the final game, successfully winning matches in multi-player will affect your Galaxy Readiness rating allowing you to get the best ending.  Mass Effect 3's multi-player is not the best out there, but it is great in it's own way.  The only thing I did not personally like were the inability to play the multi-player locally as I would rather play split-screen with my brothers and other friends on the same couch as it makes communication, which is really needed to succeed in multi-player, much easier.  I know this is the necessary evil of online multi-player, but there were times when I got paired with people online who could not work as a team and it was not fun at all, so I would rather play with those I can cooperate with.  After playing through the single-player demo two times (once as male Shepard and another as female Shepard), the multi-player was kept me coming back to the Mass Effect 3 demo.  That is saying something considering I am not a big fan of online multi-player.  For those itching for next Tuesday as much as I am or not, download the Mass Effect 3 demo it is a great demo worth any gamers time.

On the Download: February 26 - March 3

This week has not been a busy week for game releases for both console and downloadable games.  Like I mentioned in the Launch Station for SSX, it is the calm before the storm.  We know there should be great games coming, but not for a couple weeks or so.  Case in point, Japan and Europe are getting these great 3DS Virtual Console games yet they have not reached the North American eShop, which is getting a little frustrating for this Nintendo 3DS owner.  We did get Metroid, which I already have thanks to the Ambassador Program, and a demo for Crush 3D this week.  I am just craving more.  So what I am trying to say is that it will not be your full-dose of downloadable goodness I like to spread every Thursday.  I do have two new released downloadable games that might be on radars of some.

Microsoft's XBLA House Party continues on with the release of Nexuiz, a fast-paced, extremely competitive arena FPS much like Unreal Tournament and Quake.  Originally a free open source game made by Alientrap Software, IllFonic has picked up the license for Nexiuz in order to bring it to XBLA, PSN and Steam.  As Nexuiz is part of the XBLA House Party, it will releasing on PSN and Steam at a later date.  Powered by the CryEngine3, Nexuiz has incredible graphics for a downloadable game, but it also features a Victorian art style that is futuristic yet still sophisticated.  Nexuiz offers players both solo and online play on nine maps with hundreds of mutators from jetpacks to low gravity to Big Head mode, which will keep each match from growing stale.  At 800 Microsoft Points, Nexuiz should be a great FPS for those who miss the days of Quake and Unreal Tournament.

It might be an unconventional name for a game, but AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! has made a name for itself on the PC.  This unique first-person jumping game has you diving off on skyscrapers, spray painting buildings and flipping off of protesters.   Now Owlchemy Labs has brought Dejobaan Games' award-winning PC game to the iOS in AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration).  AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) contains all the features of the PC iterations of the game, but with a few control tweaks to make it work on each iDevice.  You are given tilt controls to control your character while diving and touch controls for interactions with fans and protesters.  AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! (Force = Mass x Acceleration) is a universal app that will run those interested in downloading this game 3 dollars.