Actually the first Mass Effect did get knocked for this in its reviews. But I do know the feeling of games getting free passes. Others I'd argue are definitely Killzone 2 and Gears of War but I've been saying that for so long I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

I know what you mean about the garage part. According to the Mass Effect wiki, Spectres are "above the law and will do whatever it takes to complete their mission." Except when you need to get permission to access the garage to leave the space port.  Incidentally, this is where I've stopped playing the game. And the Mako is horrible, and I'm surprised that more reviewers didn't make a bigger stink about it.

I think in the end though, comparing Deadly Premonition with Mass Effect is a bit lopsided. I haven't finished Mass Effect, or played Deadly Premonition, but I imagine that Mass Effect is a diamond in the rough. Just have to wash it off and it'll shine. Whereas Deadly Premonition is like iron ore that needs to be refined before it can be used.

What TwistedPixel said is also probably true. Just knowing that the game came from Bioware, reviewers probably went in with the mindset that the game was going to be good, and probably concentrated on looking at the positives of the game. Whereas reviewer were probably expecting Deadly Premonition to be bad, and were looking for it's bad points.

PC version Of mass effect was abit better, still have some issues.

though i do agree there is certain bias, maybe because bioware it's a western PC developer, or used to be microsoft dev.

people ignore some minor things, sometimes.

kinda like in engadget apple won many 2009 awards, yet their iMac lineup was crappy build this year and had alot of trouble.

iphone had many overheating issues that melted the case.

The first Bioshock on the 360 was completely unplayable on the last couple levels for me because of the framerate. It would literally sit there for several seconds without moving. It was completely unplayable. I read online that you could clear the 360's memory cache, so i was having to do it for about every 10 minutes of gameplay for it, and then it would start again.

It was still my favorite next-gen game at the time, though, simply because it was so great. but I definetly thought it should have been absolutely hammered for those problems.

Don't know about Fallout 3. Played it on both PS3 and PC.

PC, no issues whatsoever. PS3, the only issue I've ever come across was sometimes low-res ground textures (2-3 minutes before they're gone).

I just finished another play through of Mass Effect for different character options into ME2. I definitely did not experience the frame rate issues that you are talking about. Of course, the Pop in does occur, but really was not enough to bother me.

I avoided the mineral finding on the mako. So yeah, I agree mineral finding is pretty boring in the mako. I did have fun killing threshers / geth circle strafing in the mako thou.

I did a pretty quick trip through Tau - Noveria - Feros - Vym - Ilos. I still found the game to be fun. Combat in Mass Effect 1 is a little too easy. Mass Effect 2 is much better of course, but for a three year old game Mass Effect has held up pretty well.

i didnt have mayor problems with the 1st Mass Effect (the screen tearing was alright no biggie) yes the game has technical issues but that didnt ruin it for me
i still think is one of the best games this gen regardless of anything
cuz the game is just awesome and amazing pure and simple
from story to characters from graphics to audio

I don't know how you and I had such different experience in terms of frame rate and such.  Every game I've played of it and every 360 I've seen it played on has had constant frame rate issues and multiple places where it dips below 10FPS (unplayable).  As for things like crashes, getting stuck, ect, those are just luck and I guess I'm just unlucky on that point.

And you actually enjoyed the Mako bits?  Not the parts where you're going on a linear path or fighting people, but the parts where you land on a square mile of terrain and have to travel to all four corners climbing up near vertical slopes at 2MPH.  You liked those parts?

As for the music, it was just a sudden drop in dialogue volume, it wasn't my music setting.  There would be parts where characters are talking and then all of a sudden it's like they were speaking in a whisper because it was only playing out of one speaker no matter how I oriented the camera.  There were also a few times when almost all sound dropped out altogether because I'm just assuming it ran out of memory.

You just answered your own question.  Hype and marketing fuels game sales, especially in America.  And consequently, the 'scores' and 'popularity' of those games.  And if you're basing the general opinions of games either by reviews or the opinion of people on forums such as this, then these two points are what you need to look at.

Come now, dear Twesterm. You were playing Mass Effect 1 at the same time that I was playing Mass Effect 1, last night. You and I both know that the game is still awesome. In 2007, the game was even MORE awesome! Now, don't be that way, baby! Ghostbusters was great, too. I'll probably play it some time, this week.