Mass Effect - "the" Xbox360 title to get

[GoodKingJayIII]

The story in this seems a little more linear, and the Paragon/Renegade choices don't seem to have much impact on the outcome of events.

I've heard this complaint before, but judging from what I've read an seen, I don't totally see this as a problem. I see the game as the latest and greatest in "Choose Your Own Adventure" type stories. Most of the outcomes get you to the same general place, but it's more about the journey than the conclusion. I don't know, I'm just going to have to play it to see how I feel. If it is a kind of "spiritual successor" to KOTOR, I should be ok with it. the Aside from the order in which I did each planet, I felt KOTOR and KOTOR2 had a very specific story and outcomes in mind.

As for replay value, i think Mass Effect whole hold my interest more in the long run. I'm already on my sixth play-through.

That's what I like to hear! Depending on how much I enjoy the game, I see at least 3 playthroughs in my future. The Soldier/Tech/Biotic dynamic seems worth it all by itself. And I'm something of an achievement whore, so I'll get as many of those as I can too.

 

[ThirdWizard]

Just finished! It took me over 40 hours to play through, I hit level 50, and I'm starting up a Soldier character for my 2nd play through (1st was Vanguard). I got two "impossible" influences in my game, too. It was great when I

Spoiler

convinced Wrex to stay with me and broke Saren's mind control and he killed himself so that he couldn't be used as a pawn anymore

! Sweet.

Also:
[sblock]Did anyone else get a very Lovecraftian feel near the end? Unknowable beings from beyond the stars coming to destroy the sentient life for some unfathomable reason, manipulating events in our worlds toward a secretive end, and Sovereign even looked like a giant Cthulhuesque spaceship, squid-like and everything![/sblock]

 

[Vocenoctum]

The Protheans definitely looked like mind flayers, if that helps.

 

[jbravodude]

Thanks everyone!!

I actually am getting an Xbox for the kids this Christmas (yes its for the kids, not me. What are you thinking?) And I honestly hadn't considered Mass Effect much. But after reading through all the posts, I've been thinking more and more that I need to give it a try. I have always enjoyed everything that Bioware has put out (I haven't tried Jade Empire either), so I'm now thinking that I would like this one as well.

JB

 

[trancejeremy]

The Protheans definitely looked like mind flayers, if that helps.

Yeah, but so does that blue alien chick, sort of. Except her tentacles are combed backwards.

Maybe the male ones were the Protheans (the tentacles on the face being where the beard would be?)

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Hmmm... so I popped the disc in, spent about 25 minutes making a character, and the whole thing locks up during the first conversation with Nihilus. Got an unreadable disc error, but the disc looks fine to me; not a scratch or smudge on it.

Hope it's not a sign of things to come...

 

[Enforcer]

Ouch, that's no good. I've had zero problems with the game after 40 hrs., sounds like your disc (and hopefully not your 360) has issues.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Hmmm... so I popped the disc in, spent about 25 minutes making a character, and the whole thing locks up during the first conversation with Nihilus. Got an unreadable disc error, but the disc looks fine to me; not a scratch or smudge on it.

Hope it's not a sign of things to come...

How old is your 360?

What happened with mine, was it'd lock up on a certain area, and then I noticed the disc finish was scuffed. I scrubbed it clean and it worked fine, then locked up again after that. I swapped the disc, and there were no scratches when it locked up again. I traded off my 360 for an elite soon after, and it didn't happen with other games.

From reading online, it seems to be happening a lot with Mass Effect. From what I read, the game doesn't cache like other games and this results in a lot of DVD reading which is hard on the drive and the disc. It seems to be a combination of the game and the system (or at least the older drives).

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

It could be the 360. Assassin's Creed froze up on me the other day, but at a really strange time (as Altair was about to kill a guard with the hidden blade). However, the 'box is only a month old, and otherwise I've never had a problem with any of my other games. I don't have the Elite model... I've got the 20g (whatever the heck that's called).

But one thing I've noticed about Mass Effect is that it is very... stuttery. The frame rate drops significantly when the disc is thinking (during an autosave, after hitting A to start a conversation). Combat is fine, but conversations and cutscenes can be choppy. I suspect that's just part of the non-caching issues, which I've also read about. Doesn't make the game unplayable; just not as smooth as I was expecting.

So far the game's pretty fun. I've been doing a lot of the intel stuff, and haven't gotten much further past the first conversation with the Council and Saren. But I haven't had a freeze like the one this morning.

 

[trancejeremy]

Yeah, ME is very load intensive - odd they didn't use the hard drive - I guess they figured it had such broad appeal a lot of core/acrade owners would buy it.

Anyway, I'm curious as to what other people's Shepherds look like. I started trying to make myself, but ended up looking more like Tony Dungy.