Mass Effect Galaxy (iPhone/iPod Touch) Review
by Shabbir on Thursday, 2nd July 2009 22:56

Being the Mass Effect fan that I am, I had to try the new Mass Effect game exclusive to iPhone/iPod Touch. If you've been following my (somewhat inconsistently updated) blog, then you'll know I'm a huge fan of Mass Effect, despite not having quite finished the first game, although I did end up going on YouTube and watching what happens from beginning to end in the game!

Mass Effect Galaxy takes place between the first Mass Effect game and the upcoming sequel. You don't play as Commander Shepard, the main character in the Mass Effect games, but as a new character called Jacob, who will play a big role in Mass Effect 2. This game doesn't feature Shepard at all, and is a complete side story away from the main plot of Mass Effect 1 and 2.

After the events of Mass Effect, the Alliance are gaining more power in Citadel Space, and more of a reputation amongst the Council races. As was hinted in the first game, the Batarian race don't like this at all, and have taken it amongst themselves to try do something about it! As Jacob, you're on some spaceship when Batarian terrorists attack.

Being an iPhone game, there's only so much that can be done. I rather liked the conversation choices. Similar to the elder sibling on Xbox, ME Galaxy gives you the option to choose your answers to questions and give different statements in conversations, altering the path you take. In ME Galaxy, the effect it has on the game is fairly minimal, simply avoiding certain combats or not.

The combat is pretty straightforward and nothing like the console version. You simple use the iPhone accelerometer to move your character around from a birds-eye view, with your character automatically doing the shooting. You have a few extra attacks available on the right hand side of the screen, and you tap on an enemy to target them. The combat doesn't really play particularly well, and becomes far too repetitive early on.

The redeeming feature of this game is the colourful almost anime-style artwork used. Think of the game as having two 'modes', one where you are in conversation and the other in combat. In conversation, everything is well drawn and the background environments are given nice details, similar to Mass Effect on 360. The combat on the other hand looks like sprites running around on a pre-rendered background, nothing spectacular.

A major flaw with the game is its inability to run on a first generation iPhone. Sure, you can go and download it, only to be hit with excruciating loading times and completely unplayable combat. There is no reason for this game to run so appallingly on the first generation iPhone, since it does nothing spectacular technically at all. It really must be coded inefficiently to run so poorly. It's rumoured that a patch is on its way to fix this flaw.

Having said that, it does run perfectly fine on a second generation iPod Touch, which have faster processors. I haven't tried it on an iPhone 3G, although I assume it will run fine, as well as the new iPhone 3G S.

On the whole, it's difficult to rate Mass Effect Galaxy. On one hand, it's a very nice side quest for Mass Effect fans, giving you a taste of the environment once again and a couple of new characters from the upcoming Mass Effect 2. On the other hand, it's short, it took about 3 hours max, going slow, for me to complete it. The combat isn't great either and pretty repetitive. Therefore, it becomes an interactive storybook. Think wisely before paying, although it's only a couple of pounds at the moment.


Left 4 Dead 2 E3 Announcement
by Shabbir on Thursday, 11th June 2009 15:05

Wow, a lot of debate about this announcement at E3. The first Left 4 Dead has been out for a year, so it's really unusual for Valve to announce a second one, especially since Valve are known to take their time with new releases and make sure it's the best thing possible.

I only played the demo for L4D, but it was very enjoyable. From what I've heard, the second one adds new stuff, but isn't a significant jump to justify a full retail title, and it would have been better to just release DLCs instead. A lot of fans are apparently boycotting L4D2 because they feel that the release of a second game, which isn't a major release from the first, will split the online community in two and result in poor online play. I see their point with this, and have to say I kinda side with them a bit, not sure about the boycotting part though.

L4D2 mainly adds melee weapons, such as axes to the gameplay. That was asked for a lot in the first game, but besides that, and incendiary fire rounds, there isn't a lot of difference between the first and second. Valve have stated though that there will be a bit more emphasis on story, with the player possibly finding out how the zombie infestation came about in the first place.

Regardless, I know Valve will put out a L4D2 that will be enjoyable. I am a bit disappointed that it is so soon though, about the end of this year. I think it would have been better to release the content of this game as a DLC for the first, and then package a new edition of the game with the original and all the DLC combined for a new retail package.


Apple WWDC 2009
by Shabbir on Tuesday, 9th June 2009 11:35

Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference took place yesterday. A lot of hype was built up, particularly surrounding the iPhone having new models. So what did we see?

iPhone 3Gs
A new iPhone model was announced, scheduled for a June 19th released - although I believe that's for the USA and other countries will receive it in August. The new iPhone, disappointingly, keeps the same form factor as the current iPhone 3G, but adds new features.

- Video Recording: finally, after a lot of calls from fans to have video recording, Apple have given their new iPhone this features. It's VGA quality with 30FPS, which is decent although seeing as the new iPhone has a 3 megapixel camera, we would've thought video recording could be a bit better.

- Digital Compass: Not sure in this day and age how useful this really is, but there's a magnetic digital compass built into the new iPhone, which shows what direction you're facing but also orients Google Maps to suit the direction you face. A bit useful if you're completely lost somewhere and need to use Google Maps to show what direction you're facing, but in London, not exactly required for me.

- Voice Control: Every other mobile has some sort of voice dialling feature, and so does iPhone now. Except, you can use it to control your iPod features too now, and other stuff on your iPhone which is quite cool. More of a technological show-off rather than a practical use for me, I can't imagine myself talking to my iPhone on public transport.

- Simply faster: The new iPhone, although technical specs weren't released, is a lot faster than current iPhones, up to 4 times as fast in some cases. Most of the tests that were shown portrayed it being around twice as fast in most tasks, such as opening applications and so on. Data speeds are also up to 7.2MB HSDPA, rather than the 3 or so MB before.

So not sure how much of an upgrade the new iPhone 3GS (S standing for Speed) really is worth the price. The current iPhone 3G has been reduced in price, $99 in the USA but not sure how much that translates to in the UK.

A welcome announcement was that of Snow Leopard, Apple's next iteration of their Mac OS X. It will be available for $29 for upgrade users in September, which is a great price! It builds more on back-end stuff rather than front-end that directly impacts the users, but still looked impressive. You can find more information from Engadget.


Fallout 3 DLC: The Pitt
by Shabbir on Monday, 8th June 2009 19:06

Having recently been introduced to a huge amount of free time thanks to Summer holidays, even though the weather doesn't quite resemble the season, I thought that I'll go and get some Microsoft Points to buy the two latest DLCs for Fallout 3, The Pitt and Broken Steel. Altogether, there are three DLCs for Fallout 3, (1) Operation Anchorage, (2) The Pitt and (3) Broken Steel. A couple more have been announced and should be coming out later this year, but I'll talk more about that in another blog post.

I completed Operation Anchorage a while ago. Like I mentioned before, it felt like a side mission taking place in a different environment, which was quite nice. Instead of the wastelands, it takes place in Canada and we get to have a feel for the snowy and hilly environments. It runs for about 6 hours, and is quite linear, but still enjoyable. It definitely makes Fallout 3 feel a lot more like a first person shooter rather than an RPG.

I recently played through The Pitt, the second chronological DLC released. Similar to Operation Anchorage, The Pitt takes you out of the wasteland to where Pittsburgh used to be, now known as The Pitt. Without giving away spoilers, people are being held as slaves and are infected with terrible radiation, causing some of them to mutate. You, being the hero or villain, are to make things right or take advantage of the situation as you see fit!

The Pitt doesn't last long. I finished it in roughly 4 hours and to be honest, it wasn't that great. There are small side quests here and there, but they aren't very interesting or engaging. The main quest itself calls your decision making into question and makes you think about what's right or wrong, but it should still be clear what needs to be done, depending on how you intend to play the game.

I had a few problems with this DLC. Firstly, at times it wasn't obviously clear what to do. It seemed quite linear and unpolished, and I also had it crash on me a few times. At one point in the game, you are to pick up your equipment, but it isn't made clear where it is and it had me running in circles before I found it was in a stupid box on the floor. This part seemed to be put in just for the sake of it, rather than being written in properly.

I don't think The Pitt is really worth the purchase. Unless you're a hardcore Fallout 3 fan that must play every inch of the universe of Fallout, it's simply not as enjoyable as the main game itself. There are flaws too, so be prepared to potentially experience some glitches and crashes - remember to save often!

I haven't tried out Broken Steel yet, however I think I'll be taking a break from Fallout 3 in general so that I can give Mass Effect a deserved replay, as I never finished it the first time I played it. Hmm... doesn't count as a replay then does it... oh well!


E3 2009 So Far...
by Shabbir on Wednesday, 3rd June 2009 13:13

My personal highlights so far from E3:

- Mass Effect 2, more gameplay trailer, looking pretty solid and can't wait to get my hands on the game
- Star Wars The Old Republic, trailer that's looking pretty good, not really gameplay but hopefully it'll be a good MMO
- Alan Wake, it was shown first a few years ago, so it's good to see it's making progress and hopefully it'll be out soon
- Various XBox Live services, including Sky on Live to watch sports, Facebook & Twitter integration
- Left 4 Dead 2 :D
- Metal Gear Rising, can't wait to see some gameplay footage, although it was never said to be an exclusive to 360 although it was only mentioned at the Microsoft talk
- Modern Warfare 2, this is looking amazing! Should be a worthy successor to CoD4: Modern Warfare
- Announcement of Crysis 2 being on both PC and PS3/360
- Super Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii <-- looks very cool
- Goldun Sun DS, I played the first two on GBA, should be another solid RPG
- Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, I'm starting to hope the franchise doesn't get abused with too many spin-offs...
- PSP Go, the worst kept secret, looks nice but overpriced

There was a lot of other stuff too, but these are the things that really stood out for me.

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