Tag Archives: Mass Effect
Digging deeper into Call of Duty: Black Ops II
If you haven’t read our main feature story on Call of Duty: Black Ops II, set for release Nov. 13, the new game has a story that plays out in the late ’80s and 2025.
But the single-player campaign has some other features that the developers at Treyarch shed a little light on last week during a presentation at the Santa Monica studio. Within the campaign, there will be new “Strike Force” missions that –depending on the choices you make and how well you play the level — will impact the storyline.
“Significant characters in the story, it could be your squad members, may live or die depending on what you do,” says game director Dave Anthony, who draws a parallel between the missions and the “Choose Your Own Adventure” children’s books of the ’80s and ’90s. “There is this whole geopolitical cold war going
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/H5ke9ocyti0/1
Video game sales sink 25% in March
Not even an intergalactic epic was powerful enough to rescue the video games industry from its sales slump.
March numbers were down 25% compared to the same time last year, raking in $1.1 billion, according to data from NPD Group. It’s the fifth straight month the industry has finished a month on the decline.
“While it was a disappointing month, and first quarter, for new physical retail sales of video games hardware, software and accessories, it wasn’t entirely unexpected given guidance we’ve seen from several sources,” says NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a statement.
Hardware experienced the biggest dip, falling 35% compared to March 2011. The Xbox 360 marked eight straight months as the top-selling device, ending last month with 371,000 consoles sold.
Neither Nintendo nor Sony released sales numbers. With Sony’s PlayStation Vita handheld wrapping up two months of availability, the company would only say
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/UkTnhdwEZ3o/1
Multiplayer DLC for Mass Effect 3 unveiled
One day after unveiling content to address a controversial ending, studio BioWare has revealed the first multiplayer download for its role-playing game Mass Effect 3.
The free Resurgence Pack — available April 10 — adds two fresh maps to the cooperative multiplayer component, as well as new weapons, characters and gear.
The two maps are “Firebase Condor, a warzone outpost located on one of Palaven’s moons and Firebase Hydra, an old abandoned quarian colony which has since been converted into a critical power facility,” says a statement from BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts.
Players will also have three more weapons, four reinforcement packs for gear and six new characters, one for each class.
The game’s cooperative mode allows groups of four players to work together to capture key locations tied to its single-player campaign.
On Thursday, BioWare announced free downloadable content tied to Mass Effect 3‘s controversial
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/St-qu7pu6Hs/1
BioWare unveils ‘Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut’
Hated the ending to BioWare intergalactic epic Mass Effect 3? A potential remedy is arriving this summer.
The video game studio and publisher Electronic Arts have announced Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, a free download that “will give fans seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes.”
It will be available this summer for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
“Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans, and we are responding,” says BioWare co-founder and general manager Dr. Ray Muzyka in a statement. “With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe.”
The free offer
Article source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-TechTopStories/~3/CF0xTR2fakY/1
Weekend Game Hunting: Birdwatching edition
Usually, big video game launches are reserved for the AAA, packaged retail game for a PC or home console.
But, as a group of flustered and feathered creatures has shown, mobile games like Angry Birds Space can debut with a bang (or in this case, a really large catapult). That’s what happens when your games have been downloaded more than 700 million times. Let’s hope more mobile games get big enough to pull off launch events like this in the future.
Before diving in to my weekend game lineup, some housekeeping:
– If you enjoy chatting about video games with fellow readers, stop by the Game Hunters forum. There are some great threads on Mass Effect 3 and adding warning labels to games.
– We are also on Twitter. Readers can follow Game Hunters, as well as myself and
