ass Effect 3 comes out tomorrow. You can stop reading the rest of this article now. Wait, you’re still here? What’s that? You’re not interested in stopping the Reaper invasion of the galaxy as we know it? Wow, I didn’t realize you exist. In that case by all means read on. Because, ya know, there are other games out there.

Remember. Release dates are quite literally made at the whims of the publisher.  The following are subject to change without any warning.

Releases To Watch For This Week

Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday March 6, 2012

Yeah, so Mass Effect 3 comes out Tuesday. Need I say more? Oh all right.

The dreaded Reapers have finally started their once every 50K year genocide of every species in the galaxy not named Reaper, or as the Reapers like to call it, “Spring Cleaning.” Unfortunately for us, they started with Earth. Only Sheppard and his alien allies can lead the charge to repel the Reapers. I hope you made friends in the last two Mass Effects.

Mass Effect 3 adds an interesting twist to the idea of the difficulty level. Combat still have the usual Easy, Normal, and Hard mode, but the game in general also lets you decide how interactive it is. At the beginning, you have to choose between Action, Story, and Role Playing. Action cuts out the fat that is the whole dialogue choosing process that distinguishes Bioware games from every other game. Instead, dialogue moments play out as cutscenes without ever giving you the chance to choose a dialogue option. In this option, the combat segments can be as hard as you want it, or easy depending on your mood. The Story option tones down the combat to Easy mode permanently. You only have to worry about whether or not you act like a total goody two shoes to everyone or some jerk who everyone puts up with simply because no one else can save the universe. Role Playing gives you both without cutting down on anything.

Mass Effect may have started as a Role Playing Game with third person shooter elements, but Mass Effect 2 seems to have proven that the formula is better of as a third person shooter with RPG elements. ME3 solidifies that notion even more with its new Horde mode style multiplayer complete with Call of Duty style leveling system. As you can guess, you and three other players fight off 10 waves of enemies. ME3 does add in objectives in a couple of waves to make things interesting. One wave forces you to take down four specific enemy targets within a period of time while another has you defending a room in order to download data off of the computer terminal. As you kill enemies, you accumulate money and experience points. At the end of match, you use your money and experience to improve your abilities and weaponry.

I can still remember the days Mass Effect was this unknown quantity that was brimming with possibilities. The thought of a game that carries over your story from one sequel to another intrigued as much as everyone else I’m sure. Come this Tuesday, we finally get to see our decisions made way back in 2007 come to fruition. We really are in the future aren’t we?

Street Fighter X Tekken (Xbox 360, PS3)

Tuesday March 6, 2012

The video gaming world doesn’t revolve around just Mass Effect despite what your Mass Effect super fan friends of yours will tell you (Don’t ask me why, but every video gaming circle of friends has one of those). For example, another big budget, triple-A game is set to release on the same day as Mass Effect 3. Shocking, I know.

A couple of years ago, the thought of a crossover between arguably the two biggest fighting game franchise would cause more than one kind of body fluid to be secreted by fighting game fans. And then they announced Street Fighter X (Read: Cross) Tekken. Now fighting fans will definitively know if Ryu’s Hadouken can indeed crush Jin and his non-firballing ways. In case you’re wondering, the game will be more akin to a Street Fighter game as opposed to the 3D fighter, Tekken (That dream will be fulfilled in the next crossover Tekken X Street Fighter). SFXT does borrow Tekken’s tagging system wherein you get to switch out your fighter with another one that’s waiting in the wings.

You can expect most of the standard Street Fighter fighting engine such as a Super Meter, called the Cross Meter, along with Ultra Combos and other familiar mechanics, but SFXT does add some new, fairly controversial systems as well. The gem system allows players to add subtle bonuses to any fighter based on the three they attach to their fighter. You can use damage bonus gems, Cross Meter boost gems, and other gems with some kind of a boost. The balance comes in the conditions that must be met for these boosts to activate. One requires you to land five normal attacks before the gem can activate. Another one only activates after you get hit by two special moves. As powerful as the gems may sound, the price that must be met should theoretically offset these benefits.

Another, also controversial system helps players turn the game around if they are near death. Pandora mode gives a fighter a significant power boost, but you must sacrifice your teammate and only if he/she is at 25% health or less. If you think that’s bad, Pandora mode last exactly 10 seconds. If you didn’t win with Pandora mode, you lost. Literally. Nothing like a 10 second life span to really get your blood pumping doesn’t it?

Usually, the two SKUs of the game wouldn’t have much difference, but this time around the PS3 version maybe the way to go. Capcom has announced five exclusive characters for the PS3 including Cole McGrath from the PS3 exclusive inFamous series, PacMan piloting some kind of a robot, Toro and Kuro (Sony’s mascots over in Japan, and even Mega Man in the style of the infamous box art of the first Mega Man game. The Xbox 360 gets nothing.

The thought of crossovers always fire up people’s imagination, and this one will be no different. Now let us decide which of the two is the true king of fighting games.

Honorable Mention

Crush 3D (3DS)

Tuesday March 6, 2012

Normally, ports don’t make it past the “Coming This Week” section, but given how the original game was on the PSP, I’ll make an exception. Even though Crush 3D isn’t an exact port of the original Crush, most of it, namely the mechanics, remain the same.

You play as Danny who’s testing an invention that allows him to literally change the environment from three dimensions to two and back again. In other words, Danny can crush the world into two dimensions based on how he’s looking at it. For example if he’s standing by a gap but far in the distance is a platform that if it were just on the same 2D plane as Danny could be used to cross the gap, all he has to do is crush the world, then, all of the sudden, that platform is on the same plane as Danny. Given this power, you must navigate Danny towards the goal of every level.

Explaining the mechanics for this game can be a little bit impossible, but the original has proven the idea to be sound back on the PSP garnering a Metacsore of 83 from 41 reviews according to Metacritic. Given the PSP’s fan base, this sort of port could give the game the attention it so rightfully deserves. Now how do we peel people away from Mass Effect 3 long enough to pay attention to this game? A coupon for free lap dances in every copy perhaps?

Major League Baseball 2K12 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS)

Tuesday March 6, 2012

Being the only choice for non-PS3 owners isn’t a bad place to be, but when you consider how overshadowed the MLB 2k franchise has become it’s nice to see them continually get better year in and year out. This year MLB 2k features refined My Player and MLB Today season modes being supplemented with improved AI and commentary that updates itself throughout the game. The conversation in the booth sounds eerily natural, almost as if Thorne, Phillips and Kruk were in the room narrating your game. The new throw meter adds a risk and reward dynamic that furthers the games authenticity by allowing you to rush the throw back in or take the time to set your feet. The only thing left to say now is “Play ball!”
-Wolf96

MLB 12: The Show (PS3, Vita)

Tuesday March 6, 2012

My favorite sport by far is baseball, and thus when it comes to video games, MLB: The Show has been my sim choice since 2006. This series has been far and away the bee’s knees for baseball since its debut, and MLB12 seems to be falling right in line. This year’s list of improvements includes pulse pitching (adding a layer to pitching accuracy), zone plus analog hitting (better plate coverage at the dish), and my personal favorite – better trade logic (let’s hope they finally get this right!). Even the full immersion of the Playstation move sets me off into multiple nerdagsm. For us fans of downtrodden franchises, The Show is a call to arms. One I’m gleefully ready and willing to accept.
-Wolf96

Coming This Week

Tuesday March 6, 2012

Blades of Time (Xbox 360, PS3)

Oh look, they made a Bayonetta sequel! Waitaminute, why is she blonde, and where’s her glasses? Blades of Time may sound like a Bayonetta sequel (Badass chick with swords and guns slashing and shooting anything and everything with some time manipulation mechanics), but the time rewind function sets this action slasher apart. You have the ability to rewind time, but doing so creates a clone of yourself doing everything you did right up to when you rewind time. Essentially you can double team, triple team, or even quadruple team an enemy or a group of enemies. It also comes in handy for some puzzles as well. Kinda gives a whole new meaning to threesomes doesn’t it?

Country Dance: All Stars (Xbox 360 Kinect)

You ready to get your country on? Think Dance Central with 35 country music tracks. No, seriously. Everything about this game screams Dance Central knock off with country music. How Harmonix haven’t sued the living daylights out of Game Mill escapes me.

Ridge Racer Unbounded (Xbox 360, PS3)

Ever get the feeling that Ridge Racer games are a little too similar to cockroaches. One passes by you, and you know there’s more coming. The big shtick here gives the players a buttload of modes in addition to the usual racing mode like Survival mode where crashing even once means losing or Drift Attack where the constantly ticking clock can only be increased by drifting among others. In a first for the series, Unbounded comes packed with a pretty flexible track editor. Happy Ridge Racering!

Unit 13 (Vita)

Poor Zipper. This once shining developer of the beloved SOCOM series has lost so much of its luster. Clearly they have a knack for making military third person shooters because they’re at it again with Unit 13. Instead of focusing on a story,Unit 13 boils it down to completing a series of disconnected missions and aiming for the highest score possible and posting it on the leaderboards for the world to see. It also has a leveling mechanic where your operatives get better gear and skills as they level. Check out the demo on the Playstation Store if this somehow sounds pleasing to you.

Sunday March 11, 2012

Mario Party 9 (Wii)

Speaking of cockroaches... To be fair, the last Mario Party came out five years ago. I can remember a time when Mario Party was nearly annualized. Hell, the GameCube had four of them! Anyways, this Party has either a distinct lack of motion controls or a much-reduced usage of it. Moreover, players don’t move independently of each other anymore. Now everyone rides the same vehicle but takes turn driving/rolling the dice. Beyond that, you already know the rest. May the dice ever roll in your favor.

Late to the Party

• LEGO Harry Potter Years 5-7 (Vita) 3/6/2012
• Supremacy MMA (Vita) 3/6/2012

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