In Other News...February 13

[DoctorFinger]

- The beta for the F2P Blacklight Retribution will begin February 27. You can apply for the beta by creating an account on the official site.

- What does the future hold for LA Noire? The game was a bona fide hit, but the developer Team Bondi imploded post-release, so the future of the franchise looked murky. In an online FAQ property owner Rockstar indicated that with their current workload on GTA V and Max Payne 3 they're not planning any more DLC, and future iterations of the series are still "undecided". That said, the original LA Noire was a big enough hit that a sequel is more a matter of 'who' and 'when' than 'if'.

- Lucasarts and the LEGO Group have signed a 10 year extension of their licensing deal, meaning you'll continue to see Lego games based on Star Wars and Indiana Jones for a long, long time.

- Naughty Dog has been talking to Game Informer about The Last Of Us. We now know that you'll control Joel while the AI manages Ellie, but Naughty Dog says it won't be one long escort mission. They're also ditching the recharging health mechanic seen in Uncharted to make survival even more difficult.

- The wait is, almost, over. Mass Effect 3 has gone gold, and a demo should be up on XBLA, PSN and PC tomorrow.

[Spigot]

Is there any reason to play the ME3 demo, as far as unlockables and the like go? I want to go into the game clean (just wrapping up the last of the ME2 DLC as we speak) but I do like unlockables...

[Ink Asylum]

Nothing announced yet. We'll find out for sure tomorrow, I imagine. They did do some special promotions with the Dragon Age 2 demo. I can't imagine they'll do nothing with the ME3 one, especially given the Galaxy At War system.

[Spigot]

I know that there are some mobile apps and such with ME3, but I don't know how much they carry over.

I already have the Amalur bonus items for ME3 from the Amalur demo.

[Stoke]

Originally Posted by DoctorFinger

- The wait is, almost, over. Mass Effect 3 has gone gold, and a demo should be up on XBLA, PSN and PC tomorrow.

Squealed like a little girl.

[jpublic]

Originally Posted by Spigot

I know that there are some mobile apps and such with ME3, but I don't know how much they carry over.

I already have the Amalur bonus items for ME3 from the Amalur demo.

I think there's bonus items in Amalur for playing the ME demo.

[Codicier]

Not going near that demo personally. I've avoided most media about the game until now so I can go in fresh. I did pretty much the same thing with ME2.

[National Kato]

Yeah, even if playing the demo unlocks some armor or enhances the Conflict Readiness or whatever it's called, I'm staying away from all things ME3 as we get this close to release. I've already seen too much in the videos they've released.

[DoctorFinger]

The demo includes both single player and multiplayer portions. So you can try out the MP without even dipping your toes into the story. And the MP is pretty good. Sort of like Horde mode from Gears, but with persistent unlocks and upgrades.

[Zanzibar]

Yeah, staying the hell away from any ME3 videos to keep the story fresh, I sure as hell don't want to find out anything from the demo. I'll wait.

I am REALLY curious how the hell they are going to incorporate the previous 2 games' choices into the 3rd. Not to mention the Normandy crew.