Hey, what do you all think of the new background for my site? I think it is awesome myself

I just changed the layout and background for this blog.  It now has a Halo themed wall paper and will make it look much more video game oriented than a generalized video game blog. I think I will keep the halo themed background for the time being (at least until I come up with a better one).  I will also updating my tabs, pages and ads on the site (such as making the affiliate offers on this site beg more related to the video game niche, like he Amazon.com ad I have for the Xbox 360. Stay tuned for more updates.

Just merged this site with my Xbox 360 fan site

Hey everyone, in case if you have not noticed, I decided to merge this blog with my Xbox 360 fan site (formerly at www.xboxfreak.ws).  It has proven to be difficult to maintain both sites and both this blog and my Xbox 360 fan site pretty much cover the same kind of niche (video games, xbox 360, etc) and so I decided that merging the two websites into one site would be the best way to go.  By the way, I did transfer some of the content from my other site (such as the links page from my original site).  I will also rewrite my reviews of the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and the Kinect as time allows.  Also a nice thing about having a blog is that it is easier for people to comment, share content, as well as subscribe to the feed on my site.  Stay tuned for more posts. 

Come See ME at SGC2013!

ScrewAttack.com's gaming con, SGC, is returning June 21 - 23 of this year and I'll be a guest: Doing some panels, hanging out and I'm hoping to have a supply of books to sell and/or signby then as well.

Registration is still open, and if you do it through THIS LINK you'll be directly supporting me and The Game OverThinker series. So... think about doing that, please :)

Mass Effect 3 - is it worth playing? Ryan's Review of Mass Effect 3

Well, the epic finale to the Mass Effect series is here and assuming you have not played the game, or maybe you have but want a different take to the game, you are in luck.  I will share with you my experience with playing Mass Effect 3.

 

Overview / Story of Mass Effect 3

Ah, it is officially War of the Worlds, Mass Effect style.  I got Mass Effect 3 about a month after it came out and I was definitely looking forward to the game, especially after beating Mass Effect 2 twice not long before Mass Effect 3 came out and so I still had Mass Effect 2 still fresh in my memory when playing ME 3.  Storywise, as it turns out the first 2 games in the series seemed to have served to set the stage for the events in the 3rd game.  Saren from Mass Effect 1 and the Collectors from Mass Effect 2 were merely pawns of the reapers, which is an evil alien race basically bent of a genocidal war against the human race and other races they don't like and now in Mass Effect 3, the reapers have arrived and have launched a full scale war across the galaxy (which will definitely remind you of movies and books like Independence Day, War of the Worlds and even Power Rangers, where you get evil alien races trying to conquer the universe), and even Earth is facing possible destruction by the reapers.  Initially commander Shepard was relieved of his duties and was grounded on earth after the events of Mass Effect 2, as well as the expansion pack "The Arrival", namely his temporary alliance with Cerberus (the Alliance did not take kindly to Shepard's involvement with Cerberus) as well as an incident where he destroyed a warp drive in the Batarian sector of space and accidently killing Batarians when trying to keep the reapers from entering the Batarian sector and wreaking havoc early on.  However, once the reapers invade Earth, Shepard is once again called back to duty and it is basically up to him to amass a huge army of all of the races across the galaxy and create the ultimate weapon known as the Catalyst that can be used to stop the reapers.  To make matters worse, Shepard's former allies at Cerberus have gone rogue and the Illusive Man (who was possibly indoctrinated by the reapers) has launched a scheme to control the reapers as well as hinder Shepard's efforts to unite the galaxy against the reapers, forcing Shepard to both take on the Reapers as well as Cerberus (though luckily some Cerberus agents like Miranda and Jacob do remain loyal to Shepard).

 Highlights of the game includes but not limited to:

- Curing or sabatoging the genophage, thus drawing Shepard into the middle of a lenthy conflict between the Salarians and the Krogan races.
- Defending the citadel from attacks by Cerberus
- Regaining the trust of Ashley/Kaiden (their trust of Shepard had been shaken by Shepard's tenure at Cerberus during the events of Mass Effect 2) and Shepard maybe be forced to kill Ashley/Kaiden if he fails to regain their trust.
- Getting involved with the conflict between the Geth and the Quarians
- Lots of side missions too, including defending a biotic academy from Cerberus, diffusing a nuclear bomb on the Krogan homeworld, and many others
- Romance options.  In my renegade game, my guy dated Tali, but it is also possible to strike up a romance (at least from male perspective) with Liara, Miranda, Jack, Ashley, and some of the other female members of the crew.  Also, if you have dated 2 different people during the series, jealousy does ensue too and Shepard is forced into a love triangle.
- Massive Multiplayer mode (by the way, playing multiplayer can help improve your readiness rating.

General review of Mass Effect 3

 

The good:

1. Great storyline.  It is also darker than the previous two installments and is much more epic too.
2. I like how you can make choices in the game and how they impact how things play out.  By the way, the Mass Effect series is very unique in a way that choices you make in Mass Effects 1 and 2 can have a profound impact in Mass Effect 3 too .  For example, if any of your squad mates die in the first 2 games, they are dead for good and do not return in Mass Effect 3.  In Mass Effect 1, Kaiden or Ashley will have been killed off (if you played Mass Effect 1, there was a point where you had to save one or the other, but you could not save both) and the surviving character will appear in Mass Effect 3 (ultimately as a squad mate).  It is also possible to have Wrex killed off in the first game too (he will be replaced by his brother Wrev in that scenario).  In Mass Effect 2, characters who die in the suicide mission (btw, it is possible to keep everyone alive in Mass Effect 2 depending on how well you prepare for the suicide mission and how you did choice wise on the final mission, such as choosing the right specialists for the missions, upgrading weapons, shields and engines before launching the suicide mission as well as how well you were able to keep the loyalty of your crew).  By the way if you want to have romances in Mass Effect 3, for some of the characters, the relationship will have to have been started in ME 2 (such as Tali and Miranda).  Choices can also impact how people perceive you (were you a total jerk or were you a nice guy), who is on the council, and ultimately how the game plays out.  You also have big choices to make in Mass Effect 3 too that will also dictate how things play out too (one example is when you get involved in the war between the geth and the quarians, and at the end of that mission, you can either choose to bring peace to the two races or anhilation to one of the two races).  I've never seen anything like the choice system from the Mass Effect series where choices from one game can affect the other (even the Star Wars Knights of the Republic games did not have this).
3. The game is pretty long too.  Seems to be a little bit shorter than Mass Effect 2 and you don't have nearly as many side missions as you did in Mass Effect 1 or 2, but the story line will take you several days to play through.  By the way, there are expansion packs and additional missions that you can download from Xbox live, but it does cost extra to use them, but they can extend the game quite nicely.
4. Smooth controls
5. Multiple difficulty levels.  Casual players will probably like the easy mode difficulties, while more advanced players and diehard gamers will probably like the harder mode difficulties. 
6. Great voice acting.  I thought that the actors did a pretty good job portraying their roles
7. Lots of suspense and the game will keep you on edge. 
8. I liked the final showdown against the reapers as well as Cerberus.  Even the final confrontation against the Illusive man was pretty cool.
9. Great shooter elements too.  I like how you can customize your weapons as well as the selections of the weapons and abilities you can use.  I remember in Mass Effect 2, the selection was a bit more limited.
10. Excllent Grapics too - just as you would expect from an Xbox 360 game

 

The Bad

1. Like others, I thought that the endings could have been better, though the extended cut expansion pack does make them better and expands on each of the endings. Also I do have to admit that the final confrontation against the Harbinger and the Illusive man were a bit anticlimactic, a good final boss battle would have been awesome.  It would have been awesome to take on the Harbinger in an epic boss battle as well as the Illusive man being turned into a reaper monster that you have to fight.
2. This game might be too dark for some people.  If you thought that Mass Effect 2 was dark (especially during the final mission when you take on the collectors), Mass Effect 3 is significantly darker.  Even towards the beginning of the game when the reapers invade earth, it was pretty much "hell on earth" (much like a scene you would see in the game, Saving Private Ryan with onslaught from the reapers) and there is a scene where a kid (who Commander Shepard tries to help) and a bunch of other people try to escape in a shuttle only to be shot down and destroyed by one of the huge reaper machines (and that is just the beginning of the game).  Also, the entire galaxy is one giant battlefield.
3. I remember having to change disks frequently.  I liked it more in Mass Effect 2 where you only have to change disks twice (once after the horizon mission and once just before you start the final mission).
4. The multiplayer missions do get redundant after a while I know some people will probably like playing alone more.

Final thoughts about Mass Effect 3:
All and all I think Mass Effect 3 was a great game and I bet most if not all fans of the Mass Effect series will enjoy the third and final chapter of the series.  Obviously one can't make everyone happy and there are some downsides to the game too, such as the fact that the game is significantly darker than the previous 2 entries of the series, and the fact that the endings could have been better, but the game definitely has a lot to offer and makes a pretty good conclusion to the series in my opinion.  I found my self playing through the game twice myself and there are several incentives to do multiple playthroughs, such as trying to see how the outcome changes based on the choices you make, having Shepard get in relationships with fellow squad mates (my guy dated Tali in my second playthough, and I thought that was pretty cool).  The game is pretty long too and it will definitely keep you busy for hours if not days. 

Thinking about getting Mass Effect 3?  You can pick up a copy at Amazon.com here!

Mass Effect 4 Sequel? 
I have thought that Mass Effect 3 was the final game in the series, but it seems like there might be another game in the works (at least I have seen articles and rumors on it).  Not really sure what the next game will be about or whether Commander Shepard will be in it, but I suppose there are some sequel ideas I have:
- Prequels trilogy.  I know the Mass Effect series has an extensive back story (such as the story behind the protheans, who fell victim to the reapers long before the main games take place).  Also, the Krogan rebellion would make an interesting game.  There also seem to be events that take place between the games (such as Cerberus taking over Omega sometime between Mass Effects 2 and 3).  I suppose they can also do a "next generation" version of Mass Effect that takes place a whole generation or 2 after the events of Mass Effect 3.  I suppose only time will tell, but I guess we will find out soon enough about upcoming games.  By the way, I don't work for EA games or Bioware, so I have no idea what they are planning so I can only speculate for now.

Ryan Jones
Fellow Xbox 360 Gamer and Amazon.com Affiliate
Want to check out more games?  Be sure to visit my Amazon Associate store.  Here are some hot offers from the store below
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What do you think about Mass Effect 3?  Feel free to share your experiences in the comments below.

The Bad Robot Art Experience @ Gallery 1988

UPDATE:

Framed Album has been SOLD! Thanks Mr. Abrams :)

Signed and Numbered Prints are available to purchase by clicking HERE

To purchase the back album artwork, head over to my Etsy store by clicking HERE

Front/Back Artist Prints will be available in my ETSY STORE starting May 18th

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This friday, April 26th is "The Official Bad Robot Art Experience" at Gallery 1988. Most likely if you follow my blog, then you're well aware of how awesome this show is going to be. Bad Robot is the production company run by J.J. Abrams, and over the years, they have brought us some of the best television and movie experiences such as LOST, Cloverfield, Super 8, Alias, and a little thing called Star Trek.

Bad Robot and Gallery 1988 are teaming up to bring to Los Angeles "The Official Bad Robot Art Experience", featuring over 100 illustrators creating artwork based off some of Bad Robots awesome work. Also, some of the proceeds will help benefit "The Mission Continues", an excellent organization that "...awards community service fellowships to post-9/11 veterans, empowering them to transform their own lives by serving others and directly impacting their communities."

I am very excited for this show. When I first learned about it, I immediately knew I wanted to do a LOST piece for the show. I love LOST. It's one of my favorite shows, and while some people like to hate on the show, and unjustly bash the writers for "not having a plan", I'd like to thank them for creating one of the most imaginative, compelling, and well told stories that's ever aired on network television. For every LOST, we get a hundred CSI's. LOST is so dense, so unique and quite an accomplishment that I fear will never be repeated again. Where the x-files trailed off and went out on a somewhat sour note with the final 2 seasons, LOST had a chance to develop an end-game and went out swinging, and for that, I'm thankful to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

I've continued my "High Fidelity" series for this show with "Jack and the Survivors":

Get ready to put your Seat back and your tray tables in their upright and locked positions, it's Jack and the Survivors! Join Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and more as they crash into your heart with their new hit album "LOST", featuring hit songs like, "Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do", "You All Everybody", and "Namaste". Get ready for a mind-blowing, time traveling good time and flashback with "Jack and the Survivors"!

LOST featured a lot of hidden messages to those willing to spend the time to look for them, and my album artwork along with the back of the album follows the trend. Here's the back of the album with full track listing along with some other hidden goodies.

Also, for each show I make a one of a kind framed album. The albums included with the artwork are always somehow related to the theme of the piece.

So for this show, I tracked down the record featured in what is easily one of my favorite moments from the series and probably the best 2nd best opening scene from the entire show:

Mama Cass's music is featured twice throughout the series, so I felt it was only appropriate to use this record for the artwork:

I will have quite a few prints (108 to be exact) available at the gallery. They are signed and numbered. A small amount of artist prints will be made available on my online store at a later time. I'll post more info when they become available. What would LOST artwork be without some mystery? Hidden within the stack of prints I gave to the gallery, there are 6 variants. They are signed and more importantly numbered, and each variant features it's own unique Dharma station logo seen below:

If you're looking for a one of a kind variant, be sure to ask for the right number when placing your order :)

There is a lot of excellent artwork in this show, and a lot of very talented artists that have in some way been influenced by the very talented people at Bad Robot. If you're in the Los Angeles area, you won't want to miss out on this exciting opening. Also, some of your money gets to go to Veterans who have risked their life fighting for our country, and ask for nothing in return. Thank you to our Veterans and for those currently serving overseas and right here at home.

"The Official Bad Robot Art Experience" at Gallery 1988
Opening - Friday April 26th 7-10pm
Ends - May 18th
Gallery 1988 (West)
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
http://www.gallery1988.com

See you in another life, brother.

Got This Covered (UPDATED!)

As you might have read previously, I wrote a book and it's coming out soon through the fine folks at Fangamer.net. I still unfortunately don't have a set date date of publication to announce, but I can now officially reveal that we'll be publishing it under the title "SUPER MARIO BROS. 3: BRICK-BY-BRICK", and here on your right you can see the cover-art that the fine folks at Fangamer put together for it.

The basic premise is a "novelized let's-play." I've re-played SMB3 (my favorite game and my unscientifically-chosen candidate Greatest Game Ever Made) and chronicled not only every step of the journey (along with corresponding noteworthy events of my real life during the months-long experience) but analyzed each and every graphical, sound and narrative element encountered along the journey for their aesthetic, historical and cultural details. Also included: A history of the "Super Mario Bros." franchise and a separate account of my own personal history as a fan, student and critic of this series in particular and video games as a whole.

More details to follow - YES, we're planning an E-Book. Stay tuned.

EARTHBOUND Finally Returns

Today's Nintendo Direct announced a lot, including a new 3DS Zelda that's a direct sequel to "Link to The Past," but The Internet has spoken and the big news is that SNES cult-classic "Earthbound" is finally getting a release to the WiiU Virtual Console:

By the way, have you seen our new episode yet?

We Are Alright

For those of you who don't know, this whole operation is based out of Boston. So I just wanted to give a quick head's-up that yes, it's true that two (so far) explosions - apparently now confirmed to be bombs of some type - have exploded at the Boston Marathon. I was nowhere near the incident today, and thus far none of my family/friends are confirmed to have been in the area and are not among the injured.

Those looking to help the victims of this senseless tragedy are asked to make donations to the Red Cross and/or to give blood.

Everything About This Is Awesome

People thought "Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon" was an April Fools joke, but it turned out to be a real thing - an "expansion" (though it'll be sold as a standalone item - $14.99US for about an 8 hour campaign - that does not require a copy of FC3 to play) that takes the puuuuuurty game engine that FC3 used to render hyper-realistic jungle environments to instead render a neon-infused scifi/action game with an aesthetic somewhere between mid-80s B-movie and NES-era action game (think Power Blade, Strider, etc) blown up into a 3D FPS.


Yeah. I like this. Let's have more expansions on the line of this (and more smaller, non-budget-buster-pricing titles too) now that "zombie mode" has more or less played itself out.

EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

UPDATE: Re-posted because of an Intense Debate error in the previous posting caused comment threads to disappear. With apologies for the inconvenience, anyone looking to continue an interupted conversation is welcome to do so here.

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.

Canned "Gritty FPS Reboot" of Mega Man SHOCKINGLY Only Looks About 1/3 as Shitty as You'd Expect

Polygon has a great piece up looking at a previously-unknown project - ultimately canceled by Capcom - wherein a bunch of ex-"Metroid Prime" developers (a game series which The Internet has decided, in absence of any factual evidence, that I "hate") attempt to reboot Mega Man (okay, technically "Mega Man X") into a gritty first-person shooter. And yes, there's video...

...Yeah. The story itself is a pretty fascinating look at Capcom wasting presumably good sums of money on a game they never seemed all that sure about and the devs sound sincere, but the Proof of Concept vids look about like you'd expect. I especially like how the "big get" of Adi Granov redesigning the character literally looks like a fanboy-photoshop of Granov's Iron Man armor tinted blue with a Mega Man helmet stuck on it. Still, one supposes I should be thankful that should this have ever actually happened they opted to use a few colors beyond rust and mud.

EPISODE 83: "The Next Crash"

Finally, here's the new episode. Ivan takes over the hosting duties for this one, and he's got some thoughts about the likelihood of an impending Second Games Industry Crash.


UPDATE: ABOUT THE COMMENTS SECTION:Okay. I have no idea what happened to the comments here. For some reason, the Intense Debate comment threads sometimes get randomly dropped from this particular blog. What I THINK is happening is that somehow people are accessing and using the old Blogger comment-system (which you still shouldn't be able to do, but if it wasn't buggy as hell it wouldn't be Blogger...) and that cause the ID thread to disappear. I'm sorry about this and I know it sucks for anyone who was in the midst of conversation via ID. I will be re-posting this episode in a new ID-enabled thread for anyone who wishes to continue with it.

A Tribute to SNL @ Gallery 1988

You can buy a limited signed/numbered print by clicking HERE
You can buy the one-of-a-kind framed album by clicking HERE
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I have been watching Saturday Night Live since I was in my early teens. The show has had some pretty memorable characters over the years, but for me, there is no one better than Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar.

This is Gallery 1988's third group show based on comedy. For last year's piece, I chose Conan O'Brien, and something amazing happened. Conan O'Brien got in touch with me and now is the proud owner of a Joebot original! If you ever happen to make it into Conan's green room, you'll see my artwork hanging on the wall near the front door!

This year, the theme for the show was specifically to keep the pieces SNL themed. I was 12 years old when Wayne's World came out. I loved it. A lot. Next to the possibly obscure Christopher Walken skit where he puts googly eyes on plants to not be afraid of them anymore (See it HERE), Wayne's World is my favorite bit to ever come out of Saturday Night Live. I briefly thought about submitting a fern with some googly eyes... but instead, I decided to create another addition to my ongoing "High Fidelity" series:

I grew up in the small town of La Verne, CA. Across from my old high-school was a church that was used as a location in the film "The Graduate" which they recreated a scene from for Wayne's World 2. They were filming during the summer, and so I got to hang out and watch them for a few hours. In between takes, Mike Meyers came over to meet with the small group of us watching, and he was super nice! This is one of my favorite photos from my childhood:

I also created an album backing (just because it's one of the most fun parts for me, I love creating fake tracklists... I dunno why).

And here is the full framed one-of-a-kind album:

There is a lot of super talented artists in this show, so if you live near Los Angeles, take some time this month to go take a look at the show in person! If you can't make it out, you can always browse the gallery online by clicking HERE.

Come check out the show! It's currently showing in Gallery 1988's newest location until April 20th, 2013

Gallery 1988 (West)
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-937-7088