Since I’d rather be playing Mass Effect 2 more than typing about it, I’m going to make this somewhat short. So on to some bullet points:

• First things first: I am loving Mass Effect 2. It’s taken most everything that was good from Mass Effect and made it better. And no elevators!
• I love the look and feel. Mass Effect 2 really has a look of a mature next generation game.
• The role playing game elements have been streamlined and become almost transparent. This is both good and bad. I like the streamlined skill set (simplified compared to the first game). I’m not a huge fan that they’ve largely removed the loot aspects of the game. No more weapon variety or modifications or armor. All of these have been streamlined, again, with a reduced number of weapons that are almost completely devoid of “stats”. You no longer see how much damage the weapon does or what modifications adds to the weapon. Now you’re just told if it’s “effective against shields” or “weak against synthetics.” Everything is available to everyone (that can use it) and upgradeable through your science officer. I’m getting used to it, but I liked being able to “min/max” my equipment and distribute new stuff to each of one of my guys.
• The lack of planet exploration has been replaced by a scanning mini-game. It’s tedious, but I suffered through hours at a time of mining in EVE online, so this is practically Sonic mining. I don’t mind it.
• I love the little details, the nods to the first game and the decisions I made. These little touches are a like Little Debbie snacks. Zingers. Raspberry Zingers, specifically.
• I have just started “gaining” the trust and loyalty of my teammates and I can see that this process of gaining people’s loyalties become contrived. So far so good, but it is potentially on thin ice.

So this won’t qualify as a full review, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Mass Effect 2 to the Buttonmashing masses.

Are you about to be barraged with the cold stuff? What are your weekend gaming plans?

Week of February 8th
Dante’s Inferno
Bioshock 2- I fell in love with Rapture when the first Bioshock came out, but when I finished the game, I felt that I had seen everything that needed to be seen. Not sure I’m really on fire for playing Bioshock 2.

Week of February 15th
Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
Alien vs Predator
Tropico 3

Week of February 22nd
Risen
Deadly Premonition
Borderlands Game Add-On Pack The Zombie Island of Dr. Nex and mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot- Borderlands is a game I definitely need to get back to. I was really enjoying co-op and now that DLC is rolling I need to get back to it.
Dead to Rights Retribution

Week of February 1st
Family Party 30 Great Games Winter Games

Week of February 8th
Rock Blast- You can never get enough of “line up items of the same color” games.
Super Monkey Ball Step & Roll
Shiren The Wanderer
The Daring Game for Girls

Week of February 15th
Triple Crown Snowboarding

Week of February 22nd
Endless Ocean: Blue World
Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

Week of February 1st
Puzzle Chronicles
Playmobil: Knights

Week of February 8th
Destiny of Zorro
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
The Daring Game for Girls
Scene It? Twilight- Really, Nintendo? Really?
Legend of Kay

Week of February 15th
Dementium II- I don’t have one, but if I kept a “games I should play one of these days” this game would be on it on the strength of the boxart alone.
Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
KORG DS-10 Plus
Ragnarok DS- If this game is online, I may pick this one up.
Crime Scene

Week of February 22nd
Art of Murder- Starring Duff from MTV!
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s World Championship 2010 Reverse of Arcadia

Week of February 1st
Iron Roses
Star Trek Online
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat

Week of February 8th
World Of Outlaws Sprint Cars
Bioshock 2

Week of February 15th
StrongBad’s Cool Game for Attractive People- I’m linking this specifically because (a) I love Strong bad and (b) I am an attractive person. This must be a cool game.
Everquest II: Sentinel’s Fate- Glad to see Everquest II is still going strong. With or without me.
Alien vs Predator- Seems like there have been other versions of this game out there, right? How is this not a sequel or anything?
Becky Brogan

Week of February 22nd
Alice in Wonderland
Napoleon Total War Limited Edition
WarBirds Dogfights

Week of February 1st
White Knight Chronicles International Edition

Week of February 8th
Dante’s Inferno
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International
Bioshock 2

Week of February 15th
Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce
Alien vs Predator

Week of February 22nd
Last Rebellion
Heavy Rain

Week of February 1st
Puzzle Chronicles

Week of February 15th
SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 3

Week of February 22nd
Metal Slug XX
Dante’s Inferno

What are you picking up?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

By day, the four 20-something friends work with or around computers.

By night, they play on them — so much so that they’ve amassed a combined 72 video-game world records.

Ladies and technophiles, meet Team Quad Rock.

This makes me want to get down and dirty with a game of New Super Mario Bros. Wii:

“We go level by level and analyze it,” explained Lowe, who holds records in mostly vintage games — both popular (BurgerTime) and obscure (Splendor Blast).

“Russell figured out that on the third level of the game, when the clock reads 396 seconds, you can use Mario’s propeller cap and get an extra 16,600 points every 25 seconds. I have a spreadsheet breaking down every level like that.”

A single game of New Super Mario Bros. Wii takes about two hours and five minutes to play, Lowe said.

Maybe I’ll just go watch The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters.

What is Addicube?

Addicube is a virtual-pet sim that challenges you to maintain balanced diets for an ever increasing family of tiny cubes in a petri dish. If their diets become to unbalanced, they begin to act out emotionally and as you progress you’ll unlock tools that help you keep control over their intake.

An emotional petri dish game? Corvus is starting his own genre. A genre we can all get behind.

I hope everyone can give a little to help them out. This is a do as I say and as I do situation, as I’ve put my money where my mouth is. Let’s all pitch in.

Source: Giantbomb.

You ran 8953m before hitting a wall and tumbling to your death.

Canabalt is what Mirror’s Edge should have been–freestyle running that’s fun. It’s comparing apples and oranges, but there’s one other thing about the two games that must be mentioned. Mirror’s Edge uses a myriad of control schemes utilizing bumpers, triggers, and even a little bit of motion control. Finger-fu that leads to finger-flu. Canabalt uses one key.

Yes, it’s that simple. In the game you control a runner who is escaping from…well, something. Judging by the backgrounds it’s an alien invasion. However, the word control doesn’t describe it properly. Basically you tell him when to jump. The main character automatically runs the map, and his jumps are a few careful button presses that propel him from building to building, through glass windows, and over other obstacles.

Jump to retry your daring escape.

Not all obstacles are bad. Hitting some of them will slow the runner down. This can be a good thing because he progressively runs faster. (His stamina is amazing!). Play the game at a frantic pace or time the jumps by using the environment to control his actions. It’s a brilliant play scheme–one that involves only thought.

However, the difficulty is ramped up because the play area is randomly generated. It’s a new experience every time. Easy to learn, but a lifetime to master.

Surprisingly, the simplistic graphics make the experience enjoyable. It’s gray, white, and shades of gray. The smooth animations of the runner and the birds make it a pleasure to watch. Seeing the runner’s arms flail in the air never gets old. There’s also some nice narrative touches going on in the background.

For maximum awesome, headphones recommended.

The sound may be the best thing the game has to offer. From a great soundtrack to the beats of the runner’s footsteps on different material, it offers an immersion that one might overlook. Even the flapping of the bird wings is detailed.

Canabalt is available for FREE online as a flash game and in the App Store for $3. The iPod Touch version doesn’t have any buttons. Just tap.

Developer Semi Secret Software created this gem in five days for the Experimental Gameplay Project. This is an experiment that succeeded.

The game measures your progress by the distance ran. Give us your free-running record in the comments and become a legend.

An Italian man who argued with his son over Sony PlayStation tactics was recovering in hospital on Monday after the teenager stabbed him in the neck with a 15-inch kitchen knife, police and hospital officials said.

What was he playing? Grand Theft Auto IV? Modern Warfare 2? God of War?

The man, identified as Fabrizio R., suffered a deep cut to the throat after his 16-year-old son, Mario, attacked him during an argument on Sunday over the soccer video game FIFA 2009.

Huh. So it wasn’t a violent video game that led to this violent outburst. My world view = shattered.

(My Gamefly Ninja move has worked again. I could keep Mass Effect 2 for 45 bucks right now. I am a Gamefly Ninja!)

For whatever reason, I avoided most of the pre-launch info with a righteous zeal. I’m not sure why. I’d peep the occasional screen shot or watch a video, but I ignored most coverage the various sites have had. Was that a mistake? I wanted to avoid all spoiler talk and go into the game “pure.” This is actually something I’ve thinking about (spoilers) lately and hope to talk about that more in a future post.

Due to not keeping up with the previews and coverage leading up to launch, I don’t know exactly what changes have been made to the sequel or what to expect. So here is my short Mass Effect 2 wish list:

• Let’s get this one out of the way first: no more elevators. Duh. The shorter the loading waits, the better. Early in the original game, there were dialog between the characters during the elevator rides, which made them bearable. If I have to sit in an elevator, I need more of these.
• Make the side-quests mean something. I was never really interested in doing in any of the side-quests in the original because there wasn’t any real compelling reason to do so. I started finishing them near the end, which unfortunately turned out to be too late in some cases. I hope the new side-quests will enrich the main story and flesh out the new characters.
• I loved the first person conversations from the first one. I’m not a big fan of how the main character in Dragon Age never talks. I hope Mass Effect 2 continues the great BioWare tradition of meaningful conversations.
• Finally, I hope I can bring over my saved character from my finished game but use Shepard’s original model. I tried to make a “new Shepard” but he ended up looking like an extra from Planet of the Apes. I’d really like to revert back to the original Shepard. I did notice on today’s Penny Arcade post that Tycho mentions that there will be a way to maintain your character, even if you don’t have access to your save file, so it’s good to know I’m covered. Scratch that, reverse it.

As a service to you, fellow Mass Effect 2 fans, I posted a bunch of screen shots on Flickr to prime the pump. This game looks great. I’m hoping it is great