Anybody who knows me, knows that I love the Mass Effect series. Yes I know its not perfect. My opinion of it is that I love it, and that's what matters to me. Do I want the series to do well? Of course I do, I want more Mass Effect games, I love the setting and I like Bioware's storytelling.
So recently, Bioware announced some of the 'BIG NAME' people who are doing voice work for the new game. One of them is a woman by the name of Jessica Chobot. Her likeness, as well as her voice has been used. Now, I can vaguely remember her popping up in the data banks of my brainmeat at some point, but to be honest I'm not sure if she qualifies as a big deal. She's done game journalism and presenter work for IGN. How much does her opinion weigh in, in the grand scheme of things? I don't think that much.
However, before her announcement, she has been doing some punting of Mass Effect 3, favorable announcements and whatnot for various IGN related stuff. So when her role was announced, game journos started screaming 'OMFG CONFLICT OF INTEREST! BURN! KILL THE HERETIC! SHAMELESS AND NO INTEGRITY RAWR!'
Now, as I said, I love Mass Effect 3. Do I care about this Jessica Chobot 'scandal'? Not a fucking iota. Why? Because every half-baked game news site is going to be the meat in a EA/Bioware Mass Effect sandwich when it comes out. I dare any site to give it less than a 9 or 8.5 when its released. I'm hoping its justly deserving of those scores, but this is the Internet. They throw so much advertising cheddar at them, you risk some web-cholesterol poisoning if you try that road. Let me remind you of the Gamespot 'Kane and Lynch' debacle from back in 2007/2008. Gamespot gave it a lukewarm review, and suddenly they lost a half million in advertising and the reviewer fired. Nice integrity there..
So what options are you left with? Nowadays critics are all deep in somebody's pocket or too well hidden. The only answer it appears is to go talk to the fan boys, the trolls and the websites. Drown in that information pool and try make a well informed decision. I've seen countless forum posts on various game forums of people full of buyer's regret. Simply because the marketing of a various game was successful.
Metacritic gets bombed by various people trying to shift review scores all over the place, so its about as useful as a mankini in the Arctic.
So who the Hell can we trust for info? We have this vast sprawling Internet, with some much information. How hard is it to get 1 unbiased review for the unsure?
Pretty fucking tough by the looks of it. Seems the only answer is to grab your shovel and get digging.
