E3 2011: Mass Effect 3

I'm not a terribly sentimental person, and I have a pretty healthy cynical streak. But since having a kid, my heart rips open anytime I see something bad happen to a child. I can't watch any movie that features endangered kids, and I bought Heavy Rain but could never bring myself to play it because I know that bad things happening to kids is a key compenent of the story line.

The Mass Effect E3 demo featured a lot of the things one would expect in a Mass Effect E3 demo. Hulking spaceships, hefty weapons, grotesque slimy enemies, overmuscled over-armored soldiers. (Spoiler alert starting here.)

It also featured one scared little boy hiding in a duct. When Commander Shepard tried to talk him out so he could help him get to safety, but the boy was too frightened to come out and disappeared back into the duct.
The little boy didn't make an appearance again until the very end of the demo as Commander Shepard was leaving Earth on the Normandy. As he watched from the Normandy, humans were jumping into Alliance ships to escape from the Reapers that were littered across the city. The little boy ran out, and for a moment it looked like he wouldn't reach the ship safely. But I cheered inside as he clambered up the ledge of the ship, swinging his right leg up to safety. The door closed, and the ship took off for safety.

And then a Reaper obliterated the ship with a death beam, and the ship broke into burning hunks.

It took all I had to keep from breaking into sobs right there, and I wasn't able to keep a few tears from leaking out. (And I've started tearing up again right now while writing this.)

I know this much, though: I am going to make those Reapers f-ing pay in 2012.