More of the same

In an effort to not feel like I have to be playing Dark Void, I'm going to lament the seemingly awful things that will be coming out in the next few weeks, and I won't be playing.

On the 26th of this month we have Mass Effect 2. Truth be told, I am very much looking forward to this game, yet I will not play it. "Why?" non-existent readers may ask. Well the answer is quite simple: at some point I deleted my save file from the first game. Unless there is some way to create a save file with a sassy, redheaded Shepherd, a living Wrex and a dead Ashley, then I won't be trying to continue on with the story. It's a shame really. I had looked forward to getting back into that universe only to be shut down by my lack of foresight. Who knows? Although I hear Dark Void is very short, so I might just have enough time on my hands.

The second game on the list is Bioshock 2. The original Bioshock was what myself and many others considered to be a masterpiece. It had such an impact on me as to completely ruin the FPS genre for me for about 2 years. It had a fully realised world with colourfully psychotic characters, and a story and twist that go down as one of the best ever seen in a game. So why are they trying to piss on it with a sequel.

I feel bad for the people over 2K Marin and 2K Australia, and the 15 other developers that got roped into this project. I'm sure that they are all lovely people, with good values and beautiful families, but this game simply should not exist.

I realise that Bishock sold tons of copies, and made Take-Two a boatload of money, but sometimes its okay to let a game exist as a single entity without being wrung-out to make sequels or spin-offs (and the same thing can be said of movies, and for some odd reason, hip hop albums). Bioshock had a perfectly self-contained story that was a work of art on its own, and incidentally, had an ending that sort of sealed off the universe. But then this sequel comes along, and to prove its sequel-ness, where the first game introduced us to Big Daddies, now we have Big Sisters! Where rapture used to be controlled by a right-wing lunatic, the new game is about a left-wing lunatic. Boy, I bet those brainstorming sessions went so long they had to order in some Chinese food.

Plus they added multi player.Good thing too, because there's nothing better than having another multi player game that no one else is playing. Wolfenstein, Section 8 and James Cameron's Avatar: The Game say hi. Nobody was playing the first game and saying to themselves how great the gun play and combat felt. I have a gut feeling nobody will be saying that this time around either.

So ultimately I reject this game as being an unnecessary grab for cash. The first game had something special that I hadn't really felt from a game in a long time, and this one seems like it has no soul. Maybe I'll be completely wrong, but unless the word of mouth on this game consists entirely of "this is better in every way than the original," I'm not going to sully my memories of a masterpiece.