effect

No spoilers here, folks. You'll have to look elsewhere for those, but it's no secret that the gaming ranks are getting all hot and bothered by the controversial ending to BioWare's Mass Effect 3.

The ire over the space-bound role-playing game has raised the fan discussion to levels previously reserved for television shows like "Lost" and "The Sopranos." It's left many gamers asking if the conclusion lived up to the prerelease promises.

There are even reports that one disappointed gamer felt so let down that he lodged a false advertising complaint with the FTC.… Read more

Sometimes, it pays to protest.

In the aftermath of fans of the BioWare game Mass Effect 3 nearly rioting over their displeasure about the game's conclusion, the publisher appears to be willing to consider new endings.

According to CNET sister site GameSpot, fans were unhappy with the game's ending, and its initial downloadable content, known as From Ashes.

"Members of the Mass Effect community even formed a charity petition called the Retake Mass Effect Chipin fund, collecting PayPal donations for the Child's Play charity as a way of encouraging BioWare to make alternate Mass Effect 3 endings," GameSpot wrote. "The fund has [now] amassed over $75,000." … Read more

Can't get enough Mass Effect? That's understandable--the newly released Mass Effect 3 for PCs and consoles is drawing rave reviews (though not everyone is wild about the ending).

If you own an iOS device, most notably a new iPad, here's good news: Mass Effect: Infiltrator ($6.99) delivers a new chapter in the saga, giving you the chance to fight as a new agent on a new world.

In other words, it's not just a rehash or port of one of the original Mass Effect games; it's an original chapter in the story, one that … Read more

Back on Episode 3, Emily was on vacation, and put all her faith and trust in Sharon Vaknin. We took a vote on whether Microsoft would reveal the next-generation Xbox at E3 2012 (Sharon said yes, I said no). Well this week, Microsoft told everyone not to expect a new Xbox anytime soon, which means I won a point! It also means that Sharon and Emily are in a fight.

Today's show gets wild and crazy with two Windows 8 rumors, but no iPad rumors. Imagine that. Will Lenovo be the first to launch a Windows 8 tablet? Rumors … Read more

Bridget Carey makes a full recovery from her trip to Austin, Texas, for SXSW 2012 and joins us on today's show to recap her first experience.

We'll also dive further into Michael Bay's plans for the next live-action reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and investigate the growing trend of companies asking potential employees for their Facebook usernames and passwords.… Read more

Will gamers get a new Mass Effect 3 ending? BioWare hasn't ruled it out. Writing on the official Mass Effect 3 Facebook page last night, the company said it has not yet decided whether it will offer fans a new ending to the space-faring role-playing game.

"We would like to clarify that we are actively and seriously taking all player feedback into consideration and have ruled nothing out," the statement reads. "At this time we are still collecting and considering your feedback and have not made a decision regarding requests to change the ending."

Read more of "BioWare considering changing Mass Effect 3 ending" at GameSpot. … Read more

Mark Licea resurfaces today after a half-year absence from the show, but he can't miss out on our revolt against Michael Bay for tearing apart another memory from our childhood.

Over the weekend, the director announced that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in his upcoming reboot will come from space instead of a green canister of toxic ooze.… Read more

U.K. gamers sitting down to Mass Effect 3, arguably the most exciting release of the year so far, were crushingly disappointed Friday night when a bug meant they couldn't import their existing characters properly on the day the game came out.

The bug means some characters created in the original Mass Effect fail to import their beautiful custom faces. The choices you made in the first two games are unaffected, but gamers particularly attached to their Commander Shepards are up in arms. … Read more

Sporting some interesting user interface conventions and a fairly powerful set of image-editing tools, iPhoto makes a fairly splashy debut, especially at the relatively reasonable price of $4.99. Though it lacks some of the capabilities of the more expensive Photoshop Touch, including cross-iOS/Android compatibility and compositing, it looks like it has a reasonably broad image-editing feature set and a major advantage: it can handle images up to 19 megapixels, while Adobe's app is limited to 1,600x1,600 pixels. Though it was launched with the new iPad--and will probably be really nice to use with that model'… Read more