I think I speak for many of us when I say: I do love a surprise. Not a surprise like, ah Mr Diver, your car has spectacularly failed its MOT. Or HMRC sending me an unexpected bill for tax owed from several years ago. Those kinds of surprises: into the bin. (Do, though, pay your taxes and keep your vehicle road-worthy, it's important.) This sort of surprise? Welcomed.
As reported on PC Gamer, one of Mass Effect 3's designers at BioWare, Richard Boisvert (who's now at Epic Games), hid an easter egg in the game - which he claimed just days ago, on Reddit, hadn't been found since said game was released in 2012.
Check out our side-by-side comparison of 2007's original Mass Effect with 2021's Mass Effect Legendary Edition...
"Ten years ago I put an easter egg in the mars mission of ME3, and as far as I know no one ever stumbled upon it," wrote Boisvert. He then shows a diagram, mapping a very specific path through some solar panels at the beginning of Mass Effect 3's Mars mission. The kind of path no regular player would take unless they were looking to unlock something secret.
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And we have to say, what that wiggly path unlocks is something very cute, indeed. It's a little Mars rover! It's not much, but it is a delight, its design sitting somewhere between WALL-E and Short Circuit's Johnny 5. Reddit user Tuskin38 was the first to post the result of this solar-panel shuffle, and put some pictures up on imgur.
See? A lovely little robo-friend who, unlike most machines that Commander Shepard and crew encounter in the Mass Effect series, doesn't immediately want to kill you. PC Gamer details that this rover was found before, using a free-camera hack, but there was no prior confirmation that it could, somehow, trundle out and say hello via a little nod. Which it does. Brilliant!
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I'll be sure to check out this easter egg when I get around to replaying the Mass Effect trilogy (the FOMO is very real), assuming I can relocate my original 360 discs because I just cannot, right now. Yes I could buy the new version but, what am I keeping all these old games for (wherever they are), if not to some day revisit them? (Looks at countless Mega Drive and Dreamcast games collecting dust, sighs.)
In related news, multiplayer support could be on its way to Mass Effect Legendary Edition, soon, and here's our rundown of what's new in EA's recently released remaster of these legendary sci-fi adventures.
Featured Image Credit: EA, u/Tuskin38Topics: Mass Effect, EA