Calibrating The Amazing Spider-Extended Cut

Double podcast topic time! Woo! On today’s podcast we discuss both The Amazing Spider-Man (prior to having seen it) and the Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut which was just released last week. Don’t worry about spoilers for that, we save them for the end.

To help facilitate the Mass Effect 3 discussion, as well as your nightmares, here is my “Derpy” Derek Shepard as discussed in the podcast.

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Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC Releasing June 26th

It is official: The Extended Cut DLC for Mass Effect 3 will be releasing next week on June 26th. The waiting is up and now we get to see what this DLC has in store for us. BioWare had the following to say about the DLC:

The Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut is a downloadable content pack that will expand upon the events at the end of Mass Effect 3. Through additional cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes, the Extended Cut will include deeper insight to Commander Shepard’s journey based on player choices during the war against the Reapers. The Extended Cut will be available to download at no additional charge on June 26th on Xbox 360 and PC and PlayStation 3.

This is great news for anyone who was distraught over the controversial ending to M<ass Effect3 earlier this year. The Internet turned insane within days of the game’s release as many fans started seeing the ending to one of the greatest sci-fi trilogies and realizing it wasn’t exactly what they wanted it to be.

Well come June 26th in North America (July 4th in Europe for the Playstation 3) we’ll be able to see what BioWare decided constitutes an extended ending to this amazing series. The best part of it is that it won’t cost us anything as the DLC is completely free on all platforms. It will however clock in at around 1.9 gigabytes of space, which I know might be a potential deal-breaker for at least one of our writers.

Looking forward to jumping into an older character and experiencing the new endings immediately? Well BioWare has an explanation of how to do that as well [SPOILERS]:

[SPOILERS] To experience the Extended Cut, load a save game from before the attack on the Cerberus Base and play through to the end of the game. The Extended Cut endings will differ depending on choices made throughout the Mass Effect series, so multiple playthroughs with a variety of different decisions will be required to experience the variety of possibilities offered by the new content.[END SPOILERS]

My only big gripe with the news of this DLC is that June 26th is the same day that Dawnguard for Skyrim releases. Looks like next Tuesday is going to be a potentially busy day.

Come the week of June 26th, make sure you stop back here for my impressions on the DLC. There’s also a good chance that I will be tweeting either during breaks in conversation, or more likely as soon as I finish the DLC. Finally, we will not be discussing the DLC on our podcast next week due to a special guest making an appearance. More information on that later. (I know I keep teasing that, but had trouble figuring out when would be best to announce it.)

I Don’t Finish Games Anymore

Prior to a week or so ago when I completed Diablo III, I couldn’t tell you the last game I finished. When I was younger it was no problem at all for me to knock out a game, but not so much anymore. It seems to have become a trend with my gaming more often than not. I can’t exactly put a solid reason on why this is either. Maybe its part of growing up and getting older, as well as being more responsible now that I have kids. Maybe I’m getting worse about intensely focusing on one thing for an undetermined amount of time when it comes to my leisure activity. Again I can’t be sure what the exact cause is and it seems highly likely that its really a combination of multiple things, but I just don’t seem to finish games any more.

The most recent example I can toss out is Mass Effect 3. Yup. I said it. I write for a site whose name is based on a highly popular ME character and I haven’t finished the series. Put your pitchforks and torches away; I am getting to it. Really. In fact it is sort of a personal goal I hope to get out of this article is getting myself to finish one of the great sci fi gaming stories of our era. I love the series. Its wonderful. I even got up early on release day to pick up my copy because I managed to miss the preorder for the CE, drove the hour drive to my local best buy where a friend who works there told me they had some unreserved CE copies but I needed to be there early if I wanted to get one. All this with a 4 year old and an infant in tow. If I don’t like this series then I have some seriously deep issues that need looking into after going to that much trouble.

I just for whatever reason stopped playing it a few days in. Not for any particular faults or even spoilers; I have in fact managed to remain spoiler free on this one despite many friends having already completed the story including the other members of our site. That all said, I plan to soon join the ranks of those who finished it within the next few weeks or possibly sooner depending on real life and such. If for some reason I don’t manage this then I place the blame solely on Blizzard. Oh yes that’s the other contributing factor. Blizzard games are my weakness. I always come back to them.  I “run” a small community of friends who play Blizz games together which basically makes me the guy with the GM tag in WoW and the one with admin rights on internet based gathering areas. I’m really a figurehead, nothing more. So let’s all hope I can put down D3 and the WoW Mists beta long enough to finish a round of ME3. Besides, I have plenty of others on the back burner as well. Assassins Creed Brotherhood, Portal 2, Borderlands, Bioshock 1 & 2, Halo ODST & Reach, Skyrim, and on top of those I just picked up Humble Indie Bundle V last week. So there you have it friends. I have a problem of not finishing my games. What about you? Do you have issues knocking out games the way you used to or have any helpful suggestions or tips for those of us with backlogs larger than we would like to admit?

My thoughts Nintendo’s E3 Press Conference

Let me start by saying I couldn’t come from a more “Pro-Nintendo” background. Yup I know that’s terrible journalism. Guess what I’m not a real journalist but I also think it’s rather unfair to not know a bit of my background going into this. I have in the past supported Nintendo through quite a bit. Starting back with the original NES back in the 80’s as most kids my age did. All the way up through the Wii itself and even the bad years of the 64 and Gamecube. I was there and those were the only systems I owned during their life cycles. I place the blame solely on my love for the Zelda franchise. Enough about me though you want the juicy bits. So onward for great gaming and justice and whatever else may ensue!

Mass Effect 3: Rebellion Pack Info

Well looks like Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer component is getting another free DLC pack in the form of the “Rebellion Pack”. This pack will be free to anyone who has redeemed an Online Pass for Mass Effect 3.

The pack includes:

• New Characters – Vorcha Soldier & Sentinel; Male Quarian Engineer & Infiltrator; and Ex-Cerberus Vanguard & Adept.
• New Maps – Firebase Jade: A waterfall surrounded base overlooking an ancient reservoir built by the Salarians; and Firebase Goddess: An Asari stronghold based in a Thessian metropolis.
• New Weapons – Cerberus Harrier Assault Rifle; Reegar Carbine Shotgun; and Krysae Sniper Rifle

The DLC pack releases on Xbox Live, the Playstation Network and PC on Tuesday, May 29th (Wednesday, May 30th on the PSN in Europe).

So let’s get this out of the way: “OMG WTF?! Y U NO RELEASE EXTENDED ME3 DLC YOU FUCKTARDS?!” Yes, I did read that earlier on Facebook, but the person had the momentary higher brain function to remove said idiocy from the post. Look, we all want to see what BioWare has in store for Mass Effect 3’s extended ending. We all just want some more single-player content in any way shape or form as well. The extended DLC is still at least a month away, if not more, and until that releases I can all but assure you that there will be no additional single-player expansions even discussed with the public. So, patience is key here.

BioWare as of next week will have released two multiplayer DLC packs for free that they could very easily have charged for. They don’t need to do this, but still they are. All I ask is that we extend a little more patience and goodwill towards them and wait to see what they have in store.

Hey it’s already been confirmed that Lance Henriksen, Tricia Helfer, and Raphael Sbarge have recorded further dialogue for the DLC; which can only mean good things for more Hackett, EDI, and Kaidan goodness. Now just announce Brandon Keener is returning simply to speak and I’ll be all set.

 

Source: Mass Effect 3: Rebellion Pack (BioWare Blog)

Calibrating Raychul Moore

Hey, it’s episode number 8! Holy frell does time fly. It feels like just 5 days ago we were posting episode 7. On today’s extra special podcast we have the extra special and lovely, Ms. Raychul Moore! Raychul is completely awesome and delight to chat with. Diablo 3, Kingdoms of Amalur, The Avengers, and Cabin in the Woods are just some of the things discussed. (Sadly we forgot to talk to her about cosplay. Woops!)

Also be sure to vote for Raychul in the Maxim Gamer Girl Contest!

This episode is available on iTunes.
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You can try this direct download link as well, if you wish.

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