This is probably a rhetorical question, but why do some games with horrible glaring issues get free passes while other games with less issues get pounded?

Take Mass Effect for example.  It's a good game, the characters are awesome, the choices are great, it looks wonderful, it plays well, and the pacing is great!

Well, actually, it looks wonderful when standing still but as soon as you start moving the framerate is terrible *everywhere* in the game.  There were numerous points in the game where it was just unplayable and I had to let my NPC allies do the fighting because I was down to less than 5 frames per second.  I've had people tell me that it muts be my Xbox but I've played on two different Xbox's, seen it played on another, and played it installed and not installed and the frame rate is still TERRIBLE the ENTIRE game.  If a not-huge game like Dark Void had that kind of frame rate it would get destroyed in reviews but I don't know if I've ever seen a review spend more than a passing moment on it.

And then there's the popping in and out of textures.  CONSTANTLY you see textures pop in and out and it looks like ass.  Again, if any other game that wasn't a huge game had this problem, they would get creamed but in Mass Effect, it's not a big deal.

Well then, what about playing well and pacing?  If you stay on the main story path the pacing is good enough and the gameplay is passable, but that's about it.

If you start doing the sidequests, the game just becomes painful.  After doing a three or so sidequests you will notice the Mako section on non main story worlds are some of the worst gaming moments this generation and every structure in every side quest mission is simply copy and pasted.  Even the inside of the structures are populated with crates that were just copied and pasted or completely empty!  Again, if any other non-huge game pulled this stunt where they made all the side areas a straight copy and paste they would get reamed.  And the Mako?  I still don't know how Bioware managed to get through reviews without getting destroyed.

And even if you do the story missions, you can easily destroy the pacing.  If you do Virmire as soon as you get it and then go back to one of the other three story worlds, it destroys the pacing.  I did that in my first play though and Virmire was *incredible* but then I went to Feros and it destroyed that pacing.  Why?  Because even the main story missions have these little side quests that destroy the pacing!  Yes, I'm chasing a guy that threatens to destroy the galaxy but I need a garage key in order to chase after him? Fuck that shit!

It's just odd to look at something like Mass Effect that I could rant about the problems all day and then look at something like Deadly Premonition that is supposedly a really good game except for the fact it looks like a PS2 game, it has sounds issues, and some gameplay issues.

Ok...so Mass Effect looks wonderful but at least I haven't heard complains of Deadly Premonition constant frame rate problems (and I'm sure that would show up in reviews), there were numerous times in Mass Effect where the sound completely cut out or the music would drown out my allies talking, Mass Effect has some horrible gameplay, and both have painfully awful driving sections.

So why did Mass Effect get the free pass and something like Deadly Premonition did not?

Again, rhetorical question, but it was just on my mind since I finished Mass Effect again last night and I'm fixing to start Deadly Premonition.  I loved Mass Effect my first play through because I just barreled through it but on my second one, it was absolutely painful.  I only finished because I wanted the character for Mass Effect 2, I never want to fucking touch Mass Effect again.

-edit-

And I'm not trying to pick on Mass Effect here, it's just fresh on my mind and probably one of the best examples of a game with many many horribly huge problems that any not huge game would get destroyed for.

Because the qualities outshine the downsides? I haven't played ME, so I can't comment on that specifically, but I remember my first playthrough of Assassin's Creed being pretty awesome, but I couldn't finish the second time around (1 year later maybe), because the framerate and screentearing was just horrible!

The frame rate and screen tearing wasn't anything compared to frame rate in Mass Effect.  Also, there are less hyped games that have far less minor issues but they can have that one single issue and it's an automatic bomb because of that.

But something like Mass Effect?  I counted eight times in my last playthrough that I got stuck in geometry (and none of those were actually trying to get stuck), lost count of the unplayed parts because of frame rate, game crashed twice, and numerous other problems.

So that's 8 times I got stuck and had to reload a save, lets just say 2 times the game crashed (it was more than that), and 4 unplayed parts due to framerate (much more than that), that's a total 14 big problems.  That playthrough only took about 22 hours, that means I had a horrible experience every hour and a half of play!

Because people come into the review with an already positive mindset about the game and company and the game has to lose points to score lower. Whereas with smaller games they have to start at around 60% and work upwards.

I was thinking the same thing. Fallout 3 and Borderlands were both unplayable messes to me, yet they scored pretty high in reviews.

The hype around certain games blinds people to the faults. Most games are hyped years in advance nowadays. You can only hear how great something is so many times before you start to believe it yourself.

There were a lot of players who genuinely enjoyed Mass Effect, even with it's inherent list of problems, technical and otherwise. Not a big list, but definitely enough to turn off some players.

Personally, I found myself unable to finish the game, even after doing the install to shorten the notorious elevator rides. It had less to do with technical issues like frame rates, and more to do with just not being able to get into the game enough to care what happened.

But, I think I'm in the minority. And unfortunately, I won't buy Mass Effect 2 unless I finish Mass Effect because of the shared game save system.

If Steam ever bundles Mass Effect for free with ME2, I'll buy it again and start over.

On the ps3 fallout 3 and Borderlands had jaw droppingingly poor moments that made them unplayable.

Yup, Mass Effect or else I would have said Mass Effect 2 (I loved ME2 and it's the only reason I finished that 2nd playthrough of ME).  :-p

And it's not just tech issues with Mass Effect.  I've finished the game twice, played it on two Xbox's, played it installed and not installed, started it and got anywhere from 4-8 hours five additional times, and I've seen it played on other peoples Xbox and I've seen those problems every time.

I don't know, it's a good game without a doubt, but it is not a 9+ game and is probably close to an 8 at best.  The writing, characters, and choices are all top notch, but all those other glaring issues just bring it down so much.  The first time I played through I was blown away but the more I thought about it later and now playing through it again, it's not a 9+ game.  If I had to rate it right now, it would fall somewhere in the 7.8 - 8.3 range. 

Still a good game, but it just has an insane amount of issues.

• frame rate problems everywhere
• texture pop-in
• several sound problems where I couldn't hear characters over music/background noise
• easy to get stuck, multiple crashes
• non-story Mako sequences are awful
• The hacking game is just stupid but essential
• The gunplay/powers are so-so at best
• cover system is bad
• horrible inventory management

Borderlands was released with a glitch that corrupted save games. I lost a level 32 character. I thought "no big deal. Just give me a reason to start a new game" second time I loss a ~lvl 40. That was the last straw...

Fallout 3, I couldn't go for 30 minutes without running into a glitch.

And yes, both are on 360(are there any other way to play games )

Edit: Twestern, you liked the elevator rides? =p