EA Replies to Anti-LGBT Letters

Next to the debacle surrounding the ending of Mass Effect 3, EA have to deal with a large slice of gamers who are outraged at the inclusion of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender for those who are unaware) content in Mass Effect 3 and their other games too. This outrage led to users submitting 0/10 reviews on sites like Metacritic and campaigns forming to swamp EA in letters of idiocy.

Well EA have spoken out in response to all the letters, and it’s nice to see that they aren’t backing down on their stance. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Jeff Brown – EA’s VP of corporate communication -expressed the companies opinion on the “several thousands” of letters they received on the matter.

“Every one of EA’s games includes ESRB content descriptors so it’s hard to believe anyone is surprised by the content. This isn’t about protecting children, it’s about political harassment,” said Brown

The letters appear to be directed at EAs board of directors, the creative teams and really anybody who’s at a high level. Nearly every letter calls for a boycott to the company if they continue to produce games featuring LGBT content. Many letters also claim that EA were forced into including LGBT content by LGBT groups across the world – which in turn would be forced upon children, exposing them to LGBT themes.

Of course, you understand that that is all absolute phooey, partly because Mass Effect 3 and Star Wars: The Old Republic (another game getting slack for it’s content) aren’t games for children to be playing. Also the LGBT situations are a choice that the player can opt out of if they don’t wish to pursue it, you’re an adult, nobody’s forcing you into doing anything. Some users also claim that EA are deleting posts against the inclusion of LGBT content, and saying EA are trying to skirt around from the issue – in response Brown had this to say:

“EA has not been pressured by any groups to include LGBT characters in our games. However, we have met with LBGT groups and sponsored industry forums to discuss content and harassment of players in online forums. In short, we do put options for same-sex relationships in our games; we don’t tolerate hate speech on our forums,”

On the whole though, this whole debacle has increased support towards EA and their firm stance on the inclusion of LGBT content in their games. It shows a surprisingly, and refreshingly, progressive attitude in an industry that is largely conservative with it’s IPs. Speaking to GamesIndustry, Director of Communications at Human Rights Campaign, Michael Cole-Schwartz weighed in on the matter saying:

“those of us who work toward LGBT equality are pleased with the fair-minded stance EA’s taken. EA should be commended for their inclusive approach that reflects the diversity of our communities.”

HRC are also in the process of organising a petition to show EA that “the majority of fair-minded Americans who welcome their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender family and friends,” support the inclusion of LGBT content – in hope it encourages more developers to follow suit.

“It’s important that companies know these protests represent a fringe interest,” Cole-Schwartz added.

How do you feel about the issue? Sound of in the forums and the comments below!

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Blast From The Past: The Sims

For Blast from the Past this week, we’re going back to the turn of the millennium, and the release of The Sims. The Sims was a game designed and created by Will Wright, Co-founder of Maxis. Owned by EA at the time, it was shunned by the Maxis board of directors, and EA decided it would be a good way to slot them further into the gaming market. Wright had had the idea of a virtual dollhouse in his head for a while, but due to the unorthodox nature of the idea he was worried it would be difficult to sell.However, it was created, and the series eventually went on to earn EA over $1Billion dollars. It was an astounding success.

Now, let’s go over some of the gameplay. The idea behind The Sims is that you control a character on his or her way through life. You create a character in the image you desire, changing the hair colour, clothing and personality, and then you move them in. You have complete freedom as to what to do with your character, and, unlike many other games, you can’t lose.

The game has a few key features to give you information about your character. There’s the happiness bar, that lets you know how happy your character is and what they need to work on, the friends list, the skills list and the job list. The Happiness bar is a summary bar, made up of varying levels of green and red. The more green in your happiness bar, the happier your character is. Your happiness is based on hygiene, hunger, comfort, socialising, having fun and sleeping. If your character is severely deprived of something, they will become unhappy very quickly. The friends list is just that, a list of all your Sim’s friends. You start off with none, but in the friendly Sim world, people with often wander around to say hello, so making friends isn’t difficult. The skills bar is a list of skills your character has/needs. In order to progress through certain career paths, you need to train your Sim in certain characteristics. These characteristics include Charisma, Creative, Cooking, Logic, Mechanics and Body. Charisma is how well you talk to people, cooking is useful for preparing meals, Creative allows you to improvise on guitars or paint pictures to sell, Logic defines how your character thinks, Mechanics is how your character repairs and fixes things and body is how fit your character is. Obviously, each of these is rather different, so each has advantages for specific job lines. For some careers, you will need to have a certain level in some skills in order to get a promotion. Your job list gives you details of your current job, your current pay, your working times and how well you’re doing. Remember, your character must be happy to get promoted.

A Sim on a Treadmill... Failing

Improving your skill set is easy, but can be expensive. A simple easel will help creative for a small fee, whilst the treadmill for your body workout costs considerably more. But no worry, go to work regularly, save up and you can afford it in no time.

The beauty of The Sims is that it is almost endlessly adaptable. You can tweak the house in a way you like, get your Sim to a suitable level, get them through their job and make them successful. And this can lead to some interesting anecdotes.

When playing the game once, we managed to get our Sim very close to a female friend, and my Sim married her and they had a child. When our Sim was at work, the new wife managed to set fire to our cooker – this then set fire to most of the kitchen. The fire brigade came and put the fire out, before consoling the suitably shaky woman and leaving. In this time, the baby started crying, but the hysterical mother had been too pre-occupied, so a social worker came and took it away, saying we weren’t able to look after it. This was a rather bad day as far as things go, but it gets worse. Whilst our Sim and his wife were sleeping, a burglar came into the house and managed to get away with the TV, the Sofa and many of the appliances that survived the kitchen fire, all without disturbing the burglar alarm that had been situated in the main hallway by the front door. Our Sims had obviously had a rubbish day, but we managed to make them happy rather quickly in the days that followed.

A Fire... Surely one of them could have put it out?

Something you can in the game is do a bit of designing. Admittedly, you can use a cheeky cheat to get the cash, but then you can spend the best part of an afternoon making yourself a mansion, with all of the appliances you could ever need need. A living room with enough space to hold a party for the entire town, a room full of skills equipment, a giant bedroom with an equally big balcony – complete with barbeque and dining table. All of this was garnished with an expensive touch of class: mahogany wood in the kitchen, hot tub in the bathroom and a swimming pool in the garden.

The Sims was created to be a computer based sandbox, where there is no right or wrong way to do anything. This is why it appealed to such a wide audience, and why its creator is listed in IGNs top 10 game creators of all time.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Gaming Gods: Will Wright

For Gaming Gods this week, I’m going to go across the pond from the UK to the states for American Born Game designer William Ralph Wright, creator of the marvelled Sim series. Wright was born on January 20^th 1960 in Atlanta, Georgia, to English, French, Italian and Native American descent.

Will Wright

After graduating from Episcopal High School at 16 he enrolled in Louisiana State University, transferring 2 years later to Louisiana Tech. Beginning with a start at an Architecture degree, followed by engineering, he eventually fell into computers and robotics. He excelled in subjects he was interested in – Architecture, economics, mechanical engineering, and military history – but was held back by impractical goals such as language arts. After another 2 years at Louisiana tech he moved to The New School in Manhattan in 1980. He lived in an apartment over Balducci’s in Greenwich Village, and spent his spare time searching for spare parts in local electronics surplus stores. After 1 year at the New School Wright returned to Baton Rouge without his degree, concluding 5 years of collegiate studying.

During a summer break from college, Wright met his first wife-to-be Joell Jones, an artist living in California, on vacation to her hometown of Baton Rouge. In an interview published in February 2003, Wright claims that games were absorbing so much of his time that he deemed making games to be a suitable way to go forward. Wright’s first game was the Helicopter action game Raid on Bungeling Bay (1984) for the Commodore 64.

SimCity Gameplay

Wright found that he had more fun creating levels with his level editor for Raid on Bungeling bay than he had while actually playing the game. He created a new game that would later evolve into SimCity, but he had trouble finding a publisher. The structuralist dynamics of the game were part inspired by the work of the 2 architectural and urban theorists Christopher Alexander and Jay Forrester.

In 1986 he met Jeff Braun, an investor interested in entering the computer game industry, at what Wright calls ‘the world’s most important pizza party’. Together they formed Maxis the next year in Orinda, California. SimCity (1989) was a hit and has been credited as one of the most influential computer games ever made. Wright Himself has been widely featured in several computer Magazines – Particularly PC Gamer, which has listed Wright in its annual ‘Game Gods’ feature (no connection).

Following the success of Sim City, Wright went on to design Sim Earth (1990) and Sim Ant (1991). He co-designed SimCity 2000, (1993) with Fred Haslam, and in the meantime Maxis produced more ‘Sim’ titles. Wright’s next game was SimCopter (1996). Although none of these games were as successful as SimCity, they further cemented Wright’s reputation as a designer of ‘software toys’ – games that cannot be won or lost. In 1992 Wright and his family moved to Orinda, California.

MAXIS Logo

Maxis went public in 1995 with revenue of US $38million. The stock reached $50 a share and then dropped as Maxis posted a loss. Electronic Arts bought Maxis in June 1997. Wright had been thinking about making a virtual doll house ever since the early 1990s, similar to SimCity but focused on individual people. Originally conceived as an architectural design game called ‘Home Tactics’ Wright’s idea changed when someone suggested the player could be rated on the quality of life experiences by the home owners. It was difficult idea to sell to EA, because 40% of Maxis’ staff had already been laid off.

When Wright took the idea to the Maxis board of directors, Jeff Braun says, ‘the board looked at The Sims and said “What is this? He wants an interactive toy house? The guy is out of his mind.”‘ Doll Houses were for girls, and girls didn’t play video games. Maxis gave little support or financing for the game, but EA were more enthusiastic. Wright’s games are so different from EAs other released that was hard to imagine the 2 being united in the same enterprise. But the success of SimCity had already established Sim as a strong brand, and EA, which by then, 15 years after it’s founding, was becoming a Proctor and Gamble-style Brand-management company, foresaw the possibility of building the Sim franchise.

EA established The Sims I February 2000, and it became Wright’s biggest success yet. It eventually surpassed Myst as the best-selling computer game of all time and spawned numerous expansion packs and other games. He designed a Massively Multiplayer version of the game called The Sims Online, which as not as popular as the original. By November 2006, The Sims franchise had earned EA more than a billion Dollars.

Spore Cover Art

In a presentation at the Game Developers Conference on March 11^th, 2005, Wright announced his latest game, Spore. He used the current work on this game to demonstrate methods that can be used to reduce the amount of content that needs to be created by the Game developers. Wright hopes to inspire others to take risks in game creation.

Throughout his career Wright was given many awards. He received the lifetime Achievement award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2001. In 2002 he became the 5^th person to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. Until 2006 he was the only person to have been honoured this way by both of these industry organisations. In 2007 he was awarded a fellowship by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. This was the first time this award was given to a Video Game designer.

I think it’s plain to tell that Will Wright is an immensely influential Game Designer. He created one of the most well-known and most popular games franchises of all time, despite struggling to find support from the company he started. This is why he deserves a seat at our Gaming Gods throne.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Screens Arrive

Along with the reveal yesterday of  Mass Effect costumes for Final Fantasy XIII-2, and a trailer released today showing the suits in action, Square -Enix have released a slew of screens.

Below you can see a set of screens from the upcoming DLC that show off the rather mouthy Ultros, who made his first appearance in Final Fantasy VI, in XIII-2′s Coliseum mode.

Mass Effect Final Fantasy XIII-2 DLC Trailer

Yesterday we revealed that Final Fantasy XIII-2 would be getting Mass Effect costumes for Noel and Serah, as well as Ultros’ arrival in the coliseum.

The trailer below shows off the shiny N7 armour in action, however be warned that it contains spoilers.

The costume DLC will be available from 27th March on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

BioWare Could Change Mass Effect 3 Ending

Speaking out in response to the rather numerous and loud outcries from Mass Effect fans about the end of Mass Effect 3, BioWare’s co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka has teased that the studio might offer an alternative ending to the game.

“It’s incredibly painful to receive feedback from our core fans that the game’s endings were not up to their expectations,” Muzyka said in a statement. “Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics – but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility.

“I believe passionately that the power of our medium flows from our audience, who are deeply involved in how the story unfolds, and who have the uncontested right to provide constructive criticism. At the same time, I also believe in and support the artistic choices made by the development team.

“The team and I have been thinking hard about how to best address the comments on ME3’s endings from players, while still maintaining the artistic integrity of the game.

“The journey you undertake in Mass Effect provokes an intense range of highly personal emotions in the player; even so, the passionate reaction of some of our most loyal players to the current endings in Mass Effect 3 is something that has genuinely surprised us.

“This is an issue we care about deeply, and we will respond to it in a fair and timely way. We’re already working hard to do that.

“Executive producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You’ll hear more on this in April.”

Its good to see a studio not shunning fans or indeed ignoring them entirely. However it is silly that they should even have to appease fans purely because they feel like they are owed a ‘better’ ending. It’s a sure sign that EA and BioWare have plans to expand the series and so don’t want to lose future sales.

EA Closing Some Online Servers

“The decisions to retire older EA games are never easy.  The development teams and operational staff pour their hearts into these games almost as much as the customers playing them and it is hard to see one retired.” reads the post on the EA games website.

These sentences open the paragraph that holds news about upcoming server closures coming to some EA games’ online modes.

In total, fourteen games will cease to function online, with three of those being completely removed from sale.

As of March 31st iOS games Battlefield 3: Aftershock, Fantasi Safari, and Ghost Harvest will all have their online servers closed, and will be removed from the app store.

Following the March online closures are eleven more on April 13th, which includes games like Burnout Revenge, BOOM BLOX Bash Party, The Godfather II, Spare Parts, and MMA. Worryingly Spare Parts is less than a year old, and MMA saw it’s release just over eighteen months ago.

These titles join a long list of already closed games, however three of the titles facing their online demise actually utilise EAs Online Pass system, something that some players will have paid to play, so it should be interesting to see what happens there.

EA say the reason for closure is due to little to no online activity on the games servers, meaning the costs of running the title outweigh the number of people playing the game.

“as games get replaced with newer titles, the number of players still enjoying the older games dwindles to a level — fewer than 1% of all peak online players across all EA titles — where it’s no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99% of customers playing our more popular games.”

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Stats Released

BioWare have gone ahead and released a slew of stats for Mass Effect 3‘s multiplayer mode.

Not only is it rather amusing to see what type of stats they have been tracking, but its also pretty incredible to see exactly what goes on online.

It seems that they have plenty of matches to collate data from, seeing as over 1,800 years worth of online matches have happened since Mass Effect 3‘s March 9th launch.

It seems that after humans, Turians are are the most popular race to play as, with 6.43 percent of players snapping them up. It also seems that Soldiers are the most popular class to play as online with 18 percent of players deciding to use them; and their weapon of choice seems to be the Assault Rifle, with 36 percent packing one upon deployment.

Interestingly though only one percent of players play multiplayer on the hardest Gold difficulty, clearly Mass Effect 3 multiplayer players aren’t in it for the challenge.

You can read the full stats release in the image below (click for a larger one)

Tecmo Koei Pull Out of GAME

In what comes as a completely unsurprising move, Tecmo Koei have announced today that both Ninja Gaiden 3 and Warriors Orochi 3 won’t be available at UK retailers GAME and Gamestation.

The news follows on from the announcement that GAME are preparing for administration, and that they are also uncertain about their future. This move also echos those of Ubisoft, Namco Bandai, Capcom and EA.

Tecmo Koei suggested that customers pre-order Ninja Gaiden 3 and Warriors Orochi 3 again through different retailers. Both titles can be picked up from HMV, Blockbuster, Play.com, Zavvi.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk, ShopTo.net and independent retailers, whilst Ninja Gaiden 3 can also be nabbed at ASDA if you fancied it with your food shop.

Those who deposited with GAME and Gamestation will receive full refunds.

FIFA Street Review

FIFA Soccer has become a staple of the EA Sports lineup and an integral part of many gamer’s lineups. The yearly iteration has seen consistent improvement to which many fans have praised the series for its ball control and trueness to the sport. Touted by EA as the number one selling sports franchise in the world, FIFA looks to take players back to the street, a place where they have not been since 2008. FIFA Street is a complete reboot to the franchise adding realism and real life street venues from around the globe to take players into the life of a street soccer rookie playing in small time court games and moving up to high intensity 6v6 championship tournaments. Can this breathe new life into the street series or does it belong on the curb?

FIFA Street offers fans of the FIFA Soccer franchise a chance to transfer their created ‘Virtual Pro’ from FIFA 12 right from the start, enabling them to build a street team around him. Players will be able to customize their team and create more players than just their import in the ’World Tour’ mode. Customization of individual clothing, team name, logo, attributes, play style, and various other in depth team options. Throughout the World Tour mode you’ll travel the globe facing off in a variety of game types from 2v2 to full on 5v5 or 6v6 tournaments made up of three qualifiers and then bracket play. Events also range from ‘freestyle’ - where you gain points to your bank by doing tricks and pannas while scoring goals to reduce the opposing teams bank to nothing. Last man standing requires teamwork and great solo effort to win, as each time you score a goal, your team loses a member until one man is left and you score the final finishing goal. Another great mode is ‘First To Five’ where you simply have unlimited time and it requires you to be the first to five goals. The World Tour mode is littered with modes like these aside from the 5v5 and 6v6 solid street ball or Futsal - which is like regular FIFA but with dribbling and street mechanics.

Each event in World Tour will put you to the test and allow you to choose one of three difficulties; bronze (easy), silver (medium) or gold (hard) with each giving you a different reward for the win while unlocking the lower tiered rewards. For example, if you beat an event on gold, you unlock the silver and bronze rewards which range from clothing, street teams, or even new arenas to play in. World Tour also gives you the option to play the events online against other players but sticks the AI at a set gold difficulty. In order for you to progress and be eligible to compete in the variety of game types in Street you should have at least six players on your created team, but you can have a maximum of ten. Through online connectivity you can take the Virtual Pro from your friend’s FIFA Street team and use him as your own. World Tour will throw players on a lengthy ride through four tiers covering regional, national, European and global street ball. Each tier requires you to place in the top three in the finals to progress. Tournaments play an integral part in advancement giving you points in the current tier on your teams rankings. Another great element is that your opponents during World Tour are gathered by the EA Online servers and are actual teams created by players around the world. It assures that no two players will ever have the same opponents at a given time.

The controls are one thing that FIFA Street take to heart, and players will agree when they pick it up. FIFA fans will be familiar with the control layout and take to it almost immediately. Dribbling and juggling will become a key attribute with many players as it will be your easy way to deke around defenders and even fake or trick them so you can kick home the goal which is simple and done by holding down the R1/RB while pressing a direction the left stick to kick the ball up or juggle it over the defender. Dribbling is done in what is referred to as street ball control by pressing L2/LT and utilizing the left stick to confuse the defender. Players who get a little over confident can show off some flair with the L1/LB button while passing (X/A) or shooting (O/B) to do some over the top techniques; like kicking it with the back of your foot or a behind-the-back shot. Skill shots can be done by toying with the right stick against a defender and deking them in a variety of true to street, stylish ways where the ball passes through your opponents legs - s0mething known as a ‘panna’ or ‘nutmeg’. As you progress with each player, you can use attribute points to purchase more skill moves to use. On defense your job is simply to regain the ball by either square/X or O/B while doing your best to defend your ground. The game also usually auto selects the player closet to the ball when the ball changes hands to the opposite team or chosen manually by choice with L1/LB on defense.

The more you play in FIFA Street with your team, the more experience you will gain by competing in events by doing tasks such as scoring, pannas or simply deking around defenders. Players will be notified after every event regarding level progress via a progress bar by each character who participated in the event. Players on the bench or not participating will also gain experience albeit at a lowered rate. Once you level up you’ll earn a smaller little ‘level up’ symbol - a green ‘^’ sign by the players name. Every time you level up you will gain ten (10) attribute points to distribute throughout your player’s various seven attribute categories (athleticism, defense, dribbling, goalkeeping, passing, shooting and speed). Depending on how you choose to distribute these points throughout your players progression, they will earn various specialization roles. Starting out at ‘balanced’ and branching out into varying types that sort of mark their importance to the team such as power finisher, keeper, playmaker and so on. You can also choose to spend attribute points on styles as well as new tricks for the player to learn, but it isn’t necessary. To say the least, the character and team development are some of the deepest in any sports game  to date. And that is a plus for any FIFA fan. As you progress and defeate licensed teams from FIFA, or real street teams you’ll unlock the ability to have a key player join your team if you choose to. They’ll be unable to level up but will retain the base stats they were created with.

Online takes to the streets as you would expect and allows the usual ‘play now’/'quick play’ type of modes. But the bread and butter is the online head-to-head seasons where you can compete online in seasons with your team where ten games are equal to a season in fifteen different divisions for you to engorge in either 5v5 or 6v6 game types. Also available for online play are cup matches which reset every few days with a new game type to keep things fresh for players. Leaderboards are apparent in World Tour events and even in the online modes. Players can capture video at any point to show off tricks or incredible feats and upload them online on the fly. EA Sports Football Club makes a return and will contribute to your identity across all FIFA titles.

FIFA Street manages to hit all the notes on the gameplay side of things. Solid controls, addictive gameplay and a deep team creation system as well as a diverse World Tour mode makes for at least 8-10 hours of main mode football, and even more if you plan to level your team and take on the Gold standard. Graphically it is on par with FIFA 12, which is great, however the crowds seem to suffer and for the most part appear lackluster. The soundtrack is engaging and upbeat as you would expect any street title would be, something that makes you move your feet in tune with the almost graceful action of the players. All in all, FIFA Street stays true to the sport and crafts a near perfect street soccer title. FIFA Street as a reboot is better than any fan could have hoped for and one for gamers to enjoy for some time.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Mass Effect 3 Sells 3.5 Million

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello has expressed some enthusiasm at the sales numbers for Mass Effect 3. At the Wedbush Technology, Media and Telecommunications Conference in New York City, attended by VentureBeat Riccitiello told press that he’d estimated Mass Effect 3 had sold 390, 000 copies in North America within 24 hours of it’s release. That number has been expanded to about 3.5 million units world-wide.

Not an surprising number. It is interesting to note, however, the wide spread disapproval with Mass Effect 3′s Day One DLC “From Ashes”. Despite calls for boycott in response to sales tactics seen by many fans as money-hungry, Riccitiello mentioned that, according to US retailer GameStop, approximately 40 percent of people who purchased Mass Effect 3 also purchased the DLC. Ricitiello said that EA had “anticipated it doing well, so we’re happy.”

Mass Effect 3 is available now for PC, PS3 and the Xbox 360.

Welcome Back to SimCity

Rumours and leaks have been creeping out and popping up for a few weeks now concerning new version of the mega popular city simulation games, and at GDC yesterday, Maxis confirmed the hopes of people’s minds by announcing SimCity.

Obviously not a remake of the original, the decision to name it SimCity rather than SimCity 5 either comes from the want to bring it into the next generation away from the past games or more simply they just haven’t thought of a definitive title just yet.

SimCity is due for a PC release next year.

Dear EA, Please Make A New Def Jam Fighter

Anyone who grew up on the PS2/Xbox remembers Def Jam: Fight For NY or Def Jam: Vendetta. Some of the coolest, most over the top crazy fighting games ever have had a poor representation on the current generation of consoles (Def Jam: Icon) although not a ‘bad’ game but it just wasn’t what people think when they hear Def Jam fighting game. We want a true reboot or re-representation of the franchise for current gen consoles.

We want those large explosions, slamming your opponent into the environment and bumping music. However we also want a cool story that incorporates all the all-stars from the house of Def Jam.  Make it epic, make it awesome and make it FUN. Create your character, do a fighting style, customization, unlockables and keep the uncensored soundtrack. It was one of the great things about Def Jam Icon.

Def Jam: Icon was not horribly bad but it was the first one not to be developed in partnership with the AKI Corporation (now Syn Sophia Inc.). The executive producer of the game Kudo Tsunoda stated that he “felt that wrestling and hip-hop do not mix well together.” which explains why the gameplay of Icon was more a close brawler akin to Fight Night Round 3 at the time which is not what it is supposed to be. Someone put the wrestling and craziness back into the franchise.

So if anyone from EA is reading this, look back into the depths of the vault and see that this franchise needs new life just as much as Street, SSX or any of the other reboots as of late from the publisher. We are here an waiting to fight.

Mass Effect 3 GAME Customers Get Refund

After the unfortunate news that GAME and Gamestation wont be receiving stock of EA games in the near future, including the titanic Mass Effect 3, GAME have announced that they will be offering a full refund for all those that placed a deposit on the title.

GAME have also offered a £5 voucher to all those who pre-orderd the game as a motion of goodwill. A statement to customers was made available on the GAME Facebook page, and read:

“We’re contacting you with news that, unfortunately we are not in a position to supply you with your copy of Mass Effect 3. As dedicated gamers, we know how disappointing this will be for you, and we apologise sincerely for the inconvenience that this will cause.

We value you as a customer very highly and want to demonstrate that to you by giving you a voucher code worth £5 off your next purchase and if you have placed a deposit with us, you’ll receive full refund*.”

For more information on where you can get hold of Mass Effect 3, we would recommend you visit our Mass Effect 3 page.

All customers who have preordered from us – in store or online – will be receiving this message that will tell you where you can get your copy of the game and how you will be getting £5 from us (as points or a voucher depending on how you preordered) as a thank you for your continuing loyalty to us.”

Clearly neither party wanted to end up in the situation where EA games would not be sold through the retailer, but it follows on from the events that Ubisoft PS Vita Launch titles weren’t stocked on the consoles launch (although they are now available), and that Special Editions of The Last Story couldn’t be obtained either.

This also brings into question what has happened to the now supposedly completely sold out Mass Effect 3 N7 Collectors Edition. Now GAME aren’t able to sell it on will there be more copies made available to the public?

Gaming Gods: Tim Schafer

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that the previous entrants into our Gaming Gods series have been pioneers from the East, however there as just as many incredible and influential designers over in the West. It can’t be argued that this weeks gaming god has shaped an entire genre, and indeed recently managed to kickstart an appreciation for it after years of its stagnation. We are of course talking about the adventure game genius that is Tim Schafer.

Tim Schafer is known for some of the industry’s finest adventure games as well as creating games that go beyond peoples expectations. Every title oozes creativity and humour, and every title places the joy of gameplay right in the heart of its experience. Schafer however didn’t start out with such glamorous projects under his belt, he pretty much found himself in a situation that allowed him to go on to create such great things. This first situation arose out of an opportunity to work at Lucasfilm Games whilst he was studying computer science at UC Berkley. After an awkward phone interview, where he essentially revealed he had pirated a previous Lucasarts game, he bagged the job thanks in part to an amusing comic strip he provided as way of apology; the comic in question showed him applying, and getting, the job with Lucasarts, it was also staged out like a text adventure game.

The next opportunity for Schafer is in fact a double edged one. For Schafer, at the time, it must have felt like an opportunity missed; yet in hindsight, Atari turning down his job application was a missed opportunity for Atari and a near miss for Schafer. If Schafer had left to join Atari would we have ever had the genius games he went on to produce? Would we even have his development company Double Fine? Whats certain is that if he had left we wouldn’t have had The Secret of Monkey Island, least not in its current and comical guise. No, before Schafer became involved in the writing and programming of the title, it was intended to be a serious adventure game but thanks to more amusing placeholder text by Schafer and fellow programmer Dave Grossman, series creator Ron Gilbert was convinced to change the tone of the title. It’s a good thing he did too as it went on to become the most recognised and acclaimed games of the genre, and it and it’s many sequels are all still loved to this day.

Schafer however begins to really emerge into the Gaming Gods category when you take a look at the first project he was co-lead designer for, Manic mansion: Day of the Tentacle. Here, in the sequel to Ron Gilbert’s Manic Mansion, you were faced with another hilarious point-and-click adventure against a tentacle that had gained sentient life and supreme intelligence, and so naturally was hell bent on global domination. Day of the Tentacle etched itself a place in the hearts of anybody who played it, it met such critical acclaim that many still revere it as one of the best games of the genre, it was once again another success for Schafer, and another mark left by him on the world of videogames.

His next significant step came with Full Throttle, a title that was solely Schafer’s baby as he wrote and designed the title. Being a Schafer Lucasarts game it obviously contained the cooky plot that had now become a signature of his work, this time though Full Throttle takes place in a dystopian future where motorised vehicles are being replaced by anti-gravity hovercrafts, and somehow it’s main focus is on the murder of the last Motorcycle manufacturer in the country. Once again though the title received quite a fair bit of critical acclaim, and thanks to some superb voice actors on board as well as tight gameplay and cheeky Star Wars references, Full Throttle managed to completely secure Schafer’s name in the hearts of adventure fans everywhere.

For many though it was his next game that gained him the adoration that he so rightly deserves. If it wasn’t for his next, and indeed last, game for Lucasarts his future titles and even his ability to set up Double Fine may never have happened. Grim Fandango really changed the face of adventure games, it brought them into the graphical 3rd dimension, and it really made designers think how they were going to transport across this entirely new way to interact inside the space, as point-and-click gameplay could no longer work like it had before. Grim Fandango wasn’t perfect however, but it’s darkly comical story likening the Grim Reaper to a travel agent, and its heavily drawn upon influence from the Mexican Dia dos les Meurtos festival, meant that it stood out as an astounding and fantastic adventure from start to finish. It really cemented his name even more firmly inside the adventure game genre, and showed that Schafer knew what the hell he was doing; which is why his next opportunity is somewhat surprising.

In 200o, after a little while of working on a new game for Lucasarts that never saw the light of day, Schafer set up his own development studio, Double Fine Productions. Here he began to go about creating arguably the most under-appreciated platform game from the last generation, Psychonauts. Psychonauts easily had all that Tim Schafer charm, odd setting, crazy yet loveable characters and even though it departed from the point-and-click adventure settings that Schafer had cut his teeth on, when you played this game you knew it was something special. It’s plot revolved around a young boy gifted with psychic abilities who runs away from the circus to sneak into a summer camp for those with psychic abilities, it’s here he uncovers a sinister plot only he can stop from happening. Gameplay progresses though ‘Raz’, the aforementioned psychic boy, infiltrating summer camp patrons crazy minds and help them overcome their past problems that plague their mind. It was fun, creative and unmistakably Schafer; he had managed to bring solid gameplay and the excellent storytelling from adventure games together in one package.

After Schafer’s more traditional hack-n-slash-meets-real-time-strategy game Brütal Legend – in which  you took up the role of metal head Eddie Riggs, voiced by Jack Black, and went deep into the realms of a fantasy world inspired by 80s rock album covers to fight orcs and save music – Double Fine began production on four smaller titles due to the uncertainty of what might come next. Once it was confirmed that Brütal Legend 2 wouldn’t be happening, these games went on to become Stacking, Costume Quest, Iron Brigade and Once Upon a Monster. Stacking and Costume Quest came about with reduced production times, something akin to how Schafer had worked back at Lucasarts on the Monkey Island titles. This was to ensure that the games stayed tight and fun, it was a new way for the team to learn but thanks to their immense popularity it goes to show that these downloadable only titles did a good job of winning folks over to this new way of development from an established dev team.

Once Upon a Monster is easily the most interesting recent project to come from Double Fine and Tim Schafer’s mind though. Inspired by his experiences as a father, and the sheer lack of games that were available for him to enjoy alongside his son, Schafer went about tweaking the earlier model into a game that could fill this purpose. Set within the world of Sesame Street, the game played out in bite sized chunks and utilised Micrsoft’s Kinect technology to really make it truly accessible for almost all kids and adults. The bright colours and familiar Sesame Street characters made it appealing to children, and even the cross generation appeal of Sesame Street meant that it reached out to parents too. It was a genius move, and one that really opened up the possibilities of Kinect beyond that of simple mini games or party entertainment, it allowed a parent and child to connect and to do so in a fun way, it’s story played out like that of a children’s book, and its episodic nature meant that parents could choose when to stop playing without breaking the flow.

Shafer’s next move was one that showed just how much love he and his games have within the industry. Whilst Double Fine are beavering away on multiple titles with publishers, Schafer felt that people wanted another adventure game, however the risks in publishing it were too great and so he turned to the community that said they wanted one so much, and asked them for money. It turns out that his Kickstarter project did the right thing, and even though he only asked for $400,000, he had managed to raise well over that in the first 24 hours. Indeed his target smashed the $2 million mark, and  became the most successful project on Kickstarter, with over 63,000 donators. It’s impressive to say the least, but Schafer doesn’t think its anywhere near as revolutionary as many seem to believe it is; a sign he’s still every bit as modest as he was when he first started out.

So, after all of that what makes Tim Schafer worthy of being a Gaming God? Well, if you can’t see that this man has influenced not only an entire genre, but also an entire ethos of game development – one where combining solid gameplay with great storytelling is the norm not the exception – then maybe you shouldn’t be playing games. His career has spanned over 20 years and his titles may have never been international blockbusters, but they have always been revered by his peers and by critics and gamers alike.  On top of this all, he still strives to be a creative mind and an honest man. When the Kickstarter project exceeded his incredibly modest expectations he promised to deliver more content and bonus footage for the game instead. It goes without saying that this developer is a gaming god through and through.

Mass Effect 3 won’t be stocked at GAME

The problems keep mounting for embattled high street retailer GAME. An update on the official EA Mass Effect 3 site has listed the retailers selling ME3, and to contact their local retailer “if you are uncertain that your existing pre-order will be guaranteed”.

The update informs anyone that currently has a ME3 pre-order to re-order through amazon.co.uk, zavvi.com, play.com or shopto.net.

Source: EA.com

Origin Auto-Adding Steam Games

It’s pretty hard to avoid using EA’s game service Origin if you want to play any PC based EA game, now however it seems that Origin is vying to take over all of your PC game management and distribution needs by auto adding in your catalogue of Steam games.

A report over on Joystiq states that people on the Day One Patch forums are noticing that games from other services are appearing on their Origin accounts. Many have noticed Dead Space 2 and Mass Effect titles appearing, despite them being purchased on Steam.

It is already know that Origin checks file names on users’ computers, something that EA states doesn’t send back information. It seems that this ability has now become a handy way to streamline your EA games into one place.

Seems like EA are doing something handy with Orign for once… so far it seems that Origin is only auto-adding EA games from other services, but one day maybe it’ll add them all.

Getting All Mass Effect DLC Will Cost $870

Many people out there are easily big, big fans of Mass Effect and thus can’t wait until the next instalment lands on March 9th, or earlier if you manage to find one of those floating balloon things. However thanks to one Destructoid writer, we have been enlightened to the fact that it’ll cost a staggering amount to grab all the Mass Effect 3 DLC straight from day one.

If you add up all the various paraphernalia that comes with bundled day one DLC codes for in-game content it’ll cost around $870. Although the writer notes that most of this goes on the Razor accessories which “power up your Collector Assault Rifle to maximum power in multiplayer”.

It’s interesting to see that EA have made the game reach out across a variety of channels in its promotion, but it should be noted that even though this is a hell of a lot of DLC, none of it is essential and so it’s totally up to you if you spend $870 as it wont sully your experience if you don’t get them. Although there will be people out there who want to get their hands on everything.

You can read the full list of DLC and prices below:

Collector’s Edition (needed to obtain all content):

$80 – N7 Collector’s Edition

Pre-order bonuses:

AT-12 Raider – Origin pre-order bonus
Chakram Launcher – Play the Kingdoms of Alamur demo
M-55 Argus – Pre-order bonus for select retailers
N7 Weapons pack – N7 Edition bonus
N7 Hoodie – N7 Edition bonus
N7 Warfare Gear – Pre-order bonus for select retailers
Reckoner Knight Armor – Play the Kingdoms of Alamur demo
Robotic Dog – N7 Edition bonus
Squad Outfit pack – N7 Edition bonus

Auxiliary purchases:

Unannounced price for the iOS game Mass Effect Infiltrator, which can affect the main game.

$10 day one “From Dust” DLC

$44.99 for the Liara figurine - which oddly enough now comes with multiplayer unlock DLC

$24.99 for The Art of Mass Effect Universe - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$80 for four Mass Effect 3 toys - “Slightly randomized” multiplayer unlock DLC

$59.99 for the Mass Effect 3 controller - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$209.99 for the Chimera 5.1 Headset - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$34.99 for the Mousepad - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$79.99 for the Messenger Bag - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$24.99 for the iPhone case - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$79.99 for the Mouse - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

$139.99 for the Keyboard - Collector Assault Rifle unlock DLC/Powerup

Mass Effect 3 Smashes Pre-Order Expectations

Whilst speaking to MCV, EA have revealed that Mass Effect 3 has “broken the target set” in terms of pre-orders.

The pre-orders are ahead of where Mass Effect 2 was in terms of it’s release schedule and all formats of the game will launch simultaneously – something that hasn’t happened before for a Mass Effect game. This could of course be why the games have seen an increase in pre-orders, but a larger marketing drive could easily be another reason.

This week EA have been sending up copies of Mass Effect 3 into space using weather balloons, allowing consumers to track the balloons via the Mass Effect website thanks to on-board GPS systems. When the balloons land you’ll be able to track them down and pick up a copy of the game!

“TV, cinema, online, print and outdoor activity will help capture the mainstream audience,” said EA product manager Will Graham.

“For the core Mass Effect fan, we’ve been building on the immersive nature of the game with a host of trailers, social media activity and fan site activation.

“Currently our pre-orders have broken the targets set, we are well ahead of where we were at the same point with Mass Effect 2 and we have all of the platforms aligned for launch, which is a first for the Mass Effect franchise,” Graham added.

“Mass Effect 3 follows on from a 96 Metacritic-rated game and everything suggests that the third iteration in the franchise is going to have the same, if not better, quality.”

Source: MCV

Grand Slam Tennis 2 Review

Grand Slam Tennis finally makes its way to HD consoles with a new title and a bevy of more features. Grand Slam Tennis 2 is the sequel to the Wii exclusive Grand Slam Tennis. GST2 looks to have players facing the top athletes in the world of tennis vying for supremacy on a global scale in various competitions. Can Grand Slam Tennis 2 hold up against other tennis titles already on the market with a new control scheme and a hyper-realistic state of mind or does their racquet need repairs?

Grand Slam Tennis 2 looks to take players into the world and competitive nature of tennis. The main bread and butter mode of it is the Career mode that allows players to live out ten years as a tennis pro and see what they can do in those ten years. Along the way they will train, create rivals, and fight their way up to the #1 ranked spot in tennis. This game may be a sequel but it is a sequel to a Wii Exclusive Grand Slam Tennis. It was decided to just add a whole bunch more things to this iteration for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 then rename it Grand Slam Tennis 2. So first off, the career mode itself has a lot more to offer than previously and the new control scheme for players using the gamepad on PS3 on 360 will get treated to a ‘Total Racquet Control’ option by utilizing the right stick and swinging it in different directions to pull off different speeds and types of shots. It works pretty good for the most part but it can be difficult if you are looking for a precise shot type on the fly and many players might try using it on a few occasions but will eventually return to using the mapped buttons for top spin, slice and flat shots. Serving with the ‘Total Racquet Control’ can be even worse as the serving mechanics require precisely timed movements for the best serves.

Before getting started with the career mode players will create a player by some of the settings which are quite limited for an EA Sports title or using their patented GameFace. Either way you will be able to create a persona for yourself with statistics based on your play style. Prior to starting up career you have the option to go through the training school where your voice of encouragement is John McEnroe whom you will learn to loathe as the game goes on. The problem with the training school is that it requires players to perfectly aim at select spots with a certain type of shot. It will take about five or so resets before you may get the hang of it considering you have limited tries as Johnny Mac starts yelling and telling you that you are atrocious at the game. It is one of the most annoying tutorials/training areas I have ever played. Yes it helps you learn the harshness nature of the title and such but it shouldn’t be so damn degrading to the player as it is just a simple sports title. McEnroe is not done with the player or the annoyingly difficult training sessions there, oh no. If you want to raise your characters attributes you will have to do it all again to earn points to spend on the attributes for your created character. Normally most tennis games would take off a day or a week, not in Grand Slam Tennis 2, they take off weeks to month of in game time which means you miss whatever tournament or exhibition opportunities until the next year, thankfully though you have a lengthy ten year cycle. Taking off that massive amount of time for training to raise attributes could be forgiven if there was a retry option but there isn’t. Each session has two goals, you don’t get to do the first goal and if you fail move onto the next, nope not at all. If you fail the first one you fail the entire training session causing you to lose precious time because the game auto-saves directly after you get back to the menu and locking your controls until it finishes saving. This sucks as we like to build our characters and max them out in sports titles. However, it isn’t necessary in Grand Slam Tennis 2 because with default statistics of an All-Around Player we were able to easily win championships without having a single point scored against us on many occasions. The AI is that easy on default difficulty so much in fact the game can get boring, so it is suggested to at least play on Pro or higher. The serving in GST2 is sort of complicated at first requiring you to hold a service to get the power an then to do it again as a line passes by. Basically, your goal is to make the line stop at the peak of the arch you created. If you do ninety percent of the time you will get an Ace, no matter the difficulty or serving statistics of your player. It requires practice but can be deadly if mastered.

As you progress through the game winning tournaments, exhibition matches, rival matches and even the side tournaments which are oddly held by EA SPORTS you will gain career points. Each season has a group of goals for your character that range from beating a specific licensed player, reaching a set rank, or just getting to play on one of the famed courts in the game (which are also licensed). Prior to the matches you are able to choose how many sets to play, one, three or five. This choice only effects the duration of the game which is to help the player get more time to achieve bonus objectives for extra points. We played the majority of the game with one set and still mangaged to do a great majority of the goals resulting by the middle of the first season, we were already at rank 50 out of 100.  As you progress you’ll unlock ‘rival matches’ which reward you with new clothing that will raise your attributes while you wear them or award you attribute points to distribute. These matches are only available for a short period of time and it is recommended to play them as they reward you with bonus career points as well. The progress of the overall career mode is slow but long lasting with as previously mentioned, a full ten years. So fans of tennis will enjoy themselves.

The quick “Play Now” feature allows you to choose from the games twenty-two licensed players as well as any players you have created or downloaded off the EA servers from other players. We saw a few created players tried  their best to look like famous players that did not make it into Grand Slam Tennis 2, so it is worth a look for tennis aficionados to see if their favorite player is already created for them. You can then also choose singles or doubles and one of the sixteen licensed courts from the four majors including a few EA Sports stadiums. One of the fun modes that is also great for tennis fans is the ESPN Grand Slam Classics which takes the ESPN presentation that is apparent throughout the game which looks as close to a real match being televised as any game I have seen and slams it home with Classic matches. Players will battle through long sets like a real match from various perspectives in the 80’s, 90’s and 00’s as well as All-Time classic matches, earning points along the way to unlock more classic tennis rivalries. It’s a very fun diversion from the main career that players can take on any time. Another single player mode is the Tournament mode which allows you to start up any of the major tournaments at the drop of a hat just for fun. Nothing more to say about it than that really.

Online plays a huge part in Grand Slam Tennis 2 with various modes such as Play Now against online opponents, Tournament which allows you to start up a tournament with a few invited friends or open ready to take on challengers. Grand Slam Corner is the core of the onine and is broken into lobbies that are divided by skill level and by major (Australian Open, US Open etc.). Each difficulty also acts as a bracket, you need to be a set skill level to play in the hire brackets (difficulty) against better players. Battle of the Nations is a leaderboard of sorts that allows you to see how your country ranks, play more matches and win to help your country pull ahead, as of time of writing this, the PS3 version has France ahead of Germany and the UK with United States coming in at number five. Sad really.

Grand Slam Tennis 2 had all the makings of a great tennis title, the licensing, the presentation and the realism are all on point. The graphics alone across all the different court types are sublime. The execution of it all sort of falls apart when it feels that the game is against you with the annoyingly difficult tutorial, the pain in the side that is John McEnroe screaming at you even during career creating a horrible attribute acquisition scenario and the lackluster commentary. This is only part of the problem with a very cut and dry creation system, lack of fun and crazy modes that other tennis titles have as well as a career that feels tedious in comparison to other titles. The ESPN license could have been used to do the whole Madden thing where you have a press conference after the game, maybe even a personal trainer to help you gain attributes by playing against him. GST2 is a game that focuses heavily on the sport and if you are a fan of the sport than pick it up for a rental before you make your final decision, but you may not find it as fun as other tennis titles currently on the market.

Final Score: 3/5

Femshep is on the Mass Effect 3 box art

With the launch of Mass Effect just over the horizon and with plenty of hype being built up around fem-shep and the crazy amount of trailers and with the recent demo we didn’t think there could be more things to get us excited about Mass Effect 3, but man were we wrong.

In what seems to be a decision based highly on how fem-shep has been received over the past few weeks, Bioware have decided to put her on the cover of the game! Not to fear however, man-shep will still be on the cover because they are both on it. That’s right the box art is double sided. Check out the unboxing video that Bioware released below that shows all of this: