As a small child I dreamed of reviewing games as my full-time job. Literally, I actually had dreams about being an adult and reviewing games as a career on multiple occasions. Unlike most little boys, becoming a policeman or firefighter wasn’t even on my radar. Today, I’m still trying to achieve this goal. I’ve made tremendous progress over the last year or so and I’m lucky enough to be in the position where I can now receive review titles from a number of different publishers and video game manufacturers. Lately, I’ve been reviewing titles like crazy and it’s a dream come true. However, I’m quickly starting to realize something; playing a game… (more…)

After playing the hell out of the Mass Effect 3 demo a few weeks ago, I’ve recently started trying out other demos on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I know that several people on my Xbox Live friends list weren’t at all interested in Mass Effect 3 until they actually gave the the game’s demo a try. So, it was with that, that I decided to examine the idea of releasing a demo before a game is released, a little more closely. This is why I feel game demos are important: It lets you test out a new game When I’m on the fence about purchasing a new game and I see that… (more…)

Muzyka, listen to the fans! By: Anthony Velez  I honestly can’t say that I’m mad or angry with Mass Effect 3′s ending, but I’m definitely confused.  I felt that it left me hanging and didn’t give the franchise much closure. I’m a huge fan of the Mass Effect series.  I’ve played through Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 multiple times (and on both 360 and PS3 in the case of the latter), so as soon as I was able to pre-order Mass Effect 3, I was first in line.  When ME3 was finally released, I spent a huge chunk of time playing through the single player campaign. I haven’t really gotten into… (more…)

I never thought of gaming as an integral part of my life when I was little. I always thought of games as a means to spend spare time. Today, however, I can’t say that. Gaming has become so much more. I’m from India where gaming is a luxury, a source of entertainment that is by no means affordable. (I can somewhat blame that on culture – I am looking at you, Fallout 3 - but most of the blame goes to publishers.) Have you ever thought about gaming in Asia outside of Japan? I’m talking about developing countries such as India, China, Thailand etc. In India, gamers are generally interested in games such… (more…)

Bioware’s name is starting to sound like a dirty word in the gaming industry. The once-adored developer’s reputation has taken a double tarnishing: first by the whole From Ashes DLC fiasco and now by what many people feel is a horrible ending to the Mass Effect franchise. In some ways, I actually empathise with BioWare; I also suck at goodbyes. The only difference is that I never had to say goodbye to millions of people at once. For obvious reasons, this piece contains spoilers regarding the ending of Mass Effect 3 (ME3). If you want to experience the disaster on your own, then be sure to read this once you’re finished…. (more…)

There are moments in gaming that live on in your mind long after you have stopped playing. Below are some of the most memorable missions from the current generation that, for good or bad, will stick with many gamers for years to come. Train Ride – Uncharted 2 Somebody needs to stop a crazy warlord from getting his hands on an ancient magic that will make him invincible. Who better than all around bad-boy-with-a-good-heart, Nathan Drake? Unfortunately for Drake, one of his two hotties ends up on a train moving through the Himalayas with the crazy warlord. Drake shows up and, just like Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, gets… (more…)

Launch day DLC isn’t  new to the games industry, but with the leaked (and later officially announced) From Ashes DLC for Mass Effect 3 (ME3), many gamers have grown annoyed. Some are even calling for a boycott of Mass Effect 3 and other large Bioware titles such as Star Wars: The Old Republic. Is this outrage  justified? One point used to defend the From Ashes DLC is that consumers happily accepted launch day DLC for other Bioware titles such as Shale in Dragon Age and Zaeed in Mass Effect 2. The counter argument is that those DLCs were free to anybody who bought the games new; a clever way of cutting… (more…)

Like many gamers, I was very excited when Sony announced the PlayStation Vita at E3 2011.  I wasn’t so excited when they announced that the 3G model will be powered by AT&T, but still happy that a new Sony portable system was coming out. Once I heard about the February release date, I instantly went to Amazon to pre-order my Vita.  I figured it would be easy for me to choose between the 3G/Wifi and the Wifi-only version since I didn’t care to have 3G on my Vita.  I didn’t bank on Amazon offering a First Edition Bundle that comes with the 3G/Wifi version set to release on February 15th, a week… (more…)

When I was looking into writing this story, I started thinking about what it would be like to fight these enemies in a giant war. Survival would be my goal and surpassing these various beasts would be extremely difficult (even impossible). Here’s how I would try to take these beasts down. Dragons (Skyrim) Fighting Dragons in Skryim isn’t usually a big deal because my character is a boss like that. In real life though, this really wouldn’t be so cool. My skin’s preferred state is 98.6 degrees and being digested by a system that involves fire seems like a seriously painful way to go. And that’s if it doesn’t rip you… (more…)

Most of us are accustomed to publishers promising a release date that developers can’t always meet. In some cases, this doesn’t have too much of an impact on how a game turns out.  In other cases, rushing to meet promised release dates results in games riddled with bugs and lacking promised features. For the most part, gamers overlook a few missing features if the overall core is functional and interesting. Some of the more crafty developers then deliver the previously promised features as downloadable content. So the question is, how much better would the average game be if developers weren’t rushing to meet deadlines? The answer is this: Skyrim is… (more…)