Does Mass Effect 3 really need multiplayer?

Many would say that the Mass Effect series of games are one of the, if not the, greatest sci-fi games in history. But does the trilogy really need online multiplayer? The game already has the unnecessary addition of kinect integration through voice recognition...

After Australian magazine PC PowerPlay revealed through a preview of their next issue that the game will have multiplayer, BioWare announced the feature on their forums. It's going to come in the form of 4 player co-op missions. Although playing Mass Effect with your friends will probably be a lot of fun, my main concern is if the development of it has affected the development of single player as that is what people will be buying the game for.

The FAQ on the forums says that the scope or quality of the single-player experience has not been not affected by the development of multiplayer and that the single-player experience has always been BioWare's priority. However, it also states that "your progress in multiplayer will also have a direct impact upon the outcome of the single-player campaign" but later contradicts itself by saying: "And here's the final word on why multiplayer won't affect the single-player campaign in Mass Effect 3." I don't think that multiplayer is a necessary addition to every game, and I hope that BioWare know what they're doing and the single-player is still the absolute best that it should be.

I hope this isn't just BioWare's way of including an online pass with Mass Effect 3 like a lot of other games are doing at the moment to put people off buying their product pre-owned. Other shooters use multiplayer to offer players something more after (normally) a relatively short single player campaign but Mass Effect games have such a comprehensive single-player experience and will no doubt release DLC to extend that experience and I think that this alone will keep people playing and not trading it in. You can explore the whole universe for crying out loud! What more do people want? The universe is a big place though, so maybe you do need to explore it with your friends!

Work experience at The Daily Echo

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to take part in work experience at The Daily Echo's Newspaper House in Nursling, stationed on their news desk.

Tuesday 4th

After a tour of the building and being given a desk, I was told to look for some NIBs (news in brief). I found an interesting story about recycling Christmas trees locally and wrote that up.

I then decided to follow up a story that WINOL ran last year, the story about the lack of street lighting in the alleyway connecting St James Lane and Airlie Road. When I was in the area around the new year I noticed that street lighting had been put up so I decided to research why the lighting had been put up considering that the coucil said that "the project was on hold due to complexities" to WINOL in October.

I got the number for a press officer at Winchester City Council from a reporter, Jon, and after phoning them I was told it was a matter that Hampshire County Council take care of. After getting hold of the appropriate person there, she said she would call me back.

Wednesday 5th

For the rest of the week a majority of the Daily Echo's staff were on strike over a pay dispute. This worked in my favour, as I was given more responsibilty and there was a lot more work to do. The news editor, Gordon, gave me some pictures of a toddlers event in Swanwick and a number to ring to get the story and write it up to go in Thursday's Echo. I phoned up and asked a few questions to get the information I needed to write the story as it only needed to be a short one. I wrote it and submitted it to the news desk and it can be seen below.

In the afternoon I went to Town Quay with a repoter, Martyn, to meet some police men who were searching underwater for a missing man that lived on a boat there. It was very interesting and I even got to do some filming myself on a mini flip camera. The story containing the video can be seen below.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/8774674.Underwater__search_for__missing__grandad/

When I returned to the newsroom I finally got a call back from the lady regarding the street lights in Winchester. I got all the facts and figures that I needed for the story, for example how much it cost, who paid for it, when it was put up and why. I found out that the main reason for this was because the University wanted students to feel safe when using the alleyway so I phoned up the University and they subsequently emailed me a quote the following morning.

Thursday 6th

First thing in the morning I recorded the 60 second headlines for the Echo's wesite. This is something that they do to promote the stories that are in the paper and hopefully make people buy it. Unfortunately I do not have a copy of it but I did the 60 second bulletin again the following day (Friday) and the recording of that can be seen below.

I then went to court with  a reporter, Matt, who had been assigned to do the court reporting that day. We went to Southampton Crown Court and the first case we saw was a first appearance of a soldier who is accused of glassing someone, he pleaded not guilty and date for his trial was set. Next we went into a case where three men were accused of breaking into a chip shop owner's house and stealing money and a lot of electronic goods, including a TV. On this particular day, the wife of the victim was giving evidence. After she had finished giving evidence a forensic scientist gave evidence about a foot mark made on the door of the house that was broken into. This evidence was interesting even though it wasn't very conclusive.

Friday 7th

The Assistant News editor, Jenny, had a look at my story about the street lights in Winchester and said it was great and sent it to be subbed to be in Saturday's Echo and it did indeed appear in the paper and can be seen below.

I spent the rest of the morning phoning round various chemists and pharmacies to see if they had the flu vaccine in stock for a report in to the shortage of flu vaccines in the south. I took part in a bit of undercover reporting and drove to one pharmacy who we suspected was charging over the odds for the flu vaccine but when I asked for it, they had run out. The investigation was a big double page spread in Saturday's Echo and the reporter, Tara, put my name at the end of the report which can be seen below.

My task Friday afternoon was a report that would be making the front page of Saturday's Echo. After being emailed a list of addresses that had recently been burgled, I had to locate them in a street atlas. I then had to photocopy the pages that the burglaries were on, highlight the roads that they were on, and then give this to 'map man' Andy, who made it into a digital map. He came back to me with the map and all the locations had been numbered, I then had to create a key that listed the road names of each numbered location. The map appeared on page 2 of Saturday's Daily Echo and can be seen below.