How old are you? /creep
AnonymousHaha I enjoy the /creep part; also congrats on being the first anonymous to ask me a question! I’m 22.
Anonymous
THIS CONTAINS MASSIVE MASS EFFECT SPOILERS
What I Would Have Done Differently With Mass Effect 3
For the record, I think Mass Effect 3 is a really good game. The gameplay is great, the scope of the title is bigger and the mulitplayer is addictive and massively expands the lifespan. That being said there are some painfully glaring problems with the finale including, yes, the ending.
1) Develop James Vega’s character better. For a new squadmate with a celebrity voice actor, the guy has very little dialogue or depth compared to other characters. While I did experiement with Mr Vega as a companion a few times, I ultimately found him boring and flat and feel that BioWare really could have developed more.
2) Taking back Earth should have really used your war assetts. This could maybe have been done in a similar way to ME2’s suicide mission, where you are presented with a problem and have to select which war asset(s) to solve it. Need to get intel out of a certain area? Use your Quarian assets to infiltrate and retrieve and then the Salarian resources to decode it. Indoctrinated Cerberus forces giving you problems? Send ex-Cerberus forces to infiltrate their ranks and take them down from the inside. Depending on the level of appropriateness/strength of each particular war asset would determine whether the mission was succesful or not, how much of a battering that asset received and/or what outcomes came as a result of it.
3) Your choices should have more impact. This aspect of the game was done pretty well but could have been implemented better. While taking back Earth, perhaps it looks like its curtains for Zaeed until the Rachni race in to save the day (provided freed saved them). Conversely, if you destroyed the Rachni perhaps there could be significantly less/no Ravager enemies? Additionally, most renegade choices made throughout the trilogy seem to just hinder you later on. As with my Rachni example, there could perhaps be bonuses to doing the less admiral things? What if by letting the Council die meant the formation of a new and more cooperative Council that allowed more resources to Shepard’s disposal ?
Ultimately, the A/B/C Red/Blue/Green ending should be completely done away with and replaced with something more satisfying and more in line with what the developers originally promised.
4) More interesting sidequests. Lots of fetch-and-carry sidequests revolving around planet scanning is not an enjoyable way to expand a game’s lifespan.
5) More grey decisions. This is an issue with the entire trilogy in my opinion, not just Mass Effect 3, but the decisions that need to be made should be more morally grey. Ashley/Kaiden, curing the genophage and save/destroy the collector base are all excellent examples of when the series has done this well and I’d have liked to have seen more of this.
I think those, coupled with closing the blaring plot holes and deus ex machina, would make for a stellar title. What changes would you make?
E3 Prediction Flashcard
E3 2012 is only weeks away and as ever I am extremely excited. I’ve made a flashcard of predictions I think will occur this year and want to see how good I am at calling the video games industry. These predictions are based on my own beliefs and what I’ve read across various websites and are displayed clockwise from the top left.
1) A Star Fox/Metroid crossover game will be announced and shown.
2) Kinect and Move will be integrated into a lot of upcoming hardcore games, though there will be very few hardcore games specifically designed around the devices.
3) A new Legend of Zelda Game for the Wii U will be demonstrated in some form.
4) Beyond Good and Evil 2 will be present at the show this year.
5) Half Life 3 will be present at the show this year, and not as a next generation game like many are speculating.
6) The Wii U will be able to support two tablets.
7) The future direction of the Mass Effect franchise will be revealed, with its developers also discussing the flaws of the third installment.
8) No next generation consoles will be talked about, shown or demo’d from Microsoft and Sony. Though something could possibly be hinted it.
What have I learned from this list? That it’s much easier and more fun to guess Nintendo’s move than the other two gaming giants. Seriously, that flashcard could have been full of more Nintendo predictions: a Wii U name change? The Vitality Sensor integrated into the new controller? I’m just putting them here so I can say I called them if they do happen…
