Mass Effect: An RPG for the Masses?

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for over six months, you've probably heard of a little game called Mass Effect. The game has recently been released for the PC after an XBox360 exclusive period much like their previous titles Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, which had a XBox release for quite a while before their PC counterparts were released. While the release of Mass Effect has been comparatively quicker than those two titles, the game itself has had more than its fair share of controversy. The initial attacks on the game due to its "adult content" included a ridiculous report by Fox News that was so far skewed against the game that it couldn't be classed as anything but an abject failure of "journalism." More recently, the Digital Rights Management (DRM) features of the PC version has suffered a large amount of bad press due to the measures and limitations it places upon the installation of the game in order to attempt to prevent piracy. And attempt is the correct word, for even despite these efforts, unfortunately pirated versions of the game do exist. I won't buy into the DRM argument here, for that would be an entire article in itself.

I have to confess upfront that I'm a BioWare fan-boy, having loved pretty much everything that they've produced, but even taking that self-admitted bias out of the equation, Mass Effect is an excellent game, and worth just about every accolade that is thrown its way. The story, characterisation and universe created have a great depth, which is likely due to the fact that they spent an entire year just with writers creating all those aspects as the initial phase of creating the game. This is the sort of thing that can quite easily go unnoticed by many gamers when it's there, but if this aspect is lacking in an RPG, it'll often stick out like a car in the background of a fantasy/medieval movie. There's nothing that ruins the immersion of an RPG like a proverbial hit over the head with a plot inconsistency or non-sequitur. Mass Effect is a polished and well-rounded piece of work, and even though there are a few failings in terms of glitches, they typically don't cause too much aggravation such that it makes you want to blow away one of your own teammates.


But I didn't intend this post to turn into gratuitous praise for Mass Effect, because I'd like to consider what effect it might have on the gaming industry in terms of the development of future RPGs. Why do I think this one game could have such a profound effect? Because Mass Effect has the potential to garner a wider audience than most RPGs that have come before, and prove that the increased development time of RPG titles over the comparatively rapid production of a first person shooter is worth the effort.

Firstly, Mass Effect is that it's not a standard RPG. Why do I say that? It's not set in a medieval/fantasy environment. By and large, that is the realm of RPGs, and many people simply cannot stomach that, disliking the whole swords, magic, dragons, and everything that comes with the Dungeons and Dragons or its related ilk. Yes, I can some of you screaming that it's not the first such work, and will point to titles like Fallout or Knights of the Old Republic, but the only thing that is potentially considered more geeky than Dungeons and Dragons is a unbounded love for Star Wars. Yes, Mass Effect is still sci-fi, so there is still a certain element of geek, but seeing as it doesn't belong to any of pre-established sci-fi franchises, it gets off a little more lightly. The fact that the eye candy is nice doesn't hurt at all either.


The combat of the game is also more like an action game or a first person shooter. This is a big win because of the way that many RPGs feature dice-roll based combat that is very much in your face, resulting in your clicking on your target once, and then waiting until the dice roll in your favour and your character manages to hit and kill your opponent. Yes, there are some elements of control you have to modify your character's attacks, but the frustration of gamers screaming at their computer "Stop rolling ones dammit!!!" as a fight turns from a pushover to a defeat due to sheer misfortune is an undeniable failing of the mechanic. Sure, your shots still can go wide in Mass Effect, but there's an element of direct control that is absent in most other RPGs.


The game is also completely voiced. Any interaction between the player's character (Commander Shepard) and anyone he or she meets along the way is heard, and not read, as it usual for most RPGs. This is a big thing for gaining a new audience for RPGs. Another big turn off for non-RPG players is reading through reams of lengthy dialogue simply to get a quest to kill more monsters. It's not necessary to know someone's entire life story before they say "Go kill some orcs for me please", though failings of that ilk are not unheard of. The dialogue is snappy by necessity, and keeps the game pushing along, and even the dialogue choices that the player gets to choose are a few words that are merely a representation of the words Shepard will say.


All of these things feed into the overall cinematic feel of the game, which is the big winner for Mass Effect. After going through the process of customising their character's appearance, there's a nice introduction sequence which sets the tone for the entire game, even if the title and brief textual blurb is a little cheesy. The first hour of the game is interspersed with a health grab-bag of cut-scenes, such that the player can almost feel like they are playing a movie. The tempo and the stakes are high, the gameplay and controls are easy to pick up and understand. This cinematic feel is probably the most likely place that gamers will be converted to the genre, for the feeling of control in a movie-like experience is an appeal that is broad across a very large percentage of the gaming community. This was evidenced through the unprecedented acclaim for the single player experience of a first person shooter in the form of Call of Duty 4.

I must note that Mass Effect is by no means a perfect game, and while I've sung it praises, it does suffer from a few negatives. The AI has shortcomings at times, the main quest does suffer from being a little on the short side for an RPG, and the decryption mini-game can become a moderate annoyance, just to name a couple.

However, my aim with this article was to point out the areas in which Mass Effect has more wide ranging appeal than many other RPGs, rather than to provide a full and critical analysis of the game. (As there's already hundreds of other reviews on the web that do just that!) As an avid RPG fan, I can only hope that Mass Effect gains a comparative level of fame, and that it results in an increased RPG fan base which will raise the willingness of game companies to engage in the challenging development process that is required to produce quality games of this genre.

(Images courtesy of dignews.com)

Call of Duty 4: Fight the Lag

If, while playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live, you see me join a game only to leave 5 seconds later, please don't think I'm some kind of game-hopping n00b.  I have a good reason for visiting game after game like some kind of nomadic... er, nomad.  That reason is lag, which all Aussie online-gamers will be intimately familiar with.  Unfortunately Call of Duty 4 is not immune from this problem.  When I get a good connection (as represented by green bars) the game is fantastic, with the best players inevitably placing well on the leaderboard.  Once the connection drops to yellow- or even worse- red bars, all bets are off.  Skill has little to do with anything, and blind firing with a submachine gun on full-auto is the order of the day.  It's really very disappointing when you empty a full magazine into the enemy, only to see them stop, prop, and drill you through the forehead with a carefully-aimed shot.  All this could have been avoided if COD4 players were provided with some kind of connection filter, allowing us to filter out all games below a certain connection level.  I believe that HALO has this option, as do 99% of online PC games. As it stands, we Aussies have two options: 1. Hope that a friend is online and playing in an Aussie-dominated game (with a spare spot available to join), or 2. Spend 30 or 40 frustrating minutes searching for games, connecting to them, and then immediately leaving upon discovering that you have a woeful connection.  I'm sure that all it would take to end this misery for Aussie gamers is for a small patch to be released providing the connection filter option. In the meantime all we can do is hope and wait... 

(image from pregamelobby.com)

Interview with Amiga game music legend: Olof Gustafsson

Long-time gamers like me will fondly remember the Commodore Amiga computer, and the amazing games that were produced for it.  The Amiga kicked off the careers of many gaming industry legends, with many having roots in the Amiga demoscene.  One such legend is composer/musician Olof Gustafsson, pictured above. Olof, using the handle Blaizer, originally composed tracker music for a demogroup called The Silents.  The original members went on to form Digital Illusions, and release the awe-inspiring Pinball Dreams, followed by Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions.  



These games were lauded for not only their brilliant graphics and gameplay, but also their amazing soundtracks, which were composed by Olof.  Needless to say, Olof went on to compose many more great tunes for other Digital Illusions games. The reason I thought to post an article about Olof?  Well, I recently stumbled across an embarrassingly-inane interview with him on YouTube.  Take a look and you'll see what I mean.  I don't think language is the stumbling-block here, I think it's just a plain lack of research and knowledge.  Eg, the interviewer:

• Thinks Olof was a member of Razor 1911 (0.57 mins)
• Asks if Digital Illusions still exists (3.25 mins)
• other examples I couldn't be bothered to document

Maybe it's just me, but does Olof look like he wanted to escape at around the 2.54 min mark? 

Fans of Olof's might not realise that he is still active in the demoscene, and that he composed the music for the amazing Starstruck Amiga demo by TBL, which was the winning demo at the Assembly demo party 2006.  You can see the demo below.  It's even more impressive when you consider that it is running on an Amiga, with the music playing courtesy of the Amiga's 8-bit 4-channel 'Paula' sound chip!  The music is up to Olof's best, and I love the choreography of many parts of the demo, eg. at the 5.35 minute mark.

A higher quality version of the demo and an mp3 of the soundtrack can be downloaded here from pouet.net.

Good news for Xbox 360 gamers: in the interview Olof reveals that his new company, Epos Game Studios, will be releasing their first game via Xbox Live Arcade.  I for one can't wait!...

COD4: Xbox 360 Controller > PC's Mouse and Keyboard

I never thought I'd say this, but I have found an FPS that I prefer to play on console rather than on PC. The game is of course Call of Duty 4.  I have previously written about how much better COD4's controls are compared with other Xbox 360 FPSs, but it was only recently that I had the chance to experience COD4 on PC.  The venue was a LAN cafe in Canberra, where I joined around 30 of my workmates for an extended COD4-session. After the usual reconfiguring of controls, I began playing - confident that my previous experience with the game would hold me in good stead. But something was wrong, I just couldn't get comfortable with the controls - a first for me on a PC shooter.  Perhaps it was the lack of additional buttons on the mouse to assign various controls to, but I found that I didn't have enough fingers on my left hand to comfortably access all the functions I needed. Try as I might I couldn't reconfigure the keys any better, leaving me with the shocking revelation: Call of Duty 4 on console is superior to the PC version.  The Xbox 360 controller provides much faster and more convenient access to the controls you need, while not sacrificing aiming accuracy - the scourge of the console FPS since time immemorial. I'm no PC FPS n00b - having played more than my fair share over the years -  so this conclusion is as much of a shock to me as it is to you. It's a good shock mind-you, as it overcomes one of the last remaining bastions of PC gaming superiority... :)

(image from gadgetsandgames.co.uk)

Nintendo Wii - uh, I mean 'Vii' - review

I first saw this video on Kotaku.com.au, and just had to post it here to spread the word.  A Brit by the name of Dr Ashens has gone to the trouble of ordering a KenSingTon Vii from China to review.  And an entertaining review it is!  I particularly liked the Chinese Puzzle Bobble knock-off: Squirrel Bobble!  I actually owned a Nintendo Wii for a year... a mostly enjoyable experience, except for the lack of decent games.  By the time this problem was rectified (Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy etc) I had sold the Wii and moved on to the Xbox 360 - with no regrets at all.

While on Dr Ashens site, make sure you check out his Human Killing Machine (for Atari ST) retro-game review.  Ashen's reviewing style brings to mind Zero Punctuation, but with enough differences to be unique.  His HKM review is a reminder to all of us just how terrible some games from our past could be...

Frontlines: Fuel of War on Xbox 360... played it!

Created by the team behind the fantastic Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942, I've been waiting with baited breath for Frontlines: Fuel of War on Xbox 360.  Aside from Call of Duty 4, I haven't found a console FPS that comes close to rivaling the PC gameplay and fun of Desert Combat or Battlefield 2.  My hopes were initially lifted by Battlefield: 2 Modern Combat when it was released on PS2, but I quickly discovered that the game didn't bear much relation to its PC relation-  I thought it was pretty dire actually. 

So it was with great anticipation that I downloaded the Xbox 360 demo of Frontlines.  My initial response after playing it for 20 minutes was a longing to play Call of Duty 4 instead.  Frontlines: Fuel of War looks the business, with nice crisp graphics that remind me of Desert Combat.  The only letdown is the character animation, which sometimes looks rather stilted. The drones are interesting- driving a C4-laden RC car under a tank is fun (even though the controls leave a lot to be desired), while piloting the RC-helicopter drone brought back memories of playing through Grand Theft Auto RC missions.  

The biggest complaint I have with Frontlines - based upon the limited time I have spent playing the demo - is with the controls. The controls feel very similar to Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter's to me.  Not bad, but not great. They lack the responsiveness and accuracy of Call of Duty 4's controls, especially when it comes to precise aiming.  Which, to be honest, is what provides much of the enjoyment in an FPS.  Headshots anyone? One of the biggest compliments that I would pay Call of Duty 4 is that I never feel like it's controls inhibit me.  Just like the mouse and keyboard controls for a PC FPS, and unlike 99% of console FPS controls.  Don't get me wrong though, this game definitely has promise. Fingers-crossed that Kaos Studios and THQ take onboard feedback from the Xbox 360 demo and tweak the controls before the game is released proper...

(images from frontlines.com and gamespy.com) 

Golf GTI on your Xbox 360

It's probably old news by now (given that SEGA Rally for Xbox 360 was released back in Sept 2007) but I was overjoyed to find that the game features a Golf GTI. It is beautifully modeled, and perfect in every detail. It looks like the GTI has gained an aftermarket stubby antenna, similar to the one I ordered from parts4euro.com. The game itself is fun, being a good blend of arcade racer and driving simulation. Actually, there really isn't much simulation in the game, that is unless you count the simulated mud and dirt. The mud realistically splatters your car during a race, until you decide to drive through a puddle (a kind of DIY car wash). And the dirt road cleverly deforms over time, leaving tyre tracks and indentations in the surface. A cool idea, although I couldn't really tell the difference as I blasted around the track chasing down the opposition. My only real disappointment with SEGA Rally is that the Golf GTI is too slow when compared with the WRX and Evo. It's a pity for VW fans that SEGA brought this dose of reality into their game...

COD 4 pwns HALO 3

Am I the only person who didn't like HALO 3? Sometimes it feels like it, although Zero Punctuation's HALO 3 review gave me hope that there were people out there as underwhelmed as I was.  I bought HALO 3 on the strength of the reviews I had read, but on playing the game found it to be ordinary in the extreme.  After persevering with it for a day or so (and really wanting to like the game), I could put up with it no longer and traded it for Tom Clancy Rainbow Six Vegas.  Now there's a decent game!  

Compared with HALO 3, I  didn't have any trouble getting into Call of Duty 4.  COD 4 grabbed me from the first moment, and it hasn't disappointed since.  The single player game is absorbing and the multiplayer is intense- and with a real strategic side to it.  I was preparing myself to be let-down by COD 4 just as I was by HALO 3 (and COD 3 for Wii, come to think of it...), but it looks like the game reviewers got this one right.  :)

(images from got-next.com and activewin.com)

Sensible World of Soccer - a missed opportunity?

One of my all-time favourite games is Sensible Soccer (aka SWOS), first released for the Amiga in the early 90s.  My mates and I played Sensi to death, wearing out many TAC-2 and Konix SpeedKing joysticks in the process. The ultimate version was Sensible World of Soccer, which boasted thousands of real life players and teams from all over the world.  It was recently announced that Sensible Soccer was included in a list of the ten most important video games of all time - a fair call I reckon.  

So it was with great joy and anticipation that I downloaded Sensible World of Soccer on Xbox LIVE Arcade.  First impressions are that Sensi looks and plays just like I remember from all those years ago.  I swear that the goalkeepers seem much better in this version, but it's just as likely that my skills have diminished somewhat.  But what have Codemasters done to the online play?  - it's a mess!  It is almost impossible to host or join an online game, and when selecting teams both players control the menu at the same time.  Bizarre!  And if you are fortunate to get an online game going, prepare for l-a-g because you are going to experience a ton of it.  All in all a very disappointing experience. Fingers crossed that Codemasters rectify the problems soon.

(image from teamxbox.com)

Call of Duty 4: Martyrdom is fun

I've been playing Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare on Xbox 360 quite a lot lately.  I'm sure you all know from personal experience (or have read in the zillions of reviews on the web) just how fantastic this game is.  So I won't bore you with yet another COD4 mini review.   Although I am mostly getting M21-whipped by 14-year olds, I have managed to progress up through the ranks and obtain new perks, with Last Stand being my favourite.  Last Stand enables you to remain alive (but immobile) for a short time after being 'killed', so that you can exact some pistol-revenge on the enemy who assaulted you.  Maybe I'm just sick, but I can't help laughing each time I put a few 9mm rounds into an overzealous enemy who thinks they're about to finish me off.  Last Stand, however, pales into insignificance compared to the tastefully-named Martyrdom perk.  Martyrdom, as I have found out numerous times, causes the enemy you have just slaughtered to drop a live grenade next to their corpse.  I fall for it every time, with the grenade exploding just as it dawns on me that I should run away.  It's pretty awesome actually, except for the fact that I don't have the perk yet.

BTW, why am I having trouble getting a decent connection when playing COD4?  Occasionally I get green bars, but usually they are yellow or orange.  This doesn't help when fending off the hordes of juveniles with P90s, red-dot sights, and the ability to see around corners.  The joys of Australian broadband maybe?

(image from CharlieOscarDelta.com)