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]]>Mass Effect 1 guides
Mass Effect romance guide
Things start off small when it comes to the original Mass Effect romance, as there are only a couple of squad members you can woo, but we’ve got all the details you need to let love bloom.
Mass Effect keepers guide
Mass Effect keepers work diligently to maintain the Citadel in tip-top condition, and for one of the side quests you need to scan all of these unusual creatures, so we’ve got all of their locations for you.
Mass Effect endings guide
There are two possible Mass Effect endings you can encounter at the conclusion of your initial adventure, so we break down the choices that affect which one you’ll get and highlight what impact they have on the future story.
Mass Effect 2 guides
Mass Effect 2 romance guide
The sequel really starts to open up the Mass Effect 2 romance options, as there are now three different squad members you can have a relationship with plus some additional side romances. The process is a little more involved, so let us walk you through all of the steps required to find love.
Mass Effect 2 loyalty guide
Mass Effect 2 loyalty is incredibly important to the cohesion of your crew, as it affects your relationships and directly determines individual members’ chances of surviving the final Suicide Mission, so follow our guidance to get everyone on board and working towards the same goal.
Mass Effect 2 weapons guide
From assault rifles and shotguns to what looks like a tactical nuke launcher, there are plenty of Mass Effect 2 weapons to choose from, so we’ve got all the details on where to find them and what they do.
Mass Effect 2 endings guide
There are several different Mass Effect 2 endings you can achieve, and although they mainly revolve around choosing to save or destroy the Collector Base there are other elements at play to keep your squad alive during the final Suicide Mission. We’ve got the details on which actions to take, and who to assign to what role, to get the best ending possible.
Mass Effect 3 guides
Mass Effect 3 romance guide
The Mass Effect 3 romance options really cast the net far and wide, as there are now up to ten possible paramours you can engage with, depending on your actions in the previous game. The requirements for romance are less strict during this instalment, but we’ve got a run though of how to commit to a relationship with each character.
Mass Effect 3 weapons guide
You now have an arsenal of over thirty different Mass Effect 3 weapons to access during the course of the game, though most of them need to be found during a specific mission, so follow our complete walkthrough that highlights where to pick up every shooter.
Mass Effect 3 armor guide
As well as making Shepard look good, different pieces of Mass Effect 3 armor can also boost your stats to give you an edge in combat. These can either be found during particular missions or purchased from vendors later, and again we’ve got a complete walkthrough of their locations.
Mass Effect 3 planet scanning guide
Mass Effect 3 planet scanning is the best way to gather resources for your final battle with the Reapers, and we’ve got the locations of all war assets, artifacts, intel, credits, and fuel in the galaxy.
Mass Effect 3 endings guide
There are multiple Mass Effect 3 endings available, and the amount of Effective Military Strength you’ve been able to muster during the campaign will directly impact which choices you can access and how well things turn out. We’ve got all of the outcomes explained, along with the exact amount of EMS needed to achieve the best ending.
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]]>The post Mass Effect 2 nearly had another gay romance option with Jacob Taylor, according to ex-BioWare animator appeared first on Game News.
]]>Jonathan Cooper took to Twitter (opens in new tab) to share a Polygon story (opens in new tab) and point out that Jacob Taylor was initially meant to be a romance option for MaleShep. Jacob Taylor is a Black male character who joins Shepherd’s crew and is a romance option for FemShep only – but that wasn’t always the case.
Cooper’s Tweet (opens in new tab) reads: “I animated both scenes for Male & Female. We prevized Jacob as the male/male, matching shot-for-shot from Brokeback Mountain. Was told at the time ‘America isn’t ready for it’. Perhaps it still isn’t’.” Cooper goes on to say that the BioWare team matched a scene from Brokeback Mountain so Mass Effect 2 “wouldn’t be unacceptable – but different rules for film and games I guess. Personally I still believe it was the wrong call to cut, as we protested at the time. People with a problem can go fuck themselves – they don’t deserve to play our games.
The news that Jacob Taylor was initially meant to be a love interest for MaleShep comes shortly after news that Jack’s pansexuality was cut because of heavy criticism from Fox News. Jack has voice lines in Mass Effect 2 that make her pansexuality very clear, but her lead writer, Brian Kindregan, told TheGamer (opens in new tab) that Mass Effect 1 sex scene backlash from outlets like Fox News led to BioWare removing Jack as a queer romance option for FemShep.
It’s a shame that one of the best RPGs of all time was initially way more inclusive, but felt the need to cut that inclusivity out for fear of media backlash. A pansexual woman and an openly pansexual Black man in Mass Effect 2 would have been an incredible step forward for the industry – here’s hoping they re-add those options in the Mass Effect Legendary Edition.
Concept art from a cancelled BioWare game recently appeared online.
Mass Effect romance | Mass Effect keepers | Mass Effect endings | Mass Effect 2 romance | Mass Effect 2 loyalty | Mass Effect 2 weapons | Mass Effect 2 endings | Mass Effect 3 romance | Mass Effect 3 weapons | Mass Effect 3 armor | Mass Effect 3 planet scanning | Mass Effect 3 endings
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]]>Jack (AKA Subject Zero) is a famous criminal and one of the most powerful biotics in the Mass Effect universe, and she was initially meant to be a romance option for both male and female Commander Shepards. Many Mass Effect 2 players will find this unsurprising, as Jack’s dialogue basically flat-out states her pansexuality: “I’ve been with lots of people. If you’re asking about a boyfriend or girlfriend, no. It’s a waste of time and it never works”.
However, the heavy and incessant backlash from mainstream media outlets like Fox News caused the BioWare team to back off of pansexuality, and swap Jack’s romance options to male Shepard only late in development.
Jack’s lead writer Brian Kindregan tells The Gamer, “She was essentially pansexual for most of the development of that romance…Mass Effect had been pretty heavily and really unfairly criticized in the US by Fox News, which at the time… maybe more people in the world thought that there was a connection between reality and what gets discussed on Fox News.”
But the media frenzy after the first Mass Effect had a singular gay relationship option with Fem Shep and Liara (“which on paper was technically not a gay relationship because she was from a mono-gendered species”, Kindregan points out) made BioWare balk. “I think there was a concern that if that had drawn fire, that Mass Effect had to be a little bit careful”, says Kindregan.
Even Jack’s voice actor, Courtenay Taylor, was aware of Jack’s pansexuality, saying that she was “surprised there wasn’t a female romance possible because that was my understanding”. She points out that “the community modded it immediately, so you can have it your way”.
With the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition potentially releasing in May, I’m curious just how many changes BioWare will have made. Perhaps Jack will be a romance option for FemSheps in Mass Effect 2 after all….
The next Mass Effect game is definitely a direct sequel to Mass Effect 3, here’s why.
Mass Effect romance | Mass Effect keepers | Mass Effect endings | Mass Effect 2 romance | Mass Effect 2 loyalty | Mass Effect 2 weapons | Mass Effect 2 endings | Mass Effect 3 romance | Mass Effect 3 weapons | Mass Effect 3 armor | Mass Effect 3 planet scanning | Mass Effect 3 endings
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]]>The post 19 of the best unlockable characters appeared first on Game News.
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There’s nothing better than adding a new face to your ranks. Whether you’ve recruited a new knight or unlocked some special character mode, it’s a great feeling knowing there’s more to a game than the starting roster. Nothing spices up a skating game like a Sith Lord, and nothing makes a survival horror game more intense than playing as a piece of food.
Even though fighting games are famous for expanding rosters, there are new characters to uncover in platformers, adventure games, and RPGs too. Get ready to recruit new party members and fight some hidden badasses, because we’re starting with…
Reptile (Mortal Kombat)
There’s no better way to start talking about secret characters than with Reptile: he was literally the first unlockable boss character in fighting game history. All you had to do was win with a Double Flawless Victory without blocking and finish the fight with a Fatality, all when a certain object flew past the moon in the one very specific level. Pssh, easy.
The master of the Pit has appeared in all the Mortal Kombat games since, alternating between a human form in green garb and a full-on lizard man. The scaly dude has quite a legacy; David Icke would be proud.
Tofu (Resident Evil 2)
So you’re playing Resident Evil 2. You could play as Claire Redfield or Leon Kennedy and enjoy the thrill of narrowly escaping death at the hands of zombies or you could play as a floppy, larger-than-life block of tofu.
Finish all parts of the game with A rankings, and he’s yours. He was originally just meant to test the game’s collision physics, but Capcom wisely made him playable – starting with just a knife and few herbs. Sure, he can take more damage than other characters, but that doesn’t save him from being eaten by fellow operative Hunk at the end of the game. Poor, delicious friend.
Mewtwo (Super Smash Bros Melee)
Oddly enough, Mewtwo isn’t considered that good of a fighter in the Smash Bros. series. Sure, he can dodge better than most, but it’s his status of being the only playable legendary Pokemon that makes him, well, legendary.
Originally meant for Smash on the Nintendo 64, Mewtwo didn’t make the cut until Melee on the GameCube – where you had to play dozens of hours and hundreds of matches to unlock him. After fan outrage at not being included in Brawl, those same fans freaked the hell out – in a good way – (opens in new tab) when he was announced as DLC for the Wii U and 3DS versions. Yay, Pocket Monsters!
Akuma (Street Fighter II Turbo)
There are Ryu and Ken, and then there’s Akuma. While the two Street Fighter posterboys battle for good, Akuma exists only to defeat others with his dark arts. Funny, considering he’s actually Ryu’s adoptive uncle.
The coolest thing about Akuma is his conception. An April Fool’s Day joke in an old issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly hinted at unlocking Ryu and Ken’s master Shen Long in the original game. After massive disappointment from their fan base, Capcom threw the kids a bone by including the evil master Akuma. And with Street Fighter 4, they finally revealed Gouken, Ryu’s adoptive father and Akuma’s older brother. Ah, family.
Devil Jin (Tekken 5)
‘Evil’ versions of characters are nothing new, and palette swaps usually satisfy the fanboys (I’ll take purple suit Luigi for as long as I have to, Nintendo). But there’s something extra special about Devil Jin, who is Tekken’s main protagonist consumed by the evil genes inside him – just look at those wicked wings!
He showed up in Tekken 3 and 4 in cut scenes, but we finally got our hands on his horns in Tekken 5. While Jin fights with traditional karate techniques, Devil Jin pounds foes with the high-level Mishima fighting style, full of dragon punches, tsunami kicks, and 10-hit combos. Bad to the bone.
Toriyama Robo (Tobal No. 1)
If you’re a fan of manga like Dragon Ball and Sandland but haven’t played Tobal No. 1, shame on you – all the characters are designed by mangaka Akira Toriyama. This is important, as Toriyama includes a “Tori Bot” in most of his work; it’s a little robot that represents himself in funny situations. And that bot is playable in Tobal No. 1, going by the nickname Toriyama Robo.
The best part is that you won’t even know Robo exists until you finish an especially difficult 30-floor dungeon in the game’s Quest Mode. “Who’s this fool?” you’ll ask until you beat him and realize he was a secret character all along.
Donkey Kong (Punch-Out!!)
The NES version had Mike Tyson, so Nintendo knew it needed another celebrity final boss for its Wii revival. It went internal, setting up the great ape Donkey Kong as the ultimate boss. Even better, you can spot DK in the audience in multiple Punch-Out games.
You’ll have to complete the game a few times over to reach the fight, but when DK finally hops into the ring, it’s on like something, I can’t remember. Anyway, the red-tied tank can take you down with pretty much any attack, arguably making him the most difficult fight in Punch Out history. Where was that verse in the DK rap?
Luigi (Super Mario Galaxy)
Poor Luigi, always living in his brother’s shadow. In Super Mario Galaxy, he gets literally lost in space and is taken prisoner at some point. Mario has to rescue him from the Ghostly Galaxy, at which point the green brother will assist him in collecting three stars.
A total of 120 stars and a Bowser fight later, and you can actually play as the other brother. Luigi runs faster and jumps farther, and his Cosmic Form is much smarter than Mario’s. The weird part? Luigi can also rescue Luigi from the Ghostly Galaxy, though his imprisoned twin looks a little ‘off.’ At least he has his own mansion…
Darth Maul (Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3)
Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, Bob Burnquist – these are real, professional skaters. Who better to join them on the halfpipe than Star Wars’ totally out-of-Lucas’-head Darth Maul? Kickflips and grinds are only made cooler with a double-ended red lightsaber in hand. What’s extra cool is that when you select Darth Maul inside the skate shop, the shopkeeper will actually be choking from the Force in the background.
So how do you unlock the Sith fiend? It’s a simple matter of completing all the game’s goals and getting every gold medal as Tony Hawk. Too much? Just use the cheat code YOHOMIES instead.
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]]>The post EA Publisher Sale gives old games new life appeared first on Game News.
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Ending next Monday, January 9, the promotion’s highlights include half-off DLC for the original Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, and Dead Space 2; as well as equal savings on full XBLA releases like DeathSpank, Shank, and Gatling Gears. Newer content includes expansion packs for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 and NCAA Football 12. Check out the full list below:
Dragon Age: Origins: $14.99
Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt: 320 MSP
Dragon Age 2 – Legacy: 400 MSP
Mass Effect 2 – Arrival: 280 MSP
Battlefield: Bad Company 2: $14.99
Battlefield: Bad Company 2:Vietnam: 600 MSP
Burnout Crash: 400 MSP
Dead Space 2 – Severed: 280 MSP
DeathSpank: 600 MSP
Gatling Gears: 400 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit: $22.49
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Armed and Dangerous: 280 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Lamborghini Untamed: 280 MSP
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Porsche Unleashed: 280 MSP
Shank: 600 MSP
Risk Factions: 400 MSP
Monopoly Streets: $22.49
Zuma: 200 MSP
Heavy Weapon : 400 MSP
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 – Birdie Pack: 600 MSP
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12 – Eagle Pack: 1200 MSP
NCAA Football 12 – All Dynasty Time Savers – 600 MSP
NCAA Football 12 – Power Pack: 1000 MSP
Granted, it’s not the biggest sale going, but it’s a good way to catch up on some of EA’s older fare. Further breakdowns of each offer are listed on the XBLA’s website here (opens in new tab) and here (opens in new tab).
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]]>The post 5 reasons to hate Mass Effect appeared first on Game News.
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Mass Effect is one of the greatest series of this console generation – in the top three, easily. But even our dearest loved ones get on our nerves from time to time, like when they make you take really slow elevator rides, or clutter the whole house with piles of tedious inventory. It’s better to get these things off your chest from time to time, rather than let everything build up, so here are our five biggest grievances with our dearly beloved space opera. We hate because we love.
1. The suicide
mission
Above: “I died because I was so distracted thinking about how we didn’t finish our chit chat. derp” -Legion
Furthermore, even completing each character’s loyalty mission doesn’t ensure they’ll survive the assault on the Collector base, even if you select the correct person for each task. For example, I sent my loyal Legion into the vents as the tech specialist, but he kept getting killed and I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out there was a dialogue option I had missed while talking to Legion after his loyal mission, and only after exhausting all options for post-mission small talk did he manage to make it through the mission. Would a robot’s performance really hinge on whether or not you talked about his feelings beforehand?
2. The Mako
It’s like BioWare designed the Mako’s handling and controls to be as annoying as possible, and then designed the terrain of each planet to play off that shittiness for maximum frustration. The thing handles like it weighs less than a pound – and don’t blame the planets’ respective gravities, because it doesn’t seem to affect Shepard when he’s outside the vehicle. A Schwinn cruiser handles rocks better than the Mako – if a single tire hits any minute irregularity in the terrain, the whole thing flips on its back like a goddamn turtle.
And why do the shields take so long to recharge, even with squadmates with maxed out tech on board? Throughout the course of the game you could practically read an entire Mass Effect novelization during the time you’re forced to spend waiting for your shields to charge (seriously, you should have a book handy).
3. Mining
“Oh, you hated the Mako? So you hate exploring awesome alien landscapes? You hate seeing the breathtaking majesty of all the horizons in the galaxy? Here, have this shitty minigame instead then, you little shits.”
–Some asshole at BioWare
4. Forced
flirting
Above:Yuko (opens in new tab)ofJohnny Wander (opens in new tab)sums it up perfectly
Nothing says romance like having it shoved in your face with the force of a thousand clueless pick-up artists. It’s painfully obvious who the “canon” romance options are in both ME1 and ME2, and the dialogue becomes so ridiculous that it’s impossible to take seriously. As female Shepard, say anything remotely friendly to Kaiden or Jacob, such as “hey buddy, I don’t want anyone on my crew to die, and that includes you I guess” and they respond saying they’re “flattered” and would be totally interested in sexing you up too. What the!? If you’re playing paragon, it’s impossible to avoid their advances, and often the dialogue wheel does nothing to warn you that you’re about to enter the sexytime talk zone.
And speaking of romance…
5. Only girls can be
gay in space?
Above: One man, one woman
Even in Mass Effect 2’s expanded smorgasbord of intergalactic romance options, which includes no less than three girl-on-girl options, there isn’t a single option for male Shepard to romance another dude. And even then, it’s still a step back from the first game, because all three girl-girl hook-ups are confined to side romances – all six main romance options are hetero, whereas at least in one you could have a main girl-girl romance with Liara. Despite the tastefulness of each romance’s presentation, the one-sidedness of boy-girl or girl-girl only options makes it feel suspiciously like a skeevy attempt to titillate straight male gamers as opposed to actually being inclusive to girls who like girls.Why even include girl-girl options if you’re not going to include boy-boy options too?
We can only hope, given BioWare’sinclusive stance on the romance options of Dragon Age 2 (opens in new tab), that Mass Effect 3 will include a romance option for people who want to play as a gay male Shepard too.
Apr 28, 2011
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Indie darling status be damned, we take Minecraft to task
(opens in new tab)
Ezio and Altair are hiding plenty of flaws under those hoods
(opens in new tab)
1. The suicide
mission
So, the end of Mass Effect 2 is quite cool and cinematic. What’s not cool though, is the stringent and obtuse rules that govern who survives and who dies. First, if you don’t go directly to through the Omega 4 relay to the Collector base after obtaining the Reaper IFF, a huge chunk of your crew (non-squadmate) will die, and although the dialogue hints at the urgency of your mission, there’s nothing that explicitly indicates the consequences if you decide to wrap up any outstanding missions before continuing through the relay. Seasoned gamers are used to ignoring the disconnect between the urgency of the narrative and the reality of being able to dick around until you actually select the mission to continue, and it’s easy to mistake that to be the case here.
Above: “I died because I was so distracted thinking about how we didn’t finish our chit chat. derp” -Legion
Furthermore, even completing each character’s loyalty mission doesn’t ensure they’ll survive the assault on the Collector base, even if you select the correct person for each task. For example, I sent my loyal Legion into the vents as the tech specialist, but he kept getting killed and I couldn’t figure out why. Turns out there was a dialogue option I had missed while talking to Legion after his loyal mission, and only after exhausting all options for post-mission small talk did he manage to make it through the mission. Would a robot’s performance really hinge on whether or not you talked about his feelings beforehand?
2. The Mako
It’s like BioWare designed the Mako’s handling and controls to be as annoying as possible, and then designed the terrain of each planet to play off that shittiness for maximum frustration. The thing handles like it weighs less than a pound – and don’t blame the planets’ respective gravities, because it doesn’t seem to affect Shepard when he’s outside the vehicle. A Schwinn cruiser handles rocks better than the Mako – if a single tire hits any minute irregularity in the terrain, the whole thing flips on its back like a goddamn turtle.
And why do the shields take so long to recharge, even with squadmates with maxed out tech on board? Throughout the course of the game you could practically read an entire Mass Effect novelization during the time you’re forced to spend waiting for your shields to charge (seriously, you should have a book handy).
3. Mining
“Oh, you hated the Mako? So you hate exploring awesome alien landscapes? You hate seeing the breathtaking majesty of all the horizons in the galaxy? Here, have this shitty minigame instead then, you little shits.”
–Some asshole at BioWare
4. Forced
flirting
Above:Yuko (opens in new tab)ofJohnny Wander (opens in new tab)sums it up perfectly
Nothing says romance like having it shoved in your face with the force of a thousand clueless pick-up artists. It’s painfully obvious who the “canon” romance options are in both ME1 and ME2, and the dialogue becomes so ridiculous that it’s impossible to take seriously. As female Shepard, say anything remotely friendly to Kaiden or Jacob, such as “hey buddy, I don’t want anyone on my crew to die, and that includes you I guess” and they respond saying they’re “flattered” and would be totally interested in sexing you up too. What the!? If you’re playing paragon, it’s impossible to avoid their advances, and often the dialogue wheel does nothing to warn you that you’re about to enter the sexytime talk zone.
And speaking of romance…
5. Only girls can be
gay in space?
Yeah, yeah, asaris are technically mono-gendered, but let’s be real – anatomically speaking, they’re indistinguishable from blue-skinned human women except for their tentacle-esque hair. Even the Galactic Codex: Essentials Edition 2183 (included with the collector’s edition of Mass Effect) states that “while asari have only one gender, they are not asexual like single-celled life—all asari are sexually female.”
Above: One man, one woman
Even in Mass Effect 2’s expanded smorgasbord of intergalactic romance options, which includes no less than three girl-on-girl options, there isn’t a single option for male Shepard to romance another dude. And even then, it’s still a step back from the first game, because all three girl-girl hook-ups are confined to side romances – all six main romance options are hetero, whereas at least in one you could have a main girl-girl romance with Liara. Despite the tastefulness of each romance’s presentation, the one-sidedness of boy-girl or girl-girl only options makes it feel suspiciously like a skeevy attempt to titillate straight male gamers as opposed to actually being inclusive to girls who like girls.Why even include girl-girl options if you’re not going to include boy-boy options too?
We can only hope, given BioWare’sinclusive stance on the romance options of Dragon Age 2 (opens in new tab), that Mass Effect 3 will include a romance option for people who want to play as a gay male Shepard too.
Apr 28, 2011
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5 reasons to hate Minecraft
Indie darling status be damned, we take Minecraft to task
(opens in new tab)
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