User blog comment:Legionwrex/Comparing the Mass Effect Trilogy!/@comment-3492791-20120921192248/@comment-3492791-20120921232906

By that logic every game with a main character is an RPG. What characterizes RPGs are player choice. By Role-Playing, they don't so much mean playing a role so much as projecting yourself into a role. You aren't playing a character, you are the character and the character is your own. This ends up with the inclusion of a lot of gear to appeal to the multiple playstyles the game allows for. This gear is typically, and usually primarily, received during the progression of a level, quest, mission, or whatever you want to call it.

I am well aware of what thermal clips are for, I was mentioning them more in jest. Since the lore had already established that the gun in ME didn't need ammo, their ass pull of an answer was thermal clips. An intelligent player didn't overheat their weapon (well maybe with the exception of explosive rounds >=D). You control your RoF and fire in burst to not overheat your gun. Playing like this is vastly superior to any weapon with thermal clips, as the only beneficent to thermal clips is when you overheated, and as I stated you will never overheat if played smart. Bioware themselves even made a joke about how Thermal clips are a pointless step backwards. Thermal clips exist because they are closer to mainstream shooter mechanics, and will thus appeal to that audience. While also increasing the pace of the gameplay, by removing the need to control RoF or having to wait through the punishment for ignoring it, to greater appeal to more gamers with less patience. They removed a unique and interesting system to one the industry was more familiar with, as to increase the audience, and thus sales.

EA's finger prints are marked heavily on thermal clips.