Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has a photo mode and it looks pretty sweet

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The mode will be available from anywhere you can pause the game.

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is coming in May with a beefy selection of graphical enhancements, including support for 4K, HDR, and ultrawide displays, unlocked framerates, and improved models, lighting, shaders and VFX. On Twitter yesterday, project director Mac Walters confirmed that players will have a proper opportunity to enjoy all that sweet new eye candy, revealing that the Legendary Edition will have a photo mode.

Simplistically, a photo mode is just a way to take screenshots without a lot of dicking around, but many of them are very sophisticated tools that go way beyond a simple capture. Control's photo mode supports adjustable field of view, focal distance, aperture settings, and multiple filters, for instance, while Cyberpunk 2077's goes even further, enabling users to pose characters and adjust their facial settings.

There's almost no end to what can be done with them: Some users capture stunningly dramatic images (even from mundane games like American Truck Simulator), while others use them to discover whether Norma Reedus really whips out the peedus in Death Stranding. (FYI: He does not.)

It remains to be seen how elaborate Mass Effect: Legendary Edition's photo mode will be, although the gloomy greyscale Garrus image shared by Walters points to adjustable focal length, aperture settings, filters, character controls, and other features. Technical design director Brenon Holmes added on Twitter that photo mode will be accessible through the mission computer, "so anytime you can pause the game," and that it will be available on all three games, and all platforms.

Here are a few more images of the photo mode in action, courtesy of the Mass Effect Twitter feed. They’re very pretty:

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Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition comes out on May 14. Along with the upgraded visual effects, it will also feature some significant changes to gameplay. 

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.