Whatever the reasoning, BioWare’s Mike Gamble said in a recent interview with GamerZines that players should hold onto their Mass Effect 3 save files. How intriguing.

“Obviously I can’t say anything, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Gamble said mysteriously.

Mass Effect 3 would mark the end of Commander Shepard’s story, but that doesn’t mean Mass Effect can’t live on without him. Perhaps another hero will step into the limelight? Whatever happens though, Gamble said that the ending will satisfy players. Whether you’ll end up tossing your controller at the TV out of sheer anger or exhibiting some other emotions, we won’t know.

“We want the outcomes to be satisfying to the player,” said Gamble. “That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all going to be happy or positive, but they have to be satisfying. Players have to understand that the choices they’ve been making in this game and in previous have had an impact, and that they’re an architect in what happens.”

Mass Effect 3 launches on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 6th in North America and March 9th in Europe.

Via CVG.

The piece is obviously going to last a very long time and is a great tribute to the series. This is a rather fitting monument according to Namco Bandai Marketing Director, Lee Kirton, who gave the reasoning behind this venture by saying “the Soulcalibur characters are among the hardest fighters in gaming – so we’ve decided to immortalise them in granite for thousands of years”.

The work was carried out by expert Stone Engraver, Göran Andersson, the last remaining engraver on Sweden’s west coast doing work out in nature. Andersson said that “this is the by far most complex and detailed engraving I have ever performed. But it was very fun to do.”

It seems you should have plenty of time to go see this somewhat legendary piece of advertising if you’re ever in Sweden! Don’t forget also that SoulCalibur V is out right now in the US and tomorrow in Europe!

The previous release date for the title, the much-anticipated follow-up to Metro 2033, was originally scheduled to be at the back end of 2012. The delay has been caused as a result of the games developer, 4A Games, wanting more time to refine the title.

The news comes during a time of mounting problems for THQ, including the possibility of being delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Metro 2033 scored well with reviewers, earning a rating of 81% on Metacritic. The game is held in high regard especially by PC gamers, who find their computers pushed to the limit by the game over three years after the games initial launch.

Here’s hoping the world doesn’t end in 2012 then. Stay with GGS for the latest.

Coming soon, you will be able to mix the world of RPG and pinball with the Epic Quest table. Epic Quest takes one part pinball, one part RPG stat progression, one part loot grabbing and then throws in a dash of humor to sweeten the mix to create a new game that defies logic. I mean, who would have thought of merging pinball with the RPG genre, but Zen Studios has and it looks pretty funny.

Epic Quest allows you to play pinball as you normally would, but as you play, you are slowly earning all kinds of unlockable gear for your clueless hero to wear into battle. The quests that you undertake are of the normal fare for any of the Zen Studios titles, but defeating them grants you loot and experience. When your game ends, your progression continues into the next game, keeping you in a neverending loop of loot and level grinding.

Epic Quest is set to arrive as a downloadable plugin for both Zen Pinball on the PSN and Pinball FX 2 on the XBLA. No pricing has been set, but Epic Quest is coming sometime in the near future from Zen Studios. Check out a host of screens and the announcement trailer below.

Obviously there’s been many previews of the game’s campaign over it’s development, but this is the first time we’ll see the variety that’s offered, taking you from icy blizzards to desert-based refugee camps – and even a school at one point. You also see a glimpse of some of the reasons this game earns the name Future Soldier – mini walking mech units, active camo, sensor grenades – pretty much everything you could ask for.

The squad based actions also make an appearance with simultaneous sniping sections, the always popular breach and clear style gameplay. It seems you’ll also have a few on rails sections and lots of being stealthy, running and shooting – what more could you want from the series?

The game is currently pegged for release on May 25th in Europe and 22nd in the US for Xbox 360 and PS3

After winning an IGN “Best of 2011” award and BAFTA Scotland’s “Game of the Year”, Denki and UTV Ignition Games have finally released Quarrel on XBLA and I’m already addicted to making anagrams anywhere I come across an eight letter word which has made shopping trips a nightmare…

Previously available on iOS, combining Risk Factions-esque strategy with Scrabble-type play where words that need an apostrophe, a hyphen or that start with capital letters are forbidden (The XBLA version is supported by the Collins Official SCRABBLE Dictionary 2nd Edition 2007 © HarperCollins Publishers 2005, 2007), Quarrel takes place across four differently themed, boldly coloured environments. Each island is split into territories that players battle to control using excellent word play AND strategy. Whoever takes over all the territories is declared the winner. It’s simple but brilliant.

The best way to get to grips with the game is to jump into a quick match as I found the tutorial was a bit slow. With my troop of ninja’s all eagerly bouncing, I figured attacking early might be my best option and sent five of my best against four of my opponents, only to quickly learn that although swallowing a dictionary certainly helps, creating solid high scoring words isn’t the only way to win. Choosing at which speed to play also affects the outcome – my five troop word scored the same as my opponents four troop word and they were quicker than me so got the win. Bah!

Supporting up to four players, everyone on the board starts with the same number or troops similarly distributed across a mixture of strong and weak territories so selecting where to attack and where to reinforce also needs consideration. Creating words is an easy process. Selecting letters from the cards in the thought bubble at the bottom of the screen hands them to waiting troops. There’s the option to shuffle the letters or clear the letter cards completely, handy as I kept seeing an even bigger scoring word just as I was about to submit. The maximum word length than can be created depended on how many troops were available. The value of the letters on the cards is visible (which unlike in Scrabble is based on their occurrence in spoken English rather than written), but the final word score isn’t revealed until you hit ‘OK’ though people with calculators for brains won’t have any trouble doing a spot of quick maths. The highest scoring word is shouted out by the troops in a giant, boastful, spiky speech bubble whilst the losing player whispers their lame effort in a vaporised cloud. It’s cute and charming animation that will appeal to audiences young and old.

In some of the challenge matches, there’s an evil countdown clock, which made my brain go to mush. I tried guessing but three nonsense words in a row means automatically forfeiting the match – must…not…give…in… At the end of every turn, extra reinforcement troops arrived for each of my territories, with each territory able to hold a maximum of eight troops. During every word battle, there are a maximum of eight letters on offer from which to create a word. Gaining the maximum eight troops became my ultimate and obsessive goal as I hunted down the elusive anagrams for big bonus scoring. I can spot anagrams far easier than having to come up with a high scoring five letter word but the beauty of the game is it allows for planning and playing to strengths. Transferring troops between neighbouring territories became a vital tactic, especially after one game where I found myself defending one territory with only two troops as eight kilted Scotsmen mounted an attack. Losing the quarrel would have meant losing my whole squad and territory but I triumphed with “ZO” for 11 points and was declared a GIANT KILLER! Spreading myself out thinly over the board almost backfired but I bravely fought on. Even as the underdog, the chance to get back into the game was a refreshing option, helped by there also being treasure up for grabs! Taking over territories and making words is rewarded with treasure, which in turn stacks up and can be exchanged for yet more back up troops! You’ll never take me alive!!!

With a super-catchy marimba soundtrack, produced by Ged Grimes (of Simple Minds fame), there is plenty to enjoy with Quarrel. Quick single player matches can last around 8 – 10 mins whilst the Challenge Mode where you can compete against nine fiendish artificial players, all of whom have unique personalities and play styles will take well over a couple of hours. Studying the character profiles and remembering that Dwayne, Biff and Helena are slow players, unlike speed demon Caprice or genius Kali, means you can to some extent prepare for battle. Added social network features including leaderboards, achievements and in-game messaging/voice chat, means the online multiplayer is also great fun.

This exciting balance of quick thinking word and strategy battles against friends is unique and exciting. Deciding whether to attack, defend, retreat, transfer troops or reinforce armies whilst successfully winning the ongoing word challenges I found was a winning formula. Not having to labour over just creating massive scores per word is a good twist to the genre and a good reason to encourage quarrelling over the Xbox.

Good times :)

• The balance between using words, strategy and speed makes for some tense battles.
• The layout and animation is bold, bright and engaging whilst the soundtrack is pretty catchy.
• Great range of modes on offer so perfect for either long or short sessions.

Bad times :(

• Though the words are valued on their occurrence in spoken rather than written language, non-US players may struggle to work out some of the colloquial American anagrams. Similarly, UK spellings or words are sometimes not recognised.
• Longer sessions can feel a bit repetitive.

Family Focus:

Rated PEGI 3 this certainly is accessible for all ages though younger players might struggle against some of the more intelligent AI or whilst playing on the larger maps. It’s a great way to get young people engaging with language as each word created also has its definition explained on screen.

Of course, nothing is simple with a Resident Evil game, and taking up that theme, we meet the cast and crew as they are trying to kill each other as the two forces are on the other side of the spectrum, while having to face enemies from a third angle in the infected residents of Raccoon City.

The action is fast and furious, and the cast is huge as you do battle in Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City releases in March 2012 from Capcom for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 systems.

The novels are not canonized versions of the game, but instead, compliment it with side narratives that flesh out the universe. Think of what the Star Wars novels have done for that universe and you get the idea. First was Revelations, which followed a young David Anderson and Saren working together. This was followed up by Ascension, which looked in depth at Cerberus, and gave us a deeper understanding of the Quarian migrant fleet. The last book was Retribution, which gave us a long look at the Illusive Man and his views on the universe in regards to humanity and how far he would go to protect it.

I would be lying if I said I was not anticipating the newest novel which came out this past Tuesday, titled, Mass Effect Deception. I knew that a new writer was coming on board, William C. Dietz taking over for Drew Karpyshyn, but I was still hyped on this novel as it was about Mass Effect.

Unfortunately, something got lost in translation, and things have not gone quite right with this new novel. While I have not started into the new novel yet, I was greeted with an appalling one star rating on Amazon. At first, I thought this was some sort of campaign by someone not happy about Karpyshyn’s departure from the novel series, but upon reading deeper into the reviews, it seems that the book is flat out bad when it comes to Mass Effect canon. Wholesale parts of the fiction have been retconned at will by Dietz, including turning characters that were known to be homosexual into straight characters, a child that merely grew out of Autism and little things like Volus with open masks, which in reality would kill them.

Even with all of this, I felt I wanted to read this book, and I am planning to put up a review, but it astounds me that a series of books that have been so strong across so many mediums could get off track with one shot. I have to ask if anyone at Bioware actually vetted the book before print, because the list of errors and lore misconceptions is long, with some going as far to create a Google Doc that lists all the different errors, ranging from mild to completely wrong. It also seems in poor taste and somewhat offensive to dismiss things like homosexuality, when the franchise and Bioware in general have normally embraced the idea of same sex parings in their games (Mass Effect 2 withstanding).

I hope that I can at least find my way through the mess to get a decent experience out of this, and even though it only set me back $7.99 in the spirit of reviewing the book, I can’t help feeling a little dirty by supporting this book. I really do hope that the people at Bioware read all of this feedback and find a way to fix this or at the least, keep Dietz away from this franchise if this is the havok that he is going to reap on the Mass Effect books. I know some have a hate for Dietz from his work on the Halo books, but I found those novels to be entertaining, but it looks like his grasp on the Mass Effect lore is less than flattering.

Look here for a review on Mass Effect Deception as soon as I have a chance to plow through the entire book.

In a blog post from earlier today, Bungie confirmed that the final touches to the handing over of data and information to 343i will be complete on March 31st.

“Last summer, Bungie and 343 Industries began a transition process for Halo data,” said Bungie. “On March 31st, 2012 that transition process will be complete, all live Halo data will be managed by 343 Industries, and Bungie will no longer be able to update game stats and player service records, to host new user generated content, or to operate the Bungie Pro service.

“All currently supported, Bungie-developed Halo titles will be impacted by this change. Any replacement functionality, and all future Halo support, will be provided by Microsoft and 343 Industries via Halo Waypoint at http://halo.xbox.com.”

That’s not to say that Bungie will give over historical Halo data. According to the blog post, Bungie will continue to hold on to “historical Halo data on Bungie.net for as long as the Internet and Bungie’s data storage systems remain functional.”

It’s not the end by any means. Halo lives on, and Bungie has already started work on another project. In another farewell to fans, Bungie thanked gamers for their support. “Thanks for making the Halo-era version of Bungie.net more successful than we could have possibly imagined,” said Bungie. “You complete us. See you starside.”

Via CVG.