Games Now Playing: (As of 19th December 2012)
- The Walking Dead (PC)

Games Wishlist (As of 19th December 2012)
- Resistance 3
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Metal Gear Solid: Rising
- The Last Guardian
- Bioshock Infinite
- Watch Dogs
- Kingdom Under Fire 2
- Nino Kuni
- Dishonored
- Far Cry 3

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• 29Nov 11

  My experience at Electronic Arts - Part 2

  Hey Gang,

  Now onto part 2, talking about my time with Mass Effect 3.

  I'm not going to give any spoilers away, just describing my impressions with the kinect feature, and a little of the game itself. If you wish to know nothing at all about even small non-spolier game details, then it's safe to read till the second mass effect picture below. Okay so I was working the kinect feature of the game, if those who don't know it'll have Kinect implemented in the game, not mandatory of course.

  

  My primary duty was to test out how well the voice input was while playing the game, using my Australian dialect, as were other people with their own different ascents such as British and French. After that I would do recordings of my own voice, that would be implemented into the Kinect so it would help recognise commands better.

  Once that was over I was play testing the game, checking for bugs and specifically kinect commands that wouldn't work. Such commands that have been placed in the game are exploration, combat, ordering your crew and dialog choices during conversations. What was the point of adding kinect to the game? To make it more fast paced, especially the combat and the power wheel. Instead of pausing the game to select your power you can call upon it (long as you know what they are lol) mid-battle which I think is a nice addition, though the only worthwhile one in my opinion.

  For example, some of the exploration commands are things like picking up items or opening doors. The commands for both are 'open' and 'pick up', which are suitably fine although you could simply press the button on your controller as well. The same goes with dialog choices where you can either speak out the line, or press a button. I suppose it's really up to yourself how you like to go about experiecing it.

  If you have Kinect already it'd be a worthwhile test, although if you don't - I don't think spending money on getting kinect for the game when you already have a controller is a good investment, but that's just my opinion since I've grown up with a controller all my life. I do admit it was a good experience playing with Kinect, but when Mass Effect 3 comes out, I'll be sticking to my nice controller

  

  Right, so what did think of the game? Is it as amazing as what this concept art picture above looks? Yes, it's pretty damn awesome. It's a pretty accurate description of what it'll look like in game, they've defiantly brought the big guns in terms of how massive the scope is supposed to be.

  In terms of graphics they remain pretty much the same par as Mass Effect 2, if for a little better or worse I'd say a little better. What's more noticable is the surroundings with so much happening in the background as your playing. Of course, it's war time in the galaxy so naturally things aren't so quiet for Shepherd, there's plenty of little things that get your attention visually whether it's in the foreground or background.

  The gameplay largely remains the same as before. It's a third person shooter at heart, but with role playing elements implemented. I'm sure the biggest thing people want to know is how much "RPG" is in Mass Effect 3, after Bioware stated that they would bring more of the aspects from the first game into this one, which people criticized the second for having barely any RPG involved to even be considered being called a RPG game.

  Remember in Mass Effect 2, the only real time where you got 'exp' is when you completed a mission for the Illusive man? This time around you get experience for killing enemies again, although it's not individually - it's more grouped when you have a specific events happen during play. Such as killing a enemy squadron or boss, solving a puzzle, finding items, conversations and completing side missions.

  

  The menu system is largely the same, the difference is in the squad level screen. It's been changed a bit to have a little more customisation then what Mass Effect 2 had previously, with choices of certain powers or abilities to have either more damage, radius, recharge, shield, health and so forth depending on your ****

  A better addition this time around is customising your weaponary. Throughout the game, and buying at stores are weapon upgrades which you can use a weapon bench to modify your fire rate, accuracy, damage and ammo capacity as well as weight capacity which affects how quickly your powers recharge in the power wheel. It was a small part in Mass Effect 2 but it's a lot more escalated this time around, with a lot more variety and upgrades to use/find. It's a nice added feature. Oh yeah and Shepherd has a cool melee attack that does a ton of damage if you can get near an enemy.

  I did finish the game, although I started it from scratch and not an import save - I noticed plenty of times where things in the game would've been treated different if you started with an import from Mass Effect 2. I would throw a tip out there that if you only played Mass Effect 2, I would play the first one, then the second because most affected choices seem to come from Mass Effect 1 and not so much #2.

  In my opinion those who enjoyed Mass Effect 2 will love Mass Effect 3, it's pretty much the same game but with added features which I thought all who are nice additions. Those who thought it would regain a lot of Mass Effect 1 features will be a bit disappointed, although they have placed a few things that were in it and taken out of Mass Effect 2. If I had to put a number between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 to say how much of both it is as a hybrid, I would say about a Mass Effect 1.75.

  

  I tried the Multiplayer as well, only for a brief time however. I'll admit I was pretty skeptic about it when I heard Mass Effect 3 was getting multiplayer - but I was a little surprised when I played it and to a point enjoyed it. It's nothing remarkable, and to those concerned it looks like it's just an added feature and but being solely focused upon as much as the singleplayer story.

  There will be a demo out pretty soon, around about early-mid January I believe. The version I played was almost complete so Bioware should have finished by early January. Mass Effect 3 will be out March 6th! If you have any questions I'll answer them, unless they're spoiler related. Hope you enjoyed reading!

  -Maz-

  • Posted Nov 29, 2011 11:43 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 28Nov 11

  My experience at Electronic Arts - Part 1

  Hi Gamespotters!

  Hope you all well coming into the Christmas season!

  I thought today I'd do a blog about the two week experience I just had at Electronic Arts in Burnaby, Canada. I was doing a game tester position for an upcoming game (which I shall reveal at the end) working in the QA (quality assurance) section of the building. I figured for those who might be interested in having such an experience can read on how my short time was working in the gaming indistry.

  So here's a picture at the front, where everyone enters. There's a multi-level car park just around the corner here and there's multiple entrances getting into the vicinity including following up to the top of this road where the main entrance is, which I took.

  There's a bus stop right outside here which I took everyday so getting here is pretty convenient. The place itself is absolutely massive, which I placed a photo of it further down this blog. It's got mutiple buildings with many floors and levels in each one, it's a long walk!
  (The Front of EA Burnaby, in Canada)

  From the main entrance inside which visitors can actually enter, is the reception area filled with some game setups for people to play, many tv screens showcasing EA games as well a small store selling EA merchandise including games, t-shirts, hats and all sorts of swag.

  After that is where only employed people can go. You need a keycard with access to enter the glass doors to get into the main area. I had one the whole time and had to enter through those doors as well as another set of doors for entering the QA section.

  Once in the main area you have the huge cateteria with many chefs cooking and serving food over the counters ith the appropriately named EA-T (EAT) as the name. Also they have their own Starbucks store inside which is pretty nice! There's also a room nearby filled with free to play Arcade machines, which I helped myself with a few games of Pinball and the original Donkey Kong.

  Way further on the other side of the main building is a basketball court, a gynasium, and outside a soccer field - all for leisure at employee's request. Upstairs is where most of the main developers work including the big sport franchise games such as Fifa.

  Safe to stay the place itself is pretty awesome. It also has a small library where you can freely rent games, movies and tv shows which they had a decent collection. There's a lot of discounts that employees can get, including buying new EA titles from the store for 20 bucks, from the usual 60 in retail - which I gladly took advantage with getting Battlefield 3 and NHL12. I also snagged half price movie tickets so there's plenty of reason why it's nice working there.

  

  (The scope of how big EA Burnaby really is!)

  Sounds all nice right? Well finding something bad about it, I would say is the pay you get for doing the contractor work. I'm not sure exactly what everyone gets, but I know within my group those who were here for even a year still got paid what I got paid. It's a pretty lousy 10.50 an hour, so it won't get you anywhere too soon, but if you can handle that then there's plenty of benefits to be had.

  The first day I was given a tour of the place, which is how I know all this info! There's about 800 Employers and 300 Contractors that work at EA Burnaby. Contrators are put on people for specific jobs that can go for anywhere from a single day, to several months. The group I worked with mostly were all contractors, some having the same time as me and others had a few months.

  The QA Area is basically a giant office with tons of desks and office walls, filled with many tv's and game systems. It's a pretty quiet area but has a nice conveniantly placed kitchen and snack bar. I usually had lunch down at the cafeteria with the group I worked with and overall the whole environment is very nice, which is probably not surprising considering EA is a multi-billion dollar company. Gamer's would be happy to work here, despite your love or hate for them lol.

  How did I get this small job? I applied through Craig's List on the web, it asked for passionate gamers who had Aussie ascents - that was it. I have no idea originally it was for EA games since it went through an agency who deals with Contractors. When I got the call I had a phone interview with the agency and an employer from EA, telling me it was for Kinect on Xbox and that it was for an upcoming game.

  It was Mass Effect 3, which brought a grin on my face. So yes, that's what I worked on for two weeks. My main role was to add my voice input and test the kinect aspect for Mass Effect 3, as well as testing the game out fully checking for bugs and writting them in. I'll talk about Mass Effect 3 next time in Part 2, I just wanted to talk about the company itself more in this part. Stay tuned!

  

  -Maz-

  • Posted Nov 28, 2011 3:53 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 4Nov 11

  The FPS Wars

  

  Peeps!

  I think the whole fiasco with the First Person Shooter Wars is just stupid. I'm not saying having this thing in our gaming culture is bad, infact I like it with some tolerence because it brings some spark to the community, even though I personally don't get involved.

  What i do have a issue is where it's directed. For example, right now we have the heavyweight championship this year between Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3. All the talk is which game is gonna score better? what game is gonna sell more? What I see is two games that look extremely alike, which to me I find intolerable.

  What's happened in this generation is a game will come up from the ashes, be a revolution of stunning graphics, gameplay mechanics of some kind which, afterwards a trend of similarish games with follow trend where we have hailed the term: "It's a dah dah dah clone"

  From my knowledge there's 3 that come to mind. You have the Gears of War clone, the God of War clone, or the Call of Duty clone. Am i being harsh? Perhaps i am but from what I've seen being a long term gamer is less innovation in todays gaming world and more copies of a game that more than likely I've just recently played.

  It's boring, plain boring. I understand it's safer for developers to do because it follows suit of a game that has succecced well, but it's not fun - what are we turning into? It's a business that makes money first and foremost which is a reason why we see endless sequels, old remakes, and now HD redos.

  What am i complaining aboout exactly? variety, originality, innovation. No doubt it's still there but when it comes to first person shoooters nowadays, it's all about who has the better and shinier car. The feel and play are usually the same, which I don't have a big problem with (because it wouldn't be fun getting used to new controls every game you play) but there's not a not added to their own.

  Wat do I wanna see, I want see new innovation where developers put more effort into creating a unique game experience that blows our mind rather than, starting the game - moving along quickly admiring the scenary, killing waves of idiotic AI enemies in a pure linear fashion and ending in a less than climatic ending.

  Time should be spent on unadaptive AI, where each time a new tactic is required. Don't just pump up the difficulty and call it 'Extreme Dead' mode where you die in 1 hit. Make it puzzling, get some creativity instead of just sending waves of dumb npcs.

  Give the player a reason why they should be doing what they're doing, instead of saying: those guys, bad - you good. You kill all bad Joe. A story telling experience is pivital to display a game experience. We need a purpose to do what we're doing to feel any emotion involved. Tap into the characters mind, portray what they must be thinking if the situation was real.

  I know most FPS games focus on multiplayer than singleplayer these days which is a shame. It's taking away meaning to have an deep experience and just have a fun shootout for kicks or competition. That's fine, however you should be able to have both aspects in a game - in my opinion.

  I'm sure many gamers don't have a problem with any of this at all, and I say godspeed to you - this is just my opinion on what I think on the leading genre ofthe gaming market, and where it's coming and going from now. I play less and less first person shooter games because they all look and play the same. Where I check out now is the indie games which always come up with new and simple stuff that gets my attention rather than a multi-million dollar AAA title.

  • Posted Nov 4, 2011 11:50 am GMT
  • Category: Rant
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