Even though she didn't mention it, I wonder if turning off the film-grain effect and motion blur will help with the supposed texture pop-in and framerate under heavy action?...

So far the reviews seem to arrive at the same conclusion: Amazing game, beautiful graphics, but doesn't *quite* live up to the hype.

But will that affect sales?

No. I smell a million-seller.

And unfortunately, great reviews do not always lead to great sales...or else, Okami, Psychonauts, and R&C: Future would have fared better.

goty

Mass Effect is flop of the year.

Mass Effect
Two Worlds
Hour of Victory

What other bullshiet is coming to 360 next?

Well, just keep in mind that Jennifer is the biggest 360 fangirl in the team. And 9/10 s a good score..

mass effect Xbox 360 goty

Ratchet & Clank TOD sold really good and way better than Psychonauts and Okami which...
-----------------------
Shut Up Mk_Red, you are full of crap.

Ratchet & Clank sold like 75k in October, less than 10k in Japan, and is not even in the top 40 in Europe. Is that "really good"?

Stop being a jerk, you only fool yourself.

how can you Sony fanboys look at yourself in the mirror everyday?

Specially kingfury and Maestro...

"Editor's Rating: 9.0, Excellent"!

Flop? "Mass Effect didn't live up to the hype."? 9.0/10!? What do you have to say about EVERY PS3 game then? Did any PS3 exclusive game got 9 and 10 such as this game is getting?

Sony and their fanboys wish... they would be getting flopped such as Mass Effect... 9.0 a flop! ahhhhhhhhh hahahaha! Losers...

Only in the world of gaming can a 9/10 be seen as bad.

Sigh.

So far the average from all reviews linked from this site is sitting at around 94%...

goty

even 9 is too high i think, i played it about 3 hours and took it out of my drive... the whole inventory system is too simple, i wished it would be more complex like in a real RPG game.

FYI she maxed out Charm and Intimidate. Then she goes on to say that the last boss was too difficult for her character. Maybe she just isn't that bright of a girl? Of course maxing charm and intimidate is going to gimp your character. Pick one or the other :/

Whether it's the stuttering frame rate or the awkward load-ins that unexpectedly (and frequently) halt the game entirely for several seconds, Mass Effect has some bizarre bugs. Occasional weirdness like different voice actors (or voice modulation effects) employed for the same characters during a single conversation draw attention to themselves, pulling you out of the moment. In one sequence, a timer bar for a self-destruct sequence remained obstructively onscreen until I stopped, saved, and reloaded the game. At this point, your teammates comment about events that haven't yet happened. Speaking of elevators, it's not a bug, but never before in a game have they moved so preposterously (and needlessly) slow. Whoever decided it was smart to make lifts move at the speed of an inebriated snail deserves to ride on one every day he or she goes to work.

But it's still like playing the weird descendent of an old choose-your-own-adventure book, with spurts of action inelegantly sandwiched between exhaustive dialogue trees that don't change the game to speak of. Smoothly paced or no, your conversations don't shape your experience in Mass Effect so much as shuffle you along like a weirdly glib FedEx operative.

While not as brilliantly articulated and emotive as Andy Serkis's directorial work on Heavenly Sword for the PS3, the character models in Mass Effect are something to behold when motionless.

hehe

heh

hehe

yeah!

Hm, this game isn't getting the massive amounts of 10s that I thought it would. Guess reviewers took flak over all the 10s they've given out to Bioshock and Halo 3 that they decided to cut back.

The scores don't just vary between sites and publications. Within each site or magazine scores also vary between reviewers. I don't know how many reviews Jennifer Tsao has done, but we don't know what the score would have been if Dan Hsu or somebody else over there did the review. No doubt game publishers will try to manipulate the system by steering a review copy towards the editor with a history of generous scores.

As far as I'm concerned, the best reviewer is the one that agrees with you. By that I mean find the reviewer whose personal tastes and viewpoints most closely resemble yours, then just stick with him or her. Otherwise, stick to metareviews, which tend to minimize the effect of idiosyncratic or abberrant scores and give a closer approximation of the mainstream perception of the game. Even then, a metascore is most useful to those whose personal preferences closely correspond to the mainstream. If you are a wierdo who has strange or eccentric tastes, metareviews, or any other review for that matter, will not be useful to you.

In these types of threads, it may be more useful for people to critique the game itself instead of commenting on what somebody else said about the game (which a lot of you often do without even having played the game yet). If you comment about the game, other readers may get a handle on whether you share their tastes and whether your opinion is valuable to them.

9.0? hmmm I don't give a **** this is what I'm playing over Christmas since there is NOTHING coming out after Mass Effect until 08.

there's a lot of people i n denial here... ME is GOTY, accept it and move on.

what is going on with mass effect is similar to the story of uncharted.Overall these games are brilliant to both 360 and PS3 owners.Even if they have a few problems, it cant detract from the overall feel that the game will give at the end of the day.

I dont think that the mixed reviews can stop uncharted and mass effect becoming the biggest holiday titles on both consoles.

Everyone enjoy.

And people wonder why the ratings are so inflated? A 9 is considered bad by some people... That's just sad. Notice the word next to it: "Excellent."

I dont understand how people just trounce games like Mass Effect or Uncharted because of what some reviewer said on a website. I have watched plenty of movies that got bad scores from these so called expert movie critics and came away very satisfied. I am glad I didnt listen to the reviews. I would have missed out on a great experience.

Videogames are the same way. I dont let this website dictate what should be a good game or a good console. As an owner of both the PS3 and 360 I get to choose which games are "AAA" and which games are not. Just remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I think this is a great site for checking up on gaming news, but the some of these extreme fanboy comments really give this site a black eye.

I think that anybody that owns both consoles can agree that both the PS3 and 360 are great. Both consoles have great games. I wish we would stop hating on the other console just because you dont own it. Stop hating on games just because you cant play it on your console.

Everyone is entitled to thier own opinion. Right or wrong. But at least try to form your own opinions. Instead of letting some "expert" or "fanboy" dictate what you think.

M$ Shiet all over the rating system for games with their money.

Massive Shiet SUCKS and it's still being touted as 10's and 9's???

This is NOTHING SHORT OF BULL SHIET....AAHAHHAHHAHAH

But the XBOTS still fall for it, buy the game and hate it, but than they still defend the game just because they are brainwashed like that.....AAAAHHAHAH

Poor Souls...This game sucks and just like the 360, it too does nothing new and is LOADED with bugs caused by hardwear issues....AAAHAAHAHAHHA

Have a nice time L...O...A...D...I...N...G..... ...X..B..O..T..S..!!!hahha

WHAT IS UP WITH ALL OF YOU GUYS YOU ACT LIKE 9 IS A BAD SCORE, 9 IS A GREAT SCORE AND THE GAME LOOKS GREAT. Who cares if its 9, 9.5, or 10.

I've never seen so much snobbery in my life - from both sides. Mass Effect is GOTY? Mass Effect is a failure? I wish one of you people saying that tripe would back it up since you've obviously played it. From what I've read so far, no reviewers (obviously not counting Xbox oriented site/mag reviews) is claiming it to be GOTY, but they sure aren't calling it a failure either.

its a good game a solid 8.5 if you didnt count the countless xbox mags or websites this is a 8.7 on metacritic.

is greater than Uncharted.
Mass Effect is here.
still tea baggin the PS3

I'm surprised no one seems to mention that Mass Effect isn't that revolutionary to the Kotor-like RPG genre. Besides that this looks like a good game and I would be interested in playing. And that's saying something since I don't really like WRPG's and especially those with the gameplay of Kotor.

I just love how this article says only "xBox 360" but yet all kinds of PS3 fanboys are in here running their mouth like they know something about this game.. you being here shows YOU have No LIFE and just want to start problems.. This game gonna be a flop? Ugh.. no.

@goodganja44 - i didnt even read your post and I know your full of sh!T.. just because of your avatar.

@kingfury - Mass Effect a Flop? Dumbass. Stop looking at reviews for games.. at least try them before saying something stupid. Although most of the reviews say that this is a GREAT game. Compare the reviews of this game to a highly hyped game on the PS3 like Lair (yes i played it.. sucked.) or Heavenly Sword (umm.. it's good.. yea.. but I played God of War before.) and look at R&C.. great game but the reviews pretty much sucked.

@Myth - shut up. How do you know he hasn't played both games?? I have. Both great games too, but I'd rather go with Mass Effect for two reasons.. I like RPGs better than shooters, when both its awesome. and second.. it's 23425 times longer than Uncharted.

@JokerSGS - okay, ugh. i dont know if you are comparing the gameplay of ME to KoToR or what? But ME's gameplay is not like that of KoToR.

Wow. there are MORE Sony fangirls here crying on a Xbox 360 review then there are 360 guys.... how sad, don't you children have anything better to do ? If I were you I'd be enjoying Uncharted instead of fostering hate & lies about a great 360 game.

LOL, no wonder PS3's attach rate is sh!t, do you ppl even play games or do you spend your time just acting like a$$'s on internet forums ?!? LMAO !!!

HATERS KEEP HATIN' WHILE GAMERS KEEP GAMIN' !!!

MASS EFFECT FTW !!!

i am very interested in this game but don't know if i would like to pick it up do to the fact that i just bought assassin's creed. does anyone remember the game freelancer by microsoft? if so, is this game seemingly the same concept or am i way off base?

ALL OF THE FREAKIN GAMES YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR ARE COMING OUT NOW!!!!!!!! MASS EFFECT, MARIO GALAXY, ASSASSIN'S CREED, NFS, ACE COMBAT, KANE AND LYNCH, ARMY OF TWO, GUITAR HERO III, ROCK BAND, HALO 3, BIOSHOCK, CALL OF DUTY 4, OBLIVION: GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION, F*CK! THERE ARE TONS MORE, I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER THEM RIGHT NOW!!! SOMEONE HELP ME OUT................AND ONCE AGAIN..............GAME ON!!!

This review like many others rates from 0-10. 0 is the worst you can get and 10 is the highest. I see many people think the review is based on a 9.0-10.0 scale. If you need help with the conversion, a 9 from a regular scale would be a 9.9 on your modified fanboy scale.

Glad I could help.

-Death

It time to preach some love, MK_Red is one of the non bias and not a fanboy individual, He has my respect for being honest and open.

I agree with his analysis of ME, I myself don't have a 360, but neither am I a fanboy, I have a PS3. I think ME is a beautiful game, maybe I might buy a 360 down the road.

We should respect people that have eihter a 360 or PS3 and not make fun of the other console, people with 360 more power to you and vice versa.

Peace

"This is one of the best games of the year, and will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the greatest games ever made"

Review
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/...

there are issues but...it seems to be really fun to play.

You can feel the Sonyboys here seething with anger, jealousy and contempt, foaming in their mouths. Don't blame them, Ratchet Heavenly Uncharted Lair Sword - flop after flop, while 360 gets AAA after AAA - its bound to drive them nuts

Lol I mean this game has a 93% overall rating between all the web sites reviews how can this in anybody book be nothing but a success? This web site is suppose to be for gamers am I right its in the title yet when a game comes along that tries(and mostly reaches) a very epic new direction people cant wait to jump all over it and try to bring it down just cause its not on there system of choice. Now im not talking about people who arnt interested in the game but I think most true gamers will agree that this game is truly epic and teh work involved was huge..........ahh why bother its not going to make a diff lol.

Their highest rated, best remembered, socially loved franchise... and they have small team working on it for the past 2- 3 years?

Absolute garbage company along side all the heads that made Andromeda.

Maybe Saudi Arabia make something out of this.

overall if they could get CDPR and quadratic dream to help them make the game that would give me hope for the game

Still riding off the coat tails of the original staff from Bioware that have long since moved on.