Today in Joystiq: November 13, 2007

by Ross Miller { Nov 13th 2007 at 11:59PM }

We don't know what makes us jealous of Bethesda developer Ashley Cheng more: that he procured a copy of Mass Effect early (thanks to Kmart) or that he drinks Nuka Cola (of Fallout 3 fame). Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Metareview: Crysis (PC)
Metareview: Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)
Readers pick best webcomic: The Littlest Hashshashin

News
Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update revealed: download Halo December 2
See the first trailer for Lego Batman
Brash to make game based on Jumper
Watch NiGHTS transform into a fish, rocket in new trailer
PS3 DivX support announced
South Park's Timmy, Freezepop in Rock Band
Alone in the Dark confirmed for Wii, PS2
The Office game is better than you'd think
Tim Schafer would 'love' to make an XBLA game
MS confirms downloadable Xbox games, free Carcassonne for Live anniv.
NBC's 'Life' investigates Prince of Persia
Some LEGO Batman details to whet your appetite for vengeance
Fable 2, Alan Wake not cancelled either
Wii Photo Channel gets better, worse in December
Mario more recognizable in Canada than Prime Minister
Supreme Commander confirmed for Xbox 360
Haze on track for December release
Geometry Wars: Galaxies delayed to 2008 in Europe
Gametap's 'Re\Visioned' animated series concludes first season

Culture & Community
Study shows that parents avoid playing video games with their kids
Midnight launch for Rock Band keeps Best Buys open late
Zero Punctuation guy makes games too

Tags: bethesda, bioware, dailyrecap, fallout, fallout-3, fallout3, mass-effect, masseffect

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sentry Gun (Jesus) @ Nov 14th 2007 12:04AM

so are you gonna give that away to someone?
preferably me

sqweak @ Nov 14th 2007 12:14AM

+1

cmon joystiq, all it took was a click of the "about me" link.

zuburi @ Nov 14th 2007 12:35AM

A boy named Sue?

ThornedVenom @ Nov 14th 2007 3:29AM

Ash's parents in Pokemon.

Unless you have a better explanation for his name.

Mass Effect should be easy to find early. Stores started getting it end at the end of last week, and most have it by now. If your local Wal-Mart electronics guy is a known moron (like mine) then just go in and ask him if they have it.

He'll do two things. Check in the case (just play dumb and don't mention it not being out yet. I had a friend that ruined this for me when Bioshock came out) and then when he can't find it, you say is there any chance that you guys would have it in the back and don't have any on the floor?

He will then check in the stock room and should bring you the game. Just hope he doesn't read his store newsletters and isn't keeping tabs on street dates. Mass Effect DOES NOT come in street dated cartons, but the top packging on the actual game box is. Luckily, the guy at mine never even noticed it. But he did notice the M rating and checked my ID, even though I look like I'm 30.

I work at gamestop, and while we get these games in as well, we still can't even buy them before the street date.

Local Mom&Pop shops are also huge street date violaters.

driven2sin @ Nov 14th 2007 12:24AM

I thought you all stole your games from gamestop

ColossalHat @ Nov 14th 2007 12:32AM

Just for shits and giggles I wanna ask a question to everyone that calls buying used games stealing or wrong.

Given a choice, would you buy a brand new car at $30,000 or that same model at $20,000 with only 500 miles on it? If you said you'd buy the used one, then by your own logic you are commiting grand theft auto.

Just thought I'd pose a question for people who hate used things.

Martin @ Nov 14th 2007 12:59AM

First time I've heard of someone claiming that buying used is stealing. Who said that? I didn't even think the person you were replying to insinuated it.

gonk @ Nov 14th 2007 1:50AM

games =/= cars

also he said he worked at gamestop, and the employees do often steal games, or at least gut and borrow em, then sell em as new (my friend works there, he's given me 2 brand new games, lol)

driven2sin @ Nov 14th 2007 2:32AM

agreed, employees take teh liberties!

also, agreed on the multi profit on one item crap. How does Game Stop get away with not giving up royalties on a resale?

Shouldn't that count as another sale, thus money given to the publishing house?

zuburi @ Nov 14th 2007 12:42AM

Call it anything you want. However, I've worked at a videogame company doing games under one of the "Big Three." While I can't speak for EVERY one of my peers, myself and my workmates would rather somebody downloaded one of our games via torrent or whatever instead of letting Gamestop/EB Games keep profiting off of it over and over and over again all while screwing the customer and the developers.

We're not getting paid either way, but at least with one of the options nobody is profiting from it.

Keep in mind that these are the opinions of myself and a few close friends I've worked with.

zuburi @ Nov 14th 2007 12:46AM

Christ, I re-read it and it sounds like I'm advocating piracy. I'm not, so please don't steal from hard-working developers via torrents.

Hopefully with digital distribution becoming a viable option, this will be a moot point in several years.

Jak851 @ Nov 14th 2007 1:27AM

Just as an interesting side note (I work at Toys R Us), our Mass Effect games came with a label street dating it for Nov. 13, not the 20th. So they aren't selling it early, whoever puts those stickers on the boxes telling them when to put it out is an idiot.

Poisoned Al @ Nov 14th 2007 3:26AM

Or someone fiddled with it.

Briosafreak @ Nov 14th 2007 4:41AM

Er maybe you could fix the post, Bethesda's producer Ashley Chang is definitely a man.

Easo @ Nov 14th 2007 7:15AM

dsub's right. I've had mass effect for almost two weeks now, and it was pretty easy to get. Go to a big box store(not Best Buy, GameStop, or FYE) and simply ask for it and play dumb.
My impressions so far. Its Outstanding. This is one of the few cases where the voice acting is not just good for a video game, but just plain good. Its easy to get lost in the story and play for 3 or 4 hours straight. When it gets reviews, expect scores to average around the mid 90s.

PrinceAngelic @ Nov 14th 2007 9:07AM

Thanks for that assessment.

I've been wavering in my feelings towards the game. Part of me thinks it will be way too complex for me to even enjoy the game.

And at other times I'm really excited about the title...especially since it isa 360 exclusive. Plus the storyline and the characters and the whole space theme look really well done.

I def getting Assasin's Creed today and MAYBE Need For Speed. I want to check out other reviews before I put my money down for NFS. Especially since IGN just shat all over it and AC.