the thick cases still seem to be the majority standard.

JP_Russell

I highlighted a part of my quoted text, just in case you missed it.

fatshodan

[QUOTE="moshakirby18"]Wait are we talking about dvd cases here?

Or those special slim line dvd cases

Or blu-ray sized cases

I wasn't aware there was a new standard. My warhammer online case is about two time the thickness of a standard dvd case, which is what all pc games come in over here in the uk
fatshodan

In the UK and Europe, we moved from cardboard box/jewel case combo to a standard sized DVD box in 2000, and it's been that way ever sence (for most games)

In the US, around the same time, games moved to a double-sized DVD box. They are the same length and width as a typical UK box, but twice as thick - generally for no reason. The US has finally adopted the standard DVD size, bringing them in line with the UK and Europe.

I don't know how the rest of the world does things, but there's no good reason at all for a double-thick DVD box for the most part.

My Baldur's Gate collection is twice as thick as a DVD. But that's probably because it contains 4 discs.

Lets face it, Gamespot is about making money, just like any business. Look at the post count for the consoles, then look at the PC post count; big differential. Many more people on this site are consolers. It's a sad state of affairs thats for sure. Lets look at it this way, 10% of the general population are the elite: more intelligent, more ambitious, more creative, etc etc. The rest of the population are drones/dumb "poo dispensers" that would stick their thumb up their bum if told to. The former are pc gamers the latter are consolers. Any questions? claytoma

I hope you're joking. If not, System Wars is that way. ---->

Anyway, to make money, you have to spend money. Most businesses understand this.

If GS is not willing to make PC reviews and focus more on PC-related content, then this imbalance between people that visit console-forums and PC-forums on this site will continue to be present.

And I totally agree with Fatshodan.

Jeez old man, I know you're most probably senile and deranged, but talking to yourself creeps me out, you know that?

aliblabla2007

Why... you little!

Orange Box is £12 or $24 on 360 on play.com INSANE! But tbh I want FC2 L4D andGeOW2 and I won't be able to afford it if i spend any more on games :(

hongkingkong

I'd get Orange Box instead of one of the games you mentioned, IF you haven't played it yet.

Jeez old geezer, you smell terrible....

aliblabla2007

Oh, yeah? Says the guy that still smells like breast-milk. :P

[QUOTE="artur79"][QUOTE="ZuluEcho14"]

You guys creep me out...

matt120282

Yeah, we do that to people...

no no, you say that with pride lol

What are you insinuating here, my good sir?

[QUOTE="artur79"]

Try to order and see what happens... Good luck to you.

BTW, I have it on the 360 too, I just want to play the superior version with much better controls.

And... It'll look awesome in 1080p. I'm a gfx-whore.fatshodan

Are you serious? I've played Mass Effect and I think it looks decent at best. The environments are bland and lack detail, there's no AA meaning jaggies all over the place (even at max resolution), the shadows are bad and when they're cast on characters' faces during conversations it's cringe-worthy.

And just like GoW, theway the small 'usable' environments stick out like a sore thumb against the skyboxes is disorienting, and the use of focus to concentrate on the character models during cutscenes often makes them look like they're superimposed onto pre-rendered images like the old Resident Evil games.

And the mako stuff? Jesus. The mako itself looks great (awesome suspension animation), but the environments, while big, are just one generic texture stretched over the environment with no animal life, no plant life, no anything. I could make a mako planet environment in Cry Engine 2 in about 25 minutes and it'd look a hell of a lot better.

I can see how a console gamer could be impressed by Mass Effect's visuals, but I don't understand why you'd be impressed by Mass Effect's visuals. I'm certainly not.

Don't get me wrong though, it's a great game and I'm a little way into my second playthrough, but the visuals are merely tolerable. It's a console game.

This isn't really a counter-argument, because I haven't played the PC version. My answer is based on the 360-title, so it will be like comparing apples to those weird hybrids between pears and apples. Apprs? What the hell do they call them? Anyway...

Since I started gaming on my TV instead of my monitor, I've had no probs with jaggies. I can still see them in games that do not support AA, but it's not as bad as sitting with your nose half a meter away from your screen. And like someone mentioned, I can (probably) just activate AA in the control panel. Which is good enough for me. One can say that I loose the finer details in the picture, but the correct colours, greytones and the awesome contrast ratio make up for it. And then some.

As for the environments, sure, some of them are pretty boring and a little too 'copy and paste'. So are the planets. I don't deny that, in fact, I think I've pointed this out as one of the flaws in this game on several occasions. Never noticed anything about the shadows though. Maybe because I played the 360 ver 2,5 meters away from my Bravia. Same can be said about textures.

I wasn't really blown away by the surrounding or the lightning. To me, ME is THE game when it comes to facial expressions and animation out there. Sure, Crysis and Half Life are great, but nowhere near Mass Effect. Personal preference, of course, this isn't an invite to discuss how much better Alyx smiles than that alien chick. You also know that even though I'm a shameless graphics whore, I value story, dialog and emotional interactions between characters more than anything in a game. Mass Effect shines in this department. Facial expressions, good actors (except Green) and good writing were the tools, the main plot (which is totally awesome) and the dialog were the results. This made the turd into a swan to me, because let's face it, the music and atmosphere, as well as the abovementioned things, are the only great/impressive things about this game.

Okay, where was I going with this? Oh, yeah, 1080p allows me to see all the pores in characters' faces, all the scars, thus making the chars even more believable. Which makes the visuals impressive overall.

Facial animations in ME on the 360 = impressive.

PC visuals compared to consoles = impressive.

Facial animations (all crisp and sexy) on the PC = seriously impressive.