I've been a fan of the Mass Effect franchise since the release of the first game about five years ago. I've played through it completely to 100%, bought the sequel and played through all of it(DLC included), so naturally I was excited at the prospect of Mass Effect 3 bringing us to a conclusion fitting of what I would call one of the best written sci-fi epics of our time. The fact that the game has always had a strong sense of choice and consequence when it comes to your actions, whether they be a verbal agreement or the more common in modern gaming, "down the end of a gun barrel", really drew me into a world that seemed more realistic than what is presented in most games. In this sense Mass Effect 3 gave me everything I wanted, and more.. until the last fifteen minutes of play.

(SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT)

I'm just going to cut right to it. What. The. Hell. After five years, after all that, this-this is it!? I kept thinking as the credits rolled, "There must be some mistake".. but there wasn't. Not one of my decisions I made during the ENTIRE game had any real effect on the ending. Oh wait, if my EMS is high enough, Shepard lives.. Oh wait, if I choose this ending instead, there's a different color beam of light from the other endings! The green is soo pretty and EDI and Joker are left to repopulate some random distant planet as biomechanical beings. Well that gives me the satisfaction I needed and expected from the series. NOT!

He knows what I'm talkin' about.

Let's delve a bit deeper, shall we? No matter which ending you choose, it plays out almost identically. After the team you take with you to save Earth is killed(@%^#), you deal with The Illusive Man(TIM) who is killed, Shepard passes out and is taken to a strange room or reality with a manifestation of the Citadel/Crucible. Some have put forth, and the novels would seem to back this, that this scene is partially a last ditch full indoctination attempt by the Reapers(Note the appearances of the boy, the growling Greyson experienced just as Shepard did, the differences in the manifestation between endings, and the ominous lines about Harbinger coming, and lastly the manifestation confirming that it is the Reapers) ..but really none of that even matters in the long run because in the end you only have 3 choices:

-Choose to control the Reapers, they leave, Shepard dies. Mass Relays are destroyed and every species is marooned on Earth which will likely fail. Normandy is somehow marooned on a distant planet. In the future the Normandy crew's descendants build a society that might as well not even be part of the Mass Effect universe. These people tell stories about "The Shepard", which we have apparenlty been experiencing.

-Choose to merge man and machine in synthesis, Reapers leave. Shepard dies. Mass Relays are destroyed and every species is marooned on Earth which will likely fail. Normandy is somehow marooned on a distant planet. EDI and Joker make love in the tall grass. In the future the Normandy crew's descendants build a society that might as well not even be part of the Mass Effect universe. These people tell stories about "The Shepard", which we have apparenlty been experiencing.

-Choose to destroy the Reapers, they die. Shepard dies(or lives depending on your EMS but still remains on Earth so he might as well be dead anyway). Mass Relays are destroyed and every species is marooned on Earth which will likely fail. Normandy is somehow marooned on a distant planet. In the future the Normandy crew's descendants build a society that might as well not even be part of the Mass Effect universe. These people tell stories about "The Shepard", which we have apparenlty been experiencing.

Yea, those are the choices.. and Shepard is uncharacteristically cool with all of them. Look, I don't mind when there is a bad ending but this is a BAD ending. As in it's completely flawed and out of place with the rest of the series. It ties up nothing and makes it all seem completely irrelevant, not to mention that it destroys the ME Universe as a whole. I didn't even feel like I was playing the same game in the last fifteen minutes. My choices and the hours of play had no real effect on the final outcome. In fact, the only way my choices would have at least seemed plausible is if I just let the Reapers destroy everything by barely playing and speeding through the story with minimal Galactic Readiness. At least then the cycles would continue and in my opinion that's a much better option and end to the series than what we got. If you had told me that the entire writing crew was fired and replaced by EA officials and novelists, I would believe you in a heartbeat because as it stand now, the ending is just broken.

On top of all that, the so called "perfect" ending, the one where Shepard lives, is just based on your EMS score. Since when should the ending of a ME game be decided by a number or how much you play multiplayer?

There are just so many issues here and I could spend all night going over the specifics which is why I'm just going to bail now and leave this mostly generalized. Bioware, it doesn't matter what DLC or MMO you release, this fan of the series is beyond disappointed.

I've been a PC gamer for a looooong time up until recently when i finally took the plunge and invested some coin into an XBOX360. In my humble opinion, its an overpriced machine considering it's hardware, and the pricetag on the peripherals? FUGETABOUDIT! *Sigh* but I digress. Last Christmas I ponied up the cash for a brand new XBOX 360 Slim and just a couple months ago, I went all in, buying an XBOX Live Subscription and EVERYTHING(and I do mean everything) I would need to play online. As far as subscription fees go, I'm nothing short of a cheap ass and I think charging $60 for basic online play when the protocols are already built into the system and games on top of the fact you bring your own connection anyway, is insanity.. but again, I like so many others, admitted fealty to XBOX Live Gold.

Things were going well for awhile at least, until I decided that I needed MS Points. Basically they're points used to unlock features that are usually already on the disc but the dev was coaxed into removing them from play so that people must pay to unlock them later. It's to be expected anymore as price gouging has become a way of life for just about every business in the U.S. over the past 10 years. I bought 1600 MS Points for $20 and only spent 560 of those points at the onset, intending to save the others for a future add-on coming out later this month.

That unfortunately now will not happen because.. I'VE BEEN FIFA'D!!

Yep. I've done it!

It's a new trend that has now affected more than 1,000 XBOX Live subscribers already, although Microsoft says that it's really no issue at all. I start up my XBOX in the late hours of January 14, 2012, and to my surprise a warning pops up telling me my console has been logged in from another location. Further investigation reveals that 1000 of my own XBOX Live Pts were used and that's not all! The credit card I used to buy the original 1600 MS Points with was ALSO used to purchase 10,000 MS PTS! All of which were used on FIFA JUMBO GOLD PACKS(or some such nonsense) containing what I've read are "Ultimate Player Cards" that can be transferred to other players/accounts. That's $133.73 folks. All billed to this guy(me).

*Note: This is the first time I've ever trusted my card to be saved by a company online. I figured MICROSOFT would have partially decent enough security to make this a snowballs chance rather than a certainty, but it's obvious that I was wrong.

At first I wasn't sure how or what exactly had happened. My XBOX Live account exists on a separate e-mail that I ONLY use on my console to log into my XBOX Live account, so I was at least fairly sure that a computer trojan or other malicious software couldn't have possibly been the cause and I know better than to give out my information otherwise. After calling my bank, I went online to research the matter further. What I came to find out is astonishing. This FIFA 12 Hack/Fraud has been going on since October 2011! It's claimed the accounts of far more than Microsoft's reported "small percentage"(arguably) and all the reports seem to be the same or similar and there are far too many at this point to be a product of phishing or social engineering and the numbers rise daily..

OH YAY! I FELL LIKE SUCH A WINRAR!

The telltale symptom of this hack(other than the obvious hit to your bank account) is the inclusion of FIFA 12 in your games list, even if you've never even played it before and would rather prefer to be forced to perform a disgusting act with 12 feet of nylon chord, a goat, and a tube of astroglide than play it. Most people will notice these two dazzling achievments immediately when they log in. A select few lucky people will see a third, an Ultimate Player Unlock. This means that the use of your pts/cash allowed the 1337 ub0r haX0r to unlock a special player from one of those Ultimate Card Packs and that you must truly be blessed. It's like being robbed with pretty pink bow left around your wallet.

I will have to wait until morning to call Microsoft and attempt to be reimbursed, but as for my points, I'm sure they're probably long gone. This really has me questioning whether or not I made the right decision to bother with console gaming and really makes me wonder if I should abandon XBOX Live if my points that I spent good money for are never truly safe(if that exists anyway). Many online forums are blaming EA in some form, saying that there is a breach and as the numbers rise, that seems to be the word on everyone's lips. The possibility of this being a brute force hack among XBOX Live users after only a simple search is still in the cards but someone somewhere within one of these companies will have to acknowledge that there IS a problem eventually, right? I mean, if it were just 'the popular title of the week' then all the hacked accounts wouldn't exhibit the same signs and not this many months after release.

I suppose I should look on the bright side, I mean, it could have been much worse. Some people have even had their accounts sold on tradertang(euroish ebay) and had serious amounts of cash taken from their associated accounts while not being able to remove the association, living in a virtual support line hell. For now I've changed my password and required a profile recovery to log in, and most importantly, removed my CC association from my Live Account. In any event, I'm told that I can expect to be locked out for at least a month after reporting it while Microsoft launches an investigation into absolutely nothing and keeps my name in a file until I harass them to unlock it or simply create a new account altogether. Even if it does get unlocked then I will still be forced to stare at the FIFA 12 moniker as there is no way of removing a game from the list after an achievement is unlocked. A constant reminder of a system that has failed me.. and on top of that, I absolutely loathe soccer(no offense to it's massive fan base). It's also permanently lowered my completion percentage which isn't too important but is an added finger.

Ya know, it looks like Kingdoms of Amalur will be a PC title for me after all! =]

It's September 2011 and time for theGamespot "All-Time Greatest Sidekick" challenge. Everyone has their picks but just for fun, I'm going to outline mine for this year along with a little commentary on each matchup. Just remember, in the end it's all just opinion as any matchup can potentially go either way.

ROUND 1

Tails vs Globox - An obvious no-brainer as the Sega fans always make a showing to pull for their furry little non-hedghog friend.
WINNER: Tails

Wakka vs Lucca - Kind of an off segment and matched up mainly because of their like sounding names. Too bad those fond memories of Chrono Trigger just won't be enough to stand up to the fans of FFX.
WINNER: Wakka

Dominic Santiago vs The Blob - Blob has more of a chance than you might think, especially if you voted for him. ;] Dominic however is currently cleaning up withthe GoW vote. I expect that number to continue to rise as more fps gamers join the fray.
WINNER: Dominic Santiago

Chocobo vs The Darkness - We've seen this before. First round always goes to Chocobo. No exceptions.
WINNER: Chocobo

Cortana vs Dandelion - Witcher fans beware. It may be one of your most favorite and memorable RPGs but Dandelion has no shot at this. I know people who have posters of Cortana and eat, drink, and sleep anything and everything Halo. The Witcher.. not so much.
WINNER: Cortana

Moogle vs Athena - We've seen in recent years that most voters are drawn to the more recent title as younger gamers are more prevalent on gaming sites. The logical choice might seem to be Athena but I wouldn't count out the draw of Moogle. I'm even going to go a step further and give this one to him/her/it(?) as this bat-mole has been such a staple(both loved and hated) of a beloved series that has a great many fans.
WINNER: Moogle

Captain Price vs Launchpad McQuack - This one has to make you smile. There are more than a few gamers pulling for Captain Price to take it all the way! I would say not so fast. Though this could go either way, I'm going to put it out there that Launchpad is going to be this year's "Troll vote" and that, combined with the nostalgia vote from anyone who played Duck Tales on the old NES will be more than enough to put him over Cpt. Price.
WINNER: Launchpad McQuack

Zero vs Prinny - Sorry d00d! This one's a goat rope, Zero is going to the next round where he belongs.
WINNER: Zero

Garrus Vakarian vs Arokh - Drakan's loyal fans are no match for the horde of Mass Effect fans who are going to try to push him all the way to the finals.
WINNER: Garrus Vakarian

Sheva Alomar vs Minsc - Hey man, did you ever play Baldur's Gate? No? So you don't remember the guy with the face paint and the pet hamster? No? YOU'RE 16!? Oh, okay.. *Walks away feeling old* Resident Evil 5's chick takes this one fairly easily.
WINNER: Sheva Alomar *Grumbles*

Sully vs Jan Ors - Another that might suggest that newer is a better bet, but I'm gonna say there are still some Jedi Knights out there with more than a few fond memories of Jan.
WINNER: Jan Ors

HK-47 vs Aika - If you've ever voted and paid attention to these showdowns on Gamefaqs, you know never to bet against HK-47 in the second round, let alone the first! Ya know, unless he's against a powerhouse with a strong fanbase.
WINNER: HK-47

Clank vs Doc Louis - The Doc may be more meme than character nowadays and not really a sidekick, as Clank most definitely is, but I'm going to say that the ever present popularity of the Punch-Out! series is going to be enough to put him in the corner in Round 2.
WINNER: Doc Louis

Elika vs R.O.B. - Alright now people aren't even going to find it funny voting for R.O.B.. This isn't Brawl. Elika takes this one barring a push from SSB fans who got confused.
WINNER: Elika

Falco vs Albert Einstein - I can't speak for all C&C fans but I didn't find his inclusion that memorable, and personally I thought it was a bit more out of place than cool. Somehow, I don't think I'm alone in that. Since we didn't get Peppy and his "barroll roll" madness, we got the next best thing inStar Fox's resident badass. FALCO! (GameSpot did this for fun)
WINNER: Falco

Yoshi vs Johnson - I feel sorry for Johnson. Yoshi is always a "click first, ask questions later" vote for most gamers. Still, he would win on his own merit as Yoshi is a shoe-in for the win.
WINNER: Yoshi

Luigi vs Kai - Luigi. Expect to see some ranting from Sony fans.
WINNER: Luigi

Murray vs Maya Fey - This is a real toss-up. Seems almost 50-50 with maybe a slight edge to Murray for his demon status. No one is really arguing because we all know who the second round belongs to anyway.
WINNER: Toss-Up, Advantage Murray

Dogmeat vs Geno - We now have a little something for everyone. Fallout fans will rally to push Dogmeat through to the next round. Even though pictured is the FO3 Dogmeat, it will get the FO1 fan vote as well. Bank on it.
WINNER: Dogmeat

Agro vs Barry Burton - Barry takes this one and he'll probably stop to make some amusing quotations along the way.
Jill: Watch out! What is it?
Barry: Some horse.
WINNER: Barry

Daxter vs Barry Wheeler - I'm admittedly not the most framiliar with these two franchises but the love I'm seeing for Daxter is more than the love I'm seeing for Wheeler. Neither will go too far but I'm going to give the edge to Daxter.
WINNER: Daxter

Toad vs Bentley - Even though Bentley is more of an actual sidekick as opposed to Toad, there's no ignoring that Mario legacy and it's never good to be pitted against a noteable character of the series in ANY popularity contest.
WINNER: Toad

Midna vs Issun - Midna is regarded as one of the better sidekicks for Link after herdebutin Twilight Princess. Issun is going to have an uphill battle in order to pull this one off, and I don't see that taking place.
WINNER: Midna

Alyx Vance vs Alex Jacobson - So we come to it. A truly modern powerhouse sidekick, Alyx Vance. Popular. Useful. Memorable. Has potential winner written all over her. Even those with a love for the Deus Ex series have to respect to pull that Alyx is going to have both in the early and later rounds. Keep an eye on this one.
WINNER: Alyx Vance

Companion Cube vs Crow - While Crow is every bit a memorable fantasy sidekick, this matchup is going to bedecided by one word. Portal. Though technically the Cube is more of a tool with the inability to speak, the Enrichment Center reminds you that if the Cube does speak, you should probably disregard it's advice.. unless it says to vote it into Round 2.
WINNER: Companion Cube

Rush vs Zeke Dunbar - In inFamous, you either loved Zeke or you hated him. In Mega Man, you loved Rush.
WINNER: Rush

Epona vs Lian Xing - I can remember the Syphon Filter commercial more than I can remember actually playing it. Another Zelda character takes the stage and comes away victorious.
WINNER: Epona

Navi vs Servbot - Servbots have seen quite a bit of press in recent years and despite not being themain focus in Mega Man spin-offs, they have become fan favorites in the MvC series. The only way they could lose is to be pitted against an incessant fairy that demands you LISTEN! "Hey! Pick me!"
WINNER: Navi

Diddy Kong vs Goombella - Though the novel idea to feature a female Goombah was interesting, Diddy Kong has more than once kept you alive in DK Country, and you can't deny it. Not to mention he's shined in games since and fits the role of a true sidekick about as well as a character can.
WINNER: Diddy Kong

Vivi vs Morte - Anyone who played Planetscape: Tormet, remembers Morte but on the other hand Vivi has become an icon of sorts since Final Fantasy IX. In the end though, this one is really gonna come down to fanbase which is why the win will probably be going to Vivi.
WINNER: Vivi

Frog vs Dog - To my surpise it seems there isn't going to be much love shown for your faithful tail waggin' companion that bit the bad guys shins and found you buried treasure in Fable II & III. Frog apparently has the edge in this one while the pup has received a degree of disdain. A far different reaction than I remember when Fable II came out. In the words of one Frog voter, "The frog that wielded the bigass sword! He's got my vote!"
WINNER: Frog

Otacon vs Luke Triton - We're still not completely sure as to why Triton is in this at all. Otacon has been a popular pick in past showdowns and could make it further than one would expect.
WINNER: Otacon

Well there you have it! Picks and opinions from your good buddy FuBi0.
Happy voting! =]

Once again, I am reminded more of what I'd rather be playing than what I am playing. For the entire month of July I had one guilty pleasure, Transformers: War for Cybertron. I've not been so mind-numbingly addicted to a game in quite some time, however it was ultimately not meant to last. Why? Activision is not, has not, and will not be supporting this game into the future on the PC platform. What does this mean?

What we got: A port nearly identical to the XBOX360 and PS3 versions of the game, seemingly faster gameplay, and the greatest Transformers experience to date featuring intense online multiplayer action. Unfortunately we also inherited the connection problems inherent in the console game as well but this was a moot point when you did find a stable game without any "questionable" players.

What we didn't and won't be getting: The simplest PC configuration options such as keyboard remapping or advanced graphics options. Voice chat, although this is arguably a good thing. Cheat/Hack detection or protection. Sadly anyone who knows how to use Cheat Engine or has as little as downloaded a trainer will be able to completely ruin the online experience for everyone else. The game's top players have all been caught cheating at one time or another although they continually swear innocence and hold inquisitions on those who don't hide their hacks as well on STEAM message boards daily. It's so out of hand that a group of players utilizing "hacks" exists as a pseudo clan. Probably the biggest thing we didn't get: DLC! The consoles have had two DLC packs released with added maps and characters, GREATLY expanding the replayability of the core game.

I had a lot of fun, in fact more fun than I've had with any game in a long while in my time playing this title, but I haven't played in months because of these issues. Also, after almost a month of continuous play I had grown tired of the same old maps, which is something that releasing the DLC on PC could have rectified. Activision never had any intention of supporting the PC platform as was evident by it's price tag even though High Moon issued a statement saying that PC gamers would not be left out.. which proved to be untrue. To me personally, this seems like a greatly missed opportunity even if the number of PC players was never anywhere close to what it was on the consoles. In fact, the number of PC players logged in at any one time has dropped to around thirty during the week while interest continues to dwindle as an obvious result of this title receiving no support on PC.

I'd cross my fingers for a "maybe next time" attitude but at this rate I doubt there will be a next time. After all, tis one of the unfortunate costs of being a PC gaming enthusiast.

Once upon a time.. I used IGN as my go to source for gaming info but for now I've almost completely lost faith in them. I remember about maybe five or six years ago IGN had a crew of hardcore gamers writing articles and giving us the esssential information from a gamers perspective when it came to making the decision of whether to buy and spend our hard earned money on a true must play experience or wait for something better.

That's all but gone today as IGN has become a "serious" media outlet. The real gamers who knew what they were talking about seem to have been replaced by wannabe journalists looking for something to put on their future resume, writing nothing but positive blurbs to hype specific games that sound like paid advertisements. One editor in particular, who was newly employed in 2009, re-reviewed Fallout 3 because it was the only game he had ever played and in a long and drawn out article outlined just how much he was in love with the game. This had many people scratching their heads, and for good reason. In one more recent article they attempted to call a guide, IGN simply got together a list of MMO's and put underneath each a short description with almost no real gameplay information and a link to where you could buy a subscription. This is actually called a cheap advertisement roundup written by someone with limited information on the titles or had never played them at all who had nothing better to do than attempt to show their skills at pandering to developers. It does NOT qualify as a guide. I could go on, but the "articles" get progressively worse and far more laughable as anyone can see simply by visiting the site nowadays.

If you have stopped by IGNPC lately, you will notice that they are reviewing casual games.. It's understandable because the editors I've seen on the site probably spent more time playing Pet Shop Deluxe 2 than Call of Duty or Mass Effect and a few of them are too young to even remember Diablo 2. Others indicate that they are fairly new to video games(if that's even possible in this day), actively lauding standard features that have been present for years and failing to present any relevent information at all.

Furthermore, before I stopped reading IGNPC's reviews I had literally lost count of how many times they based their negative reviews on a concept that the reviewer in general just didn't like, and panned the game probably before even playing it through completely. Giving a game a bad review just because you aren't used to using a mouse to move the camera is ridiculous. On one occasion, in a show of maturity from IGN, I was actually banned from their forums at one point because I criticized a specific editor for her failure to understand what should have been a simple gameplay mechanic. It is important to note that I was unbanned within the hour.

This isn't to say that Gamespot in its history has been free from fault as well as unresponsibile for a degree of "hyping" but a percentage of that is expected from these sites. It's when articles become unreliable with a marked loss in quality as major as they have at IGN, that this becomes a real problem. Perhaps one day I'll come back to them when there are more serious reviews that don't sound like company manufactured statements and less ultimately pointless junk articles titled things like "Top Ten Naughtiest PC Games". *Shakes head*