Mass effect, your own impressions and reviews here.

ORIGINAL: Grant Delmore

Does it still have rpg elements like stats and stuff? Or is it basicly just a shooter with quests and story?

Watch Gametrailers Video Review

The only reason i can see somebody not being interested in this game is if they just don' t like sci-fi.

Got to play some of ME,

Get the things i ' did not' like out of the way:

Noticed some serious framerate issues (especially in action). Also, from the Videos, ME looks to play / take alot from the usual 3rd Person shooters but was let down to find out underneath lies ' RPG Battle instructions' WTF?.. I found this way too weird to get used to. Why not proper real-time combat ? yes, It' s a clever way to try and lean Non-RPGers to play ME but i found it a massive let down TBH. Also, that 6-wheeled Tank-thing Controls like a horrible. Again, why this choice of control is beyond me..

The things i liked are:

The story is actually interesting and engrossing.
Talking to other AI species over and over again is not as bad as i first thought.
On most part The design of these Aliens are awesome and are soo believable.
The Sound track is Great.

Whats the estimated play-time of ME? Sems to have soo much paths and side quests.

Currently playing:
Korg DS 10 (ds) /  Metal Slug 7 (ds)
Rhythm Heaven (ds) /  Fire Emblem (ds)
Super Stardust HD (psn) /  Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
FSX (P

ORIGINAL: Virtua fighter 5

Whats the estimated play-time of ME? Sems to have soo much paths and side quests.

20hrs without sidequests. Up to 40 otherwise.

I went to buy it today and they had them at the mall. I picked up a copy, walked out the store and realised that it was the French version... MOTHER FUCKER! No problem I thought, i' ll just exchange it for an english copy. No luck, they didn' t have any english copies, WTF!? I hate this province.

I got my refund and headed for EBGames, only to find out that they' re only selling them tomorrow. The thing is, they told me that had a few spots left. I was like huh? " You guys are going to sell out?" He laughed.

My point is, if you don' t have a pre order you might have to get up early tomorrow to get your copy (assuming you don' t have it already). It probably depends on where you live to, if you' re surrounded by stores selling games than you might not have any issues. But it looks like there will be a shortage of the game in a lot of places

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Why make me watch unskippable cut-scenes before a tough battle where I' m going to die and then have to watch the scenes over and over again?

1up review

i told you so !

Listen to the wise

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

Why make me watch unskippable cut-scenes before a tough battle where I' m going to die and then have to watch the scenes over and over again?

1up review

i told you so !

I literally have no idea where this issue has come from. So far I' ve been able to skip nearly every scene and the ones that I can' t are less than 5 seconds long. Maybe the reviewer is just crap at the game and keeps on dying in stupid places.

i think the difficulty changes significantly depending on the class you choose anyway forget it.

Listen to the wise

Like I said in another thread I' m loving the game. However, why the *** didn' t they use the same combat system as in Kotor? Instead they went for some half-ass realtime system.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

However, why the *** didn' t they use the same combat system as in Kotor?

To make it accesible to everyone, you know the same reason oblivions combat system sucks.

I like die roles taking care of things in rpg games, makes it feel more true. the combat in NW and KotoR was perfect.

Fuck everyone, Bioware should know better. Kotor seemed to be accessible to enough people. Bioware should have appealed to the fans, not some theoretical market.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

I played it 6 hours straight today, it' s been a long time since I sit down with a game for six hours.

The framerate issues are extremely exagerated, at worst the game drops down to 20fps when alot of stuff is on screen, it doesn' t affect game play because this isn' t a shooter, it' s an RPG and the shooting elements are much more slow paced than your typical FPS.

The story is also fantastic, this is the first western RPG that can really rival the story/settings from Japanese RPGs. (KOTOR/Morrowind/Oblivion/NWN,etc. story' s are garbage)


I hope they follow it up with some sequels.

Got it today. Drop any concerns about poor areas in graphics. It all looks fantastic, just some areas look extra fantastic. You just need to see it in motion.

Framerate does drop, but it wont bother you when you get so much beauiful art direction. Exploration of the worlds, story and characters just never ends.

I' m glad the first thing I could do was change the look of the main character. I thought he looked fugly. Now he looks more like me....

The music isn' t as good as Bladerunner, but a few of the scenes really make me want to watch it again.

I quite like the combat system, even though I thought I wouldn' t from the trailers. I use the pistol a lot over the rifle, and not so much of a biotic user, but I dont have any issues with it. Only the sticking to walls system can be a bit slow. Better done in R6 Vegas and Gears.

I did die a couple of times and have to rewatch a fairly short but irritatingly unskipable cutscnene on more than one occasion. The first Colossus you have to fight on foot - sent me back to the very beginning of the planet cos I didnt save! And fight the fat lizardy thing after saving the archeologist on the same planet, made me watch the precending cutscene 2-3 times more than I wanted to.

The story is deep in terms of the world you' re in, but ultimately standard. In the end its your usual sci-fi mysterious technology from an ancient advanced race that everyone wants becuase they think its a weapon to rule the universe, but will probably winds up being a corny message of peace and love. (Or a gun to make others see things from your point of view... Hitchhiker' s anyone?? ) Haven' t got very far in the story yet so things might change....

So it ended up ME>COD4>Assassins Creed>HL2 Orange Box>Bioshock>Halo 3>Crysis for me in the running for GOTY. UTIII will fit in there fairly high up I' d expect.

For saying KOTORs story wasnt good your opinion is invalid.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

If you like any star wars story you' re a fucking idiot plain and simple.

Hated KOTOR love the fuck out of Mass Effect...and not just for its lovely name.

Only one thing has pissed me off so far in it and that was just a minor glitch during a mission I had 3:00 minutes to clear out this place beofre it blows up and I did so. I ran for the elevator jumped thru the door and looked for the switch only to realized the elevatorwas 2 floors above my head...Since you cant jump or climb or anything I couldnt get out of the damn shaft and just ahd to wait for the timer to kill off me and my team...it was weird and annoying beyond fuck all else. But i got over it. AMazing game. to tired to type coherently tonite fuck it.

People you can skip cutscenes with " X" button,seen reviewer+people complain about it.

But they missed it apparently.

Okay so X= not skip,but fastforward but still...

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

some scenes cannot be skipped and even if they are relatively short, if you die over and over again in the place, it becomes a chore.

Listen to the wise

Is it just me or does the graphics seem to have some kind of grainy filter?

Yeah, that can be turned off from settings though.

I like die roles taking care of things in rpg games, makes it feel more true. the combat in NW and KotoR was perfect.

I' ll put my own skill & reflexes before a random die roll any day thanks.

Both the film grain and motion blur can be toggled on/off in the Graphics menu in Options.

Cool, I' ve got to try that but I guess it' s better with those things turned on.

Good, I want to turn off the film grain. I was worried it was a bad design choice or something. It looks like ass on my screen.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

Thank God it was possible to turn the film grain off. It looks much, much better now. Makes me question why they used it in the first place.

Is it just me or does Kaidan have the same voice as Carth?

Shit the death of someone had prevented me from diggin further into another sidequest...dammit...

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!!

I' m almost 20 hours in and still only on the 3rd " main" mission, so far its going up there on my list of best games ever made.

ORIGINAL: emofag

I' m almost 20 hours in and still only on the 3rd " main" mission, so far its going up there on my list of best games ever made.

I' m on my second playthrough now. My first character was mostly based off me, and ended up with mostly paragon with a tad of renegade. This time around I' m ensuring my character is a badass who despises everything. I laughed really hard at the TV interview part, where at the end I cracked the interviewer a nice one to the head. That' ll teach that bitch to question my loyalty.

Shit the death of someone had prevented me from diggin further into another sidequest...dammit...

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!!

Replayability ftw

Damn right. IM gonna replay the fuck out of this game and make it the slut it deserves to be. A high class slut as well.

Is it just me or does Kaidan have the same voice as Carth?

Possibly. But the real story behind voice acting? MOTHERFUCKING KEITH DAVID. Mediocre actor, but great voice actor. Oh, and Seth Green is there too, but he sounds outta place.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Now that so many are playing Mass Effect, what do you think would happen if I walked into a videogame store packed with guys in the age of 14-18 and said loudly " Excuse me commander Shepard" .
Don' t you think lots of them would react as if I was saying their real names?

I have had some time off of work, and I was able to get some good time in with Mass Effect since Friday when I got it.

First things first. The story, voice acting, and music are so far ahead of what we have seen in western RPG' s thus far. The story, while it is a " been there done that" type of story, is in fact quite epic. You get the feeling that you really are in an epic Sci-Fi movie, where it is up to YOU to save the galaxy, and I for one love when a game can capture me in that way.

Graphically, the game is gorgeous in some areas while in others it can honestly look quite horrible. Most of the character models are fantastic, but there have been some female NPC' s I have talked to that just look plastic. There is absolutely no facial description on some of these female NPC' s at all, and it ends up leaving them look like a plastic fact with 2 eyes a nose and a mouth slapped on. Commander Sheppard on the other hand, along with Wrex and Garus both look incredible. The texture pop in doesn' t bother me too much as we had to deal with this in Gear of War, but the frame rate issues, screen tearing, and loading of some areas while you are running can get a little bothersome at times, but its nothing that takes anything away from the whole gameplay experience. Oh, and what is up with some of the shadows cast on the faces? They seem to be a little sketchy, which I was hoping was going to be a lot smoother.

The conversation system, for me, is the wow factor. The conversation system further gives you the feeling that you are the Star in this epic Sci-Fi movie, and really makes me feel as though I am part of the overall story and game, and not just a player behind a controller reading through thousands of lines of text. In this day and age, there is no reason for any RPG to come out that does not use full use of voice acting. Anyway, I enjoy how the conversation system allows you the choice of either being the " good spectre, or bad spectre" . I have gone the route of choosing to be each depending on the situation.

Combat in this game, for me, was fairly easy to pick up. The combat wheel, and weapon wheel, are an ease to use, and they really do an excellent job in reminding you during combat that this is in fact an RPG. I mean, you still get to choose the attack you want to pull off, the " magic" that you want to use, and it also gives you the opportunity to change your weapon on the fly, it' s just that this is now done all in real time. Good on you Bioware.

I am literally still at the beginning of the game, as I am just now fighting to kill the Thorean and get out alive. Bioware have delivered, so far, the game that I was expecting them to deliver. Story, gameplay, and the ability to make me feel as though, once again, I am the Star of this epic Sci-Fi movie are all pluses for me. (Have I said " Star of this epic Sci-Fi movie" enough yet?)

In closing I would just like to say that I really hope that Bioware on at work in releasing a patch to fix some of the framerate issues and screen tearing (if that' s possible), because that would really put this game over the top for me.

Most wanted games:

Mass Effect
Assasins Creed
Crysis
Little Big Planet
Drakes Fortune
UTIII
Kane and Lynch
Heavy Rain
Alan Wake

ATTENTION SPOILERS, READ THIS ONLY IF YOU FINISHED THE GAME:






I seriously don' t know what the hell has Happened, i beat the game in 14 hours, where is the 20 hours everybody is talking about in the main quest, i didn' t do any side quest because i thought i would leave free roaming a little bit before the end of the game, say around 17 hours, i was very surprised when the game finished, i felt the end when i ended up in the citadel semi destroyed but i was like it can' t be i' m only in 13 hours.

for me the game as an rpg built up very fast to the end, i really thought something bigger than this wil happen, the final boss actualy felt like a regular boss even if the fight was extremly tough for me, may be because my level was low, but as i said if i knew that the final boss was near i wouldn' t go to that final mission (islo) and rather do some sidequests... i' m very disapointed and now i' m thinking about playing the game again with different class although i have some other good games to play.

in all rpg' s i played, they warn you that if you go to that mission you won' t come back , a hint that says if you wanna do some sidequests before finishing the game, this was not present in mass effect at all and as i said i expected 20 hours not 14 .

The final boss battle is plain stupid, i played as Combat/bio and i really suffered as my armors are not solid and with all the bugs around; slowdowns when the boss fired those explosives, the rocks that are scattered block your way and sometimes your character stick to them taking cover, hell even if they are tiny your character can' t pass , i' m talking about rocks with few centimeters in height, also your teammates are dumb) , i always despise developers that make their bosses hard by simply raising to the extrem their attack and specialy their deffense which is the case here, there should be a smart way to beat him, once you find the clue he' ll become a regular ennemy) i hate repeating the same tactic over and over again for more than 20 minutes to beat a boss.

Apart from that the game is absolutely fantastic, one of the best games i played these recent years, i already gave my impressions about other aspects of the game.. now bring on mass effect 2...

question , what is the best class In your opinion ?

Listen to the wise

I haven' t quite finished the game, but i was at my brothers over the weekend and was there when he completed it so i know what happens.

I think he clocked about 16 hours before completing it, whereas i' m back on the Citadel before going to Ilos and have been playing for over 18 hours. I' ve done a couple of uncharted worlds and a handful of side quests, but nothing major. Heh, i figured the game was ending on Virmire what with everything that happens near the end of the level, ...i was like, oh ok, here comes the cliffhanger.... but it didn' t.

Games in general seem to have become shorter and shorter, but i' m happy with Mass Effects length. Gears is too short. Call of Duty 4 is too short. Halo 3 is too short. Mass Effect is about right, especially given that we' re talking 14 - 16 hours for the main quest alone and the sheer amount of other things you can do would easily take you into the 40+ range.

At least it' s a trilogy.

Anyway, i chose to play as a Soldier the first playthrough, and it served me well for the first 10 hours, ...then i became partially dependent on Liara' s biotic abilities.

Most people i know have been playing as a Vanguard, to get the best of both classes, but they' ve been stuck with the pistol and shotgun for effectiveness in combat. Soldiers can train to use the assault rifles, which once upgraded kick serious ass. I' ve barely used the pistol and the shotgun, the assault rifle and sniper rifle have been all i' ve needed.

For most missions i' ve taken Ashley (who reminds me of Alyx Vance) because she' s good for combat, and either Kaiden or Liara, depending on whether i needed tech or biotics, ...but mostly Liara.

The game is amazing.

but 14 hours for an rpg that' s waaaay too short how come you think it' s normal ?? Gears of war is not short , it' s about right 8 hours that' s fine for a shooter game , call of duty 4 is not that short but may be i' m forgiving becuse i' m not paying that 60 bucks, but mass effect is a real disapointement in this area, after writing my above post on kikizo i went to read some user reviews and there are many flaws that i couldn' t experience since i was focusing on the main story, many of them say that side missions don' t contribute a dime to the main story , in addition, planets are empty and many of them look the same with color differences, Pro reviews mentioned that as well saying that most of side missions are not interesting at all. People are also complaining a lot about the texture pop in, do that means it' s not my dvd, i think that' s the biggest issue in graphics.

Many users agree that the game is too short and damn right it is. it was absoluuuuutly not in my agenda to finish the game today.

Listen to the wise

Gears, GRAW/2 and CoD4 are about 6 hours. That' s short no matter how you look at it.

I' m not sure what you expected from Mass Effect. It' s as long as RE4 and it' s more 3rd person shooter come RPG than traditional RPG. It has amazing production values, a great story and tons of replay value. I don' t see the problem. It' s may not be as long as Oblivion or KOTOR, but it' s as long as BioShock and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

I haven' t come far but I love the game. There are a couple of gaming experiences in life that work like some kind of benchmark. Ever since Resident Evil 4 I' ve been waiting for a new game to be a new one and Mass Effect became it.
But right now I' m haivng some frequent freezes, crashes and " can' t read the disc" issues so I' m not very happy

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

but 14 hours for an rpg that' s waaaay too short how come you think it' s normal ?? Gears of war is not short , it' s about right 8 hours that' s fine for a shooter game , call of duty 4 is not that short but may be i' m forgiving becuse i' m not paying that 60 bucks, but mass effect is a real disapointement in this area, after writing my above post on kikizo i went to read some user reviews and there are many flaws that i couldn' t experience since i was focusing on the main story, many of them say that side missions don' t contribute a dime to the main story , in addition, planets are empty and many of them look the same with color differences, Pro reviews mentioned that as well saying that most of side missions are not interesting at all. People are also complaining a lot about the texture pop in, do that means it' s not my dvd, i think that' s the biggest issue in graphics.

Many users agree that the game is too short and damn right it is. it was absoluuuuutly not in my agenda to finish the game today.

You need to enjoy the game for what it is, rather than focusing on all the negatives.

I enjoy being a Vanguard. I get to blast Geth Destroyers/ Juggernauts to bits with
my CARNAGE ripper.

I usually take Liara/Ashley, cos I made a female, and we' re the three b!tches.

We also look hot, even though Liara' s blue, she can still hang with us, we aren' t
racist us humans.

Ashley Williams is a firm believer in God, Kaidan had to go.... Sorry.

There are two rules to success:

1. Never tell all you know.

Aba is as obviously retarded,you can finish Oblivions main quest at 14 hours too,or even shorter.

ME is around 15 hours if you do what your supposed to do and read the dialogs,with sidequest its another 15-20 hours.

Is that short?
Its the same kind of lenght as Jade empire,btw you even get a reward for finishing FF9 in less then 12 hours,the thing is ME is more about choices and characters,to many choices,its not a FF were everything is linear.

I had 2 main characters die in ME because I didnt pay attention,I managed to save them this time tough.

And you cant even remeber that your character is a vanguard aba?
You dumb or something?

Btw the finale boss is easy,not only can you make him shoot himself throuh charm in the first stage,but at the 2nd you can throw lift at him all the time and take him down with ease.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

guys i really enjoyed mass effect A LOT, one of thebest games i ever played that says a lot considering the tons of games i play, however i have a very poor experience in western rpg' s so i' m not picky in that area and i have almost no benchmark except Jade empire which is a 7/10 game to me. However regardless of my experience there is still room of improvement in many areas and some game desisgn decisions are not good. In fact, Mass effect manages to be awesome even with its flaws this shows that the other pros are nothing short of amazing.

Ok i think now i' ll move to the other big name , assassins creed. and i' l replay mass effect in late DEc, early january because at that time , there is nothing to play.

Listen to the wise