In November of 2007, BioWare’s Mass Effect was released.  The years leading up to its release were full of promises of an RPG experience unlike anything we’ve ever seen before.  Stunningly beautiful graphics, a highly deep and rewarding dialog system, and a story that can change in the blink of an eye. That was just the tip of the iceberg.

Mass Effect 2 is an action-RPG sequel to 2007’s Mass Effect that puts you in the shoes of Commander Shepard once again.  Shepard and his crew on the Normandy are on patrol for geth, when the ship is attacked.  Shepard does not survive the attack and his lifeless body lands on an unknown planet.

The story doesn’t end there though as a shadow broker group known as Cerberus collects Shepard’s body and spends two years attempting to reanimate it.  They are successful with reviving Shepard and recruit him to fight for the organization.

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Rebellion developed the first Aliens Versus Predator game on PC back in 1999 creating one of the most terrifying PC game experiences to date. It was very well received by critics all around the world, marking its name a classic in PC gaming. Trying to recreate that success once again, Rebellion has now developed Aliens vs. Predator (AvP 3).

The Australian Gamer Sydney crew was invited by Sega to take part in a special multiplayer preview event; here is what we thought...Being Rebellion’s big title for the year you’d have to have high expectations of AvP. I didn’t as I had never played the first title released in 1999 (An updated version is available on Steam for $5USD) but the concept of a rock paper scissors FPS experience with Aliens, Predators and marines sounds too awesome to pass up.

Recently Sega organised a multiplayer preview for us Sydney boys to attend. I can’t speak for everyone else but I’m now pretty keen to pick this one up come Feb 18th. The emphasis of the preview was to check out the multiplayer modes in the game.

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The lid has been lifted on the latest online venture from publisher EA, and this time it’s the lucrative FIFA franchise that’s getting the mass-audience treatment.

With a closed beta kicking off next month and an open beta to follow in June, FIFA Online is EA’s attempt to tap into the wider global football community. Specifically, its target market is those without consoles or high-spec PCs.

Despite being based on the FIFA 10 engine and database, the game has been designed to run on everyday PCs and laptops. Adaptable difficulty and mouse control will allow gaming novices to get to grips with the title.

The game will also run regular special events, often linked to real life matches. Last week EA put out official word concerning another upcoming online sports outing, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online.

So, accomplished what the world looked forward to the mid-2009. Apple has officially announced a tablet PC, called the iPad.

The new device is equipped with a 9.7-inch screen. The operating system used adapted iPhone OS. Tablet goes on sale in six different models.Background

Despite the fact that the rumors about the development of the Tablet PC went a long time, Apple has never commented on its development, does not confirm nor deny the rumors.

Naturally, the company from Cupertino mass spread rumors about the forthcoming product was only on hand. Few producers could boast of such interest to its novelties.

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The premise: Two years after an interstellar attack, Cmdr. John Shepard must put together an elite assault team to thwart the abduction of entire human colonies.The advance:

Those who played the first Mass Effect will be able to import their previous experiences, so past decisions you made affect this new game.

(The original let the player choose to have an intimate relationship between two main characters that will carry forward as well.) Similarly, the directions that you take in the ongoing story have consequences here and in the third installment.

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Last Thursday, both the PC and Xbox360 versions of the upcoming Mass Effect 2 game leaked to BitTorrent, which didn’t go unnoticed by the masses.The game is scheduled to be sold in stores starting Tuesday in North America and Friday throughout Europe, but many curious customers couldn’t wait until then and have downloaded an unauthorized copy instead.

At the time of writing, tens of thousands of people are downloading the game, which is more than 14 gigabytes worth of data for the PC version and over 13 gigabytes for the Xbox360 version. According to the latest statistics gathered by TorrentFreak, more than 300,000 people started downloading the files in the past days.

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Formed by two veterans of the defunct Titan Quest developer Iron Lore Studios, Crate Entertainment initially wanted to focus on console development but decided last year to find its feet by sticking to more familiar territory: Creating.

PC games using a modified version of the Titan Quest engine. Crate co-founder Arthur Bruno said that approach would let the company stay small while taking advantage of digital distribution to keep the project viable.

The new studio's first game has now been revealed to the public: Grim Dawn, an action-RPG set on the dark world of Cairn, where the human race is on the verge of extinction, caught in a cataclysmic war between two other races who see humanity as nothing but a resource to be exploited or destroyed. But there's a bit of a twist to this project: In order to avoid surrendering control of the IP to a publisher, Crate is seeking financing directly from gamers in the form of very early preorders.

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The video games industry in Australia could soon be worth more than DVD sales and box office takings combined, with Nintendo dominating the field in another record year. Figures released today by the Interactive Gaming & Entertainment Association (iGEA) revealed the video games industry notched up a record $2.05 billion in total sales during the 2009 calendar year.

That represented a growth rate of just 4 per cent, far below the 47.6 per cent and 43.2 per cent growth rates the industry recorded for the previous two years. Andrew Milgate, a games analyst at market-watcher GfK, said this was to be expected as the earlier stellar growth was due largely to the fact that the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii had only just been released and prices were high.

"People are still buying and the market is growing. However, there is less value as prices for hardware and software are falling," he said. By comparison, total sales of movies on disc in 2009 - including DVD and Blu-ray - were just over $1.5 billion, GfK said. This represented growth of just 1 per cent. Last year's box office takings are due to be released this week. In 2008 the industry notched up a record $946 million, and revenue is believed to have crept above $1 billion this year with the release of blockbuster hits such as Avatar.

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I've discussed Mac gaming before on Mac Planet (October 9, 2009 'Gaming on a Mac? Why so hard?'. It's the one area where Mac can users can justifiably feel well and truly miffed at being users of a platform with small market share.

Although millions of people around the world use Macs, many, many millions more use Windows. In a way, Apple's inability or refusal to engage with gamers – or, more importantly, with game developers (apart from with the iPhone/touch OS) – has conceded the territory to Windows and the consoles.

Microsoft even launched its own console, the Xbox, which proved smart. Although I do feel the choice of the hot-running G5 processor was asking for trouble. Also, the Xbox's rather maverick choice of processor forced developers to add an entirely new and different console platform to their release schedule.

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New sales figures from market research firm NPD show the video game industry did huge business in December 2009, breaking industry records to log the biggest sales month every.

However, even the record-breaking December was not enough to bring overall 2009 sales out of the doldrums.

On the whole, the industry’s figures were still down 8 percent compared to 2009, chalking up about $!9.66 billion in sales compared to $21.4 billion in 2008.

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