A good week to be a gamer
Even though it's only January, here are a couple of good reasons to be a gamer this week: Mass Effect 2 and new content for Assassin's Creed 2.
Oh, and there's a third one if you're an iPod Touch/iPhone gamer: GTA Chinatown Wars has (finally) been released on the NZ App Store ($13.99)
Has there ever been a game under so much intense gamer interest than Bioware's Mass Effect 2? I started playing it last night and played until 1.15 this morning, which is late for me during a working week (I need my beauty sleep, you see). From what I've experienced so far, this could be a strong contender for 2010 Game of the Year already - and 2010 is only a few weeks old. I can see the other games waiting to be played will be neglected while I work my way through ME2.
OK, I'm only a handful of hours into the game, but already I'm much more impressed with it than I was the first ME, and in fact, I'm enjoying it much, much more than Bioware's recent Dragon Age Origins.
Right from the opening sequence, the game has commanded my attention and Bioware has, without a doubt, one of the best dialogue systems around in a game. The fact that it features the voice and likeness of the woman who plays the female agent in TV's Chuck, Yvonne Strahovski, as lead female character Miranda Lawson and Martin Sheen as The Elusive Man are just icing on the cake.
The combat is more refined, the inventory system is less bloated and the game has a real space opera feel to it. My only regret is that unwittingly I must have deleted my Mass Effect saves from my Xbox 360 so had to create my Commander Shepard from scratch rather than import it from ME. Give me a couple of days and I'll be able to give more detailed feedback.
As many of you know, Assassin's Creed 2 was one of my favourite games of 2009 so it will be nice to revisit the Italian Renaissance with the first of two new downloadable content packs, The Battle of Forli, expected tomorrow. The action is said to fill in some of the missing DNA sequences in the latter part of the game.
Rockstar also emailed me today saying that it was "happy to report to our fans in New Zealand that it's available in your local App Store". Chinatown Wars will set you back $13.99 - a fraction of the price for what it cost on PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS - and could there be a bigger franchise to hit Apple's touch-screen devices?
I don't think the iPod Touch or iPhone will surpass dedicated mobile platforms any time soon, but by getting support from big-name games publishers it won't be long until gamers consider their iDevice as just as viable a mobile gaming platform as their DS or PSP.
What's on your mind, this fine Wednesday?
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Argh. ME2 and AC2 are two more of my must-play games, but last week I plonked down nearly $400 on a Star Trek Online account and lifetime subscription (I've been playing in both closed and open beta, so yes I know what I'm in for.) Looks like I'll be holding off on any new purchases for a couple of months.
Particularly interested to see who happens in ME2 if you load it with a character from ME1 who left Ashley behind. I always hated that pink-and-white redneck.
Mass Effect 2 is on my mind! Well Mass Effect 1 is on my mind as I need to finish it first before being able to start ME2 but ME1 is only on my mind because of ME2.....bring on Friday!....or maybe saturday or sunday by the time ME1 is finished....
Gerard do you think the inventory system being remove/gimped takes away from the game? The whole looting aspect of RPGs is something alot of gamers like
sweet more content for AC2....having a couple of empty DNA slots is rather annoying......does anyone know for sure if it's possible to actually get them all filled up? Were people given different bonus codes with black vs white editions?? I've never bothered looking into it.....I have never ME or ME2.....looks like a very, vey sweet game tho!
I've just installed Dragon Age and also L4D2. But recently I've been playing Fallout 3 through. I never played it when it came out but I love it now, finished it last night so it's time to move on to the two newly installed games that i've been itching to play. :)
Hi Gerard,
Thanks for the heads-up on ME2! Sounds pretty good and a strong contender for our money!!
Reading between the lines you didn't like Dragon Age that much? Given they are from the same developer, I'd find it really interesting if you (perhaps as tomorrow's blog?) did a comparison on a number of key features for each game and where each game excels (which I assume ME2 does more so than DAO)?
Are other fellow GJ readers also curious?
Thanks :)
Oh pooz... PS3 downbuzz. Guess i'll just have to wait till march!
I downloaded GTA Chinatown wars on my ipod touch. By far the best game available on the app store. Its going to take a bit of getting used to the controls and the virtual joystick but I plan on spending most of my working day playing so im sure I will have it down in no time. Thanks for the heads up Gerard.
Good news about Chinatown Wars for iPod touch, any update on Beaterator though?
@InnocentD, I'm not far enough into it yet to ascertain whether the looting system has been affected but the menu system overhaul but I like the more streamlined weapons management system much better.
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Go AC2 DLC, I can finally get that last acheivement for knocking the guards off the roof while in the flying machine. No one told me you only got one shot at that!