To say when gamers find something they really care about, they take it to extremes can sadly sometimes be an understatement. Back in 2007, Mass Effect was released for the XBox 360 and PC to much critical acclaim and commercial success. The game’s follow up, Mass Effect 2, would release in January 2010 for the XBox 360 and PC and almost a full year later on the PlayStation 3. The final part of the Commander Shepard trilogy was released on March 6th of this year with, as you guessed it, Mass Effect 3.

One of the biggest draws for Mass Effect was the promise of an epic storyline that not only spanned three full games, but contained choices that would affect the rest of the player’s story throughout the remainder of the story. Destroy a race in Mass Effect and they would not appear in Mass Effect 2. Let a character die in Mass Effect 2 and don’t expect to see them in Mass Effect 3.

So in a series all about choice, many players were floored to learn that upon completion of Mass Effect 3 and whichever choices they ultimately made, the game presented them with one of six different endings. The “perfect” ending would feature an additional five seconds of footage. The six “different” endings however were merely palette swaps. No matter what choices were made through the entire story or even in the ultimate decision of the player, they just received a different color explosion, particle effect and small changes in animation, but essentially the same ending.

Look at the side by side comparisons in the video from Crosscade (obviously, spoiler warning).

This week, JC & WallE get into it with their thoughts on the recent trailer reveals for The Last of Us, Fortnite, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, The Amazing Spider-Man and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron. JC also gives his final edition of The Long Grind focusing on The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. Don’t worry though, the Long Grind will return in 2012 with new epic games to discuss.

The Topic of the Week this week is a very special one. A few weeks ago, the Bitcast crew talked about realism in games. This week, JC had the honor of sitting down and talking to a member of the United States Marine Corps who was involved in the conflict at the Battle of Fallujah in late 2004, considered to be one of the harshest battles in modern warfare history. This marine shares his perspective on gaming, movies and television  and how it relates to his experiences. We thank this individual for his time, his service and for sharing his experiences with us.

For their Now Playing, JC gives some insight in the recent Voltron XBLA release as well as how Christmas shopping reminded him of his time playing Dead Rising while WallE talks Madden 12. The duo even gives some not so subtle hints on what games they wouldn’t mind getting for Christmas.

Don’t forget to tune in next week for the Best Games of 2011 show and make sure to follow everyone on Twitter including @theflickcast, @thebitcast, @thejohncarle & @JWWallE. Finally, don’t forget to subscribe to The Bitcast on The Flickcast iTunes feed.

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*** Note – The following Rock Band 3 review does not formally review the Keyboard, the Pro Guitar peripherals or Pro Mode since they were not available to us at the time of the review. This has been reflected in the review score.***

Harmonix began taking the music genre by storm with their work on the initial Guitar Hero. After parting ways from Activision, they took the game to the next level by making drums and vocals the new standard.

They also came up with the idea of the Rock Band franchise as a platform rather than an annualized release like Guitar Hero has taken (Guitar Hero being on their sixth consecutive yearly release with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock) After two years since Rock Band 2, Harmonix looked to step up their game by adding an additional instrument in the keyboard to the band mix as well as a Pro mode to help players learn how to play guitar, drums and keyboard using music in the game.

They also took concepts from other spinoff titles such as Rock Band: Green Day like vocal harmonies and brought them to the fold as well.

Gameplay:

Not much has changed for Rock Band 3 for the standard band format. Two guitars and a drum set each have a cascading highway of notes down the screen as the vocals scroll across the top.

There is now of course the substitution of a new instrument in the keyboard which can even be used to play the guitar parts of older Rock Band music that hasn’t gotten the keyboard face lift.

This week on The Flickcast, Chris and Matt are again joined by video game guru John Carle to discuss all manner of new and interesting topics. Some of these include Jason West and Vince Zampella joining EA Games, Conan heading to TBS, the oddness of Viva Pinata, the usefulness of the website Game Crush, the fun to be had at the website Girl Gamer, the awesomeness of Michael Ironside, instant Netflix on the Wii, Ryan Reynolds in Paper Man and the future of digital comics on the iPad and other devices.

Plus, the guys made some picks this week, as usual, including John’s pick of Kick-Ass, Matt’s pick of the movie Defendor and Chris’ pick of the new HBO series Treme.

Also, they announced the first winner of The Flickcast Mailbag contest and a new prize for this week’s question: a copy of Defendor on DVD. Remember, to win just send a question on pretty much any topic to mailbag [at] the flickcast dot com and if we answer your question on the show next week, you win. What could be easier than that?

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook and MySpace or via email.

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We’ve been fans of BioWare and EA’s Mass Effect game around here since its debut way back in 2008. Now, as things often do, the game has expanded into other areas like a comic book from Dark Horse Comics. Obviously, the game is pretty popular and has sold well and that success seems to have carried over into the comic world as well because according to Dark Horse’s official press release, the first issue of the comic has completely sold out.

The comic, called Mass Effect: Redemption, serves as a prequel for the new Mass Effect 2 game and tells the backstory for event that lead up to all the action in the game. Sound cool? It is. If you want to know more, check out all the following from the press release:

Just in time for the arrival of the hit series’ second issue, in stores today, Mass Effect: Redemption #1 will be reprinted to fill demand after selling out across the country.

Mass Effect: Redemption tells the exciting backstory that leads up to the events of Mass Effect 2, the recently released video game developed by the award-winning creative team at BioWare. The game’s lead writer, Mac Walters, takes up the pen to give fans exclusive insight into the events that unfolded between the conclusion of the original Mass Effect and the beginning of Mass Effect 2. Scripted by John Jackson Miller (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Invincible Iron Man) and drawn by Omar Francia (Star Wars: Legacy), this four-part series explores the exotic and dangerous future Milky Way of Mass Effect, revealing previously unseen locations, aliens, and enemies in this rich science-fiction landscape.

We’ve got some men (well, at least one or two) on the ground in Los Angeles today for all the E3 excitement. There’s going to be a lot of cool announcements coming along throughout the show. We’ve already dropped some info on Microsoft’s big stuff from yesterday and we expect some Sony news any time now.

But until then, sit back and enjoy a few pictures from the show to get you in the mood. Most of the usual players have returned to E3 this year with big booths, big announcements and lots of other interesting stuff. With all that’s going on, E3 looks to be returning to its former glory — well mostly anyway.

Sadly, there’s a bit of space left on the main hall floor and the show doesn’t seem quite so well attended as it was in years past here at the LA Convention Center. Although, that could be due to the show’s adherence to a strict “no one under 17 admitted” policy as well as extremely stringent hoops for media and trade members to jump through.

Check out all the full sized pictures after the jump.