In Other News...November 7

[DoctorFinger]

- Xbox Gamers on the dashboard preview program were treated to a surprise this weekend when an early build of the Mass Effect 3 beta was made available for download. The beta is missing some art assets and has some glitches, but it includes a substantial chunk of the game's story, so beware of spoilers from here on out.

- John Staats, senior designer of WoW and lead designer on Blizzard's next MMO Titan, has been let go for unspecified reasons. For now this is still a rumor, but it may not be good news for Blizzard fans.

- A psychic RPG for the PC? Sign me up! Meet Telepath RPG: Servants of God.

- Best Buy UK will close all 11 of their stores in the British Isles, seemingly abandoning an ambitious plan to expand to Europe launched just 3 years back.

- Call of Duty Elite is now available, if you're into that sort of thing.

- Legendary sci-fi author/curmudgeon Harlan Ellison has posted a partial victory against film studio New Regency over the recently released In Time. Ellison noted the numerous similarities between In Time and his short story "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" in a lawsuit, which New Regency settled agreeing to give Ellison a credit on the film. (via Blastr)

[MagGnome]

I'll have to keep an eye on that psychic RPG. Thanks for the heads up!

[maharahaj]

Originally Posted by DoctorFinger

- Xbox Gamers on the dashboard preview program were treated to a surprise this weekend when an early build of the Mass Effect 3 beta was made available for download. The beta is missing some art assets and has some glitches, but it includes a substantial chunk of the game's story, so beware of spoilers from here on out.

That sucks. I sure hope I don't stumble upon any leaked info prior to its release, which I just realized is like 4 months away!

[Karak]

http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogfor...ad.php?t=24971

We have some discussion about the ME 3 leak from a couple days ago.
Sad that Neogaf was forced by MS to remove the entire thread.

[CappinCanuck]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

I'll have to keep an eye on that psychic RPG. Thanks for the heads up!

Doesn't look too promising in that trailer

[maharahaj]

Originally Posted by CappinCanuck

Doesn't look too promising in that trailer

Agreed. I want those two minutes of my life back.

[MosBen]

In my head Harlan Ellison will forever be the guy that got in a fight with Penny Arcade.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by MosBen

In my head Harlan Ellison will forever be the guy that got in a fight with Penny Arcade.

For me, he'll always be the guy who wrote a Star Trek script and threw a hissyfit that the producers wanted to change things to make it more in line with their characters. Nevermind that the concept of a "Starfleet execution" is pretty much the exact opposite of Roddenberry's vision.

[tacitus]

Harlan Ellision was once one of the few SF authors who could competently work in the English language. He has become an egotistical ass. 3/4 of his wiki page (not including the bibliography) is "controversies" and it doesn't even include the Penny Arcade dust up. Some of the stuff mentioned is just plain shameful - in particular sitting on "The Last Dangerous Visions" stories for over 40 years. (Its funny, until I read his wiki I had forgotten about that; I had remembered pondering about it in the early '80s). From the article:

Ellison had originally sued to prevent the scheduled release of the film, have all existing prints of the film destroyed, and receive a share of the box-office returns of any eventual release.

[Savok]

Looking over the ME3 stuff that's been datamined.... it's DA2 all over again. Not a single god damn bit of the previous games matter. Fuck it, just fuck it.

[bstiff]

Originally Posted by Savok

Looking over the ME3 stuff that's been datamined.... it's DA2 all over again. Not a single god damn bit of the previous games matter. Fuck it, just fuck it.

Ugh! Never made it through DA2 as it was way too consoley. ME2 seemed like they were taking ME in that direction, I was just hoping it wouldn't be as bad as DA2. I guess bioware is leaning more toward the console market now.

[Savok]

DA2 was incredibly lazy, going so far as to retcon imported save information it didn't like. ME3 is set to do the same.

[Narradisall]

Oh, and Best Buy failed because a) no one knew they were bloody well there, and b) they didn't have the best buys, not by a long shot.

[Squidbot]

Yeah, I didn't even know Best Buy were in the UK. That said, I was out of the country for a couple of years, so that may have something to do with my ignorance.

[Wilkz07]

meh, not impressed with that trailer. psychic rpg sounds like a good idea but it looked like a bland version of gauntlet and lots of text, which most likely would be a strain to read.

[Widgetcraft]

- Legendary sci-fi author/curmudgeon Harlan Ellison has posted a partial victory against film studio New Regency over the recently released In Time. Ellison noted the numerous similarities between In Time and his short story "Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" in a lawsuit, which New Regency settled agreeing to give Ellison a credit on the film. (via Blastr)

Really? I love that story, I'll have to watch the movie. Also, assuming that he doesn't get any money from the purchase, I'll have to buy about a thousand copies to piss off Ellison.