The Good:
Once again, the voice acting is superb. Of course, Jennifer Hale as FemShep was outstanding, but the other voice actors were also excellent. Even the background characters sounded real and fleshed out- something that is a rarity in most video games. I only played as a female Shepard, so I have no clue how the voice acting for male Shepard was. The only character whose voice acting I could not stand was the war reporter, Diana Allers (voiced by Jessica Chobot). It was very clear, especially in comparison to the other characters, that Jessica Chobot is not an actress. Her lines were stilted and not very convincing.

The characters themselves are also a high point. Old friends and enemies show up in various ways, and getting to talk to them (even briefly) made me very happy. The people who have been interacting with since Mass Effect 1, Kaiden, Ashley, Joker Wrex, Garrus, Tali, and Liara have grown and developed in a way that is realistic. Even the squadmate you did not save (in my case, Kaiden) is mentioned numerous times, making your relationships seem much more real. A few new characters appear, such as James Vega. At first I didn’t know what to think about him, but in the end I really enjoyed talking to him. He is pretty damn hilarious, and his conversations with other crew members on the Normandy were a high point. One of the best parts was hearing the characters interact with one another. As I ran from one part of the Normandy to another, I would walk in on shipmates talking with each other. Liara would be talking to Garrus, Joker and Edi would be mid conversation, etc. Stopping to listen to these conversations was fun and enlightening.

Shep is back and she's as badass as ever (or 'he' if you prefer).

The story itself was also great. You start off with Earth being attacked by the Reapers, and it just goes non-stop from there. It is up to you, as Commander Shepard, to reunite the races for the upcoming war. This is not an easy task, and centuries of mistrust and bad blood run through all of the races. Supporting the Krogan to help cure the genophage will result in the losing the support of the Salarians. The Quarian and Geth conflict also comes to a head. It is possible to get almost all of the factions on your side, but you have to play an almost perfect game.

The Average:
The combat system has improved even more from Mass Effect 2, but compared to most shooters it’s still average. There is a new cover system that is good in theory, but doesn’t always work in practice. Many times I found myself running to a point, only to suddenly find myself in cover, facing the wrong way and getting shot at. This was frustrating and made what could have been a really good combat system hard to work with at times. The best improvement was allowing all classes to carry any weapon they want. This is balanced out with a weight system- the heavier the weapons, the longer it takes your powers to cool down. I played as an infiltrator, and after I got an awesome sniper rifle, I only carried that. As a result of having only one weapon, my powers cooled down within seconds, allowing me to use them more often.

Bioware took the complaints of Mass Effect 2 leveling up system to heart and tweaked it for the third game. It has much more of an RPG feel to it, similar to the first game, without all the issues. You have many more choices when leveling up powers, and modifying your weapons is satisfying and shows actual changes. You still don’t have the depth that was available in Mass Effect 1, but I think Bioware found a good balance between RPG and Third Person Shooter.

Multiplayer is something that was added for the third game. It directly affects the single player game by helping your “galactic readiness.” You and three people can choose between the 6 classes and various races and have to hold off ten waves of either geth, reapers, or Cerberus troops and survive. Sprinkled in the 10 waves are different objectives, so you aren’t able to just camp out and shoot people. I played both with random people and with friends, and it is much more satisfying with friends. This is a game you need to communicate with your teammates, and it’s much easier to do that with friends. Plus, who hasn’t wanted to play as a Krogan?

Go ahead punk make my day

Kinect voice commands were also added to Mass Effect 3. I do not have a Kinect, so I was not able to test it myself, but I had a friend (and fellow Mass Effect junkie) test it out for me and give me her results. She said it took a while to get used to using it in combat, but once she got the hang of it she loved yelling out commands during battles and seeing squadmates react. She enjoyed it the most during conversations. She was able to put down the controller and get into the scene, and just speak the prompts and watch her Shepard react. Other people have told me they have trouble with the Kinect system, and there is not guide on what commands to use, so a lot of it is a guessing game on what you should exactly be yelling.

The Bad:
The scanning system is back. No, you aren’t scanning for minerals like in Mass Effect 2, or driving around planets on the Mako finding hunks of rocks, but it’s still just as irritating. Now you fly your Normandy around the galaxy map, and scan the systems for “war assets” that help you in your cause. That in itself is not a bad thing, but now if you scan too much, the Reapers fly in and you have to evade them. Essentially you are playing Pac-Man with the Reapers. I found this system to be jarring and it took me out of the game.

If you play the game without playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 first, you will have a perfectly fine game, but I don’t think you will be getting the full experience. As much as Bioware claims you can jump in without playing the first two, I think that is doing yourself a grave disservice. Part of my enjoyment of the game was seeing the loads of people from the first two games show up. Actions I did in the first two games directly affected my galactic readiness. Conversations that brought up past actions were common. I can’t imagine I would have any clue what was going on if I hadn’t played the first two games. I cried a few times during the game when certain characters died. I don’t know if the emotional impact would have been there if I hadn’t gotten to know the characters previously. This is truly the end of a trilogy. It would be like reading the last book in a trilogy without reading the first two. You will probably enjoy it, but miss a lot of the backstory and richness of the culture and world as a whole.

The Romance:
Bioware certainly stepped up the gay factor on this one, and I love it. Our gay brothers finally get same sex romance options. Yes, that’s plural. There are two males that can romanced by a male Shepard: Kaiden and Cortez, a shuttle pilot. For the ladies, there are three options. First, you can continue your romance with Liara, start a relationship with your com officer Samantha Traynor (lesbian only romancable by female Shepard), or hook up with war reporter Diana Allers. You can also continue your relationships from Mass Effect 2, with a few exceptions. I found my relationship with Liara to be the most in depth one of the three ladies. You have many conversations with her about the past, the future, and your relationship. I haven’t done that much processing since my last real life relationship. The romance with Samantha Traynor was sweet and definitely sexy (one word: shower.) I thought the relationship with Diana Allers was forced and not very realistic, and was my least favorite of all them, gay or straight.

Great game and then there was that ending we can't discuss due to spoilers.

I applaud Bioware for taking the time to add the same-sex relationships to Mass Effect 3. It made the universe seem much more realistic. You will randomly hear conversations from people of both sexes talk about their husbands and wives, and no one so much as bats an eye. The first time I talked to the shuttle pilot Cortez and he casually mentioned he lost his husband, I about dropped my controller in shock. My second thought was “That was so cool!” It takes a lot to shock me in a video game, and Bioware did it in a good way. My only complaint was that I was unable to romance Ashley Williams as a female Shepard. Kaiden is romanceable by both genders, but Ashley is not? I don’t understand why that was overlooked, Ashley really grew on me over three games and I would have loved have romanced her. That is, hoever, a small complaint in what is otherwise a great game.

The Ending:
No, I won’t spoil the ending for you. All I will say is that I thought the last 5 minutes were jarring and seemed very out of place in the Mass Effect Universe. The “optimal” ending (or what constitutes as one) is up for debate, and is very difficult to get if you do not play multiplayer. Not impossible, but difficult. If anyone wants to talk more about the ending privately, feel free to PM me on the forum (Name: Xan) or hit me up on the Lesbian Gamers Facebook page and I am willing to discuss the ending in depth. But it does bring closure to the end of a trilogy, and that is the important thing.

Overall, it’s a satisfying conclusion to 6 years, three games, and countless novels and comics. I love this universe, I love Commander Shepard, and I did love this game. It has some flaws, and there are a few things I wish was done different, but I felt like it was telling MY story of MY Shepard. In the end, I think that was what made the game great.

Alice: Madness Returns – Has it really been 11 years since we were graced with the joy of American McGee’s Alice on PC? As someone who is more of a console gamer than a PC gamer, back then, American McGee’s Alice was just too good to resist. The game was creepy, gothic, funny and engaging, and by using the Quake 3 engine, it was a game that was definitely advanced for it’s time.

Story
Now here we are in 2011 and we have American McGee back, brining us more trippy gameplay from the dark and unnerving Alice, in Alice: Madness Returns on Xbox 360. The story kicks off with Alice as a teenager, under the watchful eye of Dr Bumby, a psychiatrist. For those who have played the first game, this probably isn’t too much of a surprise, since Alice’s mind and her adventures in wonderland have clearly taken their toll on her idea of reality. The story progresses from there, and it’s not long until Alice is thrown back into a world of gory, creepy, gothic horror.

Gameplay
Alice: Madness Returns, is a solid platformer which has its fair share of hack and slash goodness. The controls feel effortless and you can easily shrink Alice down to enable her access to smaller areas in the game. The weapons such as the Vorpal knife and the pepper-grinder, are sufficiently gruesome and weird that they fit perfectly into the overall feel of the game. At times there are plenty of enemies on screen and the AI is pretty good, so the controls and the weapons work perfectly well together to make hacking and slashing your way through levels quite enjoyable. You can lock on to target and kill them at long range, as well as hop around on different levels to avoid them if you need to. As well as Alice’s excellent fighting abilities, she’s also perfectly capable of jumping and floating effortlessly around the levels. The checkpoints are strategically placed so that it doesn’t become infuriating if you need to do part of a level again and the fact you can’t fall off ledges helps ensure you make it through many levels unscathed. There’s no multiplayer in Alice, which is probably how it should be, but there are cute rhythm mini-games in it, although you don’t need to play these if you don’t want to.

Graphics
One of the most impressive aspect of this title is the graphics. From the beginning, it has a very surreal feeling to it, reminiscent of the French animated classic “The Triplets of Bellville”. NPC’s are as full of character in their faces as the characters you can interact with and you feel that Alice’s madness pours out through the depiction of these characters beautifully. The backgrounds and levels of the game are also absolutely gorgeous to look at, accurately representing Alice’s troubled mind. The game grabs you with it’s aesthetics and although there are a few pop up issues here and there, the frame-rate is solid throughout.

Audio
As with the graphics, sound plays an important part of this title and the creepy score which accompanies the game is spot on. It adds to the overall experience and the dialogue from the characters is great. At times it becomes a little cliched, but there are some stand out characters, including of course the dryness of the Cheshire Cat. Alice herself sounds a lot like Lara Croft which is always a nice bonus.

Female Character Angle
Obviously the female character is the lead character in this title, so it’s always welcome to see that. Alice is a very interesting character and her background and decent to madness is quite gripping. Through the 15 hours or so it takes to play the game, you’ll find yourself becoming more and more intertwined in Alice’s psyche and she’s definitely a character that can hold her own on screen.

Overall
Alice: Madness Returns is a welcome return to gaming for American McGee. The game is eerie, interesting, gory, surreal and extremely dark. It’s a very close likeness to Lewis Carroll’s original vision for Alice and the levels and gameplay compliment this perfectly. If you haven’t played the original, you can still pick this up and will enjoy it as it’s a solid platformer with great aesthetic touches.

8/10

Just a quick heads up since this involves one of the first ladies of gaming, BloodRayn. Sure her games have kind of sucked in the past (pun intended), but she is a kick-ass female character, so we had to give her some news coverage. Of course she’s as sexed up as ever, what with her being “The Sexiest Dhampir Ever” and all. Full press release for your fangtastic selves below.

BloodRayne: Betrayalis Now Available!
Epic 2D hack ‘n slash reboot of legendary franchise hits PlayStation®Network today and Xbox LIVE Arcade tomorrow

Majesco Entertainment Company announced today that its highly anticipated side-scrolling BloodRayne: Betrayal launches today for PlayStation Network followed by a release tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. The PlayStation Network version is included as part of the PlayStation Network PLAY program.

The original video game femme fatale, Rayne, has returned to battle and feed in a brand new hack ‘n slash adventure developed by WayForward, the seasoned team behind some of gaming’s most critically acclaimed brand reinventions. BloodRayne: Betrayal delivers over-the-top stylish action with a healthy dose of bloodshed. You are Rayne, the sexy dhampir with superhuman strength, speed, and agility, recruited by the vampire hunting Brimstone Society for one last mission. The target is a lavish, yet sinister, ball in a secluded castle with plenty of dark surprises. With the help of a mysterious friend, and members of Brimstone, Rayne must infiltrate the manor, take out the fiendish horde, and stop an evil master plot once and for all.

BloodRayne: Betrayal is available now on PlayStation Network for $14.99 and tomorrow on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 for 1,200 Microsoft Points. For more information about BloodRayne: Betrayal, please visit the official game site at www.bloodraynebetrayal.com and be sure to Like us at www.facebook.com/bloodrayne.

Let me preface this piece by saying I love BioWare, they are one of my favorite developers and I support them by buying their games and even their merchandise, I have done so for many years. I’m however upset with the FemShep debacle. Firstly it being touted as a ‘beauty contest’ (by some) demeans what the female Commander Shepard (FemShep) is all about, it belittles her as nothing but an object of beauty, a woman to be judged on her appearance rather than action and that angers me. Somehow this “vote for your preferred FemShep” thing went from “cool they’re finally using FemShep on some marketing” to “oh shit FemShep was voted on and now she’s a young blond bimbo”. I don’t understand why BioWare put it to the vote. I don’t understand why BioWare didn’t take control and make a decision to make the marketing material feature the base model FemShep, with her bobbed hair and non-pouting lips.

Turning FemShep into this young looking blond Samus Aran type just irks and it irks a lot. This isn’t a ‘lesbian thing’, though I’m sure there will be those closed minded fools who assume as a lesbian of course I would prefer the short-haired ‘more-masculine’ female Commander Shepard. To them I say, give me a break, I just prefer the female Shepard who looks like you’d listen to her if the galaxy were in peril and frankly if some jumped up 18 year old blond pouting kid needed me on the front lines, I’d be questioning things big time.

The standard female Shepard looks like she can tote a gun, she looks like she’s a leader and most importantly she looks severe and old enough to have lived through battle. The new FemShep we’re now stuck with for marketing and merchandise just doesn’t cut it. I was so excited to purchase a “Mass Effect” game with female Shepard I’ve ranted it to all my gamer friends, now I’ll be buying the male version because frankly I just can’t take blonde kiddy Shepard seriously.

I realize the result of this ‘beauty contest’ was never going to please everyone, after all, we all have our own FemShep versions and the chance of seeing your exact version on packaging or as an action-figure was never going to happen, but come on BioWare, Seriously?!!! Shepard number 5 is bland, bland, bland, bland and worse than bland, she panders to an audience that don’t and possibly never will ‘get’ what FemShep is all about. Thanks for that Bioware, thanks for placing the decision of iconic female leader in the realm of what statistics suggest is the mostly male voting audience, rather than clasping your testicles and saying fuck it let’s make her the Shep most people know from the game. To those male gamers who did vote for a different FemShep (and judging from the comments I’ve read and received since the announcement), thank you, clearly all our votes just didn’t amount to enough. Sadly the “Gentlemen Prefer Blonds” thing is already doing the rounds on the various male run gaming sites, along with ‘Miss Universe’, ‘Pageant Queen’ and other demeaning headlines. It just makes me want to shed a tear because it feels like gaming has once more taken one step forward, two steps back.

Oh and for the record, none of the choices were all that great.

Check out this awesome female Commander Shepard (femShep) video by YouTuber “gametourists”. The video shows off many of the female Commander Shepards in game, all so neatly knitted together with a funky soundtrack. There’s even some girl on mono-gendered alien lovin (and femshep with dudes.. ugh). I know I spotted someone that looked very like my Commander Shepard, how about you? check out the awesome video and let us know. “I’m just here to get the job done, let someone else be on the poster”. Genius.

Yeah well what do you think of the screenshots in this post, they don’t look more than a little like Lara Croft do they? Yeah Jillian Michaels, or rather the people behind her new game “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” probably had no idea this is generally what Lara Croft wears when she’s out ‘adventuring’. “Jillian Michaels Fitness Adventure” is coming Exclusively to Kinect this Fall. We’ve got the full press release below… now if we could just shake the feeling we’ve seen all this before… hey.. now a Lara Croft fitness game.. that sounds pretty cool!

Best-selling author and Co-Host of ‘The Doctors’ brings you on an interactive journey in this unique, fully customizable experience.

Majesco Entertainment Company, an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, and Microprose announced today that Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure is coming exclusively to Kinect™ for Xbox 360® later this fall. Renowned health and wellness expert Jillian Michaels makes her Kinect for Xbox 360 debut after selling more than one million units across her franchise.

Get ready to use your entire body this time as players join Jillian on an interactive adventure, which of course is also filled with Jillian’s trademark intensity! Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure, the latest iteration of the Jillian Michaels franchise, takes your fitness routine beyond a basic workout and turns it into a real adventure through a mission-based, thrill-seeking journey set in a lush jungle temple environment. The high-energy and fully customizable motion-based experience offers a results-oriented personal training experience that you can expect from teaming up with Jillian to achieve your fitness goals.

Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure features include:

* Multiple Exercise Modes: Fitness Adventure Mode – featuring Parkour-style action (a free-style mix of proactive and reactive running, jumping and climbing) set in an exciting jungle temple environment; Circuit Training – 10 exercise circuits hand-selected by Jillian herself available in three difficulty modes, giving you complete freedom to customize your session; and Individual Fitness Training – offering exercises of varying difficulty allowing you to work out at your own pace .

* Use Your Own Equipment: Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure has training programs that can easily integrate various types of fitness gear you may already have at home. Or you can use the game’s complete regimen of training exercises that use your own body weight to get you back into shape…the choice is yours!

* Social Integration: Check out your own and your friends’ performance in the online leaderboards. Keep up the great work because Jillian will be monitoring the boards and the best performers will be honored on Jillian’s Facebook page.

* Stats: The game provides statistics to track your progress, including a calendar that shows you what days you have worked out from the moment you started playing the game to present day. It also displays the breakdown of calories burned, number of exercises/circuits completed, and time spent exercising. These can be viewed on a daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly basis.

Developed by N-Space and produced by Microprose, Jillian Michaels’ Fitness Adventure on Kinect for Xbox 360 is expected to launch this November.

Well this is interesting. BioWare’s marketing director David Silverman has been chatting to VG247 and there’s a few bits within we thought you’d like to know about. First up comes word that 18% of gamers choose female Shepard, I actually thought that would be higher for a few reasons. Next up only 13% of players choose the default character and dive straight in. Most interesting though comes news that FemShep will be making her “first official public appearance in marketing materials”, including on the packaging! Nice one BioWare, about time. This is something we’ve mentioned at Lesbian Gamers before, that all the trailers feature male Shepard, all the action figures, statues etc also feature male Shepard (see bottom of this news for linkage). It’s cool that BioWare are finally doing this and recognizing the awesomeness that is female Commander Shepard aka FemShep (voiced by Jennifer Hale).

So why no FemShep love in previous marketing materials? Silverman blames ‘consistency’ for the lack of female Shepard stating: “When creating a rich sci-fi epic like Mass Effect, you need to keep a certain level of consistency so people unfamiliar with the property can clearly identify who the hero is that they get to become”. Fair enough… to a degree.

Kudos to VG247 for looking at – as they put it – “the OTHER Commander Shepard”. I didn’t want to just do a cut and paste of all the good points, because frankly this sort of coverage deserves a link and for you to read it in its original entirety.

Previous FemShep coverage:
No FemShep action figure for us.

No FemShep boxart – surprise surprise.

A non gender specific trailer .. FemShep it could be.

The Female voices of Mass Effect 2.

The Mass Effect movie and the female Commander Shepard.

The female characters of Mass Effect (gallery).

For those interested in the Electronic Arts support of the increase in diversity in the games industry, heads up, we’ve got the full press release of the latest Women in Games event. EA’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Unit has kindly agreed to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) Networking Lunch taking place during Develop 2011 in Brighton, UK. Over 50 women have committed to attend the Women in Games Jobs lunch so far. Existing and prospective members of the Women in Games Jobs group who are going to Develop or live and work in reach of Brighton are invited to this free lunch and to benefit from an opportunity to network with other women working or planning to work in the games industry.

Ginger Graham, Global Diversity and Inclusion Manager at EA’s Redwood Shores commented,

“EA knows the importance of reaching and supporting top talent on a global scale. We are very proud to sponsor the Women in Games Jobs luncheon which will provide an intimate venue for collaboration, networking and sharing best practices.”

David Smith, Founder of Women in Games Jobs said,

“We welcome Electronic Arts as sponsor of our lunch at Develop. EA is serious about making a difference to the gender imbalance that many feel exist in this industry and this sponsorship will help us to recruit into and retain more women in the video games industry.”

Up to 30 places still remain which are being offered to women in games on a first come, first served basis. This event is by ticket only requiring attendees to pre-register. To register for your ticket and find more information go to http://wigdeveloplunch.eventbrite.com/

ENDS

About Women in Games Jobs

Women in Games Jobs (WIGJ) is a “not for profit” company that works to recruit more women into the games industry by promoting role models and giving encouragement and information to those women seeking to work in games. It also campaigns to make the games industry a more attractive field for women, both for new entrants and to retain women already working in the industry.

Founded by David Smith, MD of international recruiter Interactive Selection in August 2009, WIGJ has over 2500 supporters. WIGJ is advised by high profile industry women including former European Publisher MD’s Jo Goodson and Alison Cressey, and Sony Production Lead Ali Bergstrom – Allen. Additional Advisory Board members include Geraldine Cross of Blitz Games, Louise Murray of Microsoft, Fiona Sperry of EA Criterion and Giselle Stuart of Ubisoft Reflections.

Web: www.womeningamesjobs.com

At female gaming site ThumbBandits they kind of groan when it comes to reporting on “women’s / girls games” because they don’t believe there is such a thing, only that marketing and companies of little depth will spew those sorts of titles out looking for the uninformed female gamer to make the purchase. Still that didn’t stop them looking at “Deepak Chopra’s Leela” a game that sounds liek it slots nicely into the female gamer marketing niche. Let’s take a very brief look at Deepak Chopra’s new game, yeah THAT Deepak Chopra, the guru who doesn’t mind lending his name to anything, so long as there’s cash attached. “Deepak Chopra’s Leela” for the Wii and Xbox 360 is detailed below.

Deepak Chopra
Product Description:
Brand Overview:
Deepak Chopra, MD world renowned expert on mind-body healing and bestselling author, collaborates with THQ on a unique interactive experience inspired by the ancient system of chakras – the body’s seven energy centers through which the life force flows – and invites players to achieve a peaceful and focused “flow state.”

Game Overview:
Leela is Sanskrit for “pastime”, “sport” or “play”. Deepak Chopra’s Leela is a ground-breaking journey of mind and body that combines ancient relaxation and meditation techniques with the seamless technology of Wii. Leela uniquely combines physical activity and meditation to create a fully immersive experience infused with stunning landscapes and captivating sound-scapes to help instill a sense of focus and rejuvenation.

Key Features:
• Groundbreaking. Deepak Chopra’s Leela uniquely combines physical activity and meditation to create a fully immersive experience using game consoles.
• Controller-free. On Kinect, Leela allows players to utilize full-body gestures to relax the entire body.
• Chakra-based meditation. Through seven movements, users can focus their attention on specific parts of their bodies to relax and develop a “flow state.”
• Stillness in motion. In the “Stillness Meditation” tradition, the Kinect measures players’ breathing and provides gentle feedback and encouragement.
• Connected. On Kinect, users can create a personal mandala (an artistic expression of an individual’s essence and focal point for meditation) and share it on Facebook.
• Personal. Deepak Chopra’s Leela utilizes the player’s own abilities to help cultivate a healthier, harmonious and more balanced life.

Ladies, the first lady of gaming – Lara Croft – is back! The first full length teaser trailer for the new “Tomb Raider” game! As Lara Croft first spoke I thought “oh no, she doesn’t sound like Lara”, by the end of the trailer I didn’t care and she sounded just like Lara. Check out the trailer for the new “Tomb Raider” game below and let us know what you think. This has been high on our list of must have purchases since the artwork released back in December last year. What do you think of the new younger Lara? I was a bit confused about her seemingly having an ipod / iphone… guess it’s set now and she’s younger, that’s a little odd, I was hoping for some back story when Lara was younger, playing with her walkman and rockin legwarmers.

Other recent coverage:
New Tomb Raider game and The Descent. Similarities.