mass effect 2
pleasantly surprised by this game so far. found much of the first one to be dull and pretentious, but they do a better job of pretty much everything with mass effect 2. the way everyone goes out of their way to GROVEL in front of shepard is profoundly fucking obnoxious, but it feels like there's slightly less of it. in general it feels like they're getting away from a more traditional western rpg approach and going more for something akin to an ACTION RPG(which more fits Bioware's intellectual capabilities). the pacing is centered more around things actually happening rather than people talking about shit you couldn't possibly be interested in. i'd actually call it fun from what i've seen of it, which isn't a word i would feel comfortable applying to the first one.
i still wouldn't call mass effect a particularly worthwhile videogame series, despite what everybody insists, but it's admirable that they're at least trying to improve on it. they didn't really need to do that and could have just churned out another carbon copy of the first one, which they didn't completely do.
although i wonder if i'm enjoying it partly because i expected it to be unbearably repulsive. that might have something to do with it. it's really a miracle i borrowed it from my brother and found myself bored enough to play it.