Games Journalism Or Bust!

Why I Won’t Be Playing Mass Effect 2

Fuck you, Microsoft. Seriously, fuck you.

So the other day I took my Xbox 360 to my girlfriend’s house so we could watch some TV off her hard drive on the big screen rather than all crowding round her laptop. Upon arrival, I realised I had forgotten my memory card and had to recover my gamertag via the internet so that the media update (which is obviously already on the hard drive) could be used and we could actually watch the files. Heaven forbid an anonymous Xbox user should use something installed on the hard drive that affects a key universal funciton of the console.

Upon returning home, I realised I now had a copy of my gamertag on my hard drive (recovered for the TV fest) and one on my memory card (my original gamertag). Before you all start snorting and ridiculing me for running my account off a memory card, it’s because I often play multiplayer games on my flatmates’ consoles and don’t see why I should have to copy or recover the gamertag every time I do.

Now, back when I first got my Xbox, I originally started my gamertag on my hard drive, copied it to my memory card for convenience and deleted the version on the HDD. No fuss, no bother. So, in order to avoid confusion between the two tags now, what’s the harm in doing the same thing once more? Eh? What’s the fucking harm?

Yes, I got the ‘Are you sure you want to delete?’ message, but it doesn’t explain (or at least certainly doesn’t do so clearly) that if you delete the one of the hard drive, the Xbox 360 now decides to delete the copy of the memory card as well - despite me specifically going through the HDD’s memory menu and deleting that copy of my gamertag.

Cue the arrival of Mass Effect 2. I’ve been waiting for this since the first game finished, and even lost a month of my summer to playing Mass Effect 1 again in order to truly prepare myself for it. Completing all the side quests, leveling up to Level 30-something, saving Wrex, saving the Council, promoting Captain Anderson (the game’s more than two years old - fuck spoilers).

As I go to ‘Import ME1 Character’ it can’t seem to find the save file on either the HDD or the memory card. Searching through the System -> Memory menu also fails to find it. Even loading up the original Mass Effect insists I have no save file.

The Xbox 360 has deleted my Mass Effect 1 save.

Why?

Why the fuck should that happen? I specifically said to delete the one of the hard drive, with no save files attached to it, and yet it deleted both, meaning I’ve lost everything. Not just Mass Effect 1, but Fable II (which I was saving up for the castle), Far Cry 2, GTA IV, Oblivion and all the other games I planned to go back and finish when the mood took me. Gone. Unrecoverable.

I now refuse to play Mass Effect 2 until I have regained my Mass Effect 1 save - i.e. finished the whole fucking game again. Which took me a month when I had nothing else on in my life. Now it’s more likely to take me two, and that’s even if I stop playing all other games. So woe betide anyone who spoils Mass Effect 2 for me - you’re likely to push me over the edge from whiny bitch to homicidal maniac.

And yes, I recognise this post makes me come across as a whiny bitch, but I’m sure every gamer out there recognises the anguish you feel when such data is lost - especially where the loss is completely un-fucking-necessary.

To those who have got Mass Effect 2 and preserved their saves - enjoy it. To Microsoft - fuck you.