The Good, The Bad and The Ugly 07.27.09: Force Unleashed Gets New DLC, Castle Crashers Coming to PSN, Details on Mass Effect 2 and More!

Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 07.27.2009

Plus, GTAIV: Ballad of Gay Tony release date and another edition of The Random Rant!

Welcome to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly News Report. I am your host, as usual, Armando Rodriguez, ready to bring you this week's top news. I am starting to believe that I got used to the Pre-E3 and Post-E3 rush, because the past couple of weeks have been very slow and lacking in blockbuster announcements. Take this week for example, where any of the news items listed below could have been the biggest. I want to apologize to anyone who believes my past two or three editions have been quite short (although no one has complained) because it is just hard to find things worth reporting due to the lack of big news. My idea for this column was to list the biggest and best news of the week, not everything that comes out. Otherwise it would be long and boring and full of stuff that the 99% of us don't care about. With that said, here is another short and sweet edition of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly News Report.

Biggest News of the Week: New Force Unleashed DLC and Special Edition

The massive commercial success of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has persuaded LucasArts to publish yet another series of expansions for the game.

Due out this fall as DLC through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, The Tatooine DLC will focus on a new storyline that takes place after one of the game's numerous endings, presenting an original storyline not seen in any of the movies. After The Apprentice kills Darth Vader and becomes a Sith Lord, he is sent on a mission to eliminate Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, a mission that takes him to Tatooine and such familiar places as Jabba the Hut's palace. Bounty hunter Boba Fett will also make an appearance.

The second part to this story can only be played by those who buy the new Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition. This new special edition will be available as a retail product for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 during the fall. It will include the original game, The Coruscant and Tatooine DLC as well as the new Hoth DLC. The Hoth DLC will follow the story introduced in the Tatooine DLC with The Apprentice following Luke Skywalker.

[Credit: Gamespot.com]



GOOD: It is a great thing indeed, when developers support games with new content a year after they first came out. However, with the new DLC taking place after one of the game's original endings, this might mean we will never see a true sequel. That said, the new storyline seems very interesting with The Apprentice tasked with the elimination of the remaining Jedi, with big names like Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi among them. I have played Force Unleashed, but never bought it myself. With the new Sith Edition coming out this fall, I guess I will be spending my money on that since it includes all the released DLC content.

Mass Effect 2 Will Import Hundreds of Decisions from Mass Effect 1

You better keep those Mass Effect saves in your hard drive. BioWare has confirmed that Mass Effect 2 will import "hundreds of decisions" from Mass Effect 1 that will impact how the game will play out. Apparently the game will import those decisions from your Mass Effect 1 save file, changing the game world to fit the decisions you took in the first game and referencing past events the way you saw and played them in the original title.

[Credit: Gamespot.com]



GOOD: How will this affect the PlayStation 3 version (we didn't get the original) is in the air, but the ability to continue YOUR story from the first game into the second is amazing. It seems every little decision will be taken into consideration and this ramps up the replay value of BOTH games, since I bet you will want to explore the first game again and take a different path, if only to import it to the second game and see how the game was affected by that choice. This is perhaps the greatest thing to happen to RPG's and something that I hope is employed in the future by other developers.

Halo Getting Anime Treatment

In order to continue expanding the Halo mythology, Microsoft has reached a deal with several anime studios to produce a series of Halo anime films under the title Halo Legends. Among the directors and studios involved in the project are those responsible for popular movies and series like Cowboy Beebop, Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell.

Along with this announcement, Microsoft will introduce Halo Waypoint, a new destination for Halo fans inside Xbox Live. Halo Waypoint will feature trailers and previews for the Halo Legends films, podcasts, news and information regarding new Halo projects.

[Credit: Gamespot.com]



GOOD: My experience with anime based on games has been positive thus far, so I will eagerly await this new film series. The fact that it has some of the most famous studios and directors involved in the project leads me to believe that the quality and faithfulness to the game will be there.

Castle Crashers Coming to PS3

The Behemoth kicked off the San Diego Comic Con with a bang: The best-selling XBLA game Castle Crashers will be coming to PS3! Details about the port are still scarce, since there is no projected release window or confirmation of exclusive content. The Behemoth confirmed that Castle Crashers has more than one million unique gamer tags on Xbox 360 and proclaimed it the "fastest growing XBLA game in history".

[Credit: Gamespot.com]



GOOD: I don't care when it comes out, but I am getting it! After hearing so much about this game for so long it is nice to see it finally coming to the PS3. Even if it doesn't include any exclusive content, I am still happy that we are getting the game. Funny thing is that I was complaining about the lack of good brawlers in modern consoles and someone posted a comment about how Castle Crashers was the best new brawler and I said to myself: "Self, wouldn't it be nice if they made this game for PS3" and I guess someone was listening to my private conversation and decided to make me a happy gamer.

GTAIV: Ballad of Gay Tony Release Date

October 29 has been announced as the release date for Grand Theft Auto IV: Ballad of Gay Tony. The game will be available for $19.99, or for $39.99 as part of the Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City bundle that also includes The Lost and The Dammed. Episodes from Liberty City will be stand-alone and will be playable without the original Grand Theft Auto IV.



GOOD: When is this coming out for PS3 huh? 2013? Anyway, I really enjoy the addition of episodic content to games, especially if they expand upon the story of the original game. I found Gay Tony an interesting character to "explore" (man that sounded gay) and find out more about and with this game we will accomplish that. Hopefully it will not involve the "exploration" of his "relationship" with Luis Lopez.

The Random Rant:

I am hooked on the PlayStation Network. I have purchased 5 games in the past few weeks and all of them have been great titles. Trash Panic is hard, yet addictive. Bomberman Ultra has become a hit at my house, especially with my girlfriend. Astro Tripper is a great space shooter for a measly $5. Crash Commando answers the old question of "what would happen if we played Contra as a 2D Multiplayer Death Match title". Finally, Battlefield 1943 (Review coming this week) is as good as any other Battlefield game, just cheaper. It amazes me the amount of quality downloadable titles one can get for less than one single retail game. If we add the rest of my collection, which includes Pixel Junk Monsters and the Encore Expansion, Age of Booty, Bionic Commando Rearmed and a few other games (around a dozen total) we can say that I have a dozen quality games for less than $100.

These are not cheap "10-Minutes of Fun" games. These are titles that would have retailed for $40-$50 back in the 16-bit days. Battlefield 1943 is worth more than $15. Consider that we are getting three maps (4 if you count the Air Superiority one) and one of the greatest multiplayer experiences this year on any console for a measly $15 and we can say that the game is a steal. The same principle applies to Trash Panic, one of the hardest, most addictive puzzle titles I have played in the past 10 years. Believe it or not it sells for $5.

In these difficult economic times, I suggest that we make wise investment decisions. There are plenty of good $60 games. However, there are plenty of bad, been-there-done-that $60 games. So instead of running out to the store and dropping down $60 for one game, remember that you can always log on to the PSN or XBLA and get a bunch of cheap titles that can last you a long time for that same price.

The Reader's Voice:

Last Week We Asked: What is the best/worse strategy guide you have ever purchased?

Kendrix said: I agree that normally priced, guides are a waste of a money but I still buy strategy guides at half off or less because of one simple thing: the art of pictures & maps. All of the free online guides are great for info, but I haven't seen any decent maps (the little text drawn ones do not count) in one yet. Pictures also help in sticky situations to give you sometimes a better idea of what to do rather than words.

Now sure, there are plenty of crappy Brady & Prima guides out there but I still think there is a market for guides for the RPGs and long winded adventure games. I do agree with the sentiment that guides for sports, racing & fighting games are useless. You can get that stuff online and not feel cheated. But with games like Fallout 3(which is an excellent guide, well until the DLC came out anyway :)), good meaty paper & ink guides are still needed.

A great response from Mr. (or Mrs.?) Kendrix. Your thoughts pretty much echo mine. I have found myself enjoying and believing in the use of guides for games like Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Oblivion and others that have huge worlds and tons of things to explore. But fighting games, racing games and sports titles don't need guides. I once made the mistake of purchasing a guide for Madden only because I got a discount for it and it was a total waste of money.

Todd Vote: I remember buying one for one of the earlier versions of MK. I can't remember exactly which game. Anyways, I remember it wasn't one of the Brady strategy guides, and this generic crapper only had about half of the fatalities listed. I was angered.

For some reason I think I have seen this guide before and it was for Mortal Kombat II. Fatalities are the only reason people used to get the guide back then and I understand your anger. A guide is supposed to show everything; otherwise it's not a guide at all.

This Week's Question: Halo is getting it's own anime. With that said, What other games would you like to see make the transition to anime, whether it's an anime movie or a TV series?

Top responses will make it to next week's column.

Goodbye:

I was led to believe the Target Terror joke was at it's end and I expected to leave out any mention of it from this report. However, Mark and Vince hooked me up with a lifetime supply of ShamWow! In a kind act of generosity I mailed a few of them to Drew's mom so she can dry his tears whenever another hard game is sent his way. You see Drew, I care!