Hello again, for the second edition of my gaming blog. Nothing much has happened since my last entry, but I will do my best to inform and entertain. I received a *recommendation* from someone suggesting I choose less topics, but go into them more deeply, so that is what I will be doing.

Mass Effect has been a long awaited game and was released this Wednesday, on the 20th November, by Activision exclusively on the Xbox 360; bless 'em. I have not heard a huge amount about this game, mainly through Major Nelson's podcasts. However, I hear it is tremendous . It may surprise people that it has been in development since before the Xbox 360 console was even launched and, I am not sure if this is classified as a spoiler, but while reading the IGN review, I found out that the game is also the first in a trilogy. While reading these various evaluations of the game, my eye first wandered to the screenshots - and they are breathtaking. The graphics in this game look magnificent. Every time I hear a mention of Mass Effect, I feel ever more inclined to buy it this Christmas. The main reason I have not yet is that I have no money and I believe all of Duty 4 will occupy too much of my time once I purchase it. Anyway, IGN gave Mass Effect 9.4/10, labelling it as "outstanding". From what I understand, this judgement is well-reinforced by the great gameplay, which combines the fantastic history of BioWare in their roleplaying games and surprisingly thrilling, and exciting combat (which personally reminded me of Gears of War from the videos I saw). IGN stated that despite it being reasonably slow-paced, it has no problem in engaging the gamer, describing Mass Effect as "KOTOR [Knights of the Old Republic] with a serious adrenaline boost" and the only criticism was the inherent need to access menus too often in combat to fine-tune your team. I certainly enjoyed playing Knights of the Old Republic (although lacked the skill and patience to win the final boss battle) and if Mass Effect is any better, then I will certainly buy it sometime soon. GameSpot UK, however, only gave Mass Effect 8.5/10. Despite this being 'Great', many Gamespot users were shocked at this unexpectedly low rating. GameSpot commented that there were "many small annoyances and glitches" in Mass Effect, which let it down. Other than that, they said that the storyline was excellent and the graphics stunning, again, comparing Mass Effect to the brilliance of Knights of the Old Republic in gameplay and plot twists.

Onwards to Guitar Hero 3, released on Friday 23rd November - Gamespot UK gave it 8.0/10; a "Great". First to mention is the great new music featured in the game, some my my favourites being "The Killers", "Red Hot Chilli Peppers", and of course, "Guns N' Roses". GameSpot UK commented that Guitar Hero 3 does not lose much of the classic gameplay it had in the previous games, although some of the "extreme extremeness of the harder songs" may be too overwhelming, especially for new players. After enjoying a good hour's worth of play of Guitar Hero 2 on my friend's Playstation 2, I returned home eager to download the demo of Guitar Hero 3. I quickly noticed the similarity of the menus and gameplay style, but was extremely disappointed with playing with my controller! I absolutely do not recommend you get this game without the guitar! It sucks. I can, in spite of this, relate to the "just one more song" addictiveness of this game as I found myself saying, "That one doesn't count, I lost - let me do one more!" It may also interest you to know that Activision is being sued by the band, "The Romantics," for what Slashdot.org described as a "cover song" being "too awesome"! The song, "What I Like About You", which featured in "Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the '80s" is claimed to sound too much like the original! Although roughly half of the tracks in Guitar Hero 3 are by the original artists, in previous"Guitar Hero" games, most of the songs are cover versions. Delving ever more off topic, "Guitar Hero" recently starred in "Will It Blend", a video of a group of 'scientists' obsessed with the "study of dark appliance arts" [Joystiq.com]. Joystiq said that the "X-plorer" faired better than the "Rock Band Stratocaster", but to discover if "Guitar Hero" was blended into a whirlwind of sharp things, you will have to go to the video...

Thank you for reading another post from my gaming blog. You will be able to read my next installment on Wednesday, when we *may* be examining "The Orange Box" and its 'unplayableness' on the PS3...stay tuned for that story.