Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Initially I had a load of things I wanted to say and analyse about Mass Effect 3′s ending, but then a week passed and I realised I’d stopped personally being bothered by what that notorious final cutscene did or didn’t answer. I’d had an adventure, and now it was time for another one. Mass Effect games have always been peculiarly adept at entirely dominating my thinking for a while, but quickly enough something else always comes along to distract me. The concluding moments of the game remain a bone of contention for many, however, and so much so that it’s taken me nearly 700 words just to document the current state of the online debate.

I’ve avoided all direct spoilers and narrative details in the below, but there are a few oblique references to the manner in which the conclusion is presented which you might want to steer clear of if you’ve not finished the game.
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EA send word that their game of multi-player laser-swords will soon be featuring free weekends, the page for which is here. It reports that the first free weekend is “Thursday, March 15 at 12:01AM CT through Monday, March 19 at 2:00AM CT.” There are some more details just here, most notable restrictions on chat options to stop you being a big old gold spammer, restrictions to “Origin World, Capital World, the Fleet, all Warzones, and in their first Flashpoint”, and a level cap of 15. Should still be enough to give you a good free taste of the thing, of course.

A lot of the Mass Effect 3 reviews are focusing on the bleakness of Bioware’s story, and quite a few are shocked at the game’s darkness in regard to the choices they made. Some guy called Tom Francis over at whatever the heck PC Gamer is, has figured out exactly why it’s even darker than expected, and it’s a bit of a dodgy trick that BioWare have pulled if true. No, it’s not new-news as such, but it is worth reiterating strongly now the game’s out in some territories. I’ll go into details after the jump, as I’m aware some people view even the words Mass Effect 3 as some sort of spoiler. As long as no-one spoils the ending of Se7en in the comments: I’ve had it on pause for on my VHS for about 16 years. I keep intending to return, but it’s just so tense!
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Mass Effect 3 is still a day away in the US and four days away in the UK (unless you happen to know of some way to make your PC’s IP address appear to based in Hong Kong, in which case you could play the game right now) but we are left with another option if we’re craving immediate Biowarian intergalactic adventures. If you don’t have a subscription to Star Wars: The Old But Mysteriously Similar To The New Republic but know someone who does, you could be in luck. Starting tomorrow is the Friends Trial, which means subs can invite in chums for a week of free play and access to everything the game contains up until level 15.

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So I am busy playing through Mass Effect 3 at the moment, with my collected thoughts on the events, happenings, and systems therein to appear on Tuesday. I’ve been doing a bit of retrospective browsing over the first two games, too, and comparing events in those to the events in the third game. This process led me to wonder this: what has been your favourite event in the games so far? And why?

As a follow up question: who is your favoured character? Garrus seems like the obvious choice for acerbic/murderous sidekick, and I generally take him on missions for the sound of his voice, but I think Thane was the highlight of Mass Effect 2. Anyway: speak your brains, show your working.

The ex-BioWare bods, Stoic, with their offices in a goat shed have released a trailer for the intriguing The Banner Saga. Revealing the traditional animation style, as well as the ye-olde-school grid-based turn-based combat, along with RPG-like dialogue options, it gives you an idea of the tone being aimed at, if not how it will feel to play. We’ve also got some rather lovely screenshots that we’ll even let you look at. If you’re good.

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No. Nooo. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo way. Destructoid writer but not X-Files creator Chris Carter (who is probably incredibly bored of that reference) has been doing a bit of maths, which immediately makes him a more capable human being than I am. The purpose of this mathleticism was to collate all the disparate bits of DLC, pre-order bonus, unlocks and whatnot available for the upcoming marketing monolith that is Mass Effect 3, and just how much it’d cost someone to lay hands on the whole shebang. Take a seat before you read the next line.

$870/£550/€650. Whaaaat.

It must, however, be pointed out that much of that horror-price stems from having to buy bonus code-sporting hardware such as special gamepads, keyboards and headsets, or Mass Effect 3 merch such as multiple action figures and iPhone cases.
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