THE MAKO IN MASS EFFECT 2

Being able to move around on alien planets and moons in a massive tank sounds like such a great idea in paper- simple, yes, and not out-of-the-box by any means, but it’s something that just sounds appealing. Mass Effect’s Mako sections, however, were famously terrible. The environments were barren and repetitive, combat in the Mako felt rather uninteresting, and worst of all, actually driving the vehicle was a bit of a nightmare. The first game’s Mako sections were one of the few parts of the game that received heavy criticism, and of course, BioWare went on to drop it completely in Mass Effect 2, replacing it with the much more simplified probe mining mechanic- which wasn’t exactly a huge hit either, but at least it wasn’t actively obnoxious like the Mako sections tended to be. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition did end up making some improvements to the Mako, and Mass Effect: Andromeda’s open world driving was a step up over it as well, even though it wasn’t exactly spectacular. Even so, it’s fair to say that Mass Effect as a series has never really managed to do vehicles right.

Granblue Fantasy Versus

Cygames’ mobile RPG envisioned as a fighting game with side-scrolling hack and slash RPG battles, weapon grids and bosses? It’s doable but Arc System Works took the idea and ran with it, using its incredible visual style and art direction for each character and environment. The combat has a decent amount of depth with Skybound Arts (which are executable using a single button, if necessary). The online play could be improved – as is always the case with these kinds of games – but Granblue Fantasy Versus is still a worthy title especially with updates and new fighters rolling in.