Yeah, me too. The exploration in Mass Effect (the most disappointing element of the game, given its emphasis) was bland, the combat detached, the ‘choices’ merely the same path in different colours… but the graphics were actually pretty (Fallout 3 looked good until you witnessed the doll people move like lego puppets), the actors were engagingly distinctive, and it didn’t sound like it was written by basement-dwelling man-children.

ps: I discovered this site following the crumbs left by your Escapist articles way back when, which I in turn found while trying to find a reviewer who shared my impressions of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
Jim, I’d follow your opinion into bankruptsy.

you forgot the blue, bisexual damsel in distress and the bubble girl that has no immune system

The party complaints are pretty standard in all RPGs. But in Kotor they could be dismissed as the force bringing you to who you need to complete your destiny. But in ME it takes it’s story so seriously and tries to make a realistic setting with so much emphasis on well equipped and capable you are that this stuff is just jarring.

I understand its necessity, don’t get me wrong, and it wasn’t anyway near a gamebreaker. But I get the feeling ME2 will roll with things more and will take advantage of ME’s setting stage, effectively using it as a trampoline to an even better game. Or so I hope.

I remember a Crispy Gamer author confessed that he and a dozen other gaming journalists (that he knew personally) felt pressured to rate Fallout 3 higher than they felt was deserved, or even vote it for Game of the Year, because of the impression that to do otherwise would be to welcome backlash from passionate fans and to zig against the perceived zagging of other critics (who might have been thinking the same thing). In many cases, the reviewers played Fallout 3 for less that 4 hours.

I thought the same must have occurred when Mass Effect were being reviewed in such positive light.

The thing that looks good to me about it is the enhanced physicality of it. It looks like there will be fewer instances of firing at enemies who take it without complaint until they spontaneously die. In other words, it will look more like an actual fight (in theory).

They have to do a lot more than that. They’ve got to improve squad AI tenfolds. They’ve got to keep the enemy AI from rushing up to your face, and the bullet sponging.

And issuing movement commands to your squad from the OTS perspective is just a bad idea all around (and not only because your HEAD tends to block the view of where you’re telling them to go)

Aren’t those also the stories of Starcon 3, the Crystaline Entity of Star Trek (TNG), Master of Orion, Warcraft, etc.

I’m not defending it, I’m just saying this isn’t exactly the only time a plot similar to that has been used. Also, while the plot itself isn’t [i]original[/i], that doesn’t make it [i]bad[/i]. I really enjoyed the way my character interacted with the story, the way the species were all interesting, and just the way the game flowed.

I’m on my 6th or so playthrough, which must mean something. I only made it through Stalker 3 times, and Clear Sky twice. Fallout is twice, but will soon be third.

But seriously, you can’t truly appreciate an art form (whoops, there goes that can of worms) without knowing its history.