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• Review: `Mass Effect' aims for stars

  For most people, the phrase "science fiction" conjures up images of outer-space dogfights, light-saber duels and encounters with b

  ug-eyed aliens. For moviegoers, that usually translates into special-effects spectacles that may blow your mind without actually engaging it — silliness like "Transformers" or "I, Robot."

  Science fiction video games are usually just as shallow. They may lean on reliable SF themes like space exploration, time travel or alien invasion, but most of them boil down to killing everything that moves.

  But there have been a few more thoughtful SF games over the years, from classics like "Chrono Trigger" and "Deus Ex" to this year's "BioShock." They give your brain something to chew on while you're not mowing down hordes of mutants. "Mass Effect" reaches for that goal; the other games reviewed here don't.

  _"Mass Effect" (Microsoft, for the Xbox 360, $59.99): The BioWare studio's resume includes "Knights of the Old Republic," the most expansive "Star Wars" game ever — and "Mass Effect" is even more ambitious, building a vast intergalactic culture from scratch. The adventure spans a huge assortment of planets, and along the way you'll meet hundreds of characters from about a dozen races.

  You are Shepard, commander of a top-of-the-line spaceship called the SS Normandy. You can customize Shepard's gender, physique, skills and history, but you'll inevitably be called upon to join the Spectres, a group of elite agents dedicated to wiping out the universe's most ominous threats. Top of the list is Saren, a rogue Spectre who's building an android army.

  "Mass Effect" gives you all kinds of freedom. In pursuit of Saren, you can take on plenty of side missions. You can build up your weapon skills or focus on "biotic" talents like telekinesis and healing. And you can try to act nobly and become a "Paragon," or behave like a jerk (er, "Renegade"). "Mass Effect" may be too dialog-heavy for some adrenaline junkies, and its menu system is awfully unwieldy. But it's one of the best-written and best-looking games in a long time, and I can't wait for the next game in the planned trilogy. Three-and-a-half stars out of four.

  _"TimeShift" (Sierra, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99): In a season filled with fantastic games like "Call of Duty 4" and "The Orange Box," a first-person shooter needs a unique twist to make it stand out. In "TimeShift," the gimmick is that you can stop, slow down or even reverse time — a useful talent when a grenade is flying toward your head.

  A physicist named Aiden Krone has stolen the "Alpha Suit," which he's used to travel back in time and create all sorts of havoc. Your job is to go to his alternate past, with the help of the "Beta Suit," and help the resistance bring down the dystopia Krone has created.

  It's all very heady (and a bit incoherent) but the plot is really just an excuse for a series of chaotic gunfights in a blasted landscape. The time-bending abilities add a nice touch in the heat of battle, but the puzzles requiring use of the Beta Suit are all too obvious. "TimeShift" feels like a missed opportunity to create something fresh in the first-person shooter genre. Two stars.

  _"BlackSite: Area 51" (Midway, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, $59.99): Shortly after the release of "BlackSite," lead designer Harvey Smith went public with complaints about the game's development. Then Midway told him to take a hike. As you might expect, "BlackSite" isn't very good.

  It begins, weirdly enough, in Iraq, where some cynical U.S. soldiers stumble across some mutated enemies. Then it fast-forwards two years to the Nevada desert, where militants have reportedly taken over a small town. Of course, the real threat is the aliens who have escaped from the legendary Area 51, and the game quickly degenerates into a violent bug hunt. There's some pointed political satire, but it isn't witty enough to make "BlackSite" more than a run-of-the-mill shooter. One-and-a-half stars.

  __

  On the Net:

  _"Mass Effect": http://masseffect.bioware.com/

  _"TimeShift": http://timeshiftgame.com/us//

  _"BlackSite: Area 51": http://www.blacksitegame.com/

  ...(more) - 12 12 2007 11:42AM

• Video-game review: `Mass Effect'

  Video games like "Mass Effect" don't come around too often, and good thing: This new science fiction epic is so good it's basicall

  y sucking away all of my free time.

  Action addicts who'd rather shoot first and think later may find it somewhat pedantic, but "Mass Effect" (Rated M, $59.99) is a wonderful example of dorky digital storytelling.

  It's a space opera in the "Star Wars" tradition, sans the constant father-son limb chopping and the inanely pubescent romantic dialogue.

  What we have here is a distinctive universe where the Milky Way becomes a staging ground for intergalactic political intrigue, some racy interspecies romantic flings, (yes, they went there) and, of course, battles with viscous aliens.

  If you prefer aliens of the E.T. variety, fret not: there are plenty of boring, friendly creatures to chat with, too.

  The back story is interesting even if you've been through the usual gamut of interstellar epics like "Star Trek" or "Battlestar Galactica."

  In "Mass Effect," humans have only recently begun to find their place in a considerably larger galactic community. That's right: We arrogant humans hardly matter.

  There are more than a few creatures who'd like it to stay that way. Namely, the game's chief villain, Saren Arterius. As a rogue special agent gone bad, he's on a zealous quest to aid a race of artificially intelligent creatures called Geth and destroy all intelligent life in the universe.

  Sadly, we hardly ever seen him during the game. Beyond that, unleashing a race of life-squelching monsters turns out to be dumb decision — at least if you have any say in the matter.

  As human Commander (insert the first name of your choosing here) Shepard, you engage as a planet-hopping, alien-quashing superagent, called a Spectre, who goes sniffing around the vacuum of space for Kryik.

  Like those endearing Choose Your Own Adventure books, "Mass Effect" gives players many paths to follow — good, evil, and somewhere in between — by selecting from one of several responses during even seemingly mundane conversations.

  There's a ton of dialogue here, and it's all well-done and relatively interesting by video-game standards.

  My earlier caveat to action gamers is warranted because this isn't a title where you'll want to run into the fray like some trigger-happy maniac. You'll die.

  "Mass Effect" battles are what it would be like if you could play chess, Dungeons and Dragons and rock-paper-scissors at the same time.

  There are many role-playing elements, which is cool because you can really tweak Shepard and your computer-controlled companions for the many missions. Planning, strategy and skill-point allocation far outweigh fast reflexes, that's for sure.

  The graphics are superb on the Xbox 360, with some of the most realistic-looking aliens around, if that makes any sense. The dialogue sequences are shot like big-budget movies and feature some wondrous backdrops such as sprawling space stations and seedy, dimly lit bars.

  With games like this lasting for weeks and weeks, why even bother with commercial-filled televised space dramas you can't control?

  Three-and-a-half stars out of four.

  (This version CORRECTS name of villain to Saren Arterius.)

  ...(more) - 11 28 2007 9:55AM

• Singapore bans Xbox game over lesbian scene

  SINGAPORE (AFP) - Singapore has banned the sale of an Xbox video game that features an intimate scene between two female character

  s, a statement received Thursday said.

  The "Mass Effect" game, a futuristic space adventure, contains "a scene of lesbian intimacy... as such the game has been disallowed," the deputy director of the Board of Film Censors said in the statement.

  The board is part of the Media Development Authority (MDA), Singapore's media watchdog.

  Under local guidelines, video games sold in Singapore cannot "feature exploitative or gratuitous sex and violence, or denigrate any race or religion," the official said.

  "Mass Effect" is to be launched globally next week.

  US software giant Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming console, said it respected the media watchdog's action.

  "We strictly adhere to the laws, regulations and norms of the markets we operate in," the company said in an e-mail reply to AFP.

  MDA said a new video games classification system to be introduced next year could allow titles such as "Mass Effect" to be passed and classified appropriately.

  Singapore is Southeast Asia's most advanced economy but the government maintains strict censorship laws.

  Earlier this year the city-state banned two other video games, "God of War II" for nudity and "The Darkness" for excessive violence and religiously offensive expletives, the statement said.

  Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's second minister for information, communications and the arts, has said the city-state was liberalising but retained a very strong conservative core.

  As part of major revisions to the Penal Code approved by parliament last month, Singapore legalised oral and anal sex between heterosexual couples but retained a law which criminalises intercourse between gay men.

  ...(more) - 11 19 2007 7:25AM