Mass Effect is some of the best science fiction ever made. That may sound like a grandiose comment, but it's true. As a trilogy, the original games from 2007-2013 effortlessly plucked the most cerebral ideas from the sci-fi genre and slotted them into a memorable military role-playing game that had players invested from beginning to controversial end. Whether you prefer the hopeful, optimistic outlook of Asimov, the dark and reflective commentary of Shelley, the accessible thought experiments of Star Trek, or the arch melodrama of Battlestar Galactica, Mass Effect has it all. The trilogy is as happy grazing on the western-inspired tropes of Star Wars as the "hard" sci-fi of Iain M Banks, blending all its moods and micro-stories into a compelling, believable galaxy that somehow walks a line between breathless optimism and suffocating bleakness.

It's rare to find a sequel that manages to outshine its predecessor. To add new depth to its characters, flesh out more of the world, and raise the stakes in a way that feels grand and epic without being silly. A sequel that's more Empire Strikes Back and less Home Alone 2. This kind of achievement is rare enough in movies, rarer still in video games. But at least one game has pulled it off. The first game, Horizon Zero Dawn felt so perfectly self-contained. Or at least so I thought.

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.

The idea that motion pictures can be works of art has been around since the 1920s, and it hasn't really been disputed since. It's easy to see why--cinema shares characteristics with theater in terms of acting, direction, music, set design, narrative, and so on. Now we have whole academic departments dedicated to film appreciation, to understanding the emotional and intellectual responses--deep feelings of awe and reverence, among others--that movies can elicit. But video games aren't assumed to be as artistic as cinema or theater, if it all. In 2010, for instance, the late film critic Roger Ebert wrote an essay titled, "Video Games Can Never Be Art."

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.

To the untrained eye, it might look like a campaign video, albeit one that's a bit over the top. Donald Trump tweeted out a video Monday that appears to have originated from this vidme upload. The video warns that "humanity is under attack" and that "one very specific man might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence." Martin Sheen's authoritative voiceover has been co-opted from a speech in which Sheen's character in the "Mass Effect" series, the Illusive Man, is discussing the threat of a deadly super species that wants to wipe out the human race, setting in motion the events of "Mass Effect 2." In fact, the Trump video mirrors the trailer for "Mass Effect 2" quite well, including ratings and scenes featuring allies and critics alike.