Having now completed Mass Effects 1 through 3 and found Alenko to be the character with whom I could empathise the most, I decided to take an in-depth look at him, how he fits with the Mass Effect world, and what makes his a Jane Eyre for the 22nd Century.

What I found myself now creating is more of a defence for him. He deserves your love and respect.

Please note: This article contains plenty of spoilers. Enter at your own risk!

Kaidan tends to get sidelined, even in the promotional material. His face is missing from box art, and you don’t often see him in screen caps. There may be an explanation for this, and that’s probably because the promo art focuses on a male Shepard, but Williams (about whom I shall talk momentarily) features more. If this is the case; it is almost understandable, except in the larger context of friendships, relationships and partnerships, which is a large aspect of his character, as I will demonstrate.

I have played many Shepards since the early days of Mass Effect, but unfortunately imagination is something I have lacked for almost every iteration. I always plan on making each Shepard a different Shepard, but for one reason or another, they all seem to come out as largely Biotic and mostly Renegade. One thing has always been the same and that is that I have never played a male Shepard. Shepard is a woman, and I have never had a desire to play as a man. For the purposes of ease, throughout this paper I will refer to Shepard as a woman, except where expressly necessary to do otherwise.

Eden Prime: Jenkins, Williams and Alenko
Alenko is the longest-serving member of Shepard’s playable crew, and as such has an existing rapport with her. He is part of the ground crew on Eden Prime at the beginning of the first act and, unlike the unfortunate Jenkins, manages to make it around the first corner and up the slope without dying. It isn’t long before the two of you bump into Ashley Williams in her pink and white bubble-gum armour, running from the battle with the Geth that has broken out.

Try as you might, you can’t avoid being joined by Williams, and so you become a trio of humans seemingly almost solely responsible for the defence of humanity’s colonial flagship that is Eden Prime. There are a few moments in Mass Effect where Kaidan Alenko says or does something that shapes his character, and it is not long before we come across the first. After meeting a couple of survivors, one of whom is clearly a bit doolally, Shepard engages them in conversation. Without feeling, while choosing exorbitantly harsh responses, Shepard smacks the babbling man over the head with the butt of her pistol.

“That… may have been a little extreme, Commander,” says a quiet but firm Alenko.

He remains unfazed behind her, yet lets Shepard know what he thinks. His manner is relaxed, as if this is not the first time he has pointed out to his superior officer where she may be a little out of line. The lack of response from Shepard serves to reinforce the hunch I have about the depth of their friendship; she will smack a stranger over the head on little more than a whim, but not pull up this particular insubordinate subordinate.

We do not know the military etiquette of the future, but it is safe to assume that one would need an unusually good relationship with one’s superior officer to get away with such a remark, especially in front of others, and even more so in the presence of a brand new comrade, as is true of today. The military of Mass Effect does not seem to be too dissimilar from our own, for all their fancy guns and motorised jointed armour upgrades.

They have big guns in the future

Kaidan later accidentally triggers the Prothean Beacon on Eden Prime and is pulled out of the way by Shepard, who receives the vision and suffering in his place. If you choose to have Shepard vindicate Kaidan of blame upon regaining consciousness, Kaidan seems quietly pleased. While the nature of Kaidan and Shepard’s friendship seems natural, unfortunately, his smile at this point does not. It seems shy and for the audience only, which is a shame, because you are momentarily taken out of the game to be told (albeit visually) that Kaidan is someone whose character is manipulable from a gameplay point of view. It feels disjointed and out of place.

Ashley Williams, by comparison, is harsh and brash. Maybe witnessing Kaidan’s remark made her believe that she could get away with speaking back to Shepard, but having just met her, her attitude is out of line. For reasons that will become apparent, I sent out a plea for help via Twitter for this article, and one thing that came up time and time again in the feedback, although not directly related to the questions that I was posing, was that Alenko and Shepard’s relationship goes back beyond the start of the story; Williams, (and all the other selectable characters) meet Shepard along the way.

This validates the friendship between Kaidan and Shepard, and gives them a common and unique bond. I felt Williams was out of line in some of her responses to me, and therefore so did Shepard. In fact Shepard even asked “do you have a problem with me?” If it were me, I would have told her where to shove it… or just shoved her out of the air lock.

Virmire: Williams or Alenko
Kaidan and Williams shadow each other throughout much of the first Mass Effect in the trilogy, in that you are ultimately working towards sacrificing one of them, although you won’t know that at the start. It is fitting that out of the two humans that you have on board; you have to send one to their death in order to advance the struggle for the survival of humanity against the Reaper threat. For me, this ‘choice’ was not a choice at all.

It seems mean, but having not really wanted Williams on the Normandy in the first place, and having never needed her, nor picked her for my squad, she was easily dispensable. You get the option to tell Kaidan afterwards that there was no way you could have chosen him to die in her place. He is suitably humble, yet sad that your decision came down to the fact that you like him a lot more than her. I can’t help it, Kaidan, and here is why.

Kaidan Alenko gets written off as being boring and ‘whiny’ (whatever the hell that means). What we are really witnessing is a quiet and sensitive man that will open up to you if you stop for a chat.  He doesn’t like crowds or a lot of noise, but he appreciates a good view. He could so easily be a stereotype. He is a soldier. He carries guns. He is handsome. He could be a tough, macho sort that scores high on the Rambo scale of Being a Man, but BioWare chose to subvert this. In what is a bold move they opted to make him surprisingly reserved and stoical.

It is perhaps a little saddening that such a choice has been ridiculed by many. The emphasis in media is on the perception and representation of women in video-games, and yet few people stop to point out the stereotypical nature of many of the men we see. Alenko is not a cardboard cut-out handsome soldier, and for this alone he, and BioWare, should be praised, and certainly not laughed at.

Kaidan’s reservation and self-control is a direct result of an incident from his youth. As a human of significant biotic talent, he found himself part of a small group on ‘Jump Zero’. The conditions there were poor, and he and his classmates were treated badly by a Turian named Vyrnnus. Kaidan recounts an incident to Shepard in which he lashed out with his biotic powers and killed the Turian in defence of a girl to whom he had become close. The girl was shocked by this, and as a result rejected him. It can easily be argued that this made Kaidan who he is today; determined not to make the same mistake again he keeps himself together, even to a fault.

Kaidan with all his biotic awesomeness.

@ShepskiGuy had this to say on the matter in response to my Twitter plea: “People always say how interesting Jack [another human Biotic] is as a character. I like her too, but Jack is predictable. I expect her to snap, get angry, etc… She is like that all the time. With Kaidan you can’t exactly predict when he will snap. Unpredictability is more dangerous. Emotions that aren’t unleashed build up over time and when they are finally released they will be much stronger than if they were gradually vented.”

So not only is Kaidan in all his quiet glory not a corny stereotype; there is also a good reason for his manner. Does this make him boring and ‘whiny’? If you say so.

Captain’s Cabin: Shepard and Alenko?
As a female Shepard, the option to have your wicked way with Kaidan is open to you. Why not, I thought? Again this came up time and again in the feedback I received from people. Kaidan and Shepard have an existing friendship and have a lot in common; there is a natural progression. Liara (the other option open for my female Shepard) was a bit too full on; she speaks very passionately about a lot of very interesting things, but when it came down to it I thought my Shepard would want to be rogered up against the wall. Smouldering, brooding Kaidan seemed the most likely to offer that sort of release.

The inclusion of a ‘romance’ storyline is logical and not surprising, given that some time passes on board the Normandy, and Shepard is cooped up with the crew… What isn’t so realistic is that in the first game the characters appear, on the surface, to be heterosexual (with the exception of Liara, but being from a species with only one gender, to ‘her’ any relationship is a relationship). It also strikingly odd that you are unaware of relationships around you. You do not get the impression that your crew are busy having some ‘how’s-your-father’ in the Communication Room while you are plotting your course on the Galaxy Map. At this stage, you are the centre of all sexual attention, and out of three possible bed mates, only two are effectively open to you.

Megan Smith, another to kindly give feedback regarding their experience with Alenko added this: “As for Kaidan liking me? Not really surprised. One of the best lines I ever heard was that the NPCs of games are not ‘bisexual’, they are starstruck. Despite your race/gender/origins, they end up falling for ‘you’, whoever you are.”

This backs up my point; there are no other obvious romances on-board the Normandy. Those that are so inclined will make themselves known to you, and you alone. It is then a nice change when you meet with Cortez in the third instalment of the series, and he tells you that he is mourning the loss of his husband, whose life was lost in the on-going fight to save humanity. Up until this point there is a definite feeling that people in the Mass Effect universe are hero-sexual, rather than anything else.

Moving away for a moment from the discussion about sexuality before I run too far with it, by the time you reach Mass Effect 2 Shepard has been killed. This is just a teensy hiccup for her, and she returns stronger. Shepard runs into Kaidan Alenko on Horizon, and the man is all grown up. He has been promoted, and is doing very well for himself, thank you very much. Yelling out to him had no effect; he was pissed off with me beyond belief. This is the second particularly significant point in his Mass Effect career that I want to point out to you.

Horizon: Alenko and Shepard don’t quite reunite
Having been resurrected and duct taped back together by Cerberus, an ever so slightly dodgy human organization, you now find yourself working for them. You will remember that I banged on for a while about the length and depth of Alenko’s relationship with Shepard? Well, his total mistrust of Cerberus (which we all know to be well placed) prevented him from running back to Shepard wholeheartedly, or, in fact, at all. This should alone tell you that something pretty massive is going on with Cerberus, and they really are bad people. Yes, personally I was annoyed (no, ‘heart-broken’) at his reaction. For a start I was getting pretty bored with Jacob and Miranda who I was being forced to play with.

The general fan reaction to this event was, in my view, a little narrow-minded. I read the phrase that he “dropped Shepard like a hot potato”, and that was one of the nicer comments. Kaidan remains firm at the expense of a friendship, and quite possibly a relationship, whereas I believe that previously he may not have. He has begun to fulfil his potential as a leader rather than a follower.

The trouble is, without knowing exactly how much was planned for Kaidan from the start, it is hard to say how much BioWare were out of line. Kaidan got a largely negative reaction (for being ‘whiny’, remember) and was then almost side-lined in the second instalment. How much of the first influenced the latter?

I can only hope that BioWare stuck to their guns, and that this was always the plan for Kaidan (although with the recent debacle about the ending I don’t know that I can be too confident). The point that I am leading to is that Kaidain’s treatment of Shepard on Horizon stands to show that the quiet, reserved man that needs a few nice words from his commanding officer to open up (and boy does he open up?!) has enough integrity to step out from the shadow of that very officer and even has the balls to tell her where to shove it.

If he was starstruck in Mass Effect 1, he isn’t any longer. While I would have loved to have Shepard continue her night-time antics with Alenko aboard the Normandy, for the purposes of the overall story and Kaidan’s character arc, I am pleased I wasn’t able to. As it was, Garrus and Shepard grew much closer. Awesome turian is awesome.

So, on to Mass Effect 3.

There is a lot to be said between Shepard and Kaidan whether or not they are exes. For a start, when he accuses you of cheating (if you romanced anyone else in Mass Effect 2):

The infamous line!

Kaidan is now very much his own man. He becomes a Spectre, which I think is a nice touch, as he follows in Shepard’s footsteps, but out from under her wing. Kaidan is unfortunately laid-up in hospital for a while following an incident on Mars (I say this is unfortunate, but it does allow for quite a few shirtless Kaidan scenes. I am okay with that, to be honest). Anyway, it was at this point that I knew that Kaidan was now an independent and confident officer in his own right. While I was happy for him and so proud of him, I did feel a little pang and a slight twanging of the heartstrings that he was no longer mine.

The final defining moment that I would like to talk about in this rush through of Kaidan’s development arc is that happening on the Citadel involving Udina. Shepard comes gun to gun with Kaidan, both of whom are protecting that which they believe to be the victim of an attack, rather than the perpetrator. Being not entirely sure myself, I hesitated, and as a result Kaidan was shot and killed.

Thank goodness for the ability to reload previous saves.

Just in case you didn't believe me...

I have never loaded a previous save to reset any unfortunate incident or poor choice in the whole of Mass Effect up to this point, but so angry was I that Kaidan lay dead that I would have replayed hours to see him live again. I have largely played Shepard how I would have reacted in similar situations (with a little more attitude and a lot more daring) so it is worth noting here that should anyone want to conscript me if we ever get invaded by aliens: I would have risked humanity and the rest of the galaxy for Kaidan. I didn’t care whether Udina was good or bad. I just cared that Kaidan lived. Seeing him all grown up and fully fledged and then all dead on the floor seemed like a terrible joke.

So for entirely selfish reasons Shepard invited Kaidan back onto the Normandy, and the two were reunited. Shepard felt momentarily bad for essentially stifling her protégé in this way, but not bad enough to say “no, you go and be fabulous without me”.

I realise this has been a fairly long and rambling recounting of my Mass Effect experience, but I think it is important to highlight the moments that really make Alenko the man that he is. There is one final aspect of Kaidan Alenko that simply cannot be ignored, and that is that by Mass Effect 3, he is available for romancing again, and this time, if you are playing as a male Shepard you also have this option. For some people, this was a long time coming. For others it was disgusting. For some it was a lazy and shoehorned reaction to satisfy those that wanted a male homosexual storyline.

Kaidan Alenko, “WTF? I THOUGHT HE WAS STRAIGHT LULZ!!?”
Having never played Shepard as a man, this side of Kaidan’s character was completely cut off for me, so I sent out a tweet asking for input from anyone that had seen a male Shepard relationship through with Kaidan. I didn’t expect many people to have done so (as by this time I was discovering that ‘boring and whiny’ perception of him, and coupled with the many barriers there are to Kaidan actually being alive at this point, the field narrows significantly) so asked for a retweet (a practice which mostly I find abhorrent). Seventy or so retweets later I was being inundated with responses from people that had done just that, and who were only too happy to help me out.

I was mostly interested to explore whether the relationship was forced, shoehorned or tasteful and natural. The majority of people that responded were male, although I wasn’t specifically looking for that. Most claimed to initially like him, although one (Malcolm Swoboda @MalcolmSwoboda) still found him boring and whiny.

I found his experience interesting, as his perception was not strong, but negative none the less. This boiled down to the fact that he did not feel that the character was developed especially well; his experiences as one of the first human Biotics was under-explored, and that Jack got more out of this in Mass Effect 2. The ongoing saga of Cerberus and Kaidan’s subsequent mistrust was also a cause for concern, although I disagree here. I believe that Kaidan needed something like this in order to grow into himself.

So it is interesting that despite the reservations that Malcolm had about Kaidan, he had romanced no one else in all three games. I asked him whether he had ‘saved himself for Kaidan’ he had this response: “Yes. Exactly, and no one else. In ME2, I found no one appealing except maybe Jacob for a lay. In ME3 James and Cortez were somewhat tempting, but when I mistakenly kissed Cortez I immediately reloaded my game, as I knew Kaidan was waiting for me.”

One might question why you would wait for someone who you don’t even know is likely to return your affections, and I did. “He is hot enough. I think Shepard needed a calming person to help him through things, and aside from the Cerberus stupidity, Kaidan was exactly that”. People have often cited Liara as the ‘canon’ romance in Mass Effect, and aside from the fact that I don’t know how an undefined story can be canon, several people I spoke to would nominate Kaidan for that post, for the reason that Malcolm stated.

Malcolm was not the only person to have not romanced anyone else. People play RPGs differently from the next person, but it is unlikely that nothing of one’s self is put into a character build, and game developers should know this. It is perfectly reasonable to expect all reasonable tastes to be catered for.

“My Shepard was gay, just like me, and I always hoped there would be a romance option as the series went on. Even if they wouldn’t implement it in ME3, I told myself that Jay (my Shepard) would just end up saving the universe without a paramour; his sexuality being one of the many unexplained facets of his life unnecessary to completing the mission,” says Jay Lee Warren, another respondent.

I don’t intend to lambast BioWare for any decision they did or did not make during the making of the first Mass Effect, however I will point out the double standard of allowing a female Shepard the option of romancing Liara. This is a slightly grey area, though, as an individual from a one gender species, Liara is technically neither male nor female. However, to look at she has clearly been designed as a lesbian fantasy wet dream, so that argument is thin.

A fully and properly homosexual relationship was offered in Mass Effect 2, but only if your Shepard was a female Shepard. There was still one chunk of society (if we divide society up by their sexuality; another issue) that were not catered for. It was not until Mass Effect 3 that people with male Shepards were in a position to do what everyone else already could; have their Shepard sleep with whichever gender they desired. Some people, however, argued that making that option Kaidan Alenko was wrong, because Kaidan is ‘straight.’

Now, I haven’t played every possible permutation of Mass Effect, so I may have missed it, but I don’t believe Kaidan has ever said “I like women. I only like women, and I will never have sex with a man because I like women”. This is where I came across a startling amount of homophobia, ranging from the casual to the deliberate and disgusting. I saw this aspect of character design referred to as a ‘re-mod’, as if he could not possibly have ever been interested in men.

Aidan Dullard put it very eloquently in an email to me: “I always had a firm view that unless a character ever popped up on-screen and said “Hey Shepard, I only like men/women/gerbils”, we couldn’t definitively state their sexuality, and so the screaming about Alenko (or Shepard!) being ‘straight’ for two games is, quite frankly, nonsense.”

This isn’t just true for fictional characters; it is true for life. Even stranger was the idea that Shepard was straight, and therefore should remain so. This is a character that you can impose whatever attributes you wish, but he (or she) ‘isn’t gay’. People complain that there is not enough substance to Kaidan, but when another aspect of his character is revealed, it is wrong, because he wasn’t that before. Double standards.

Several of my lovely volunteers shared my view on why it is hardly surprising that Kaidan isn’t fussed which type of plumbing his partner has. I have already talked quite extensively about the state of the friendship between the two, and also the reservation of Alenko. He doesn’t give much of himself away, but will open up if you talk nicely to him. The two share a lot, so it isn’t unlikely that they share a mutual regard, and love. Whether or not Kaidan himself knew it, I suspect he has been in love with Shepard for a long time. Should he have been saved on Virmire by a male Shepard, his reaction on Horizon serves to prove this. He feels betrayed and conflicted.

Don't worry, humanity!

There is another theory that I have about Kaidan’s sexuality, and that is that sometime in the (hopefully) not too distant future people will just learn to accept that people fancy people regardless of gender. I am not suggesting that everyone will be bisexual, but the subject of who a certain person is, or is not attracted to does not boil down to the contents of their underwear.

Captain Jack Harkness is a good example in media of this attitude. He makes the point early on when Gwen Cooper kisses another woman. “I thought she had a boyfriend,” says Owen Harper. Jack Harkness responds with “You people and your quaint little categories…” BioWare may be making a subtle statement that sexuality is a non-issue, and whether or not Kaidan has ever found another man attractive is irrelevant; he finds Shepard attractive now, and that is all that matters.

Another criticism of Kaidan’s apparently late declaration of his bisexuality was that it was wedged in to satisfy those that had campaigned for a full male homosexual story line. Why not introduce a new character? Well, BioWare did, in the shape of Steve Cortez, although as Jay Lee Warren pointed out it seemed a bit ‘vulture-esque’ to leap into bed with someone who has just lost their husband.

The fact that Kaidan was not available for male romance in the original Mass Effect cannot be undone, but to exclude the option of a deep, meaningful male homosexual romance would have been short-sighted and potentially damaging. The suggestion would be that homosexual relationships are short-lived… That is how I would read it, anyway. By implementing a Shepard/Alenko relationship, BioWare are not undoing the mistake they made in Mass Effect 1, but neither are they leaving themselves open to accusations of homophobia regarding the length, depth and significance of homosexual relationships.

Time to move on before the remaining readers among you fall off your chairs and into a deep coma. Raphael Sbarge (Kaidan’s voice actor) produces a podcast. He recorded one after a session working on Mass Effect 3 and claimed that it was shaping up to be the most emotionally charged of the three, and I believe he was spot on. During the final scene down on the streets of London, Shepard has the opportunity to speak to her remaining crew one by one, before she selects the final people that she will lead into battle. Should she speak with Kaidan, assuming they reconciled, or started up a fresh relationship, you will be rewarded with some genuinely moving moments between them.

You will remember that I yelled at the screen when Shepard was on Horizon, to no avail. Well, yelling “kiss her, godammit!” at the screen during this scene does work. Shepard and Kaidan embrace, and kiss once more. This felt a lot more climactic than the proposition scene, in which Kaidan buys you dinner and the two of you come to the decision that you need to do something about all the hormones.

Too much?

It seems to make no difference whether Shepard is a man or a woman; this scene is not what it should be. Several years have passed since the two of you met, and whether or not you have previously had a relationship should not matter; you have been through a lot together and come out the other side stronger.

Finally Kaidan says the two of you need to get back to the Normandy quickly, and on hearing this I expected to see them on the floor or against the wall in the docking bay. I told you he appreciates a good view, didn’t I? Well, once you do get back to the Normandy Kaidan takes up residence in the Starboard viewing deck for what seems like an eternity. He will talk to you briefly, but not engage in a full conversation until sometime later. However, when he turns up at your cabin door with a bottle of wine and a smile you can feel fairly sure that it isn’t out of the window that he will be looking.

Kaidan Alenko, and Jane Eyre
The development arcs of Jane Eyre and Kaidan Alenko are remarkably similar. Kaidan is shy, reserved, and excessively self-controlling, and like Charlotte Bronte’s heroine, he built his persona on a traumatic event from his youth. Jane Eyre snapped early in life, and suffered the consequences of her aunt’s rage for much of the rest of her life. Kaidan’s suffering, or at least his inability to relax and release his emotions, came as a result of his own turmoil.

He also snapped and suffered the consequences for many years to come. Jane Eyre’s story and Kaidan’s mirror each other further, as they both felt betrayed and let down by those to which they had respectively opened up. However, they did not let Shepard nor Mr Rochester get the better of them, and they both found the means and strength of character to pull themselves together, learn from their experiences and return as the equal of their former mentors.

One of the points I am really trying to make is that it is entirely possible for people to see two (or many more) totally different sides of a character’s development and arc, especially in this example, in which the narrative is not entirely set in stone. I accept that many people have some valid points regarding Kaidan Alenko in terms of his personality: Some people may find him dull, others may be amused by his cynicism against the backdrop of a barely explored galaxy.

It is unfortunate (especially for Kaidan himself) that the option to kill him off part way through the first story in the trilogy could stunt any chance you have to get to know him. That said, the same could be said for Williams. I killed her off because I found her abrasive, and because I liked the other choice more. Therefore the chance to find out why she is so grating has not been open to me, as the chance to explore Kaidan’s self-control has been to others, such is the nature of choice in games.

That I am able to draw a meaningful comparison between Jane Eyre and Kaidan Alenko serves to highlight the current quality and depth of game writing. Yes, I am slightly tongue in cheek, but the analogy is valid. Kaidan Alenko is a complex enough character with a story arc developed sufficiently well for him to be compared to a classic character from English Literature. Surely now you can see how important, misunderstood and well written he is.

So, it’s once again up to Shepard and the trusty crew of the Normandy to come in and save the day. You’d think they were getting bored of that by now.

Mass Effect 3 is set to be the biggest game release this year, and seeing as it’s launch week, we’re totally in an awesome intergalactic frame of mind. To celebrate, we’ve teamed up with EA and Bioware to give one lucky reader a collectible Normandy model.

‘HOWDOIENTERNOWZ?!!!’ I hear you scream! Follow on after the jump and all will be revealed.

So, you’re a Mass Effect fan and you want to win a model ship of the Normandy? Who wouldn’t right?

All you have to do to enter is join our forums and post a comment here, follow our Twitter Account (@MyJoystick) and tweet us using the hashtag #TIMJEffect, or ‘Like’ our Facebook page and comment, and tell us which race in the Mass Effect verse will win this war against the Reapers and why?

Turians? Quarians? Maybe Humanity, or how about the Volus? Choose any you like. Be creative and wow us with your knowledge of the series. The entry that entertains us the most will win the ship, and probably help save the universe… or something like that.

You have until Monday Evening 5pm GMT to get in your entries.

Make ‘em count. You were born to do this!

Well, it occurred to me that I am a new parent, and I like games, so the chances are I am not the only one. This article is aimed at those with one in the oven, or those considering giving in to the maternal (or paternal) urge, but it may be of use to those with little terrors that are running rings around your feet already.

I’d like to take some time to explain to you how parenthood does not mean the end of your own fun, and specifically (as this is a games website) how it should not herald your final ragequit. I won’t lie to you, though; parenthood isn’t exactly a walk in the park, (although walks in the park may help to lull a teething infant to sleep) and it will certainly mean your trophy count and Gamerscore will increase at a lesser pace, but worry not. It is possible to combine both lifestyles, although not without certain compromises.

Those compromises will, and should, come from the gamer aspect of your life (babies really don’t understand “yes dear, but I just need to beat this boss…”) Having been told by a ‘friend’ that I would not be able to even attend the concert of my favourite musician (Brad Paisley, thanks for asking) a full month after the birth as… well… you don’t want to know what she said exactly; it involved several lady parts and a lot of leaky bodily fluids, I arose determined as never before to retain some of my own life post birth. As it turned out, I was able to attend said concert without my nipples bleeding and with my pelvic floor intact.

First and foremost, what I found was the type of games that are easily accessible will almost certainly change; if you are anything like me. This is certainly true for the first part of my leave, anyway. If I’d had eight months off work and at home with nothing better to do (such as changing yet another shitty nappy) I would probably have spent a reasonably large proportion of it lying on the floor playing Mass Effect.

I would then restart, creating a slightly different Shepard (always a woman, though) and playing her in almost exactly the same way as I have played all the other Shepards. I might pick up a story driven action type game such as Enslaved and play that through. I (and this depends a lot on how sociable I am feeling) may fire up Uncharted and suck at Deathmatch for eight hours solid. Hey, that 0.67 KDR ain’t gonna plummet itself, you know.

Comfort gaming at its best.

Here comes a big confession. Deep breath. I am a snob. It is true; I’d never played certain games on certain social networking  sites, because I assumed they would be a little bit naff. Well, I am sure some are, but once I had got past the stage of motherhood where you can’t take your eyes off your baby for two minutes, lest they do something really cute like move their head a tiny bit in their sleep, I found myself needing to do other things. As an aside, maternity leave is not a holiday, but there are times when you just don’t want to wash more clothes, mix more formula, or empty the nappy pail. Again. Those ‘social’ games were staring to look somewhat inviting.

I started playing Ravenwood Fair, and Ravenskye City, and I have to say, they were very enjoyable. I could play them, for the most part, at my own pace, and they didn’t complain a great deal if I needed to urgently attend to the ever digestively challenged Lily. I found myself adopting the ‘new mum’ stance for several hours (not necessarily all together) during the day.

The stance I am talking about involves lying propped on the sofa (legs akimbo to support baby) with the laptop open on a small table to my right. This is another advantage of those types of games; you only need one hand. This conveniently leaves the other hand free to hold onto and to gently caress the beautiful baby that will only sleep sprawled across your chest. The child will be safely hemmed in not only by yourself, but also the barricade to your right (or left if you happen to be a southpaw).

For those of you that are thinking “her baby was sleeping! She should have been sleeping, too!” All the books say (and this is genuinely good advice) to never fall asleep while holding your baby. Therein lies the problem. Some babies will only sleep when they are where they like it best; you guessed it, in that lovely little cradle made by the crook of your elbow. Not that lovely little cot that you spent hard-earned cash on from Mamas and Papas, or the beautiful hand-woven family heirloom Moses Basket that your parents lent you. Nope.

The downside of those types of games, for me, anyway, is that you are forced to make ‘friends’ with people purely to advance. I wouldn’t mind so much; meeting people, even virtually, is fun but I have since deleted the extra people I added as ‘neighbours’ as I didn’t make a connection with any of them, save for one. In the five or so months we were playing, she and I did have a few conversations, mostly about Rik Mayall, oddly enough.

The point still stands; you don’t make friends with people on Facebook to gain a greater knowledge of life in far-flung places of the world; you add people so you don’t have to buy Facebook Credits, and to spam them with invites for games they aren’t playing. I found this to be a problem, as it means that your News Feed gets filled with pictures of cats doing ‘hilarious’ things, ‘inspirational’ quotes, and passive aggressive status updates about how we only care about certain causes if we copy and paste to our own status. I know there are ways around this, but honestly I lost the will after a while.

I am way too anti-social for these games.

Lily, thankfully for all involved, developed the ability to be a little more independent, and not require my undivided attention for 24 hours a day. So once she had passed the three-month mark I found I had about 35 minutes to spare each day. “Sleep!” I hear you all shout. Well, Lily, bless her heart, since the age of seven weeks (here comes a big fat smug boast) has been sleeping through the night. So this was less of an issue now.

So, now able to play console games requiring the use of both hands, I blew the dust out of the Xbox and played the bejeezers out of Mass Effect 1 and 2. Yes, I could have gone out and bought a whole new game, but remember; I hadn’t played anything but Facebook games since the summer, so I wanted to play the stuff I had been missing. Also; those considering the option of shopping; one thing I genuinely found hard as a new mum was leaving the house for any length of time. When they are young and eating at least every three hours, the logistics behind going anywhere further than the end of the road have to be thought through meticulously each time. Pressing ‘on’ and shoving Mass Effect in was so much easier. I’m not saying don’t try it, but that is one thing about Maternity Leave I found difficult, both physically and emotionally.

November was a good month in terms of releases for me; Uncharted and Elder Scrolls are two of my favourite franchises. Uncharted 3; Drake’s Deception hand-delivered (by the courier) to my door a whole day early. My husband (who, as it happens, is simply amazing) took the day off work so I could fool around with Nathan Drake all by myself. I love my daughter, I really do, so if you judge me for taking the day off from my full-time mum job for a game; piss off (Also those currently judging me for playing games at all with a baby in the house; you can join them.)

What I haven’t been able to do is indulge in any multiplayer experience, except for a couple of times when my mother and father in law took the little one out for a walk. This is something that you need to be prepared for; if you are the type of gamer that particularly enjoys the multiplayer experience you will find it hard to play. Games that you can drop in and out of are fine, of course, but I tend to find multiplayer games can take so long to fire up and find a match for you that your baby has woken up and been sick on you before you have taken your first shot. Of course leaving games is counterproductive, and can be somewhat infuriating.

Uncharted isn’t a game I can play once; so that kept me going for a while (and still is). Had I not had a growing baby, no doubt I would have gotten over it a little quicker. Christmas arrived, and so did Skyrim. Remember that awesome man I married? Well, Skyrim was a gift from him. In a similar way to those Facebook games, which were now mostly a memory, Skyrim is a slow burner. It isn’t so action heavy, so little daughter can sit happily on the floor for however long playing (and learning) by herself while I Fus Ro Dahed the living daylights out of Ulfric Stormcloak’s dining room table.

If Lily had enough playing by herself, I was easily able to put the game down without spoiling the flow. Not all games are like this, so my advice to you if you are considering combining the lifestyle of a gamer with that of a parent, is to select games that are slow, open, and not driven by what might be right around the next corner. Also; you should be prepared to have your young one take a deep interest in your controller. It won’t be enough to simply give them the spare to play with; they will want yours.

All the thanes and housecarls in Skyrim couldn't keep his table laid.

Interestingly, my exploits did open up a dialogue with a Speech and Language Therapist who ran a playgroup for under ones. On Uncharted release day, my husband took Lily to the session; she’d been going with me for several weeks. I’m not entirely sure how, but Louise (the group leader) got the wrong end of the stick when my husband explained who he was and why I wasn’t there. When I went back the following week she told me that she thought that my job as a game designer must be fascinating and I must be really proud of my hard work in having a game released.

Having let her know that I was merely a fan, and not employed by Naughty Dog, (not through want of trying) the conversation evolved into a discussion about games and how they may help or hinder a child’s development. She was worried that if she bought her own son a Nintendo DS he would become introverted and lose the desire to read. We got into quite a long dialogue about how games can in fact encourage certain skills, without being too obvious about it. I am not an expert on the matter, but I did find the conversation (that carried over several weeks) really interesting, and unexpected. Her son was given a DS for Christmas, as a result.

So there you have it. Being a new parent does not mean that you have to give up your own life. Sure, the manner in which you do things and conduct yourself will almost certainly change, but this was something I was worried about while pregnant (along with “what if my baby has more than one head?”).

Of course I am lucky in that I have an immensely supportive husband, and my little girl has Grandparents that are devoted to her, and more than happy to take her out to give us a break from time to time, but I truly believe that if you are willing to make compromises (and I am learning that a lot of parenthood involves compromise) you can still enjoy the odd bit of indulgence from time to time. Don’t ever feel guilty for having your own fun.

Cute young couples plan epic, three-day adventures of love that turn out to be bowling and a trip to Nandos. New-found love sparks and sometimes sets a flame as office romances and sexual tensions come to their fated conclusions. Overall it’s a crazy tradition, but loved by some as much as Christmas and Easter.

Enough about real life. This is a gaming site and over the last few years our beloved games have given us ample opportunity to practise chat-up lines and married life in the safety and consequence-free environment of virtual worlds. The interesting thing is how wildly different romance is presented across the board, ranging from game-long relationships to five-minute marriage ceremonies.

So for those of you who prefer the simplicity of a digital relationship to the complexity of a real one, here’s a quick run down of your relatively wide range of options across the board. If you’re into RPGs that is…

NOTE: For the purpose of ease I’m going to speak from my own perspective; being a straight guy. All of these examples can be carried out by female characters too and in most cases work with same-sex relationships. Also, this is a frank and humorous piece and does not represent the views of myself or TIMJ regarding women and marriage, so take it with a pinch of salt.

Kiss me quick! We may die tomorrow! – Skyrim
The northern province of Skyrim is a dangerous place, as any self-respecting RPG fan will know from personal experience. If the bandits don’t get you, the ice trolls will and life is generally a bit of gamble up there. The people are brusque and cold, preferring combat and tales of woe to dinner dates and love stories. It’s odd, then, that Skyrim is by far the easiest place to get married. It’s actually more of a business arrangement than a joining of two hearts.

First you must find or buy an Amulet of Mara. Mara is the goddess of love and marriage and wearing her amulet is the Nord way of saying you’re available. Think of it as the Skyrim equivalent of a giant pin badge that says ‘SINGLE’ on it.

As you go about your business sporting the nifty trinket, you’ll notice some ladies are more receptive to you all of a sudden. Maybe their feelings for you have long been growing; each time you walked past their stall or they heard another tale of your greatness, they swooned and dreamed of the day they would be with you. Although considering most of the women you’ll meet in Skyrim are trying to kill you, it’s more likely that they’ve spotted the amulet and are shooting for an opportunity to marry a rich, famous adventurer. So they’re WAGS then.

You pop the question and get an immediate reply in the positive. This is likely partly due to the aforementioned rich/famous combo but is also part of ancient Nord tradition. As life was (and sort of still is) brutal and short in the snowy peaks, the Nords of old decided to do away with courting and wooing and cut straight to it, lest one of them fall victim to the many perils of the land before they are wed.

So, drag your new beau to the Temple of Mara in Riften and the friendly priest Maramal will marry you post-haste. Some of your old adventuring buddies might even show up, although it’s more likely some people you had one conversation will be the only ones able to make it, along with some random local folk with nothing better to do.

After the wedding, your spouse will head back to whichever house you like most and settle in for married life. That’s not all, though; she’ll even set up a little shop! Even though you never see said shop, it must exist because every so often she’ll give you your cut of the profits. She’ll also cook you a nice, nutritious (Read: Health and Stamina replenishing) meal. How nice!

Married life is even easier than getting married; just leave your wife to it and she’ll be fine. She’ll appreciate any visits you make, but feel free to gallivant on your adventures and never again return to the house you’ve cooped her up in.

Except to grab your loot and food of course…

You’re smart, funny… well, you’re funny. – Fable 2 and 3
The denizens of Albion don’t have it quite as easy as their Tamrielian counterparts. To get a lady here you’re going to have to put some work in. Their cushy, safe lives have made the people either obsessed with sex or obsessed with marriage! You can barely get a word in before the conversation turns to one or the other… although talking isn’t exactly what you’d call it. You see, it seems the people of Albion respond best to absurd physical gestures in public places. So, find yourself a girl that’s focused on marriage and get dancing!

Marrying in Fable 3 involves a lovely ceremony...

Once you’ve convinced someone you’re in love with them (or completely insane), pop to the local shop and buy an Engagement Ring. Give it to your bride to be and you’ll be married in a nice cardboard-cut-out cut-scene or a charming public ceremony, depending on the game. You’ll need a house to live in but don’t worry about keeping it in order; the wife will take care of that. However, the ladies of Albion won’t be quite so content with you sauntering off as their snowy counterparts. Occasionally you’ll get a message from your spouse requesting attention and ignoring enough of these will understandably vex her somewhat. Throw a child into the mix and you’ll have to make regular visits to avoid the cold issuing of divorce papers.

While most of these requests seem to consist of ‘Wants Sex’ or variations thereof, returning after a long time away will prompt declarations of love, gifts and maybe even a slightly creepy ‘Are you my Daddy?’ from a now-grown offspring. Giving your wife more money to live on and keeping her safe is usually enough to ensure you a companion for life. If she starts to become too much work, you can always sacrifice her to the Temple of Shadows; if you’re that way inclined and don’t mind your morality taking a hit!

Blood, Sweat and Tears – Dragon Age
A general is only as good as his troops and getting your followers to like you in Dragon Age is key to success. While you could simply give them gifts and play to their preferences in conversations, a bit of flirting goes a long way during the ever-miserable Blight.

Romance is never at the top of the agenda, however, and despite the imminent danger around every corner, none of your followers seem to be too hot on the idea of a one night stand. You’ll have to take them with you into every battle, listen to their stories at camp and even help them out with personal problems before they’ll see you as anything more than a valiant leader.

Your chosen quarry must trust you innately and develop a love for you over countless trials and tribulations. The more hardship you go through, the stronger your relationship becomes and before long you’ll be having that awkward conversation; do you like me too?

...while Dragon Age opts for the lusty tumble.

This tender, long-awaited romance culminates in… well, a one night stand! You see, despite all the effort put into developing a relationship, finding love and joining as kindred spirits, there’s really no time for getting married and living happily ever after with the Darkspawn on your heels. So it’s a quick tumble (or two) in a tent at camp and then back to the slaughter.

In terms of getting out what you put in, chasing one of your companions results in you receiving the shitty end of the deal. Although the passionate night together is nice, offering sex in exchange for hours of intimate conversation and bloody battle may seem a little cold and callous. Your friendship will be stronger after the act but this fact won’t really improve your chances of defeating the Archdemon and saving Ferelden.

If you’re looking for a quick fix to romance, it’s best to look elsewhere; but if the journey is more important than the destination there’s hours of touching, developing love to be found here.

So why do we do it?
The purpose of this article was to take a humorous look at the sometimes brutal and bizarre forms of romance that games offer us, but all joking aside, there must be a reason why so many games these days present complex (or not so complex) ways of forming romantic relationships with NPCs. Few games put these relationships at the forefront, and those that do often take the course of the relationship out of player control, preferring to allow the writer(s) to choose its ups and downs.

Great games almost always have one thing in spades; immersion. Immersion is achieved when the combination of fluid, intuitive control, lush, smooth graphics and animation, and an expertly crafted, believable world is pitched perfectly. Making the gamer feel the world, feel the emotions and motivations of the principle characters and truly believe they are part of the events unfolding in front of them is paramount and allowing the player to craft relationships within the game is one way to ensure this. While pre-determined romance, when done right, can make a game, there’s nothing quite like choosing a partner and forming your own bond with them.

I suppose the big question is; which is best? Pre-written relationships can be enchanting and beautiful without needing any player interaction, although much of the time they take the form of platonic love. Monkey and Trip from Enslaved form a wonderful brother-sister relationship over the course of the game but it never crosses the line into romantic territory. Most player-controlled relationships seem to be geared towards romance, forming ‘bromantic’ bonds with your fellow tough guys is just as essential in games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect as getting friendly with your female companions.

Yet while chasing the affections of a random citizen or valued party member is always, and probably always will be, optional, it adds another layer to A.I. that is becoming more and more realistic as the years go by. We’ve come a long way from the awkward yet touching textual exchanges of Final Fantasy VII; these days it’s perfectly possible to actually become enamoured with a character and genuinely want your avatar to bond with them.

As games progress, character models and A.I. advance more and more and the worlds given to us become ever more real, romantic interaction is something I can only see getting deeper and deeper as time goes by. Whether that’s a good thing is up to you, but anything that enhances immersion and makes us feel more like we’re truly part of the game world is fine by me.

So whether you’re settling down with a loved one, testing the waters with a new flame or just having some ‘me’ time this February 14th, you can be confident in the knowledge that if it all gets a bit too real there are a plethora of games out there that can satisfy your romantic needs.

Maybe one day you’ll be able to have a digital partner, you who can turn on and off and… and I’ll stop there before it gets weird I think!

It makes sense that the third game does the same, considering what it’s all about.

The Mass Effect 3 demo kicks off right at the start of the game, so anyone that hasn’t played through the second game should probably look away now. Those pesky Reapers are on the move and their first holiday destination is planet Earth. Obviously London isn’t even ready for the 2012 Olympics, let alone a reaper invasion, so it’s one of the first cities to fall.

As it’s only a demo, it would make sense that user-created characters are not compatible with it, so Bioware made it possible to use a default male or female Shepard. Not only that but there’s also the option to change several physical characteristics of the character. It’s definitely the right move to add this feature in the demo, so anyone somehow new to the franchise can get to see just how extensive the character customisation is.

Another new idea featured in the demo is the ability to choose how to play the game. It’s not just about how difficult the game is anymore, every individual likes to play games in a different manner and that is why Mass Effect 3 will cater for them all. It’s now possible to, for example, to pick an option that will focus purely on storyline. It’s bound to end up luring in a few new fans, due to the fact that they can just experience what that they enjoy.

Liara is probably taking on the role of femme fatale in the third game.

The first level aims to familiarise players with new elements but it does it ever so subtly, to a degree that it’s not even really noticeable. Although the opening is very linear, it provides players with fantastic views of the reaper invasion in Vancouver.

After a swift escape and a touching moment, it’s time for Shepard to round-up the intergalactic troops. The second section of the demo takes place in the Salarian homeworld, where the ever charismatic Wrex is trying to get his Krogan females back. Besides producing one of the funniest ever Mass Effect conversations, this section is also where players are able to further familiarise with new combat mechanics. That feisty Liara is back too and she and Garrus accompany Shepard on this mission.

Anyone familiar with Mass Effect games should know the drill by now. The section pretty much consists of clearing each room out until you get to the objective. What’s interesting is that enemies in this level can deploy turrets, and those that rush through might find themselves being killed by one of them. It’s all about strategy with plenty of opportunities to flank the enemy and other tactics used in combat.

Better with Kinect?

The real question is: Is Mass Effect 3 is truly better with Kinect? The simple answer is yes, but it’s best to explain why.

Kinect integration in Mass Effect 3 fortunately doesn’t mean you have to get up and start doing movements like you’re participating in a yoga class: It’s only necessary for players to use voice commands. These work extremely well when in the heat of battle. Ask Garrus to use a concussive shot and he will promptly do it. Tell Shepard to switch to the shotgun and it’s done without the least hint of a slowdown.

Read one of the dialogue options out loud and it will automatically be picked. This might sound strange but the use of voice commands really makes for a different experience. It makes the game move on at a steadier pace, due to the fact that it’s not necessary to constantly pause it to exchange weapons or use biotic powers. Anyone with a Kinect sensor will certainly be making good use of this feature.

Visually Mass Effect 3 is impressive, but it doesn’t seem to have been vastly improved when compared to the previous game. It’s not bad, though, as Mass Effect 2 is still one of the best visual experiences when it comes to modern gaming. However, it shows just how far the Bioware team has come when it isn’t possible to enhance the game significantly on current generation hardware.

Something that Mass Effect veterans might find shocking is just how difficult Insanity Mode is in this game. No longer will the old ‘hide in cover’ trick work as enemies will actively seek the main character. Health does not automatically replenish and it’s necessary to use health kits. The shield does regenerate but will go down with just a few hits. Enemies themselves are experts at evading fire when it comes to tagging them too. This might sound like a nightmare, but it’s exactly the kind of challenge that players have asked for.

This Mass Effect 3 demo is just the right length to get fans salivating, and hopefully it’ll rope in a few newcomers too. Enabling Kinect commands seems to work well, and will surely prove to doubters that Bioware were right to implement them. All the small changes make it possible to see just how far the game has come, in terms of the advanced A.I. and all the other features that will hopefully make Mass Effect 3 an enjoyable game.

March can’t come soon enough, but for now there’s no better way to wait than to experience this demo.

The execution, for me, was overcomplicated and boring. So when it was announced that the franchise was being reinvented as first-person shooter Syndicate by Starbreeze Studios (of The Darkness fame), I was intrigued rather than outraged. Much of the old guard may be staunchly against this switch from strategy to gunplay, but I can see how the move was necessary in these modern times of CoDs and Battlefields.

All that aside, the Syndicate demo has recently graced the interwebs and I gave it a go.

The demo is, surprisingly, 4-player co-op only. If you’re an anti-social weasel or just don’t have any mates that are interested, fear not as there appears to be a thriving community already bubbling away for you to jump right into. Putting out a co-op demo is a bold move, and shows just how much confidence Starbreeze have in the mode and how little they wont to give away of the main plot. As this is the only multiplayer the game will ship with, it’s nice to get an idea of what you’ll be letting yourself in for if lonesome gaming doesn’t do it for you.

Before you jump into a match there’s a plethora of stats, upgrades, loadouts and abilities to tinker with. As is now standard, you can customise up to three loadouts with a primary and secondary weapon and two Chip abilities, which range from squad-wide shields to a damaging personal shockwave. As there are no classes as such, the way you combine these elements dictates your role in battle and finding the right balance for you is essential. There’s also a skill tree-type upgrade system, allowing you to spend points received for ranking up on new abilities, physical improvements and hacking prowess.

Instead of unlocking new weapons and attachments as you level up, Syndicate uses a research system. You spend Research points to unlock specific blueprints for each weapon, then use that weapon in combat to research the upgrade. It’s a great way to make sure you get the upgrades you need and it’s reassuring to know that all that XP isn’t going towards unlocking something you won’t use. So, after tinkering with your template and choosing a generic character, it’s match time!

The demo offers only one mission, an assassination assignment against a Colonel at Caymen Global. As the experience differs depending on loadout and team-mates, I’m going to take you through one of my runs.

Lush and hectic. Just how I like it!

Beginning the assault in the back of an APC with my three comrades sitting around me really builds the atmosphere before I’m turfed out the door into a face-full of hot lead. The action starts immediately and barely lets up, making for a breathless, hectic and exciting game.

Each person has to act according to their loadout; shotgun-toting allies need to get in close while snipers need to hang back in cover and pick enemies off at a distance. As we round the first corner, an automated turret starts pounding our position. I sprint and slide to cover behind a convenient chest-high wall, popping up to blast holes in the enemy soldiers now rounding the turret. A shotgun-wielding ally makes a run for the turret and, as she hacks into it, the rest of us pound away at its shield and keep its attention.

Hacking is a major part of Syndicate and takes numerous forms, the most basic of which is ‘breaching’ various objects, terminals and even enemy grenades. The turret’s down but its killer is low on health, so I use my Breach to heal them quickly, another use for the handy ability. With the area clear, we all pile into a dual-gate system.

These ‘Staging Areas’ are present throughout the mission and allow us to replenish ammo, take stock and prepare for the next section. As the doors open we’re met with more enemy fire and I quickly get into cover. While Syndicate has no proper cover system my gun seems to aim around objects, similar to The Darkness, to allow me to fire without exposing myself. Bringing down guard after guard as they pour from overhead gantries, I hear an ally warn us there’s a Reactive on the field; the automatic squad speech adding an extra layer of immersion to an already absorbing experience.

Reactive enemies have impenetrable armour that must be hacked from close range to make them vulnerable. Their presence makes for a tense firefight as one of us tries to get behind while the others draw the fire. Again the shotgunner makes it up close and drops the Reactive’s armour, leaving him wide open. I pop a few shots into him but focus on keeping the troops from reaching ground level, leaving it to my two assault-rifle-bearing team-mates to pound away at the helpless Reactive.

Once he’s dealt with, the shotgunner jabs him in the neck and tears out his Chip. It’s these tiny microchips that make all this ‘remote hacking’ business possible, and leaving his intact gives Caymen goons a chance to revive him, so ripping it out is a necessity.

The next area is locked up tight, but our friendly A.I. helper tells us that we should use the skylights. Climbing ladders, we make it to the roof and reign hellfire down through the large, open gaps. Before long we lose the advantage, however, as troops file into the room and a ceiling-mounted turret is activated, peppering the area below with gunfire. I stay put, using my scope to take out enemies as my allies make do on the ground. It’s a perfect example of playing to your strengths when part of a team and it works fantastically.

There’s no order or marking system yet it’s very easy to see your place in each engagement and in my experience everyone seems keen to do their bit. Finally dropping to the ground, my HUD tells me there’s a hackable panel that deactivates the turret… behind the turret! It’s occupied with my team-mates on the other side of the room and I take my chance, sprinting underneath it and sliding into the tiny room where the panel sits.

Staying crouched, I breach it and the turret goes down. All the Breaching is done with a simple hold of LB and it’s immensely satisfying when you manage to bring down a turret or a Reactive’s armour. Room clear, we rush onward but my ammo is low. In fact, I only have one clip left for my sniper rifle. I decide to switch my sidearm for an enemy assault rifle and in the next area I’m shown I made the right choice.

As we run in we’re met by more guards, who are easily cut down in a hail of assault rifle fire. The tables quickly turn, though, as the roof opens up and troops with rocket launchers take positions on the far rim! Switching to my sniper rifle I know it’s all on me. As I drop the first goon I hear a rocket boom in front of me and two of my team cry out for a Reboot. When you take too much damage you shut down and need to be rebooted by a team-mate.

It’s Syndicate’s version of the archetypal ‘downed’ mechanic and it works fine, nicely woven into the world. I quickly bring down the other soldiers and rush to help my allies. We work the rest of the room, wiping out another few squads of Caymen guards before pushing on to the final area. It’s here our quarry waits, and where the experience goes one of two ways.

Seems one of the CEOs hired an Industrial Goth band...

The Colonel has Reactive armour, which makes close hacking a priority but he also carries a deadly mini-gun that can cut us down in seconds. Add to that the constant stream of goons and you’ve got one tricky fight. Half the time, the guards seem to be softer and less driven, preferring to hang back rather than charge in. In this case it’s easy to focus on the Colonel, working as a team to distract and disable him while dodging his lethal firearm.

My team’s most successful run had the shotgunner hiding out of sight while another team-mate distracted the Colonel and the third hacked his armour. Then the shotgunner emerged and pounded into him while I kept the troops off their backs from a distance. When it works, it’s glorious. It’s also amazing that there’s no actual communication going on; everyone is simply reacting to the situation and using their loadout as they see fit.

On the other hand, if you’re unlucky he’s impossible to bring down. Caymen soldiers immediately swarm the little room you start in, giving you no chance to focus on the Colonel. Before you know it he’s crossed the courtyard and is redecorating said room with your entrails. Trying to leave the room is foolish; the sheer amount of guards and their new-found aggressiveness makes it a suicide move. The only way I found to break this cycle is to keep losing until you get lucky. Not fun.

Overall I’m very impressed with Syndicate. What could have been a by-the-numbers, Deathmatch-based competitive multiplayer is instead an exciting and instantly playable co-op action romp. Some may think doing away with the usual online modes is a bad move but in fact it’s quite the opposite. By focussing solely on co-op, Syndicate has dodged the almost certain fatal bullet of going up against Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 for the attentions of the tea-bagging brigade. It stands out as a bold statement against leaderboards and K/D ratios and reminds us that first-person shooters don’t always have to be about maps and killstreaks.

Best of all, it does it brilliantly. The smooth and engaging combat is instantly familiar yet refreshingly original, the hacking mechanic opening up a wealth of new tactical options. The focus on loadouts rather than set classes allows you to customise your own play-style while maintaining a role in the team; something that’s very difficult to achieve. The game looks lush and futuristic, equal parts Deus Ex, Mass Effect and Blade Runner.

I for one am very excited about Syndicate. Whatever the old fans say, it’s showing itself to be a unique, tight and enthralling shooter that stands out from the crowd in todays sea of CoD-shaped cookies. What the single-player campaign will entail remains to be seen and for me it all hinges on that. If the solo experience can match, or surpass, the breathless co-op, then people might just start reaching for the credit card come February 24th. Give it a download and see for yourself; you won’t be disappointed.

Games allow us to do crazy things, and the more immersive and real they become, the more choices we’re given, the more our actions are truly defined by us within that game. When the player is actually put on the spot and asked to think about what they’re about to do, assessing the consequences of these decisions,  and they choose to kill virtual avatars in compromising positions, what does that say about their genetic makeup?

Perhaps the tabloids are right. Perhaps games do encourage us in ways they shouldn’t.

Multi-choice, open world experiences are getting more and more popular all the time. Skyrim continues to sell extremely well in the UK Charts, and Mass Effect 3 is one of this years most anticipated games. These games challenge players in ways the likes of Battlefield and Call of Duty never will. They thrust numerous immeasurable tasks on the player’s shoulders, have you interact with the type of people you’d never rub shoulders with in real life and get involved with cults, gangs and syndicates of a shady nature.

Essentially, games give us a chance to lead a new kind of double life.

Of course, this is all happening in the virtual realm, and while the game makes us deal with consequence and we do have to make decisions, the only thing that is impacted is the game in front of you. Not your next-door neighbour, not your cousin or Jeffrey Mills from the other side of the world. Just the game.

Still, tabloids, medical practitioners and psychologists think it runs deeper than that. They say that in order for a person to reach such macabre decisions there must be a hidden desire within them to do such a thing. When playing these games, they are releasing a part of themselves which is repressed, concealed behind layers of what a person perceives to be right, and the way they should act in everyday society. They claim that when playing games, the real person is exposed, much in the same way as it can be when you take a blot test, and the hidden traits are exposed for all to see.

So, if that is the case, just because I enjoy throwing a hood over my head in Skyrim, talking and taunting my victim before I stab them in cold blood by tapping a button on my gamepad, and then running away from town in the hopes of not being locked away, that I’m just as likely, if pushed, to do the same in real life. That I have repressed the desire to commit these acts in my everyday working life, because I’m scared of a consequence, or being judged by the law and those close to me.

What these people don’t understand is that no matter how immersive these experiences are. No matter what a game pitches to us, no matter what scenario we’re thrust into, it will never be real. I’m never going to live in Skyrim, I’m never going to soar the galaxy with Commander Shepard, nor am I ever going to get to 1498 Italy, and assassinate world leaders.

Games present radical, fictional scenarios that will forever be a distant dream and never synchronise with the reality you and I face in our everyday lives. These situations will never happen to us, therefore we’ll never need to make these decisions, therefore when we’re supplied with three or four choices (where it’s entirely possible none of them would be applicable to our real reaction anyway) then it cannot be compared to what happens in our everyday lives.

Reality isn’t as black and white as to class you as a paragon or renegade when you make one sole decision, but Mass Effect is. If you kill someone in Skyrim, you can pay off your debt to the guards, and they’ll forget all about it. Unless you’re Rupert Murdoch, or a star in the Premier League, that’s not an out for you.

I wouldn't do this even if I could. Even though it'd be immensely cool. Am I right?

Surely, if people think it’s affecting our lives so much, that says more for the amazing writing within games, and how these tests and challenges set before us, are engaging our brains in ways psychologists never thought was possible. Surely that says more about the gripping, compelling fiction we have at our fingertips today, and how amazingly detailed, and wondrous these other-worlds are. Surely that’s the largest possible compliment you can pay these ingenious writers who give whole background stories to new races, and breathe life into alien-looking worlds.

My plea? Stop badgering games. Stop trying to pick holes and find faults. Stop trying to blame all the world’s problems on the back of an industry which is still in its infancy, still expanding, and still trying to keep a head above water in this difficult economic climate. Perhaps sometimes developers take things too far, perhaps some content within games should be moderated and observed more closely before release. That’s an arguable point, and one for another time, but the fact is, they do more right than wrong.

They keep kids off the streets, stop them from committing real crimes. They encourage us to look at the good things in life as much as the bad. They weave amazing stories that don’t fall for the same telegraphed twists most movies have adopted over the last few years. The world is a dark place, turning on the daily news every morning is indicative of that. It’s also a much more violent place because of war, because of dictatorship, because of mental illnesses which cause people to do unspeakable acts which could never be expressed or dreamed up in any fictional world.

Besides, not every decision in our games is a bad one. For every occasion a person has to decide to kill someone, they are also faced with the decision to help a young boy who has lost his parents, or prevent someone from being overwhelmed by a life-threatening illness. Yes, the world is a dark place, and games have to virtually recreate that in order to make their narrative arcs even slightly identifiable. In order to keep people hooked, they can’t expect them to get connected with pasty white unicorns and pretty rainbows.

I may be a murder in Skyrim, I may Hail Sithis and as Listener, take my orders from the Night Mother, but the moment I turn off that game, I don’t draw a ring of fire in my living room and pray to fictional demi-gods for a sign. I don’t roam the streets looking for the first person I can find so I can kill them. I don’t drink a cup of blood in order to settle my stomach before bed. I wash the dishes, I brush my teeth, I lock the door and then go to sleep.

Tabloids, psychologists and doctors can judge me all they want, but I’m not under any of your categories, nor do I mould into any of your stereotypes. I play games for fun and I experience them as I please. There’s no more to it than that.

Stop digging.

I got to sample the final instalment of Shepard’s adventures at this year’s Eurogamer Expo, and I can certainly tell you one thing. The future, is quite different..

Cerberus are the enemy. That’s the first major detail I learned from the demo. Shepard and his crew have been ambushed by sentinels and centurions, and are in a race against time to protect Mordin, who is about to get flame-grilled and deep-fried by the materializing threat. It was my duty to protect him.

From the get-go, I can tell that Mass Effect 3 is going to be a much more interactive and action-packed cinematic experience. Small subtle details have been added, such as cinematic hotspots. If something important is happening on the screen at any one time, by holding in Y, you will instantly focus on that event.

In the demo, the scenery surrounding my character was completely devastated. It’s clear that Shepard is in the middle of a war and the fight of his life, so who better to enlist than those who have supported him in the past. Previous series favourites that made an appearance in this demo included Mordin, Garrus, Liara and Wrex.

However, this demo wasn’t designed to give major story points, but to demonstrate the important combat changes Bioware have made to their showcase title. This brings me to a point that may upset or excite Mass Effect fans, but will almost certainly divide them. Mass Effect’s combat has now taken more from the Gears of War experience than ever before. In fact, its damn near carbon-copied it.

Big Ben's last chime...

For starters, Shepard can now roll around the map to evade enemy fire, or dive into cover. Personally, I became very comfortable very quickly using this method of manoeuvring due to my experience with the COGs. On a technical level, it does work well within Mass Effect, although it doesn’t feel quite as fluid as Gears of War. In fact, it feels a little stunted due to Shepard’s lengthy pause after each roll. On the whole though, I think this is a good addition to the series.

Also, Roadie-running is no longer hindered by a stamina bar. Shepard can just keep running as if he’s just drunk seven cans of Monster on the head. Again, this suits me much better than Mass Effect 2′s efforts, and, to my way of thinking, is a positive improvement for the series.

The cover system has also been revamped, and it is much easier for Shepard to go from one point of cover to another. If pressed up against one side of a wall, with a quick button press and a flick of the analog, Shepard can alternate his position very quickly and responsively. Yet again, another important improvement.

Aiming and firing also seems like it has been brushed up as Auto-aim now appears in-game. Every time you zoom in with LT and there is an enemy on the screen, Shepard immediately faces that direction, pointing his pistol in their face. This certainly makes battle a much easier endeavour. Shepard also has his own close-range melee attack, stabbing enemies with a knife-like weapon on his forearm.

Another first for the series are workbenches. On these benches, you can change your weapon load-out at any time, allowing you to alternate your strategy if things are getting a bit hairy. However, you can also upgrade your weaponry, giving your assault rifle higher burst damage, or less recoil, or increasing the clip size of your pistol, amidst other things. This time in Mass Effect, it’s not just your characters that improve in ability.

Fire when ready!

Of course, it wouldn’t be Mass Effect without power-ups. Familiar favourites like Unity and Warp act the same as before, and remain just as important now as they were in previous instalments. Nothing seems to have been omitted, so don’t worry.

It’s not just your capabilities in combat that are improved, however. The enemies are also more tenacious than ever. Just because Shepard’s in cover, doesn’t mean he’s safe. Just like in Gears 3, enemies will come right up to your location, and attempt to knock you back, leaving you exposed and vulnerable. There are also enemies called Guardians who are covered entirely by a massive riot-like shield. Much like Maulers in Gears of War, you will need to find a small, slightly exposed weak-spot and unload on them.

Oh, and did I mention that some enemies can now teleport.

As you can tell, Mass Effect 3 will have a stronger combat focus than its predecessors, and to support that, Bioware have implemented significant alterations to the game’s combat formula.

Of course, Mass Effect was primarily designed as a role-playing game experience, and while I didn’t get to sample much of that in my hands-on, I’ve still reached a simple conclusion. If Bioware can deliver an epic story like they’ve been known to, and really bring this trilogy to the close we’re all hoping for, there’s absolutely no reason why this couldn’t, and shouldn’t surpass Mass Effect 2. While I appreciate many aren’t fond of the Gears of War formula of combat, for me, this feels well suited and appropriate in the Mass Effect world, and it is a vast improvement on anything we’ve seen in the series so far.

It also sets me thinking. If there is going to be a multi-player element to the game (as has been rumoured several gazillion times), then this would definitely be the place for Bioware to start.

Just thinking out loud…

Hollywood has come under similar criticism over the last few years, remaking classic films and adding more installments to established series. For example, this year, the cinema box office includes Transformers 3, The Hangover 2, Sherlock Holmes 2, Cars 2, Pirates 4, Scream 4 and remakes of Conan and Footloose.

Unfortunately, this does beg the question; is the industry showing early apprehension of trying new things because they feel their games need to be branded with something already established? Are developers becoming gun-shy in exploring new intellectual property? Is this another Hollywood in the making?

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at the list of some of the most anticipated games scheduled for 2011.

• Deus Ex Human Revolution
• Portal 2
• Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception
• X-COM
• Mass Effect 3
• Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
• Saints Row The Third
• Resistance 3
• Twisted Metal
• Child of Eden
• Crysis 2
• Mortal Kombat
• Duke Nukem Forever
• Alice Madness Returns
• Batman: Arkham City
• Lego Star Wars 3
• Gears of War 3
• Unannounced Assassin’s Creed project
• Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword
• Unannounced Call of Duty Project

Will Modern Warfare return in 2011 and dominate the market all over again?

While I’m certain there are more, this just gives you some indication of what’s on the horizon. Meanwhile, let’s then look at what has already arrived this year.

• Dead Space 2
• Marvel vs Capcom 3
• Killzone 3
• Little Big Planet 2

A stacked line-up, to be sure, but one that is also filled with familiar products. Of course, you can take this even further and start looking at the development behind some games that are branded differently. For example, you can argue that ‘Child of Eden’ is a new intellectual property from Ubisoft, you can also argue that it is based on the World depicted in Rez HD and the game developers are not shy in admitting that. You can also argue that the return of Deus Ex and X-Com may as well be new games as they’re re-imaginings of the old school PC games.

It’s not all ‘more of the same’, though. We do have new IP due out this year. The likes of L.A Noire, RAGE, Homefront, The Last Guardian, Brink and Bulletstorm will be appearing or have already materialised, all of which are considered high-profile releases. In fact, there is a strong buzz for all of these titles based on pedigree, playability and look. In many cases, word of mouth has already spread for these games based on journalists getting hands-on experiences and those who attend expos getting the chance to sample the latest games. However, will it be enough?

Both Bulletstorm and Homefront have now launched, so we can certainly put that theory to the test.

Does Kill with Skill mean lots of money?

From its launch on February 25th to today, Bulletstorm has still failed to sell 1m copies across 3 formats. Bulletstorm suffered immensely on PS3 due to launching alongside Killzone 3 and the PC version has gone practically ignored. As one might expect, the version which has sold the best is the Xbox 360 version, due to the game launching with an entry key into the Gears of War 3 beta, however, between that and a massive marketing push by Epic, Bulletstorm still hasn’t even come close to achieving its projected sales, despite getting solid reviews across the board and ending up with an 83/84 average on Metacritic.

On the other hand, THQ’s Homefront has already passed 1m units sold since its launch on March 11th and so far, has enjoyed the most profitable day one release for a game in the UK this year. To make things even more interesting, Homefront only managed a 69/70 average on Metacritic, making it lower than Bulletstorm’s average and, according to vgchartz.com, has sold more on the Xbox 360 than Bulletstorm, despite Bulletstorm offering the player an opportunity to experience the Gears 3 beta. What makes this even stranger is that no demo of Homefront has been made available for people to play.

It seems that sales of new IP in 2011 is a mixed bag, with Homefront being a run-away success story and Bulletstorm barely able to make a return profit.

Not even early access to a Gears 3 beta can topple Homefront's sales

Looking back to 2010, the success of original IP’s was also a mixed bag. In terms of major retail releases, Alan Wake, Bayonetta, Darksiders & Vanquish managed to hit at least 1m sold over time, whereas, Enslaved and Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom didn’t fare so well, with Enslaved not even cracking the 500k barrier. Some say sales of these games suffered because 2010 was filled with so many quality releases and there was too much vying for people’s attention and finances. That’s definitely one factor that would stand in the way of the success of these games, but when you consider mass marketing machines SEGA and Microsoft were behind Bayonetta and Alan Wake respectively, and the games only managed to barely scrape 1m sales each, it makes you wonder what chance there is for other, smaller developing houses to try something different.

Need further proof ? Get your head around this little statistic: Enslaved has sold just over 460,000 units in total, Worldwide. Call of Duty Black Ops sold 7 million units on day one and over 20 million units in total.

Mind blowing when put into context, isn’t it? It also shows you where the money is to be made in the games industry and goes a long way to explain why we’re seeing a bare minimum of new intellectual properties at retail.

That being said, Dance Central was a new IP designed exclusively for Microsoft Kinect and has shifted almost 2m units since the launch of the peripheral, with continued steady sales since November.

Fortunately, however, it’s not just retail that births new ideas. Many new intellectual properties can be sourced back to PSN, WiiWare and XBLA. Last year saw the release of Limbo, Monday Night Combat, Super Meat-Boy, Comic Jumper, Deathspank, Shank, Costume Quest and more. In fact, original intellectual properties have begun to flourish through the arcade because of the cheaper price.

For example, Super Meat-Boy has achieved 600,000 sales up to the present day across all formats. Limbo was even nominated as a Game of the Year candidate by BAFTA. That trend of new IP on the marketplace also seems to have rolled into 2011, with many new games appearing including Torchlight, Stacking and Swarm. Perhaps this is the best suited place for smaller companies to advertise their new ideas, if you look at companies such as Twisted Pixel, Hothead Games and Double Fine, you’ll see how well off they’ve become from using the online model to their advantage.

It seems, that for the time being, they’ve found a new, home and are making themselves comfortable in these new surroundings. For now, it seems, the place to find most new IP is through the medium of downloads and that doesn’t seem set to change for some time.

BAFTA Nominated Brilliance

Many can argue its different having sequels and remakes of games than movies as more can be done, but how long can we keep saying that before the argument starts to run thin? Just because they’re sequels to games, developers try to stay as much within the same guidelines that made the original so successful as they can. Gears 2 received some combat tweaks over the original, but it uses the same engine, it has the same gameplay mechanics. The Halo games are basically the same with enhanced visual tweaks and some new weapons, and lets not even talk about Call of Duty, shall we?

What about games that have started to become so successful that now they may be expanded further and further? For example , with EA acquiring Bioware and Mass Effect 2 having such considerably brilliant sales in comparison to the original and obviously more advertising behind it, what was originally only going to be a trilogy may now change. Bioware are already talking about potential spin-offs and have gone a long way to expanding the world with comics, literature and now anime. Will the demand from the publishers be so high that Mass Effect 4 or 5 will become a reality where it wouldn’t have been before? Are we likely to see more spin-offs for the series? Will they continue to churn out sequels, just as Hollywood have done, until the quality ultimately diminishes?

This may be a tough pill to swallow, I, like everyone else, love some of these gaming series’ and am excited by all the new features being introduced into my favourite games, and seeing new stories created in compelling Worlds I’m already invested in, ultimately, that’s what matters. Yet, I’m becoming increasingly mindful that much of the current catalogue of games we appreciate and look forward to are rarely new intellectual escapades.

Having too much Shephard can't be a bad thing, can it?

Looking to 2012, the landscape doesn’t seem to be changing much either, with Bioshock Infinite, Ninja Gaiden 3, Diablo 3 and Prototype 2 already announced to be in development. I know that Bioshock Infinite is almost a completely different game from its predecessors as the game takes place in the air as opposed to underwater and the concept of Big Daddies is completely different, but the fact is, they’ve still branded it Bioshock. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’s not all down to financial reasons and another reason it has been branded Bioshock is because it will have some direct affiliation with the previous games. However, it does make one wonder.

Are we, the gaming industry, running the same risks as Hollywood of becoming over-saturated with sequels and remakes? Are we running out of ideas? Do we have to resort to old games, stories and characters in order to make the best use of current technology? What do you think?

After sampling several games over the years that allow you to do this, I’m starting to wonder if developer’s can ever get this right. It’s not that I don’t get what they’re doing or why they add the systems in, but very few games seem to give me what I want. Critically acclaimed games that are on the market now that have moral choices included, don’t really show the potential of what could be. Let me explain.

The Mass Effect series are games that everyone who I know have loved and played. Within the game they allow you to choose how to react to some of the characters. Depending on your actions, it can alter the way your character interacts with who you are talking to. Overall this does give you a moral choice but towards the end of the game I was disappointed with the eventual outcome. Everything I said or did within the game always came to the same conclusion at the end of each encounter. The only thing it really did was to alter the responses and the options. Being good or bad didn’t actually change anything; I got the same information both ways, and neither way altered the game in the slightest aside from in the dialogue. I’ve come to the conclusion that this wasn’t a real moral choice at all, just a system that posed as one.

It was a clever way to mask linearity by providing two ways of getting to the same result. The only real moral choice in the game was at the end, how you react will then alter the next game, pretty lacking if you really think about it. Some characters will live and die but all the way throughout the storyline nothing actually affects this until the end. A character may reply to your abruptness by being a little disgruntled but in the end you always get the same answer. Occasionally, something does affect the gameplay marginally but nothing major that would make a big impact on the overall game itself. Just in case you are wondering, I wasn’t meaning both games played as a series, just each on their own. I know killing one or two characters in one game means they aren’t in the other, but that’s beside the point.

Fallout with its explicitness

The second game I want to look at is Fallout 3. Again if you have played it you will get what I’m on about. At certain times in the game you have to pick one of two sides, by doing this you directly alter the game. Take, for example, the beginning when you have to go to Megaton. When you enter a bar you are approached by a man asking you to blow up the city. You have three choices, you can agree and blow up the town, you can tell him where to get off and never bring the subject up again, or you can choose to tell him to get lost and inform the local law. I played this scenario several times over, just to see what happens if I did different things.

The first time I did it, I told the guy yes and set the nuke ready to blow. I wandered over to Tenpenny Tower and pushed the plunger resulting in destroying the whole town. That’s right, everyone that was in that town was gone forever. The second time I did it, I told him to step off and refused, then I did nothing. All the characters survived and nothing else happened. The third time I did it; I said no and then informed the law. I followed the lawman up to the bar and he confronted the man, a fight broke out and he was shot dead, I killed the assailant and then became a hero, given a place to live by the town folk and approached by the guy’s son to be thanked for avenging his father’s murder. I thought to myself “hang about, let’s replay the third scenario again”. Again I went through the motions and did the same thing again, this time when I went up to the bar and watched the same thing happen again, as soon as the man-made motions to pull out his gun, I hit the vats button and quickly killed him to stop the lawman from leaving his son fatherless. This time I was thanked by a shocked lawman for saving his life and I still I got the reward from the town people. Every single thing I did in this one instance directly altered the game one way or another. If I saved everyone, I still had both Megaton and Tenpenny Towers left in the game. If I chose to get rid of Megaton, it was gone permanently, same with the characters. Still, with all that I could do, I still felt that it was lacking.

Games like Grand Theft Auto allow you to run around with a bazooka killing anyone in sight, the problem being that nothing you do affects the game. There are no consequences for your actions. You die and wake up in a hospital or you get arrested and spawn by the nearest cop-shop. You can choose to not be Ted Bundy, but it makes no difference either way. You decide to sleep with a prostitute afterwards you decide to kill her; you get your money back that’s about it. It’s not really a moral choice because morality is knowing that there are consequences after taking an action, whether it be good or bad.

Mass Effect is as linear as they come

What I wanted to be able to do is not just effect a game on a dialogue or on a physical way, but to be able to do both and more. In real life when you talk to someone, if you call them an asshole, chances are they will more likely not talk to you again. If you attack someone they will more likely fight you back and if you kill someone you can’t take that back and will end up arrested serving hard time in a place you wouldn’t really like to go.

The next evolution of moral choice is something that I look forward to. Imagine a game that if you speak to someone in the right way, you get a different response. If you are aggressive then they won’t talk to you and spend the remainder of the game avoiding you like you have bubonic plague. Killing an in-game character will mean they won’t exist and doing so has serious consequences much like in real life. Sleeping with the wrong type of prostitute will make you contract a sexually transmitted disease. Finding a nice woman and marrying her won’t give you a dose of the clap, but choosing to have a baby will also affect the rest of the in-game world. Opting to wipe out a town will mean that other towns will not allow you entry or try to kill you on sight. Every single thing that you do whether it be deciding to do a paper-round or refusing to take on a quest of epic proportions, changes the outcome of a game entirely. Being good or bad in any capacity changes everything that happens to you later on. Obviously there has to be some sort of story, otherwise what’s the point? However, getting through the story won’t be as much of a straight line and will have a lot of choice and variety along the way.

Like real life, things happen that affect the outcome of what choices you have in life, this in turn determines how life will pan out for you. Fate isn’t set in stone and a good game world should always have several ways to accomplish something; each resulting in events panning out differently. I don’t see why things like moral choice in a game can’t directly affect how a story will unfold or if it will at all. Maybe it’s too much of a tall order but game like Fallout are already halfway there, let’s just see who decides to go the whole hog first. As always, I’m sure that some of you will agree and disagree with my views on this, and I’m sure you will let your opinions known.