Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS!

I think anybody reading this will know what’s up by now.  Mass Effect 3′s ending angered many a fan to the point where they were demanding changes.  Conspiracy theories abound!  The REAL ending was going to be DLC in a move to make money by EA.  It’s actually something really wacky called Indocrination Theory that makes Bioware about 10x smarter than most of us.  Bioware hates children and supports disease….ok that’s not true, but judging by the level of freak out by some, it seems that way.  As hard as it was to not weigh in my review, I wanted to keep that spoiler free.  THIS ARTICLE IS GOING TO BE FULL OF SPOILERS.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.  I’m glad I waited because today Bioware announced that the “Mass Effect Extended Cut DLC” will be coming this summer and will be free.  Is this a good idea?  Did fans get what they want or destroy the creative process for all game developers in the future?  What of the children?!  Let’s discuss.

Pre-order bonuses: ransoming content

Micro-payments have become big business on this console generation with the introduction of downloadable content and love it or hate it it’s here to stay. Add that to pre-order bonuses and things start to get a little hairy.

Gamestop has been giving downloadable bonuses for pre-orders for quite some time, whether it was a nuclear gun Mass Effect 2 or a fast horse in Red Dead Redemption. Apparently Rockstar felt the pre-order bonus worked so well they’re stepping it up a notch for L.A. Noire. Not only are they releasing custom clothing for your character, but they’re actually releasing cases as pre-order bonuses.  The concept of receiving additional playable content as a pre-order bonus is annoying enough, but Rockstar has seen fit to offer separate content at different stores.

Rock Band 3 and Music Games: More Expensive Than Harmonix

Raise your hand if a room in your house contains a plastic instrument.  My hand is up.  And since I can’t tell if anybody reading this is raising their hand or not, I’m just going to assume a bunch of you are because it helps my point.  It’s the internet, this is considered research.  So this article started in my head as a review of Rock Band 3, which it still sort of is.  The more I thought about it though the more I realized that one basically has to take music games as a whole, at least Guitar Hero and Rock Band anyway.  Why were they so popular?  Why are sales numbers dwindling now?  How the hell did Harmonix, the main force behind creating the genre via Guitar Hero, get sold for FIFTY DOLLARS?  That is less than I paid for Rock Band 3!

What I want for Christmas from video games

I’m angry.  I was never a Scrooge before.  Holiday time!  Trees! Presents! Santa!  But not anymore.  Oh no those magical childhood days of unicorns and guitar playing chimpanzees (my childhood was freaking great ok) are over.  How can I tell?  I don’t want new video games for Christmas.  Games worthy of our duckets come out every single month of the year now.  What I want heading in to the new year is some stuff to CHANGE.  Games are great, we write about them, you guys come here and read about them (that isn’t totally true, we definitely write about them but most of you come here to check out the pictures of hot chicks from Blizzcon, but whatever) and everybody is happy.  That doesn’t mean there aren’t  some fantastically stupid things going out in the land of interactive media though.  What do I want for Christmas?  I, much like our President, want CHANGE.  Not in a healthy country affirming way, I don’t have time to worry about that.  I want the experience of being a gamer, be it the games or how we play them, to change.  So let’s get on it developers.  Let’s make 2011, which looks like another enormous year for gaming, a step in the right direction.  Or, let’s at least stop being stupid.

General Mish-Mash: Podcasting with poorly drawn Potatoes

General Mishmash is a REAL man's potato.

Stuff. You talk about it. Sometimes you wish other people talked about it too. Well, we are other people. Presenting the first Faceplant podcast, General Mish-Mash episode 1! We hit some of the hottest topics in the universe today, such as why hammocks are awesome. Seriously. But we also talk about how 3d games will be invading our lives and making them more….expensive? Speaking of expensive, Tophat freaks out and explains why Modern Warfare 2′s DLC is the devil and we’re all idiots. We also hit on some other big games such as Borderlands and Left 4 Dead 2, but really sink our teeth into what makes Mass Effect 2 great. And terrible. And also, kinda ehhh. With quick hits on game remakes, developers mailing it in, and many reasons why Enosh sucks, you can’t afford not to listen. Enjoy!  (The voice we referred to as “Peck” is actually “Tophat”.  Don’t ask.)