The first Mass Effect was a great game, it had an amazing back story, suitable combat mechanics, and an great choice system. This was the first game I’ve played that I felt that my choices actually altered the game (sorry Fable). The only flaws in the game were poor conversational paths, extremely repetative side missions, graphical glitches, and an extremely ineffective inventory system. Although overal I had an extremely enjoyable time when playing Mass Effect. Enough fun that I felt it necessary to beat the game four times. It’s a bit obvious that I’m a big fan of immersive RPGs, so hearing news about Mass Effect 2 naturally gets me all wet and excited, and what better to get me moist than small teaser that Bioware has released for the game on their Mass Effect 2 website.

Watch over the trailer, it doesn’t take that long. If you’ve played the first Mass Effect you may be a bit concerned about the “Status: Killed in Action” that flashes on the screen. Does this suggest that Shepard (the main character from Mass Effect), is dead? I hope not. Shepard is one bad ass dude, at least the Shepard I created is. Still, Well we can see a Geth creature in his suit, which could mean perhaps he’s been captured by the Geth and has been reconstructed as one. That’s just wishful thinking though. One this is for sure though,  if Mass Effect 2 is anything like the first, I’ll be a happy customer.

On a side note, what the hell is up with the whole trend of adding boxes to your logos, I mean first Mirror’s Edge and now Mass Effect 2? Boxes are pretty trendy.

A Next Metal Gear?

Let’s first start off by saying nice English Konami!, something obliviously went wrong in the translation sector. That out of the way, let’s start the talk about what it means.

When this message was first put up, there was a rush of people associating the green colour and the power symbol with the Xbox 360. Only that the power symbol is not exclusive to the 360, it’s on many, many different appliances and electronics. Furthermore, what does an i have to do with a 360?

Next theory, (which in my opinion is more logical) is that there is a new Metal Gear game coming for the iTouch and/or the iPhone. It certainly fills in the “i” part of the equation above, the exclamation mark is the tradition symbol of Metal Gear, and the power symbol can simply symbolize “is a go” or “it’s on”.

Alternately we could scrap this whole idea of exclusives and platforms and get down to what it could mean for the game itself. Could this be some kind of green-technology themed Metal Gear? Could this be a prequel to the Metal Gear series. Could this be the next Metal Gear Ac!d (the i as the !, green is acidic colour)? There are so many questions and so many possibilities, and you know the Konami marketing staff is probably sitting there laughing while people argue with one and other pointlessly about what this teaser means. There is nothing to do but wait for now, but my money is on Metal Gear Ac!d 3 for the iTouch / iPhone.