02/02/2021 (1 of 1 found this helpful)

Massive Affective Disorder

Back at the dawn of what would become the dismal 7th Generation, BioWare, the development team that single-handedly revived the concept of Dungeons & Dragons-based RPGs on PC under the guiding hand of publisher, InterPlay, had been cut loose in the wake of said publisher’s untimely collapse. Adrift and in the mood to make foolish decisions, BioWare actually sublet the D&D license for which they had been such wonderful stewards to Atari (delenda est) and moved on to making a ‘Star Wars’ themed RPG and a stand-alone Orientalist RPG called “Jade Empire,” both of which were targeted at the original Xbox, and both of which danced dangerously close to the line between RPG and Action, frequently stepping over it.

Their debut title for the 7th Generation’s Xbox 360, however,...

Rating of
2.5/5 

07/03/2012 (1 of 2 found this helpful)

I beg you, just don't play as a Soldier...

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the Mass Effect series is going to come out of this console cycle as one of the most important new IPs of the generation. If I don’t have a feel for the pulse of the industry and I’m wrong... well... then it’s their loss. Mass Effect does so many things so well (and so consistently well over the series) that the rest of the industry SHOULD be feeling pressure to step their game up.

Did I tip my hand a little early, there? Well, I guess it’s too late now: I really liked Mass Effect. To me, Mass Effect felt like a new level of success in areas video games are sometimes notorious for failure. It’s weird to say, and in a vacuum, could come off as a back-handed compliment, but my favorite parts of Mass Effect were the parts that really w...

Rating of
4/5