Mass Effect Plus Clint Mansell

Probably the best news I've heard in a while is that Clint Mansell is doing the music for Mass Effect 3. This game was already the top of my list for the year, as I love both Mass Effects way too much, but with Mansell onboard, man alive that's the best thing ever.

If you don't know who he is, no worries, but if you have seen an Aronofsky movie like Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, or my personal favorite, The Fountain, then you know what you are in for. The soundtrack to the Fountain is one of my all time favorites thus I'm super excited to hear what the music is going to sound like. Why is the end of the year so far away?

To hear some of his sweet tunes, just click here.

MvsC3 First Impressions

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 has finally hit, after over a decade of waiting for a followup and I'd say it's definitely been worth the wait. I've finally had a chance to sink a bit of time into the game and all in all, it's as good as I remember playing back at PAX and is a blast to play that's for sure. The look of the characters and the general style, as well as the crazy lighting and effects and all the special moves, make this one gorgeous game to behold that's for sure. All of the characters all play pretty differently and I already have some favorites thus far, including everyones favorite wolf God Amaterasu from Okami. I dig the wolfs moves, the ability to switch her weapons mid combo and just the general speed and power.


I have heard some of the talk about the crazy lag in playing online, which Capcom states is from the massive amounts of people playing online (which to be fair the game is sold out everywhere so that is a possibility) so I decided to give it a try this morning. After getting booted back out to the menu screen numerous times I finally got into a lobby and waited for my turn. After starting up against my opponent, well, it was indeed like playing underwater. It was pretty fun, but it seems like for now it'll all be about getting together with some friends and laying some smackdown whilst sitting next to someone as opposed to the world arena.

Myself and my friend Mike were talking yesterday though, about the changing of buttons though in fighters over the years. After playing some Super Street Fighter II Turbo at an arcade on Granville, and the 6 attack buttons, playing MvsC and only having 3 attack buttons and the special basically, it seems a bit strange. At the same time though it makes sense. The plethora of buttons used was always based on the arcade cabinets, and when you'd port the game home to consoles there was always the awkward mapping problems and not being able to access all the buttons you need. As the arcade era has come and gone and now most new fighters are made for consoles, I suppose it does make sense to change the button layouts to accommodate what people are most commonly playing on. Still, it does seem like it's dumbing down the genre just a little bit, but I suppose the amount of characters and combinations you can choose in a game like MvsC more than makes up for the loss of buttons.

All in all though it's been a fantastic way to kick of the year, and I welcome the plethora of new fighters coming this year that's for sure.

Dead Space Followup

So Dead Space 2 has come and gone, mostly. Truth be told I really did enjoy the experience. It was definitely a lot different than the first game in some ways, but also still some of the same things that I enjoyed about the first experience that kept me going and helped me to plow through the game in about a week of solid playing.

One of the main things I really enjoyed about it was how streamlined it was. Where the first one you do lots of back tracking and going here, then back to there, then back to somewhere else and then finally onto the next location, Dead Space 2 did a pretty good job of keeping the game moving forward. While this did make the game seem more like an action game than a slower paced survival horror game, it also helps to give you more variety in the environments, and the fact that there was more chapters and it took a bit longer than the first, means there really was more to see this time around.

The game was also super gory and graphic, though truth be told I think the first game was a bit more scary and was able to convey tone and atmosphere a little bit better than the new one was. Again, it's not a bad thing, just a little bit different and something to get used to. There was really only one section in the game that was super creepy, and the developers definitely did a good job with it, but otherwise I think I may prefer the first ones creepiness just a little bit more. Dead Space 2 though all in all was a great experience, and after I plow through my next batch of games I'll for sure go back and try the harder modes that's for sure.