I loved the story in Mass Effect While the end fight was nothing special, I thought the build up with Saren and the Reapers was extremely well done and I was engrossed in the story the whole way.

Considering the whole story revolves around your character of Shepard, i don't think it would make sense to switch characters.

The whole story of KOTOR revolved around the main character as well. The other characters tied into that story, and the relationships you forged made their fates an important part of the game.

I'm a huge sci-fi junkie, so it's weird for me to see comments like "One of the best sci-fi stories ever put in a video game" when the story was very run of the mill.

I thought the characters were tied in just fine though. Tali kind of sucked, but I thought Liara, Wrex, Ashley, and Kaiden were all very much involved, as long as you spent the time talking to them and hearing their stories.

I don't think being a sci-fi junkie has anything to do with your enjoyment of the story. It just didn't work for you, but it did for others. Not a big deal.

After thinking about it, even as an RPG it sucked!

There's one battle at the very beginnning. Then, you go on a space station where you have to walk around for over an hour before I assume some more action takes place! And, I say assume because I wasn't wasting any more time wandering around talking to random people before the game started getting interesting again.

Need to use an elevator? Might as well stand by the microwave and pop some popcorn while doing so while waiting to get back to wandering around a space station!

The game is boring and if it can't catch my attention in the first hour than the game developers have not done their job.

They must understand that with game prices at $60 most people rent games first (like I did, so it's really not that big of a deal and I was going to drop it, but some of you are acting like I insulted your child for being boring and lame), before buying and if the game takes 5 hours to get going there are going to be very few renters that turn into buyers.

Awfully funny that someone is slamming a game that they obviously only played an hour of.

Hell, they ought to give him an expert reviewer spot on Fox News.

So far i'm about 8 hours into the game and finding it to be kind of dull as well. It is good mind you, but it isn't hooking me like KOTOR did.

It's obvious because I admitted to only playing just over an hour of it, maybe an hour and a half at most.

Now, I am going to to leave this thread as I obviously have nothing more to contribute to it.

It would be great if we could leave out the normally obligatory comments regarding a posters departure from a topic they weren't necessarily welcome in.

Thanks.

I think it's a fair assessment to think that the game is boring and slow, because admittedly the game does start off on the slow side in the Citadel and takes some time to get into, especially since there isn't much a tutorial to lead you in. I think it really picks up once you leave the Citadel though.

Still, the issue with your opinion is more that you were complaining about the lack of action and shooting. If you started with that, people probably wouldn't have jumped on you.

Having very little to no action at the beginning of the game is actually extremely common in most JRPGs, although maybe not quite as much in western rpgs. Usually a lot of time is spent introducing the setting and characters, along with perhaps a lengthy gameplay tutorial (not so much in ME actually). When it comes down to it, I actually enjoyed the conversation aspect more than most of the game (definitely more than the driving sections, urggh).

Really, it's quite clear to me that this genre isn't for you. That's totally fine, a lot of people don't like the pacing of RPGs.

The elevator load scenes were significantly exagerrated I think, I had no real problem with them. The intermittent inter party dialog and new reports added a little spice. I would complain more about the in-level loading (where the game stalls), and the texture pop up as being FAR more significant technical issues.

Regarding renting, maybe, but I'd say most gamefly users would very rarely convert their rentals into purchases since they can hang onto them as long as required anyway. Certainly from a bottom line, I'm sure companies are far more concerned about purchasers than renters of their games. I'm pretty sure services such as Gamefly do put a slight dent in the potential sales of their games.

Also into sci-fi, and I read your points, but seems like one of those agree to disagree things. I actually thought the KOTOR story and characters were pretty average, particularly on my dark side replay through.

For the settings, well I think the Normandy is much cooler than whatever the ship is in KOTOR. The citadel location is cooler than any of the indoor settings in KOTOR, but I admit there's more of them in KOTOR. I can see the argument about the outdoor settings being a bit more diverse in KOTOR, I especially liked the dark forest setting on Kasyyak(?).

I definitely think the quality of the script writing itself and the voice acting (not the story per se) is a big step up on KOTOR, so I am surprised if you disagree with that.

For the combat in KOTOR, I found as soon as you started to unlock your jedi powers the game was pretty much a walk over. It was actually more difficult in the beginning. There wasn't really much incentive to explore the other skills such as ranged weapons etc, just put 3 jedis in your party and you massacre anything. I guess it's kind of a fault with the setting itself, but it made that part of the game pretty unenjoyable.

Anyway, I actually like Jade Empire a lot so maybe my opinion is pretty wacked.

Another large organization demands a retraction of Fox News' smear segment:

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/28/e...-effect-story/

Bioware announced the first downloadable content pack for Mass Effect today. Details on VGT.

I was blown away when I started the title. It died a little during those first couple of hours in the Citadel. But when the exploring started I realized that the game fell into the Jade Empire type gameplay & I felt bored almost instantly. That said, the Villians looked really cool throughout the game.

90 minutes is a lot; it makes me think this is more akin to a major area like Feros or Noveria (without the main plot lines) then just another planet with the same damn side quests and level design. At least I hope. I'll wait and see.

Yep, 90 minutes is pretty substantial. None of the other side missions took me 90 minutes.

I wonder how this will work within the time line of the game...

I wonder how this DLC will affect Ally and Completionist achievements.

a 50G achievement is definitely a new full mission IMO.

Sounds awesome. I'm getting it.

From user comments elsewhere, this race was in the Mass Effect book.

Looks like Mass Effect is coming to PC in May.

http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/36...ct-PC-This-May

Cool.

Me = idiot.

I thought you changed weapons by going to the "equipment screen". I didn't find out about hitting the left bumper to change weapons! I played half the game using my pistol (w/ no training in it), thinking I was using my assault rifle!

Shit, I finished the game last night. Had over 200 saves. Had to save it every 5-10 minutes or so, or it would freeze up.

It's so awesome that there is going to be additional PC content. I can't wait for it to come out on PC.

Finished my 2nd playthrough. Hit level 59 right before the end. I'll probably fly through a 3rd Insanity one just for that achievement and the 60.

Did get the Asari Ally though, that was a lot of work but glad I got it and didn't get screwed like a lot of people.

Though, after 2 straight playthroughs, I'm going to shelf this until the DLC, as I'm finally getting burnt out.

I felt the same way. I also hit 59 at the end of my 2nd play through, but held off on a 3rd one on Insanity since I was a bit burnt out. I swear I used Garrus for everything once i left the Citadel, but I didn't get his achievement which annoyed me a little bit. Thank god I'm not an achievement whore and anal about getting all of them.