The Good:
Once again, the voice acting is superb. Of course, Jennifer Hale as FemShep was outstanding, but the other voice actors were also excellent. Even the background characters sounded real and fleshed out- something that is a rarity in most video games. I only played as a female Shepard, so I have no clue how the voice acting for male Shepard was. The only character whose voice acting I could not stand was the war reporter, Diana Allers (voiced by Jessica Chobot). It was very clear, especially in comparison to the other characters, that Jessica Chobot is not an actress. Her lines were stilted and not very convincing.

The characters themselves are also a high point. Old friends and enemies show up in various ways, and getting to talk to them (even briefly) made me very happy. The people who have been interacting with since Mass Effect 1, Kaiden, Ashley, Joker Wrex, Garrus, Tali, and Liara have grown and developed in a way that is realistic. Even the squadmate you did not save (in my case, Kaiden) is mentioned numerous times, making your relationships seem much more real. A few new characters appear, such as James Vega. At first I didn’t know what to think about him, but in the end I really enjoyed talking to him. He is pretty damn hilarious, and his conversations with other crew members on the Normandy were a high point. One of the best parts was hearing the characters interact with one another. As I ran from one part of the Normandy to another, I would walk in on shipmates talking with each other. Liara would be talking to Garrus, Joker and Edi would be mid conversation, etc. Stopping to listen to these conversations was fun and enlightening.

Shep is back and she's as badass as ever (or 'he' if you prefer).

The story itself was also great. You start off with Earth being attacked by the Reapers, and it just goes non-stop from there. It is up to you, as Commander Shepard, to reunite the races for the upcoming war. This is not an easy task, and centuries of mistrust and bad blood run through all of the races. Supporting the Krogan to help cure the genophage will result in the losing the support of the Salarians. The Quarian and Geth conflict also comes to a head. It is possible to get almost all of the factions on your side, but you have to play an almost perfect game.

The Average:
The combat system has improved even more from Mass Effect 2, but compared to most shooters it’s still average. There is a new cover system that is good in theory, but doesn’t always work in practice. Many times I found myself running to a point, only to suddenly find myself in cover, facing the wrong way and getting shot at. This was frustrating and made what could have been a really good combat system hard to work with at times. The best improvement was allowing all classes to carry any weapon they want. This is balanced out with a weight system- the heavier the weapons, the longer it takes your powers to cool down. I played as an infiltrator, and after I got an awesome sniper rifle, I only carried that. As a result of having only one weapon, my powers cooled down within seconds, allowing me to use them more often.

Bioware took the complaints of Mass Effect 2 leveling up system to heart and tweaked it for the third game. It has much more of an RPG feel to it, similar to the first game, without all the issues. You have many more choices when leveling up powers, and modifying your weapons is satisfying and shows actual changes. You still don’t have the depth that was available in Mass Effect 1, but I think Bioware found a good balance between RPG and Third Person Shooter.

Multiplayer is something that was added for the third game. It directly affects the single player game by helping your “galactic readiness.” You and three people can choose between the 6 classes and various races and have to hold off ten waves of either geth, reapers, or Cerberus troops and survive. Sprinkled in the 10 waves are different objectives, so you aren’t able to just camp out and shoot people. I played both with random people and with friends, and it is much more satisfying with friends. This is a game you need to communicate with your teammates, and it’s much easier to do that with friends. Plus, who hasn’t wanted to play as a Krogan?

Go ahead punk make my day

Kinect voice commands were also added to Mass Effect 3. I do not have a Kinect, so I was not able to test it myself, but I had a friend (and fellow Mass Effect junkie) test it out for me and give me her results. She said it took a while to get used to using it in combat, but once she got the hang of it she loved yelling out commands during battles and seeing squadmates react. She enjoyed it the most during conversations. She was able to put down the controller and get into the scene, and just speak the prompts and watch her Shepard react. Other people have told me they have trouble with the Kinect system, and there is not guide on what commands to use, so a lot of it is a guessing game on what you should exactly be yelling.

The Bad:
The scanning system is back. No, you aren’t scanning for minerals like in Mass Effect 2, or driving around planets on the Mako finding hunks of rocks, but it’s still just as irritating. Now you fly your Normandy around the galaxy map, and scan the systems for “war assets” that help you in your cause. That in itself is not a bad thing, but now if you scan too much, the Reapers fly in and you have to evade them. Essentially you are playing Pac-Man with the Reapers. I found this system to be jarring and it took me out of the game.

If you play the game without playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 first, you will have a perfectly fine game, but I don’t think you will be getting the full experience. As much as Bioware claims you can jump in without playing the first two, I think that is doing yourself a grave disservice. Part of my enjoyment of the game was seeing the loads of people from the first two games show up. Actions I did in the first two games directly affected my galactic readiness. Conversations that brought up past actions were common. I can’t imagine I would have any clue what was going on if I hadn’t played the first two games. I cried a few times during the game when certain characters died. I don’t know if the emotional impact would have been there if I hadn’t gotten to know the characters previously. This is truly the end of a trilogy. It would be like reading the last book in a trilogy without reading the first two. You will probably enjoy it, but miss a lot of the backstory and richness of the culture and world as a whole.

The Romance:
Bioware certainly stepped up the gay factor on this one, and I love it. Our gay brothers finally get same sex romance options. Yes, that’s plural. There are two males that can romanced by a male Shepard: Kaiden and Cortez, a shuttle pilot. For the ladies, there are three options. First, you can continue your romance with Liara, start a relationship with your com officer Samantha Traynor (lesbian only romancable by female Shepard), or hook up with war reporter Diana Allers. You can also continue your relationships from Mass Effect 2, with a few exceptions. I found my relationship with Liara to be the most in depth one of the three ladies. You have many conversations with her about the past, the future, and your relationship. I haven’t done that much processing since my last real life relationship. The romance with Samantha Traynor was sweet and definitely sexy (one word: shower.) I thought the relationship with Diana Allers was forced and not very realistic, and was my least favorite of all them, gay or straight.

Great game and then there was that ending we can't discuss due to spoilers.

I applaud Bioware for taking the time to add the same-sex relationships to Mass Effect 3. It made the universe seem much more realistic. You will randomly hear conversations from people of both sexes talk about their husbands and wives, and no one so much as bats an eye. The first time I talked to the shuttle pilot Cortez and he casually mentioned he lost his husband, I about dropped my controller in shock. My second thought was “That was so cool!” It takes a lot to shock me in a video game, and Bioware did it in a good way. My only complaint was that I was unable to romance Ashley Williams as a female Shepard. Kaiden is romanceable by both genders, but Ashley is not? I don’t understand why that was overlooked, Ashley really grew on me over three games and I would have loved have romanced her. That is, hoever, a small complaint in what is otherwise a great game.

The Ending:
No, I won’t spoil the ending for you. All I will say is that I thought the last 5 minutes were jarring and seemed very out of place in the Mass Effect Universe. The “optimal” ending (or what constitutes as one) is up for debate, and is very difficult to get if you do not play multiplayer. Not impossible, but difficult. If anyone wants to talk more about the ending privately, feel free to PM me on the forum (Name: Xan) or hit me up on the Lesbian Gamers Facebook page and I am willing to discuss the ending in depth. But it does bring closure to the end of a trilogy, and that is the important thing.

Overall, it’s a satisfying conclusion to 6 years, three games, and countless novels and comics. I love this universe, I love Commander Shepard, and I did love this game. It has some flaws, and there are a few things I wish was done different, but I felt like it was telling MY story of MY Shepard. In the end, I think that was what made the game great.

I heard about Podunk Studioz a few months ago whilst looking for some female gamer related news. For some reason a post of theirs was flagged to me, so I went and read it and I thought, I like what these guys are trying to do. Essentially 19 year old Dusty had decided to get into indie game programming with his friends and was giving a percentage of all sales to an MS charity, because his mom had succumbed to the disease some years ago. Podunk struck me as one of those old-skool bedroom programmers and I like that there is still this sort of grassroots movement in gaming, for without the likes of Jeff Minter, Jon Ritman and that ilk, we wouldn’t have the games we have today.

I decided to throw Podunk Studioz an interview op and they grabbed on with both hands. This is a bit of an insight into what it’s like to try and get your indie game studio off the ground and it has a nice ‘mom’ tie-in.

Podunk Studioz – ThumbBandits Interview

Q: Who are the Podunk team?
Podunk: The Podunk team is made up of 3 guys, Dusty (age 19) is our Game Director, Lead Programmer and Founder, Jake (age 21) is our Art Director and Co-Founder. Finally there’s Paul (age 19), he is our Music Director as well as our Community Manager.

Q: Where are you based?
Podunk: We are currently based out of two locations actually, Jake and Dusty are currently working out of Menomonie, Wisconsin, whilst Paul – who is still in high school – is currently still working out of Grantsburg, Wisconsin. The hope is to move Paul down with the rest of the team.

Q: If studying, is it game dev related?
Podunk: Dusty and Jake are currently enrolled at the University of Wisconsin Stout in the Game Design and Development program, while it is currently unknown where Paul intends to go to school, it is believed he will be going to school for music.

Q: How / Why did you get started?
Dusty: Well, the why is the easy part, I have known what I have wanted to do since I was ten. I always knew I wanted to make video games and Jake and I knew we always wanted to work for ourselves.

Now for when we got started. The reason behind that was my mom, she passed away five years ago from complications due to multiple sclerosis and when that happened something in me changed. I had always talked about starting a studio in like ten years or so after I had my degree and some industry experience, but after watching my mom struggle and fight her illness, I knew I couldn’t let anything hold me back. My mom was the first and only person who was really a champion of myself and Jake, saying that we could do anything, if we were willing to work for it, so I took the idea for starting the studio two years ago.

The how we got started is actually t-shirt related. When we had the idea that we wanted to start the studio, we knew that we needed some start up cash, then one day I said something to Jake along the lines of ‘that should be on a t-shirt’. Often as things do around here, that snowballed into something bigger and bigger until it got to the point where we realized we needed to make a website so people could see our shirts and buy them. We even had a whole different company planned out. We were going to be Shamrock Shirts and we had a whole business model worked out, and for about half a year that was what our plan was.

The actual game studio still didn’t have a name, it wasn’t until one night I got the idea for the name Podunk, and I told Jake I had come up with the name and then I thought about it and I realized that if we were going to have a website, why not sell our games right on that. I already had a game that I had been working on in my spare time, so we already had a product and we actually started the game studio sooner than we had even planned.

We launched the site on January 4, 2010, at the time we had like two videos. People needed to buy our game with a PayPal button and I would email them the full game file, it was not a well thought out business plan, the first year was kind of rough, but that’s how all first years are. We learned from our mistakes and started getting in contact with the right people re-launched the site, started producing our own original content in a seasonal format and then late this past summer we released our first game and it’s now just snowballing from there.

Q: What are your plans?
Podunk: We aren’t a big planning company, we are firm believers in the idea that ‘yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery’, the plan for the time being is to keep doing what we are doing. We enjoy what we do, we enjoy making our show “Gamer’s Classroom” and writing our 8-Bit Podunk Comics, as well as doing our Freewired podcast. We also really enjoy making games, we are a much more goal minded company instead of a planning one, our short term goals are to expand to our games beyond the PC. Right now we are targeting moving to the iPhone, but we are also looking into XBLA. We also would really like to see one of our games get reviewed by a gaming site, a longer term goal is within the next five years have one of our games win an award, then our biggest goal is one for our ‘Get something for Giving Something’ program which is the charity program we started in honor of the late Lynn Ryan to help raise money for Multiple sclerosis treatment and research. We do this by donating a portion of each sale of every one of our games to the National MS Society, our goal is – for over the lifetime of this program – to try and raise 10 million dollars for multiple sclerosis research and treatment,

Q: Do you intend for Podunk to be a career?
Podunk: Absolutely, it was always planned to be a career. In the past year it has gone from being a side project to being our main career.

Q: Any new projects on the cards?
Podunk: The Newest project we have announced is going to be a point and click adventure game based on characters from our 8-bit Podunk series. The game is going to be called “Jay and Dee: Gone in a Flash” and it is set to be around a 60-90 minute long game that we are going to be releasing as a flash game. While that is the only one we have formally announced, we are always working on smaller projects some of which may turn into much larger games.

Q: What are your views on gender equality in the game space?
Podunk: We firmly believe that anyone can do what anyone else can no matter their gender, race, creed or color. No matter what aspect of gaming – whether making or playing games – the only thing that can determine skill level is how much time a person spends playing a game or working on a game. Anyone can be successful and who they are shouldn’t matter.

Q: What is the Podunk team’s favorite games of all time (pick 3-5 each on ANY format, NOT a Podunk game

Dusty:
Ratchet & Clank 1
God of War 2
Assassins Creed 2
Star Wars Battlefront 2
Sly Cooper 1

“Ratchet & Clank” was actually the game that made me start thinking of game design as a career. The first game I ever actually designed was a game a lot like “Ratchet & Clank”, it may yet see life someday. “God of War 2″ is – to me – the perfect game, it is the perfect mix of great gameplay, story, puzzles and made the Director Cory Barlog my hero. The story of “Assassins Creed 2″ always gets me and it was such a vast improvement over the first game. I don’t know how many hours Jake and I spent playing “Battlefront 2″. Lastly “Sly Cooper” is on this list for a couple reasons, because it’s a great game and it was the first one I ever beat, also because it was a Christmas present from my mom.

Jake:
Super Mario Bros
Mortal Kombat 2
Doom 2
Dragon Age Origins
Sports Games

“Super Mario Bros.” because it was the first game I ever got, “MK 2″ because me, Dusty and all our cousins would spend every family get together crammed into this tiny room and play it for hours and hours and everytime, someone would get a ‘finish him’, they would throw the controller to one of our older cousins because they could do the fatality moves. “Doom 2″ because it was the game that got me into first person shooters and I blame it for my obsession with “Call of Duty” and “Battlefield”. “Dragon Age Origins” was the first RPG I could stand playing for more than a few minutes because it allowed me to feel like I was in control and not at the mercy of some angry programmer. Lastly ‘Sports Games’ because I go insane when I can’t play them physically because it gets too cold up here they give me an outlet to play them when they are not in season.

Paul
Fallout 3
Elder Scrolls IV
Borderlands
Sunset riders
Street fighter 2

“Fallout”, “Elder Scrolls” and “Borderlands” because I love being able to make my character a bad ass and then just dominating. I also love the look and feel of these games and the fantastic worlds they create. “Sunset Riders” and “Street fighter 2″ are games I grew up with and love.

Q: What advice would you give to other people wanting to start their own indie game studio?
Podunk: Our advice is you have to be fearless and be unafraid to try things, whether it is a game idea or trying to get in contact with gaming sites or publishers. The worst thing you are going to hear is “no” and while no stinks, it has never killed anyone. If you’re going to start a studio, have an idea for a product and go for it, there is a good chance some people won’t like your idea, but there will be people who do like it and will support it. Every game has an audience, your job is to find your game’s audience. Also get in contact with and bring in the right people, let them take care of the headaches you don’t want to, you don’t have to do everything yourself.

One final piece of advice if you are an indie studio or starting one, it is a great idea to get in contact with the people at GameStreamers they are one of the best online distributors and they are some of the nicest people to work with. They will walk you step by step through the process of getting you on their network and they really care about the indie developers on their network. Also get in contact with other studios, they can help you out, we invite anyone starting a studio to get in contact with us and we will do our best to help you out.

Q: What titles have you made and where are they available?

Podunk: Our titles include “Rainbow Ball” a fun strategic twist on the brick breaking genre and it is available through any GameStreamer online store for the PC.

Thumb Bandits would like to thank Podunk Studioz for their time. Good luck guys, keep up the good work.

Podunk Studios “Rainbow Ball” game is available HERE. Or via their website.
You can also connect with the guys on Twitter (Dusty and Jake, though Jake doesn’t appear to use Twitter much) and the Podunk Facebook page.

EB Expo 2011 – Rundown / Report
With the first EB Games EXPO done and dusted we thought we’d give you a rundown of how it went, when it will return and what we saw whilst there. First up we should cover what happened before we even made it there. We’d registered for press passes and were turned down. No reason was given for this, other than a curt email stating all had been allocated. A friend who runs a much smaller gaming blog than the two we run told me he’d been given a pass no problem and laughed proclaiming “wow my readership is shit compared to yours, must be because you’re a girl”. Though this was said in jest, it stung and I emailed EB PR back to ask why we had not received the pass. The response came hours later in the form of an explanation that they’d ‘looked at the wrong website’ and miraculously found us two press passes. Well lucky my friend had said what he’d said, or I just wouldn’t have bothered even asking. Despite this hiccup we donned iPad, iPhones and headed to the expo.

EB EXPO 2011 – First Impressions

Wow… disorganised much? That was the first impression. Given this is Australia’s first big video games EXPO there were bound to be a few hiccups. Firstly, no queuing system for picking up tickets and passes. Press passes were being given out by a woman in the same ticket book as regular passes, but it wasn’t signed in any way. We had to ask 4 EB staffers before finding someone that knew where we were to go to collect them. We then had to wait in the same ‘queue’ (well thousands of people jostling to get to the front of a mosh pit) as regular ticket pick-ups. Passes in hand time to get scanned in as we were told by the woman handing them out “over there somewhere” she stated. We eventually found the two guys doing the press pass scanning, they were talking to each other behind a barrier, backs to us and no right of way to suggest they were the press scanning guys.

EB EXPO 2011 – Game highlights

Finally we made it into the arena, which at this stage only had a few hundred people milling because everyone had made their way into the main arena to watch the motocross event. Screw that, we’re here to see video games dammit, we made a beeline for the EA booth, but the guy wasn’t letting anyone in, well other than his friends it seemed, since there were a few guys in there who were not from EA and he was laughing with them when he’d shooed us away. Onto theUncharted 3 booth, got straight in and played (they had about 8 set up on different screens, single player campaign). This was fantastic, no other word for it, if it isn’t on your purchase list for next month, add it.

Back to the EB EXPO 2001 floor and a brief wander and peek at Batman: Arkham City, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved then brought us to Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. Tracy was desperate to play this, so we hopped in the queue and that’s when it all went wrong for the 4 Ubisoft guys running things. Because they had set up a multiplayer game, rather than multiple machines playing single player, they had to set up each person in the game and it kept skipping out, what should have been a 5 minute wait, saw us in the queue for over 20 minutes. Though we didn’t mind waiting, the problem was the main queue had then expanded to hundreds of people.. you do the math. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations multiplayer played well, though the play area was fairly confined.

Why are there no images of the games we had planned to bring you? Well most of the big games we wanted to report on had stickers on the monitors stating strictly no photography. I realise this was not down to the EB EXPO 2011, but more likely the publishers wishes. This was a bit of a fail really because a picture speaks a thousand words as they say.

EB EXPO 2011 – Who was there?

All the big names were at the EB EXPO 2011, including: EB (obviously), they had a store right in the centre of the arena, Nintendo, EA, Turtlebeach, 2K, Activision, Bethesda, Konami, Plantronics, Playstation, PopCap, Capcom, Bluemouth, Disney Interactive, Logitech, AR Drone, Warner Bros, THQ, Square Enix, Xbox 360, SEGA and then some.

EB EXPO 2011 – What could be better

The next EB Expo is apparently moving down to Sydney next year. As this was the first EB EXPO there were bound to be teething issues. From a visitor standpoint, here are a few things that should be sorted before the next one:

Organization / Correct signage / A better queuing system
And separating off the press pass pick-up from the regular ticket pickup. Also with thousands of people queuing, might be a better idea than to have just 3 ticketing officers and another 6 or 8 EB people milling around chatting to one another.

Allow photos to be taken
Seriously, people are going to take them ANYWAY (well we didn’t, but you can bet quite a few other people did). Readers like to see photos rather than long drawn out explanations. The images will end up online anyway, so rather than crippling the press with the no photos / video on almost EVERY game, sort that out.

Have more than two tills in the EB store. This makes sense from a queuing perspective and a sales perspective. The queue to get into the EB EXPO EB store was insanely long and once in there it was testosterone hell and two tills and only one of them manned? That’s just crazy talk. Smaller queues and more money for EB with a bigger store, more tills and staff who are actually doing something, other than once more talking to EACH OTHER would be good.

EB EXPO 2011 – What was done right

You know, a lot of things were wrong with the EB EXPO 2011, but despite all of that EB has to be commended for bringing something like this to Australian shores. Overall the space was great (though it could have been bigger obviously), there were loads of publishers / companies there and some really helpful staff. I know there are naysayers saying the EB EXPO 2011 was merely a marketing exercise for EB, but be that true or false, the fact is Aussie’s just don’t get to see video games prior to release often, certainly not in a hands-on manner. Sure some of the organisation sucked, but this was a huge event and the first one of its kind, taking that into consideration, the EB EXPO 2011 worked well and one can only assume, the next one will be even better. Well done EB Games on bringing something that Australia was crying out for, our own games expo.

NHL 12 Review

Story
Brendan Shanahan, long time NHL player and future Hall of Famer, was once asked if playing hockey was hard. “Is hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me. We need to have the strength and power of a football player, the stamina of a marathon runner, and the concentration of a brain surgeon. But we need to put all this together while moving at high speeds on a cold and slippery surface while 5 other guys use clubs to try and kill us, oh yeah did I mention that this whole time we’re standing on blades 1/8 of an inch thick? Is ice hockey hard? I don’t know, you tell me. Next question.” There is no doubt that the men and women who play the fastest sport on Earth have to have plenty of skill and determination. For the rest of us who enjoy the sport, but can barely stand on skates let alone put a puck past a goaltender, NHL 12 is there to let you suit up and skate with some of the best.

Gameplay
NHL 12 gives you so many different ways to play hockey that you’re not likely to be done by the time NHL 13 rolls around. The previous incarnations of the series established solid options for players who enjoy different things. NHL 12 is no different. You can play a casual game, practice your skills alone or with the team, pit your team against anyone else in the NHL and a smattering of other leagues included in the game or settle in for some serious action. Be a GM, a standard feature now, lets you be an armchair General Manager and trade and draft your way to a winning team. For an online flavour of building a competitive team, last year’s Hockey Ultimate Team mode has been brought back and refined to let budding strategists jockey their way to the top.

The Be a Pro mode’s options have been vastly improved. The ability to play a custom-made character, an existing NHL player in the midst of his career or a kid from major junior hockey throughout his whole career gives you a chance to keep coming back to the game and building on what you’ve done before. This year EA has given players the opportunity to import their NHL 11 profile to continue playing the career that may not have been finished before NHL 12 was released. No more having to give up a year’s worth of gaming and start over as a rookie!

NHL 12 has stepped up the game with plenty of new features as well as improvements on existing features. The Winter Classic, held outdoors on New Year’s Day every year now, is a great addition. Many teams will never get to participate in the real Winter Classic due to their location (for example, we’ll never see the Phoenix Coyotes take on the Tampa Bay Lightning because hockey in the desert and sub-tropics doesn’t lend itself to outdoor games), but players who are also fans are able to send their teams out into the snow to battle for bragging rights and two regular season points.

The introduction of hockey legends as unlockable characters is another much-touted addition to this year’s game. Retired players have been off-limits in the past unless you used the Creation Zone to build them from scratch. Now, through reaching various goals (the out of character gaming kind, not the kind that lights the red light and makes goalies annoyed), the likes of greats Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman can be unlocked for use on any team and give a boost to current rosters battling for the Stanley Cup.

For a newcomer to the series, the controls take some getting used to. There are tutorial options for those who like to be walked through how to get the buttons and joysticks to do what you want. However, the controls are intuitive enough that fumbling through a few games will teach even a casual gamer how to throw a hit, make a pass and aim towards the net in hopes of getting a goal.

Graphics
Every year the graphics in the NHL series improve. The most noticeable difference in NHL 12 comes with the upgrade of the physics engine. Hits are more realistic and bone-shaking, and passing and shooting feels as smoothly as it should when you’re sliding a puck along a sheet of ice. The level of detail going into not only the gameplay, but each individual player, continues to improve every year. With the sheer number of players available, not every player’s features are accurate (many default to basic features that look nothing like the actual person), but they have stars like Alex Ovechkin’s crooked nose and Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s small mouths and knitted brows down perfectly.

Female Character Angle
Hold the phone. This year there actually is a female character angle. Previously, the series has been the exclusive domain of big, bulky men, many with crooked noses and scars galore (and yes, the mullets too). EA has taken a step in the right direction for making the NHL series more female-inclusive. After a letter from a young female fan requesting a female avatar be inserted into the game for use in Be a Pro and the Creation Zone in general, EA’s NHL team in Vancouver went ahead and did just that. The options are limited to two generic heads, as opposed to the multitude of customisation options that the male avatars have, but it’s a great start and hopefully one that will continue to develop in future incarnations of the series.

Overall
NHL 12 is an impressive step up from NHL 11, which was an impressive step up from NHL 10. The team at EA Sports that develops the NHL series take on board player feedback each year and the amount of effort that goes into not only the big, flashy additions but the small details that make the game is obvious. Every year takes a step towards creating a more realistic hockey gaming experience while giving players plenty of customisation and gameplay options to keep it fun. NHL 12 is such a big step up from NHL 11 with the new features and the improvements on the old that it is definitely worth checking out for anyone who already plays this series. Gamers who are into sports games in general or hockey in general would do well to check out NHL 12 as well. It’s a well-designed game that caters to a broad audience. The gameplay is fun to tinker with casually or to spend countless hours scrambling up the points ladder.
9/10

It’s almost here guys, Australia’s first major gaming expo, the EB Games Expo. Taking place October 15-16 on the Gold Coast, Australia, Thumb Bandits will be there to keep you up to date with everything going on, live-blogging from the event and reporting one how it all goes down. In partnership with our gay girl sister site Lesbian Gamers, we’ll be covering everything with a female gaming slant, you won’t get there anywhere else. I’ve put the full EB Games Expo below for your delectation, let the countdown begin.

EB Games Expo info

In just under three weeks, EB GAMES EXPO, the biggest video games event Australia has ever seen will be held at the Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre.

Taking place on Saturday 15th & Sunday 16th October, leading retailer EB Games will bring together some of the biggest names in the business, including console giants PlayStation, XBOX360 and Nintendo. One of the most exciting components of the Expo, the Interactive Exhibition, will feature displays from the world’s leading gaming brands and provide fans with the opportunity to experience the most anticipated titles of the year including Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, Battlefield 3, Assassins Creed Revelations, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Batman Arkham City, and many more.

EB Games Expo – EB Live

As part of the EB EXPO, attendees will be able to watch EB LIVE in the mammoth 2000 seat arena, and experience live presentations from Playstation, Namco Bandai Partners, Bethesda, Ubisoft, THQ and EA. The EB ARENA SPECTACULAR will provide heart-stopping action as Showtime FMX perform live freestyle motocross.

EB Games Expo – EB Games Store

The massive double story EB GAMES STORE will be a real drawcard – the place where you can pre-order the hottest upcoming titles to pick up at any store in Australia, check out the latest gaming accessories and online gaming cards plus get your hands on some awesome show specials!

The SATURDAY TWILIGHT SESSIONS will feature live DJ’s on the Exhibition main stage from 8:00pm to 10:00 pm, including Van She Tech and The Surecut Kids, plus FANMADE POCKET MUSIC live from the FANMADE area. FANMADE POCKET MUSIC, the modern chiptunemovement, is about musicians embracing and celebrating the sounds from old video game hardware in a new context and this event, presented by Pocket Music, is set to bring some of Australia’s finest video game enthused musicians for a one off unforgettable show.

WCG at EB Games Expo

The climax of the AUSTRALIAN WORLD CYBER GAMES tournament will also take place between 10pm and 11pm during the Saturday Twilight Session. Australia’s greatest gaming athletes will compete for the National Championship Crown and the right to represent their country at the World Final in Seoul. World Cyber Games is the largest e-sports tournament and festival in the world, attracting over 1.5 million participants from more than 70 countries.

The BRISBANE REGIONAL YOUTH ORCHESTRA (BRYO) will present music from the some of our favourite video games over the past 15 years, including Final Fantasy, Halo,Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Tetris and more. Made up of players aged up to 26, BRYO prides itself on leaving the established orchestral music of Bach and Beethoven behind and moving forward with relevant music for the audiences of today.

If you have an interest in gaming, or just want to enjoy an action-packed weekend of entertainment, head along to EB GAMES EXPO! General Admission tickets are just $29.95 per session from any EB Games store or online at www.ebexpo.com.au. Tickets are available for three sessions including the Saturday Daylight Session from 10am to 4pm, the Saturday Twilight Session from 4pm to 10pm and Sunday Session from 10am to 4pm. Right across the two days there’ll be giveaways, prizes plus much more – EB GAMES EXPO – you have never experienced gaming like this!

Alice: Madness Returns – Has it really been 11 years since we were graced with the joy of American McGee’s Alice on PC? As someone who is more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, back then, American McGee’s Alice was just too good to resist. The game was creepy, gothic, funny and engaging, and by using the Quake 3 engine, it was a game that was definitely advanced for it’s time.

Story
Now here we are in 2011 and we have American McGee back, brining us more trippy gameplay from the dark and unnerving Alice, in Alice: Madness Returns on Xbox 360. The story kicks off with Alice as a teenager, under the watchful eye of Dr Bumby, a psychiatrist. For those who have played the first game, this probably isn’t too much of a surprise, since Alice’s mind and her adventures in wonderland have clearly taken their toll on her idea of reality. The story progresses from there, and it’s not long until Alice is thrown back into a world of gory, creepy, gothic horror.

Gameplay
Alice: Madness Returns, is a solid platformer which has its fair share of hack and slash goodness. The controls feel effortless and you can easily shrink Alice down to enable her access to smaller areas in the game. The weapons such as the Vorpal knife and the pepper-grinder, are sufficiently gruesome and weird that they fit perfectly into the overall feel of the game. At times there are plenty of enemies on screen and the AI is pretty good, so the controls and the weapons work perfectly well together to make hacking and slashing your way through levels quite enjoyable. You can lock on to target and kill them at long range, as well as hop around on different levels to avoid them if you need to. As well as Alice’s excellent fighting abilities, she’s also perfectly capable of jumping and floating effortlessly around the levels. The checkpoints are strategically placed so that it doesn’t become infuriating if you need to do part of a level again and the fact you can’t fall off ledges helps ensure you make it through many levels unscathed. There’s no multiplayer in Alice, which is probably how it should be, but there are cute rhythm mini-games in it, although you don’t need to play these if you don’t want to.

Graphics
One of the most impressive aspect of this title is the graphics. From the beginning, it has a very surreal feeling to it, reminiscent of the French animated classic “The Triplets of Bellville”. NPC’s are as full of character in their faces as the characters you can interact with and you feel that Alice’s madness pours out through the depiction of these characters beautifully. The backgrounds and levels of the game are also absolutely gorgeous to look at, accurately representing Alice’s troubled mind. The game grabs you with it’s aesthetics and although there are a few pop up issues here and there, the frame-rate is solid throughout.

Audio
As with the graphics, sound plays an important part of this title and the creepy score which accompanies the game is spot on. It adds to the overall experience and the dialogue from the characters is great. At times it becomes a little cliched, but there are some stand out characters, including of course the dryness of the Cheshire Cat. Alice herself sounds a lot like Lara Croft which is always a nice bonus.

Female Character Angle
Obviously the female character is the lead character in this title, so it’s always welcome to see that. Alice is a very interesting character and her background and decent to madness is quite gripping. Through the 15 hours or so it takes to play the game, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more intertwined in Alice’s psyche and she’s definitely a character that can hold her own on screen.

Overall
Alice: Madness Returns is a welcome return to gaming for American McGee. The game is eerie, interesting, gory, surreal and extremely dark. It’s a very close likeness to Lewis Carroll’s original vision for Alice and the levels and gameplay compliment this perfectly. If you haven’t played the original, you can still pick this up and will enjoy it as it’s a solid platformer with great aesthetic touches.

8/10

Just a quick heads up since this involves one of the first ladies of gaming, BloodRayne. Sure her games have kind of sucked in the past (pun intended), but she is a kick-ass female character, so we had to give her some news coverage. Of course she’s as sexed up as ever, what with her being “The Sexiest Dhampir Ever” and all. Full press release for your fangtastic selves below.

BloodRayne: Betrayalis Now Available!
Epic 2D hack ‘n slash reboot of legendary franchise hits PlayStation®Network today and Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow

Majesco Entertainment Company announced today that its highly anticipated side-scrolling BloodRayne: Betrayal launches today for PlayStation Network followed by a release tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The PlayStation Network version is included as part of the PlayStation Network PLAY program.

The original video game femme fatale, Rayne, has returned to battle and feed in a brand new hack ‘n slash adventure developed by WayForward, the seasoned team behind some of gaming’s most critically acclaimed brand reinventions. BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers over-the-top stylish action with a healthy dose of bloodshed. You are Rayne, the sexy dhampir with superhuman strength, speed, and agility, recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one last mission. The target is a lavish, yet sinister, ball in a secluded castle with plenty of dark surprises. With the help of a mysterious friend, and members of Brimstone, Rayne must infiltrate the manor, take out the fiendish horde, and stop an evil master plot once and for all.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is available now on PlayStation Network for $14.99 and tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft Points. For more information about BloodRayne: Betrayal, please visit the official game site at www.bloodraynebetrayal.com and be sure to Like us at www.facebook.com/bloodrayne.

Thanks to our sister-site Lesbian Gamers we’ve got a look at one female gamers thoughts on the winner of the FemShep (Female Commander Shepard) competition that BioWare recently ran. The winner has caused quite a polarizing response with a lot of (mostly male) gamers loving the choice because she’s “sexy”, “blonds have more fun” and “my penis voted”, other gamers (male and female) seem to have had a severely adverse response to the winning FemShep. I have to say I’m with the latter bunch, I don’t like her. I think this is a massive FAIL on BioWare’s behalf and it seems completely at odds with what we’ve come to expect from the developer. All the choices were lackluster and seemingly a lot younger than the standardized Female Commander Shepard (FemShep) we’ve come to see and love.

Why BioWare didn’t just use the standard FemShep in the videos and boxart is beyond fathoming. Anyway, let’s get on with that article shall we, thanks to The LG.

The New FemShep – Female Commander Shepard FAIL

Let me preface this piece by saying I love BioWare, they are one of my favorite developers and I support them by buying their games and even their merchandise and have done so for many years. I’m upset with the FemShep debacle however. Firstly it being touted as a ‘beauty contest’ (by some) demeans what the female Commander Shepard (FemShep) is all about, it belittles her as nothing but an object of beauty, a woman to be judged on her appearance rather than action and that angers me. Somehow this “vote for your preferred FemShep” thing went from “cool they’re finally using FemShep on some marketing” to “oh shit FemShep was voted on and now she’s a blond bimbo”. I don’t understand why BioWare put it to the vote. I don’t understand why BioWare didn’t take control and make a decision to make the marketing material feature the base model FemShep, with her bobbed hair and non-pouty lips.

FemShep too young to command

Turning FemShep into this young looking blond Samus Aran type just irks and it irks a lot. This isn’t a ‘lesbian thing’, though I’m sure there will be those closed minded fools who assume as a lesbian of course I would prefer the short-haired ‘more-masculine’ Shep. To them I say give me a break, I just prefer the female Shepard who looks like you’d listen to her if the galaxy were in peril and frankly if some jumped up 18 year old blond pouting kid needed me on the front lines, I’d be questioning things big time.

Standard female Commander Shepard looks better

The standard female Shepard looks like she can tote a gun, she looks like she’s a leader and most importantly she looks severe and old enough to have lived through battle. The new FemShep we’re now stuck with for marketing and merchandise just doesn’t cut it. I was so excited to purchase a “Mass Effect” game with female Shepard I’ve ranted it to all my gamer friends, now I’ll be buying the male version because frankly I just can’t take blonde kiddy Shep seriously.

FemShep Beauty Contest poor form

I realize the result of this ‘beauty contest’ was never going to please everyone, after all, we all have our own FemShep versions and the chance of seeing your exact version on packaging or as an action-figure was never going to happen, but COME ON BIOWARE SERIOUSLY!!!!!!! Shepard number 5 is bland, bland, bland, bland and worse than bland, she panders to an audience that don’t and possibly never will ‘get’ what FemShep is all about. Thanks for that Bioware, thanks for placing the decision of iconic female battle icon in the realm of what statistics suggest is the mostly male voting audience. To those male gamers who voted for a different FemShep, thank you, clearly all our votes just didn’t amount to enough, but then that’s hardly surprising with the “Gentlemen prefer blonds” doing the rounds on the various male run gaming sites presently. It just makes me want to shed a tear because it feels like gaming has once more taken one step forward, two steps back.

Oh and for the record, none of the choices were that great.

Check out this awesome female Commander Shepard (femShep) video by YouTuber “gametourists”. The video shows off many of the female Commander Shepards in game, all so neatly knitted together with a funky soundtrack. There’s even some girl on mono-gendered alien lovin (and femshep with dudes.. ugh). I know I spotted someone that looked very like my Commander Shepard, how about you? check out the awesome video and let us know. “I’m just here to get the job done, let someone else be on the poster”. Genius.

Via [TheLG].

Yeah well what do you think of the screenshots in this post, they don’t look more than a little like Lara Croft do they? Yeah Jillian Michaels, or rather the people behind her new game “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” probably had no idea this is generally what Lara Croft wears when she’s out ‘adventuring’. “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” is coming Exclusively to Kinect this Fall. We’ve got the full press release below… now if we could just shake the feeling we’ve seen all this before… hey.. now a Lara Croft fitness game.. that sounds pretty cool!

Best-selling author and Co-Host of ‘The Doctors’ brings you on an interactive journey in this unique, fully customizable experience.

Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Microprose announced today that Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure is coming exclusively to Kinect™ for Xbox 360® later this fall. Renowned health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels makes her Kinect for Xbox 360 debut after selling more than one million units across her franchise.

Get ready to use your entire body this time as players join Jillian on an interactive adventure, which of course is also filled with Jillian’s trademark intensity! Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure, the latest iteration of the Jillian Michaels franchise, takes your fitness routine beyond a basic workout and turns it into a real adventure through a mission-based, thrill-seeking journey set in a lush jungle temple environment. The high-energy and fully customizable motion-based experience offers a results-oriented personal training experience that you can expect from teaming up with Jillian to achieve your fitness goals.

Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure features include:

* Multiple Exercise Modes: Fitness Adventure Mode – featuring Parkour-style action (a free-style mix of proactive and reactive running, jumping and climbing) set in an exciting jungle temple environment; Circuit Training – 10 exercise circuits hand-selected by Jillian herself available in three difficulty modes, giving you complete freedom to customize your session; and Individual Fitness Training – offering exercises of varying difficulty allowing you to work out at your own pace .

* Use Your Own Equipment: Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure has training programs that can easily integrate various types of fitness gear you may already have at home. Or you can use the game’s complete regimen of training exercises that use your own body weight to get you back into shape…the choice is yours!

* Social Integration: Check out your own and your friends’ performance in the online leaderboards. Keep up the great work because Jillian will be monitoring the boards and the best performers will be honored on Jillian’s Facebook page.

* Stats: The game provides statistics to track your progress, including a calendar that shows you what days you have worked out from the moment you started playing the game to present day. It also displays the breakdown of calories burned, number of exercises/circuits completed, and time spent exercising. These can be viewed on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis.

Developed by N-Space and produced by Microprose, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure on Kinect for Xbox 360 is expected to launch this November.