Mass Effect

And my xbox stopped working...

This game is fucking great. No spoilers:

I don't think I've ever enjoyed talking to NPCs this much. Shit really does look like a CG movie sometimes. The facial animation, especially the eyes, fucking take this shit to the next level. I guess Half Life is comparable, but in ME there's some excellent camera work that really frames the conversations beautifully. The actual dialogue is fucking first class. It's a strange feeling to start a game and immediately have a feel for, and genuinely like / dislike characters through the way they hold a conversation. There's been a lot of talk about how RPG's have needed characters that can physically convey human emotion realistically, to move the genre forward as a story telling medium, and Mass Effect honestly achieves this. In this area, the bar has been set.

Combat doesn't suck and is quite fun and hectic. You aim in your target's direction, your character will do his best to fine-target, and you fire away. Your stats, range and gear determine how often you hit/miss, but it at no time feels like a dice roll is being calculated. I assume +Accuracy will give you a larger hit box (so to speak). At any time you can press and hold the R Bumper to bring up your squad's skill menu. Skills are on cooldown timers, and have varying cast times. Cover is a little clunky - run at a wall while in combat mode and you'll stick. You have to click the L Stick to crouch for low cover, which I keep forgetting to do (babied by Gears I guess). It works though. On the whole it's a huge step up from Jade Empire.

I'm playing a Vanguard - a soldier/biotic hybrid. I'm enjoying the mix of gun play and biotic skills. Some of the throws / telepathy stuff is really cool, and quite powerful. It's often much easier to knock a guy off a ledge than it is to engage in a fire fight. It's also quite useful for sneaking up and knocking mobs out of cover, so your Soldier can wreck his face.

I've seen a few frame rate drops, a little tearing, but fuck - if this isn't game of the year than I'll post nude pics of arjue in sound off. It's like watching a grand space opera that you love to death (be it SW, ST, BSG etc), and being able to influence the characters and plot, and shoot the fuck out of shit.

I'm not sleeping tonight, imo.

Fuck I can't wait.

This is, honestly, the best year for gaming I can think of since almost ever.

Australia's Mature games are for 15 and older?

America is a bunch of pussies.

Also your post got me hard. I probably won't sleep until I can no longer follow the story.

It is not the game of the year. arjue's nekkid pics NOW!!

HAY BITCHES GUESS WHAT I HAVE

OH FUCK HOW

AN AWESOME LOCAL STORE

Sorry if this is old, but I just read it on Magicbox and had to laugh.
-Singapore has banned BioWare's Xbox 360 action RPG Mass Effect, the reason is that the lesbian love scene is prohibited in the country.

It was also unbanned. Still luls.