Falling Debris

Back when the Modern Warfare 2 XBOX 360 bundle premiered the 250GB hard drive, it seemed like only a matter of time before MS started selling the accessory to those who just want to replace their existing drive or put a drive into an Arcade model. That would be great, since Microsoft is insisting that owners store more and more data on their consoles; small memory cards are just not useful anymore. Seriously, the largest removable storage device that Microsoft created was a 512MB card that still sells for $30 MSRP. That barely stores a moderate gamer's game save data, let alone DLC, XBLA games, Games on Demand, and last but not least, ripping the game disc contents to the hard drive (thanks to NXE). You can't do that with the measly 512MB card; you can't even do that with the 20GB drive that came with the launch model. The 60GB model that came with the Elite? Maybe. But the 120GB that comes with the Elite now and sells for $120... wait, that isn't even for sale anymore. Microsoft only sells the 60GB Live Starter Pack for Xbox 360 - for $100! What is going on? Microsoft seems to be giving mixed signals regarding what kind of storage it wants you to have. They want to you to store tons and tons of game data, but they don't want to give you anything to store it on.

That's where a small, all but forgotten controversy comes into play. Third-party acessory maker Datel was making devices that fit into the memory card slot, but utilized MicroSD cards that gave you up to 16GB of removable storage. But Microsoft didn't like that. They pushed out an update that bricked the memory cards, leaving them useless. You read that right. Microsoft offers no useful storage devices for the XBOX 360 and cripple any unauthorized devices that fill the gap that Microsoft made. But you came here for 250GB hard drives, right?

Microsoft has the Modern Warfare 2 console bundle. The only way to get the 250GB hard drive is to buy a brand new console. Now, they're celebrating Final Fantasy coming to XBOX by launching yet another console bundle. Exactly the same - Console (not Elite, but not sure what the difference is at this point) with faceplate (no paintjob, just white), 2 controllers, game, and 250GB drive (which will certainly be useful for storing all those cinematics). If you didn't buy one bundle, now you have your choice of decked out, game-themed console. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. BILLY MAYES HERE... Anyway, Microsoft is now on their third 250GB game/console bundle: Splinter Cell Conviction. It features everything the MW2 and FFXIII bundles include, except a paintjob or faceplate. It's just black. Well, I suppose that could be seen as an appropriate paintjob, being stealthy and all, but it seems lazy to me.

After 3 console bundles featuring a hard drive that you still cannot buy separately after 4 months, it seems that Microsoft is milking current owners' desires for a larger hard drive. This November will mark the 5th anniversary of the XBOX 360. Anyone that may want one already has one. But if you want a better one, let alone that elusive hard drive, Microsoft wants you to pony up $400 for a whole new console. What do you do with your old console? Nothing. Microsoft certainly isn't paying a nominal refund if you send in models that are over 50% likely to fail due to bad design. Oh, and let's not forget that if you do buy a console bundle to replace your working console just to get that hard drive, you still need a data transfer kit (not included). You have to pay $12 to get the cable and disc to transfer data from old drive to new drive. You'll have to stop by your nearest... Oh wait, you can't buy those either (Update). Microsoft does not sell the transfer kits as individual products; you can only get it if you buy the 60GB "replacement" hard drive that was released to upgrade older consoles to Elite specs. Oh wait, you can't buy those either. The only hard drive you can buy is a 60GB XBOX Live "Starter Kit" that comes with a drive, 3 month membership and ethernet cable. No transfer kit. You have to buy it from Microsoft directly (ie, over the phone) or off the Internet. You hear that, Microsoft? People are buying your "I only need it one time" accessory off the Internet because you don't sell it anywhere!

I'm sorry to say that there's still no way to get the 250GB hard drive, or data transfer kit for said drive, short of getting it second hand off the web. I don't know what to tell you, other than welcome to Microsoft. Side note, Sony allows and even encourages PS3 owners to replace their hard drives whenever they want with regular consumer drives. Of course, all that data could be lost if the Playstation Network goes down because of a leap-year glitch, but that's important to this discussion. You upset about this 250GB drive? Let us know, let Microsoft know, and for God's sake, let Nintendo know. Because the Wii is all about the storage.

Update: Microsoft is now selling the $12 transfer kit through retail now for $15. No word if it will hit actual stores.

As most gamers know by now, early 2010 has been a good time for BioWare.  The Tolkien-esque Dragon Age: Origins came out in early November to rave reviews and healthy sales, only to be followed in late January by the sequel to the critically-acclaimed space opera Mass Effect. To release two blockbuster RPGs so close to one another is almost unheard of for any developer, but it has offered a unique opportunity to compare two games that are very closely related and yet completely different in nature. Each game has a very loyal and widespread fanbase at this point, so the questions become: What do the games do differently? What does each game do right? And if you have to choose one over the other, which should you pick?

Dragon Age: Origins is as high fantasy as a game can get, but is not your grandpappy’s fantasy setting. There are Elves, sure, but they are a people divided, scattered, and subjugated under the heavy boot of the human populace. There are Dwarves, yes, but they are a people more concerned with politics and social castes than beer and battle (though beer and battle place a close second). There are orcs and trolls and dragons and other evil creatures, but they are generally referred to as Darkspawn, and have a much more nefarious creation process than the sinister mud baths Peter Jackson treated us to. In the end, the fantasy is instantly recognizable, and yet the world feels very nuanced and fully realized, distinct from merely being some bland, suburban province of Middle Earth.

Mass Effect, similarly, has shades of Star Wars while being wholly apart from it. There are no Jedi or Sith, no Lightsabers or rancors, but there are adepts who can manipulate invisible forces with their minds, myriad distinct alien races all living together, plenty of droids you aren’t looking for, and even a few wretched hives of scum and villainy. But where Star Wars is primarily focused on the struggle between the Jedi and the Sith, two factions of Force users, Mass Effect is more concerned with the struggle of humanity—and all alien life as we know it—against an ancient race of malevolent, techno-organic machines bent on destroying all life in the galaxy.

Dragon Age is a gritty, bloody, D&D kind of affair.So with that backdrop set, a look at the gameplay of the two games will quickly highlight just how different these games are. While both are ostensibly epic RPGs, Dragon Age: Origins is relatively standard fare, with swords and shields, magic and potions, levels and attributes and skills and abilities. The combat is active rather than being turn-based like RPGs of yore, but otherwise the game largely adheres to the same sort of rules you might expect to find in a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

Mass Effect, conversely, plays like a frenetic tactical squad-based third person shooter. You still gain levels and distribute points in abilities, but many traditional RPG elements are glossed over or removed wholesale. In this case, the game is generally the better for it. There is no melee combat to speak of, aside from a quick elbow you can throw at any opponent who gets too close for comfort. As such, your character classes do not focus on melee fighting, sneaking, or spellcasting as in Dragon Age, but rather are differentiated along lines of specialization between gun-centric abilities, technology-centric abilities, and force-centric abilities.

Both games are epic in story concept and length. The hero of Dragon Age: Origins must rebuild the scattered Grey Wardens—the sworn enemies of the Darkspawn menace—so as to prevent a full-scale blight from enveloping the land and destroying the lives of everyone in the area. The hero of Mass Effect 2—Commander Shepard—must amass a crew willing to put their lives on the line to bring the fight to the doorstep of the sinister Reapers who threaten the lives of every being in the galaxy. Each game will see you putting in a good 40 hours to complete on your first playthrough, though Dragon Age: Origins boasts a high end of playtime closer to the 100 hour mark for completionists. In Mass Effect 2, the player would be hard-pressed to stretch the game far past the 50 hour mark.

Where both games really shine, though, are in their characters and dialogue. With characters like the ever-disapproving Morrigan and the bird-hating Shale in Dragon Age: Origins and like the brutally just Samara and the “biotic god” Niftu Cal in Mass Effect 2, there’s no shortage of interesting conversations to be had in either game. However, there are plenty of differences here, as well.

In Dragon Age: Origins, your conversations often have four or five response options at each branch point, and generally, each option is written well and is not clearly “good” or “evil,” though some are obviously more polite or rude than the next. The player character does not personally speak outside of a few token grunts and combat phrases, but the other characters are fully voiced. Perhaps the most outstanding characterization tool that Dragon Age: Origins uses is the simple fact that your party members converse while you travel. If you have party members who don’t like each other, they’ll exchange witty barbs. If you have a party member who’s attracted to another, he (or she) may hit on him (or her). These short conversations go a long way for making your party seem like real characters leading real lives.

Mass Effect 2 has new worlds, new aliens, and all new enemies for you to gun down.In Mass Effect 2, conversations are significantly different. Commander Shepard is fully voiced, and done well to boot. Your choices in conversations, however, are generally more limited; you typically have a “Paragon” (read: Good), neutral, and “Renegade” (read: Evil) response to any conversation branch. This is an understandable limitation, however, when you consider the sheer number of lines that must be recorded for Commander Shepard—particularly when they have to be recorded twice, once for each gender! In contrast to Dragon Age, the party of Mass Effect 2 seems solely concerned with the mission, and do not have conversations while traveling, instead settling only for the occasional shout or comment during combat. The characters still generally feel pretty fully realized despite this shortcoming, however, and your one-on-one conversations with them on the Normandy will more than make up for their lack of flavor outside the ship.

Despite these differences, the two games have many things in common. The graphics, writing, voice acting, musical accompaniment, and level architecture are all generally very good or even outstanding in both games. Each game has its own shortcomings, too. In Dragon Age: Origins, there are some needlessly long or toilsome sections to the game, and there are a great many graphical bugs for a major title from a major developer and publisher. In Mass Effect 2, there is a feeling of disconnectedness about the universe you’re exploring and the places you visit, and the level design is extremely linear. However, despite these flaws, both games manage to be outstanding in their own right, and are absolutely worth playing.

So which one is better?

Well, there’s no easy answer to that question. If you have a 360/PC and have played and enjoyed the original Mass Effect, I would say there’s no question; with its already established cast of characters, universe, and backstory, Mass Effect 2 has something of an edge on Dragon Age, which by necessity has to introduce players to every character and location and mechanic. Moreover, Mass Effect has had time to refine and mature its design; where the original was a great game with a few rough edges, Mass Effect 2 is smooth, simplified, and polished. However, if you have a PS3 or have never played the original Mass Effect or are just more generally interested in fantasy than sci-fi, you are definitely not settling for second best to pick up Dragon Age: Origins instead. Whichever way you go, though, if you enjoy one, you may want to seriously consider trying the other.

Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Boogerface. It's continuing mission, to explore strange out-of-proportion worlds. To seek out new players of varying competency. To boldly spend where most players cannot fathom. This is Star Trek Online.

It was a only few years ago when Cryptic Studios, the team behind City of Heroes and Champions Online, announced that they would be working on a Star Trek MMO. It's a difficult proposition, especially since Bioware has been working on a Star Wars MMO for the same length of time (which won't be out until 2011). But here we are, on the eve of one of the most promising MMO launches since The Matrix Online City of Heroes, and it's quite a game. I got into the open beta with just three weeks until release. By that point, you figure the game would probably be pretty polished, with uninterrupted gameplay. However, on several occasions, even after a patch that took down the servers all night, I experienced a glitch that placed my character in space and my ship (miniaturized) on the ground. After a few seconds, it'll fix itself, but it seems like a fairly important error that should be fixed immediately. At the time of most of this writing, the servers inexplicably went down with no positive outlook. Sometimes it was maintenance, other times it was catastrophic failure that took everything down. Weekends weren't so bad, but Cryptic may have to postpone major patches until the middle of the night so people can actually play between school/work and sleep.

The game has two modes: Ground and Ship action. On the ground, you are your character who can take away missions and engage in battle/exploration with other players. In space, you are your ship, flying through space and traveling at warp speeds across the galaxy. So far, the missions are grind-tastic. Enter a star system, destroy enemy ships blockading access to the planet, beam down and examine 5 glowing items, beam back to ship and destroy reinforcements on your way out. It's a pretty routine, but well balanced formula that places players evenly in space and on the ground. An interesting feature of ground combat is the ability to pause the instance for you and other players involved for up to 45 seconds. It's great for bio breaks and analyzing the situation. AI crew members offer support for both space and ground combat. For example, engineers can provide you with enhanced shielding on both fronts, while tactical officers give you temporary attack boosts. Every ship class has its own combination of bridge crew slots, and you choose your away team each time. Depending on your ship class and crew emphasis, you can use them to emphasize your class or compensate for your flaws. For the extended missions that take you to multiple locations, you'll like this feature. Should you exit the game while in the middle of a mission, you can pick up at the beginning of that event within the mission. You don't lose your progress in the previous events and you won't have to worry about committing to long missions. What I'm not sure on is the effects of dying. In most MMOs, when you die, you are penalized somehow. There's no penalty in STO, you just respawn and continue on like nothing happened. Not sure if they'll change that, but maybe death doesn't need a penalty.

For those that are familiar with Star Trek canon, the United Federation of Planets abolished all currency after gaining access to replicator technology, which renders trade essentially useless. That makes an MMO difficult when players are expecting some type of loot and exchanging less valuable ones for currency so they can buy more valuable items. STO's answer to this is Energy Credits, a replicator currency that is about as believable as it could get. Players will undoubtedly acquire unwanted items, such as hyposprays and inferior ship attachments, then "sell" them to the ship's replicator to receive EC. In turn, that can be spent on acquiring new items through the ship or at a starbase. Astronomical amounts of EC can even buy a new ship (we're talking like 20,000 to 200,000 EC).

I'm not entirely sure how one receives a new ship without grinding until they can afford it (that requires an unreal amount of time), but I've already seen some Constitution-class ships in the beta and even Sovereign, which means there's a way to get one in a few weeks or they really have no life. After two weeks, and just in the nick of time, I was able to reach level 11 (Lt. Cmd rank) and purchase all three Tier 1 ships. It was a long time coming, but definitely worth it. That said, you obviously don't need to buy all ship classes. Focus on getting your first additional ship and modding the crap out of it, as well as your additional crew you'll get with the rank. It leads to your desired emphasis and will prepare you for the more powerful ships ahead. Of course, everyone wants a ship like the various Enterprises, which are Cruisers, but the Escorts are the gunships for those with an eye for big ships and big guns. I was rather disappointed when I couldn't name my additional ships. The first ship in the character creation stage can be named, but my additional ships received random names. I want a theme to my ships, or at least have a choice between a couple of names, much like the design choices. When you receive a ship, it is one of three builds in that class. You can have your ship refit to another design, or mix and match aspects of each of them.

Ship weapons are really the big interest. I've played with standard issue phaser banks, Klingon disruptors and even some kind of Federation equivalent. The big fun comes with quantum torpedoes and other advanced weaponry, when you can destroy Birds of Prey with a single volley. Big honkin' space guns definitely come in handy in recurring combat events, called Fleet Action. It's a repeating instance that ends with a scoreboard - purely a farm; not integral to the story. Common weapons can be purchased at starbases for EC or picked up in dropped loot, but the higher level weapons will need to be purchased along with having exploration badges that are earned with frequent activity in certain areas. I never reached it, so it's hard to say what all is required, but I sure wish I knew.

The story, however, is quite interesting. It takes place 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and heavily relies on Voyager. The Klingon Empire has backed out of the Khitomer Accords and begun aggressive actions against the Federation. That creates the two first factions of the game. Federation players can choose from Terrans, Vulcans, Andorians, Bajorans and others, while Klingon players can choose Klingons (obviously), Nausicaans and Gorn. Players can also create their own species and choose their own perks. Future factions will be Cardassian Union, Romulan Star Empire and Liberated Borg. It could definitely lead to some interesting PvP action if all factions share common ground. Just in case you're wondering, this game is in no way affected by JJ Abrams abomination of a film from last year, even though there are plans for a sequel. That... film, creates an alternate timeline, effectively destroying canon as we know it, and is thus ignored by anyone considering themself a Trekkie. This is where I mention that I am a second generation Trekkie (that means my father is a Trekkie) who has not only watched, but marathoned all Star Trek series and movies, committing the franchise's continuity to memory. That said, I'm interested in the possibility that STO could be a way to progress main Star Trek continuity, since TV series are nigh out of the question and movies will be going in the "popular" direction. Veteran Trek writers could get involved and add that fan appealing flavor that's found in the Ultimate Spider-Man game written by Brian Michael Bendis.

After my experiences with City of Heroes, I'm accustomed to, and even expectant of, player interaction. By level 5, CoH/CoV players should be regularly interacting with others and forming teams to complete missions with the intent to gain more XP. Players can even form permanent groups for regular activities. STO, however, does not force players to interact that much. You may pass others on starbases or out in the black, but there's nothing that compels you to create a team, invite people and draw them to your location to do a mission. After all space is big. But it isn't so big that people shouldn't be running into each other. In fact, there should be an emphasis in the game for players to just hang out. The Federation doesn't exist solely to kill Klingons; it exists to exchange culture and ideas. I want to see a Second Life experience for players to just share a common space and "be themselves". Maybe work on custom holodeck programs for entertainment and experience.

Speaking of big, traveling in space is not exactly what I would expect. The interstellar map is an out of proportion grid, much like a gameboard, with your ship traveling between systems. Up until the end of the beta, speeds were measured in lightyears per second, but that was finally changed to Warp factor. You can argue that it abandoned continuity, but it's just an alternate measurement unit, which is corrected anyway. Your maximum speed increases with level and ship type, presumably right under Warp 10 somewhere (Intrepid-class is 9.975, of course). The fastest I got was 7.77, which applied to all my ships at the time. So, you have no control over your warp engine, but Impulse drive is moddable (note: do not remove/sell your Impulse drive while in space, you can't go anywhere). The unfortunate, but sensible, thing is that space is broken up into sector blocks, containing several sectors and systems within them. That's the equivalent of traveling any other map in a game. You can fly manually, but odds are you will click on a system on the map and let your ship fly itself (bio break). A couple sector blocks out of Federation space will lead into Klingon, Romulan and Borg space like you would expect, and the farther you go out, the more dangerous it gets. It makes sense, and I like that the "outlands" will force you into enemy contacts should you be intercepted. You can probably escape before the battle actually begins, but it adds that risk found in wild Pokemon battles.

Star Trek Online is set to release February 2, with pre-orders getting a headstart on January 29. It's available for pre-order now in retail, Digital Deluxe, and Collector's editions. Pre-orders can pay for 12-month and lifetime memberships for $120 and $240, respectively. If you enjoyed the beta and plan on playing long-term, you might want to consider this. Unfortunately, the offer is only good for pre-orders and will expire on February 1, the day before the game comes out. It's a gamble, to say the least. If you didn't get to play the beta, it's hard to determine how much of a value it would be, but you can save $60 over the course of a year if you pay in advance. I've already purchased the CE and lifetime membership, totaling at $340. That gets me real and virtual swag, a headstart, lifetime access and early access to the Liberated Borg faction. It may not seem logical, but then again, most MMO players aren't, either.

After almost 2 weeks with the beta, I'd have to say that, aside from the technical difficulties that frequently take the game offline, it's an enjoyable experience. The story is rich and involves existing canon that Trekkies will be familiar with and has the promise of continuing the franchise in a new medium. I'm looking forward to the headstart tomorrow and playing whenever I want, so hit me up @ranhalt in the game if you want some fleet action. Oh yea, Leonard Nimoy makes regular voice appearances throughout the game. Live long and prosper.

This site is rarely used to advertise deals, but this is one that cannot be passed up. Valve's Steam marketplace, the videogame equivalent to iTunes, is rocking the web without rocking our wallets this holiday. For those who still find that videogames, digital or physical, are too expensive to purchase, this package deal answers that very concern.

They're advertising for quite a few different packages, from indie hits to publisher sets, and one major publisher has quite the suprise. Eidos, the publisher behind Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain, has twenty (20) games for $50. That's $2.50 a game! Of course, the games could just suck, but here's the line up:

• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Battlestations Pacific
• Battlesations: Midway
• Conflict: Denied Ops
• Deus Ex: GotYE
• Deus Ex: Invisible War
• Flora's Fruit Farm
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
• Hitman: Blood Money
• Hitman: Codename 47
• Infernal
• Juse Cause
• Kane and Lynch: Dead Men
• Mini Ninjas
• Project: Snowblind
• Rogue Trooper
• Shellshock 2: Blood Trails
• Thief: Deadly Shadows
• Tomb Raider: Legend
• Tomb Raider: Underworld

Let's think about this for a moment - Batman alone lists for $50, $40 on a good day (on PC). That's the price of the entire bundle, and there are 19 other games. Not every title is a blockbuster, but two Tomb Raider games, most of the Hitman series, Deus Ex and Thief. This is pretty epic.

The individual price is $262.44, and even though I've never seen this bundle before, the bundle price is $100, with a limited half price sale. That's a $212.45 savings! Even though I already own and have completed Batman and Blood Money, the entire bundle is worth it. Think about how many hours of gameplay you'll get out of this $50 investment. Definitely easy to get to that golden $1/hour mark. I'm buying this right now and you should, too.

PS - Another great deal that should not be overlooked is the THQ Complete Pack - a $184.32 value for $75 right now.

It's that time of the year and many people will be looking for gifts for all those gamers in their lives. Of course, gamers that need gifts for "normal" people - we have no help for you. Donate to the Human Fund and plant a tree in their name. Who cares. This is for the people that need something for you.

Video games are expensive. With new releases listing for $60 (let alone collectable editions), don't expect distant relatives that don't really love you to buy you a game that some schleprock at Gamestop recommends. Chances are, you already have it. That leads to fake thanks and awkward returns at the mall. Want to avoid that? Just tell them to get you a gift card.

This is what separates gamers from normal people. Gift cards to retail stores are the bottom of the thoughtful barrel. Sure, someone knows that you buy your lace underwear at Victoria's Secret, but how different is that from giving them cash and telling them to enjoy themselves at their favorite store? Gamers, on the other hand, have very little needs when it comes to gifts. They just need games. But what games? You certainly don't want to get them a game they already have, so why not get them the ability to get stuff within the game?

With the current generation of consoles promising to stick around for at least the next five years, they are quickly becoming the one and only form of entertainment in the home theater. Older consoles are being tossed because of age/technology issues and they just take up too much space. To keep those nostalgic gamers in check, all three major manufacturers provide classic games via digital marketplace. Granted, the Wii Shop Channel has only old Nintendo games and Playstation Store has old Playstation games, so there isn't just one route to get all the games you might want to re-live your childhood days. XBOX Marketplace might be the most varied location to get games, but Wii Shop has everything I grew up with.

Then again, they don't just limit to games. Microsoft and Sony are rolling out new and expensive ways to exercise your vanity with game avatars. XBOX now has avatar pets, while Playstation Home has Second Life-like housing and furniture.

Because all markets want to be available to people without credit cards, there are store credit cards available for retail purchase. Just go to any major electronics/retail store or buy them online, then slip them in the stocking for little Timmy to buy a game from before he was born.

Just to clarify, these cards do not buy physical games in stores. They buy virtual goods and services within the game marketplace.