In the two previous adventures for Commander Shepard we discovered the reaper threat, warned everyone about it and got ignored, well of course we were right and the third adventure opens with the reaper invasion of earth and Shepard hops back on board the Normandy and sets out to unite the universe to save all sentient life.

The law of diminishing returns, continues on from Mass Effect 2 so everything in this game is even more streamlined, up to an unnecessary degree. In an attempt to get the widest audience the game can now be customised for the user into a straightforward shooter for the more action oriented, this removes all dialogue choices and plays the game out on rails. Which is stupid considering this is a series of intense choice based RPGs, the choices have always been the selling point, everything you do influences the universe you’re in, you could destroy an entire species if you fancy the whole genocide thing.

About the ending, without spoilers. For a series that has always been about choices that change things around you there should’ve been significantly more outcomes than the limited options you are presented with. I don’t think the endings themselves were particularly terrible, just short and far too encompassing. Also it could be reasonable to suggest that a lot of the sadness and anger about the endings could be coming from the fact that it’s really over now.

I will also say that the inevitable final mission felt uncomfortably empty, the fights were a grueling punishment and there was a haunting lack of sound cues to accompany it. It’s a fitting representation of the scenario, and an extreme representation of the missions in game which at times are incredibly linear. Given the enormous scope of it’s predecessor this game feels surprisingly brief, I put my effort into doing every side quest and still found myself on the final mission in no time.

A refreshing addition is the multiplayer, which pits four players against an onslaught of Cerberus soldiers, and as it’s what I like to called ‘forced co-operation’ it was extremely fun. Despite me getting kicked a bunch before I’d even played my first game, because I hadn’t played my first game. That only player jerk nonsense for you.

Overall this game is great, but it’s not better than the previous game in the series and it’s a shame the games real flaws were at the end where we’ll remember them most.

The Voice has a contestant singing to four judges who are facing away to judge ‘purely on the voice’ and if they like what they hear the spin around on Bond villain style swivel chairs. If more than one judge turns then the power is shifted back to the contestant who gets to choose who to side with, simple. The most interesting development beyond this pretty solid concept is that the contestants have already been deemed talented singers before auditioning therefore we don’t get any of the exploitative nonsense we’ve come to expect other shows.

The judges are ‘four of the most influential people music’; Jessie J, Will I Am, that guy from The Script, and Tom Jones. Let’s be honest, Tom Jones is carrying most of that responsibility, but to put who they are aside for a second and judge them as whole, their tactical play, bickering and over the top hesitation is already far too uncomfortable after just one episode.

Looking at what’s next, ‘the voice’ part of the competition only last for so long before judges have collect their teams and proceed to put them into ‘battles’ (this is if our version is anything like the original US version, which I checked out as research, to do this properly) where the judges pair up their contestants and force them to duel to the death, I mean just sing together trying to prove which one is the best voice, I didn’t really get how it was being judged but its seemed to work.

Yet I do see this as a flaw in the concept of the voice as by this point everyone, judges included sees what’s going on and all the sob story stuff has happened just in time for the inevitable phone vote. This does not affect me though as I’m an unfeeling robot.

Another problem I had with the show is how much awkwardness there is, the judges the drawn out hesitations and the excruciating name dropping contests (mostly between Tom Jones and Will I Am) all get awkward and cringe worthy. I felt the same out the judges collective opening number ‘I gotta feeling’ (I had to look that up, does that mean it hasn’t dated very well, because its not like I haven’t heard it a million times.)

Overall, it’s good stuff. In perspective this is a three while it’s contemporaries are around a one, ass this is purely about singing talent not that and exploiting those without it. But honestly I won’t be watching again, the judges and the hour and a half runtime saw to that.

However Luxury Comedy doesn’t seem to have the same attitude it laying on the surreal incredibly thick which very little else to balance it out, there is the occasional exception such as a sketch in which a character gets arrested. Yet it does have a comfortable narrative structure, it’s a sketch show with sketches happening between a home base sort of location. The premise of which is Noel living in a psychedelic tree house with a slightly robotic Andy Warhol as his cleaner and Smooth his (wolf?) butler and a woman called Dolly, as you can tell I still haven’t fully pinned down what exactly is going on here.

Mostly the sketches here, as I’ve said, go to far with the surrealism to an unnecessary degree and this means some just fall flat as not funny, but the show soon points out (in a laboured way) that it’s not a joke it’s a concept so perhaps the sketches that are not funny aren’t supposed to be. Yet there have been a few that were decent, the claymation stories about Joey Ramone which have fully embraced the style of old school claymation cartoons are good, as well as an episode long joke about how TV works, and how the writing can make whatever happen, they are both amusing but then nothing particularly original. As well as a sketch in which Noel paints a painting, simply that but as I’ve always liked the artistic style of the Boosh so seeing one made was nice. Plus some guest appearances have been good, Richard Ayoade has been a pleasant surprise.

Another element that works is music which is provided by Serge from Kasabian, while the song does seem to have the most amazing of lyrics the still sound fantastic, this represents the whole show really, while some of the material may not be great it’s well made, like the characters while we may not see that much of them they’ll all been given names and back stories like Fantasy Man or the record producing ray that lives under the the house, Tony Reason.

Overall, not exactly luxury but there are the odd moments that can be enjoyed, what if the concept is that Noel trying to get out all the sub-par ideas before this rumour Mighty Boosh movie?

While it is free to play it will consistantly try to convince you to purchase the game for it’s monthly fee, which I can confirm now is not fully worth it. This coming from someone who spend a bundle of MMOs back when I was at school, in hindsight none of them are particularly worth the fees despite the numbers of customers they bring in. The regular little reminders of the priced options available which can be ignored with a little bit of willpower, but then it begins to play dirty; capping everything most annoyingly in game money which really hinders the freedom of play.

Being that this in an MMORPG it features several of the expected conventions; two factions for a contrived player versus player element, the heroes and villains. It also includes main of the obvious game mechanics; fetch quests and the classic kill X of Y, bosses, raids and all the other usual suspects and after a while it all feels repetitive.

Another of this games major faults is how utterly simplistic it is, there are only two locations Gotham City and Metropolis (DLC provided more so there is growing potential) and they could be seen as the same thing with the difference of day and night, and the story essentially becomes the same once you pass the opening section but it could be fortunate that this nonsense doesn’t last too long with the level cap in place at a mere 30, making it a surprisingly shorter time suck than you would think an MMO, which can steal years from you, to be.

Additionally one thing that never quite gelled for me was the community aspect, there didn’t feel like much of one of course there are guilds/leagues/whatever they’re called, yet mostly the messages you’ll expect to find are along the lines of ‘looking for group for [blank]‘

However there is quite a bit of comfort to be had in the novelty of this being set in the DC universe, seeing and interacting with characters you recognise from the comic books provide a little amusement as long as you’re fan of DC in the first place.

Overall, not a fantastic experience, it’s generic and repetitive yet can give you something to do on a long boring weekend [edit: while waiting for Guild Wars 2], with many bonus points for being free, also if MMOs aren’t your thing classic FPS masterpiece Team Fortress 2 is also free these days.

On the subject of valentines who else to look to but one of gaming’s oldest couples; Mario and Princess Peach. I say oldest as opposed to anything positive because how good can their relationship really be when he’s never around to stop these kidnappings and she so disenfranchised that she can’t be bothered to take a self defence class. Tenuous relevance established, lets get on with this.

Mario’s most recent return came in the for of a new hand-held release on the Nintendo 3DS, so you can already tell what the games main gimmick is. It’s also hammered home by the spectacularly awkard title of Super Mario 3D Land. Why they didn’t put the ’3D’ part at the beginning or end of the title, as if to make sense, I’ll never know or particularly care.

So this game has taken things mostly back to basics, warp pipes and world maps each with 5 levels including a boss one, most of which are on airships. Yet unfortunately they soon begin to repeat themselves and even worse once you complete the game you get to do the majority of them again but with less time limit. The game also revives the Tanuki suit; the one that has a racoon tail and flies, and is based on some weird dog/racoon hybrid found in Japan. Also later on it lets you turn into a statue which in all honestly doesn’t exactly top the being able to throw fire power.

As can be expected there very little in the way of a difficultly curve, just individual moments of pure infuriation. Which the game compensates for by providing the player with an upgraded version of the Tanuki suit to make them practically invincible. If you think about that’s the game getting bored with your failings and giving you pity and a way to skip the level, I understand the game is for kids but is the ‘fail enough and people will give you things’ message really the best idea.

The 3D is pretty under utilised, a few brief moments ‘need’ it while the rest of the game can be played in 2D, however I will admit that some sequence do look quite attractive if you play with 3D on. In fact most of the game looks pleasing especially in what little variety there is to be had.

Overall, it’s not quite up to scratch with previous Mario titles such as 64 or Galaxy but does give a few moments of joy and could satisfy until the Luigi’s Mansion sequel later this year.