Mass Effect 3

Last week, the release of Mass Effect 3 has gotten my attention. I played the first two titles and found them to be one of the best games I have ever played. So, I´m counting the minutes until I can get my hands on it. Unfortunately it will only be available in the beginning of 2011.

This game is a RPG (Role Playing Game), in which you control a character named Commander John Shepard, a hero involved in galactic politics and wars in favor of mankind and versus alien interests.

Each title is a continuation of the storyline with many variables that depend upon player´s decisions. Bad decisions usually come to haunt us in later stages of the game. 

It has complex dialogues. Many quests can only be accessed with clever answers to other characters. The soundtrack is awesome and hypnotic as if floating in outer space. The graphics are top notch, transmitting a believable reality of different planets and extraterrestrial cultures.

The new title will have 1000 variables in the plot, making it the most complex game ever made. According to Casey Hudson, executive producer of the series, this will make it very hard to develop. Especially because Mass Effect 3 will have the options of either playing it as a standalone game or resuming from the point we left our character in Mass Effect 2 with all the consequences that derive from previous choices. Amazingly, it will also take into account decisions made in Mass Effect 1.

You can easily guess it has an extremely dense and non-linear story. It changes with our actions becoming a potentially unique experience for every single player. For me this is a great achievement for the science of Storytelling, in a rather unusual way, as it makes the reader partly author and responsible for the final version of the plot.  
Trailer 
 

Poker

The game had its origins in France and was brought to the U.S.A. many years later. It´s not an American creation, but a French one. The American version of the game was the one that became the standard: “Texas Hold´em”.

This game has a new found growing popularity. It is probably the most played online game. I’m one of these recent Web players. But I started playing a long time ago although not as often as I do now.  Nowadays it´s easier to find people to play with even in real life.

The game has simple rules and it is very easy to learn but hard to master. It deals with mathematical probabilities and emotions at the same time. This also means that in general very few players will be able to distance themselves from the pressure of a given hand in order to make the right call. It has a powerful psychological component that adds to the game and of course demands good risk-management skills. 

In real practice you will seldom have absolute certainty that you possess the winning hand. This makes the game unpredictable and exciting to players of all levels.