Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- Mass Effect 2 PS3 Uses the Mass Effect 3 Engine
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution Delayed
- Fallout: New Vegas "Dead Money" DLC Out Tuesday (360 Only)
- Lots of Date Drops from VGAs
- Have a Good Co-Op Time Over the Holiday Season
Mass Effect 2 PS3 Uses the Mass Effect 3 Engine
One of the bigger early 2011 releases, especially for those with only a PS3, is Mass Effect 2 making its first appearance for the series on the PS3. Word from Bioware came this week that this release is actually more special than most of us imagined. All the content, including the DLC chapters that are included in the release, has been brought into the Mass Effect 3 engine for the release. According to them this means better graphics than the 360 version saw earlier this year.
Even I am now interested in this release even though I played through the game on the 360 earlier this year and found it simply awesome. The PS3 version has gone gold and has a release date of January 18, 2011. Another thing of note is that planet scanning is supposedly easier and better than it was on the 360 version. Exciting!
Source: Colony of Gamers
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Delayed
In the major bummer department comes news that Deus Ex: Human Revolution has been pushed back from its previously called February release and pushed into the next Square-Enix fiscal year (April 2011 to March 2012) with no definitive date given. Along with this news Square-Enix also lowered its financial outlook greatly. I was kind of looking forward to this game to see if maybe they can catch the lightning the first game had or at least be better.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Fallout: New Vegas "Dead Money" DLC Out Tuesday (360 Only)
Obsidian begins the hopeful multiple DLC releases with “Dead Money” for the recently released Fallout: New Vegas, coming out exclusively on the 360 this Tuesday. Much like with Fallout 3 it seems as if the DLCs are coming to the 360 only at this point with further releases down the road for the PS3 and PC probably. The story is that you play one of four people forced to rob the Sierra Madre Casino.
I haven’t played this game as of yet. I know early on there were some game breaking bugs, have those been worked out with a patch? I’ll probably wait like I did for Fallout 3 and pick up the Game of the Year edition with all the DLCs (Fallout 3 had 5 DLC releases) when it comes out.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Lots of Date Drops from VGAs
I didn’t watch the VGAs, honestly I never do. The awards show itself is pretty boring and from everything I’ve heard this year continued that trend. The only really exciting thing is to see all the new games that haven’t been unveiled yet. A lot of them came with dates as well.
No doubt I’m most excited about Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception, coming November 1, 2011 (or 11-1-11) exclusively on the PS3. The previous games have been awesome and there’s no doubt this one will be as well. Bethesda must have contacted Naughty Dog about their game, because Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has an announced date of November 11, 2011 (or 11-11-11), so they wouldn’t butt heads as much. Other games got the dubious Late 2011 release like Mass Effect 3 and Batman: Arkham City (don’t even get me started if Dr. Hugo Strange is the main boss…such an out of left field choice!). Looks late year heavy again next year, although there are a lot of top games coming out in the early part of next year too…like Dead Space 2, Bulletstorm and others.
Source: me
Have a Good Co-Op Time Over the Holiday Season
Have a good holiday season because I doubt there will be a Beyond Co-Op next week since Christmas lands on Saturday and I won’t be home until at least that night or on Sunday from the weekend. What kind of co-op games are you planning to play with family over the holidays? Will there be a lot of Kinect gaming played…and will there be room to play it wherever you’re going? Some Donkey Kong Country Returns on the Wii? Why don’t you comment on what you might be playing over the holidays. Last year my wife and I spent the after holiday season playing New Super Mario Bros. on the Wii. That was pretty fun.
Source: me