• A tutorial level much like the beginning of Mass Effect 2, when Shepard awakens and has to escape. It was decent. You meet Ashley Williams and James Vega, on top of assisting Anderson. I want to label the end of the mission cliche and corny, but the music holds me back from doing so. I think I'm going to love the OST for ME3.
  
• Secondly a mission that takes place a bit later in the game, apparently. You team up with Wrex and Liara, and are asked to save a female Krogan who's being kept safe by Mordin. I'm not sure how this mission would play out if you killed Wrex in the first game, like I did. Maybe Grunt takes his place, who knows. This mission counter acts the first's lax course with a good chunk of action, including facing a big mech, but it was still pretty short.

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• Shepard is devoid of emotion. He'll squint, and raise his eyebrow from time to time, but other than that I don't feel like I'm this Commander. I've stopped giving my honest opinion during conversations, and instead have been going with the choice that increases my paragon, just so I can get a piece of Miranda's delectable tush before I hit the Omega 4 Relay seriously, body language couldn't save him from being such a floppy nob.
  
• The Illusive Man is meant to be...illusive, yet on some occasions you get to see his entire face, fine, but with a bright enough light right on it! Thank God, Charlie Sheen's dad voices him, otherwise he'd be flawed because of this. I mean, the allure would be gone.
  
• The "hover-craft" sections of the game, well, the vehicle sections of the game, I should say. Rubbish. Fun at first, then the physics and textures go poof and it becomes a tedious endeavour on my way to the end of the mission.
  
• The loading screen sucks balls. The fuck, man. Put Miranda, Tali, or Kelly up there dancing, not some shitty translucent animations play out with not even the slightest bit of pleasant sound in the background.

"Holy shitballs, mom, Tiki-Taka is two years old!"

One thing Wenger has always been described as, by Gooners and non-Gooners alike, is stubborn. In the past, with individual players, it has worked to his advantage. Robin van Persie our inspiring and mature capitain, used to be a teenaged brat. His temper cost us points and he was one to be worried about, but Wenger had belief that Robin would grow past this and he did, he grew into that armband quite well. He refused to dispel Song who after that Fulham performance seemed to be Arsenal's least rated player ever, and had the belief Clichy could succeed Ashley Cole. Gael did exceptionally until the Birmingham performance that destroyed our entire season. He was a different player after that, but it nearly worked out. Song, in addition, is better than anyone could have ever predicted on that night away at Fulham, and still has the potential to be exceptional if not for positional woes. Tactically even, his stubbornness had its upsides. After giving up the title in 02/03, Wenger moved forward unphased and fourty-nine games later etched his place into Arsenal history forever. Wengerball was the future though, brutal and fast and intelligent. It was an agile machine no one had the answers to.

Years later, the answers are common knowledge. Wengerball is the past. Anyone from Blackburn to Stoke knows what to expect and exactly what to do when they play Arsenal. In natural evolution, this is where an organism gets some new tricks up its sleeve or goes extinct. Amazingly, Wenger seems to be leading us to the latter. He is man who refuses to conform in the face of his own peril, once a blessing it is now curse. We witnessed this in the Juan Mata transfer where the board and Wenger played with their thumbs. At a time like this, Wenger should know Mata is a necessity and make that perfectly clear to the board and finish the transfer quickly before a club like Chelsea swoops in. He should force the board to pay that extra five million for M'Vila or Hazard. He should realise this is needed to survive, this is how it is done in 2011. Arsene doesn't get this though, surely the board doesn't aid in this, but ultimately it's Wenger who picks the players and has the reputation of double winner. If he wanted Goetze, he could get him. But the money to do that, the business model it takes to finish the transfer, Wenger turns away from. In spite of the fact that it's clear this is the only way.

However, his inflexibility isn't the thrusting knife wounds in my belief. He has been like this but a deep seeded fear of lack of Champions League football have never occured. Despite all his shit, we could expect that Wengerball could get us through the day. The games would be heart-attack invoking, would cause bipolarism in some, but would never sicken the stomachs of the Arsenal faithful like they do today. With Wenger at the healm, despite the disappointment, our defence would always be secure enough, our midfield would pass well enough, and our attack would always score enough to remain squarely in elite of English football. That certainty is gone now. Here lies my prime dissatisifaction with the man. Arsene can no longer seem to do the managerial basics. Our defence is in shambles. In recent years, we've never been that exceptionally good defensive team but it had a level of unity and thought. With a practical joke for a goalkeeper, and tradegies personified in the form of our substitute central defenders, we did alright. Now we've got a twenty six year old with 76 caps for one of the greatest international teams in the world looking amateur. We've got no communication, we've got total institutional collapse. Our defenders look like their performing a system created by uneducated anarchists. For me, this is really unpreceded. I have never looked at the defence and seen the networking and collective aspects so absent. In fairness, Dortmund looked completely different from my description but moments like those in our recent past tend to be one-offs. Koscielny was doing fantastically and Song was soaking up the pressure in a way that only happens ever so often. The players rose above the faulty system, but what about those ever so more common moments when the players need to lean and depend on a good defensive framework?

I think our struggles in winning answer this question. Wenger doesn't seem to even recognise it. He won't make a new framework outside of his failing football ideology. Why play such a high line that has conceded so many goals? Moreover, there is little creditable pressing. When Barça lose the ball they try their damnedest to claw it back before falling into defensive position. When we lose the ball we don't work that hard to get it back and we don't even get into any real defensive position either. This stuff is basic, even our teams two years ago to some degree fulfilled the requirements of these simple needs. Wenger always used to be a weird car with his own pros and cons, but there would always be that promise we'd get to point B. How is a car supposed to get anywhere without the basics, like wheels? With three wins in the league since the Carling Cup final, we aren't moving forward anymore. This isn't a detour, this isn't a pit stop. The journey is over. Wenger has reached a point where we rely on the individual talent of our players with no team plan. Our victory on the day depends if Vermaelan is fit and Van Persie makes a special turn and hits the ball clean and goalkeeper isn't pricklish on the day. Everything is up to chance, and that's truly a low point. Wengerball was about, in part, those collective connections that ensured some level of play even if most everyone was performing subpar. Recently however, that minimum level was only kept by Cesc. He left and Wenger can't form system to ensure a certain quality of play, and is regressing in places where there was some control. No offense, but if we would be a country, we'd be Somalia. Governmentless.

Talk all you want about the economics of Arsenal. Penny-pitching this, the board that, Emirates Stadium this; our football has decayed. Wenger has made being a manager at Arsenal about so much more than football, but ultimately that's all it really is about. The manager is responsible for the performances on the pitch and that should be his domain for judgment. In a year or two, if Andre Villas-Boas had a nearly four month long spell of games with three wins and an 8-2 loss to Manchester United would he still be Chelsea's manager? What about Mancini and Man City? The answer is obviously no, so why make exceptions? They are in the business of winning things, we have to conduct the club in the same way if we want to be in the same business. Nothing personal about the desire to sack Wenger, just business. The only reason for keeping him was the Wengerball. But in my view explained above, I think Wengerball's a dead system. The necessary components to make it work aren't being met, there isn't much that can be done except trying something new. We put ourselves in a dangerous position with Champions League money and prestige keeping Wenger, waiting on him to rise from the ashes. After acknowledging he isn't a pheonix, a rational conversation of what to do next can be held. This about the survival of our club among the elites and in the position we are in, it's vital we sit down and move forward on certain feet.

As it stands, I think that the individual talent is there to get us to the Champions League. Robin van Persie and Vermaelen in my ratings, are world class but also deeply injury prone. Well, in truth, I'd say Sagna is as close to world class as most right backs come. Szczesny is some of the safest hands in the game right now, and Wilshere is a growing player yet to reach his true potential. Regardless of his rocky start, Mertesacker has earned a serious amount of German caps while being relatively young especially for a centreback and Koscielny's potential is undoubted. Alex Song can be epic on the days he can bothered to be a true defensive midfielder. Walcott is a potent outlet for goals waiting for the proper tactics to flatter his strengths. Arteta has a damned good track record too. Gervinho has proven to be very threatening to opposition defences. It's about fitting them all in the right puzzle. I'm not entirely sure who to recommend for that task. Some names I've always entertained include Guus Hiddink, Didier Deschampes, Joachim Loew. Hiddink seems to be the most realistic due to his friendship with Wenger, and the Joachim Loew is the move closest to a pipe dream as why would he ever trade Germany for Arsenal, but I think any of these men would get the most of what there is. The point is that a change leadership ultimately would be a net positive. With the simple footballing tasks gone from our play, at the very least we should have someone who can implement the elementary. Wenger cannot do so, and for everything he did which I'll always cherish, for god sake's Arsenal should be a club where the basics are mastered and trained on daily. I haven't seen this for some time so what else can I say? It's the end of Wenger, or should be. Arsenal has to move forward.