@JRD1912 Man are you dead wrong. First off, as to your question of why are they playing a game at all, that's the first thing she answers! For the story sequences! Some people really enjoy the narrative, role playing, and story sequences in a game like Mass Effect. Why do you feel that your way of playing a game is the only correct one or viable one. Second of all, adding a single button to skip to a later part in the game doesn't hurt you in the least. It doesn't take any substantial resources or time to put in there. You still get your game, so why do you care. Last, I LOVE her idea. Do you know how many games I've started and tired of the repetitive combat but still was interested in seeing what happened in the story? Or perhaps I didn't tire of all the combat, but just in one area? I would have loved to skip the Flood portions of Halo for example! I would say this is a great trend - truly innovative thinking that allows more people to enjoy a game.

Did anyone else think Castlevania: Symphony of the Night had good voice acting. Well, maybe not all of it, but Dracula and especially Alucard had great voices. Anyway, my least favorite video game thingy is monsters that spawn or come indefinately, so at no point it is ok to just stand still - even if you kill a thousand.