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Spoilers for major plot points throughout the Mass Effect trilogy.

8

Let Cerberus rebuild you as a Vanguard

Mission parameters: Come back from the dead as a biotic

Commander Shepard dies in the opening minutes of Mass Effect 2. On the first playthrough of the trilogy, this is earth-shattering. On a replay, it’s more of an opportunity. As Shepard gets a new body, you get a chance at a new playstyle. Interested in skipping the first game and its slower exploration vibe entirely? You can: Import your last Mass Effect 1 save, keep your major choices, and swap your class on the way in. (Or start fresh at the second game in the Legendary Edition, which lets you skip the first installment entirely.) The Vanguard, a biotic class built around the Charge, a power that launches you into the middle of a fight, is a good option. Pick a class you’ve never played, and let Cerberus take the blame.

7

Go Renegade, with three exceptions

Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Mission parameters: Red options everywhere — except to save Wrex, the Rachni Queen, and the Council

The Renegade path is an uneven one in this trilogy. Your dialogue options are color-coded: You get a blue, diplomatic Paragon option and a red, ruthless Renegade one. The red options mean different things at different times. In Mass Effect 1, they swing between prejudice, efficiency, and plain rudeness. By the time you get to Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, the Renegade options settle on one primary idea: Getting the job done at any cost. One effective approach, is to take the red option nearly every time, and go Paragon only for the choices the sequels depend upon. Be ruthless, but leave a few people alive. Like Wrex, at least. For the story’s sake.

6

Write an unexpected headcanon Shepard

Image: BioWare/EA

Mission parameters: Pick a less-expected combo of one of Mass Effect 1’s three histories and one of its three profiles. Then answer every dialogue wheel in full character

Mass Effect 1 asks you to pick a pre-service history (Spacer, Colonist, or Earthborn) and a psychological profile (Sole Survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless). Each history and profile unlocks its own mission, like “Old Friends” for Earthborn Shepards, where a former gang member asks you for a favor.

Pick your ideal pair of backstory attributes, preferably ones that you might not think go together or that you haven’t played before. A Spacer who was a Ruthless commander at Torfan, a slaver base; or a Colonist who was the War Hero of Elysium; or an Earthborn andSole Survivor of a thresher maw attack. Come up with a full backstory. Write it down, for bonus points. Then, treat every dialogue wheel as a true test of that person. This breaks down a bit in Mass Effect 3, where auto-dialogue takes over, but see if you can stay in character until then.

5

Dawdle through the Collector abduction

Image: BioWare

Mission parameters: Once the Collectors take your crew, do every mission you can before you go after them

A truly funny hallmark of video games is when something obviously dangerous or devastating happens…and the game just lets you go back to non-essential side quests instead of dealing with the problem at hand. In Mass Effect 2, this happens when the mysterious alien race known as the Collectors invades the Normandy and kidnaps the crew. It is arguably the most urgent moment in the game.

And here, there actually are stakes. After the Reaper IFF mission, you get a mission or two before the abduction, and every mission you take after that means fewer hostages survive. But what if you decide you don’t care? Take your sweet time. Run every side mission you can find, and chat up your squadmates between them. By the time you finally head through the Omega 4 relay, a skeleton crew remains. If you happen to like your consequences with a side of regret, the trilogy has other places to go bad on purpose. You might consider letting the Council’s flagship go down in Mass Effect 1, for starters. See what happens.

4

Go pistol only

Image: BioWare/EA via Polygon

Mission parameters: One pistol. One talent. And a weapon that overheats

In Mass Effect 1, opting for the Marksman pistol talent gets you a pistol that can outshoot a rifle, limited only by how fast you can click. Go ahead and lean into that idea and refuse to pick up a rifle for the entire game. When your pistol is your only weapon, every fight turns into a rhythm of firing, watching the heat gauge, and cooling down. There are some tradeoffs here, clearly: The damage you’ll be able to deal out can be comparable to an assault rifle, but you give up the sniper rifle’s range and the shotgun’s burst. And if you’re not really careful, overheating can force you to stop shooting at the worst possible moment. But, done right, the pistol is a tireless little death machine. Just keep an eye on your heat gauge, and everything will (probably) be fine.

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3

Fight everything from the Mako

Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts

Mission parameters: Stay in the vehicle for combat and get out only for interiors

The Mako — your six-wheeled armored rover for exploring barren planets — is excellent for scrambling up steep slopes and crossing rough terrain. While it’s got a cannon and a machine gun, it’s built more for getting around than fighting — which sounds like a challenge to me. See if you can beat everything in it and keep on-foot fights for interiors. That includes the giant burrowing acid-spewing sandworms. There is a catch to this one: Fighting from the vehicle nets you less experience than killing enemies on foot, a penalty that’s fairly easy to miss. You’ll gain levels slowly, in a vehicle you’ve likely complained about for years, with nobody to blame but the Mako.

2

Keep your first weapons

BioWare/Electronic Arts

Mission parameters: Be undyingly loyal to the first gun of every type that drops. No swaps allowed

Mass Effect gives you weapons that come in ranks — a Predator X pistol is better than the base Predator you get early in the game, for example. You can also buy upgrades and attach mods like scopes and extended barrels. Except if you’re doing this type of run. Here’s the rule: Whenever a new pistol, rifle, shotgun, SMG, or sniper rifle drops, you keep the first of each type you find. Ignore the rest. This means your first Avenger rifle will either become a legend…or it’ll get you killed very, very quickly.

1

Ruin the galaxy

Image: BioWare/Electronic Arts via Polygon

Mission parameters: Kill as many people as you can!

Mass Effect 2 ends with a doomed mission through the Collector base. How well you prepare will determine which of your squadmates survive. Usually, the goal is all of them, but in this challenge run, your objective is flipped. Kill everyone! Including your squadmates. This is horrifying, but it does come with some funny unintended consequences. If all of your squadmates perish, Shepard’s big finale speech — given to a room full of “nobodies” — is hilarious. Nobody in the galaxy deserves this, but it does make for a great story. %!s()

Fans looking forward to the Drunken Goddess Reflux demo are out of luck

Image: Alliance Arts/Who You

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Drunken Goddess Reflux is an upcoming indie game where players must survive a night of drinking with a beautiful anime demon, Russian Roulette-style. It's certainly a unique concept, and the game has already amassed over 25,000 wishlists on Steam. While the game was supposed to have a demo during Steam Next Fest, the developers decided to cancel the demo's release at the last minute so the game wouldn't instigate a wave of generative AI-developed clones.

Drunken Goddess Reflux devs pull out of Steam Next Fest and hold closed demo for select players

Steam Next Fest is set to begin Monday, Oct. 19, and end Oct. 26. The purpose of this weeklong event is for developers to share demos of their upcoming games. It's a great initiative that lets players try out plenty of titles for free and helps developers publicize their games and gain wishlists on Steam.

Alliance Arts and Who You's upcoming game, Drunken Goddess Reflux, was going to release a Steam Next Fest demo on Oct. 19. However, just a few days before the event, Alliance Arts decided to pull the plug. The studio apologized to fans anticipating the demo on X, explaining that it could not move forward for two reasons.

First, it would be unable to monitor whether gameplay footage and streams would be in accordance with its publishing restrictions; second, it believed providing a demo would enable others to quickly produce clones using generative AI.

The use of AI in the video game industry has become an increasing concern for developers and players alike. While artificial intelligence might make the development process faster and improve efficiency, AI tools and vibe coding facilitate the creation of video game clones. If that were to happen with this demo, it's entirely possible that developers of the AI copycats could finish the game faster and publish it before Drunken Goddess Reflux even sees the light of day, possibly hindering Drunken Goddess Reflux's success upon release.

Thankfully, players aren't being completely cut off from getting the chance to try the game before release. Interested players can currently fill out an application form for access to closed test sessions on Who You's official Discord server. Drunken Goddess Reflux will then be officially released on Dec. 8. %!s()

An “unusually large” number of Chinese vessels took part in coordinated operations around Taiwan’s main island and Pratas (also known as Dongsha), a disputed island to the southwest, the Taiwanese coastguard said in a statement on Sunday.

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list of 3 items

• list 1 of 3Taiwan Coast Guard confronts Chinese fishing boats in Dongsha waters
• list 2 of 3Taiwan president says defence spending boost aims to ‘deter war’
• list 3 of 3China sanctions Paraguay, Belize ministers over Taiwan ties

end of list

The Chinese vessels included four fishing boats, which engaged in “simultaneous operations’ that the coastguard described as “hybrid warfare”.

Taiwan’s coastguard said its vessels took “forceful action immediately to effectively neutralise the threats” and accused Beijing of “attempting to unilaterally alter the status quo” in the Taiwan Strait and give the “false impression of jurisdiction”.

Some of the vessels reportedly entered Taiwan’s restricted waters.

Intensified maritime pressure

Beijing claims Taiwan and Pratas as part of its territory and asserts jurisdiction over the surrounding waters, which Taipei rejects. China has long threatened to use force to regain control of Taiwan.

In an incident on October 1 , Taiwan’s coastguard fired water cannon at a Chinese recreational fishing vessel near Pratas island between Taiwan and mainland China that Beijing claims.

China has intensified its maritime pressure on Taiwan in recent months. Beijing deployed a record 244 coastguard, scientific research and other ships around Taiwan’s main island in July, Taiwanese official data show, compared with just 58 in the same month last year.

In the first 21 days of August, 152 vessels were detected; most were from the Chinese Coastguard, but fishing boats and research vessels were also involved.

China also deploys warships around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, but those are counted separately. %!s()

Bob Dylan kicked off his Lights of Autumn Tour Saturday evening at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, with a stunning set that featured rarities, surprise covers, new arrangements of old favorites, and even the unveiling of yet another new guitarist, which is now his sixth in just the past five months. 

The show began in familiar fashion with “To Be Alone With You” and “Man in the Long Black Coat,” but he then played the Basement Tapes classic “Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)” for the first time since 2005. And then four songs later, he broke out “Tangled Up in Blue” for the first time since 2018. It was a radically stripped-down torch ballad rendition, reminiscent of the arrangement on the 1978 tour, featuring many lyrical alterations.

“Way up north in the frozen woods,” Dylan sang. “Teardrops touch the sky/The leaves are falling one by one/And the mornings pass you by/Sometimes it gets so quiet/Sometimes it gets in the way/Look here for another/Tomorrow’s another day/And all the while I was alone/The past was close behind/I seen a lot of women/But I never escaped her mind/And she just grew/Tangled up in blue.”

Just as the shock of all this was sinking in, Dylan pulled out Randy Newman’s 1974 song “Louisiana 1927.” It was not only the first time he’d ever performed the song, but the first time he’d ever played anything from Randy Newman’s vast catalog. 

“Louisiana 1927” chronicles the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which was a seismic event in the state’s history that inspired Memphis Minnie’s “When the Levee Breaks,” Bessie Smith’s “Blackwater Blues,” Barbecue Bob’s “Mississippi Heavy Water Blues,” and Charley Patton’s “High Water Everywhere,” which sparked Dylan 2001 song “High Water (For Charley Patton).” (Something clearly brought apocalyptic flooding to Dylan’s mind considering his decision to play both “Crash on the Levee” and “Louisiana 1927.” It’s tempting to interperet it as Dylan’s commentary on the state of the world right now, but any attempt to read Dylan’s mind is a pointless endeavor.)

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The surprise covers continued five songs later with “Dublin Blues” by Texas outlaw country artist Guy Clark. This isn’t nearly as famous as Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927,” but it’s a stellar song that deserves the spotlight Dylan is shining on it.

As all of this was playing out, hardcore Dylan fans were frantically trying to figure out who was playing guitar on the far side of the stage. New guitarist Joel Paterson was joined at various points by both Julian Lage and Jad Tariq during the summer leg in the U.S., but they both had commitments in America that made it impossible for them to be in Norway for the tour opener. Paterson was back for the show alongside drummer Anton Fig and bassist Tony Garnier, and there was also a new guitarist that many fans believe is Mike Seal, even though setlist guru Bill Pagel is playing it safe by listing him as “?” in the band lineup that he includes under every song listing. 

Dylan was no help in this endeavor since he didn’t introduce his bandmates at any point. (He also didn’t remove the tight hoodie on his head or say a single word to the crowd.) But Ray Padgett’s Flagging Down the Double E’s newsletter features a dispatch from the show by Tom Wilkins that includes a close-up photo of the mystery guitarist. He looks quite a bit like a clean-shaven Mike Seal to our eyes, but we could be wrong. (In most normal situations, there would be a press release announcing the newest member of a major touring act or the musician would post the news himself. But Dylan’s band is like Fight Club. You have to pretend you’re not a part of it even while the tour is happening.)

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What we can say for sure is that the main set wrapped up with “I Shall Be Released,” but Dylan returned to the stage for a rare encore. He went with “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” which was the third Basement Tapes tune of the night. And at 19 songs, this was the longest Dylan show in recent memory. 

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The tour resumes October 19 in Horsens, Denmark, and then goes all across Europe before wrapping up with four nights at London’s Royal Festival Hall, which Dylan hasn’t played since 1964. Hopefully we’ll have a positive ID on the new guitarist by that point. (Mike Seal, our apologies if the new guy is merely your doppelgänger. And if it is you, congrats. We hope you last longer than some of the recent fellows. It’s been like Game of Thrones up on that stage this year.)

Bob Dylan’s October 17 setlist at the Oslo Spektrum in Oslo, Norway:

1. To Be Alone With You
2. Man In The Long Black Coat
3. Crash On The Levee
4. Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
5. Early Roman Kings
6. I Can Tell
7. Tangled Up In Blue
8. Share Your Love With Me
9. Louisiana 1927
10. When I Paint My Masterpiece
11. I’ll Make It All Up To You
12. Crossing the Rubicon
13. Soon After Midnight
14. Dublin Blues
15. Under The Red Sky
16. I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You
17. Goodbye Jimmy Reed
18. I Shall Be Released
19. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

I'm standing on top of a flying fortress hundreds of feet in the air, as around me, 15 or so players wage a losing battle against a swarm of flying robots armed with rockets and lasers. It's utter chaos. We fight further and further into the ship, unlocking platforms, defeating waves of enemies and giant turrets which pop out of the deck to gun down unsuspecting looters. But I think we're done.

Time is running short and we've once again stalled at this stage of the puzzle. All that's left now is to try and make it back to ground in one piece and live to attempt another day. This is the Frigate, one of Arc Raiders two new raid-style activities, and it's exactly what the game needed.

Rather than content you can complete the day the update comes out, Frozen Trail's Frigate and Fallen Emperor represent a deeper loot chase, tied into upgrading the new outpost and workbenches to fashion special weapons which fire explosive bullets or incendiary grenades.

More than that: they're properly fun. I've raided a lot in Destiny 2, completed its dungeons more times than I can count (including soloing some) and I'm quite impressed with the variety of these endgame challenges, how they demand cooperation from players, but also really tie into the features and loot chase that Frozen Trail added.

While the Arc Frigate is a pitched battle blasting endless waves of robots as you try to unlock its cargo hold with a bunch of other raiders, the Fallen Emperor is more of an individual challenge. This series of mostly randomised encounters sees you solving puzzles and painstakingly platforming your way through its labyrinth of hazards and Hydra turrets, which love to pick you off when you're dangling in some precarious position.

It's a race to perpetrate a bank heist in the corpse of a colossal robot, and if that doesn't get your juices flowing, I don't know what will. Part of the fun is Frozen Trail's new Grappling Hook item, an easy to craft traversal tool that lets you scale and swing in a much more enjoyable way than the game's existing Snap Hook—I always carry one now, just for ease of exploration.

It's a race to perpetrate a bank heist in the corpse of a colossal robot

The Fallen Emperor is also smart in terms of loot, designed like a kids' gameshow (did anyone here watch Jungle Run?). Players who want the guaranteed big score at the end are incentivised to rush there, lest another raider beat them, but since there are loot containers between each encounter and concealed in them, other players can filter in and still have a chance at getting rare items and rewards for encounters without making it to the end.

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The same goes for the Arc Frigate—it's not just about who gets there first; these encounters are layered with loot, and often reward exploration as much as pushing for the end goal, especially as the new upgrades require a wide range of materials.

Though Frozen Trail has its bugs—my reward pass still isn't fixed—this is such a positive update for the game's direction. If the PvE-mode test is anything to go by, we'll soon be able to play Arc Raiders' endgame events like the Fallen Emperor, Frigate, Matriarch, or Harvester without fear of getting ratted and having our loot stolen while we're trying to fight big arc, work together, and puzzle stuff out.

I'm not a player who minds PvP or the way it elevates the tension and excitement of the extraction shooter genre, but I think there's a good case to be made for a PvE-only option when running PvE-centric endgame events, which often require cooperation. It's also uniquely frustrating getting ambushed after successfully completing one.

This happened to me after landing a huge loot haul on the Frigate and basically being the only raider to make it out alive—I was riding high, I wasn't cautious, and of course some punk with a Kettle was waiting at extraction. He even said "Hello" before he ratted me. It's a sucky way to end these cool events and it dissuades players from investing in their challenge, so hopefully any eventual PvE mode that does appear will include these.

Still, these new raid-style events have me so excited for the future of Arc Raiders. I can't help but fantasize about how fun and rewarding a Destiny 2 length raid in Arc Raiders would be, or something similar to Building 21 or Koschei Complex in DMZ—a dedicated mode with its own timer, challenges, and bosses. I can't wait to see what endgame content Embark cooks up next.

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse. %!s()