Mass Effect Legendary Edition will let you drive the Mako the old, difficult way

Mass Effect Legendary Edition famously improves upon the Mako handling from Mass Effect 1 - but you can choose to disable the new controls if you're feeling up to it.

A Mass Effect Legendary Edition development blog details the welcome adjustments to the Mako, which drove exactly like the car I was forced to make out of wood in middle school shop class. The Mako improvements include improved handling so it feels "weightier," improved camera controls for aiming at lower angles, faster shield recharge, and new thrusters added for a speed boost (like the Nomad in Mass Effect: Andromeda). Most importantly, however, is that you will no longer get an immediate Mission Failure if so much as a hubcap touches lava - instead the spicy stuff will deal damage over time.

As PC Gamer reports, BioWare environment director Kevin Meek wants you to know that you're not handcuffed to these new controls, but can turn them off and drive the Mako old school style if you're a masochist. "For those people out there who do like pain, we've left the option to leave it back kind of closer to the original controls as well if you want," says Meek. Project director Mac Walters explains why that option exists, saying "you'll never get consensus" about the original Mako handling so BioWare chose to let you "drop back and forth" between the two control schemes.

"Playing the Mako today versus playing the Mako back in the original, especially on PC, it's like night and day," says Meek. "I don't want to thrash my keyboard and mouse after every encounter with the thresher maw or trying to climb a mountain." If you weren't excited about Mass Effect Legendary Edition before, that sentence should do it for you.

There's not much time left to sort out your Mass Effect: Legendary Edition pre-order.