Today, Bioware announced that the Mass Effect 3 demo will be released on February 14th on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The demo promises 1-2 hours of single player content as well as access to two co-op levels. The online co-op portion will not open up until February 17th, unless you’re a BF3 customer, which then it will unlock immediately on the 14th. Now you have the perfect excuse to completely ignore the sham of a holiday, Valentine’s day!
Don’t forget that EA is doing some cross-promotion of their two upcoming action RPGs through their demos. Play the Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning demo to unlock exclusive armor and a weapon in ME3 and play the ME3 demo to unlock “Omniblade daggers” in KoA:R. The Kingdoms of Amalur demo is out now on Steam, Origin, XBL and PSN and is worth checking out if you’re looking for a game with an Elder Scrolls influence that focuses on action and combat. That demo also offers a sizable chunk of gameplay, again in the 1-2 hour range. 2 pre-release demos that offer a significant length of gameplay that are both available on the PC? That definitely bucks the trend over the past couple years.
Also in the first quarter Crysis 2 hit the streets. With a new focus on multiplayer, which felt like a hybrid of CoD and BF, Cyrsis 2 had potential to make a lasting impact in the multiplayer shooter scene. Needless to say, that never happened mainly because of two reasons. First off, the PC version was severely crippled and was the poster child for “consolization.” From the splash screen that said “Press Start to Begin” to the complete lack of video settings beyond changing the resolution, Crytek did a complete 180 from the original Crysis, which was PC only. The second nail in the coffin on the multiplayer side was the lack of anti-cheat measures which meant that you were almost guaranteed to join a server and see at least one, if not more, aimbots in play. Botting seemed so prevalent that cheaters made no attempts to hide it — Crysis 2’s CoD-style kill cam made it painfully obvious, as you watch your killer snap off 4 to 5 headshots in a row from across the map in a 3 second span. Pile on the fact the single player was average at best and it’s hard not to be supremely disappointed with Crysis 2.
While Crysis 2 had its issues, a game that topped it in the disappointment category was Brink. Touted as the next coming in multiplayer shooters (even by our own Suibhne) and the pedigree that comes with Wolf:ET developer Splash Damage, it was hard to not get excited about this one. Except it didn’t even come close to meeting those expectations. The shooting was bland, the gameplay wasn’t very focused and the difference in classes and sizes didn’t add anything interesting to the game play. The game also suffered from technical issues out of the box which hindered uptake online and caused many never to come back. Then they pulled some shenanigans with the DLC in that it was only free for the first two weeks before they started charging for it. Brink was clearly a game that had much potential that was never fulfilled.
Sticking with the multiplayer shooter disappointment theme, Red Orchestra 2 came out this fall. While I don’t have any specific knock against RO2 and Tripwire Interactive will always be a favorite of mine, RO2 didn’t do anything especially exceptional either. During an off year, RO2 might have risen to the top, but instead it just got lost in the mix. Launching with some performance and technical issues, the gameplay didn’t quite do it for me as the original RO mod had grabbed me some 7 years ago (wow!). I’m willing to give RO2 another shot down the road, but worry that the player base may have been thinned too much by then. I’ll chalk it up to bad timing. Maybe with a bit more polish and an early 2012 release, RO2 may have done much better.