Alright, so here’s the deal: Before the jump, I’m not going to spoil anything. After the jump, I will try to avoid direct story spoilers but discuss what Arrival means in terms of Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. It’s a hard topic to avoid when talking about this DLC pack, and needs to be addressed. Capiche? Capiche.

At Silicon Sasquatch, we love ourselves some Mass Effect. I’ve played through Mass Effect 1 and 2 twice each, bought and played through all of the ME2 DLC, and earned almost all the achievements in both…and I’m the person on staff who is the least hardcore about the game! Put simply, we enjoy the game’s mechanics and universe so much that the opportunity to dive back into ME2 one last time and get a nice bridge between it and the highly anticipated Mass Effect 3 is very, very hard to avoid.

That said, I enjoyed it but as a DLC package for Mass Effect 2, I find it hard to put Arrival ahead of some other extra missions Commander Shepard has gone on. It’s not quite as interesting from a gameplay standpoint as the Overlord or Kasumi: Stolen Memory missions were, and I don’t think the storyline was handled as well as The Lair of the Shadow Broker. There are times in Arrival where I felt like the level design was a touch convoluted. I think Arrival also relies a bit too much on combat — one of the new achievements in this DLC is tied directly to a specific combat sequence, and I can’t for the life of me think how you could get it the first time around. Hell, the second half of the mission has an almost-bewildering amount of shooting dudes given the context of the situation.

That said, Arrival does tell the story that bridges Mass Effect 2 and 3. And it does provide additional context and, above all, gets you excited for Mass Effect 3 to get here NOW. So, it has that going for it. Lastly, it provides you another chance to go back into the game — and even with some issues, more Mass Effect 2 is always a good thing. It may be a bit fanboy-ish, but when the topic of ME comes up, it’s hard to be completely subjective. The game series has proved itself to be that good.

So dig in. Whether now, to avoid as many spoilers as possible, or as an appetizer to get back into the mood for Mass Effect 3, this deserves to be played, for better or worse. It’s a shame that the hook of being the gap between Mass Effect 2 and 3 can be used to get fans to struggle through an average experience.

The break-in sequence in ME2: Arrival is actually pretty fun, but the level design is a little janky.

So let’s discuss the impact of this DLC on the storyline of the game. I don’t think it really adds much to the game that we didn’t already know — and if you’ve played through Arrival, I think you’d agree. The conclusion it provides isn’t terribly interesting or, really, all that new; what is, however, is the context it provides. To put things vaguely, we knew what would happen, but not when, and Arrival answers that second question. It’s not something I was expecting to happen so quickly within the Mass Effect universe, but it does make sense; what you have to do in the DLC also leaves a believable impact.

The other storyline facet Arrival provides relates to the consequences of that event and its impact. That Commander Shepard may have to go explain his actions back on Earth, and that players may have the chance to role play these choices, is going to tumble around in my mind for a good, long time leading up to ME3.

Otherwise, though, the frustrating part of Arrival for me is how the combat curve snaps the tension built by the setting and circumstances. There is a time and place for lots ‘o combat, but what should be a time-sensitive instance in a laboratory is NOT one of those for me. Why the hell is a laboratory that well-staffed with security flunkies, anyways? Especially when this is supposedly an unbelievably top secret operation — hell, you have to play the DLC without teammates because Admiral Hackett wants you to go it alone. That said, the ability to play the first segment of Arrival in a stealthy way was interesting, as were a couple things in the second half of the pack. One little moment in particular was really cool, if a bit throwaway.

I am going to be very interested to see how BioWare resolves storyline consistency issues now, too. There are now a lot of permutations of how to play and what content to tackle in ME2 — between the different endings, the resolving of Lair of the Shadow Broker, and whether or not you played Arrival, that’s a LOT of different things to try and explain. I’m sure BioWare can handle the problem, but they can’t bring Commander Shepard back from the dead again, so seeing how this happens will be an intriguing aspect of Mass Effect 3.

Frankly, again, I feel that the Lair of the Shadow Broker, Overlord, and even the Kasumi DLC packs were more fun to play; however, only Shadow Broker can even come close in terms of story importance in the Mass Effect universe. The gameplay may leave a little to be desired, but as a prologue to Mass Effect 3, it’s a requirement.

Recommended for:

• Its impact on the Mass Effect universe — as the bridge between ME2 and ME3, it is vital for fans
• Providing context to the events to come in Mass Effect 3

Arrival is a downloadable add-on for Mass Effect 2, available on Xbox Live Marketplace for $6.99/560Microsoft Points and PC and PlayStation 3 for $6.99. The reviewer purchased the downloadable content and completed it on the normal difficulty setting, earning one of three achievements.

Read our policy on reviews here.

Developers have come a long way since the abysmal, early dark ages of downloadable content. What started with overpriced horse armor has evolved into a product that can defy typical classification.

Is Case Zero a demo for Dead Rising 2? Yes. Is it a prelude DLC package that adds to the full game with character development and carry-over bonuses for the final retail product? Certainly. To the great chagrin of forum-goers and blog posters, Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is but the tip of the iceberg for the industry, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the idea.

Welcome to the future of videogame demos. I hope the critics have developed adequate coping mechanisms.

From the looks of it, Chuck doesn't slow his truck down in school zones

Let me slow the hype train down a little bit now that you’re paying attention. Case Zero was a significant risk for Capcom and Blue Castle Games, the developer of Dead Rising 2. Gamers can act like an entitled bunch, and time after time the community’s bratty attitude coalesces when companies test the waters for the sake of higher profits. Even I was skeptical after the news broke that Dead Rising 2 wasn’t receiving a traditional demo; instead, the Xbox Live marketplace was going to play host to an exclusive campaign prior to the events of Dead Rising 2, and it would cost 400 Microsoft Points ($5).

It had finally happened: Some suit in a boardroom mustered the gall to charge console owners for a demo of an unproven product. I sympathized with the initial disdain, and it wouldn’t be until I played the trial of a so-called demo that my mind was changed.

Case Zero manages to succeed under an enormous amount of scrutiny. Every second the game is working to prove Capcom’s experiment on several levels: it persuades gamers to buy Dead Rising 2; it demonstrates that $5 is a legitimate price for downloadable content that many will consider superfluous; and it serves as a well-funded study that developers can analyze to decide if paid demos might become a viable business strategy. Despite its limited scope, Case Zero does an admirable job of converting skepticism into belief.

Chuck Greene fights for his life to keep the last remaining Justin Bieber concert ticket from rabid fans

The three-hour plot is extremely basic. A stripped-down small town on the outskirts of Las Vegas serves as the focal point for players’ introduction to Chuck Greene, a badass motocross racer with an infected daughter and little patience for the undead. The game is still Dead Rising, but it plays better than before. Melee hits connect the way you expect them to, and firing guns isn’t something to avoid in the sequel — it’s actually fun.

I was surprised to find that I don’t miss the original game’s photography element. Frank West, as fantastic as he was, won’t be missed (although he has covered wars [y'know]). Combining weapons in ways that would make Tim “The Tool-Man” Taylor blush is a better gimmick for the series than picture-taking. A handful of combo cards — playing card parodies that show which items are required to make a weapon — are available to collect, and the amount of demented weaponry in Case Zero alone makes me eager to see the full game’s arsenal.

However, there are still survivors to rescue and countdown timers to obsess over. I hoped the developers would alter or remove these aspects from the sequel, but it doesn’t appear that way. At least the survivors display a modicum of intelligence this time: during three playthroughs of the game, I rarely had a survivor get stopped and chewed on by a zombie — they will actually weave in-and-out of crowds and kill with their weapons.

How progressive of you, Capcom!

Everything people love or hate about the Dead Rising series is present in Case Zero; the zombie bees, the bowling ball kills, the day-to-day survival, the painful dialogue, the leveling system and the lack of a run button. Once again this is a game that will be as fun as people make it, an interesting concept that encourages players to craft a unique experience from numerous separate ingredients. I won’t say that Case Zero signifies a drastic change to the series that some will have wanted, but for me it proves Blue Castle Games has done an acceptable job of maintaining the spirit of Dead Rising while gussying up a few of its most glaring blemishes.

But I’m not really reviewing the game, am I? I’m reviewing the concept Case Zero is trailblazing.

So, this is my case for Dead Rising 2: Case Zero. Buy it. We gamers should encourage these types of projects, even if we have to pay for them. Where’s the harm in funding the development community to craft worthwhile demonstrations of upcoming games? I’d rather fork over $5 than waste $60.

Recommended for:

• Hesitant gamers not sure what to make of Dead Rising 2
• Series fans salivating for more wacky zombie mayhem
• Anyone with 400 Microsoft Points stagnating in their account: Even if you don’t want to get Dead Rising 2, Case Zero will provide hours of cheap entertainment

Not Recommended for:

• Dead Rising nay-sayers
• Those who prefer their action titles to have fluid controls — Case Zero is reminiscent of early Resident Evil titles’ blocky movements
• If micromanaging survivors, medicine for your daughter, weapon crafting, door-unlocking and item hunting in a limited time frame makes you anxious

Dead Rising 2: Case Zero is available for a suggested retail price of 400  ($5) exclusively in the Xbox Live Arcade marketplace. The reviewer purchased the game himself and beat its story mode thrice before writing this review. He never put Chuck in a dress, if it matters.

Read our policy on reviews here.

It’s no secret that I’m a die-hard Rock Band fan. Ever since Frequency came out nearly a decade ago, I’ve avidly followed Harmonix’s rise from a small studio building relatively niche rhythm games into what is now the undisputed leader in high-quality music gaming. From the time Rock Band first arrived in 2007, I don’t think a week has gone by where I haven’t picked up a guitar or banged on the drums for at least a few minutes. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve amassed a pretty substantial collection of songs, either.

But years have passed, achievements have been earned, and world tours have been demolished. With more than a year and a half having passed between Rock Band 2′s release and now, it’s highly unlikely that many players are still regularly hitting up the World Tour mode; instead, most people are probably opting for the pick-up-and-play simplicity of quickplay. That’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but what if World Tour could be reworked to be more robust, more engaging, and more enduring?

I’ve done my best to compile all my thoughts and suggestions into a relatively ordered list below. While it looks like we’ll be getting some new insight directly from the Harmonix design team based on this short article Lead Designer Dan Teasdale posted today, I figured I’d post my own impressions of what the series’ strengths and weaknesses are, and what can be done to specifically improve the World Tour experience in Rock Band 3.

Just bear in mind that this is only speculation from a guy who maybe loves his music games a little too much, and as a result it’s best if it’s not taken too seriously.

The Band World Tour mode is the heart of Rock Band. It embodies everything that the game stands for — cooperative play, creating and developing a band identity, and living the rags-to-riches rockstar dream — and it has been a staple in both Rock Band games. Most importantly, it has served to both foster a sense of unity among multiple players in a band and to solve the problem of bland, linear progression down a setlist that was previously the norm for instrument games.

However, there are several significant shortcomings with World Tour as it is currently designed:

1. It is more constrained than it initially appears to be — While assembling and customizing a band of virtual rockstars is fun, the thrill of independent, nonlinear progression and accumulation of money and fans quickly tapers off when it becomes clear to the player just how artificial the rewards for those statistics are. Fans are simply the equivalent of experience points for unlocking new challenges, and money is just used to buy new accessories and gear for your band that don’t affect the game in any tangible way. These are both valuable rewards to the player in that they allow for deeper involvement on a customization level and for making sure each World Tour progresses at a reasonable pace, but they also do very little to foster or preserve a sense of involvement in the fiction of the game. Ultimately, it only succeeds in taking the one-dimensional setlist approach and adding a little variability into the mix, but not in any way that’s particularly memorable or significant to a band’s identity or progression.

2. Its value to the player diminishes over time — Aside from its intrinsic value as a band simulation, Band World Tour serves a number of overt, practical functions for the player: It’s one of the most enjoyable ways to unlock songs on the disc, it provides a showcase of the game’s many venues, and it’s one of the best ways to unlock and try out additional gear for your band members. However, once a player has unlocked all the songs and played all the venues, the World Tour mode ceases to be as valuable an option for play. If a player or group of players wants to play together, it takes far less time to put together an open-ended quickplay session where flexible playlists can be built and enjoyed with less downtime. Likewise, a solo player who has finished the tour mode will find solo quickplay to be far more enjoyable either from a casual point of view, because of its ease of access, or from a hardcore fan’s perspective, where high scores and star-count tracking matter.

3. It’s cumbersome to play — Although online play has made the Band World Tour mode far more accessible to players without friends nearby, it still requires a great deal more effort to set up and play. There are more menus to navigate, more instruments to set up, more space required and more schedules to collaborate on. While a lot of those problems are true of any activity that involves multiple people, the actual Rock Band interface doesn’t do very much to help streamline players into a band setting. Whether drop-in/drop-out multiplayer would fix this problem without diminishing the group play experience is debatable, but as it stands it’s a universally difficult task to coordinate on full-band play sessions.

4. It doesn’t mesh with Rock Band’s innate longevity — Many Rock Band owners continue to play the hell out of Rock Band 2 nearly two years after its release. This is thanks to its extensive, varied and consistently updated DLC library as well as a few significant patches and other consistent support for the game from Harmonix, including the message of the day, Battle of the Bands events and the company’s social media presence (podcasts, Twitter, Facebook, etc.). World Tour loses its luster quickly after completion, and people’s bands are left untouched while solo and quickplay options become the preferred means of playing.

5. The game’s fiction is underdeveloped – Creating unique rockers and plotting your own course to superstardom is what Rock Band’s World Tour is all about. But these characters never amount to much in terms of player investment, and there’s no sense of community. For instance, when playing online with other people, everyone can bring their own rockers into the play session, but they’re just puppets; they add nothing to your own game’s fiction, or in other words, your interpretation of the story of your rocker. What if joining play sessions with bigger-name bands meant a chance at a big break for your player? What if leaving your band because of fundamental differences meant the launch of a solo act? What if these events were all capable of unfolding in a similarly nonlinear fashion as how World Tour currently functions but with the potential to actually craft a story that will stick with players years after they stop playing Rock Band, just like their favorite Fallout or Baldur’s Gate characters do?

So, the fundamental question is: How can World Tour continue to appeal to players for months and years after the game’s launch?

While it might sound improbable or impractical given the average 6-to-12 month span between new major releases in the music game genre, keeping players invested in the fiction of Rock Band will almost certainly significantly improve brand loyalty and awareness. Imagine if players felt as strongly about their Rock Band musicians or bands as they did about their heroes in Mass Effect or Dragon Age: If they invested the same kind of time and energy in crafting those characters just how they wanted, wouldn’t they feel encouraged to check in on them from time to time? Wouldn’t they want to keep helping that character grow, to see where their stories take them? And wouldn’t they eagerly anticipate where they’d be able to take them in subsequent Rock Band games?

So…What could Rock Band 3 do to improve the World Tour mode?

There are a few fundamental concepts in an improved World Tour: connectedness, persistent growth and development, and flexibility.

Connectedness:

Being in a real-life band is all about communication. Members collaborate, plan gigs, weigh in on major decisions and all contribute in their own way. This group unity is not felt anywhere in the World Tour mode outside of actually playing songs. Band members only share one group metric — fans — and they split earnings equally into their own personal cash reserves for buying new accessories. The introduction of a joint band bank account would create an interesting dynamic where all players are responsible for managing funds. For example, what if earning a van actually cost in-game money? What if that van could break down, making it temporarily impossible for you to leave the city you’re in, and it’d cost money to repair? What if licensing deals affected your band’s reputation, and what if bands could break up? What if broken up bands could reunite on a reunion tour and rack up tons of money from their now-aged fans by playing big-venue shows? These are all just ideas, but persistent and distinctive avatars and bands are essential for fostering this sense of depth within the game’s fiction.

Better Battle of the Bands integration — Rather than just having Battle of the Bands events from quickplay show up in various venues around the world, these events should be pertinent to the player’s band. Why not have a hometown reunion show pop up for the week of the band’s one-year anniversary? Why not have summer music festivals (real or otherwise, in keeping with the game’s wise precedent of avoiding real-world locations and events) that your band can play at to score legions of additional fans? And why not have a system in place to remind band members about these events? There could be a news ticker on the main screen, email or Facebook alerts, for example. Of course, I’m not sure what the Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo regulations are on that kind of external connectivity, but it seems like Facebook and Twitter connectivity is popping up in all kinds of games lately.

Persistent growth and development:

I can’t say for sure,  but the impression I get from my experience playing the game is that the guiding philosophy behind World Tour has been to make playing Rock Band as an individual or a group more engrossing and more varied than a standard, down-the-list playthrough of a typical music game. At the same time, perhaps out of fear that the mode would be unappealing to all but the most hardcore of fans, the World Tour mode was a largely surface-level feature that didn’t leave room for strategy or depth. In other words, it gave a pretty good illusion of building up a band from small-time to stardom, but how you got there was almost as linear a process as in a traditional music game.

While it’s certainly a creative risk to add more complexity to a game whose success is largely due to its accessibility, I would argue that World Tour isn’t the mode that most families and nontraditional gamers are going to flock to in the long term anyway. Quickplay is far easier to get into, it’s more flexible to use, and there’s no risk involved with negative reinforcement (losing fans, failing to win an optional event, etc.) In other words, World Tour is the perfect opportunity to build something much more enduring that will appeal to Harmonix’s more devoted fans while also paving the way for plenty of newcomers to get sucked into the heretofore mostly untapped simulation and role-playing aspects of the game.

Band management — While the existing concept of earning new vehicles and playing at venues around the world for increasing numbers of fans and amounts of money is solid, there is room for a lot more nuance and, ideally, unique events that help shape a band’s legacy, which could result in players having more of a narrative to identify with. If band members were able to schedule their own tours, debate over playing a benefit show vs. a sponsored show (with each choice actually having consequences), players would feel more attached to their bands. They’d feel like they had more of a stake in how the game unfolded, and there would probably be a greater commitment in the long-term to the game as a result.

Persistent character and band growth – Experience points aren’t just the currency of dice-toting role-playing gamers anymore. Everything from Forza Motorsport to Call of Duty uses a numerical progression system to lend their experiences a sort of continuity and to help players identify with what makes their experience with the game distinct from their friends’. Why not bring that sort of experience tracking to Rock Band? What if musicians and bands could both gain experience from playing shows, and what if leveling up unlocked specific talents or skills for each musician? And furthermore, what if a musician gained better skills the more they play a certain instrument? That could encourage players to play more songs while also trying out different instruments, which could help push players outside of their comfort zones — but in a good way. So many of my friends are too embarrassed to sing in Rock Band, but with a little persuasion from the game, that might be a different story.

Flexibility:

Practically speaking, the times when all four band members can get together are probably few and far between. Some potential solutions that would preserve the value of the core band and the persistence of its members while allowing for flexibility of play include:

Ability for members of other bands to sub in — Members of other bands can freely join other bands to play for a session. This needs to be done efficiently, which means porting a profile to the console in use is impractical. Since Rock Band will continue to be a part of the EA Partners program thanks to a renewed publishing deal, couldn’t logging into an EA account allow for a quick download of a character onto another console? And couldn’t that infrastructure track which players are doing what at any given time, and store those statistics centrally?

Make band-level decisions while away from the game console — With online integration through a web interface or Facebook or some other networking tool, band members could vote on major decisions, book gigs where all four members are playing together, create setlists for upcoming shows, discuss logo designs, and so forth. There’s so much potential for people to collaborate and build these fascinating band identities that can be shared with other players and the Rock Band community at large, and when those images and identities can be exported, it stands to reason that people will want to share that information with friends. And what better way to promote a product than to have users who actively want to share their experiences with friends and family?

What should stay the same?

Failing — Progression should hinge on being able to successfully pass songs as a group. While no-fail mode being constantly activated is a great idea on easy as in The Beatles: Rock Band, on higher difficulties, or perhaps once the band has passed a major milestone, no-fail should be disabled for progression.

Relative flexibility with band members — So let’s say your drummer thinks her avatar sucks. Fine — she can change whatever she wants about the avatar while keeping persistent accomplishments/stats/etc. Some of the most famous rock stars are constantly reinventing themselves, after all.

Conclusion

With two years between iterations, Rock Band 3 has the potential for benefiting from a longer development cycle and from the lessons learned in Harmonix’s band-specific games. While I’m certain just about anybody will find something they disagree with above, I feel like I’ve spent enough time with the game — and I feel passionately enough about the series — to be able to draw up some conjectures about what direction the Rock Band games should take next. If you’ve got anything you’d like to add or anything you disagree with, feel free to sound off in the comments section.

It’s hard to review Demons of the Badlands without addressing its parent game, Red Faction: Guerilla. Although Silicon Sasquatch hasn’t published a review, the general consensus is that it delivered an unabashedly fun orgy of destruction in both single player and multiplayer, even if both modes had their limits.

Guerilla launched in early June of this year, and Demons of the Badlands followed in mid-August. Promising new weapons, a new protagonist and a whole new landscape to demolish, it was devised as an encore to a relatively one-of-a-kind experience. In developer Volition’s defense, Demons of the Badlands delivers on exactly what was promised: The add-on feels just as polished and exhilarating as the rest of the game, and the new weapons add a much-needed dash of variety to keep the experience from feeling stale. However, for a ten-dollar add-on, Demons of the Badlands is woefully short, comprising three story missions and eleven side missions that can be completed in a mere two hours.

But if price and brevity may be problematic, the quality of the experience certainly isn’t. Shifting the experience to a new player character was a smart decision as it lends the content more of an individual identity separate from the main game. It avoids feeling like a tacked-on deleted scene like in Gears of War 2′s Dark Corners add-on. The new weapons, such as the ludicrously powerful missile pod, are just as exhilarating to play with as the original game’s arsenal was. Toss in an array of new vehicles and the most over-the-top walker yet, and it’s clear Volition values the practice of producing add-ons that only enhance their source material while doing nothing to cheapen it.

Demons of the Badlands is fairly easy to recommend to fans of the original game who fell in love with its unique emphasis on satisfying destruction and guerilla combat. Unfortunately, the add-on is so short on content that it’s hard to imagine how it adds up to ten dollars’ worth of entertainment, particularly when Guerilla was such a diverse and enduring package.

Red Faction: Guerilla: Demons of the Badlands is available for $9.99/800 Microsoft Points on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. The PC version of Red Faction: Guerilla includes Demons of the Badlands as part of the retail package.

Recommended for:

• Red Faction veterans eager for a fresh batch of architecture to dismantle with a new array of brutal and inspired weapons
• Demolitions master devotees eager to test their skills against a handful of clever puzzles

Not Recommended for:

• Story aficionados eager to discover what drove Samanya away from the Marauders — the narrative in Guerilla was largely inconsequential, and the quality of storytelling in Demons of the Badlands is no better
• Gamers expecting the same bang-for-buck ratio that the original Red Faction: Guerilla provided — Demons is painfully short and easily completed in one sitting

Read our policy on reviews here.

Why hello there, future purchase

What a week it’s been. The inaugural Gamescom in Cologne, Germany opened on Wednesday and guess what: Sony kindly unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim. Media outlets weren’t exactly surprised by the announcement, but I think we’re all glad the rumor mill has finally ceased its incessant turning about the damn console. Looks like I finally need to go get a PS3.

Oh, and a little event in Anaheim, California called BlizzCon flung its +10 Doors of Nerd Barricading open to the (literally) unwashed masses of Blizzard fanatics today, and so far we’ve already been made privy to the next World of Warcraft expansion, a new Diablo III class and StarCraft II being confirmed for release in 2010.

You know, as a gamer I like it when these big gaming-related events run back-to-back with one another. The ESA might as well wedge E3 2010 between next year’s Gamescom and BlizzCon to mentally and physically destroy every games journalist in existence. That could be Silicon Sasquatch‘s in!

An image so good it makes the prequels look half-decent

Aaron:

For some odd reason I’ve devoted a large amount of my gaming time this week to Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. I’m under the deluded notion that I can reach 100% completion in the game without going insane. It’s not a particularly hard title, it’s just tedious…incredibly tedious. Still, I have to hand it to Traveller’s Tales for making what’s overall a fun and goofy title. Just don’t ruin the experience by trying to do what I’m doing.

Other non-block-themed bytes I consumed this week were Fallout 3′s Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta — mostly for review purposes. Go ahead and check out each write-up for my impressions of Bethesda’s final two post-nuclear roleplaying simulator DLCs. Now, to be completely honest, I’m glad to wash my hands of the game. Hundreds of hours sunk into one title (that’s not an MMO) makes you feel way too involved. Strange, I know. I’m ready for Fallout: New Vegas, though. Get to it, Obsidian Entertainment!

Next on my gaming queue: Halo Wars, Shadow Complex, Batman: Arkham Asylum (which is getting many glowing reviews) and…more Lego Star Wars.

Doug's local sports pride is fantastic. But why are they called the Vikings anyway? Vikings usually burned and pillaged, I recall.

Doug:

This week has been busy — class Monday, finishing homework, quizzes and team projects for accounting on Wednesday, then a test in Finance on Tuesday, more class Wednesday, being social (bars, basketball and more bars) and finalizing some back-end paperwork stuff for grad school. I haven’t fired my 360 up since…maybe Monday. All I’ve done gaming-wise is play with the NCAA 10 TeamBuilder — it’s super powerful and, being the kind of person to toil over minor details regarding team jerseys, it’s right up my alley.

Above is a photo for the work-in-progress team I’ve created; the fun part will be editing the roster from head to toe. Thankfully, you can now do that through a web browser instead of on a console.

Nathan Drake/The Prince takes flight in Shadow Complex for Xbox Live Arcade

Nick:

With this scorched-earth Oregon summer winding to a pleasantly breezy conclusion, my gaming backlog is finally getting the attention it deserves. Having made my way through the wonderfully crass House of the Dead: Overkill and Namco’s doting recreation of PlayStation platforming classic Klonoa, I’ve almost finished clearing out my GameFly queue. I hope to finish Killzone 2 and Punch-Out!! this weekend.

Of course, that all depends on whether I can release my vice grip on Shadow Complex. Chair Entertainment created a game that went right for my Achilles’ Heel: side-scrolling, Metroid-style adventures. While I’m not convinced it’s the greatest game of its kind, it’s a pleasant surprise and a nice homage to some of the finest games ever made.

And hey, it’s always nice to hear Nolan North playing another character who looks an awful lot like Nathan Drake; maybe it’ll hold me over until Uncharted 2 struts in and dictates how I live my life for the next few months.

Here we are, dissecting the final downloadable addition to the Fallout 3 universe.

Throughout the year, Bethesda Softworks has given gamers a grand total of $50 worth of extra content to one of 2008′s finest games. The finale, Mothership Zeta, is certainly a bold move on the studio’s part to try to go out with an edge-of-your-seat bang. Putting Fallout in space, even with the series’ trademark exorbitant scenarios, is definitely a head-tilting decision. But cosmic setting aside, don’t expect any climactic end to the story of the Lone Wanderer here; the developers are smart enough to realize that after rectifying Fallout 3′s ending with Broken Steel, setting a finite conclusion to the mythos would kill the immersion.

Unfortunately, the end is nigh…and not that great. Zeta is a linear and uninteresting bookend to a fairly massive collection of expansions. It’s not as bad as Operation: Anchorage, but that’s not saying much.

Thanks to Zeta, most gamers are going to feel like their wallets have been probed. Take me to your refund counter, please.

Domo arigato, soon-to-be-exploding roboto

To be absolutely clear, Mothership Zeta isn’t bad DLC, it’s just unimpressive and extremely devalued when compared with its immediate ancestor, Point Lookout. After crafting an expansive, intriguing and thoroughly disturbing trip to the swamplands of Maryland, Bethesda decided to next release what amounts to a repressed collect-a-thon of powerful weaponry.

Sure, most fans won’t complain when by the end of Zeta they’ll have a suit of samurai armor, a cowboy outfit and roughly a metric ton of alien weapons, crystals and worm food (disgusting but nutritious!) to pad their hidden caches — but for $10/ 800 it amounts to a lot less content than Point Lookout. This isn’t a complaint about the overall value of the downloadable content market; it’s about a company setting expectations high with one title, and then somehow failing to deliver on those expectations a little over a month later with the next (and final) release.

The problem with trying to review Zeta as a piece of individual content and the final piece of Fallout 3 DLC is in what each individual may think is worthwhile about it. Like I mentioned, the items and weapons are fantastic. But on the other hand the plot is boring and practically non-existent. Even Anchorage, which I’ve harped on numerous times, had the overarching war between the United States and China to lend a bit more credibility to the entire scenario.

This looks way more interesting than it actually is

It’s disappointing in many ways to be left with Mothership Zeta. The alien captive audio logs are Zeta’s steel ingots, and while they aren’t nearly as tedious to collect, the fact that another achievement is tied to finding easily missable items is frustrating.

The quests themselves are hard to distinguish from one another, and you’ll only happen to notice when one transitions into the next by the popping of an achievement. The singular quest chain sends players around the massive spaceship to do the same thing over and over again: blow up alien generators. Even the ship’s massive death ray (which can be pointed earthward and fired to produce a massive, Texas-sized nuclear explosion — easily one of the best moments of the DLC) is effortlessly conquered by shutting off four generators. Let me reiterate: you shut down generators to get to the death ray, and then to turn the beam off, you do the same thing four times over again. Extremely lazy design? Absolutely.

Perhaps the best thing Zeta has going for it is its scenery. While you’re trapped in the spaceship for the entirety of the add-on, the interior at least looks like a corny, classic sci-fi movie. Lots of “beep boop” lights and big red buttons contrast well with the silver and stainless steel look of the walls, ceilings and floors. The aliens themselves are stereotypical little green men, and speak in a harsh gibberish reminiscent of Mars Attacks!.

Zeta is more or less an homage to 1950s sci-fi, just like much of the Fallout universe. References to probing, human experimentation and abducting cows (though they’re brahmin in this case) are all over Zeta, and they’re good for a few laughs. It’s a cheeky add-on for sure, but it’s easy to wish Bethesda had gone farther with the idea of killing aliens in a spaceship than it simply being “cool.”

Hey, I can see my charred ruin of a house from here!

Take it or leave it, Mothership Zeta will always be the last piece of Fallout 3 DLC Bethesda released. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s not the worst add-on for the game. Bethesda accurately created a 1950s-type of alien abduction story, but managed to leave out the plot, fun and excitement. The finale will impress, but that’s not enough to make this a for-sure recommendation.

If you must absolutely have every expansion to the core Fallout 3 title, then you’ve already made your choice. But if you’re on the fence about how worthwhile Mothership Zeta actually is, ask yourself this: Is $10 is worth it for what boils down to a four-hour, super weapon shop-till-you-drop marathon? Save those Microsoft points and get Point Lookout instead. Or, pick up Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, which includes all five DLC packs, when it drops on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this October 13th.

Recommended for:

• You crazy people who need each piece of Fallout 3 DLC
• That one Mars Attacks! fan who’s been waiting for someone to remember the movie, and as a result will go and buy the game right now

Not Recommended for:

• Value-conscious gamers
• Fans of Point Lookout expecting Mothership Zeta to be equally as good
• Someone with only $10 to spend: Go grab The Maw or ‘Splosion Man instead!
• Humans who’ve been traumatized by probing at some point in their lives

Read our policy on reviews here.

It’s comforting to trek through the swampy bogs of Fallout 3′s fourth downloadable content pack — it’s just like the Capital Wasteland, only with (slightly) more inbreeding.

That feeling of being at home within the game is Point Lookout’s strongest asset. Unlike the uneven experiences in both Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, this DLC effort takes a page out of the core Fallout 3 experience. Players are given a familiar set of rules and goals: explore, scavenge, kill and quest. Even Broken Steel, which was a remarkably solid piece of extra content, timidly reproduced the basics of Fallout 3. But with Point Lookout, Bethesda Softworks has created a real sidestory to remind us why its rendition of the Fallout franchise is so supremely addictive.

Your arrival in Point Lookout: looks like you got screwed on that timeshare

Point Lookout is an entirely new area of irradiated United States soil set apart from the Capital Wasteland. What was once a vacation hot spot — based on the actual Point Lookout state park in Maryland — has become a haven for mutated hillbillies 200 years later. This is as close as we’re getting to Deliverance: The Game…thankfully.

Players arrive via the Duchess Gambit, an old paddleboat captained by Tobar the Ferryman — one of those characters who’s too nice to be trustworthy. Point Lookout is separated from the Capital Wasteland by a loading screen; the boat serves as the link to the island just like the rail cart in The Pitt. After a slick arrival cutscene and departing from the rickety old boat, most players will likely head straight toward the burning mansion on the hill. It’s a good thing the house is so visible: it marks the starting point of the add-on’s main quest.

Point Lookout is unquestionably the most visually appealing addition to Fallout 3: There’s always something new to draw your gaze while traversing the swamps. Notable sites include a massive lighthouse and the run-down boardwalk, complete with Ferris wheel and bumper cars. There’s an interesting set piece on every horizon; even on top of the rocky coastline of the park players can spot treasure-laden ships and a few buoys in the mist marking hidden weapon stashes.

Rusted ship hulls, beached hundreds of years ago, eerily litter the coast like misplaced trash spat out by the sea. Each vista in Point Lookout tells a story with its warped steel, charred trees, scattered litter and bleached skeletons. Although Fallout 3 did a fantastic job of creating an expansive and fulfilling landscape to sift through, Point Lookout’s compact size and hazy wetness create quite the environment to get acquainted with.

All that learnins and edumacations did a number on ol' Zeke's mind

It’s all about small surprises in Point Lookout. Finding a dead Chinese spy in a hotel room leads to a roundabout but thrilling quest involving safety deposit boxes, a submarine, double-crossing and cryptochromatic spectacles hidden in the water tank of a toilet. One of the better sidequests in Point Lookout, the sheer fun of it makes up for duds like “The Dark Heart of Blackhall,” a fetch errand with an inconsequential endpoint — 1000 caps does not a good quest make. What does make a good quest, however, is what Bethesda puts players through in the main plot of the DLC, starting with “The Local Flavor.”

Beginning with Calvert Mansion and the temperamental, curse-prone ghoul Desmond, the main questline is one of the most winding chains seen in the Fallout 3 universe. Your new and angry friend sends you, the Lone Wanderer, to uncover the secrets of a tribal cult attacking his house. The tribals worship the punga fruit, a mutated plant that provides enough sustenance to keep their community going. From there the entire thing devolves into serious “What the hell?” territory: Giant mother punga fruit, unwanted brain surgery, house explosions and the holographic mind of a diabolical scientist all stem from this singular quest. Without spoiling too much, this sole quest is just about reason enough to purchase Point Lookout. It won’t disappoint you.

Those hoping for smashing (pun slightly intended) new weaponry will be moderately satisfied, as Point Lookout adds a few new items. As far as weapons go, the lever-action rifle is a fantastic replacement for the hunting rifle, and will finally put to use all that extra 10mm ammo. The double-barreled shotgun fits right in with the backwoods setting, as does the two-handed axe; though melee characters don’t seem to do much damage with it.

Why yes, you CAN "axe" me a question!

Unfortunately, the clothing options leave a bit to be desired: a Confederate hat is the most prevalent piece of gear. Really, it seems like a missed opportunity for a full-on, hick-like outfit considering the rusted car, bear trap and moonshine atmosphere. Instead, Point Lookout’s enemies wear their plaid with pride.

The most notable opponent inclusions are the disfigured, Sloth-like hillbillies of Point Lookout’s vast swampland. Skinny creeps, aptly named Creepers and Scrappers, move fast and shoot accurately, while the burly Brawlers and Trackers/Bruisers (two variations on the same model) hit incredibly hard. Watch out for these guys: apparently the generations of inner-familial intercourse led to super strength. Who knew?

Point Lookout is simply a joy to play through. It’s thoroughly disturbing and rewarding at the same time thanks to an adherence to its Fallout 3 roots — unlike Operation: Anchorage, which suffered in quality because it deviated so awkwardly from the core experience. Bethesda has finally learned that additional content works best when it shares common ground with the game it descended from.

Recommended for:

• Fallout 3 completionists, of course
• Players turned off by previous add-ons like Operation: Anchorage and The Pitt, which did little to play like “vanilla” Fallout 3
• People like me who have lived near small town/hillbilly people; I had quite the laugh at the swampfolks’ expense
• One of the greatest questlines that can be found anywhere in Fallout 3

Not Recommended for:

• Weapon enthusiasts looking for the next Gauss rifle or Auto Axe. While the weapons in Point Lookout are nice, they’re not super-powered
• If inbreeding hits a bit too close to home for you

Read our policy on reviews here.

The criticisms largely echo mine in reviewing the first add-on, Knothole Island, and it’s an overall shame to again see Lionhead botch its DLC. Costumes and potions will only get your game so far, you know.

You got all excited for nothing, pup

It’s also unfortunate that my predictions of See the Future being more worthwhile turned out wrong–that’s what I get for speculation, I suppose.

News for Thursday: Sony loses cash, a lack of funding shutters another development studio and Telltale Games sells a lot of Strong Bad. It’s all very money-oriented today.

The House of PlayStation might have expectantly lost money, but they're selling many more of these than before

Sony posted a $1 billion loss for the end of the previous financial year ending March 31, 2009; however the company’s operating losses have been cut in half during the same fiscal period. This isn’t anything new considering the global economic issues still plaguing businesses everywhere, but Sony has in the past especially received flak for the high production costs associated with the PlayStation 3.

Now it seems the company has improved the methods of producing their next-gen console to subsequently reduce monetary expenditures and perform better at market in spite of a weakened Yen and slower PlayStation 2 sales.

However, Sony accomplished much more in terms of sales figures: over the last year the company saw a 10-percent increase in sales of PS3 units and a doubling of software sales for the console. Despite the retail successes Sony expects to lose another $1.25 billion over the course of the next fiscal year.

That price drop doesn’t sound too promising, does it?

If only Factor 5 could've used the Force, financially

In some very sad news (as reported by 1UP,) development studio Factor 5, best-known for their series of Rogue Squadron titles, has closed its San Rafael studio. It appears that after financial problems resulting from the bankruptcy of Brash Entertainment last year–with whom Factor 5 was crafting a Superman title–the long-running development studio could no longer afford to keep going.

On a personal note, the Rogue Squadron series for both the Nintendo 64 and GameCube meant a lot to this then-young Star Wars fan. They weren’t just geek indulgences, but truly amazing games for their respective generations and showed what great work Factor 5 was capable of. In the end the company likely felt pigeonholed into the role of “awesome Star Wars game people.” As such they tried to expand their horizons with Lair, which ended up to be a commercial and critical mess.  The complications with Brash seemed to only make matters worse.

Now, they’re gone. We sincerely wish those affected the best of luck in their future endeavors.

Max is certainly enthusiastic about Telltale's success

On the happy side of videogame development, Telltale Games announced that they reached 1,000,000 to-date sales of downloadable episodes for their Sam & Max and Strong Bad games. Congratulations to the independent studio, as it’s quite an impressive milestone to reach for a smaller and more-focused method of creating games.

That’s not meant to sound condescending; it’s a testament to Telltale’s ability to craft humorous titles people truly want to play. I’ll admit I’ve yet to check out any of their episodic games, but now seems like the right time to do so considering the company’s 5-year anniversary sale currently happening on Steam.

Plus, it’s been so long since I’ve watched anything Homestar Runner-related that I might as well get back into the swing of things.

A beautiful vista symbolizing great things on the horizon. But a chance to see the future? Well…not so much.

After our last journey to Albion’s Knothole Island left us feeling cold, dampened our spirits and hung us out to dry, Lionhead brings us another content pack with See the Future. It promises new dungeons, new items, plenty of new achievements and an enticing glimpse into Albion’s (and the franchise’s) future.

But just like any of Murgo’s wares, this new purchase will probably leave you feeling swindled.

Purveyor of curios, doodads, and mysterious music boxes that make people want to shoot you and your sister, Murgo the trader has returned to Bowerstone with a new batch of slightly cursed wares for your perusal. Purge them of their curses and a glimpse into the future is your reward.

That’s the premise, at least. But the two cursed items merely act as portals to a couple of minuscule, self-contained areas that can be cleared in about an hour in total. They’re not without their charms: one tasks you with returning color to a monochromatic land by defeating color-coded, faceless enemies, and the other (and far shorter) quest has your hero dressing up like a variety of Fable monsters to complete a short puzzle. However, they feel very linear, even by Fable standards, and they lack any semblance of permanent consequences for your actions.

Fable II did a wonderful job of shaping the world based on your actions, and even Knothole Island was altered considerably by how you controlled the seasons and where your loyalties lay. Unfortunately, See the Future suffers from an even greater disconnect. The quests feel like deleted scenes from the retail release with almost nothing anchoring them to the game’s canon (save for an appearance from everyone’s favorite sadistic piece of furniture, Chesty,) and the rewards for your persistence are a colossal disappointment and an utterly missed opportunity, respectively.

Even the content pack’s final challenge, the Colosseum, fails to deliver on expectations. While a five-minute battle royale between your hero and hundreds of Albion’s deadliest creatures sounds like it has the potential to offer a difficult challenge for the game’s most die-hard players, it ends up amounting to nothing more than a button-mashing exercise. On my first run through, I earned around 31,000 points, and the grand prize (and score achievement) only require 20,000. Granted, I had maxed out my hero’s abilities on my first run through Fable II, but I was still disappointed that Lionhead still hasn’t managed to make combat challenging enough to require players to be dexterous and mindful of their surroundings.

An innocent soul is trapped within these ruins. Your hero valiantly proves once again just how dense he/she is to fall for yet another ruse like this one.

The DLC’s raison d’être — that whole “seeing the future” bit — is an even greater letdown than the quests that preceded its revealing. Spoiling the specifics would be a disservice to readers, but suffice it to say that, with the exception of one new proper noun being introduced to the Fable lexicon, nothing really happens.

But if there’s any solace to be had in this expansion, it’s that it reaffirms Lionhead’s commitment to continuing the Fable experience. Here’s hoping the studio takes its time to make our next venture into Albion (or other worlds, perhaps?) live up to Fable II’s exemplary standards, instead of releasing more content that fails to improve upon the experience of the retail game.

Fable II’s See the Future add-on is available for 560 ($7.00) in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Recommended for:

• Albion’s most avid heroes who will pay any price for a couple of costumes and some of the weakest quests in the game
• Fans of the game’s voicework and lush environments (which are blessedly still present) who are willing to overlook a dearth of content and a disappointing conclusion in exchange for another reason to return to Albion

Not Recommended for:

• Players expecting a tick upward in quality from Knothole Island; despite the intervening months, See the Future is just as sloppy and even less satisfying
• Anyone expecting anything even remotely revelatory from the game’s glimpse into the future

Read our policy on reviews here.

Also, the two-hour season finale of Lost didn’t help much.

Hurley certainly isn't happy with the lateness of this post

Thankfully, it seems, Wednesday was relatively calm as far as news goes: DICE learned from its console prejudices, Blizzard reaffirmed its next MMO is not World of Warcraft: Part Deux and Microsoft bolstered its Platinum Hits collection.

Expect these explosions to somehow be more "hardcore" in the next console Battlefield title

Veteran Battlefield franchise creative director Lars Gustavsson admits that with Battlefield: Bad Company the team treated console gamers “a bit more gently” in crafting content due to DICE‘s PC background. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Gustavsson talks about the company’s natural progression with its Battlefield games, moving from basic multiplayer functions in Battlefield 1942 to more advanced matchmaking in Bad Company. Still, Gustavsson emphasizes that although the team created a strong console Battlefield game in Bad Company, they now understand future console versions have to be as complex and tailored to hardcore online players as the PC versions have always been.

It’s certainly an appropriate admission for the studio, as Bad Company–though a superb single-player experience that foreshadowed the quality and attention DICE would put into Mirror’s Edge–just didn’t feel like Battlefield. The online portion was very similar in spirit to Battlefield 2 with class load-outs and various vehicles to utilize, but it was more of the same, albeit less grandiose than the PC games. Admittedly, it’s not that easy to shove 64 players into an Xbox Live multiplayer match.

The question now is if DICE will extend these retrospective revelations to their upcoming sequel to Bad Company–otherwise, it’s all talk.  Furthermore, what do Gustavsson’s comments mean for the anticipated (though only rumored) Battlefield 3? Would a hypothetical BF3 become a multi-platform release, a series first for a direct sequel, or will the next core title follow the past trend of PC release first and a stripped-down console counterpart later?

Sorry classic Blizzard franchises–no MMO for you. Besides, Warcraft, you already had your turn.

Though rumored in the past and even partially confirmed by the company itself, Blizzard Entertainment has officially expressed that their next massively multiplayer online title currently in-development will not be based on any of their established StarCraft, Diablo or Warcraft franchises.

World of Warcraft is popular. We all know that. And despite the wide variance in personal feelings about the game, it would be wise to give the Blizzard crew credit where credit’s due–they honed their franchises to be the blockbusters they are today through their own capability and craftsmanship. The company completely deserves its praise and sales.

Still, it’s not always a guaranteed good move to release a brand new MMO under a fresh intellectual property, even if you’re Blizzard. If this next game won’t be based on neither their space, mythical nor fantasy efforts, then what could it possibly be about? Maybe a modern-day MMO where players level up through working menial labor tasks at minimum wage.

We’ll call it: World of Wagecraft.

Army of Two: This much battle-buddy man-love can now be had for less!

Here’s quite the PSA for budget-conscious gamers: Microsoft has added eight new titles to their Platinum Hits line, including popular titles like Gears of War and Mass Effect. It’s good to see Microsoft is bolstering its $20 to $30 hits line (which, admittedly, is an extremely baffling price difference), but let’s be honest here: Gears of War is a nearly three-year-old title and Mass Effect has been selling at the $20 range for awhile now at Best Buy and other retailers.

However, the Mass Effect repackaging does come with the $5 Bring Down the Sky DLC as a bonus–quite the addition for gamers who’ve yet to add BioWare’s fantastic RPG to their collections.

The full list of the new Platinum Hits games, complete with Metacritic links for the curious,  are as follows:

• Gears of War
• Forza Motorsport 2
• Mass Effect
• Viva Piñata
• Army of Two
• Battlefield: Bad Company
• Burnout Paradise
• Fight Night Round 3

Note: Nick pointed out that GameStop stores are offering used copies of Forza Motorsport 2 in a bundle with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for under $20. That offer is a bit more cost-effective if you don’t mind pre-played games.