Sometimes, you just don’t know what you need until you get it. Take this fan art album we have for you today. Sketch-BGI over on DeviantArt designed a massive collection of Mass Effect species and turned the into Pokemon complete with evolutions and types. We’re already at 720 Pokemon. What’s another 63 really awesome additions between friends?
Mass Effect
BioWare Reveals First Mass Effect 4 Details
While BioWare doesn’t want anyone to call the fourth Mass Effect game Mass Effect 4 and are keen to emphasize that this is a new story for the franchise, Mass Effect 4 won’t be a complete departure from the status quo for the series. At San Diego Comic Con, BioWare used their Mass Effect panel to reveal the first details of the next game in the franchise.
7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Mass Effect Trilogy
Last week, when talking about Skyrim, I mentioned that a number of games outside the RPG genre incorporated elements of RPGs into their games. These included things like skill points, customization, inventory systems, questing, deep stories, dialogue tree and more of the classic RPG tricks.
This week’s entry into the 7 Best may have started life as being a bit more of an RPG than a third-person shooter but evolved into a third-person shooter that retained the strong influence of RPGs. Of course, if I boiled down the Mass Effect Trilogy to a series of gameplay mechanics and the evolution of the mechanics, I’d be missing the whole point of the franchise. Mass Effect’s strong suit and its claim to fame is the story.
Shepard Has a New Plan to Defeat the Reapers
If the whole Prothean super weapon thing doesn’t go well for Commander Shepard, she has to have another plan up her sleeve. Fortunately for the galaxy, she’s been hard at work on a new plan to stop the Reapers.
Garrus Effect? Your Favourite Turian Could Star in a Mass Effect “Spin-Off”
In this month’s issue of Official Xbox Magazine, the big names behind the Mass Effect franchise open up about plans for the next game in the Mass Effect franchise. In an interview with director Casey Hudson, lead writer Mac Walters, level designer Dusty Everman, producer Mike Gamble and lead designer Preston Watamaniuk, it was hinted that the next Mass Effect game could be a spin-off.
Despite Its Faults, I Still Love Mass Effect
I couldn’t go the whole of Canadian Gaming Week here on the blog without writing one more Mass Effect column. The reason that I write so often and at such length about Mass Effect is that the series is what brought me back into proper gaming after years of spending my time in a rut of playing sports and music games.
I’ve written a lot about the game over the last year. I’ve dug into that terribly unsatisfying ending. I’ve decried the horrible DLC practices that saw parts of the game cut out to sell separately from the main game. I’ve even promoted the Indoctrination Theory which might be my greatest sin against the franchise and common sense.
And despite how disappointed I was in the ending of the trilogy, despite how angry I was at having to pay for an on-disc “DLC” that was locked out behind what was effectively a $10 paywall and despite the fact that I have to make the conscious choice to end my playthroughs at the Citadel DLC to get the ending the trilogy deserves, I still love Mass Effect.
Help Vancouver’s Gaming Industry with The Indie Gala
Do you love video games and supporting small developers? The latest Indie Gala sale allows you to do both. While that’s not unusual for Indie Gala sales, what is unusual is the different way that you can support indie developer and the Vancouver gaming scene in particular.
This week’s Indie Gala is The Mass Effect Bundle. While Mass Effect isn’t exactly an indie production, the proceeds allocated to charity will help the indies. The Mass Effect Bundle supports the Launch Academy and the BC Member of Legislative Assembly campaign of Matt Toner.
Forget the Silver Screen, Put Mass Effect on TV
Hollywood and the video games industry don’t have a very good track record of adapting the other’s work. A quick look at the movie adaptation of video games shows a track record of consistent critical flops with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within scoring the highest Tomato Meter score of 43%. Video games based on movies and TV shows haven’t fared much better as good licensed games are more the exception than the rule.
As the week’s go by, I hear more and more about the planned Mass Effect movie. It’s not just Hollywood’s terrible track record in turning video games into a live-action dramatic presentation that worries me. It’s that Mass Effect can’t be turned into a movie without removing its soul.
Wednesday Link-Off: Spoilers
It’s time for the middle of the week which means it’s time for the links. Let’s skip the intro and go straight to the show. First, here’s Magdalena Frackowiak who is making her first appearance on the blog.
Thanks to DVRs, Netflix shows, downloading and social media, has the spoiler warning gone the way of the dodo? (Wired)
Speaking of going the way of the dodo, could Microsoft not be long for this world? (Yahoo Finance)
You may not know but I’m a bit of a cricket fan and watch the IPL every weekend during the spring. Anyway, here’s a look at how Washington National (I think that’s the singular) Bryce Harper would fare in cricket. (Natstradamus)
The Geth are More Popular Than the Quarians and Other Mass Effect 3 Stats (Infographic)
As part of their Mass Effect retrospective panel at PAX East, BioWare released an infographic detailing the decisions made by players. They didn’t reveal stats like completion rate or which ending was chosen (for obvious reasons) but they did detail the most popular classes, FemShep vs. BroShep, paragon vs. renegade, the favourite squadmates and even total single player play time across the community.
The Lowdown 