I am at a fortunate stage of my parenting journey where I have a son old enough to have a girlfriend smart enough to give genuinely thoughtful gifts to her boyfriend's dad at Christmas. This is how I came to unwrap Ten Things Video Games Can Teach Us (About Life, Philosophy and Everything) by Jordan Erica Webber and Daniel Griliopoulos. Books are a risky thing to give as gifts because they, like video games, require an investment of time. You don't throw them on calloused feet like a sock or slap them about your tired face like an aftershave. I find academic books about video games personally ironic because in the 90s I wrote and presented a BBC Radio 4 show called Are Books Dead?

Ranking the Mass Effect original trilogy characters probably seems impossible. The cast is so diverse and dynamic that everyone playing will find different characters who resonate with them more than others. I love Tali Zorah, the awkward, nerdy engineer who eventually matures into a woman capable of expressing herself beyond the envirosuit that hides her physical traits. You might love Zaeed, the gruff mercenary who is the very pinnacle of Renegade -- a role-playing alignment in-game that prioritizes getting the job done at any cost, no matter the moral consequences -- but still has the heart of a child when confronted with things like a toy claw game or his very first rifle. In this list, I'll be ranking characters based on how they're written, as opposed to focusing on my opinions. The best, most memorable characters are those with agency -- characters who influence the plot with their actions and decisions. In Mass Effect, some characters are definitely more impactful than others, and some are memorable for their traits and character arcs. Overwhelmed newcomers to Mass Effect Legendary Edition may want to use these rankings to see which characters may be more worth their time.

Downloadable content is such a common part of modern gaming life it's rote. A few levels here, a few skins or characters there--DLC is pretty much a given, especially on AAA titles, which these days you can almost bet will have at least two paid bits of bonus content that encompass entirely new missions. And, hey, for a long time they made sense. Video game companies like them because they're sure-fire revenue generators; players (learned to) like them because they can extend time in a beloved game, a digital amuse-bouche of their favorite dish. But just because something makes sense, doesn't mean I have to play it.

Mass Effect, the classic science fiction video game series, is making a return as an upgraded rerelease later this spring. Electronic Arts announced "Mass Effect Legendary Edition" will launch May 14 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with forward support for new consoles PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The edition will feature the main story and downloadable additions from the original Mass Effect game, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. The rerelease will be optimized for 4K and feature enhanced visuals such as remastered character models, unified options for creating characters and a wider selection of customization options. "Remastering a game, let alone three, is a huge undertaking as there's over 100 hours of gameplay included, but we wanted to do this for our fans as well as a new generation of gamers looking to jump into the iconic story of Shepard," said Mac Walters, project director on the Mass Effect Legendary Edition and lead writer of the original trilogy at BioWare, in a statement. Will hybrid work actually work?:What companies and workers should consider in a post-pandemic world The Mass Effect trilogy follows Commander Shepard as he attempts to stop an advanced machine race called Reapers that want to wipe out all organic life.

It's been four years since Canadian studio Bioware seemingly closed out its science fiction RPG series Mass Effect with one of the most controversial (or as some put it, "disappointing") endings in video game history. Next March, however, the beloved series is returning, with a brand-new cast and setting, and some interesting new design features. Coming two years after the developer's acclaimed Dragon Age: Inquisition, it's likely Andromeda will draw on a lot of the ideas and systems from that game, as well as from the Mass Effect canon. But what do we actually know about the next title? Mass Effect has often been beautiful, but it's never looked so much like an actual, modern-day sci-fi movie as Andromeda does in the trailers.