You honestly expect me to believe that seven completely different individuals gave Mass Effect 3 generally positive to excellent review scores simply because it's a good game?

I suppose that's reasonable.

Here at Kotaku Frankenreview Central (the desk in my den) we've yet to play Mass Effect 3, so I have no first-hand knowledge of the quality of Commander Shepard's third adventure. I hear there are some nasty aliens descending upon the Earth, and it's up to Shepard, her ship, and her crew to help turn the tide and save humanity from utter extinction. Does one review call it out for being the world's most elaborate Space Invaders clone? No. Not a one.

Someone has obviously been paid. Paid to play Mass Effect 3 and offer their objective opinions without being swayed by a raving Frankenreview writer's outrageous and uniformed logical leaps. Well... good job.

Giant Bomb
Mass Effect 3 faces expectations that are almost impossibly high, partially due to the high quality of its predecessors and the richness of its fiction. BioWare managed to create a sci-fi world worth obsessing over. Expectations are also off-the-charts because of the nature of Mass Effect's story. By adjusting itself to the choices you've made across the previous games, players have become attached to their version of the story, to their Commander Shepard. It's unreasonable to expect it to exceed every possible aspect of its predecessors, and I've tried to keep my own personal expectations in check. Mass Effect 3 certainly isn't a bad game, and ultimately I'd recommend that anyone with an importable Shepard from Mass Effect 2 should check it out. But even after making a real attempt to be pragmatic about Mass Effect 3, I've come away from it feeling a little disappointed about the way this trilogy closes out.

IncGamers
In comparison to what has come before, the world and atmosphere of Mass Effect 3 is bleak, gloomy and uncompromising - the kind of place in which good is never wholly good and bad is never wholly bad. There are no right and wrong answers to the universe's problem; no matter what you do and how you act in keys moments, there will be winners and losers. Whether through force or by choice, there will be sacrifices for the eventual good of the survivors.

This being the final curtain of Shepard's story and all, I don't want to spoil anything for you so I'll stay well away from even hinting at the choices you'll need to make. Other than to say it falls on your shoulders to decide the likely future of each of the universe's respective species and that some of those decisions are tough. More than once I had to pause the game and think things over for a few minutes before coming to a conclusion, and even then the choice came with consequences that didn't sit well with me.

The Escapist
Mass Effect 3's combat kicks things up a notch or twelve, as well, a change that's not always entirely welcome. The new enemies are daunting (and at times terrifying), but while you could get through Mass Effect 2 with minimal attention to cross-disciplinary styles, Mass Effect 3 seems to really, really want you to coordinate your attacks with your squadmates. Perhaps that's because it's easier to do so now that you can use voice commands to control your team (assuming you have a Kinect), but the combat can be frustratingly difficult at times. Your squadmates can be shockingly stupid sometimes, apparently forgetting that they're supposed to be backing you up in a fight. During one particularly brutal encounter, I discovered that my two companions had never followed me into the room and instead were crouching behind some furniture in the hallway. The game's cover mechanic is equally hit and miss, at times letting you roll from point to point with split-second accuracy, and at other times leaving you wide open to assault as you try in vain to take cover behind a wall.

The voice controls work fairly well - though there were times that the Kinect seemed to misunderstand me - but it felt odd to be barking orders at my companions one minute, then listening to Jennifer Hale chat them up back on the Normandy. Using the Kinect is fun from a gameplay perspective, but it doesn't mesh well with the story elements.

IGN
But some changes aren't as positive. Mass Effect 3 totes a far looser side quest system that's less compelling and interesting than its predecessors'. It's easy to earn a bunch of side quests only by overhearing conversations in certain locations, with no real context as to what you're supposed to do. While the main quest is heavy on story and action and certainly fulfills in its own right, Mass Effect 3's slant on side quests feels wanting, making the 30 to 40 hours it takes to complete everything in the game just a little more arduous.

BioWare has somewhat down-scaling the RPG-centric nature of the series, but thankfully this dumbing-down is totally optional. Mass Effect 3 still very much acts the part of action-RPG, but players will be given options to lessen the role-playing if you want to jump only into the action or story. Then again, BioWare has made Mass Effect 3 deeper in some ways, too, with features like enhanced weapon customization. So not all is lost.

G4TV
Not content to refine its single player, Mass Effect 3 also offers online co-op gameplay in "Galaxy at War". This horde-style survival mode is woven into the larger fiction with you taking on the role of combatant in the war that makes the backdrop for the single player game. What's more thoughtful though is that your success in co-op has an effect on the single player campaign, as your efforts contribute to the preparation of the forces of good in their fight against the Reapers. This is an alternative to doing all the single player activities and focusing on the main quests, supplementing your "galactic readiness" with co-op.

It's a solid, stable, if slight, take on the newest multiplayer mode du jour with all the requisite leveling and upgrading to keep the devoted engaged, but it lacks of the single player game's complexity in combat and, more importantly, its excitement because it is quite disconnected from the Shepard saga. Nonetheless, it is a nice diversion and should find an audience with those who have been requesting some online component to the franchise.

PlayStation LifeStyle
If you're worried that loose ends will be left hanging, don't be – I assure you that Mass Effect 3 delivers the finality that you've been dying for. From the mysteries behind Cerberus and the Illusive Man to the Krogan's situation with the Genophage, everything is laid out on the table and resolved. Bearing that in mind, naturally you will be forced to make conclusive choices that – for better or worse – dictate the outcome of the entire galaxy. I have never had such a difficult time deciding what to do in a video game before. There is a weight to your decisions that dwarfs the choices and consequences seen in the first two games. There are a number of twists and turns along the way, so don't expect a straight forward conclusion. The guys over at BioWare are master storytellers and Mass Effect 3 is their crowning achievement.

Kotaku
Shepard's story - the story of this one leader, the reapers, and the galaxy-that-is - had to come to an end somehow, at some time. Mass Effect 3 is definitively the conclusion of that story, and with every moment I laughed aloud, with every moment I sobbed, and with every moment I shouted extremely unprintable words I knew that it was worth the wait.

Some people might try to convince you that video games are a waste of time. Here's the perfect retort.

Researchers at Simon Frasier University have concluded that games like StarCraft II improve players' multi-tasking and cognitive skills, the Wall Street Journal reports. The researchers studied the behavior of 150,000 people who played Blizzard's popular real-time strategy game and found that they're not losing their minds after all.

"People who play action video games seem to make decisions faster than others without sacrificing accuracy," the Wall Street Journal's Robert Lee Hotz notes, "and practiced gamers are able to pay attention to more things at once without getting confused."

Check out the WSJ's video, which is a refreshingly positive look at the industry we all love. Try to ignore the unavoidable admonition about violent video games toward the end. We're trying to stay positive here.

Why Videogames May Be Good for You [Wall Street Journal]

Back in 2011, innovative platformer Shadow Physics seemed poised to reap loads of love from the video game cognoscenti. The ambitious shadow adventure showcased impressive tech and was part of the freshman class of games getting money from Indie Fund. It looked like their path to success was set.

So why did the game get canceled?

A talk at this year's GDC explained some of that. Scott Anderson from the Enemy Airship dev studio gave a presentation on a panel devoted to failure that detailed the many stumbles that led to Shadow Physics getting funding cut and eventual cancellation.

Looking back at the game, Anderson admitted that Shadow Physics was a great concept that wound up being not that much fun to actually play. The goals that he and studio co-founder Steve Swink were chasing—fame, fortune, notoriety—were all external rewards, as opposed to the satisfaction of getting the game nailed down.

Anderson also talked about how he and the Enemy Airship team should've used the Unity development engine instead of their own home-brewed tech. That tech led to problems with the physics engine and an overall feeling that the game wasn't tight. Certain levels had moving light sources which would shift the terrain where your shadow character could move. But, issues with collision plagued these levels. And, despite having a few interesting puzzle levels, Anderson said that the systems in the game felt unpredictable.

Lots of tension came from hiring the wrong people, a lack of communication and follow-through. Moreover, design didn't break through early prototype stage and there was pressure to move into production.

And, other considerations soured the game's development for a game, too. There was a case of "Braid envy," Anderson said, where Enemy Airship both wanted to follow in the footsteps of Jonathan Blow's game and found themselves anointed as the next indie success. Yet, Anderson said that being an Indie Fund game bound for an Xbox Live Arcade release felt like a fatal combination, because they didn't have enough manpower or resources to put out a sharply polished title.

All too often we're hearing about how making games on your own is a big happy lovefest. While Shadow Physics' failure sounds like an indie dev nightmare, the story of the disintegration made for great peek behind the less shiny side of this scene. Anderson indicated that he'd be talking more about the non-release of Shadow Physics at his Impossible Land blog.

Fez is coming. It's coming soon, believe it or not. Here's a new trailer. Just to make the wait that little bit more unbearable.

When Firaxis announced its new XCOM strategy game, Enemy Unknown, most fans went through the following two stages:

1. "Holy shit!"

2. "I hope this feels like XCOM."

Don't stress too much. According to project lead Jake Solomon, you'll get that old-school strategy feeling from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which will be out this year for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. In many ways, it looks just like its 1994 predecessor.

"I do think that like if you look at screenshots—320x240 screenshots—of the original X-COM, next to ours, you would see that sort of lineage there," Solomon told me during an interview in New York City last week. "You'd see the sort of DNA, because we've still got the top-down view of the soldiers, and a lot of the fact that it's turn-based... certainly there are changes and this is kind of our own game, but definitely if you look at the two side by side, a fan of the original could play our game because we are fans of the original."

Solomon is certainly a rabid fan of the first game. He spent a decade begging Firaxis to let him revisit the franchise before development on Enemy Unknown was finally started four years ago. And he says he wants to make it feel as close as possible to the game he loves.

"If you play the game—it's definitely XCOM," he said. "It's just a new XCOM."

When Firaxis announced its new XCOM strategy game, Enemy Unknown, most fans went through the following two stages:

1. "Holy shit!"

2. "I hope this feels like XCOM."

Don't stress too much. According to project lead Jake Solomon, you'll get that old-school strategy feeling from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which will be out this year for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. In many ways, it looks just like its 1994 predecessor.

"I do think that like if you look at screenshots—320x240 screenshots—of the original X-COM, next to ours, you would see that sort of lineage there," Solomon told me during an interview in New York City last week. "You'd see the sort of DNA, because we've still got the top-down view of the soldiers, and a lot of the fact that it's turn-based... certainly there are changes and this is kind of our own game, but definitely if you look at the two side by side, a fan of the original could play our game because we are fans of the original."

Solomon is certainly a rabid fan of the first game. He spent a decade begging Firaxis to let him revisit the franchise before development on Enemy Unknown was finally started four years ago. And he says he wants to make it feel as close as possible to the game he loves.

"If you play the game—it's definitely XCOM," he said. "It's just a new XCOM."

In a sense, Bastion was a game about growth—over the course of the game, The Kid would bring back items and characters to the Bastion, which allowed it to grow and flourish. In a metaphorical sense, the Bastion was a sort of garden, growing over time.

As it turns out, the game's planting parallels were originally much more explicit. Talking at the Game Developers Conference, Supergiant Games designer Amir Rao talked about the original plan to make the game revolve around gardening—players would plant seeds to grow everything from weapon power-ups to character upgrades to new areas to explore.

As Rao described it, players would gather seeds in the real world and plant them in the bastion, which would cause plants to grow and give them power-ups.

Rao was talking at the "failure workshop" during the indie-centric part of the conference; several designers gave short talks about various failures they've had while working on games. And true to the spirit of the talk, the plants idea was a failure.

The plants didn't clearly communicate progress to the player. Rao offered the example of a "hammer tree" that grew new, better hammers—but what does that look like? How do you make it clear that this tree grows hammers? As cool as the idea was, Supergiant realized that it wasn't working, and flipped it back to the conventional approach—they used graphical menus. As he put it, the key with experimenting systems like that is knowing that if it's not working, you can always return to convention.

In a humorous touch, Rao shared a recording of Bastion's now-famous narrator Logan Cunningham improvising some dialogue about planting things. It seems like a bit that started out earnestly, conveying the focus on planting that Supergiant was going with… but it goes off the rails into improv-ville pretty quickly.

Find a pair of socks? Plant it.
Find a Milli Vanilli casette tape? Plant it.

Heh. I dunno, I would have enjoyed collecting and planting Terminator 2 laserdiscs. Maybe in Supergiant's next game...

Aggregating website Metacritic says it has deleted some Mass Effect 3 user reviews and will "continue to monitor" what seems to be a unified effort to spam pages for BioWare's action roleplaying game, which hit stores today.

This morning, a large number of Metacritic users gave negative reviews to the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC listings for Mass Effect 3. Many of the users appear to have reviewed no other games, apparently creating accounts specifically to give poor marks to the latest Mass Effect.

As of this writing, the user score for each version of Mass Effect 3 is "generally unfavorable" and significantly lower than the critical reception. Kotaku also had some very positive things to say about the game.

In a statement to Kotaku, Metacritic editor-in-chief Marc Doyle said:

We have already removed user reviews which have broken our terms of use. We will continue to monitor user reviews and take the steps needed to ensure our users both comply with those terms and do not have to read other reviews which break them.

We encourage all users to familiarize themselves with these terms and report any abuse they find. Those terms can be found here.

If you spot something which you think is an abuse of those terms while logged into the site, please report it using the 'Report Abuse' link next to each User Review.

Ready to rage? Kotaku reader and Best Week Ever writer Dan Hopper sent over a link to this commercial, created by an organization called the Energy Alliance of Greater Pittsburgh. It will make you angry.

Just listen to the way the disembodied announcer talks down to gamers, telling them they'd better do something useful with their lives, like get a job at the Energy Alliance of Greater Pittsburgh. My advice would be to instead work for an organization that respects your hobbies.

I reached out to the Energy Alliance of Greater Pittsburgh for comment, but they've not yet responded. I'll update if I hear from them.

Update: A representative from the Energy Alliance of Greater Pittsburgh gave me a call this afternoon. He said he doesn't think the ad is patronizing or offensive toward gamers, telling me the goal was to get "young people" interested in the careers the organization has open.

"I don't think we're talking down to [gamers]," he said. "We're trying to get their attention."

Watch This Local Commercial Completely Sh*t On Video Games [BestWeekEver.TV]

Street Fighter. Tekken. Game titles followed by periods. These are the sort of weighty things on the minds of video game critics as they explore the fighting genre's latest epic crossover. Epic. Crossover.

Street Fighter X Tekken combines the great taste of Street Fighter with a creamy Tekken-flavored filling. It's the first part of a two-part crossover epic, this title focusing on Capcom's 2D fighting prowess, with Tekken X Street Fighter from Namco Bandai putting the 3D moves on the World Warriors. To apply the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup analogy, this game is peanut butter filled goodness, while the second will be peanut butter filled chocolate, only hopefully less disgusting than the inside-out Reese's Hershey tried to foist on us a few years back.

Let's see what happens when game critics took a bite out of this York Peppermint Patty of a game. Is anyone else hungry?

Games Radar
Street Fighter X Tekken is the latest game in Capcom's 21st-century fighter renaissance, and it looks set to continue the winning streak started by Street Fighter IV. Ever since SFxT's first announcement we've had one burning question: How can Capcom integrate Tekken's cast of 3D brawlers into the gameplay mechanics of a 2D fighting game? Jamming Tekken's alien 3D concepts into a 2D Street Fighter game seemed akin to sanding off the corners of a square peg for a round hole.

So, how did Capcom fare? Reasonably well. There's a definite gameplay divide between the two companies' characters, but that's not really a bad thing. The Street Fighter characters play similarly to their SF4 counterparts - no surprise there. But in addition to their relative lack of projectiles, the Tekken fighters tend to feature a surplus of short canned attack strings, often a dozen or more. (Those goofy 10-hit strings didn't make the cut, thankfully.) Oftentimes these strings translate Tekken's left/right punch/kick inputs directly into Street Fighter's physically analogous weak and medium punch/kick buttons, but the commands frequently vary from their Tekken originals, so even Tekken pros will have to relearn the ropes, somewhat.

Gamespot
The game includes many of the fighting mechanics seen in Super Street Fighter IV, with several new additions. It has a six-button layout, with three punches and three kicks, and a three-section energy meter with numerous functions. This meter is earned quickly and spent quickly on devastating super arts, EX special moves, and more. But one of its most important functions is cross-canceling. For one block of meter you can tag in your partner mid-combo to continue the assault. At first this "two-as-one" style can be difficult to put into practice. It's much easier to fight with one character until his or her health gets low, switch characters, and repeat. However, in doing so, you lose a lot of what makes this game unique, as well as sacrifice an edge in combat.

Early on you play the system, rather than the characters. This is because several types of moves are performed the same way no matter whom you're controlling. Every character can perform a simple combo of light-medium-heavy-heavy, and execute the two-in-one cross-arts attack the same way. This standardization across the cast lowers the initial barrier to entry by providing a simple, effective foundation, no matter which character you choose. There is still plenty of individual character complexity, but you don't need to know it all to feel competent. By leaning on the fundamentals, you are free to discover character-specific techniques at your own pace.

Game informer
Two new systems in particular are bound to soak up a lot of playtime. The Gem System lets players modify their characters by equipping up to three optional items. These can slightly increase your character's on-the-ground movement or the speed with which he builds up his Cross Gauge, for instance. New players will appreciate scrub-friendly gems that automatically block attacks or prevent opponents from performing throws. Gems require specific amounts of Cross Gauge energy, and you're out of luck when it's depleted. The system is poorly documented, which actually could work in its favor. I expect that players will be tinkering with gems for the foreseeable future, trying to optimize loadouts for their specific styles of play.

Characters can also enter a Pandora mode when their health is reduced to 25 percent. After turning into a bizarre dark version of themselves, characters are rewarded with a nearly limitless Cross Gauge. It's not an "I win" button though, considering that characters have less than 10 seconds to finish off their opponent or the match is lost. I didn't have much success using Pandora. When things had gone that sour for me in a match, adding a countdown clock didn't make my life any easier-even with Cross Gauge to spare.

Eurogamer
Beyond the minutiae of mechanics, Capcom has introduced a number of multiplayer innovations that make Street Fighter x Tekken the most exciting co-operative fighting game yet made. Online, you may now pair up with another fighter to take on other two-man teams, each player controlling one character in a normal tag match. An online Briefing Room allows players to train together remotely and it's exciting to see how two-vs.-two matches will be incorporated into the tournament scene.

Scramble mode sees Capcom letting its hair down with a party mode that has four players all fighting on screen at once, either online or off. It's riotous fun. Meanwhile, the usual array of SF4: Arcade Edition lobbies and match videos make an appearance, providing the game with a framework for community-building from day one.

IGN
Online, the game handles itself pretty well. Slowdown wasn't a huge factor in online matches aside from some performance hiccups here and there, and while the mode offerings lack the overall depth of something like Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3's Heroes and Heralds mode, it's still a pretty solid mix of online features. Street Fighter IV's Fight Request option returns, letting other players challenge in the middle of the game's single-player Arcade mode, aping the feel of someone walking up you in the arcades and dropping down some quarters. The modes also include a Scramble Mode (where all four fighters are active at once) and Endless Battle mode, where you fight in a non-stop series of unranked matches.

Machinima
I'm very excited to see what else Capcom has in store for this game. With so many characters still missing from the roster on both the Street Fighter and Tekken cast like Blanka, E. Honda, Miguel, and Devil Jin, there's no telling what kind of DLC we have to look forward to. The possibility of having Law and Fei Long as a team can be right around the corner. And that's one of the key points of Street Fighter X Tekken. The combinations of different teams are vast. This also shows that Street Fighter X Tekken will be around for a long time. If you are a Street Fighter fan or a Tekken fan, you will definitely not be disappointed in this purchase.

Kotaku
Despite my many failures, Street Fighter X Tekken keeps me coming back for more. It's not the odd coupling of characters from clashing franchise, though I admit the allure of Poison beating a bear into submission has its appeal. No, it's the combination of plentiful single-player challenges to overcome and the promise that one day, one faithful day, I will stumble upon the correct combination of skill and enhancements that will grant me that single, solitary moment of victory I so crave.