Oh of course the game isn't perfect.  But I do think it has only minor issues myself.  I personally love the game.  First game in a LONG time that when I first played it, I just couldn't put the controller down for the next 9 hours straight.

It's amazing how uneven Mass Effect is.

On one end, the graphics look great while static, the story is compelling, the dialog is well written, and overall is a very good experience.

It's how good some things are that makes the places that were left unpolished or made worse than in previous bioware titles, which IMO include:

Self Shadow Effects that look so bad as to be distracting. Just like the crappy colored lights in Quake II, a nifty effect that is underdeveloped, and ends up being detrimental to the look

The texture pop in effects.

Weak interaction with your companions, reminiscent of the weak Kotor II. Like the conversations tied only to number of missions completed, which only happen if you go looking for the characters in your ship. The romance arcs are really weak. The characters show no chemistry. Interactions between companions are also very weak.

Bad UI choices. The weapon selection UI is full of choices you never want to do, for example. The inventory screen itself is awful. The buy-sale interface is so bad, It took me a while to realize I could actually sell from the same screen.

Why have a bunch of weapon choices, when in the end there are just very few that are worthwhile?

Combat difficulty is very uneven.

The Buggy sections in random planets are not any fun. Why have hills and mountains when the buggy can go through everything anyway?


In the end, the little problems help hide the really great game that's underneath, which is a shame. More polish would have made the game a very serious contender for GOTY. As it is, it's all about Galaxy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying the game. I just wish Bioware would have shored up a few of those nagging technical issues. The game just seems technically unfinished at points, which really shows when put against the brilliant dialogue system.

Decent review, but I agree, open up your case read the INSTRUCTION MANUAL, that is what it is there for. If you are mad because there was no instruction in game and couldn't take the time to look in your case, then that is sad. You complain that you don't want to take the time to do that, but take the time to bitch and moan about it on your review. Other than that the review was fine, it isn't perfect, but I am enjoying myself. The graphics are fine, not as amazing as Bioshock, but come on what is. I still say Bioshock is by far the GOTY, but Mass Effect might win it.

Way to harsh on the technical points

I could understand if it was that bad, but its not. It has a few bad problems like loading etc, but does it ruin the game. Nope should it be counted into score. Yes But you dug into it based on a few details.


Once again i cant agree with you, this game is one of a kind, they dont come along very often. One of the most deep games ever made and it gets taken down by a few issues.

Might as well hit galaxy with a lower score based on it has no voice acting and bad story. Mass effect is getting hit for having technical issues.

Here's the difference between me and you, I see the frame rate and texture popping (Literally every time it loads) and I see them as minor flaws since they don't actually hurt my enjoyment of the game.

A lot of people approach games like a technical check list: frame rate problems? -1, lots of loading? -0.5...

I'd rather just play the game and enjoy it rather than complain about screen tearing or bad textures here and there. Now if slowdown or something hurt me while playing then it would be a different story.

I'm pretty sure when you reviewed Bioshock you complained about corpses glitching and other tiny stuff too. Stuff that I noticed but didn't really hurt the game for me.

I have a bigger problem with the Citadel is really the only big city in the game (why can't I go to earth which is right there on the map? or the Turian and Salarian planets). This and areas literally being repetitions (like the bunkers on uncharted planets) and the lack of all but very little life except on story planets disappoint.

You had a fairly intelligent post up until this point.  So you're basically saying that technical issues that affect gameplay and detract from it are equal to design decisions that don't actually affect gameplay or detract from it?  

 Believe me, if Super Mario Galaxy, or any game, had bad frame rate or you saw lo-res and hi-res textures constantly being swapped I'd ding that game pretty hard too.

Each game has different things wrong with it. Im stating opinions are what state whats more severe.

Ive played it Twestern, and it does not detract and reduce the game to the score you gave it. The average score reflects that.

in all this game has way to much to offer, and does to much to be lowered to that score based on technical issues.

 I do approach the game while playing like that and I do approach the overall enjoyment of the game.  For me, the frame rate and texture popping took away from the immersion of the game and took away from the enjoyment.  That's why it's in the review and that's why I counted it so heavily (among other things).

I did mention those things but if I remember correctly I really didn't factor those heavily into the score because they weren't something that happened often or something that really bothered.  I might have dinged the game for the twitching (been a while since I played the game or read the review) but that's something that could bother me.

I had problems with those too (especially the bunkers) but I put those under small taste problems that could go into the review but chose not because it was already pretty long and had nailed the game pretty hard already. 

And just to reiterate-- I did enjoy this game and the final score reflects that.  Anything above an 8 is a good game and one I would  recommend people play.  The combat was enjoyable for the most part, the dialog and story was fantastic, the music was beyond awesome, and even the random driving was fun (which I was convinced was going to be bad). 

Now do I think this game deserves Game of the Year?  No.  Do I think every Xbox 360 owner should give this game a go?  Yes.