Tag Archives: Mass Effect

A lot of videogames really are dumb, but not all of them have to be

Written by on
gsm_169_johnathan_blow_interview_030812_640

Taylor Clark doesn’t think there are many intelligent videogames. Or, as he put it in his recent profile of Jonathan Blow,

“Video games, with very few exceptions, are dumb.”

Here we go again. Another “respected” media outlet taking shots at a medium it doesn’t understand, and probably never even tried to.

This was not taken well by some readers. Many gamers especially, felt as if their hobby, passion, and in some instances livelihood, was being derided by some “mainstream” rag that didn’t know the first thing about videogames. 

Those feelings are understandable, to be expected even, but nevertheless completely toxic. If you, dear reader, have similar ones, please unload them now. At least for the time being. Upon further, deeper reflection you may take them back up again, at which time and with any luck they will be more measured and less motivated by primal territorial instincts.

Read More from A lot of videogames really are dumb, but not all of them have to be

The Paragon Homunculus in ME

Written by on
paragonhomunculus

Over the course of seven days I fell in and out of love, only to find it again in the arms of another.  I stopped a genocide, only to cause two others; I talked people off ledges, helped mend broken minds and hearts while being a harbinger of death and destruction wherever I went.  I discovered ancient secrets lost for countless millennia, and stumbled upon smaller secrets of unrequited love.  In one week I became the catalyst that led to destruction, yet victory; death as well as life.  I went from an Executive Officer to Spectre to War Hero.  I died, was brought back to life, then joined a terrorist organization.  I encountered a force of abominations building a super weapon and destroyed them.  Over the course of a week, many people died under my command, and the worst part is I could have done more to save them.

Over the period of a week, I played the complete Mass Effect trilogy.

The impetus to this story  is a scenario that can only be deemed ridiculous. I managed to significantly hobble myself the day prior to this playfest beginning thanks to the perilous feat that is running to first base in kickball. …

Read More from The Paragon Homunculus in ME

Allegory of the Citadel

Written by on
Mass_Effect_3_Citadel_Hospital_View

(Mass Effect 3 Spoilers Ahead)

“…when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows…” Plato, The Republic, Book VII

Like sunlight for the man who arises from Plato’s cave, the ending of Mass Effect 3 distressed me. As I embarked on the game’s conclusion I felt confused and disoriented by the sudden shift in the game’s direction and style. Continuing through to the end, I began to realize this was not my fault. After keeping me in the shadows for tens of hours, it makes sense that Mass Effect 3’s sudden and inexplicable series of expositional revelations feel cheap and false rather than utterly true.

Coming-to after a white flash just outside the beam connecting Earth and the Citadel, my Shepard arose and began staggering meekly toward the light. He was badly burned and no one else from the assault force was still standing. Instead, a few undeterred husks stood between Shepard and the …

Read More from Allegory of the Citadel

A History of Mutual Looting, and What Videogames Can Learn From Non-D&D Tabletop RPGs

Written by on
Cameo 2, from "Overboard: The Board Game Webcomic" by Author M and Artist J.

The historical relationship between videogames and tabletop RPGs is not hard to spot, and they work together very naturally (1): computers present the opportunity to automate the underlying mechanics of game play.  Although the majority of games based on tabletop systems have related to the Dungeons and Dragons franchise in some way, and the systems that underlie it in different eras, it’s not the sole contributor.  Fallout was originally going to use GURPS, the Generic Universal RolePlaying System as its mechanical core, except that was stripped out and replaced with the SPECIAL system designed for the game.  Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was grounded in White Wolf’s “Storyteller” system for the tabletop games belonging to their World of Darkness stable.

However, in recent times the relationship between the two forms has been largely one-way: tabletop RPGs have taken inspiration from videogame mechanics more often than videogames have borrowed from the opportunities presented by tabletop gaming.  This statement is in itself controversial: wander into any forum devoted to tabletop RPGs and voice the opinion that the 4th Edition of D&D has taken mechanical inspiration from videogames and there’ll be a flamewar or bannings within minutes, since people have taken this to be …

Read More from A History of Mutual Looting, and What Videogames Can Learn From Non-D&D Tabletop RPGs

Love in the age of the high score

Written by on
Print

In spite of the fact that we have the technology to heal eye problems with laser beams and frighteningly organized robot helicopters, the human race still hasn’t truly defined what the hell love is. The closest we’ve come is narrowing down the brain activity associated with love. Enter The Love Competition from Wholphin magazine, which I hope is an attempt to dethrone the agonizing game of Who has it worse? we all end up playing once a day with someone we know.

Read More from Love in the age of the high score

After pressing start: How tutorials became inefficient

Written by on
controller_1

Ever since game controllers became hand-crippling monstrosities developers have had trouble starting their games. Super Mario Brothers could teach us how to play in exactly three seconds: there’s a goomba walking towards you, and you have to press one of the two buttons to jump over it. The other button you don’t need for four worlds, but you’ll probably figure out what it does by randomly pressing it. There’s only two, after all.

Now the industry standard controller has four shoulder buttons, four face buttons, start and select, two control sticks (each with its own button), and a directional pad. You’re not going to be able to figure out anything for yourself because it’s impossible to know where to start. “Flailing around on buttons” can no longer be a tutorial mechanic, not because games are becoming more “accessible” or anything condescending like that but rather because of the controller’s sheer girth.

Read More from After pressing start: How tutorials became inefficient

Obligatory: Mass Effect 3 Ex Machina, Michael Bay, a demo

Written by on
me3_1

I’ll preface this post immediately: I am not Aram, writer of our many lists about things wrong with Mass Effect 2. Of the forty five items on those lists, I probably disagree with about thirty five of them.

That being said, and I’m sure the full game will change my opinion, but ugh. This demo.

Here’s the thing: both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 felt like they were games designed for specific audiences. Sci-fi RPG fans loved Mass Effect because it was complicated, crunchy, and had enough Star Trek epicness to be one of the greatest RPGs ever. Mass Effect 2 flipped the script and alienated a lot of fans, sure, but it was trying, unrepentantly, to be guns and conversation. It wasn’t trying to be an RPG except in conversation.

Mass Effect 3 is trying to be both games. It’s trying to make love to the world, and (to lean on an old standby) it feels like it has syphilis.

Read More from Obligatory: Mass Effect 3 Ex Machina, Michael Bay, a demo

The 5 worst things from Mass Effect 2

Written by on
Feros Geth Hopper

Mass Effect 2 did not deserve the highly positive response it received. The game is flawed at every level. Sadly, our love of its predecessor has blinded us to the ME2′s many problems. This post examines the five worst elements.

This is the final part of my four part series on the flaws of Mass Effect 2. The first post in the series was about the awful characters. The second examined the hellishly bad decisions in the game’s design. Part three enumerated 20 instances of terrible writing in Mass Effect 2.

These are the 5 worst things from Mass Effect 2.

5: All geth are good geth.

I would like to bring to your attention the codex entry for the geth from Mass Effect 1. Please note the last line:

“It should be stressed, however, that in all forms the geth are universally violent creatures.”

Let’s talk about why suddenly making the geth mostly good-guys in order to teach us a hackneyed lesson about sapience was a terrible idea.

Read More from The 5 worst things from Mass Effect 2

20 terrible things from Mass Effect 2: the flawed writing

Written by on
The reaper fleet

No matter how many 100s Mass Effect 2 received from the gaming press, it was a deeply flawed game. This post examines the abominable writing.

To prepare for the release of the demo for Mass Effect 3, I’m revisiting Mass Effect 2 in a four part series. Let’s examine 20 instances of the terrible writing in Mass Effect 2. The series will then conclude with the five worst elements of the game.

20: Don’t invent a lame excuse to take away all my stuff.

I think the only reason they killed you in the beginning was so they’d have an excuse not to transfer over your items. Being killed off and coming back to life doesn’t seem to have had any real impact past the first 30 minutes of the story. You don’t struggle with the existential crisis that should come with having been dead for two years and come back. You don’t spend more than perhaps a line or two on thoughts about the afterlife.

You were dead, then you “got better.” This should be a major plot point, in Shepard’s character arc in ME2. At the very least, there should have been more questions about the process.

Instead Shepard walks through the game like an unthinking automaton, stumbling around the edge of this enormous plot hole. They missed an amazing storytelling opportunity.

Shepard’s death in ME2 also negates anything you might have accomplished with multiple play-throughs on the same character in the first game.

As a result, Shepard’s death and unexplained recovery seem only to be an excuse to take away your stuff.

I liked my stuff.

Read More from 20 terrible things from Mass Effect 2: the flawed writing

10 terrible things from Mass Effect 2: game design hell

Written by on
Omega

What makes a game good? It has to have the whole package. Sadly, Mass Effect 2 lacks in every category and the game’s design is no exception.

With Mass Effect 3′s demo coming out in less than a week, I’m revisiting Mass Effect 2 in a four part series. This second post takes a look at some of the awful choices made in the construction of the game and its mechanics. We’ll follow up with a post examining the writing and concluding with the five worst elements of Mass Effect 2.

10: Waking up in a room and fighting a bunch of robots.

So, you wake up in a room with no memory beyond the brief interactive cut-scene that failed to explain how you survived falling from orbit. Then you get the standard new game walk-through, which involves fighting a bunch of personality-free robots that have, unsurprisingly, gone rogue.

Why is there absolutely no value in the beginning of the game?

Read More from 10 terrible things from Mass Effect 2: game design hell

  • Archives