Mark Meer isn’t just the voice of Commander Shepard (among other characters) in BioWare’s award-winning Mass Effect franchise. He is also a cast member on the CBC Radio sketch comedy show The Irrelevant Show. Despite the fact that he’s probably the most famous cast member of the comedy troupe, he doesn’t let that fame go to his head as evidenced by his turn answering fan mail on a recent episode of the show.
While Microsoft eliminating the DRM on the Xbox One can only be seen as a good thing, it wasn’t all positives to come from that. The elimination of the online check-ins and mandatory installation of games resulted in the elimination of the family share program which was considered one of the bright spots of the upcoming console.
However, the might have been for the best. Reports indicate that the Family Share program wasn’t actually going to allow you to share full games with your 10 family members on Xbox Live. It was going to let you play the game in hour-long chunks rather than the whole game.
We’re ten days from the death of Google Reader. If you’re still looking for an alternative (like I am), here are some options. [BGR]
Not only does the PlayStation 4 have the Xbox One on price and privacy concerns, but it may also have the better controller, too. [PA Report]
Well-regarded European game magazine Gamereactor has committed a major faux-pas by scrubbing Ellie off the cover of an issue about The Last of Us. [Destructoid]
Skulls of the Shogun is coming to Steam soon but its path to the digital distribution service was undermined by troubles with all of the Windows 8 hoops they jumped through with Microsoft Studios. [RPS]
I might be going into Game of Thrones withdrawals. I’m actually linking to a post called “Game of Thrones Season 3 As Infographics.” [Vulture]
Taiwanese animation producer NMA, or Next Media Animation if you’re more formal, have a unique way of explaining news. I’m not sure I’ve seen a more accurate, or more colourful, way of explaining Microsoft removing DRM from the Xbox One but NMA has it covered. Personally, I think their depiction of the Xbone isn’t too far off the mark.
GOG.com has been running a Summer sale from the start of the week until July 5th. Almost their entire catalogue of games is discounted and they run a fresh set of daily deals every day with massive discounts.
Today is noteworthy because they have a massive collection of daily deal to celebrate the start of summer. Over 150 games on available, individually and in bundles, for a deep discount today. Some of the highlights are a Square Enix bundle featuring Thief and Deus Ex for 75% off and a classic Dungeons and Dragons collection (including Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment) for 80% off. On the indie darling front, the best deals include Hotline Miami for 66% off, Fez for half-off and, one of my favourites, FTL for only $2.49 at 75% off.
Check out all of the deals at GOG.com.
The most successful video game on the market right now is the Call of Duty series. Say what you will about the game’s lack of innovation and utter disregard for the single-player campaign, this is the most commercially successful game on the market. The last couple of years have seen gross sales of over $1 billion and units sold well in excess of 10 million.
As such, you could understand why everybody is looking to CoD for cues for their upcoming efforts. Just look at the new all-brown colour palette and gritty art style of Dead Rising 3 and EA turning Battlefield into an annual franchise. The thing is that Call of Duty’s success isn’t about how it looks or how often it comes out. It may come as a shock but there’s a simple but largely undiscovered formula that makes CoD a massive success.
The lead writer of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, Drew Karpyshyn, went on Toronto radio to talk about his time working on the Mass Effect trilogy before getting moved to Austin to work on The Old Republic. In his interview, he talked about the ending to the trilogy that he had originally envisioned and whether it was truly cut by BioWare and EA in favour of the deus ex machina ending in ME3.
The controversial zombie MMO, The War Z, has a new name that you should be aware of with the Steam Summer Sale fast approaching. The War Z has been rechristened as Infestation: Survivor Stories after the United States Patent and Trademark Office said that publisher OP Productions couldn’t trademark The War Z.
If you recall, The War Z launched in December on Steam and was quickly the subject of much controversy. It was launched as a largely incomplete game with numerous graphical and gameplay issues. It was quickly pulled after it was revealed that the game’s description and promotion screenshots contained numerous inaccuracies. The game was relaunched in February but wasn’t reported to be any better.
Currently, the game has a score of 20 on Metacritic.
Dennaton Games is back with more brutal homicidal mayhem in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number. The game follows up on the fallout from the first game with the stories of multiple characters whose paths intersect in an increasingly bloody and violent way.
No release date has been set but Dennaton is targeting a 2013 release.
Before I got around to playing The Last of Us, I found a fun little sink published by one of new best friends of indie developers everywhere. Adult Swim Games’ move from the flash game market to publishing games on Steam was unexpected but their propensity for getting simple but fun games straight onto Steam without going through the hit-and-miss Greenlight system benefits both the developers and gamers.
Their second release on Steam is another upgrade of an Adult Swim flash game. Super Puzzle Platformer Deluxe might be a bit of a misnomer but that doesn’t make Andrew Morrish’s creation any less delightful to play.
et geekera 