The Sky Was Not, In Fact, Brought Down (DLC Review)

This evening, I finally got the chance to sink my teeth into the first content pack for Mass Effect, "Bring Down the Sky," which was released on Monday, much to the glee of sci-fi nerds everywhere. After downloading it, I started up a new game with an existing character profile, and made quick work of the beginning parts on Eden Prime and in the Citadel. Once I got control of the Normandy, I jetted off to the Asgard system to kick some Batarian ass.

Basically, there's an asteroid orbiting the planet of Terra Nova, which is the home to some 4 million people. A group of Batarians (those nasty slavers we've heard whispers of in the game, but haven't actually seen until now) has hijacked the facilities on the asteroid and are using three fusion torches to blast the asteroid on a collision course with Terra Nova. Of course, our delightful Commander Shepard is the only one ballsy enough to go in and save the day.

It was a pretty standard mission, mainly just "go disable these things, then go there and do that" sort of thing. But it introduced some interesting characters and had some good action, and the scenery was pretty. Overall, it was a nice little 90 minutes of alien fun. I wish that all, or at least some, of the side missions in the core game were as solid as this, rather than the same ol' probes on the same ol' maps with the same ol' dead Salarians.

Now I'm going to try and get the rest of the achievements for the game, then sit tight for Mass Effect 2, which is totally going to blow my panties off.

Mass Effect Downloadable Content Announced

BioWare posted on their forums today about the first bit of downloadable content for Xbox 360 RPG Mass Effect. Set to be released on March 10 for 400 Microsoft Points($5), the, "Bring Down the Sky" pack introduces another alien race, the Batarians, in a new mission set on a new uncharted planet. According to the post, the content will add around 90 additional minutes to the Mass Effect story and will contain 50 Gamerscore points for those of us with achievements on the mind.

Here's hoping that the "new uncharted world" will in fact be new. I'd like to be able to explore an area that's more than just the same big square of mountainous (sometimes annoyingly mountainous) land with some probes and Turian bodies spread around for me to go on a scavenger hunt for.

Unfortunately, no word yet on whether this package will include an extended and fully interactive sex scene.

An Army of United Nerds, or, How I Learned to Think Like a Group of People

The shit storm began roughly two weeks ago. Well, the most recent shit storm at least. Joystiq, like many other videogame news sites, has been running nearly daily coverage of the ridiculously outlandishly overblown controversy around EA/Bioware's, "Mass Effect." (The story has even warranted its own wikipedia page.)

Initially, the controversy was just one unheard of conservative blogger ranting about his gut reaction to the few YouTube videos of, "Mass Effect" he somehow stumbled upon. As gamers discovered his piece, they reacted to him and, as if things weren't ridiculous enough in his piece, Fox News even picked up the, "story" and ran with it. Geoff Keighley (yes, that Geoff Keighley) was asked to appear on Fox News to, "discuss" their claims - - and when he did, he was lambasted from all sides by arrogant downtalking and infantilization. The video is a great example of how Rupert Murdoch has turned Fox into all entertainment all the time. Political consideration aside, the lack of any respect towards the integrity of their own institution, none the less journalism on the whole, makes me wonder who's really out there, as a gamer, watching Fox for news.

Gamers run the gamut from conservative to liberal, politically speaking, just like the rest of the U.S.A. Gamers are not a unified group of people with the same political views, the same religious views - - we can't even agree on what horse reigns supreme. Fox News misrepresented the facts and, at very least, blew things way out of proportion. In doing so, Fox officially unified gamers behind something: a common enemy.

Cooper Lawrence, an "expert" in developmental psychology (I'm putting my money against that), became that figurehead. Ms. Lawrence thought she'd drop by a Fox newsroom and appear on a quick mid-day television show and in doing so, also promote her book. Based on her commentary, gamers flooded the Amazon.com page of the book she was promoting with negative reviews, claiming, much like she had, that they had never read the book but it was clearly terrible.

My question is this: Should gamers be enabling more stupidity like what happened at Fox by reacting as such? Yes, Ms. Lawrence acted that way herself - - does that mean we should too? Funny: clearly. Mature: not so much. And you? What do you think?