The post Mass Effect movie turned into a TV show that never got off the ground says game director appeared first on Game News.
]]>The Mass Effect movie was initially announced by Legendary Pictures in 2010 right at the height of the franchise’s original trilogy. It was, and remains, one of the most cinematic yet personal stories in games and at the time, it seemed inevitable that Mass Effect would find a home on the big screen.
However, the film never came together. Walters has talked about just why the project never quite made it off the ground in a new interview with BusinessInsider (opens in new tab). Unsurprisingly getting the expansive and story-rich universe of Mass Effect into one neat film was a major stumbling block.
Walters said of getting the film to work: “It felt like we were always fighting the IP. What story are we going to tell in 90 to 120 minutes?”
However, that ideation eventually changed. As the project realized it wouldn’t work as a film, after a change of leadership at Legendary, it started to be considered as a TV Show instead. That would appear to be a much more natural fit for the series. However, this retooling into another medium killed the project’s momentum. Walters said, “it never picked up again after that, not for lack of trying.”
However, Walters also mentions he believes it’s only a matter of time before Mass Effect makes its way onto the screen, be it big or small. Before saying “it was not a matter of if, but when”, he revealed: “It’s such an expansive world, and so many people I know in the TV and film industry have reached out to ask me when we’re going to do it and saying we’ve got to do it”
With the sudden resurgance of video game adaptions like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat and the upcoming The Last of Us TV show and Paramount’s Halo show, Mass Effect seems like a prime candidate to make the leap next. Here’s hoping the project finally finds its footing in the future.
If you’d like to see what’s coming for the future of the franchise, check out our page showing everything we know about Mass Effect 5.
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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 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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 Its official – 92% of us are Paragon dogooders that always play as “the good guy” appeared first on Game News.
]]>Yup. Something like 92% of Mass Effect players were Paragon. And we put a lot of work in to the Renegade content too
https://t.co/lywwx7n4HyFebruary 19, 2020
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In response to a viral tweet that intimated that most of us do the right thing when it comes to morality systems in video games – even when given the option to indulge our bad-boy sides – former Mass Effect cinematic designer John Ebenger said: “Yup. Something like 92% of Mass Effect players were Paragon. And we put a lot of work in to the Renegade content too” (thanks, PCGN (opens in new tab), via ResetEra (opens in new tab)).
It’s not just Mass Effect that saw a bias towards the kinder route, either; according to former Telltale narrative designer Matt Boland, the same thing happened in Telltale games, too.
“People always want to be the good guy. The trick was always pitting what they wanted to do against what they SHOULD do. [Mass Effect] had a ton of these too,” Boland said (opens in new tab), to which Ebenger replied, “We also always tried getting them to get attached to characters with opposing needs and make them choose who they loved the most. Direct conflict between beloved characters is great!”
In related news, we recently learned the lead writer of the first two Mass Effect games, Drew Karpyshyn, is now the lead writer at Archetype Entertainment (opens in new tab), and he’s shared some candid insight into how he got there. In a blog post that updated his followers on his creative pursuits over the last few years, he was frank about his experiences with BioWare (opens in new tab) – a company that he actually left twice, once in 2012 and once in 2018, after rejoining the studio to work on Anthem.
Did we think Mass Effect gave us one of the best games of the last ten years? Check out our pick of the best games of the decade (opens in new tab).
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]]>The post 19 games banned across the world, and why they got the axe appeared first on Game News.
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Prepare the ban hammer. If you’ve been playing video games for more than five minutes, you know they have a tendency to be moral outrage magnets. If you can name it, games have been blamed for it, so it’s not too shocking that game bans have followed in force. For the children, I suppose, though I’m not sure how many children are picking up the Witcher or Command and Conquer.
Game bans brought down by someone somewhere in the world are so numerous it would be impossible to cover them all. Here are 19 high and lowlights. Prepare to be outraged for the opposite reason.

Outlast 2 is pretty grisly. There’s no denying it. There are skinned people on sticks, piles of dead babies and, every so often, a giant 9ft woman plunges a pick axe into your crotch and you watch the blood spew out from a first person perspective. Lovely. This, apparently along with inclusion of ‘implied sexual violence’ tipped the Australian Ratings Board over the edge, prompting it to refuse even handing out the highest R18 level of ratings.
However it turns out that developer Red Barrels actually sent the wrong footage in for classification. Along with the code was a video that didn’t represent the final product. Once this mistake was cleared up, Australia was free to wander the death filled cornfields. Phew.

Apparently some countries can’t handle a little rampant vandalism these days. Over in Australia, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure was refused classification (opens in new tab) (i.e. the censors wouldn’t give it a rating, which is a ban in every way but spelling) based on the idea that it glorified graffiti. And it did, since its entire premise is that a youth from a bad part of town uses the power of street art to take down rival gangs and the corrupt mayor who used an anti-graffiti campaign to cover up the fact that he murdered Trane’s father.
As you can probably guess from that description, the plot was a bit silly and kind of outside the realm of believability. Still, Australian censors thought that this game would act as a gateway to the righteous world of tagging, so it was never rated.

Command & Conquer: Generals did not do well in China, for the same reason that kneecapping Lady Liberty would likely flop in the US. Not only does the game’s China campaign open on the nuclear obliteration of Beijing (good start!), but the player is directly involved in the destruction of Chinese landmarks like the Hong Kong Convention Center and the Three Gorges Dam. What, was the Great Wall too far away?
Not only did the government of China promptly bring down the ban hammer (which they’ve done to games for less), but even Chinese gamers who went to the trouble of pirating the title weren’t pleased with it (opens in new tab). Mostly because you have the option of bombing Tiananmen Square into rubble. Can you say cultural insensitivity?

You’d think in a dystopian wasteland where danger lurks around every corner and pain is a constant companion, you could get away with taking a few much-needed hits of Vitamin M. Not so, say censors in Australia, who briefly refused classification for Fallout 3 due to the player character’s use of morphine. Don’t remember that part? That’s because the developers changed the game entirely to account for these complaints, taking morphine out for every region and replacing it with Med-X. Which has the exact same effects, of course.
The full report (opens in new tab) goes into more detail on how the game’s use of “chems” pushed it over the hill into ban town because they were just too darn much like real drugs. Ultimately the ban was lifted when the chem system was scaled back and ‘morphine’ was changed to Med-X. Good thing too, or we’d all want to be like the Lone Wanderer and hang with Sister M. I mean, who wouldn’t want that guy’s life?

In its day, Witcher 2 was refused a rating in the land down under for going down under. Haaaaa, not sorry. Specifically, the issue was a scene where sex is used as a reward for Geralt completing a quest, which he can choose whether or not to accept. Chances are this refers to a mission given to him by a succubus, and that’s kind of their M.O., but whatever. Message received, sex as a reward for actions is bad.
At least, if he accepts it. Witcher 2 was eventually released after the scene was altered so that Geralt rejects the offer by default. Bewilderingly, everything else about the scene remains the same. I get the objection behind a reward-lay (romantic interaction doesn’t follow a three-steps-and-profit scheme), but when the reward is still totally a thing and the main character just refuses to take it? I mean, I guess we know he’s a good guy, or something?

Back in November 2011, the sale of Battlefield 3 was banned in Iran. It was all thanks to a scene where American soldiers lay siege to Tehran and the Grand Bazaar. The announcement was followed by raids on game shops to nab all existing copies, while a petition bearing the signatures of 5,000 Iranians accused the game of drumming up fear of Iran in the international community. Not unexpected, since the relationship between the US and Iran is famously sticky anyway.
There’s one wrinkle, though: Battlefield 3 was never officially released in Iran. Publisher EA has no resellers in the country, so all copies available when the ban came down were pirated. Is a “shot yourself in the foot” joke crass here?

Germany wins the blue ribbon for Europe’s most intense game restrictions. While changing a human to a zombie (opens in new tab) can get a game to pass muster in the likes of the UK or France, it’ll have no such luck in Deutschland. Given that Dead Rising is all about zombies, it’s no surprise that this series has seen repeated bans in Germany. Dead Rising 3 is the latest victim, expunged from the Xbox One launch line-up in this country.
This pretty-goddamn-violent zombie thrasher is considered tolerable in many places, since your main target are fantasy legions of undead monsters. However, Germany’s Bundeprfstelle fr jugendgefhrende Medien (the gaming police) places heavy restrictions on games where you kill any human or “human-like” enemies, so zombies qualify. Then again, Gears of War 3 was deemed acceptable without edits, so I can’t pretend to understand the logic.

Two for the price of one here. In January 2013, the government of Pakistan banned Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter in one fell swoop, saying they “show the country in a very poor light.” Since both of these military shooters essentially equate Pakistan with terrorism, I’d say that’s a fair comment.
They probably should have tried to convince the country’s game retailers to accept the ban, though, or at least told them about it. On the day of the ban, the owner of Islamabad’s biggest game store claimed to have not even heard about it, and another anonymous shop-owner said (opens in new tab) “The nationalists and the religious ones don’t like [these games] but I’m not going to stop selling them.” Nothing yells louder than green it seems.

Finally, a game that wasn’t banned over political outrage. Just lesbian sex! Wait, is that better, or worse? Either way, back in 2007 Singapore banned the first Mass Effect because it contains an optional scene of lady Shepard and Liara T’soni gettin’ bizzah. While in many places this was met with newscaster pearl-clutching and adolescent fist-pumps, the ladies’ “kissing and caressing” translated to “gratuitous sex” in Singapore, which barred it from release.
Not that the ban lasted long. Originally, it went through because the nation didn’t have a proper video game rating system, making it harder to judge degrees of debauchery. However, when the ban shockingly resulted in backlash, officials used the country’s movie rating system instead, dubbing Mass Effect an M18 and lifting the ban only a few days after setting it. Now the people of Singapore can enjoy softcore lady-on-lady action to their heart’s content. Freedom.

If Iran and Pakistan’s examples are any indication, our gaming brethren in the Middle East sure know their way around a game ban. Saudi Arabian gamers are no exception, because even in the face of strict content restrictions and fines for playing banned titles, many manage to sneak prohibited games anyway. One good example is God of War 2, which was banned for sexual content (and possibly the use of the word God in the title) upon release. However, it’s still very much available for players who know where to look.
Satisfied as the nation’s moralizers were with the decision, gamers weren’t pleased, and they weren’t deterred either. Speaking to Kotaku (opens in new tab) about ways of circumventing the ban, Saudi Arabian user Alaa A explained that retailers still sell black market copies of the game, just packaged and shrink-wrapped as something else. Congratulations, Alaa, you deserve a go at that fantastical debauchery.
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EA probably could have just plopped the Mass Effect 3 single-player campaign onto the Wii U and picked up more than a fair few sales, as that’s the main draw for most players. However, today at the EA Summer Showcase they announced that they’re going all-out with the upcoming port.
The Wii U version of Mass Effect 3 will of course feature the full single-player game, but it will also feature the full set of multiplayer options, which will serve as an important early linchpin in Nintendo’s attempt to prove they’re not too far behind in the online space to compete.
This will be the first time a Mass Effect game will appear on a Nintendo console, which is somewhat at odds with Mass Effect 3’s storyline which incorporates players’ decisions (by reading their old save files) from previous installments to create a cohesive storyline through all three game while still allowing for widespread player choice.
To get around the fact that nobody could possibly have a Wii U or Wii ME1 or 2 save file, EA said they will be featuring a mechanic similar to what was available in Mass Effect 2, which allowed you to choose what happened in the previous games.
The official launch date for the Wii U (and by extension, this version of ME3) is still unknown though we imagine Nintendo must be planning to announce that relatively soon.
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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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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.

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?
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).

“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

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…

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

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Ezio and Altair are hiding plenty of flaws under those hoods

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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?
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).

“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

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…
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


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