14 DAY TRIAL // This week was the launch period for Mass Effect 3, the big action and role playing hybrid from developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts, and we have a new series of Gamer Diaries, designed to show you how we experience the final installment in the space based Commander Shepard driven trilogy.
When it comes to reviews, we deliver just one this week for the Crusader Kings II grand strategy game from Paradox Interactive, a game that can teach you about the Medieval period and delivers a more personal and character driven experience than other titles from the same company.
We also have the customary two Weekend Reading articles: one deals with how the myths of our culture could be better exploited by video games and another about Origin and how gamers will get used to what it offers.
As usual our EndWeekGame piece talks about our plans for gaming time during the weekend, which are obviously dominated by Mass Effect 3.
And we also deliver a round-up of the most interesting news of the week that has passed.
On Monday the development team at BioWare said that the fans of the series were a sort of co-cretors for Mass Effect 3, just as another third game in a series, Assassin’s Creed, received more details about the new North American settings and the new protagonist.
On Tuesday the developers at 343 Industries offered the first gameplay video for the new shooter Halo 4, backed up by commentary from the team, while another team at BioWare, that working on the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, talked about the 1.2 patch for the game and its new features.
On Wednesday Blizzard revealed a new set of bonuses for the gamers who were set to return to the MMO, while BioWare promised that the face import glitch would be solved soon for ME3.
On Thursday The Witcher developers talked about the difference between DLC and expansions, just as DICE talked about the Close Quarters expansion that would be delivered for Battlefield 3.
On Friday BioWare revealed the initial sales numbers for Mass Effect 3, while David Cage talked about the new Kara tech demo and its potential.
On Saturday the developers at DICE talked about the next gen consoles, while Blizzard announced that Player versus Players was taken out of Diablo III.