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The games of this week were really the games of the last seven months, as online updates saw two titles which have dominated the lives of so many return to our screens: Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim. The updates were very different, but neither was exactly a triumphant return.Mass Effect 3's Extended Cut isn't a traditional free update so much as a story patch, a rewrite, plugging holes in plot and motivation and massaging away the more downbeat implications of the game's ending(s). It came into being so BioWare could be seen to be doing something about the extraordinary outpouring of fan fury that greeted that ending back in March. All that has largely died down now, leaving this bizarre precedent looking like what it is - a sticking plaster that doesn't so much cover up a messy tangle of issues about interactive narrative and the developer-player relationship as draw attention to them.
"Post-release plot-changes shouldn't become the norm, for the simple reason that while a script can be patched, memories can't," wrote Rich Cobbett in his analysis of Mass Effect 3: The Extended Cut. "Likewise, it would be tragic if the wrong lessons were learned from this. If Mass Effect 3 is going to teach something, it shouldn't be 'You can't end on a downer' or 'Only give people what they think you want', but the more generally applicable 'Make sure your ending is appropriate for your story' and 'Don't rush something fans have been waiting five years to see.' With a polite but firm 'Duh...' on the end of the second one.
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