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.
growth in 2011 with hundreds of quality titles released. The one that stuck out the most this year for me was Magicka. A witty, tongue-in-cheek story with hilarious co-op play made this one playable, and re-playable for months. It’s hard to argue with a game about wizards and magic that comes out with a Vietnam expansion complete with M16s and grenades that totally works in its game world. The game wasn’t without its technical flaws, including lack of mid-level saves which were magnified by random crashes to desktop during co-op after a later patch, but it still provided hours of entertainment.
Again, this is an easy one for me; Skyrim. I only dabbled in Oblivion years after the initial craze over the game, never played any previous Elder Scrolls games, but after thoroughly enjoying Bethesda’s last game, Fallout 3, I was ready to jump into the land of Tamriel head first, and wasn’t disappointed. This is a game that you can sink 50+ hours and still not see everything. Also it’s hard to discount the number of internet memes this game had already created. I’ll be playing this one well in to 2012. 
expectations of and ended up enjoying so much they made my top games list. This year, Saints Row the Third makes that list. I never played the first, only briefly played the second, but on numerous recommendations and an aggressive Amazon sale, I figured I’d give it a go. The game is so completely over the top and so well written with juvenile jokes that are actually funny (unlike Duke Nukem Forever) the game exceeded all expectations I had. It’s just plain fun to play, and in the end, that’s what counts.
I want to mention Deus Ex: Human Revolution one more time. I absolutely loved the Blade Runner-esq neo-noir atmosphere, the ability to upgrade your character in any way you see fit and a great story. I’m looking forward to going back to it and playing some of the DLC.
The Brink DLC 
Red Faction Armageddon does little of what I loved about Guerrilla. Of course, the open world play is gone, and the destruction is no longer of the massive scale that was found in the previous game. All that said, Armageddon isn’t a bad game, it is just a step backward for the series. The single player game is incredibly short and very linear. I was able to play through the entire campaign in a few play sessions over a weekend that spanned maybe around 5 hours. The story is, again, mostly throw-away and quickly devolves into what amounts to a bug-hunt. Killing lots of bug-like aliens in this game isn’t all that satisfying despite the fact that the game gives you some fun weapons to play with, namely, the magnet gun. The magnet gun is basically the star of the game, which allows you to use destruction as an active weapon and can produce some hilarious results. Attach one end of a magnet to something, including enemies; attach the other end to something else, even *another* enemy, and watch the two get pulled together with explosive force. It’s as fun as it sounds.
Having finished L.A. Noire last week, I figured I’d follow up 
Mass Effect 3. Loved the first two, but was slightly disappointed that the second game dumbed down the RPG elements and focused more on action. Seeing the promos for Mass Effect 3 worry me further, because it seems to be almost *all* action. It appears they are billing it as a 3rd person shooter more than anything else. Yes, I will play it, and I’ll probably enjoy the hell out of it, but I want something more — dialog, character development, universe exploration, and RPG stuff like stats on weapons and abilities. Hopefully all that is in there, and am hoping the epic over-the-top action is just marketing hype.
Aliens Colonial Marines: A game that I haven’t heard much about, but I’m always skeptical of games of some of my favorite movie franchises. Sounds a bit like Star Wars Republic Commando with the squad-based mechanics and is billed as the “true sequel to the Aliens movie.” Hopefully it gives us the Aliens game we’ve always wanted but that, by nature, sets the bar so high it would be a minor miracle to achieve. The other factor is Gearbox. They’re responsible for picking up the pieces and finishing DNF, which isn’t really a good thing. I’m keeping my expectations low.