"The Adventure of a Lifetime awaits."

That's the tagline of Game Informer's review of Mass Effect.
GI Review: http://www.n4g.com/M/8/Images//74000/74437.jpg
Bunch of new screens. Watch out for spoilers: http://www.gamer.tm/gallery.asp?id=140&bid=447&filtr=360

Now I'm not a big rpg fan, as I think they've gone stale over the years, but Mass Effect has caught my eye since the day it was announced. Scheduled to ship in less than a month, November 20 is the date, Mass Effect seems to have shaped up as an unbelievable sci-fi epic. After reading GI's review, I'm anticipating it even more.

It seems like the game takes cinematic interaction to the next level. You can easily see that by watching the videos. Each line is spoken and enacted with such realism that it's hard to not get caught in the sci fi world. Though the review complained the battles aren't as good as the rest of the game, it said the rest of the game is soo damned good, it makes up for it.

The story is also supposedly god sent or at least that's the impression I got from the review. This will surely be one to close the lights and play into the morning. It's dripping with atmosphere. It's about time I picked up a 360. Gears of War, BioShock, Halo 3 and now this. 360 is really becoming the console to own.

Here is the main snippet from the review:

"Mass Effect is one of video games greatest treasures. It's an adventure that is so captivating that you'll be counting the days for the sequel. It takes interactive storytelling to new heights, and brings the player closer to content than ever before. It's easily one of the year's best titles, and one of the most impressive games to date."

OMG I want this fucking game! GOTY!

is it any surprise at all that 98% of the time, game informer is so full of shit that you can pretty much just assume the opposite of whatever they say is true, always?  i used to kind of hate them for it, but now i've grown to accept the reasons why the large majority of magazines are like that, and while it's disgusting because you can be pretty sure similar situations exist throughout other, non-videogame-centric journalism, it's at least understandable.  subscription fees are such a nominal contribution to their net profit, i mean!  most of it comes from advertisements, and with how many games they cover every issue, it's inevitable that a lot of the games they carry ads for are also going to be games they review/preview.  they can't bad mouth, or even be honest about, the games they review a lot of the time, without the serious threat of losing advertising deals with those very same developers/publishers that they critique, and if this happened with any regularity (i.e. if they were consistently honest in their reviews), then it would cost them such a large amount of revenue that i'd be semi-surprised if they were even able to stay in business.  when prioritizing profit versus journalistic integrity, it's pretty obvious which one most magazines are going to put first.  it is gross and disappointing but i guess the lesson is to not really read them for any more than just to see what's ON THE HORIZON as far as games go, and maybe to get a general gist of what a game's about/how it looks.

also, in practically every game they review where part of the appeal is supposed to be choose you own derstiny............, you can see them saying the exact same thing about how the choices feel like they matter and have serious impact on both the story and your relationship with other characters, and how it really brings the game world to life and makes it feel like it's a living, breathing universe and puts the power of control in the player's hands, and usually it is so totally bogus you cannot help but laugh at the fact that you believed any of their unashamedly biased bullshit to begin with, even if it was just a little bit!

aaaaanyway, back on topic, i actually didn't hear about this game until a few days ago, and i think i'd play it just because i enjoyed kotor when i played it back when it first came out for the xbox, and that is my most recent (and only) memory of bioware as a developer save neverwinter nights, which i will just pretend never happened.  unfortunately, i don't own an xbox 360, though i might think about buying one eventually, so unless this is coming out for the pc, i probably won't be seriously playing it for a while!  my brother has a 360, though, and i'm sure he'll pick it up, so maybe i will fuck around with it when he does.


ps why are people calling this the "best rpg of the year" when no one's actually played it?  that is a little excessive i think!

ps why are people calling this the "best rpg of the year" when no one's actually played it?  that is a little excessive i think!

Hype, advertising, trailers and it's a Bioware game. Expectations are high, and like most games it'll probably fail to meet them, but theres a good chance it'll still be an awesome rpg, only time will tell.
I'm fairly sure this will come out on the PC eventually, though you'll probably need a hell of a machine to run it smoothly with the same eye candy you'd get on the 360.

They did give paper mario 2 a bad review.

I like Kotor2.  It's #2 on my all time favorite xbox games (behind kotor, and not much behind).

Kotor2 wasn't made by Bioware, btw.  And everybody knows Halo 3 will be game of the year, because of fanboyism it's such a good game [/straight face].

what?  halo 3 is a really good game, and i don't even especially like halo.  the single player campaign alone makes it pretty fucking great if you play it on a harder difficulty level, but the multiplayer really pushes it over.  i do not know if it is better than other shit like gears of war that has strong solo/multiplayer components, but it's not like the idea of someone calling it game of the year is somehow far-fetched.