Film School Rejects is pointing to a press release that Legendary Pictures is developing a Mass Effect cinema release. Legendary are the folks behind Dark Knight, 300 and Watchmen, so the franchise would be in good hands.
Obviously it’s still early days — no director has been attached — but I’d be curious to see who could potentially get cast for the film. Would you go with the game’s voice actors, or someone else?
With MacquarieCon out of the way (more on that soon, I promise), I knuckled down and finished Dragon Age. I know there are a number of different endings, and there’s a particularly interesting one that I would like to take, but now that I’m done with my first play-through, I’m not sure that I can be assed doing it again straight away. I deliberately avoided a bunch of sidequests so there would be some surprises, but I know it won’t be enough to keep me interested.
My silence lately is actually because I’m absorbed in Dragon Age: Origins. I haven’t quite finished my first playthrough, but I’m getting pretty close so I figured I might as well put some thoughts out there.
Naturally, when Bioware makes an RPG, expectations run pretty high. With Baldur’s Gate, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, and Mass Effect in their pedigree, it’s hard not to get excited about their latest title. Even adjusting for that, though, I do wonder if it’s living up to the hype.
Even though he’s very late in taking the piss of Mass Effect, Shamus Young has some interesting points regarding the Asari in general, and the consort in particular.
Personally I’m slightly disturbed by xenoeroticism, but Bioware obviously thought there was a market for that sort of thing. Can anybody tell me they weren’t at least somewhat put off by the whole notion of sticking it inside the blue thing with tentacles on her head?
Oh yeah, Lucas did it first with the Twi’lek.
I finally got round to finishing my second play-through of Mass Effect. I got a couple of the achievements I had been chasing, but not all, and this has reminded me of why I’m not really a completionist.
Mass Effect, like many RPGs encourages the player to talk to every character, explore every planet and complete every sidequest. You only get rewarded (via Renegade/Paragon points) for taking part in quests, even when inaction would leave far more impact on the game world. On top of that, there are specific sidequests that require you to explore every last nook and cranny of the galaxy hunting down this widget or that ore seam. All of this I did on my first play-through.
The game, however, dangles the carrot of Xbox Achievements (and in some cases, enticing character improvements) for you to re-do a lot of these tedious paper chases in subsequent runs through the game. I can understand that; RPGs tend to be single-player games, and without the fun of multi-player deathmatch, replayability becomes a strong indicator for “getting your money’s worth”.
Unfortunately, the main thing holding me back from yet another go at Mass Effect is its lack of variability. Even if I didn’t remember where everything was (I don’t, but it’s not hard to figure out), all the planets, buildings and quests are so similar they blend into each other. There are no surprises, and the outcomes for your character choices don’t really impact the game in ways that force you to wonder how it might have gone if you’d done something different.
Why would I want to go through all of that so I can get a little badge that tells me:
Sure, some of them come with a little bonus for building my next character, but that doesn’t eliminate any of the drudgery. Tech powers and biotics have the same activation mechanic, and very similar visuals. The three weapon classes are very similar. By the time you’re level 45, you’re nearly unstoppable, regardless of your character class, choice of companions, or established battle tactics.
At least in Fable 2, the landscape around you changes as you make choices. Whole towns develop along different lines and prosper or suffer under the consequences of your actions. This is more likely to impact your willingness to replay the game.
For me, the pinnacle of replayability in a proper RPG is still Planescape: Torment. Even though the bad old Infinity Engine doesn’t produce awesomely immersive 3D worlds, I still return to Torment for a different swing at things. You can take completely different approaches to the game, have wildly differing experiences, come out with amazingly different plotpaths, and still have as much fun as the next guy.
Maybe I’m not well-versed enough in video games, but I can’t think of a narrative-based game that allows for such a rich experience. Can you name any?