Lancer1289's blog

MICROSOFT PROVES IT LISTENS!!!!!

2013-06-19T21:22:02Z

If any of you have been following the fallout from E3, many of you would know that Microsoft is under fire for its contraversial policies regarding the Xbox One. Always online, check in every 24 hours, and no used games.

I really should say was under fire.

In an announcement earlier today, Microsoft released that they are DROPPING the 24-hour check in, dropping their policies on used games, and dropping the always online requirement. According to Don Mattrick the Xbox One in terms of these areas will work just like the Xbox 360. The only required internet will be when setting up the console.

The only difference now from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One will be the required Kinect. This however, I DO NOT have a problem with.

Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/19/microsoft-reversing-xbox-one-internet-used-game-policies

Me now very happy with Microsoft and reassured that they listen to their gamers. Lancer1289 (talk) 21:22, June 19, 2013 (UTC)

All Good Things Must Come to an End

2013-02-21T18:05:44Z

This was just a little too quickly for me. With just 4 major story DLCs compared to the 5 or 6 that ME2 came out with, I feel ripped off by BioWare. There also won't be a year of DLC and that really just angers me. I understand that everything has to come to an eventual end, but with this? I can't accept that.

Mass Effect 3 was considerably lighter on the DLC compared to ME2, which is something that I don't get. I think to much development time was spend on Multiplayer. ME2 had more story, more weapons, more armor, and with ME3, we got five MP packs that no doubt diverted from SP development. I hate that. 3 Story DLCs...I don't consider that an end, I consider that a bit of a ripoff.

We haven't even had a full year of ME3 DLC and it was again a lot lighter than ME2.

Well there is my small rant about why I think this is stupid. Feel free to comment.

Fake BioWare Interview?

2013-01-06T04:15:49Z

Well I decided to check my email before heading on to a game, I found something interesting from Kotaku.

Apparently someone at gamersyndrome.com posted a fake interview with someone at BioWare. However it was quickly ID by BioWare and it has since been removed and the employee fired.

Well I found it funny.

Kotaku Article: http://kotaku.com/5969547/the-case-of-the-made+up-bioware-interview

Making Friends, or Affiliates, whatever term you want to use

2012-08-26T05:05:42Z

Perhaps it is because I'm running a club at my college and we are trying to get ourselves out there, but I've been thinking of possible wikis that we could add as our affiliates. This is nothing more than really a list, but since I can't do this by myself, I figured I'd open it up to the community to get some more ideas. The reason I'm doing this in a blog is that I really want to have rules that are more enforceable.

I know this will be a hot topic, so I'm setting these rules:

This is a place for listing possible affiliates, not ones that we will add.
No insulting users over listing what they list. It is an idea not a confirmation.
Any wiki can be listed, no restrictions. (Before doing so, please see below for more on this)
No arguing over a wiki. I will not tolerate things like Battlefield vs. Call of Duty debates here.
EVERY AND ALL site policies apply.

I reserve the right to modify these rules if new situations come up.

My Suggestions:

Battlefield
Fallout
Gears of War
Elder Scrolls

Just be warned before listing a wiki, some don't take affiliates so do a little research before hand. There is little use listing a wiki that we can't even approach. Wookieepedia, for example, doesn't take anything that isn't directly related to Star Wars and the same seems to apply to Memory Alpha. Also be aware that listing wikis that are outside Wikia's network may cause problems.

So read, comment, be respectful, and don't go overboard, or out an airlock. I don't have time to launch SAR.

Are People in Multiplayer Lacking in Intelligence?

2012-07-28T06:53:10Z

I know there have been a few things about this, but my experiences today really made me have to ask this question.

Does anyone who plays multiplayer these days have any intelligence anymore?

I am consistently encountering people who do the following things:

Don't go for objectives just keep killing
- Don't try and get to one of the four on activation/deactivation (Quads)
- Don't try and stay in the circle for escort
- Don't try and retrieve the packages, or help escort the person carrying them
- Don't even make an attempt to help with hacking/uploading (Most annoying)
- Keep killing everything EXCEPT the targets
People who don't revive squadmates even when there is no one around
People who don't try and get to downed teammates. Make an active effort
People who just run all over the map looking for something
Missile spammers, then they don't have any for when they are really needed
People who quit when they goes down, or when someone else goes down
People who don't have any idea how to use their character/class
People who don't know how to use a particular weapon
People who use medi-gel when someone is right next to them, and right after they go down
People who seem to just now know the maps or good spots to snipe/ambush/get in cover

Do you have any more stories as this is just what I could remember off of the top of my head. I'll add to it when I get more suggestions from comments or when I remember ones.

And just a personal rage moment, is anyone else completely and utterly frustrated with the store and how it seems to keep giving you equipment and guns that you never use/never will use and not give you what you want? I have bought over at the very least 60 Spectre packs since Earth was released and how many Earth Characters do I have? ZERO.

AND NO FLAME WARS ON THIS BLOG

Computer Problems 2.0

2012-06-28T16:16:32Z

Well it seems that my laptop is once again down and out. This time, I don't even know what is the problem. I'm going to be taking it in soon and seeing what the problem is, but until I know what the problem is and hope that it can be fixed, I won't be on. I might be on for an hour a day, but no more than that. I am really beginning to hate computers. I'll provide an update when I know more.

And it shut down just fine last night. Lancer1289 16:16, June 28, 2012 (UTC)

UPDATE: Well, good news and bad news. The good news that my hard drive is fine, but that's about all the good news I have.

I didn't notice it at first, but none of the lights on my laptop are not coming on, you know caps lock, number lock, even the light for the processer isn't lighting up. Even the USB ports on my computer aren't working, so what I initially thought to be a panel problem, instead turns out to be the one thing that I hoped it wasn't. The motherboard on my laptop is dead. Since it is no longer in warranty, the repair would have been ~$500, which is more than the computer was worth new two years ago. So therefore, I'm reduced to using my desktop computer, which isn't in the best of positions for regular monitoring, or regular usage for the wiki. This also puts a severe cramp on my being able to play "Star Wars: The Old Republic" with my friends.

So what happens with me. Because I won't be able to do regular monitoring, I will be forced to be here in a reduced status. For how long, I don't know, but since I currently do not have a job, the odds of me getting a new laptop soon are remote at best. I'll try an check in as often as I can, but since I can no longer use my laptop, I won't be on nearly as much and don't expect to see me on Wednesdays at all for the foreseeable future. I would often have my laptop right next to me with the wiki open while I'm on Xbox or in class, but since that is no longer an option, and I can only monitor when I'm at home, this will be a problem. Again, I'll try and be on as often as I can, but nowhere near of much as I used to be.

To top it all off, I used my laptop for all of my notes and class projects. While that isn't as big of an issue since I only have a summer course and lose only about 4 days of notes, it is still a pain in the you know where. Lancer1289 17:39, June 28, 2012 (UTC)

Update 2: After some further tinkering, I have found that the news isn't as bad as I thought, but my laptop is still completely unusable. My motherboard isn't fried, but my graphics card is, and since it is a laptop, the motherboard might as well be fried. With a laptop, by the time I get a replacement and have it installed, and since it is a laptop since I have zero idea what I'm doing, I'd be going to a professional, and by that point, the price tag would be ~$250. Which is about 2/3 the price of what the laptop was new.

However, I do have a bright spot. While I stated above that the chances of me getting a new laptop was remote, I might have been wrong. I have been doing research on on sale laptops and actually found a decent one. For what I intend to use it for, it more than fills the qualifications.

Manufacturer: HP
Processor: AMD Vision A6 Quad-Core Chipset
Graphics: AMD Radeon 6520 HD
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Memory: 4 GB (Upgradeable to 8 GB)
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Screen size: 17.3'

So here's hoping. Lancer1289 04:08, July 3, 2012 (UTC)

Update 3: Well the computer with the above specs, well I got it. Now who can name the most annoying part of getting a new computer? Lancer1289 04:58, July 6, 2012 (UTC)

Why do People Hate EA

2012-06-19T20:18:23Z

Well in the article linked below from IGN, they try and sort it out. There are bits that are serious, funny, and just plain, IMO, eyeball rolling. Anyway, they talk with EA's COO Peter Moore about it and he gives some reactions.

I just figured I should share.

Article on IGN: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/06/14/why-do-people-hate-ea

What's Up with Wikia's Search System

2012-05-16T23:56:58Z

Ok, this is getting annoying for me, so I figured I should ask around and see if others are encountering this. When you type a term in the search bar, does anyone else, even if they spelled the article correctly get taken to a search page that forces you to click on the link? For that matter, does anyone get anything like the drop down box anymore? I've noticed this in the last few days nd if this is happening to others, then please share becuase I think Wikia broke itself. Again. Lancer1289 23:56, May 16, 2012 (UTC)

Yahtzee's Review of Mass Effect 3

2012-03-27T19:15:58Z

For those of you who don't know, I fully enjoy listening to Yahtzee's review of a game every week. His rewiews of ME and ME2 were accurate and halarious. I found his review of ME3 a bit rushed, but he freely admits that he only had four days to play it, but at the same time he hit on a lot of things that I felt were lacking. There are a few jokes, and a few other things.

And he LIKES the MAKO. Well to a degree.

So watch is review, and hopefully you will find that there are points that no one can argue with.

Review Zero Puncutaion: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/5497-Mass-Effect-3

Extra Puncutation: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/extra-punctuation/9511-Mass-Effect-3-Gets-An-Ending

Why People Have Issues With ME3

2012-03-10T01:59:17Z

Now there will be things in all games, no matter how much you likes the series, that you don't like. Well GameSpot has an article about why people have issues with ME3. There are some spoilers to read at your own risk. I found it an interesting read myself.

Link: Why Do You Hate Mass Effect 3

Thoughts? Opinions? Please keep spoilers to a minimum.

Mass Effect 3 Community Launch Plan

2012-03-02T19:10:57Z

With Mass Effect 3 now under four days until release, it’s time that we inform the Community about things that will be happening.

We know some wikis lock down, whether it be for registered users, or admins only, when a new game is released to give people a chance to play it before spoilers show up. We won't be doing this. The wiki will continue to be free and open to anyone to edit. UPDATED BELOW

What this means is that we will get a lot of people making a lot of edits quickly. Because the admins, more on this in a minute, can't possibly monitor everything, we will need the Community's help to enforce site policies, directing people where to go, reporting vandals, and numerous other things. This will be a team effort so if we all work together, we will weather this storm. I'll go into detail more on each subject.

Enforcing Site Policies

Because of the massive influx of new editors, we will need help with people enforcing the site policies established in the Mass Effect Wiki:Manual of Style and Mass Effect Wiki:Community Guidelines. If you are not familiar with these policies, then please read over them and make sure you are familiar with them. The ones that will probably cause the most problems are the Language, Banning, and Spelling Policies so be on the watch for those.

Direction

This one is a bit more direct. Talk pages on this wiki are not for topics like "what did you think of this character". They are about the upkeep and specific questions about the article. Things that are "who didn't like this character" belong in the forums or a blog post because that isn't the point of talk pages. If you see a topic like this, please inform the user of that and leave it at that. Don't continue the discussion even if you want to participate. Do that in the proper place.

Dealing With Vandals

Since admins will be busy doing things, we will need the community's help to report vandals. There are numerous ways this can be done. Vandals need to be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Don't encourage the vandals. Just revert their edits, report, and if it keeps happening, then just keep doing it. Don't goad them, don't leave messages on their talk pages. Just revert, clean, report, and ignore. Repeat if necessary.

Report Vandals at the following places.

Admin talk pages
Vandalism, Spam Task Force
- Report Vandalism
- Report Spam
Other Users who have been known to help in the past
- Randomtime's talk page

Senior Editors can revert vandals quickly, and especially if they make a large amount of edits. Senior Editors here are:

Admins

Over the course of the next week, JakePT, SpartHawg948, and Lancer1289 will either be gone or here in a very reduced capacity.

UPDATED, MARCH 20, 2012

From the information that I have now,
- JakePT: Has finished the game but is on infrequently. Still can be reached by talk page and email.
- SpartHawg948: has finished the game and is usually on in the later evenings PST. Reachable via talk page and email.
- Commdor: Will be here in reduced capacity for the future due to school work. Can still be reached via talk page and email.
- Lancer1289: Completed game. I am on with some regular capacity. Reachable via talk page and email.

Spoilers

General rule, if you don't want spoilers, don't read articles. We will post information as quickly as possible so if you don't want to read them, don't go beyond the spoiler tags. Please do not ask admins to lock down talk pages or articles to deal with spoilers as we won't. Generally pages here only get locked down if there is persistent vandalism or it becomes a higher traffic page than anything else.

Don't Know How to Do Something

General rule, if you don't know how to do something, then please ask, especially with templates. No one will look down on you for it. We've had good natured edits to templates that have broken templates in the past because the person making the edit didn't know what they were doing. It is nothing against people, templates are generally tricky things and if not done right, they can blow up in people's faces.

If you are unsure of something else, ask an admin or senior editor. They all generally have the lay of the land, and will be more than happy to assist you. Just for the next week or so, please avoid giving out spoilers when you leave messages.

Help

If you have a general question, please use our Help Desk Forum. That is why it is there. Any user can respond there and is usually done within a day at most. If you need further assistance, contact one of the admins or senior editors above.

General

Again be on the lookout for vandals, and treat new users with good faith. There are cases where an edit can look like vandalism, but it can just be someone who didn't know what they were doing.

If you have the time, please clean up edits as they are made because we need proper grammar and spelling here. We don't accept texting or internet language here. Proper English Spelling and grammar. This will only help in the long run.

Give everyone time. It takes time to get used to editing a wiki, I know it took me some time when I started. Use patience in dealing with new users, even if they start to get on your nerves. However, don't tolerate harassment or insulting language. If things get out of hand, contact an admin immediately as we have zero tolerance for that here. We know discussions can get heated, but that is no excuse to start insulting others.

Wiki Lockdown

After some debate, and numerous other things, a proposal was passed to put the wiki into semi protection mode. Here's a brief FAQ of what this means.

What does this mean for you?
- Well it is quite simple. In order to edit the wiki, you must have an account and a verified email address with Wikia. When you create your account, a verification email will be sent to the email address you put into the account creation screen. Once that is verified, then you will be able to edit again.

When will the lockdown be lifted?
- The lockdown will end on Monday, April 30th at 6:25 pm UTC. Or 2:25 pm EST, 1:25 pm CST, 12:25 pm MST, and 11:25 pm PST.

Why was this done?
- The fact is that a number of edits were slipping through and also some vandalism. Because admins aren't, or can be on 24/7, the quality of many edits slipped in quality, and the sheer amount of edits, especially ones at the same time, overwhelmed what admins were online.

Is this to punish anyone?
- Short Answer: No. Long Answer: No. It was done so that quality of edits can be checked, and if necessary, adjust them. This means less work down the line and much less work in the long run.

So, good luck, have fun, and enjoy Mass Effect 3.

Edit Summaries

2012-03-01T23:45:46Z

This is becoming an increasing point of frustration for me and I'm sure for more than a few people. I've seen more and more users undo an edit, or make an edit, and leave no edit summary, and for the former it often causes problems.

I cannot see why someone can't take the time to leave a quick summary of why they are undoing an edit. I've more than my fair share of times undone undoes because I cannot understand why the edit was undone in the first place. Granted I've fat fingered more than a few summaries, but many people today are just not leaving any at all. Now for something like vandalism, it's understandable, but for undoing a revision that say improves the flow of a sentence, or improves grammar, or adds something not previously known, I can't see why someone can't leave a summary.

I don't know why it is so hard to leave a summary, and I think when someone makes an undo, when it isn't vandalism, I think that leaving a reason why, is a good idea as it prevents future conflicts.

When you make an edit, just leave some form of a summary so everyone can see your reasoning for the edit. Especially with undoes. I mean seriously, is it that hard to say "item is not trivia"?

And I can't be the only one with whom this issue has become some sort of annoyance. Lancer1289 23:45, March 1, 2012 (UTC)

Dragon Age a Game Series inside the ME Universe?

2012-02-27T23:09:00Z

As I had some free time today, I did some looking around on the internet and I found the article below. I figured you all would find this interesting, or a good laugh.

You Choose.

Are Mass Effect and Dragon Age In The Same Universe? BioWare Responds

Drew Karpyshyn Retires from BioWare

2012-02-17T18:10:24Z

Earlier this week on his Personal Blog, Drew Karpyshyn has announced that he has retired from BioWare and the Video Game Industry to focus more on writing novels. In the post he says "

“(I’ll give all you gamers a second to let that sink in. Just to be clear, the parting was completely amicable, and 100% my decision.)

For the past twelve years I’ve had the privilege to work at one of the best companies in the video game industry, side by side with the most talented and incredible group of people I’ve ever had the good fortune to know. I’ve enjoyed my time at BioWare immensely, but it’s time for me to move on."”

I feel that there are always times when you have to move on and I personally wish Mr. Karpyshyn luck in his new path. I've read a number of his other books, and they are quite good, so I have little doubt that he will be successful.

He closes his blog by saying:

“I’ll always have fond memories of BioWare, and a great appreciation for everything it meant to me. But my future is wide open, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store. (Plus, now I’ll have more time for golf.)”

Lancer1289 18:10, February 17, 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia Will Black Out in Protest of SOPA

2012-01-17T12:17:01Z

If any of you plan to visit the English Wikipedia tomorrow, well I would suggest making other arrangements. Wikipedia announced earlier today that they will black out the English Versions of their site to protest the bill attempting to make its way through the US House Judiciary Committee. Wikipedia is the first big site to make a move like this and other big name sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, and a few others, were already thinking of something similar but Wikipedia beat them to the mark.^[1]

Note: Unless noted otherwise, IP stands for Intellectual Property.

Note: Yes I am linking to Wikipedia, but it is only so you can start there, and expand as you go.

SOPA Edit

What is SOPA?^[2] Well SOPA is somewhat, and I really stress somewhat, a good idea but will end up being executed horribly. What it does is give IP holders the right to sue websites if they have material on that site that they don't want on there. PC world^[3], where the original quote on Wikipedia come from, will you can read the link but Wikipedia says this, which is quite accurate actually. "Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, such as PayPal, from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites".^[4] What this does is give the US Congress and Justice Departments the same level of Internet control as countries like Iran, China, and North Korea. This is not a joke, and nor am I kidding. This means that sites like YouTube could be blocked in the US because someone complains to the Government and sites like Google and Yahoo could be sued because they have a link in their search engines.

However it should be noted that many game companies are protesting this like EPIC Games, (makers of the Gears of War Franchise), Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sony (PS3), EA and its affiliates, and just about every other game company out there doesn’t support the bill. Microsoft, EA, and Sony originally supported the bill, but after they took a closer look at it, they withdrew their support, although they didn't make that second part as public as the first.

Just looking over the internet, it isn't that hard to find places that oppose this bill, and one of the biggest arguments against it is that it will damage the "open and free internet" that the US tries to achieve, to varying degrees. Opponents also say that is basically runs over the First Amendment’s right to free speech, will severally damage the internet because of all the blocked sites, and is nothing more or less than internet censorship. Don't believe me, look around and not just at Wikipedia, well you can't for 24 hours about 18 hours from the time this will be posted.

SOPA is a bill that cannot be allowed to pass the Committee and if it does, then it needs to die in the house. President Obama has express concerns about the bill and plans to look at it, but right now, I'm not holding my breath for that one.

PIPA Edit

That said, there is another bill trying to get through the US Senate, the PROTECT IP Act, or PIPA.^[5] This bill has already made its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and is scheduled for a vote on January 24th. PIPA is a dumbed down version of SOPA that also has just as many opponents, including Google, Wikipedia, and other major sites. Instead of blocking access to the site, PIPA will force companies like Google to disable links on its site to certain sites, and can even go so far as to block people from accessing certain sites by court order, or anyone accessing the site for that matter.

Senator Mark Udall(D) from Colorado, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee had this to say on the subject. Here.

However, even then, companies can go to the US DoJ and get a court order blocking anyone in the US from accessing the site, which is nothing more or less than what SOPA does. This bill, while not as flawed as SOPA, is also something that cannot be allowed to pass because of what it does, and what it proposes.

Both bills propose internet censorship and effectively trample over the US Constitution's right to free speech. One situation that could arise from this is if some website posted a review about a movie, with pictures, or even quotes from the movie, and the company, or anyone who holds IP right to it, says to the DoJ that it is copyright infringement, that site would end up being blocked by the DoJ to US internet readers because of that.

What does this mean for us Edit

Well opponents of both bills site sites like Wikia and Wikipedia, along with other User generated content sites like blogs, forums, or anything else, and say, with astonishing accuracy, that both bills will do nothing more or less than cripple them. We wouldn't be able to post, well do anything really without the permission of BioWare, EA, and Microsoft, who are the IP holders of the ME series. We also couldn't link to various sites, or even post one link without permission or we'd be shut down. There are a few enlightened members of Congress who see this, and the bills for what they really are, and their future impact on the internet and internet based communities. But those are currently small in number. IIRC that is.

So in a nutshell, what this would mean is basically the end of the site and the end of Wikia as we know it.

What can we do about it Edit

Well, anyone who lives in the US, or even outside for that matter, can contact their Senators and Representatives and tell them what these bills will do and ask them to not vote for it. These bills cannot get out of Congress or they will just do nothing but give the US Government the right to ignore the First Amendment, and give them the same level of internet censorship as Iran, China, and North Korea. Do we really want that? I sincerely hope your answer is no.

OPEN Edit

Or you can consider one bill that has the support of sites like Google and Yahoo, the OPEN Act, or the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act.^[6] OPEN isn't perfect either, but it is a least better than the two alternatives. What OPEN will attempt to accomplish is block the transfer of money to websites whose sole objective is pirating and counterfeiting. This is comported to SOPA and PIPA who will just block access to those sites. You lock one door, and another will open people. What is so hard to get about that? However OPEN attacks the heart of what drives the theft of IP, the money. It's all about the money. Granted, OPEN isn't perfect, far from it, but it at least is fixable, unlike the monstrosities SOPA and PIPA.

OPEN in my opinion, sets its sites more on the people and sites that cause the problem in the first place. While SOPA/PIPA just punish everyone by blocking access for a few bad apples. We all know that there will be people who counterfeit and who pirate, but if you can target their wallets, then odds are, they won't be able to say in business long.

Reception Edit

Well it's quite simple, SOPA and PIPA are supported by the Movie and Music industries, while OPEN is tentatively supported by online communities, Google and other big websites, elements of the Video Game Industry, and various elements of the Electronics industry. Or, as I like to put it, companies and industries that actually have brains. TV companies have really yet to take a side, although there are companies that support SOPA/PIPA, and some support OPEN.

What You Can Do Edit

I ask that anyone who reads this do their own research and you will come to the same conclusion that I have. Call your Senators, call your Representative, and stop them from destroying the interent and give the US government the right to censor the internet for the US Population. I haven't sent them yet, but plan to do so after I finish classes today. I meant to post this earlier, but one of my senators is in support of the bill and that appalls me.

ESA Edit

Some of you know that the ESA, or the Entertainment Software Association, as an organization, is supporting the bill, but several of its members don't. ESA members include, but are not limited to, Capcom, Crave Entertainment, Disney Interactive Studios, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Microsoft, MTV Games, Nintendo, Sega, Sony Computer Entertainment, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, and Ubisoft. Many of these select companies are speaking out against the bill, and some are getting more vocal in their opposition.

If you feel like it, contact the ESA, which represents the publishers of Video Games in the US, and voice your opinions about a bill that will directly destroy their fan base.

White House (Update) Edit

It appears that the White House has made its position clear as it opposes SOPA^[7] and PIPA^[8]. The Official White House Statement is free to read on the White House blog and basically says that the Presidency supports legislation that will work to end online piracy, but not at the expense of internet freedom. There are some reports that SOPA and PIPA will stall in the face of this opposition, but something tells me it won't for now.

Updates Edit

I will attempt to update this with more information and more links as I find them, and I will do my best to keep them unbiased, but I can’t promise that my opinion will be.

Gamasutra Article About Obama denouncing SOPA
- White House Response
Video Game Companies joining opposition, despite the fact that many are part of the Entertainment Software Association, which supports the bill.
Bungie doesn't like it either

What Wikia is Doing Edit

You are not alone. Wikia doesn't like this either and they established a wiki just for this purpose, and have a blog on Community Central for this purpose. So stand with the community at large, and oppose this bill.

Updates January, 23, 2012 Edit

Well it's been almost a week and SOPA and PIPA have hit so many barriers that they are almost dead, but they are not dead yet.

Congress Shelves Bills Edit

In the US Congress, both bills have been shelved in their respective houses, but they are both still alive. Shelved does not equal death in the US Congress. What is even more puzzling is the original proposer of SOPA, Republic Representative And Leader of the House Judicatory Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, has pulled his support for his own bill.

Congress Shelves Anti-Piracy Bills USA Today (Accessed via ABC News)
SOPA Shelved For Now Gamasutra
SOPA sponsor pulls support for bill GameSpot
Congress shelves SOPA GameSpot

ESA Edit

The ESA has backed off its support of both bills, probably because of all the bad press they got, and its members going against what the organization did. They still support anti-piracy bills, and I'm sure everyone does, just ones that don't trample all over the Constitution while they are at it.

ESA Backs off SOPA GameSpot
ESA calls for SOPA/PIPA alternatives

PIPA Edit

Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada, has postponed a vote on PIPA, originally to take place on tomorrow, not Wednesday as I said above. Reid said on twitter that "[i]n light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT IP Act". My interpretation, I won't get reelected if I push this bill any farther, so I'm going to back off of it.

Senate Delays Vote on Anti-Piracy PIPA Bill ABC News
After Protest, Congress Puts off Movie Piracy Bill Associated Press (Accessed via ABC News)

Senate majority leader postpones PIPA vote Gamasutra

What Developers Need to Know Edit

This feature on Gamasutra tells Game Developers what they need to know about the bill. However, I also see this as a great tool for everyone about the basics of SOPA, PIPA, OPEN, and their possible impacts on the internet for Americans, and the world at large. I encourage you all to read this.

My Own Personal Emails Edit

As stated above, I planned to send emails to both of my Senators, Richard Durbin-D (cosponsor of PIPA *gag*), and Mark Kirk-R. I have since received a response from Kirk, who I have just leared is now in the hospital after suffering a stroke. As expected, it was probably one that is sent to everyone who sent in something about the bill. I can't tell if he wrote it or someone on his staff, but it is nice to at least get something back. After checking, I found that the email matches what he has been saying about the bills, and that lead me to conclude that he probably wrote it, but intended it for mass response as it is somewhat general in what it says. I know that members of Congress cannot possibly respond to everyone, because that is all they would be doing.

I have yet to receive a response from Durbin, and something tells me I won't anytime soon. Strange, his office is usually better about responses.

Write to Your Congressional Reps Edit

Despite the fact both bills are shelved, they are again not dead. Please, any of you in the US, write to your reps in Congress, tell them what you think about these bills, and tell them what you think about these bills.

My Personal Stance Edit

Personally, I support what the bills were trying to do, but not in the way they were proposed. I'm sure anyone can support ending internet piracy, if that is possible, if not then deliver it a severe blow and keep hammering them, but not at the expense of our Constitutional Rights. Internet piracy is a problem, but using the real world equivalent of the banhammer is not the way to go about it. People find ways around that, we've seen it here, and pirates will be much more crafty than people here.

References Edit

Your Favorites for your Consoles...and PC too

2012-01-11T21:15:20Z

As I was thinking the other day, I think I have a topic that no one has come up with before, and I hope to generate some interest in it, or at least enough to keep conversation going for a while. As we all probably have more then one type of thing we play our games on, although you may have just PC, what I hope that people who visit this blog can do is list off their various consoles and then give their top five games for that console that they own. If you sold a game/gave it away/turned it into a Frisbee, then it doesn't count. Only games you have currently, although if you wish to make a mention to a game you previously owned, then that's fine, but it can't be part of your top five. No they don't have to be in a particular order if you don't wish, just a list of your favorite games for that console. That goes for PC too.

If you want to lump series together, then that's fine. A trend I noticed when talking with people so I'm not going to make you pick and choose. All of my 360 ones are game series. If you want to do just one of your various consoles, then that's perfectly fine as well.

Since I'm asking people to do it, I'll get it started. These are in no particular order apart from the order in which I grabbed them. I really need to reorganize my games, or at least organize them again.

Console: Sega Genesis

Sonic & Knuckles
Sonic 2
Jurassic Park
Toejam & Earl: Panic on Fuckotron
F-22 Interceptor: Advanced Tactical Fighter

Console: Nintendo 64

007 Goldeneye
Jet Force Gemini
Star Wars: Rogue Squadron
Star Fox 64
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Console: Nintendo GameCube

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron Series (II, III)
007 Nightfire
Mario Kart: Double Dash
Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
Metroid Prime

Console: Microsoft Xbox

Halo Series (CE, 2)
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Jade Empire
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Series
Brothers in Arms Series

Console: Microsoft Xbox 360

Mass Effect Series
Saints Row Series
Fallout Series (3, NV)
Rock Band Series
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Series

Console: PC

Command and Conquer Series (Excluding RA3 and C&C4)
Total War Series (Rome and Medieval haven't played Shogun)
Sins of a Solar Empire
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis
StarCraft Series

Well that's all I have. Now onto the discussion...hopefully...please?

Addendum: Also has anyone picked up their old consoles lately and played some of their old games?

2012, The Year of the RPG?

2012-01-09T18:56:35Z

Well that is what Gameinformer is calling it, and while I may disagree with some of the titles they list as RPGs, I find myself having to agree. As most of us probably know, Shooters dominated 2011, particularly the last three months with Skyrim being one of the few expectations. There were literally so many games thrown at you so quickly, that I'm sure I'm not the only one who had to pick and choose what they were going to purchase. 2011 has already been called "The Year of the Shooter" by several places, and I can't find myself coming up with an argument to say anything different.

Mass Effect 3 is just one of the several big AAA RPGs that come out this year, and what is better about this year, is that the games are more evenly spaced, somewhat, over the course of the year.

So I figured when I got my email from Gameinformer, I thought I'd share this with the rest of you.

Full article: Gameinformer: The Year Of The RPG? by Phil Kollar

My first foray into MMOs

2011-12-21T02:24:21Z

Normally, I'm the kind of person who doesn't like MMOs, seeing several of my friends become super addicted to World of Warcraft. One of them stopped eating for a few days, that didn't end well, so I was initially extremely skeptical about BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, a few of my friends showed me videos, screenshots, and whole nine yards about the game, and I couldn't resist buying it, and I've pretty much been doing that most of the day. Well after I sorted out an issue with the graphic cards on my desktop. How was I supposed to know the drivers for them were two and a half years old... Curse hard drive crashes.

Anyway, I'm not very far, still on the Jedi start world of Tython, but so far I'm quite impressed. The lag is a bit bad at times, but overall I have to say that BioWare really knew what they were doing when they created it. The worlds, characters, and well a lot of things, even on low texture quality, are still very good and I only expect it to improve as I get further along.

I'm currently playing as a Jedi Councilor and plan to go to the Shadow Specialization.

Don't worry, I will remember to eat, sleep, and other things that we as humans have to do. Like plot to take over the world...

So I'm just asking, did anyone else here pick this up, is going to pick it up, and what is their personal opinions about it. I would like that regardless of whether or not you played it.

Update: Well, it's been a while since I started playing and I have to admit, that I am quite impressed with a lot of elements within the game. The only minor complaints I have is that the people I would like to play with, aren't on as often as I would like, but hey, that's life. The graphics are really well polished, the levels are incredibly detailed, and apart from a patch hiccup last week, it’s been relatively smooth. Granted the game hasn't been out for a month yet, so things can still happen, but for now, things are quite smooth. I would recommend this game to anyone looking to pick up a BioWare game.

The reason I haven't mentioned the great stories that it provides for each of the eight classes, along with some of the interesting things for the side quests is because saying that a BioWare game has a great story, is like saying the sky is blue. BioWare games have that reputation of having epic stories, so if it doens't have one, then you can talk about it. Lancer1289 18:40, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

Update: Well it's been a short time, but the reason I come here again is because I think either people have a distinct lack of creativity, or they like things too much. I have now seen every member of the squad, from all games. Unless Wrex, T'Soni, Vega, Tali, or Kasumi were popular names in the Star Wars Universe before, I think some people just have a lack of creativity. There's a random name generator you know...

I've also seen a number of names from other franchises, Hawke, Marcus, Lone Wanderer, Master Chief (no I'm not kidding), to name a few, and a few NPC from ME as well. It is surprising the number of people who draw things from other places. Granted, I'm no wiz when it comes to names, I'm absolutely horrible at it, but even with a RNG, you think people could come up with something that's not a blatant rip off...

All that aside, what do you think? Lack of creativity? They like things to much? Or something else I haven't thought of?

2011 Spike Video Game Awards

2011-12-05T21:36:19Z

As the VGAs will be this Saturday, I feel that I should say something about ME2's one mention. In this case it is the Best DLC category, and the DLC is Arrival. Arrival's competition is up against Fallout New Vegas' Old World Blues, Mortal Combat: Freddie Krueger, and Portal 2's Peer Review. The only one I'd tolerate Arrival losing to is OWB.

In addition, there will be more information about BioWare's new game and possibly a new trailer for ME3, but I'm not certain on that last point. So I hope you are all going to watch and I will update this when more information comes out. Lancer1289 21:36, December 5, 2011 (UTC)

Correction: Mass Effect 3 is up for most anticipated game against Bioshock: Infinite, Diablo III, Halo 4, and The Last Guardian.

BioWare gets on the Multiplayer bandwagon

2011-10-10T20:45:09Z

I for one am outright infuriated, frustrated, and livid that BioWare jumped onto the multiplayer bandwagon. I'm sick and tired of just about everyone saying that for a game to considered good, it has to have multiplayer. Fallout doesn't, same thing with Dragon Age, although this will probably change, and yet they are great games. I don't care what form of multiplayer it will be, a full on combat style player, co-op, or whatever, Mass Effect was a great single player game and I see no valid reason for BioWare to abandon a pure single player game and incorporate multiplayer. The only thing that comes to mind is that they caved to peer pressure and jumped onto a wagon where they have to compete with games like Reach and Gears. This doesn't make sense to me and I doubt it ever will. Seriously, how many people bought Reach for the campaign?

Making a multiplayer aspect for a game is significantly harder than making a single player game and if I find that BioWare in any way comprised the single player aspect, or cut part of the campaign to accommodate multiplayer, or [shudder] forces us to play co-op to get the whole story, then I may seriously rethink about buying BioWare games in the future. A game doesn't have to incorporate multiplayer to be a great game, as single player games are great and really shows how much you can put into a game, IMO. Adding multiplayer in any form makes the game more complicated and forces you to compromise your single player aspect to incorporate it. Even if it completely independent of the campaign.

I personally think that BioWare has made a grave mistake and one that will come back to haunt them. I also personally think that if a game has been single player, then it switches to multiplayer all of a sudden, then something, usually the single player aspect, will get compromised, things will get cut, and players will not have the same experience if the game was just released as a single player element.

So this may have been a rant, but I'm getting sick and tired of seeing great series try and incorporate multiplayer and then botching it. Or series that rely on multiplayer to make or break their games. People, multiplayer doesn't have to be a part of your game. You can still see your game get high ratings without it. It's not a required element. I seriously think that BioWare is going to regret this decision and I think the only reason it was made was them bowing to the peer pressure from the rest of the industry. This is my opinion, so take it how you will.

As I posted this, I saw that we have co-op missions. I already made the statement above, but if we are forced to play them, i.e. no way to play them in single player, even if they aren't critical to the story, then I will be even more livid.

I again state that BioWare has made a mistake and is only bowing to peer pressure. With the new information, I firmly believe that the single player campaign has been/was compromised in some way to accommodate this and that is something that I cannot, and WILL NOT tolerate. The single player campaign is what Mass Effect is about, and every time I have seen single player games go to multiplayer in any form, then the single player aspect suffers. The only way that I can see BioWare salvaging this, IMO, is to make them playable on single player and if they are buggy, poorly constructed, or don't share the same detail as Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, and put the rest of the campaign into that one, then I will be severely disappointed and furious.

Why ruin a perfect formula? Lancer1289 20:54, October 10, 2011 (UTC)

Apparently there's already a big backlash: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/8475946/

Computer Trouble

2011-10-06T03:12:57Z

Well it seems the power supply for my laptop has called it quits. As I was setting things up to run something, I noticed that I had only 42% power left, despite the fact it was plugged it. So after doing some quick checks, I found that the power supply for my laptop, a.k.a. the chord that goes into the wall, the DC converter, or the chord from that, stopped functioning and now I need to get it replaced. Thankfully my laptop is still under warranty and it will be covered, but I do not know at this time how long I will be off. This is because I edit and monitor from my laptop for multiple reasons, one being it's portable.

I'm posting this from another computer in my house which I don't normally have use it is inconvenient for me to do so. Among other reasons.

So I'll see you all in a few hours/days. Lancer1289 03:12, October 6, 2011 (UTC)

Update: Well I have the new power cord on order, and it turns out that it was the cord that goes from the wall into the brick that was the problem. How these things happen is my guess. Until then, I will be on sporadically, probably no more than a couple of times a day. Hopefully this won't take too long, but when the new part is coming from Texas, I may not get it until next week. Sigh. Lancer1289 02:02, October 7, 2011 (UTC)

Update: The part finally arrived. What takes a week to pull the part from the warehouse, put it in a box, then ship it is beyond me. It took a week for it to arrive, and yet the last time I had something shipped from Texas it tool three days. Lancer1289 21:00, October 13, 2011 (UTC)

Wikia's Doing it Again...

2011-09-29T22:24:31Z

It seems that when it rains, it pours, literally. I've been dealing with rain on and off since Saturday. Anyway, that seems to be what Wikia is doing as well, yet another update.

But this time, they are coming out with something that I've been waiting for, an expanded Wikinavigation. FINALLY.

So what is WikiNavigation? Well it's the series of links at the top of just about every page you see. Currently they are titled, "Mass Effect Series", "Gameplay", "Universe", and "Community". Wikia said they would expand the severely restricted menu with the release of Oasis about a year ago now, and they are finally coming through with it. We will have four level one links, the same as right now, seven level two links, same as now, and up to ten level three links, meaning a grand total of 280! All I can say is that Wikia seems to be carrying through on some promises, now where's that widened content area we were also promised...? I've already suggested more Level One links and Sarah passed it along, hopefully.

Anyway they will be looking for test wikis, and I was hoping that maybe we could be one of them. What this would entail is more than likely another project to redesign our links, but this is something they seem to be doing right. At least in my opinion. Of course they've been hit with this ever since Oasis came out so take it as you will. Maybe we can even revive parts of the Old Monaco Navigation system. Hmm...ideas...

So thoughts, opinions on this one?

For more information see here: Test the Expanded Wiki Navigation.

Wikia's Next Major Blunder in the Making

2011-09-26T21:15:25Z

So yet again the Wikia staff whips out their "new feature" ideas, and yet again, they hit and miss. This time however, they miss the dartboard by such a distance, the dart lands on Pluto. How it got there, I have no idea, but that's about what going on.

So some background. The staff thinks that Facebook has the right idea, I don't know who took a hit to the head, but clearly someone did. They plan to alter the format of User talk pages to match that of Facebook. In this new format, conversations will be automatically archived after twenty (20) conversations are on the page, and you can't edit the archives, or any archives you created previously. This feature will eventually be mandatory and we will, again more than likely, not have one say in the matter. Already there has been a backlash of negative comments, and while I know the staff can't respond to every comment, they are being pretty picky about which ones to respond to. I've already left a huge comment, so maybe the staff will actually be able to read the highly negative feedback and stop before they start. They are trying to force more changes on us and just about everyone is fed up with it.

It is plainly obvious to everyone that Wikia is trying to become like Facebook and everyone clearly doesn't want that. Already more than a few people have called it a slap in the face. A few have even called this worse than Oasis, and I’m inclined to agree.

So I call on everyone to give your feedback, you've heard mine, but can anyone seriously think this is a good idea for a wiki...

Dopp calls this easy, I call it forcing pills down my throat, tying my hands, and harder to use. I don't come here for facebook but I'm open to anyone discussing something. If I want facebook, I'll go to facebook, but I don't want those features here.

Give your feedback: Communicate "Easily" with Message Wall.

Mass Effect will go on, but without Shepard

2011-08-31T12:47:22Z

In an interview with PC Gamer, Producer Michael Gamble says that Mass Effect 3 will not only end Shepard's story, but will also be the last appearance of the Commander. While BioWare don't have any plans to end the Mass Effect series according to BioWare CEO Dr. Ray Mazuka, what has been confirmed is that Mass Effect 3 will be the last appearance of Commander Shepard. I guess after what the Commander has already gone through, they deserve a break/retirement.

I figured this might be worth sharing.

PC Gamer interivew: here

GameSpot article about the interview: here

Want Diversity in Games, well Manveer Heir agrees

2011-08-09T01:00:15Z

I know this is my second blog of the day, but this is yet another thing about BioWare, and an interesting topic that I found myself reading and I thought I'd share.

Manveer Heir, a senior designer at BioWare Montreal, speaks to Gamasutra about how diversity in terms of race in games is something that can be not only intriguing, but could bring more players to the medium. You can feel free to read and comment on the interview.

I personally found it very interesting and found myself agreeing with several points. Maybe becuase I've always found choice to be a good thing, well usually.

Link: Manveer Heir talks about Diversity in Video Games

GameSpot Talks to Sam Hulick

2011-08-09T00:43:59Z

As some of you know, I'm pursuing a career in the video game industry, and I get several emails a day from various places and one of those is GameSpot. In my email today, they had a link to an interview with Same Hulick and I found it interesting because of what he did for the Mass Effect Series. For reference, I will more than likely end up with a minor in Music.

We all know Sam Hulick as one of the composers behind the magnificent soundtracks of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, the other being Jack Wall. GameSpot asked him several questions about his past, his craft, some of his other projects, and advice for future musicians. You can read the full interview in the link below. Enjoy.

Link: GameSpot interview with Sam Hulick.

BioWare Information Hacked

2011-06-20T15:43:33Z

Apparently BioWare has become the latest victim to internet hacking behind Sony, Bethesda, and Sega. While this hack affect their Neverwinter Nights forums, and people who use those forums have been notified, this also affects your related EA account. This forum post by Aaryn Flynn, the General Manager at BioWare Edmonton, and a VP at EA, linked to this at EA's support site.

Since most people here have accounts on the Forums, I figured I should pass this along. Contact information is listed on the EA site if you have additional questions.

Mac Walters Interview

2011-03-24T21:07:09Z

So just in case anyone hasn't heard, Mac Walters is giving a live interview about the ME universe. NOW.

Link to webcast

Content will cover Arrival, books, games, comics, but they won't have much on ME3 as they don't have the details.

But enjoy.

Arrival Pics and Content

2011-03-15T16:08:21Z

BioWare released another pic from Arrival today, detailing a number "304942", and a Mass Relay. I am getting more curious about what will be in this pack, and what will happen with CDN and other things. I'll be checking the BioWare Forums, the Gallery, and other places regularly for more pictures and other news, and post them when they pop up. Until then, enjoy. Yes I fianlly figured out the gallery, and no I still don't like it.

So thoughts on the new pics. And I did this is a blog post for a reason.

Video Game Art at the Smithsonian

2011-02-26T19:16:19Z

Opening Edit

Just in case any of you have missed it, from March 16, 2012 – September 30, 2012 the Smithsonian American Art Museum will exhibit Video Game art from the beginning. This even has a voting process for which games will be exhibited which is best described by the quote below from the website.

“We have organized the games into five eras, twenty gaming systems, and four genres. Simply select an era to begin and then navigate through the different systems and genres. You do not have to vote for every game on every system, and you can return to the website multiple times in order to complete your vote.”

Era 1: START!: 1970s – early 1980s. "The beginning of the home video game revolution"
Era 2: 8-BIT: early 1980s - early 1990s. "The game industry reinvents itself after a collapse in the market."
Era 3: BIT WARS!: early 1990s – mid-1990s: "When technology and artistry collide, an explosion of creativity ensues."
Era 4: TRANSITION: mid-1990s – early 2000s: "Artists move from two dimensions to three."
Era 5: NEXT GENERATION: early 2000s – Today" "The foundation for the present, and future, of video games."

I encourage you all to go and vote for your favorite games and for the best art in games. I won't list the games and categories, as there are some things that you have to find out for yourselves.

Voting will be open from February 14, 2011 to April 7, 2011 so make sure to go and vote.

Links Edit

Just be careful when you are voting as the website says "You cannot change an individual vote once you have selected it so choose carefully." So please do choose carefully. The links are below for the sites.

Voting Website: http://www.artofvideogames.org/ (You MUST register to vote)

Smithsonian American Art Museum Website: http://americanart.si.edu/

Exhibition Home Page: http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/ (Featuring the Illusive Man in his office from the Mass Effect 2 Limited Collectors' Edition Art Book. Thought it would be interesting)

Well voting on this closed on April 17, 2011, so I hope you went and voted. The winners will be announced on May 5, 2011. I'll post a link to them when they come out, but if you went an voted, then you will get notified of them before they are released to the public. Either way, I have a reason to visit DC next year.

Winners Edit

Below are the winners in (game, year) format)

Era 1: START Edit

Atari VCS Edit

Action: Pac‐Man, 1981
Adventure: Pitfall!, 1982
Target: Space Invaders, 1980
Combat/Strategy: Combat, 1977

ColecoVision Edit

Action: Donkey Kong , 1982
Adventure: Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, 1984
Target: Zaxxon, 1982
Combat/Strategy: Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator, 1983

Mattel Intellivision Edit

Action: TRON: Maze‐Atron, 1982
Adventure: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, 1982
Target: Attack of the Mutant Camels, 1983
Combat/Strategy: Utopia , 1981

Era 2: 8-BIT Edit

Commodore 64 Edit

Action: Jumpman, 1983
Adventure: The Bard's Tale III: Thief of Fate, 1988
Target: Space Invaders, 1980
Combat/Strategy: Sid Meier's Pirates!, 1987

Nintendo Entertainment System Edit

Action: Super Mario Brothers 3, 1988
Adventure: The Legend of Zelda, 1986
Target: 1943: The Battle of Midway, 1988
Combat/Strategy: Desert Commander, 1989

SEGA Master System Edit

Action: Marble Madness, 1986
Adventure: Phantasy Star, 1987
Target: After Burner, 1988
Combat/Strategy: Spy vs Spy, 1984

Era 3: BITWARS! Edit

SEGA Genesis Edit

Action: Earthworm Jim, 1994
Adventure: Phantasy Star IV, 1993
Target: Gunstar Heroes, 1993
Combat/Strategy: Dune II: Battle for Arrakis, 1994

Super Nintendo Entertainment System Edit

Action: Super Mario World , 1991
Adventure: The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, 1991 (Close Decision between three nominees)
Target: Star Fox, 1993
Combat/Strategy: SimCity, 1989

Era 4: TRANSITION Edit

DOS/Windows Edit

Action: DOOM II, 1994
Adventure: Fallout, 1997
Target: Diablo II, 2000
Combat/Strategy: StarCraft, 1998 (Went up against Command & Conquer and Uplink: Hacker Elite. Such an easy decision)

Nintendo 64 Edit

Action: Super Mario 64, 1996
Adventure: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, 1998 (So worth it. Up against Majora's Mask and Paper Mario)
Target: Goldeneye 007, 1997 (Personally voted for Star Fox, other nomoniee was PilotWings 64 which I've never heard of)
Combat/Strategy: Worms Armageddon, 1999

SEGA Dreamcast Edit

Action: Sonic Adventure, 1998
Adventure: Shenmue, 2000
Target: Rez, 2001
Combat/Strategy: ChuChu Rocket!, 1999

SEGA Saturn Edit

Action: Tomb Raider, 1996
Adventure: Panzer Dragoon Saga, 1998
Target: Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei, 1996
Combat/Strategy: SimCity 2000, 1993

Sony PlayStation Edit

Action: Metal Gear Solid, 1998
Adventure: Final Fantasy VII, 1997
Target: Einhander, 1998
Combat/Strategy: Final Fantasy Tactics, 1998

Era 5: NEXT GENERATION Edit

Microsoft XBox Edit

Action: Halo 2, 2004 (Up against Psychonauts, JSRF: Jet Set Radio, Future. Not much compotition)
Adventure: Fable, 2004 (Up against Indigo Prophecy and Shenmue II. Again not much compotition)
Target: Panzer Dragoon Orta, 2003
Combat/Strategy: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, 2002 (Sid Meier's Pirates! and Steel Battalion. SB should have won)

Microsoft XBox 360 Edit

Action: Bioshock , 2007 (Beat out Gears of War 2 and Halo 3?!!!)
Adventure: Mass Effect 2, 2010 (Beat out Oblivion?!!! and Limbo, and discussed extensively apparently)
Target: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, 2008 (Great game)
Combat/Strategy: Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II, 2006 (Beat out Halo Wars and Darwinia+)

Modern Windows Edit

Action: Portal, 2007 (If this didn't win vs. World at War and Half Life 2, then there was something wrong)
Adventure: Fallout 3, 2008 (Beat World of Warcract!!!!, and KotOR. Well at least that MMO didn't win)
Target: flOw, 2006
Combat/Strategy: Minecraft, 2010 (Beat out StarCraft II and Age of Empires 3. This was apparently close)

Nintendo GameCube Edit

Action: Metroid Prime 2: Echos, 2004
Adventure: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, 2003
Target: Star Fox™: Assault, 2005
Combat/Strategy: Pikmin 2, 2004

Nintendo Wii Edit

Action: Super Mario Galaxy 2, 2010
Adventure: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, 2006
Target: Boom Blox, 2008
Combat/Strategy: Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure, 2007

Sony PlayStation 2 Edit

Action: Shadow of the Colossus, 2005 (Beat out God of War)
Adventure: Ōkami, 2006
Target: Gradius V, 2004
Combat/Strategy: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

Sony PlayStation 3 Edit

Action: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, 2009
Adventure: Heavy Rain, 2010 (Beat out DA: Origins and Final Fantasy XIII)
Target: Flower, 2009
Combat/Strategy: Brütal Legend, 2009

Additional Games Edit

In addition, there will be games at the exhibit that people will be able to play. There will be one from each era.

Era 1: Pac-Man
Era 2: Super Mario Brothers
Era 3: The Secret of Monkey Island
Era 4: Myst
Era 5: World of Warcraft

Link to Exhibit again: Click here Winners List (PDF): Click here Link to site: Click here

Closing Edit

So if you can get to the Smithsonian, then get there because I know I will at some point. This is something that will be great and gives me an excuse to visit DC.

So enjoy.

Annual Interactive Achievement Awards

2011-02-12T19:59:14Z

Gameinformer has posted the results of the 14th annual AIAA awards produced by DICE, and Mass Effect 2 took three awards. ME2 won Game of the Year, Best Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year (Why those are in one category is something I won't figure out any time soon), and Outstanding Achievement in Story. Red Dead Redemption, ME2's chief rival took Outstanding Character Performance (John Marston), Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering, Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction, Action Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction.

Feel free to read the article and pursue the other awards and judge for yourself who should have gotten what. Frankly I think that ME2 should have also taken Art Direction and Music but apparently they disagreed.

Also I think I should note that the AIAA awards are a peer based voting system, unlike the VGAs. To quote the author Matt Bertz "These awards likely mean more to the recipients than the overproduced Spike TV festivities because they are decided by a peer-based voting system." Recievening awards from your peers, IMHO, does mean a lot more than people voting on what is popular. That is my opinion on the matter so take it as you will.

Gameinformer's Best Games of 2010

2011-02-12T07:47:54Z

1 Top 10 Heros
2 Top 10 Dorks
3 Top 10 Villains
4 Top 10 Moments
5 Top 10 Publishers
6 Top 10 Developers
7 Top 10 DLC
8 Top 10 Disappointments
9 Awards
10 Selected Games
11 Personal Opinions

In February's issue of Gameinformer, which I lost until just an hour ago, Gameinformer released its best games of 2010. I won't list all 50, but I'll list a few later. I'll break this up into sections for you all to read with some breakdowns with chosen selections.

Top 10 Heros Edit

1) John Marston - Red Dead Redemption
4) Commander Shepard
6) Noble Six - Halo Reach
7) Michael Jordan - NVA 2K11

Top 10 Dorks Edit

1) Samus Aran - Metroid: Other M
2) Michael Thornton - Alpha Protocal
5) Subject Delta - BioShock 2
6) Starkiller - Force Unleashed 2
9) Rebecca - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Top 10 Villains Edit

1) Illusive Man
2) Edgar Ross - Red Dead Redemption
4) Sarah Kerrigan - StarCraft II

Top 10 Moments Edit

1) Didn't see that Coming - Castlevania = Character twist and earth shattering revelation of sequel's setting.
2) Red Dead Denouement - At the end of the game when Marston feels like his life back on track.
6) The trip through the Omega-4 Relay - Mass Effect 2
7) Halo Reach - The Last Stand - Noble Six vs. the Covenant

Top 10 Publishers Edit

1) EA - Previous Year - 2
2) Activision - Previous Year - 5
5) Sony Computer Entertainment - Previous Year - 1
6) Microsoft Game Studios - Previous Year - 7

Top 10 Developers Edit

1) Blizzard - Previous Year - 4
2) Rockstar San Diego - Previous Year - Didn't Make List
4) BioWare - Previous Year - Didn't Make List
6) Bungie - Previous Year - Didn't Make List
7) Harmonix - Previous Year - 2

Top 10 DLC Edit

1) Borderlands - The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
2) Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare
10) Dragon Age: Origins - Darkspawn Chronicles

Top 10 Disappointments Edit

1) Studio closuers, layoffs, restructurings - The industry was hit hard and several studios closed with some layoffs all around.
2) Infinity Ward Debacle - Split after Modern Warfare 2 with a lot of behind the seens action with lawsuits and a lot of namecalling to say the least.
3) Meteroid: Other M - Bad take on a series with bad writing, badly pased, bad everyting. (Their words not mine).
4) Patch Crunch: Developers releasing patchs for big things, example given is New Vegas, and fixes after release. Now it is unreasonable to expect that they fix everything before release, but here's their words. "It's great that developers can address problems after launch, but the first few weeks fo a game's release are staring to feel more and more like a beta for which you have paid full price." (Gameinformer Magazine, Page 38, February 2011 Issus # 214)
5) Medal of Honor Taliban Fiasco - Basically EA got slammed becuase it let players play as members of the Taliban during multiplayer. (Personal Opinion: Bad timing, bad idea, why wasn't that shot down before the press got ahold of it?
6) Japanese Game Development Slump - Japanese games are baiscally about 5 years behind the west and many Japanese based companies have seen layoffs, slumping sales, bad reviews. Bascially not good news.
9) What's up with LucasArts? - Apparently LucasArts is having problems with layoffs and Haden Blackman, a verteran project lead, left in September of 2010. It has also handed over Star Wars: The Old Repbulic over to EA for publishing. Previously LucasArts had planned to publish it themselves with BioWare doing the development. Curious what is happening there.
10) Ubisoft Talent Mass Exodus - Ubisoft Montreal has lost a large group of senior developers after Assassin's Creed creative director Patrice Desilets left the stuido and a large group of people followed suit. While Gameinformer states that Montreal has a large talent pool, it is staring to dry up with more studios opening.

Awards Edit

In this section notations will be (S) for staff pick, while (R) will indicate reader pick.

Game of the Year - Red Dead Redemption (S) - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R)
Best Downloadable - Limbo (S)(R)
Best Co-op - Halo Reach (S)(R)
Best Racing - Gran Turismo 5 (S)(R)
Best Fighting - Super Street Fighter IV (S)(R)
Best Strategy - StarCraft II (S)(R)
Best Shooter - Halo Reach (S) - Black Ops (R)
Best Platformer - Super Mario Galaxy 2 (R) - Donkey Kong Conuntry Returns (S)
Best Action - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R) - Red Dead Redemption (S)
Best Puzzle - Bejeweled 3 (R) - Ilomilo (R)
Best Rhythm/Music - Rock Band 3 (R) - DJ Hero (S)
Best Competitive - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (R) - StarCraft II (S)
Best Sports - FIFA 11 (R) - MLB 2010 (S)
Best RPG - Mass Effect 2 (S)(R)
Best Xbox 360 Exclusive - Halo Reach (S)(R)
Best PS3 Exclusive - God of War III (S)(R)
Best PC Exclusive - StarCraft II (S)(R)
Best Handheld Exclusive - God of War: Ghost of Sparta (S)(R)
Best Wii Exclusive - Donkey Kong Returns (S) - Super Mario Galaxy (R)

Selected Games Edit

Mass Effect 2, Bayonetta, BioShock 2, Heavy Rain, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, God of War III, Just Cause 2, Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, Blur, Singularity, Limbo, StarCraft II, Mafia II, NHL 2011, Civilization V, Halo Reach, DJ Hero 2, Fallout: New Vegas, Rock Band 3, Black Ops.

Personal Opinions Edit

Well I can't say I'm surprised with the staff pick of GotY with RDR, but I'm surprised with the Reader Pick. I expected Black Ops to be perfectly honest. RPG doens't surprise me, nor do the split on shooters and music. However I'm surprised on the agreement on the exclusives but since I don't have a Wii I can't judge that one. I have played GoW III so I can judge that one. Some of the top 10s do surprise me, and I'm surprised ME2 isn't on the list for DLC given what else is on the list. Basically it is nice to see a lot of great games on here and some of the various names, I can't say that I'm surprised with the vast majority of choices. Overall a great list, some great games, some surprises, but overall a great article. Just noting that the main article for this issue was Skyrim, a.k.a. Elder Scrolls V.

Although the Music one for readers probably won't matter because in case none of you have heard, Activision cut off Guitar Hero and DJ Hero. There will be no more DLC songs for these games and no more releases for them. EA and Harmonix have stated that Rock Band is still going strong and they plan to keep releasing DLC songs for the series. Interesting, but that was only yesterday.

So read and enjoy.

Gamespot Releases Reader's Choices

2011-01-12T02:30:53Z

Well the editors of Gamespot had their say, now it is the reader's turn. The editors at Gamespot gave many awards to Red Dead Redemption, but there have been more than a few upsets when the readers gave their voices. Mass Effect 2 was nominated for: Best Story, Best Graphics, Artistic, Best New Character (Mordin Solus), Best Voice Acting, Most Memorable Moment (Opening Scene), Best Writing/Dialog, Best RPG, Best PC Game, Best Xbox 360 Game, Game of the Year, and two nominations for DLC packs. My comments are in (). Those are my comments so take them as you will.

Best Story: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (Much Better, although there were a few other good choices)

Best Graphics, Artistic: Editors: Kirby's Epic Yarn. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (no comment haven't played the editor pick. Although some other choices were good as well.)

Best New Character (Mordin Solus): Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Red Dead Redemption (Mordin probably wasn't the best to put up here, but a few others were also good.)

Best Voice Acting: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (RDR had good actors, but there were better ones in other nominees and in ME2.)

Most Memorable Moment (Opening Scene): Editors: Heavy Rain. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (Interesting)

Best Original Music: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Red Dead Redemption (?)

Best Writing/Dialog: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (Double and Deserved)

Best RPG: Editors: Mass Effect 2. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (Landslide IMO)

Best PC Game: Editors: StarCraft II. Readers: StarCraft II (ME2 was second, but I can't argue with this)

Best Xbox 360 Game: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: Mass Effect 2 (Just about anything was better than RDR. Although I wouldn't have argued with 3rd place Reach)

Best DLC Pack: Editors: Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx. Readers: Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Pack (Seriously just because it is zombies means it wins? Enough with Zombie anything now, it's been overdone, overused, needs to take a vacation, and needs to go away for a while. ENOUGH WITH ZOMBIES ALREADY. LotSB took second. Editors pick was third. Kasumi was fourth.)

Game of the Year: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: StarCraft II. (Can't argue with this especially when ME2 came in second. RDR was third and with over 10,000 votes less than ME2. This was deserved as RDR didn't deserve it to begin with. Also I'm a big RTS nut and have played StarCraft since it came out way back in 1997/8.)

Non ME2 Nominated Categories:

Best PS3 Game: Editors: Red Dead Redemption. Readers: God of War III (no comment haven't played God of War III)

It was nice to see Red Dead lose more than a few categories, which now that I've had a chance to play the game, it didn't deserve a lot of what it got. However it did keep a few as well, which some I can't judge. It is a good game, but there were others that were nominated in categories for various awards that were not only better, but surpassed it by miles. The game is good, don't get me wrong, but in my opinion, it isn't that great. Granted ME2 does have its flaws as well, but I believe that it is much better in categories than Red Dead is, starting with Story and Voice Acting. Red Dead is a good game, but there were things that it won that it shouldn't have because of other nominations, which were better, in my opinion of course, or games that should have been awarded that didn't.

However the one thing I can't understand is how Red Dead won Most Improved Sequel. How can you win a sequel category when you didn't even have a prequel? Red Dead is the first game like it, and very little will change my mind. This isn't a sequel to GTA, it is something new so can someone please explain to me how it won that when it had no prequel?

Overall, a few surprises, and a few awards that went where they were more deserving. Red Dead got many awards, but take a look and see for yourself and judge. Be sure to check out the Dubious awards section, more than a few interesting things in there. Feel free to comment below: Gamespot Best of 2010 Awards

The Video Game Awards

2010-12-12T00:51:02Z

Well over the course of the VGAs, in case anyone can't watch it, I'll post the various categories, games, and winners. Mass Effect 2 is up for several categories so let's hope that we can see some good news, and that impending BioWare announcement.

Game of the Year
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- God of War III
- Halo: Reach
- Mass Effect 2
- Red Dead Redemption (WINNER)
Studio of the Year
- BioWare (WINNER)
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Bungie
- Rockstar San Diego
Best Xbox 360 Game
- Alan Wake
- Fable III
- Mass Effect 2 (WINNER)
- Halo: Reach
Best PS3 Game
- God of War III (WINNER)
- Heavy Rain
- Modnation Racers
- Red Dead Redemption
Best Wii Game
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
- Kirby’s Epic Yarn
- Meteroid: Other M
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 (WINNER)
Best PC Game
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Civilization V
- Mass Effect 2
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (WINNER)
Best Handheld Game
- God of War: Ghost of Sparta (WINNER)
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
- Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
- Super Scribblenauts
Best Shooter
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- BioShock 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops (WINNER)
- Halo: Reach
Best Action Adventure Game
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (WINNER)
- God of War III
- Red Dead Redemption
- Super Mario Galaxy 2
Best RPG
- Fable III
- Fallout: New Vegas
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Mass Effect 2 (WINNER)
Best Multiplayer
- Battlefield: Bad Company 2
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- Halo: Reach (WINNER)
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Best Individual Sports Game
- EA Sports MMA
- Shaun White Skateboarding
- Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2011 (WINNER)
- UFC Undisputed 2010
Best Team Sports Game
- FIFA Soccer 2011
- Madden NFL 2011
- NBA 2011 (WINNER)
- MLB 2010: The Show
Best Driving Game
- Blur
- Modnation Racers
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (WINNER)
- Split/Second
Best Music Game
- Dance Central
- DJ Hero 2
- Def Jam Rapstar
- Rock Band III (WINNER)
Best Soundtrack
- Def Jam Rapstar
- DJ Hero 2 (WINNER)
- Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
- Rock Band 3
Best Song in a Game
- Basket Case
- Black Rain
- Far Away (WINNER)
- Goldeneye
- Won’t Back Down
- Replay/Rude Boy Mashup
Best Original Score
- Halo: Reach
- God of War III
- Mass Effect 2
- Red Dead Redemption (WINNER)
Best Graphics
- Heavy Rain
- God of War III (WINNER)
- Kirby’s Epic Yarn
- Red Dead Redemption
Best Adapted Video Game
- Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (WINNER)
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II
- Transformers: War for Cybertron
Best Performance by a Human Male
- Daniel Craig as James Bond
- Gary Oldman as Sgt. Reznov (Black Ops)
- John Cleese as Jasper (Fable III)
- Martin Sheen as the Illusive Man (Do I really need to say it)
- Nathan Fillon as Sgt. Edward Buck (Reach)
- Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker (Spider Man) (WINNER)
- Sam Worthington as Alex Mason (Black Ops)
Best Performance by a Human Female
- Dame Judi Dench as M
- Danica Patrick as herself (Blur)
- Felicia Day as Veronica (New Vegas)
- Jennifer Hale as Female Commander Shepard (Do I really need to say it)
- Kristen Bell as Lucy Stillman (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood)
- Tracia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II) (WINNER)
- Yonne Strahovski as Miranda Lawson (Do I really need to say it)
Best Downloadable Game
- Costume Quest (WINNER)
- Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
- Monday Night Combat
- Scott Pilgram vs. The World: The Game
Best DLC
- Bioshock II: Minerva’s Den
- Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
- Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker
- Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (WINNER)
Best Independent Game
- Joe Danger
- Limbo (WINNER)
- Super Meat Boy
- The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Most Anticipated Game
- Gears of War III
- Portal II (WINNER)
- Batman: Arham City
- Bioshock: Infinate
Character of the Year
- Ezio (Assassin's Creed)
- John Marston (Red Dead)
- Kratos (God War III)
- Sgt. Woods (Black Ops) (WINNER)

So Let us see what happens

From Double Didgets to Number Two!

2010-12-04T06:46:56Z

Well some of you may remember the blogs about Gameinformer's top 30 characters in a decade, well they hosted a new poll, and this time, the readers got to give their voice. And here are some of the results. There were over 70,000 votes cast for this poll, and me being one of those. How this poll worked is you voted for your favorite characters and they were given points based on your vote. However you only could pick 10 characters, and from point values 1-10. So here are some of my selected ones.

There are SPOILERS for the other blogs if you keep reading. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

1). Coming in at Number one with 19,434 points is of little surprise to me: John-117, a.k.a. the Master Chief from the Halo Series.

2). Coming in right on the Chief's heels at number two with 17,882 points is our own Commander Shepard. This is actually a little surprising considering the others that were listed.

6). With 14,329 votes in slot number six with 14,329 points is John Marston from Red Dead Redemption. Ok now I really need to get this game.

7). Carving out at number seven with 11,173 points is the number one character picked by the staff at Gameinformer: GLaDOS from Portal.

8). Following behind GLaDOS at number eight with 10,441 points is Captain John Price from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Interesting.

10). Falling in at number ten with 10,071 points is the leader of Delta Squad: Marcus Fenix. Well he is the leader after Kim gets killed by RAAM.

14). At number fourteen with 6,278 points is Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV.

17). At number seventeen is Galen Marek a.k.a. Starkiller from The Force Unleashed. Starkiller managed to nab 5,219 points.

18). Just behind him is everyone's favorite assassin droid from KotOR and KotOR II. Yes at number eighteen is HK-47 who accumulated 5,127 points.

25). Following further down the charts is Marcus' squadmate Dominic Santiago. He managed to get just shy of 4,000 with 3,998 points. Dominic falls in behind at number twenty-five.

27). Dropping ten slots from his previous position is our ruthless, human-centric Leader of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. He somehow managed to accumulate just 3,780 points. Still he's on the list and that makes two lists that Mass Effect has not just one, but two characters on. Go BioWare and Mass Effect.

So an interesting list, but I'm not done yet. There was also a field where people could write in a character if they didn't find one they liked. The winners there are:

At number one for the write in is: Isaac Clarke from Dead Space.
At number two is Sackboy from Little Big Planet
And at number three is that fallen and possibly redeemed Jedi Knight you take control of in BioWare's KotOR, Revan. It is an RPG after all.

So there you have it, well here's the link for the full article. Enjoy.

Defining a Decade

2010-11-17T23:08:00Z

With Gameinformer's most recent edition, there is an article that is called "The 30 Characters who Defined a Decade". The December issue of the magazine had three different covers, covering the characters from fantasy (God of War), scifi (Mass Effect), and historical type games (Assassin's Creed). So who made the covers and the list?

Well I don't want to get around, but the scifi cover features our favorite protagonist, and a certain reclusive tycoon. So where did these two people fall, and a few others that I chose. Hey, it's my blog after all.

Falling in at Number Four is everyone's favorite SPARTAN-II, John-117. I little higher than I would have thought, but this is my blog after all. Personally I would have thought 6, but that's me.

Falling in at Number Nine is that usurper from Fereldan, Loghain Mac Tir. I really didn't think he'd make the list, but that's me.

Falling in at Number Twelve is our own Commander Shepard. Personally a little lower than I thought. Single digits is where I thought Shepard would fall, but unfortunately I guessed wrong.

Coming in at Number Fourteen is a certain assassin droid from another series. That's right, it's HK-47 from KotOR and KotOR II. He's actually about where I'd expect, somewhere in the 14-17 range.

Near the back is our favorite businessman/tycoon/pro-human, a.k.a. the Leader of Cerberus, the Illusive Man. to be honest I didn't expect he'd get on the list, but I guess we all can be surprised.

As for who is number one, well I won't spoil it, but I'm sure someone will. The only clue I'll give is that it from a game that received very little criticism.

There is a few other things that are listed like 5 characters who have Sytle over Substance, one is Isaac from Dead Space and another is Bayonetta. Another is some characters who are good for a laugh like Claptrap (Borderlands) and Sheogorath (Oblivion: Shivering Isles Expansion). Places to remember include Rapture (BioShock), the Capital Wasteland (Fallout 3), and Renaissance Italy (Assassin's Creed II).

Well I hope you all find this interesting. I'm only mad that I got the fantasy cover rather than the scifi cover. Oh well, but Gameinformer is making a lithograph of all three covers because they flow quite nicely when put side to side. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Also featured is some of "The Best Storytellers of the Decade". Listed is Drew Karpyshyn along with the writers for Uncharted, Amy Hennig, Patrice Desilets and Corey May, Assassin's Creed series, Ken Levine, System Shock and BioShock, and Dan Houser, GTA series.

Mass Effect, RPGs, and Gameinformer

2010-10-20T17:04:10Z

In the most recent edition of Gameinformer magazine there are a few good things I think I should share. First on pages 28-29, they provide a timeline of the ME universe from start to current, as of a few weeks ago. Entitled Charting Mass Effect's Fiction the article provides a brief overview of the books, games, and some of the DLC packs, without giving away any spoilers. The article is only a two page spread, but it does a good job of providing some basic background of the ME universe. Credits go to Andrew Reiner and BioWare's Mass Effect team. Specifically it covers, in order from one to fourteen: Mass Effect: Revelation, Mass Effect, Bring Down the Sky, Mass Effect: Ascension, Mass Effect Galaxy, Mass Effect: Redemption, Mass Effect 2, Zaeed - The Price of Revenge, Kasumi - Stolen Memory, Normandy Crash Site, Firewalker Pack, Overlord, Lair of the Shadow Broker, and ending with Mass Effect: Retribution.

The Second article, well also a two page spread is right before that, on 26-27, is a flow chart of Every RPG Ever which is also the title of the article. It is a good article that is also quite humorous. However I do have to say that it does seem to describe quite a few of the standard trends in RPGs, but you'll get a laugh out of it. For this article, the credits go to Joe Juba.

Overall two good two-page spreads that while only a small part of the recent issue, which covers many games including the cover for Resistance 3. I'd recommend picking up this issue of Gameinformer, issue #211, for quite a few reasons, but I figured I’d share this. Currently there are no links for the article up on its website, otherwise I'd provide them.

Beta Wrap Up Post

2010-10-05T22:18:03Z

Well Wikia's beta period comes to an end today as the new skin starts to be rolled out tomorrow October 6. In a new blog by Susan Taylor, Beta Wrap-Up, she outlines what was changed, what wasn't, and provides some details.

She states at the bottom that "[w]e realize that there is some strong feedback about some features that have not been modified, like fixed width. Though feedback is one way to assess the product, there are many other pieces of this puzzle, such as organic site usage and feedback by the entire user base. This is a work in progress. Over the coming months these factors will give us more insight into the success of the changes we’ve made." What this means is anyone's guess at this point. However I'll leave you all free to comment here or there, but considering what is happening, I figured that this should be posted. There are still a great many things that I have problems with, but apparently nothing will be done about it before the release. So I'll hold out hope that Wikia will maybe actually listen and change things as this process continues.

In this User's opinion, it isn't enough, but hey, that's me.

More information about the new skin

2010-10-01T01:35:33Z

Susan Taylor has posted a new blog at Community Central that explains some of the reasoing behind some of the changes that are being made to Wikia, and also why Monaso will not continued to be supported. They also address on how it seems that the Staff has been ignoring the community with the recent blog. You can read all the information and decide for yourself on how much this answers your questions, if you still have any, and you can judge it for yourself.

Blog at Community Central: Fixed Width, Sidebar, and the Removal of Monaco

Wikia's New Skin, the countdown begins

2010-09-28T20:11:47Z

Wikia has released a tentative schedule for the release of the new skin, and say that the end of the public and private beta will end soon. Basically we have only about 5 weeks left to enjoy the Monaco skin. Sannse posted it on her blog here. The new skin, which is still a piece of junk IMHO, will start to be implemented in the coming weeks with October 20, 2010 being the official implantation date for the new skin. After that, users will still have the option to edit in Monaco, but that option will go away on November 3, 2010, so just over 5 weeks to enjoy the useful and frankly much better skin. You can see the full schedule along with update on the blog linked above.

In my opinion, Wikia is making a terrible mistake and will lead to many people leaving. I won't go anywhere, but I'll still hate the new skin.

Oh and about how long the "beta" lasted, just about one week. That isn't a lot of time to gather comments and act on them, no matter what you are doing.

And it finally Happened....

2010-09-20T04:11:04Z

Well something I though wouldn't happen, happened. My Xbox 360 which has served me so well over the last two and a half years, finally came down with the RRoD syndrome. I guess I'll be playing on the PC for a while then. Curses as my best games are on the 360 as well as all my DLC. This couldn't have come at a worse time because Reach just came out and there are many games in the next month that I want to get. It was working so well too but at least the repair is free.

At least I still have my desktop, my Xbox (original), and my GameCube to keep me busy, but I still miss out on playing Reach and a lot of other things. Now I am really considering buying a PS3 after Christmas.

Update: According to UPS, my Xbox 360 has arrived at Microsoft's Repair Center in Mesquite, Texas. 03:57, September 24, 2010 (UTC)

Update 2: According to Xbox Support, the repairs to my Xbox have been completed, I guess that was a quick 2-3 weeks wasn't it. 13:48, September 27, 2010 (UTC)

Update 3: According to UPS, by 360 is finally on its way back and I should have it by Wednesday. Don't know what took so long. 04:29, October 3, 2010 (UTC)

Final Update: My Xbox is finally back.

And everything works out

2010-07-08T19:05:31Z

Well my morning was very interesting, and this is my first blog.

Anyway my problem today, I wake up at 11:50 am. Not a big problem, who would say no to more sleep, but I slept through four alarms, that or I don't remember turning them off. Now I have class at 9:30 am. So again not a big problem becuase one day of a college class missed, not the big of a deal right?

WRONG becuase I had a paper due today that is worth 50% of my final grade. So my paper is late, and I don't even have it printed becuase the problem was my printer decided to act up last night. So I set my alarms to wake me up early so I could get it done, but again I either slept through them or turned them all off without remembering it. By the time I have everthing together, it is 12:30, and I know my Professor will be there until 1:00pm. Again not a big problem right?

WRONG AGAIN. It takes me on average 30 mintues to get to school so that IS a problem. However somehow, and I don't know how, I mamaged to get to school in 17 minutes. I get to my Professor's office, and he is sitting there, thankfully, and I just hand my paper in. He says that it is OK becuase I managed to get it in before he left. I'm standing there, dumbstruck, but thankful that I don't get the letter grade marked off because I was late.

So I guess in the end, everything worked out. My paper is in, and I don't get the letter grade knocked off.

Update: I got my paper back today, and I think an A is well worth the effort and chaos I went through

Lancer1289's blog

MICROSOFT PROVES IT LISTENS!!!!!

All Good Things Must Come to an End

Fake BioWare Interview?

Making Friends, or Affiliates, whatever term you want to use

Are People in Multiplayer Lacking in Intelligence?

Computer Problems 2.0

Why do People Hate EA

What's Up with Wikia's Search System

Yahtzee's Review of Mass Effect 3

Why People Have Issues With ME3

Mass Effect 3 Community Launch Plan

Edit Summaries

Dragon Age a Game Series inside the ME Universe?

Drew Karpyshyn Retires from BioWare

Wikipedia Will Black Out in Protest of SOPA

Contents

SOPA Edit

PIPA Edit

What does this mean for us Edit

What can we do about it Edit

OPEN Edit

Reception Edit

What You Can Do Edit

ESA Edit

White House (Update) Edit

Updates Edit

What Wikia is Doing Edit

Updates January, 23, 2012 Edit

Congress Shelves Bills Edit

ESA Edit

PIPA Edit

What Developers Need to Know Edit

My Own Personal Emails Edit

Write to Your Congressional Reps Edit

My Personal Stance Edit

References Edit

Your Favorites for your Consoles...and PC too

2012, The Year of the RPG?

My first foray into MMOs

2011 Spike Video Game Awards

BioWare gets on the Multiplayer bandwagon

Computer Trouble

Wikia's Doing it Again...

Wikia's Next Major Blunder in the Making

Mass Effect will go on, but without Shepard

Want Diversity in Games, well Manveer Heir agrees

GameSpot Talks to Sam Hulick

BioWare Information Hacked

Mac Walters Interview

Arrival Pics and Content

Video Game Art at the Smithsonian

Contents

Opening Edit

Links Edit

Winners Edit

Era 1: START Edit

Atari VCS Edit

ColecoVision Edit

Mattel Intellivision Edit

Era 2: 8-BIT Edit

Commodore 64 Edit

Nintendo Entertainment System Edit

SEGA Master System Edit

Era 3: BITWARS! Edit

SEGA Genesis Edit

Super Nintendo Entertainment System Edit

Era 4: TRANSITION Edit

DOS/Windows Edit

Nintendo 64 Edit

SEGA Dreamcast Edit

SEGA Saturn Edit

Sony PlayStation Edit

Era 5: NEXT GENERATION Edit

Microsoft XBox Edit

Microsoft XBox 360 Edit

Modern Windows Edit

Nintendo GameCube Edit

Nintendo Wii Edit

Sony PlayStation 2 Edit