Mining won't be ditched for Mass Effect 3

BioWare's Casey Hudson has said that the controversial mining mini-game from Mass Effect 2 will not be thrown out for the third game in the series.

Asked whether it would be ditched by VideoGamer, Hudson replied: "No. Again, when you look at the feedback, there are things that people liked about it, and functionally it serves a purpose.

"I don't think there's a problem with any of those. I think it's the way people relied on it, and the way we relied on it maybe too much in parts of the story. And also just when you think about the speed of it."

Mining in Mass Effect 2 was necessary to collect the minerals used to pay for upgrades to the Normandy SR-2 and the crew's weapons and armour.

The process involved scanning planets by dragging a cursor across the surface before launching a probe over spots that the scanner indicated were rich in minerals.

According to Hudson, the feedback on mining prior to release was that it was "strangely addictive" and "therapeutic" - something that we agreed with in our 10/10 Mass Effect 2 review.

But reaction to mining on release was mixed. "There were a lot of people that when they know that they can go and get resources through something like that, they literally want to mine the entire galaxy that night," Hudson acknowledged.

"And then, yeah, when you spend eight hours in a mini-game, it does become... there's only so much too it. And we never expected that it'd be played that way. We thought people would noodle in it a bit, get a few resources to get an upgrade, and then go back and do the rest of the game."

All hail the mining mini-game. Almost as good as Viva Pinata.