Mass Effect was the game of the year... adds to Gamespot inferior reviews...

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="BambooBanger"]

[QUOTE="Vortec33"]I am mostly Hermit right now, but I have no doube ME is one of the top 3 or 4 games I have played in 25 years of gaming.mjarantilla

Same here, though I've only been playing games for 20 years, Mass Effect was one of the best and most SATISFYING games I have ever played, it's certainly right up there with the best.

Shame fanboys who haven't even played it are missing out. I almost want Mass Effect to go multi-plat just to shut them up.

I think you're the fanboy who can't see the truth.

Mass Effect is a second rate game with great CINEMATIC production values. Everything else about it stunk. The shooting gameplay was slow and felt weak, the magic system consisted of only a dozen magic spells (Baldur's Gate II had THREE HUNDRED), the story was predictable and poorly thought out, the conversation system was no better than KotOR's, and the main character's voice acting consisted of single lines and no real dialogue.

sure it did....

Other than the crisis with Wrex and the final battle where you can convince Saren to kill himself, can you remember a single moment during the entire game where the main character showed any kind of initiative? Half of the dialogue options you were given were for the sake of exposition, and the rest were one-liners created for the purpose of egging on the OTHER character into doing all the talking.

the entire point of the dialogue was to see how the game reacts to what you say....So naturally the character you were talking to would have to respond...unless you want him to just stand there........Also I made my character punch out a reporter...that to me makes the dialogue system good.

[QUOTE="Hoffgod"]Is it a great game? Yes. Is it AAA quality? No. The game suffers from a myriad of techical issues which serve as a significant speedbump between you and the ultimate goal of the game, which seems to be to immerse you into the universe of the game. Plus, several poor design choices gimp the overall experience. The side quests are dull and repetitive, traversing the worlds can be tedious and unnecessarily difficult, and the dialogue system can be gamed quite easily to take the challange out. And in case you don't believe that I've beaten the game, here.BambooBanger

Myriad ? It suffers from two noticable glitches - loading textures and framerate issues, both of which don't impeade on the actual gameplay and happen infrequently enough to ignore.

Err, no. The texture pop-in was the worst of ANY game by far. I had more texture pop-in during one conversation in Mass Effect than I did in the entirety of Gears of War.

And the glitches are never game-breaking, but they ARE cumulative, and taken cumulatively, like the tiny nicks and spots of rust on a sword, they make for a very, very unpolished game.

how could assassins creed get a 9.0 and Mass Effect get an 8.5 when Mass Effect was clearly a better game.UnknownSniper65

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

Agreed, Mass Effect is my GOTY ... so much better than everything else out, the review was a joke.

So was the Majority of the witcher reviews aswell.

Reviewers dont know what makes a good game anymore, its all about hype and graphics.... where has the "penilizing rehashes" gone? *looks at CoD4*

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

Shinobishyguy

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

[QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

UnknownSniper65

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

SMG was good, but after 60 stars it gets so pointless, the level designs are fun the first few runs but dont have the lasting appeal Mario 64's did, this game got GOTY because it was Mario ... I cant honestly see why it got so much GOTY awards...

Not that I care what reviewers think anymore, User Averages do more justifce despite biased people.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="BambooBanger"]

[QUOTE="Vortec33"]I am mostly Hermit right now, but I have no doube ME is one of the top 3 or 4 games I have played in 25 years of gaming.mjarantilla

Same here, though I've only been playing games for 20 years, Mass Effect was one of the best and most SATISFYING games I have ever played, it's certainly right up there with the best.

Shame fanboys who haven't even played it are missing out. I almost want Mass Effect to go multi-plat just to shut them up.

I think you're the fanboy who can't see the truth.

Mass Effect is a second rate game with great CINEMATIC production values. Everything else about it stunk. The shooting gameplay was slow and felt weak, the magic system consisted of only a dozen magic spells (Baldur's Gate II had THREE HUNDRED), the story was predictable and poorly thought out, the conversation system was no better than KotOR's, and the main character's voice acting consisted of single lines and no real dialogue.

sure it did....

Other than the crisis with Wrex and the final battle where you can convince Saren to kill himself, can you remember a single moment during the entire game where the main character showed any kind of initiative? Half of the dialogue options you were given were for the sake of exposition, and the rest were one-liners created for the purpose of egging on the OTHER character into doing all the talking.

Thanks for ruining the ending....

agreed... Mass Effect > Final Fantasy VIII.. which also didnt win goty, or have really high reviews.. but its a classic game that defies ratings.. the reviews were based on what? maybe one playthrough.. it gets way better on consecutive attempts.

[QUOTE="---OkeyDokey---"]it got what it deserved ;)colmusterd28

no it didn't.... It was clearly better than Assassins Creed and on par if not better than Bioshock (for different reasons) I don't believe you played the game...

Hardly the vast majority of the game is spent trying to get all kinds of information about the characters. If you talk to people on board the normandy you learn that all of the characters have a very rich past. Also their are situations in the game where you have to option of talking somebody out of a violent situation...seems to me like you are just nit picking...your leading the conversation in the game...unless you CHOOSE not to lead the conversationUnknownSniper65

No, the conversations are like Q&A sessions, and REAL conversations aren't like that. You're right, the characters do have rich pasts. Problem is, they shove their pasts onto you like they're somehow relevant. I don't know about you, but I don't routinely talk about my troubled childhood with every person who walks by.

Bottom line is that Mass Effect was very crudely put together. The dialogue hardly felt natural at all, except for those times when you WEREN'T involved in the conversation, and the gameplay felt like a mish-mash of too many different games.

[QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

UnknownSniper65

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

mjarantilla

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

...appearently the word joking never quite made it into system wars vocabulary...theres nothing wrong with the game...I personally prefer games with violence in them because the chance of death holds my attention more

[QUOTE="colmusterd28"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="colmusterd28"]

Wow... what a finish... Mass Effect delivered the goods on every conciveable level and ended with an amazing interactive cinematic of sheer genious, never jumping the shark, but concentrated on superior story telling. All in all the game was very easily in the 9's as far as score was concerned. I gave it a 10 because frame rate issues pale in comparrison to the greatness of this game.

The one thing that jaded my thoughts a bit durring the ending though, It kept running through my head how terribly off the review on Gamespot was... Even if you don't enjoy rpg's it's worth playing through this game just so you can see how off the mark gamespot was on this game... It makes you wonder if they even played it at all....

mjarantilla

Mass Effect jumped the shark with its side missions. They were all completely pointless and repetitive, and the driving sucked. This game deserved an 8.0, not an 8.5.

wow... I feel bad for you...

Don't feel bad for me, feel bad for yourself. I'm not the one saying that a game that is a pale shadow imitation of what BioWare USED to make is one of his top 3 games of all time. Sorry, but 15 hours of halfway decent gameplay combined with 40 hours of repetitive side-missions that take place in the exact same goddamn buildings every time does not cut it.

If you think Mass Effect is one of the top 3 games of the last 25 years, then you couldn't have played more than six or seven games in those 25 years.

I feel bad for you because you missed the scope of the game... ME was about atmosphere, it was about more feeling like a space explorer and an introduction to a 3 part story... the potential for add ins through DLC is sky high and the game leaves you with an incredible lasting impression... I'm not gonna argue personal preference in a game with you but I will stand by the fact that it is a rare gem of a game that few developers will achieve. Can't wait for 2 and 3

lemmings, you know nothing about RPGs. Stop embarassing yourself with this hperbolethe_h_bomb

thanks for your addition to our thread... I know great games when I play one... ME is a great game by any logical standard...

lemmings, you know nothing about RPGs. Stop embarassing yourself with this hperbolethe_h_bomb

lol if you read that statement outloud you realize how sad it is

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

mjarantilla

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

Jesus... :roll:

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

mjarantilla

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

I love SMG but I had to lol at this.

Anyway I think that ME excelled in so many areas but man those lame side quests were pointless, there was no reason to do them apart from those linked to the story. Thresher Maws were awesome, but to few. Mako was bad and should be ommitted from ME2, or a better vehicle made in its place. Combat and dialogue were excellent, Biotics rock. ANd the story was very cinematic and involving, never felt sucked in like that before in a game, very immersive though pop-in ruined this a little

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

mjarantilla

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="colmusterd28"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="colmusterd28"]

Wow... what a finish... Mass Effect delivered the goods on every conciveable level and ended with an amazing interactive cinematic of sheer genious, never jumping the shark, but concentrated on superior story telling. All in all the game was very easily in the 9's as far as score was concerned. I gave it a 10 because frame rate issues pale in comparrison to the greatness of this game.

The one thing that jaded my thoughts a bit durring the ending though, It kept running through my head how terribly off the review on Gamespot was... Even if you don't enjoy rpg's it's worth playing through this game just so you can see how off the mark gamespot was on this game... It makes you wonder if they even played it at all....

colmusterd28

Mass Effect jumped the shark with its side missions. They were all completely pointless and repetitive, and the driving sucked. This game deserved an 8.0, not an 8.5.

wow... I feel bad for you...

Don't feel bad for me, feel bad for yourself. I'm not the one saying that a game that is a pale shadow imitation of what BioWare USED to make is one of his top 3 games of all time. Sorry, but 15 hours of halfway decent gameplay combined with 40 hours of repetitive side-missions that take place in the exact same goddamn buildings every time does not cut it.

If you think Mass Effect is one of the top 3 games of the last 25 years, then you couldn't have played more than six or seven games in those 25 years.

I feel bad for you because you missed the scope of the game... ME was about atmosphere, it was about more feeling like a space explorer and an introduction to a 3 part story... the potential for add ins through DLC is sky high and the game leaves you with an incredible lasting impression... I'm not gonna argue personal preference in a game with you but I will stand by the fact that it is a rare gem of a game that few developers will achieve. Can't wait for 2 and 3

I didn't miss anything. I simply didn't feel like I WAS a space explorer. KotOR made me feel that way, and Baldur's Gate II made me feel like an epic fantasy hero (or villain). Mass Effect made me feel like a wannabe amateur who had no business doing what he was doing. The main worlds felt too small and confined, and the peripheral worlds felt too empty and altogether useless. The only one of the worlds that was actually any good was the Citadel itself, and for the first five hours of the game that I spent on it, I loved it. Then I got on the Normandy, and the entire game just fell apart.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

blue_hazy_basic

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

Maybe YOU should take a step back and look at precisely what the 360 has contributed to gaming over the last two years. You'll find that the only reason the vast majority of its hyped games received any attention was solely because of their cinematic presentation and production values, while everything else was simplified and stripped down.

The 360 is turning games into movies, and gamers don't seem to be realizing it.

[QUOTE="---OkeyDokey---"]it got what it deserved ;)colmusterd28

no it didn't.... It was clearly better than Assassins Creed and on par if not better than Bioshock (for different reasons) I don't believe you played the game...

I agree ESPECIALLY on the Assassin's Creed point. Mass Effect was a far superior game. In fact, I found a glitch (I fell through the ground into an infinite beige abyss) in Assassin's Creed after one hour of gameplay before I found one in Mass Effect after around five hours of gameplay.

thanks for your addition to our thread... I know great games when I play one... ME is a great game by any logical standard...

colmusterd28

I'm sure your buddies in high school we're impressed with the aliens and the "risque" content but those of us who know a thing or two about RPGs and have played good Bioware games tend to think differently.

lol if you read that statement outloud you realize how sad it is

UnknownSniper65

What''s sad is lemmings going on about a flop KOTOR ripoff with technical issues

[QUOTE="colmusterd28"]

[QUOTE="---OkeyDokey---"]it got what it deserved ;)darthzew

no it didn't.... It was clearly better than Assassins Creed and on par if not better than Bioshock (for different reasons) I don't believe you played the game...

I agree ESPECIALLY on the Assassin's Creed point. Mass Effect was a far superior game. In fact, I found a glitch (I fell through the ground into an infinite beige abyss) in Assassin's Creed after one hour of gameplay before I found one in Mass Effect after around five hours of gameplay.

Assassin's Creed is its own special brand of crap, Mass Effect is another. Diarrhea versus constipation, in other words.

Maybe YOU should take a step back and look at precisely what the 360 has contributed to gaming over the last two years. You'll find that the only reason the vast majority of its hyped games received any attention was solely because of their cinematic presentation and production values, while everything else was simplified and stripped down.

The 360 is turning games into movies, and gamers don't seem to be realizing it.

mjarantilla

Maybe its need more pretty stars to collect?

It was a great game but had some fairly big problems.

- Bad Framerate
- Bland and boring Side planets
- Boring and pointless side quests.
- Short Main Quest
- Average combat
- Ugly armour
- Uninteresting weapons

I still enjoyed it though but I wouldn't give it GOTY...kotor was better.

[QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

mjarantilla

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

Maybe YOU should take a step back and look at precisely what the 360 has contributed to gaming over the last two years. You'll find that the only reason the vast majority of its hyped games received any attention was solely because of their cinematic presentation and production values, while everything else was simplified and stripped down.

The 360 is turning games into movies, and gamers don't seem to be realizing it.

What's wrong with cinematic presentation and production values? Either way, you're wrong. They weren't just hyped, they were reviewed just as strongly. If you'd rather have games with weak presentation and bad production values, that's you, but in the meantime cinema and games are very similar means of storytelling and thus, the more the cinematic a game is the better told the story is.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"]Maybe YOU should take a step back and look at precisely what the 360 has contributed to gaming over the last two years. You'll find that the only reason the vast majority of its hyped games received any attention was solely because of their cinematic presentation and production values, while everything else was simplified and stripped down.

The 360 is turning games into movies, and gamers don't seem to be realizing it.

blue_hazy_basic

Maybe its need more pretty stars to collect?

I'm suggesting developers are REPLACING gameplay with cinematics. Immersion is just fine and dandy. But when developers start to ignore serious flaws in their gameplay design, or they start to make drastic compromises, then gamers have to take a stand. Mass Effect is one such game. Its shooting mechanics are horrible and hollow, its driving is abysmal, and any kind of free-form exploration gameplay it has is castrated by the fact that every world is identical to every other world, and every side mission is identical to every other side mission, even down to the layout of each building.

If you're a PC gamer, then you've played Baldur's Gate II, and you should know precisely how much LESS of a game and MORE of a movie Mass Effect is compared to BGII, and Mass Effect is just one example.

everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolUnknownSniper65

You're obviously EXTREMELY blind.
You don't understand the concept of what hardcore actually means obviously.
And it makes veterans laugh.

HARD.
You kinda just made a fool of yourself. :/

everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolUnknownSniper65

Maybe he's referring to the upcoming AO edition coming up soon. You know, with that deleted scene with Princess Peach and Mario... oh yeah and the part where Mario murders Bowser by ripping out his intestines and using them to strangle him.

[QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="blue_hazy_basic"][QUOTE="mjarantilla"][QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"][QUOTE="Shinobishyguy"]

No.....SMG was game of the year and rightfully so.

darthzew

if you're under 13 than yeah...I bet it was one hell ofa game

I think you're confusing the SMG's audience with Mass Effect's audience.

Super Mario Galaxy is for mature gamers who don't have any compunctions about enjoying something with a light mood yet still quite challenging and engaging. Mass Effect is, just like most 360 games, for immature gamers who wouldn't know quality if it didn't have a stylish cutscene to go along with it.

Maybe YOU should take a step back and look at precisely what the 360 has contributed to gaming over the last two years. You'll find that the only reason the vast majority of its hyped games received any attention was solely because of their cinematic presentation and production values, while everything else was simplified and stripped down.

The 360 is turning games into movies, and gamers don't seem to be realizing it.

What's wrong with cinematic presentation and production values? Either way, you're wrong. They weren't just hyped, they were reviewed just as strongly. If you'd rather have games with weak presentation and bad production values, that's you, but in the meantime cinema and games are very similar means of storytelling and thus, the more the cinematic a game is the better told the story is.

Nothing is wrong with cinematic presentation and production values. Games like Super Mario Galaxy, Zack & Wiki, Resident Evil 4, and Metroid Prime 3 have them, too. The difference is that those games have strong GAMEPLAY to go along with strong production values. Mass Effect and its ilk have WEAK gameplay, and all they have ARE production values.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolwiretoss

You're obviously EXTREMELY blind.
You don't understand the concept of what hardcore actually means obviously.
And it makes veterans laugh.

HARD.
You kinda just made a fool of yourself. :/

If you are what a veteran gamer is...than I'm fine not being one...I'll stick to being a normal person

everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolUnknownSniper65

Anyone who considers a bad Star Trek wannabe to be "mature" needs to recheck his own sense of judgment. Mass Effect's story is MST3k material.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolmjarantilla

Anyone who considers a bad Star Trek wannabe to be "mature" needs to recheck his own sense of judgment. Mass Effect's story is MST3k material.

AHAHA. I LOVE YOU.

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolmjarantilla

Anyone who considers a bad Star Trek wannabe to be "mature" needs to recheck his own sense of judgment. Mass Effect's story is MST3k material.

way to change the subject...SMG isn't a mature game and mass effect has several mature themes to it...a 10 year old could play SMG...10 year oldcouldn't play Mass Effect without a parent or older brother/sister.

ESRB says:

SMG: E

Mass Effect: M

And maybe I think Lair was game of the year. :oOhhSnap50893

Ohh Snap!

[QUOTE="UnknownSniper65"]everytime mjarantilla posts I can't help but laugh..."SMG is for mature gamers" ....like my 8 year old cousin for instance! lolmjarantilla

Anyone who considers a bad Star Trek wannabe to be "mature" needs to recheck his own sense of judgment. Mass Effect's story is MST3k material.

A) Mass Effect is better than Star Trek, no it isn't as big (yet), but in thirty hours it managed to do what Star Trek did over hte course of years.

B) Anyone who considers a plumber with a gay cop mustache who seeks out stars while avoiding plants, turtles, and moving mushroom men while frolicking about in his colorfully fun galaxy to be mature needs to recheck his sense of judgement.

I love how you guys are singling out mjarantilla when 2-3 other posters have listed the exact same issues with the game...also AC got a 9 because Ubisoft flashed their wallet.Kahuna_1

They're singling me out because I'm voicing an opinion about gaming that has been gaining strength since the last generation, i.e. the rejection of edgy, PR-driven, adrenaline-pumped action movies as the proper direction for the growth of gaming.

There are deeper issues to be discussed, but this is the most obvious and one of the most urgent ones. Games have become an outlet for developers to live out their personal Hollywood fantasy cliches, not to create serious creative works. The problem is, the core gaming audience promotes those kinds of developments, and they are so vocal that many developers have learned to ignore the vast masses who are leaving gaming (as we know it) for newer pastures like the Wii and DS that promise even the slighest hint of something new.

[QUOTE="---OkeyDokey---"][QUOTE="colmusterd28"]

[QUOTE="---OkeyDokey---"]it got what it deserved ;)UnknownSniper65

no it didn't.... It was clearly better than Assassins Creed and on par if not better than Bioshock (for different reasons) I don't believe you played the game...

i agree with you on assassins creed. that game was garbage.

but mass effect seemed like a high AA game to me. not enough polish and far too many technical issues.

the game deserved a 9.0 score....it was far better than assassins creed...not to mention it had lots of replayability. The storyline itself was more epic than any other game that came out this year.

Except for crysis