I can finally criticize the Mass Effect Review (just beat it)

I have to truly and honestly say that gamespot reviewed this game too low. I would give it a 9.

He mentions a lot about the cons of fighting Thresher Maws. I only fought 4 in the entire game and when they show up, I could merely drive away and it will leave you alone. They never spawned on top of me and actually I survived its supposed 1 hit kill. All cons he said about the thresher maws were basically exagerated.

He says the rover mechanics are the weakest part of the game. That is true but its not that bad. The machine gun doesnt aim as you'd like, but I only use the cannon, a much more effective weapon, and that gun has a lot more accuracy. As for driving, sure it "bounces" when driving on rough terrain but it merely makes that sequence not feel as realistic. It doesn't by any means ruin the gameplay.

Menus took some time getting used to (both equipping item screen and combat menu screen). An hour into battles and it seems second nature to use both.

Loading and framerate is an issue, but I rarely experienced any significant slowdown in battle that would throwme off. Loads were meraly 3-5 seconds, nothing to get excited about.

Nothing in the game reminded me of Halo, and I am really into Halo. Just because its sci-fi and aliens doesnt make it Halo related.

Onto the good.

He didn't stress enough the complexity of the SHEER AMOUNT of dialogue. Dialogue changes depending on what your gender is and their history. Basically no matter what you are and who you have in your party, the game creates believable conversations. Long story short, this game thought of every possible situation in which a conversation would take place.

Story is phenomial, especially if your into sci-fi. The ending is reminisent of many great hollywood blockbusters.

With all the other strong points of the game (with dialogue being the strongest point), 8.5 just doesn't seem to do this game justice.Thoughts?

These are my complaints:

• Stuttering framerates at times
• Texture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversations
• Lack of "back buttons" on certain menues
• Lack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)
• The magical hidden 150 item limit.
• Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.
• The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.
• The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).
• Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).
• Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.
• Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).
• The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.
• Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

These are my complaints:

Stuttering framerates at timesTexture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversationsLack of "back buttons" on certain menuesLack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)The magical hidden 150 item limit.Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

-RPGamer-

Wow, it would had just been easier to say Mass effect suckks ass...

These are my complaints:

• Stuttering framerates at times
• Texture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversations
• Lack of "back buttons" on certain menues
• Lack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)
• The magical hidden 150 item limit.
• Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.
• The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.
• The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).
• Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).
• Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.
• Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).
• The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.
• Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

-RPGamer-

[QUOTE="-RPGamer-"]

These are my complaints:

Stuttering framerates at timesTexture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversationsLack of "back buttons" on certain menuesLack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)The magical hidden 150 item limit.Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

ANZAC_RaGe

Wow, it would had just been easier to say Mass effect suckks ass...

It doesn't suck. It's just not the amazing game everyone makes it out to be.

Although, considering the remarkably low standard for greatness this generation, I'm not surprised it's gotten this much praise.

[QUOTE="-RPGamer-"]

These are my complaints:

Stuttering framerates at timesTexture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversationsLack of "back buttons" on certain menuesLack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)The magical hidden 150 item limit.Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

ANZAC_RaGe

Wow, it would had just been easier to say Mass effect suckks ass...

Neat little twist to that would be it's one of my favorite games of recent times, easily GOTY for me. While I listed what I think needed work, in the end it's not enough to stop me from loving it.

I tend to nit pick games I really enjoy.

Oh one more complaint:

There is one side quest that basically requires you to work through an early quest then search some random planet (I'm being vague on purpose) and find this thing. After doing so you do interact with this thing again and if you've done the previous side quest than something happens.

This something is such a massive let down! :|

It's freaking text of things that are happening to you. If I wanted text of what could have been one of the coolest side quests in the game I would have expected a book on it.

Man that was a huge missed opportunity they had there.

I'll give one clue (the thing you find on the planet is a sphere).

I think the review is right on. It's just that people seems to have this notion that 8.5 is somehow a bad game or some how beneath their standards. Get over it. It's like when people complained that bioshock was AAA. :roll:

Calling Mass Effect, like LOZ: TP, is a AA...as in a great game.

These are my complaints:

• Stuttering framerates at times
• Texture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversations
• Lack of "back buttons" on certain menues
• Lack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)
• The magical hidden 150 item limit.
• Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.
• The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.
• The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).
• Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).
• Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.
• Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).
• The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.
• Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

-RPGamer-

The technical issues don't bother me, but I will say was particularly disappointed with the side quests on the planets. The on-foot combat is excellent, so I still liked them for that, but the vehicular combat is too easy and the identical building blueprints are the most bothersome thing about the game for me because they stagnate the overall exploration. The problem is that it's identical blueprints combined with very similar terrain formations on most of the planets, so they don't seem very unique at all apart from lighting, and you don't really feel inclined to explore them apart from completing side quests.

But in the end, I feel that this and all of your points, despite being very true, still aren't enough to keep Mass Effect away from solid AAA status. I think it's Bioware's best console offering to date, and a great game.

These are my complaints:

• Stuttering framerates at times
• Texture pop in issues evenmultiple times during single conversations
• Lack of "back buttons" on certain menues
• Lack of a way to really manage all the equipment (organize)
• The magical hidden 150 item limit.
• Bioware kills off the rogue style character completely.
• The cover system does not always work instamagically like designed.
• The ally AI and especially path finding leaves much to be desired ("I would need a lift." Really? I didn't know walking through a door was that damn hard).
• Overuse of the damn "realtime Simon Says" minigame (find something? decode something? disarm something? unlock something? Come on giveme some variety!).
• Scanning planets by just hitting a button? Even worse than the aforementioned minigame.
• Reuse of areas (You travel light years and yet the blue prints are carbon copies).
• The mako feel more like a toy than a substantial weighty crawler vehicle. Gravity is not considered. It pretty much bounces, crawls vertically. And it's general control has issues with veritcal aiming in conjunction with the reticle. Also the vehicle direction is relative to it's camera.
• Places like the Local Cluster only let you really drop down on the moon (Luna), which is kind of a let down, and even then the relatively heavy populated moon has hardly anything on it when you land other than cities in the distance... which you can't get to.

-RPGamer-

These are problems i've had, but i didn't know there were cities in the distance on the moon. :(

I wish we could have gone to Earth or one of the Cities on the other planets.

This why i critisize the game and think it got the score it deserved.