While the streamlined gameplay and GUI made Mass Effect 2 a huge success, Norman pointed out some major criticisms from members of the official BioWare forums. Threads like “Mass Effect 2 is not an RPG” and “Gears of War with interactive dialogue” were given as examples of disappointed fans complaining about the strong shooting focus of the second game.

Likewise; with the transition from the first title to the second, BioWare is taking these criticisms to heart for the third game, hoping the third installment will offer “richer RPG features” and “more combat options.” Something that we can probably expect to see less, howeever, is the mining minigame, which was described by Norman as the part that “nobody liked.”

[Via: Joystiq]

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Crysis Wars had a total of two other free trial weeks since it was launched 7 months ago. The free trial that has started yesterday will continue on until next friday, which is 17th of April. During this time, players will be able to play through all of the maps, use all three mods and all multiplayer features without any restrictions. You can dive into Crysis Wars by signing up and downloading the game from this site.

[Sign up and client download: MyCrysis website]

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I think that most of us gaming aficionados who have played or at least heard of Sony’s mind-blowingly action-packed adrenaline-pumper hardcore action platformer God of War have been waiting for the sequel to the greatest action game of all times, God of War III. And the geeky gamers we are, most of us must have seen the trailer of the upcoming game by now. The good fellows at joystiq.com have brought us some more goodies for us: raw gameplay footage and impressions from the game. In this new clip, Kratos fights off against a horde of enemies by mounting a weakened cyclops and wreaking havoc. The clip also shows us how the new camera system works, and how fluent the action packed scenes look in the game. Read joystiq.com’s post for more info on this particular news.

[Via : joystiq.com]

Related posts:

1. BioWare sets goals for Mass Effect 3 BioWare’s Christina Norman talked about the radical changes applied to...

1. BioWare sets goals for Mass Effect 3 BioWare’s Christina Norman talked about the radical changes applied to...

Sony places a lot of hope on its videogame division as its electronics business is suffering terribly due to the global economic crisis. Sony projected last spring that its games division would finally make a profit since launching the PS3 in 2006.

Earlier this month, I reported that by 2010, Sony plans to eliminate 8,000 jobs (four percent of its global work force). This is certainly the result of a tail spin of poor electronics sales.

Here’s where Sony probably went wrong.

A pricey console featuring fancy components is backfiring on them as this recession continues to spiral out of control and people are less inclined to drop money on the priciest gaming console. And why should they?

An entry-level PS3 model costs at least $150 more than the Wii or the cheapest Xbox 360, right? And although the PS3 has Blu-ray functionality that isn’t in the Wii or the Xbox 360, it’s still a bitter pill to swallow when parents just want to buy a respectable video-game console for their kids. Besides, the cost of actual Blu-ray players are relatively inexpensive, and you still can get one with an Xbox 360 for cheaper than what it would cost you to buy a PS3. Dang!

We also know that Microsoft helped its sales of the Xbox 360 when it slashed the price this past fall and bundled games, too. Nintendo kept the Wii’s price at $249 but cranked out more consoles taking care of the shortage problem.

Let’s also be frank…Sony hasn’t had the great exclusive titles it enjoyed with the PlayStation 2. Microsoft has its heavyweight giants Halo and Gears of War franchises. Nintendo’s big money makers are mostly in-house games. While Sony used to have a stronghold of exclusives, clever Microsoft found a way to get game publishers to launch biggies simultaneous with Sony.

Lastly, the PS3 just costs way too much to make. Last week, I told you Sony found a way to take the console which once took $840 to manufacture, and make it for $448.73. Granted, it still loses money on every PS3 it sells because it retails at $399, so Sony is going to have to cut the price to help boost sales.

Let the numbers speak for themselves. Since its launch, the Wii has sold nearly 35 million units, the Xbox 360 has sold 22 million, with the PS3 trailing at 17 million. Let’s get even more specific. Last month, in the US, the Wii sold 2 million, consumers bought 836,000 Xbox 360′s, and only 368,000 PS3′s were purchased.

While Sony’s best seller last month (according to The NPD) was Call of Duty: World at War…dang again! The Xbox 360 version sold twice as much.

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Whose power will be enough to dethrone the King?

Even Age of Conan and Warhammer Online, which have been launched as its best contenders, could not stop it! According to the announcement Blizzard has made yesterday, the active player number is now 11.5 million and growing each passing day. The company is fairly content with the current status as they launched the second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, on 13th November, which has broken a record by selling 2.8 million copies in the following 24 hours. Blizzard is currently working on a MMO project whose name has not been announced yet, but we can absolutely tell already that World of Warcraft will not be dethroned until that time.

Visit Wrath of the Lich King Website

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Browser-based online game OGame with millions of players worldwide has some big changes. The new promotional video is sightly.

This was said about the game in the official announcement: The new version includes the change that was awaited for long: visual surface of the OGame changed completely and made more up-to-date and modern.

As from 4th of December the new version of OGame has been opened for use as beta version in 2 servers. These test servers are only available in England and Germany. After the test phase all of the OGame servers will be updated to this new version.

OGame had celebrated its 6th year in the previous month.

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To try Home, which is slated for release in the next 10 days, players must download a piece of free software from Sony’s PlayStation store onto their own PS3.

Just keep in mind that even if Times Online has the scoop, they’re a UK publication who may not be speaking for a worldwide release date.

[Source: Times Online via Kotaku]

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Konami sure knows how to cause a stir. An update to the official Konami’s Kojima Productions website seems to suggest that Metal Gear Solid may finally make its way to the Xbox 360. We will admit that this might be a bit of stretch but the black and green coloring of the symbol-filled website is reminiscent of the colors used to advertise the Xbox 360. The Universal symbol for Power, which is prominently displayed on the front of the Xbox 360, is now front and center on Konami’s website. Rumors that the Playstation exclusive title will jump ship to the Xbox platform have been floating around for a while now, so such an announcement is not completely unexpected. Wild speculation continues to run rampant though, with Kotaku interpreting the “i” to mean iPhone, DSi, or Wii. The upside down “i” is used in PSP-based Metal Gear Acid so the new announcement may be related to that game and not the console version, Metal Gear Solid. Kotaku also points out that the URL contains the phrase “mgst” which could mean Metal Gear Solid Touch? Konami has been silent on the matter saying that it does not comment on speculation and apologized for providing only the “standard line” as a response. All we can deduce with some degree of certainty is that Konami has something new on the horizon for the Metal Gear franchise and it wants everyone to start talking about it. We will happily oblige them. Any gamers out there? Feel free to chat this up in the comments – additional rampant speculation is not only welcome, it is expected.

[Source: Kotaku and Planet Xbox 360]

Visit Konami site to see for yourself.

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The World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King that most people have been talking about for months has added a new extremity along the older ones like “Locking up the player to itself for 24 hours without food or water and giving epileptic fits”, “Killing all the end-dungeon bosses in a week”. The game, in the following 24 hours of its launch, has sold 2.8 million copies and became the fastest selling PC game of entire time. The previous record holder with 2.4 million copies sold again was a World of Warcraft expansion pack titled “The Burning Crusade”, which had come out in 2007.

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Users using third party programs to boost their stats and positions specifically in Diablo 2 and Starcraft had their accounts closed. The prohibited accounts will not be able to use the site or game for 30 days. As soon as the penalty ends, these users will be able to open new accounts, but if the same crime is committed again, they will be banned from the servers permanently.

Blizzard representatives asked for the users to play fair. It was said that in order for games to be enjoyable, fair-play in games was needed. Despite this some users were still caught cheating. Also, nearly two weeks ago, 8000 users’ accounts who were caught cheating in World of Warcraft servers got banned.

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