XBox Live, which should be free, is starting its siren song again. The last Halo 3 map pack is about to be free, and the next one is in the pipeline… plus one of the kids at work was just telling me about some cool game modes.
Ah man, its such a sickness.
What you won’t find me doing is buying the DLC for Mass Effect. Gods, that game was such a disappointment. I freakin’ bought my 360 for Halo 3 and Mass Effect… and while I was totally absorbed in ME on the initial play through, I found myself liking Bioshock and Crackdown far, far better.
Ironically enough- becuase of the story.
Everyone loves to gush about how great the story is in Mass Effect… to which I say: Sure, if you’re a 12 year old living in 1988.
I picked up the ME book before the game came out and was seriously impressed by the world they had created. The well thought out alien cultures, the chance for political intrigue and the tensions running high amongst a ancient and complex Galactic civilization that’s having difficulty absorbing upstart Humanity into its ranks. Lots of potential, and potential is what gets geeks aestheticly horny. What do we get in the game?
World-Beater Plot.
Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good world beater plot… or at least I have in the past. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about I’ll lay it out for you: Star Wars, Good Omens, The Invisibles, Starcraft, Lord of the Rings, Battlestar Galactica, Heroes Vol. 1… these are all “world-beater” plots. The stakes are as high as they can get: the world as you know it (galaxy, universe, whatever) is at risk. Everything you know and love is going to die if the forces of good don’t come through and save the day.
Fine, great, strap me in some Spartan armor and call me Master Chief, toss me a lightsaber and a proton pack and I’m ready to roll.
Yet its not the only plot in existence. With the world they had set up in the novel I was hoping that we wouldn’t go right into “Giant External Threat Brings The Disparate Races Together” mode. Let that shit stew. Float around a bit and get some extra… okay I’ll drop that metaphor. Didn’t like where it was going… but you feel me, right?
I mean why establish a whole bunch of alien races with variously nuanced and not so nuanced attitudes towards the human race if you’re just going to throw a Big Bad in at the beginning of the second act of the first episode of a planned trilogy? I’ve done that shit before. Lived that fantasy a hundred million times… and Bioware has done that plot before as well: KOTOR, Jade Empire? WORLD-BEATERS.
Ugh. Ah.
There. Off my chest. Finally .
Been waiting months to say that. Maybe I wanted to say it more poetically, but sometimes, esp. with the deep nerditry, you just have to get it out, frothing rant style.
