Mass Effect (PC) Review

Mass Effect is a third person shooter with a strong RPG component. It is a strong one track storyline it does allows for some variations along the way bot overall does not alot off deviation. The Gameplay is very direct, but the vehicle portion is very sluggish and at times uncomfortable. While you are playing with colleague AIs they do not really help for the most part it plays like a solo-game. The game does allow the user to change gear and modify the gear to some extent.
The AI is generally not as impressive as we have seen in titles like STALKER or Far Cry, but it does give you a decent run for your money. The friendly AI is close to useless because it has a severe waypoint sickness which often fails with the most basic tasks...like leaving an elevator.
There are a lot of videos to tell the story but those are all in-game sequences since the programmers seem to have had the wish that the costume gear could always be seen. Which is how the rendered videos were lost...
The Graphic is very unimpressive neither it nor the physics engine have big points that have to be mentioned. The game does not suffer under said graphic it is adequate and allows even a slower PC to run the game. I explain the lack of high level textures and physics with a Console release, I suspect that EA did not want to do two sets of graphics. So they set out to let the PC run with console graphic. This decision only stands out when the camera is zoomed in close to something in a video when you can see how low the textures are, and if you look at the faces of the characters.
The storyline is definitely one of Mass Effects major strong points, it is quite intriguing and allows for some immersion. A nice degree of detail is supplied and it does have a good means of telling, there are also several smaller side stories which provide background and sometimes just fun. However the overall storyline is very linear, we have seen some games trying on player directed endings in some games. But generally most games are still based on a strict storyline which does not deviate whatever you may want to do.
Sound effects in combat are adequate, all conversations are spoken and subtitles are rare considering the volume of speech that is a lot background chatter as well as every conversation that the character has. This makes the it far more interesting to play Mass Effect.
The game balance is acceptable, it often tends to lean on the player's side and makes it very easy to complete missions. However this guarantees progress for players and limits the time invested in running around without knowing what to do to move on or simply dying over and over again without finding away to complete some impossible mission. Mostly because there is nothing hard about completing these missions.
The Atmosphere in Mass Effect is good it emerges the player in the story and makes the game almost addicting while playing it through.
The interface is rather simple everything is provided in tips and information to the user you can always ask some AI what now? And they will tell you, the interface itself is mouse based. Conversations as well as combat and movement are mostly done via mouse the keyboard provides little help.
The General game design is quite good, while playing Mass Effect I was reminded off Tron 2.0 also a good game for Shooter/RPG marriages which had a good storyline and interesting characters as well as a intriguing universe.
Overall Mass Effect is a game worth playing.

The Score:
Gameplay 7/10 Generally decent gameplay but sometimes just odd. As well as bad control off vehicles.
AI 4/10 Enemy AI is decent but the allies are plain horrible.
Graphic 6/10 It looks a bit old but its EA so what do you expect they cut cost where they can.
Storyline 10/10 Great Story.
Sound 7/10 Voice for all characters, in combat the sounds seem a bit flat or miss a few shots here and there.
Balance 6/10 To easy most of the time.
Atmosphere 7/10 Pretty good, but suffers under graphic and sound as well as balance issues.
Interface 6/10 Generally good but there are somethings that are not ideal.
Design 8/10 Quite good design wise they did come up with some interesting things at this front.
Overall:6.7/10

Final word
I would say that Mass Effect is a good game providing around 12 hours off solid solo playing and fun. After that you will most likely be hunting achievements or have stopped playing the game. Mass Effect mostly gleams with its strong storyline. The learning curve is under an hour so it will take no time to pick it up.

Want a review off something specific submit a Review request per e-mail or leave a response at the latest review.Review Rules

Top Lan Games

All of the Games included are non-MMOs all of these games also support TCP-IP.

1. Battlefield 1942 and 2
2. Starcraft
3. Settlers 3 and 4
4. Diablo 2
5. 1701 A.D. (Anno 1701 as well as 1604)
6. AOE 2

Review Request Rules

It has to be a game which is already released. It should also be a PC-Game, I can review some Xbox/360 and Gamecube as well as N64-Games however beyond that I do not have access to more systems. I will also only review one game a day.

The reviews I will keep basic explaining weaknesses and strengths of a game as well as giving it a score. The criterias area: Gameplay, AI, Graphic, Storyline, Sound, Balance, Atomsphere, Interface, Design.

Vegatrainism an excercise...

Vegetarianism and Veganism seems to be really a futile exercise in ignorance and/or hypocrisy. Now let me explain, Vegans and Vegetarians say that it is bad to eat animals for reasons of how they are kept before being eaten and of course the eating itself. Now Vegans go so far as to not even eat animal products whats how ever without realizing that is nearly impossible.
Firstly the keeping, the keeping is not only to make the feeding/milking and subsequent slaughter easier but also it allows direct access to by-products for example cows provide a great deal of shit which is used to fertilize fields. This accounts for most animals of great seize which are kept in closed quarters.
Of course the Vegetarian extremists the Vegan is a contradiction on two legs, they don't eat anything stemming from animals, almost no sweets...well most of those apply to the Vegetarians to because many gummies as well as some chocolates are made with animal tissues. Now they don't eat honey, eggs or milk. How is that an issue? Well, honey comes from bees as is commonly known but they do not only produce honey they also pollinate fruit farms in the process allowing them to grow apples, oranges etc. As a matter of fact all farms that grow something that needs to pollinated need a great number of bees to insure quick pollination. The kind of numbers you could only achieve with the help of bee farms. So in keeping with not eating honey they also shouldn't eat any food pollinated by those bees in captivity. The same of course accounts for all farms which once or more a year fertilize with animal excrement's, but this would apply again to all Vegetarians.
Overall the fact is that in today's food production the elements are interdependent, and you can barely eat any food if you were really serious about not being cruel to animals or insects...this brings me to a last point. Almost all farms use barriers and several chemicals to protect their crops this harms animals nearby who get caught in the netting's of fruit farms or who simply inhale or eat food covered with the named chemicals which would mean that you can't eat good 99% of crops grown either...
So how does this track with being against animal cruelty, or protecting animals in the end all they do is not eating them harming or even killing them all the same though.