Xbox 360

Among core gamers, Electronic Arts and BioWare's decision to deliver an additional squadmate as day one DLC for Mass Effect 3 continues to rile people who haven't yet finished the game and gotten angry about the ending. Fast-flying accusations and defenses about whether the content was stripped out of the game mostly miss the point.

Insert Your Own "It's Tricky" Joke Here

HIGH Logging in to see you've earned credits when friends failed to beat your scores.

LOW Dropping into another bottomless pit a hundred yards from the finish line.

WTF Why does reversing time only affect me and not anyone else?

Although Raccoon City is getting hammered all over the Internet, I have to say that I did enjoy certain parts of it. The idea of playing as an Umbrella strike team member is pretty cool to me, and shifting the dynamic of power from being a solo hero to being part of a full assault squad struck me as quite interesting and full of promise. Unfortunately, the title's problems far outweigh the good bits.

With such seemingly opposite takes on the genre, the argument usually devolves down to proponents of each genre arguing that theirs is the best example of "role-playing." Extra Credits dares to jump into the fray to see is one group is right, or perhaps if one is more right than the other or maybe even if both are wrong. Clearly it's not an easy task or it wouldn't be broken up into three parts.

It's all about sequels this episode on the podcast! From Super Mario Bros. 2 to Devil Survivor 2, we're all over them! Also, Mass Effect 3: has BioWare reclaimed Brad's seal of approval? What about the ending controversy? All that plus thumbs, AND a birthday! With Dylan Collins, Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Richard Naik and Mike "I live near a den of spiders" Bracken.

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Everything is Chrome in the Future

HIGH The entire last hour is packed with plot twists, explosions, and boss fights.

LOW Shooting a robot off of a squadmate without hitting her. It took me more tries than I'd care to admit.

WTF The game feels borderline anti-Japanese, which is strange considering it's a Japanese game.

The crew at Extra Credits return with the second part of their two-part series on how to become a developer.

It seems that the controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3 has been cranked to 11. An FTC complaint against BioWare is the latest individual action, and it's served to fan the flames of what's become a binary topic. People seem to either enjoy and/or accept the game's ending for what it is (Let's call these people Group A) or they are upset for a variety of reasons (or Group B). I have no horse in this race myself, as trying to play either of the first two Mass Effect games was met with rapid failure and disinterest that shortly followed, so it's interesting to observe this controversy from a distance.

I was invited to a special Darksiders II hands-on press event hosted by THQ taking place in San Francisco. Being a huge fan of the first game, I was glad to accept and in the interest of full disclosure, it should be known that airfare and hotel were provided. The day started with a brief talk from one of the developers giving an overview of the sequel, and what to expect. The attendees were then allowed about two hours to play through a large chunk of the game's first area.

The Ultimate Epilogue

HIGH The final battles leading up to the game's end.

LOW Getting unexpectedly locked out of some missions.

WTF Why couldn't I import my old Shepard's appearance?