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2 months ago
Feature: GPUs and HDR explained
What graphics card do I need for HDR and what PC games support it?
HDR on PC hasn't improved much in 2019. Despite there being more HDR gaming monitors than ever before, the very [block id="604469" title="Best gaming monitor"]s for HDR continue to be quite expensive compared to non-HDR monitors, and the situation around Windows 10 support for it is still a bit of a mess. However, provided you're willing to fight through all that, then the next step on your…
2 years ago
BioWare boss: not releasing Andromeda DLC was ‘a defining moment’ driving studio to refocus on story
The general manager of BioWare has said that not releasing story DLC for Mass Effect: Andromeda and leaving much-wanted tales untold was "a defining moment in refocusing BioWare's mission", which will inform Anthem. Casey Hudson talked up the importance of story and characters in a 'studio update' blog post yesterday. Given that I've forgotten almost everything I've heard of the action-RPG's story (it's on a…
Feature: The Scrooge Special
We've told you about the most overlooked games and what has us excited for next year, but we haven't had a good grump yet on the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. So this week the team discuss the worst games they played in 2017. John thinks the misogyny of House Party puts it firmly in the bin, and Brendan is still wiping the red…
Mass Effect 2 & 3 overhauled with a huge fan-made texture pack
Face still feeling tired after the whole Mass Effect: Andromeda debacle? Well, the earlier, better games haven't stopped existing, y'know. Maybe revisiting them with a slightly more 2017 look will scratch your itch. For instance, with these mods that add over 3,000 replacement, higher-res, 4K-friendly textures to Mass Effect 2 & 3.
Mass Effect: Annihilation is a tie-in novel that will reveal the fate of the Quarians and Elcor
Mass Effect Andromeda was so tremendously dull -- just read John’s Andromeda review -- that it appears to have killed off a whole franchise (or at least put it in a coma). While I absolutely don’t think it earned a sequel, it is a shame that there are so many story threads left hanging. Like what the hell happened to all the other aliens from…
The singleplayer side of Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site] is now officially as done as it'll ever be, as BioWare have confirmed they have no plans for more singleplayer patches or any singleplayer DLC. Multiplayer additions and events will continue but Andromeda's singleplayer is complete. Given that it was a disapointing new start for the sci-fi RPG series, that doomsaying rumours have circulated for months,…
Electronic Arts are merging BioWare Montreal, the spin-off studio who made Mass Effect: Andromeda, into Motive Studios. EA say that "more than ever, we're driving collaboration between studios on key projects". It seems that, after Andromeda, the folks of BioWare Montreal are being drafted to work on others' projects again. Motive, who are also in Montreal, are currently chipping in on Star Wars Battlefront 2…
If you've been holding off on Mass Effect Andromeda [official site], which is entirely understandable whether you're a fan of the series or not, perhaps a ten hour free trial is just what you need to decide whether the trip is worth your time and money. Previously available to EA Access subscribers, the trial is now open to everyone. It gives you ten hours of…
A new higher difficulty setting and, seemingly, batarian troops are coming to the cooperative multiplayer of Mass Effect: Andromeda in a future update. Unhelpfully, Electronic Arts don't have much to say about either at this point. They don't have much to say about anything connected to Andromeda these days. Rumours are floating around that no follow-up is coming and that nor are any singleplayer expansions.…
Feature: Faster than a bard shot out of a cannon
It's Summer Games Done Quick time again! You know what that means. The final seal has been broken, the rivers are turning to blood, and High Dread Azagorath is free to destroy the land. But while people wait, they're doing speed-runs. And in celebration of that, I thought I'd take a dig through the archives for a few particularly impressive and interesting ones that take…
3 years ago
Men of space, soon you may hold, thrill, and kiss Jaal in Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site]. BioWare have announced the next patch for their boldly-going RPG, which will expand the character creator options, rework an awkwardly-written trans character, fix some bugs and balance bits, and make Jaal smoochable by both male and female Ryders. It won't fix Andromeda's broader boringness but hey, I never…
Feature: The casualties of being spoilt for choice
We are living in a golden age of big-budget PC games that offer us choice and freedom. Be they descendants of the System Shock model - finding a route around a meticulously-crafted, locked-down and hostile place, most recently seen in Prey [official site] - or the roleplaying games based around choice and consequence rather than action alone, they are legion. There are so many, even,…
It's a bloodbath in Old Gamestown today. Square Enix have tragically called a halt to Agent 47's Hitman career, despite his being at the peak of his powers, and meanwhile Kotaku report on rumours that EA has grounded the Mass Effect series in the wake of frowny reception to this year's Mass Effect Andromeda [official site]. Word is that the devs have been moved onto…
A new patch for Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site] has blasted off with performance improvements, a few tweaks to cinematics and animations, and plenty of bug fixes. Good news: your robopal has stopped lying about you having new e-mail. Bad news: you can no longer romance both Peebee and Cora or Vetra (not that Andromeda's romances are much cop). Update 1.06 is now live so…
Feature: Words read: 2 / 1921
Previously in this column, somehow not taken up by the industry as of yet, I suggested that the word 'quest' was being somewhat damaged of late by the fact that it can be anything from 'Kill the Great Red Dragon' to 'bring me some orange juice.' I advocated a system where instead, tasks were split between two basic categories - what used to justifiably be…
Feature: Doing what developers aren't
Hannah just wanted to be a farmer. Not a male farmer. Not a female farmer. Just a farmer that didn't have to suffer NPC after NPC lumping them into one gender or the other. Hannah's hopes rose with the release of Stardew Valley, but after jumping into the farming sim they discovered it offered only male and female gender identities, with he/she pronouns to match.…
The first of several planned updates designed to address various criticisms of Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site] landed yesterday, and though it comprises 20 main fixes, one stands out above all else. If the eyes are the window to the soul, then the glassy sexbot stares of MEA's launch version certainly contributed to unfavourable impressions. The new v1.05 update's toned down the inhumanity of the…
Feature: Nothing new under the new sun
Mass Effect multiplayer underlines Andromeda’s by-the-numbers design
I don't believe that Mass Effect: Andromeda [official site] is a train wreck. I do believe that it feels like a game made to spec, and is oddly soulless as a result. In singleplayer, this is to some extent disguised behind crusading dialogue and regular planet-hopping, but in multiplayer it is laid bare.
Feature: We review relationships
Mass Effect Andromeda’s romances are more elaborate and more forgettable
In Mass Effect’s twin galaxies of the Milky Way and Andromeda, there’s a lot of smooching to be done, along with awkward flirting, saucy trysts and deep romantic connections with pretty alien boys and girls. BioWare’s been tinkering with its sexiest system for years, even before Mass Effect let us play out our embarrassing Kirk fantasies. And with Andromeda, they’ve promised even more junk-to-junk shenanigans,…
Feature: You don't need angry monsters to create sci-fi drama
Note: I had this post brewing in my head over the past week, while I was off on holiday, but the good folks at Waypoint ran something apparently similar before I could write it. No matter, as I'm yet to read that piece beyond the headline, I'll write something anyway, albeit briefer, in the hope it doesn't entirely replicate it. Admittedly I'm 'only' twelve hours…
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