Nerd Bites Weekly

The Playstation Vita was launched on Wednesday, 2/22/2012, in hopes of increased quality in portable play. As people nowadays go to short games on their smartphones whilst waiting in line, on a train, or in car, Sony wants to change the trend with Vita. Not only will Vita games have much more depth tan smartphone apps, it also has some really cool features. The Vita has a front and rear touchpad, dual analog sticks, amazing graphics and screen, and also sports an out-of-the-box pack of standard Augmented Reality cards and a gyroscope. Pretty much everything an iPhone can do gamewise, plus more. But the biggest game-changer the Vita is bringing to the table is the ability to play the same game and save on both the PS3 and the Vita. In a recent commercial I saw, it showed a guy sitting on his couch at home, playing a baseball game. He had to get to work, so he pressed a couple of buttons, and on his Vita screen, it said “Downloading.” Once the bar filled up, he was playing the same game right where he left off, except now it was portable. NZot only is the Vita a great hand-held, it looks great too. It has a 5 inch OLED screen, an almost all glass front screen, and beautifully printed labels. It’s layout is similar to a Dualshock controller, with the d-pad and stick on the left, and the triangle, square, X, and circle buttons and another stick on the right. The “back” and “start” buttons are on the right, and the playstation button is on the left. The frame is an easy to grip glossy plastic, and looks more rounded than  previous models. Even the home screen is revamped. Instead of the axis layout from before, it’s now touchpad friendly, with apps and games in little bubbles spaced evenly across the screen. All in all, the Vita is a solid gadget with great graphics, great designs, and great software

1. Army Corps of Hell
2. Dungeon Hunter Alliance
3. FIFA Soccer
4. Hot Shots Golf World Invitational
5. Little Deviants
6. Lumines Electric Symphony 
7. Marvel vs. Capcom 3
8. Michael Jackson: The Experience
9. Asphalt: Injection
10. Rayman Origins
11. Shinobido 2: Revenge of Zen
12. Modnation Racers
13. Touch My Katamari
14. Uncharted: Golden Abyss
15. wipEout 2048

These are the 15 launch games for the PS Vita.
List info from: http://mashable.com/2012/02/21/vita-launch-titles/

From our Sony Editor Rudy

Nerd Bites Weekly

Microsoft – Mass Effect 3 DEMO

Welcome to the NBW debut! To get things going, we’re going to open up with our review for the Mass Effect 3 Demo. (Yaaayyyy) The demo opens with Commander Shepard awaiting trial for his actions during the Arrival DLC. For those who forgot, Shepard had to stop the advancement of the Reapers by destroying their “back door”. Unfortunately, this back door also killed 300,000 Batarians, which leaves the Batarian government wanting Shepard’s blood. Or the blood of all Humanity. They’d be happy with both. Anyways, the demo provides a straightforward introduction for new squad members such as James Vega and Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams, depending on who you banged-err, I mean, saved in the first Mass Effect.

Without giving everything away, the Reapers tear through space and invade Earth, with the sole intent of purging the planet of all life. Cue game play.

The game play in Mass Effect 3 is much more action-paced than the first two. Commander Shepard is now able to roll from cover to cover, turn corners without leaving said cover and he can actually vault over objects without first hiding behind them! All this gives Mass Effect 3 an action-oriented feel; which isn’t a bad thing. The Reapers are here, and the galactic civilization stands on the edge of extinction.

For those who are worried about being forced to play an action game, don’t fret. Mass Effect 3 now comes with three different play-styles. “Action” style focuses solely on stopping the Reapers. No dialogue during cutscenes, no pausing. The “Role-playing” style plays just as ME1 and ME2 played. There are elements from both RPG and action-shooter to provide the best possible experience. Finally, the “Story” mode. This helps players who are new to the series and aren’t able to take on the Reapers in their entirety. Story mode focuses on the RPG elements of Mass Effect. Dialogue, character interaction and customization shine in this mode. The gameplay is also “dumbed down” to gives players an easier time actually “playing” the game rather than dying at Checkpoint B repeatedly.

Talking about customization, the initial background customization has changed little. You are still able to choose where Shepard was born, what event gave him his status in the Alliance, and (the newest option) which squad member(s) died in Mass Effect 1. The facial customization has improved slightly with new hairstyles, eye colors and hair colors. A feature not seen in the demo, but still seen in the multiplexer, and confirmed, is the customization of weapons, a la Mass Effect 1. Except this time, the additions made to a certain weapon are actually reflected in the game. Scopes, barrels, heat sinks, bayonets (yes, bayonets) are all weapon mods you will be able to use in your adventure to unite the galaxy against the Reapers.

Mass Effect 3 has multilayer. And like many of you, I was screaming “blasphemy” and “Traitors!” thinking that is was going to be a terrible addition. That was before I actually played the multilayer component. How wrong I was. Multilayer is FUN, and it actually has a tie-in to the story! It pits you and three allies against waves of Cerberus enemies. Now before you start saying “Gears of War did it first” or “copy cats”, listen. Multilayer in Mass Effect 3 forces you to work as a team. You want to play the whole “Rambo-I-Can-Kill-Anything-By-Myself-Because-My-Teammates-Are-N00bs”? You’re going to die. Quickly. Teamwork is success. Teamwork is what’s going to get you that next weapon mod, the new power upgrade, new character or that super awesome rifle your friends have. And why is it so damn fun? Because other than killing people, new objectives spawn in-game. Kill these people, disable these WMD triggers, upload this data, secure that data are all objectives that MUST be completed if you want that nice bonus XP and complete the current wave.

Over-all, the demo gives players a good idea how the game is going to play out. Aside from clunky segments in both parts of the single-player demo, which are mostly likely omitted sections so when you actually really play the game there’s more to it, it’s fantastic. I myself have played through as every class, and all were engaging and fun. Each class brought a new option to the table and new ways to kick Cerberus’ ass. Multilayer is definitely a mode worth playing, but only after I’ve helped Shepard kick the Reapers on Earth, and back into Dark Space.