I started playing Mass Effect 3 on release day and I was amazed by just how action packed the first few hours of the game was. The combat is much more frantic than it was in the previous two games and there’s a fight for survival feeling that keeps you on your toes, always anxious about what could happen next. Many characters are forced to make sacrifices and not even Commander Shepard can save them and every loss has a toll on Shepard’s emotions as well as the emotions of the player. The game just seems to be perfect all around.

Yet I keep reading about this ending controversy and it has me worried. At about 14 hours in I took a break from Mass Effect 3 to return to Dragon Age II, Skyrim, and lately MLB 2k11. I’m not sure if being worried that the ending will disappoint me has caused this break, or if it’s the fact that a lot of times missions have been feeling pretty repetitive (shoot your way into some building / cave / camp, find someone or something and defend this area while waves of enemies are all of a sudden dropped off until you reach a climatic battle against an Atlas that ends in a cut scene). Or maybe I’ve just been in the mood for something different. I honestly don’t have the answer.

Part of me wants to reach the ending of Mass Effect so that I have an idea of what everyone’s talking about (and also every week I come closer to having the ending spoiled for me by overhearing a conversation or glancing at an article on the internet), but another part of me wants to wait to see if there will be an alternate DLC ending that will make my Mass Effect experience more enjoyable so that I don’t suffer any disappointment at all.

Maybe I’ll jump back into the battle soon, but for now I think I’m going to continue to leave it alone.

Today I was browsing ArsTechnica in class and came across two articles that I found interesting.

“Game makers face uphill battle proving copyright infringement in court” by Kyle Orland

Today, especially on the mobile gaming market, it’s easy to come across a large quantity of copy-cat or clone games. These games take the idea, design and gameplay of a popular game, tweak it (barely) and spit it back out as their own product in order to make a quick buck. The article gives two specific examples. The first is the original and addicting game Tiny Tower by NimbleBit which was practically stolen outright and repackaged as Zynga’s Dream Heights (the article features great side by side comparison screenshots).

The second game is Bingo Blitz which was also seemingly photocopied and released as Zynga Bingo. The indie developers are fighting back against Zynga with creative ‘dear Zynga’ letters: Tiny Tower letter  Bingo Blitz letter.

This sort of plagiarism shows not only the greed of larger companies like Zynga, but also that they’re willing to forego creativity to make some quick cash. These acts take away sales from the smaller developers who put in all the hard work to come up with an original idea in the first place.

The second article, “Game Publishers. Huh? Good God ya’ll what are they good for?” also by Kyle Orland briefly describes the role video game publishers have played in history. It explains the importance of a publisher, what they do (in a nutshell) and how their roles are changing in the modern age of gaming. It’s definitely a good read, especially if you’ve ever found yourself wondering what exactly the difference is between a video game developer (such as Bungie, Blizzard, or Infinity Ward) and a publisher (such as Microsoft Game Studios, Electronic Arts or Activision-Blizzard).

So yesterday I played soccer in Forza 4 for the first time and it was a blast. A bunch of nice looking cars (with teams identified by blue or red paint) zoom back and forth on a concrete soccer pitch trying to knock an oversized soccer ball into the opposing teams goal. There were plenty of crashes and massive pileups as everyone frantically raced toward the ball. It wasn’t so much about skill, but rather it was about good old beat each other up fun.

Playing this got me in the mood for more vehicular mayhem. I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good multiplayer car / vehicle game that is more about fun and mayhem than skill (possibly with a variety of mini games and objectives). I’ve played both Blur and Split / Second but neither really did it for me. I haven’t played a Burnout game since the original but I never really liked it then anyway. I guess what I’m really looking for is Mario Kart, so does the 360 have an equivalent with a fun, easy to pick up chaotic experience?

Hey, I just wanted to jump on real quick and make everyone aware that right now you can get a 12 month subscription to Xbox Live for just $39.99, as opposed to the regular price of $59.99, through various retailers including Amazon which sells a digital version (in otherwords as soon as you purchase it you’ll receive a code to punch into Xbox Live, and there you have it, quick and simple). Definitely take advantage of this if you’re a Live gamer.

I believe this deal is also available through GameStop but only to PowerUp members. It isn’t advertised, but yesterday my friend went to buy a card at GameStop (before I knew about the deal on Amazon) and after they scanned his card they changed the price to $39.99.