Haha, sieanr, you are so right. I remember thinking, maybe i should take the nice approach with this guy, and when I did, shit went a totally different directions, and I was like, F)$(K, DO OVER, NO NO NO!!! DAMMIT!! My friend thought something was seriously wrong. Just shows you how much this game draws you in, it's friggin' nuts, everything is just so damn intriguing.

Just finished my first run...

I did a majority of the side missions, but not enough to warrant the achievement for finishing the majority of the game. I finished as a Male level 43 Soldier on Normal (Paragon Ending) in just under 21 hours. That sounds short, but I instantly started not one, but two new careers and I'm contemplating three.

The first is the re-play with my 43 Soldier going for the "Level 50" and "Level 60" achievements mainly. The second is as an Female adept (Renegade) on Veteran to get the Biotic achievements. The third I'm contemplating will be an Engineer on Insane.

Phew...then I'll start the games just to get the various "Kill so many with this weapon" achievements. Great game. Love the Paragon ending. Can't wait to see just how many different ones there are.

For those wondering, the only side quests that I was aware of that I didn't complete were the various exploration "Collection Quests" and two Alliance missions that I only skipped out on because I wasn't quite aware that I was dragging myself into the final mission by continuing the main story line.

I hope that's vague enough to avoid any spoilers. Guess I'll have to pick up the strategy guide to see what I've been missing.

My girlfriend hates when I buy video games, despite the fact that I work two jobs, and pay almost all of the bills. When she found out I got COD4 two weeks ago, my ass was in the doghouse......but my OTHER GIRLFRIEND bought me Mass Effect, Super Mario Galaxy, and Assassin's Creed on Tuesday. I got them from her yesterday. So far, I have only snuck about 5 minutes into each game, but Mass Effect is the one that made me stay awake dreaming about it. Nothing going to stop me from playing it today. Pray for me! This could get ugly!

Impressions so far: 1. Dialogue and story are both awesome. 2. The game is alot more shooter-y than I expect. 3. Game looks great, but lots of graphical hitches, textures popping in over several seconds sometimes (and several phases). Frame rate drops (even in cutscenes) are pretty common. 4. So far apart from the citadel, the planets I've been to are too similar (All barren wastelands), where are all the alien homeworlds? 5. The amount of info and details you find in the codex is great, they even have a narrator for key info on aliens and such. 6. Vehicle controls (Maco) are sloppy. 7. Voice acting and facial animations are great. 8. Character customization is pretty good, really great leveling system. 9. Made a Sentinel, played a while, hated it and I actually started the game over with a new class. To ppl starting the game now, I suggest a class that can actually use some combat. 10. The is good enough that I was willint to start it all over, despite putting in like 9 hours.

Oh yeah, also the game gets tough really quickly, at least as a non combat class (Sentinel) and I mean really tough (like dying 12 times against the matriarch). Maybe I was just underleveled...

I still advise people to go with one of the combat classes the first time around. Also the game is alot smaller than I expected. Next ME needs more planets and more activity on them...

Combat is like Gears meets Bioshock meets GRAW.

The story is killer and the best thing about the game.

It's funny you say that ckmlb. When my friends ask me what the game is like I always say "Well, if you took the great story and character development from the KOTOR series, took the combat and perspective from Gears, splashed in the squad elements from Ghost Recon, and finalized it with an open world of planetary exploration you would have Mass Effect."

So... any of lucky people who have the game feel like posting some screenshots of the best and worst faces you've managed to make with the character creation tools? The first thing I'm going to do is see how horrible I can make my Shepard, although I'll probably play with a more decent looking one.

I remember seeing some freak show galleries from Oblivion and laughing my ass off, so this should be good.

I would post but I don't have a cam :p

Not that ppl discussing this and haven't seen many ppl on my list playing it, is this not getting the attention it deserves?

yea but what % of people are going to be able to play it on their PC?

And you WILL have to pay $500 for a new GFX card + the other goodies for this one :)

Great games like this are why I love my X360. Oblivion, and every great PC game for only $300.