DISPATCHES JANUARY

Dialogue

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Wake up

I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to find the seemingly constant announcements of game remasters/reboots disconcerting. The news that the Mass Effect trilogy is to undergo this treatment triggered this. I loved those games the first time round – except for the a, b, c endings which we were promised wouldn’t be happening. And I’m as guilty as anyone else for purchasing and playing various remasters over the years – the Ezio trilogy, Final Fantasy VIII, IX, X and X-2 – so am complicit in the perpetuation of such things.

While it’s great that games like this will be (re)introduced to a new generation of players, might be a good example. I can’t but help feel a sense of fin de siècle lack of originality and creativity. I characters up to level 100, but never beat Omega Weapon. Do I now have the patience to play these games to completion again, with slightly better graphics, faster loading times (the lift in )? Will I make different choices that affect Shepard and her team (that in itself raises some existential questions as to what kind of person I might have become in the last ten years)? Is Liara still the best companion character (I think so)? Does all this say too much about me instead of the games themselves? (Probably.) Even so, in a world that is all about new and instant experiences, it does feel like a ‘new’ and slightly polished-up version of something old is a step backward in terms of pushing new gaming architecture, and more importantly, crafting original and engaging stories that players want to be a part of.