I'm close to finishing Mass Effect 3 and I'll definitely share some thoughts on the game (and the series in general) in a week or so but I just wanted to take a minute to talk about the day-one DLC 'From Ashes'. I know a lot of gamers are up in arms about the fact that Mass Effect 3 had a downloadable mission and character available on release day. I know I was a little bit baffled but I forfeited my right to really complain when I bought the damn thing before I even started the game. I know that makes me 'part of the problem' but I really am glad I did buy it because I'm struggling to imagine the game without Javik (the character you unlock) - such is the impact he has on the narrative.
The DLC mission sees you fighting off Cerberus (one of the evil factions in the game) to find, and eventually open, a Prothean stasis-pod. The mission itself is nothing special but the real impact comes from when you open the pod. For those needing a refresher in their Mass Effect lore, the Protheans are 50,000 year old ancient civilization that were wiped out by The Reapers. The Reapers have now returned once more to wipe the galaxy clean of all life. By opening the pod, you unlock a character who is the last member of an extinct race and the only person to have ever fought The Reapers before.
In Mass Effect 2, the DLC characters didn't really add much in the way of dialogue or plot exposition once you unlocked them (e.g. Zaeed who had a neat side mission but was pretty much a mute from then on in). This is not the case in Mass Effect 3. Javik has dialogue and insight throughout the entire game and I'm not surprised in the least by the recent revelation that much of his content is already on the disc. Javik has a unique perspective not only on The Reapers but also on the other galactic species that, when he was 'alive', were primitive. Likewise, other characters (both main and incidental) react appropriately to seeing a living, breathing member of a mythical species that died out millennia ago.
Javik also has some brilliant new combat abilities that further cement his position as my favourite new ME 3 character.
If you haven't yet started ME 3 I would definitely suggest you pay the $10 for the DLC - it's brilliant and, in my opinion, absolutely enriches the story experience. Whether I agree on the fact that Bioware/EA should be charging for this content in the first place is another matter altogether.
In other new releases, the first real 'sequel' to the multi-million seller iPhone/Android juggernaut Angry Birds came out last week; Angry Birds Space. I know much of the hardcore like to shit on Angry Birds for being a very basic game but I don't see it as any more basic or simple as Tetris or numerous other puzzle games. I love the series and the off-shoots (Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio) - they're fun, addictive and perfect for bite-sized gaming on the go.
Angry Birds Space takes the same formula (slingshot different 'birds' to knock down structures to take out the 'pigs' inside them) but adds a bit of Super Mario Galaxy to it. No, really! Now the structures can be on various planetoids, each with different gravitational fields that affect the flight of the birds. So even though you may have a straight line of sight between your slingshot and a structure, if a planetoid is in your path it'll pull the bird towards it. You can even have birds briefly 'orbiting' around different planets if you aim them correctly.
As you can imagine this adds another layer of strategy to the game. Not only are you trying to figure out which part of the structure you have to hit to bring it down, you also have to figure in how to get your bird there! The levels are excellently designed and the Saturday morning cartoon (such is the popularity of this series that there actually IS a Saturday morning cartoon now) aesthetic is charming.
It's also only $0.99! It's a no-brainer. Unless you're a hater....
Lavan
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