Minireview – Mass Effect 2

If you can read this clearly, congratulations! You might be a candidate to play Mass Effect 2!

Seriously though, whoever thought that debilitatingly tiny text in this game was a good idea needs to have his/her head examined. I tried, I really did. I was so excited – this was going to be my first XBox 360 review. I can tell that ME2 is a fantastic game – it looks great, it's really fun, and it presents a legitimately mature storyline.

I got to the point where I first had to use the galaxy map though, and I knew I was screwed. Sure, I could have consulted a GameFAQ or something, but when the text is so tiny that you can't tell what the heck you're supposed to do, well, there's a problem.

I know Bioware are the good guys, and that they make games that cater to their fans. Fine. I get it. But you're telling me that they couldn't have made a scaleable font size option somewhere in there? Knowing that only 33 to 50 percent of people in North America own HD TVs? It's kind of a dick move to say "nope, it's impossible to patch. Go buy an HD TV." You're going to give me tiny text AND insult my television?

This of course leads to a discussion of the accessibility of gaming in general. Games are naturally designed to appeal to the most able of people – people of able vision, and, especially with the advent of motion control, able body. Too often, there are no provisions for the people who physically cannot play games as they are currently designed. I've already seen a glut of posts on websites about people who have deteriorated vision in one eye who can't properly see 3D images. As this appears to be the direction that gaming is headed in (see: 3DS, the 3D capabilities of the PS3, etc.), what options are left for the already-marginalized gamer?

It might sound like this just became a concern as soon as a game that I literally couldn't play came along, but I've always had absolutely atrocious eyesight, and text smaller than the standard definition text on, say, the Wii Channels menu is difficult to read.

I'm going to leave Mass Effect 2 to John or Christian to properly review, but for now, I'll say this: I can't give a pass to a game that is unplayable (or just about unplayable) for the majority of people – that is, people with standard definition television sets. I realize that most people who own 360s are HD owners, but I still can't fathom how anyone with an SD set has been able to slog through it.

(Play time – 1 and a half hours)