The Last Story has had a bit of an interesting trip, hasn’t it? It’s one of three games that fan effort Operation: Rainfall tried to bring to North America — ultimately being pretty much shut down by Nintendo. But, I suppose, there’s no reason to really take that seriously anymore, because Xenoblade Chronicles is on the way, and now, The Last Story is, too. (Next, might we get Pandora’s Tower? Who knows.)

XSEED’s localization crew is bringing the action RPG to Wii, and the company retains exclusive publishing rights in North America when the game releases this summer.

“I am very happy to be able to confirm that The Last Story will be released in North America,” stated Hironobu Sakaguchi, CEO of MISTWALKER. “XSEED Games has a reputation for bringing high-quality JRPGs to America, and I’m sure they will do a great job with this release too.”

The Last Story follows Zael and his band of fellow adventurers as they go to Lazulis Island, the only region prospering as the mainland of the Empire slowly rots away, in search of work and a better future. After securing employment with the ruler of the island, Count Arganan, Zael dreams of finally achieving a secure life as a knight and putting his unstable mercenary past behind him, but things don’t exactly go to plan when events during their first mission change his life forever…

Not to sound like a fangirl or anything (which I’m totally about to sound like), but holy wow this was fantastic and it was just the demo! I can’t wait for the actual game! Space! Reapers! The Normandy! SUBMACHINE GUN! Queue hysterical Beatles fans screaming and subsequent passing out.

Now that I got that out of the way, let’s talk about the demo for Mass Effect 3 that BioWare released for fans as possibly the best Valentine’s Day gift I know I’ve ever gotten/will ever get (let’s not go into the implication of that statement here). If ever there was a perfect example of a demo and the purpose of a demo, it would be this one in my opinion. It showed off the goods as far as what the game will look like, how it will run and the new features without giving away everything about the game. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have issues with the gameplay while I was doing my first run through (which I’ll get to later), but as an overall experience this is the only demo that comes to recent memory that made me want to freeze myself a’la Eric Cartman so that I didn’t have to suffer the geek agony that is waiting three weeks for the March 6th release date of the actual game. I’m not exaggerating here. The agony that is waiting.

What I found nice about this demo was that you got three options of how you wanted to get your sneak peek at what to expect from Mass Effect 3: Action, Role Playing and Story. Fairly self explanatory, the Action experience drops you right into the action in as Commander Shepard (female or male) with the dialogue as cutscenes, the Role Playing experience is more like the actual gameplay of Mass Effect with dialogue, cutscenes and action, and the Story experience is basically just experiencing the story without difficult combat. I chose Role Playing my first run through, went with the newly minted default Jane Shepard (Vanguard, Spacer, Sole Survivor – my established Fem!Shep’s records and psychological profile) and off I went. There is a new feature added to the psychological profile that I found very interesting and appropriate for a more “realistic” gaming experience that I’ll leave out for anyone who might consider it a spoiler.

Beyond that, you start the story presumably some time after the events of the Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2. I’m guessing here because it’s suitably vague, which I attribute to the multiple outcomes of the DLC, the fact that not everyone might have played the DLC and that BioWare probably didn’t want to give the whole story away in the demo. There’s a decent-sized chunk of cutscene before you start the action, but it’s not wasted time as it sets up the high emotion of that sequence of events you’re playing nicely (I got a bit verklempt at the end of it). This entire first half is footage and gameplay that I hadn’t seen prior to the demo (trying not to spoil myself before the game too much), so this was all a pleasant surprise for me and I appreciated that despite not using my Shepard and having this half be mostly an in-game tutorial on how to use the controls, I was invested in the story rather quickly and easily. The second half of the demo is the female Krogan rescue that we’ve seen footage of before and is the more combat-heavy, using your team elements of the game.

The second half of the demo is where I had a few issues, and they could be user errors more than game glitches. You don’t have to utilize this feature in order to play the demo (or game from what I understand), but I decided to try out the Kinect element of the game because actually verbally giving Garrus or Liara commands in the midst of a firefight appeals to me very much. Turns out, I may be very enthusiastic about the opportunity to yell out, “Garrus, overload!” when in reality that enthusiasm hinders my ability to do so. In short, it quickly degraded to my yelling, “take f-ing cover, Liara!” followed by Hulk-esque noises as I struggled to figure out what words/phrases the Kinect would recognize (by the way, “take f-ing cover” is not one of them). Towards the end, I had pretty well sussed out what I could say to my teammates and to my Shepard to get them to do things in battle. The satisfaction of being able to rattle off orders in quick succession is well worth the initial frustration of incorporating the Kinect into your gameplay. Just be sure to annunciate your commands like you’re talking to your half-deaf elderly relative and you’ll be commanding your squad like Sherman during his Atlanta campaign in no time.

Now, I’m off for a 3-week deep freeze nap. Wake me when March 6th comes.

2K and Gearbox announced this morning that Borderlands 2, the quite-obvious sequel to Borderlands, will go on sale for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on September 18, 2012 in North America and September 21 internationally.

Fans who pre-order the game will be provided access to the Borderlands 2 Premiere Club, which includes in-game items and bonuses — the Gearbox Gun Pack, a Golden Key (to unlock the Golden Sanctuary Loot Chest) and a Vault Hunter’s Relic (which boosts your luck, basically).

The game will feature both splitscreen co-op as well as drop-in-drop-out online play.

“The addictive gameplay and shooting and looting mayhem of the first Borderlands is back and better than ever inBorderlands 2, taking the franchise to an entirely new level,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “With more guns, more enemies, more missions, an engaging story and all-new characters, Borderlands 2 promises to bring a new era to gaming this fall.”

Here’s a trailer that pretty much exudes kick-ass:

Square Enix announced this past week that there will indeed be a story-based DLC for Final Fantasy XIII-2, which will feature Sazh’s time travels parallel to Serah’s and Snow’s. As a huge Final Fantasy fan, this should excite me, but it most definitely does not. It makes me absolutely heartsick.

Of all franchises, Final Fantasy should be one to never get campaign DLC. The games are monstrous in size, and they’re well known for weaving deep, intricate stories that do not need extra plots–and sidequests do not count. The sad thing is, though, FFXIII-2 has half the story of the first game. I’m currently over 20 hours in the game, I’ve done all the sidequests I’ve been able to unlock at this point, and I’m already at the last episode. At 20 hours in the first game (Final Fantasy XIII), I hadn’t even reached Pulse yet, and when I did, there was at least another 10-15 hours left of STORY gameplay (there was roughly another 40 hours of sidequest gameplay, since sidequests did not open up until you reached Pulse).

So this says to me that Sazh’s story was meant to be in this game. The messages I’ve found from Dajh and Snow hint as much. But, Sazh was removed and then offered up as DLC. It’s only priced at around $5, but this is still ridiculous. I paid $80 for the CE of the game, and countless others paid $60. We should get the complete story. This isn’t about map packs or new character skins. This is about publishers and developers finding new ways to nickel and dime consumers, even those who have bought a new game. Needing an online pass seems ten times more fair than this.

Is this going to be the new norm? One day, we’ll never get full games up front again? All games, no matter the genre, will be cut down to 20-30 hours, cost $60, and then we’ll shell out another $5-15 for the rest of the story. That’s complete and utter crap. I know the writing has been on the wall for awhile, but this is the first time I’ve seen a game be blatantly cut down just for the opportunity of selling DLC. It doesn’t chap my hide half as much with shooters and action games, as those games are traditionally short at 15-20 hours in the first place. But it is wrong for a 40-60 hour game–not counting sidequests–to be reduced to the same level as a typical action game just so there will be DLC to sell. At the very least, make a DLC that doesn’t coincide with the main story, such as the Gears of War 3: Shadow of RAAM DLC, which was a prequel to the original Gears of War game, and inFamous 2‘s Festival of Blood, which is a completely standalone game.

Know what makes me even more sick? The fact that I will feed into the problem and buy this DLC. I will be encouraging this practice for future games, possibly future Final Fantasy games. Just call me a sheep. Baaaaaaa.

History is about to get grander. Build an empire with new civilizations, technologies and units.

2K Games announced an expansion pack to Civilization V. Gods and Kings, the new expansion pack is focused on providing a more complete experience and new ways to take over the world.

“The Gods & Kings expansion is the quintessential Civilization V addition, making Civilization more addictive than ever before,” said Sarah Anderson, senior vice president of marketing for 2K.

The expansion pack is adding nine new civilizations and world wonders, 27 technologies and 13 buildings. Also Firaxis and 2K Games is adding three new scenarios that allow the player to experience well known time periods in history—the fall of Rome, the medieval period, and a modified science fiction Victorian period.

A great addition to the game is a foreign embassy. It allows you to control a network of spies that can steal technology and create a coup.

“Our team has a strong vision for bringing religion and espionage to Civilization V and the incomparable Civ community has expressed their enthusiasm for these features as well,” said Sid Meier, director of creative development for Firaxis Games. “We’re excited to deliver this robust expansion pack that will give players countless hours of new gameplay experiences and more reasons to take just one more turn.”

The AI has been reworked to allow for better surprise attacks, and army composition. Also two new city-states have been added, mercantile and religious.

Civilization V: Gods and Kings seem to enhance a lot of features, allowing for a great experience. The expansion pack will be available late this spring.

It’s not that often that we get to see a teaser trailer for something that’s technically already out, but when it’s a teaser for The Witcher 2‘s Xbox 360 Enhanced Edition…well, I suppose we can make a pass.

This trailer takes a look at both melee combat and the sweeping vistas of the game.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition launches April 17 on Xbox 360 and PC (again). It includes an additional three hours of content.

Funcom announced today that their highly-anticipated (especially among some members of the GA staff) MMORPG, The Secret World, will launch on June 19, 2012. This is a bit later than the April launch that was originally intended, but hey — you have a date now.

“Allowing for even more time to polish the game really shows just how much faith Funcom as a company has in ‘The Secret World’ and how committed we are to making it the best it can be,” says Creative Director and Senior Producer Ragnar Tørnquist. “The additional time will also allow us to carry out even more quality beta testing, and soon we will also be announcing several public beta events where hundreds of thousands of gamers will get to test the game prior to launch.”

More information about the game is sure to come, what with over three-quarters of a million people signed up as beta testers. Funcom has also allowed select members of the press to go ahead and get hands-on with the title.

Ah Internet. Sometimes you seem to only be filled with idiots. After reading Destructoid’s article on a BioWare writer being attacked on the internet, I can only feel disgust.

BioWare, is an amazing company. They have an amazing track record and are filled with amazing talent. A couple of weekends ago we gave away keys to unlock the Mass Effect demo early. It was our most visited post all month. Gamers were begging offering bribes. It’s astonishing to think that only a week later there would be a group of gamers also attacking that same company.

Everyone knows that fighting on the internet is a losing battle. Both sides look bad, no one wins and it’s just a bundle of negativity. This is the only fault I can see in BioWare’s GM Aaryn Flynn and Jennifer Hepler. It’s awesome to see Flynn come to her defense, but at the same time you just can’t win when being attacked on the Internet. In fact the talk right now isn’t even about the original topic and has moved on to attacking BioWare.

Gamers involved in the attack should be ashamed of yourselves. This is why gamers are perceived badly and anything aimed at gamers has the humor a moron would enjoy. Shame on you for attacking this BioWare employee first for being a woman and second for having an opinion. That’s all it is folks….a fricken opinion. From what I understand it was a suggestion in an interview from months ago that Hepler did with her husband. Maybe you don’t agree with her idea. Maybe you don’t like her writing. But disagree with that. The fact that she’s a female has nothing to do with the matter. The only thing it proves is that Gamers on the Internet still are not accepting of women working at games companies. It shows that women are still second class citizens in their own fandoms and it’s ridiculous. Shame on you.

Secondly, behave like adults. I’m extremely surprised (although maybe I shouldn’t be) that the people disagreeing with Hepler, have said very little about the thing they disagree with. Even fewer offer any points of discussion as to why her opinion won’t work. Instead they choose to attack her personally.  She’s a writer for some pretty big games in recent years, but lets not forget that it doesn’t just take one person to put a game together.  It takes an entire team of people to put these games together and release them.  Teams of people that are gender and racially diverse.  Her opinions about the way she might like to see games played (or not) has nothing to do with the writing she’s done on previous games, her gender, or her looks.

But, what has happened, not only in the comments of the Destructoid post, but all over is that Helper has been harassed repeatedly for her opinion.  Her last post on Twitter is asking @support if there’s a way to delete her account.  People have called her all sorts of names under the sun, a good deal of them misogynistic nonsense that has nothing to do with her opinions on game play, and everything to do with the type of person she is.  People have called her house to harass her, and followed her, and it should be mentioned – those people supporting her- all over Twitter and Tumblr to continue to the harassment.

What we need is to show BioWare, all women in games and Jennifer support.  Maybe we don’t agree with her.  That’s cool, totally your prerogative.  Not everyone is going to agree with every game developer, writer, designer, artist, ect.  Ever.  We’d be out of jobs if they did, because we’d love every game that graced the shelves.  We don’t.

But the harassment has to stop.  Disagree with her opinion all you like, but let’s not forget that we’re all people on the other sides of these keyboards.  And, no one deserves to be treated this way.

True Romance in Telara: Chrish and Princessblue @ Wolfsbane via beminetelara.tumblr.com

Love was definitely in the air in Trion Worlds’ Rift last week as the game added in-game wedding ceremonies. In fact, so many people “got married” that the game officially set a Guinness World Record for most in-game marriages in a 24-hour period.

21,879 marriages took place, if I’m reading things correctly, and the folks over at Guinness will log the marriages and the record may be included in the 2013 Gamer’s Edition of the record book. If you took part, you get the special title “The Avowed.”

“Establishing this record was a monumental achievement for our development team and community of passionate players, and I couldn’t be more proud,” said Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer on Rift and Trion’s CCO. “Ascended Weddings were a great way to lift the veil on Rift’s new ‘Gatherings’ feature, social experiences that bring players together in new and interesting ways.  We look forward to expanding this great new gameplay element in the always-evolving world of Telara.”

To see some photos of the festivities, take a peek at the Tumblr and Facebook pages set up for the event.

The latest trailer for Nintendo’s Kid Icarus: Uprising is a bit of a throwback to the original — he’s looking for three sacred treasures to help the humans.

What do these help him do? Defeat Medusa, of course. She is a bit of a tricksy one, what with the snakes on her head and the turning to stone and all that.

Kid Icarus: Uprising is in stores March 23.