General gaming

General gaming

OP-ED: Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut Strikes a Satisfying Balance

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 07:12 PM PDT

Mass Effect 3

After a three-month wait, BioWare has presented the final version of the endings to Mass Effect 3. This is due entirely to the outcry that took place following the release of the game in March. Many players wanted more details and felt the game left things too vague after they had invested 100-150 hours into the trilogy; others were of the opinion that the endings needed to be replaced outright. Executive producer Casey Hudson warned gamers recently that today's free downloadable content release would not satisfy everyone, and with good reason: The Extended Cut doesn't provide a bunch of new endings so much as it provides expanded, more differentiated versions of the existing ones, and I for one am perfectly okay with how it worked out.

Spoilers follow below -- if you wish to experienced the Extended Cut for yourself, read no further.

Game Music Roots: Yellow Magic Orchestra

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 06:15 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 25 | VIDEO GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL

Game Music Roots: Yellow Magic Orchestra

Cover Story: A brief look back at the band that created the sound of video games 30 years ago.

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irst things first, watch this video. Don't worry, it won't take very long, and you'll probably end up tapping your fingers to it.

Help 1UP Assemble the Ultimate Podcast Tribute to the Metal Gear Series

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 05:55 PM PDT

For the past 25 years, the Metal Gear series has defined the stealth action genre, as each successive entry gave fans more tools and sneaking abilities to conquer the harrowing nuclear threats present in Solid Snake's world. But there's more to Snake's adventures than explosions and Bruckheimer-esque production values. Each entry also encouraged players to experiment and uncover dozens of hidden easter eggs. It's obvious that series director Hideo Kojima has always had Hollywood-level ambitions for his games -- especially after the series successfully transitioned from 2D to 3D -- but his work has done so much more than celluloid ever could by constantly challenging the barriers between the player and the TV.

We decided to challenge ourselves to come up with another way to celebrate Metal Gear's 25th anniversary and that's where you come in. 1UP wants to put together an ambitious podcast tribute to celebrate Metal Gear. This special episode will feature guests appearances along side user recorded commentary on the series. We're asking our readers to head over to Soundcloud.com and record a 90-second Metal Gear testimonial. Tell us what you love about the series? You can focus on a specific moments, or look at the series as a whole.

The Amazing Spider-Man Review: 2012's Biggest Misnomer

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 04:11 PM PDT

Aside from the obvious answer of "to make money," it's tough to say why Marvel chose to reboot the Spider-Man franchise a mere decade after Sam Raimi's trilogy launched. Regardless, credit has to be given to the powers that be for taking the series in a new direction by choosing helmer Marc Webb, whose only feature film is the amazing, but decidedly not action-packed, 500 Days of Summer. With this decision, Marvel has proven that the reboot will focus on the social aspect of the hero just as much as the spectacle. Sadly, a similar penchant for risk-taking seemed to be ignored by Beenox with The Amazing Spider-Man, their third outing with the franchise.

After playing through this wholly derivative game, I vowed to conduct a full investigation in order to understand the ten hours that I had just experienced. I didn't want this to be a witch hunt, but I was genuinely curious as to why this game is the way it is. You see, ASM isn't a complete travesty, but rather that kind of bland, uninspired slog that's almost worse than an utter mess. There's a lot of blame to go around when it comes to ASM's poor quality, with the first dose being directed at the industry's continued mandate to rush out licensed games to coincide with the release of their cinematic counterparts. This has been a major problem of countless movie-based games over the past few decades, and there's really no end in sight for this quality-hampering scramble. Frustrations like spastic controls and exceedingly long load times are the types of elements that could've been smoothed over with another round of polish, but that would've meant losing out on the boost in sales that result from riding the cultural wave of a major film release.

spider

After a woefully bland introduction (I'll get to that later), it becomes evident that the finger of guilt has to next be pointed directly towards the folks at Rocksteady due to the immensely high bar they set with their pair of Arkham-based Batman titles. After completely redefining the superhero genre of gaming, every other costumed adaptation has exerted all their effort in an attempt to replicate Batman's phenomenal formula. I noticed this first with last summer's Captain America: Super Soldier, and now ASM has once again proven that if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Rocksteady must be straight up wheedled.

iMUSE and the Secret of Organic Music

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 03:54 PM PDT

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1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JUNE 25 | VIDEO GAME MUSIC FESTIVAL

iMUSE and the Secret of Organic Music

Cover Story: How one of gaming's greatest achievements went mostly unnoticed.

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pecial effects work best when we don't realize their presence; when we don't see the strings, models, or CGI that make us aware of a fictional universe's contrived construction. As filmgoers, we regularly hold up movies like Star Wars and Back to the Future as showcases of special effects technology, but rarely do we notice the many illusions and technical tricks that try to sell something less fantastical than a flying DeLorean or an underwater Rastafarian bunny-lizard that everyone hates. It's doubtful that something like Citizen Kane would be nearly as notable if not for the dozens of optical effects that make it such a visually striking and symbolic film, but cinematographer Gregg Toland didn't set out to create the 1940s equivalent of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland or Transformers with his cinematography; he simply used the limited technology and budget available in order to best portray the larger-than-life figure of Charles Foster Kane in the provocative grammar of formalism.

Spot Art

Interview: A Conversation with Go Shiina

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 12:37 PM PDT

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Interview: A Conversation with Go Shiina

Cover Story: We profile the talented composer of Namco classics Tales of Legendia and Mr. Driller.

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o Shiina's name hasn't exactly become a household word, but fans of Namco's core games know his work well. As one of the key composers of the company's sound team, his work has graced works as diverse as Tales of Legendia, Gods Eater, Ace Combat, and Mr. Driller. As a long-time fan of his work, I was happy to have the opportunity to meet Shiina a few months back to discuss his career and his approach to composition.

1UP: I first became aware of your work with Mr. Driller. How long had you worked with Namco before that came out?

Etrian Odyssey IV Eases the Pain of the Hardcore RPG

Posted: 26 Jun 2012 10:12 AM PDT

Etrian Odyssey IV, as the name on the box suggests, marks the fourth iteration of Atlus' portable dungeon crawler series. Some people speculated, based on the fact that it was initially announced simply as "Etrian Odyssey 3DS" more than a year ago, that EOIV would effectively reboot the series by serving as a remake of the 2007 DS game. Based on the Japanese eShop demo that debuted after last week's Nintendo Direct session, that's turned out not to be the case -- but in a lot of ways, EOIV does represent a sort of fresh start for the series. It brings massive improvements in both aesthetics and playability over the already excellent Etrian Odyssey III, revamps the structure of the adventure, and tweaks the character class system.

At heart, it's still the same old Etrian Odyssey: You begin in a town where you define your party and create a guild, accept a mission to explore a softball portion of the dungeon, sell vendor trash to earn cash and unlock new gear, and gather quests at the bar. Your team of five explores the dungeon in a first-person perspective, clearing out wildlife and collecting resources while avoiding deadly F.O.E.s. This time, however, the action is far more accommodating to both newcomers and veterans alike. Your party enjoys a rapid leveling curve at the game's beginning -- your reward for completing the opening mission is enough experience to bump your team up by two levels -- to help get you up and on your feet with the skill tree (which still grants you one perk point per level). And enemies can now appear in rows, leaving monsters located in back row out of reach for your own back row (unless you employ a long-ranged Sniper or Dancer back there).

This sequel also looks considerably prettier than previous Etrian Odysseys. Although the series has always featured a verdant sort of beauty, it's always been low-resolution and kind of primitive thanks to the DS hardware's limitations. The 3DS is no mind-blowing powerhouse, but Atlus has refused to take the lazy approach in moving to the new hardware. The dungeon-crawling portions look about as pretty as you could expect from a grid-based first-person RPG, and battles enjoy considerable visual upgrades. The static hand-drawn enemy illustrations have given way to polygonal beasts that move while idle, when attacking, and to denote low health. F.O.E.s no longer appear on the map as indistinct balls of colored light but rather as actual monsters, which makes them seem much better integrated into the world. You can see the improvements when you meet a massive creature in the second dungeon area that freaks out at the party and smashes through environmental obstacles in its pursuit. Despite the move to 3D animated opponents, the monsters you encounter still retain the look of their hand-drawn counterparts thanks to thoughtful design and texturing.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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