Giant Freakin Robot

Say what you want to about Bioware’s handling of Mass Effect 3’s ending, one thing they have done nothing but deliver on is the multiplayer experience. Bioware has just announced the arrival of DLC next week that will show the Reaper invasion from an earthbound prospective with “Earth”. The add-on features 3 new maps, 3 new weapons, 6 new human character classes, and the best part, it’s 100% free.

Mass Effect 3’s co-op mode was initially met with skepticism from fans of the story based RPG series, but once people finally started to get their hands on it, it turned out to be a fairly polished multiplayer experience. The co-op based multiplayer aimed to paint a picture of the galactic conflict with Reapers, Geth, and Cerberus that was happening while you played through Commander Shepard’s adventure in the main campaign. Up until now, the battleground that Earth turns into at the start of the game has been largely untouched. The new maps feature battlegrounds in Rio,Vancouver, andLondon, so we will finally all know the answer to that burning question, “How wouldCanadahold up in an alien invasion?”

As with the previous Mass Effect multiplayer DLC, the maps are the only thing you get up front in the free DLC. The weapons and additional characters will only be unlocked randomly with the equipment packs you earn by either playing the missions or purchasing with your money. Xbox and PC players worldwide will be able to download the new content on July 17^th, while North American PS3 players get it on the 17^th as well, but Europe will have to wait a day to defend the planet.

Disney’s John Carter is considered one of the biggest bombs of 2012. It’s a movie that did not connect with audiences because of its strange alien landscape, flat and uninteresting characters and overall sloppy storytelling. But some feel it’s one of the most important films of 2012 and will get that recognition years later. Why? It’s the film’s groundbreaking visual effects and creature creation. Andrew Stanton’s vision for John Carter may have been ill-conceived but its visual signature remains breathtaking and awe-inspiring.

William Shatner owes a big chunk of his career to playing Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the TV series Star Trek. He’s a fine character actor but he wouldn’t be a household name if he continued playing the role of Paul De Vinger on the TV series 77 Sunset Strip. But his success on Star Trek was always a double-edged sword as he was typecast in similar roles and idolized by rabid Star Trek fans. In a new documentary Get A Life, Shatner examines what makes Star Trek fans so obsessive and how his personal life has changed and will always be connected, for better or worse, to Star Trek.

Here’s the trailer for Get A Life…

Good news Noah Wyle fans! If you just can’t get enough of the history professor turned freedom fighter living in a world conquered by space crabs, then you’re in luck. TNT has renewed Falling Skies for a third season. That means at least one more season of Tom Mason looking constantly bewildered, one more season of Pope being the bad guy then the good guy, then the bad guy again, and one more season of Captain Weaver making really bad military decisions.

According to Variety, the season 2 premiere of Falling Skies pulled in a whopping 5.5 million viewers. The Stephen Spielberg produced TV show has managed to pull an audience by dangling the mystery of why the aliens invaded Earth like a half-eaten carrot without giving any real clues as to what is going on for the entire first season. Ratings indicate that the audience is still trotting along waiting to take a bite. While the first episode this season didn’t really deliver on the promise of a big revelation that the season 1 finale set up, the subsequent episodes have introduced some interesting story developments which promise to widen the scope of the conflict (such as a Skitter rebellion and a new American Government).