Oh yes, forgot to change the developer from the last review I did (Quantum of Solace). Cheers JT. 

Shrek racing game, our speed boost pickup was called ROCKET PANTS.

The publisher took it upon themselves to rename it to "fairy dust". 

Know where the awesome is there.

But hey, the industry got rid of distributors quite efficiently, it shouldn't take long to bin the large publishing firms that cause this committee design shite.

The indy and garage developers are taking a non-marginal slice of the pie, and growing, as quickly as the big boys are laying off 00's of staff. 

I've just finished this.

What a bad game.

I can not remember ever having played a game in which I did not die once. Well, I did one time when I went too far from the objective. The game decided to kill me, out of the blue. I actually tried it again and got killed the same way. All the fights are more or less the same. Get behind something and shoot at the bad guys from behind there. There is absolutely no need to upgrade your weapons, the normal pistol could get you true the whole game.

At one time I was supposed to activate 2, ehm, things in the map. There were lots of enemies around. I just ignored them and pushed the buttons and that triggered a cutscene.

If you look at the game stripped to the core basics, you are left with mostly random shooting bits in very very simple made maps.
The maps look nice (decent anyway...), but you can only walk as far as the invisible walls allow you to. The playable part of the maps are so bad that they wouldn't even be rated on Quaddicted. Often it's just hallways surrounded by inaccessible map areas.

The sidemissions are the dumbest thing I've ever seen in games. You walk in the Citadel and overhear people talking about stuff they want. That stuff you can get from doing planet scanning, a part of the game most doable after smoking some cannabis sativa. If you already did all the planet scanning thing, you don't have to search for anything anymore and just collect your reward from the people with the red squares around there head.

And then there is the interaction part. Maybe it's got something to do with my being Dutch and not having a degree in English, but it looks very much open to interpretation. I can't recall a specific moment in 3, but I've got one from 2: At one point an alien spoke to me about a spider queen I released in the 1st game. One of the options was to say: "Tell her to be good". I choose that one. I thought it was a nice thing to say but my character made it into a warning !

And then there is the love aspect in the game. I chose to save the games being a faithful and a not cheating partner to the blue girl. Sure, she was nice to me for the pre-endgame battle, but before that she used to greet me by saying "Shepard", or "Nice to see you". That's fucking love for you ...

And then there is the ending. It is so mindbogglingly stupid that I regret not only playing part 3, but the whole series.

But the point I'm trying to make is this:
The game gets stupidly great reviews from almost all the gaming media. One of the best games ever, they dare say. The reviews I've seen on the internet say more about the state of our planet then about Mass Effect's, I'm afraid ...

My score, for what it's worth ...

04/10 

Got very bored very quickly, and never played it again. But the character you play in the game is annoying, the shooting is *ahem* CRAP, and the LD is frustrating.

So yeah - nice to see an honest review of the game, from someone who shares my opinion of it:) 

So I'm clear ... by "honest" review you mean "review I agree with"? :) 

Most people rave about the series - I wasn't impressed either.

Weak gameplay that's disconnected from any sense of purpose.

I suppose if I didn't know how to read then the story (ie. cutscenes) would have been interesting.

One of the few games I'll never finish. 

I mean 'honest' as in the reviewer was being honest when he wrote the review.

As opposed to writing a good review because that is what he was paid to do. You know, so that the game sells, all of those people who we're thinking of buying the game read a 'good' review of the game, then they go and buy a copy.

I can't comment on the true validity of the review because I have never played Mass Effect 3, and I probably never will. 

I love the first two Mass Effect games. Not for gameplay, but for overall ambience. They did a really good job of making it feel like a scifi universe.

But making gameplay 'fun' has never been what Bioware was about, they were about a big game with lots of story. They are crap at balancing games, they suck at AI, and they tend not to innovate or 'fix' their problems. Even as far back as Kotor, the gameplay wasn't exactly fun, but very generic and tedious. They can't balance games worth crap either, they tend to be either very difficult or very easy, rarely does it feel like a good challenge.

As much as I would like to, I probably won't get Mass Effect 3. :( :( :( 

That was the odd thing for me - you'd think making the interactive part worthwhile would have been the focus.

I was introduced to Bioware on ME1 - I'll probably avoid their other games on general principals.

Seems like they do the types of games I don't like to play. Not any particular genre though - I quite like RPGs. 

I really can't understand the crazy backlash that is going on with fans of Mass Effect. It was never about combat, shooting, scanning or squad tactics. The game was all about story and immersion in the game universe. Why would anyone expect the game play to be ground breaking? Last time I checked, the encounter design was box rooms with cover and dumb AI. You run in, shoot, take cover and eventually kill stuff.

I always thought of ME as something that is trying to push the envelope on story. It wants to make the player care about what they say and do (storywise and some actions). With the introduction of the ship crew emotional involvement I assumed players wanted a space opera.

The fan review reaction to ME reminds me of someone reading a book and then getting upset because the book has no pictures and it should do, because all books have pictures nowadays! ;) 

I'm not a fan of Bioware-flavored "RPGs", and this one confirms it once again. Too linear and restricted, tedious combat, and I'm not overly impressed with the levels so far. Of course, this is only the first impression after some three hours, maybe it's getting better later on, but I doubt I'm going to play much further. Bioware seems to be a love or hate thing - if you enjoy one game, you'll probably like the others, too; if not, don't bother.

Can't say much about the story, I'm not super excited about it. Is it possible that the stories and twists in each game are quite similar?

I agree about the dialogue options - I hate it when games give you some option and then lets the character say something totally different.

Sock: More like this: a book that's said to be an excellent piece of fine literature which then has silly pictures in it, and people getting upset about it are being told to ignore them (and that it's their own fault they aren't enjoying it if they can't or won't just ignore them). 

I don't think anyone expects the gameplay to be ground breaking, just good, which it isn't. It copies Gears of War (which imho had boring shooter mechanics at best) and slaps an RPG-lite leveling system onto it. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but they could've done a better job balancing gameplay or making the combat a little less repetitive. It doesn't have to be revolutionary - say what you will about Rage, but it was very polished and felt great, but wasn't revolutionary by any means. There's really no reason the same couldn't have been done with Mass Effect.

I would say, for the book analogy, that it's more like here's a book, and there's this chapter of the book that's included with the book you bought, but only if you pay extra for that chapter. If I bought the book, shouldn't I get all the chapters already? 

"I mean 'honest' as in the reviewer was being honest when he wrote the review.

As opposed to writing a good review because that is what he was paid to do. You know, so that the game sells, all of those people who we're thinking of buying the game read a 'good' review of the game, then they go and buy a copy.

I can't comment on the true validity of the review because I have never played Mass Effect 3, and I probably never will."

But ... you have no way of knowing who is being honest and who isn't. Your logic isn't sound on this one.

What leads you to believe that Ron is writing from the heart and, say, IGN is only writing good things because they're being paid to?

Liking Ron's review because it says what you want it to say is fine - but you need to admit it. :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zze1wpwVl7c

Has the potential to be fucking epic imo. Arkane Studios (dark messiah might and magic) + Viktor Antonov (hl2 art director) + Harvey Smith (deus ex designer) + Sandbox assassination game set in a steampunk city = wet pants. 

Why would Ron come on a Quake forum, and Troll ME3, if he did in fact like ME3? That doesn't make sense either. Are you trying to tell me that it would make more sense for Ron to come on a forum and lie about his own opinions? Why would he do that?

I base my assumptions on the following things:

1 - There was a lot of good hype on the mainstream websites about Mass Effect so I went out and bought a copy, only to discover that the game was an excruciatingly tedious and boring game full of characters that we're either ridiculous, un-likeable or both. Having been playing Crysis before hand I was also disappointed by the poor visuals and level design of Mass Effect. I remember in the game there is a part near the beginning where you land an a planet only to discover that the planet looks dull, and you can't travel around it because the whole mission is heavily scripted and completely on a rail. I also noticed that the combat was poor, I was basically encouraged to squat behind walls and crates all of the time. Which is dull.

I also remember in another part of the game, there was a VERY tall elevator shaft, with an elevator inside it. You cannot see out of the elevator once you are inside it. But to use the elevator you have no choice but to watch the entire journey from the corner of the elevator. Well there's three minutes of my life I will never get back.

2 - Ron is claiming that he found similar issues to be present in ME3. The review for ME3 is also good on the mainstream websites.


I don't like watching the TV. I don't like Star Trek. ME is a bit like Star Trek. And playing ME1 for me was on par with watching Star Trek. Which I find to be dull and boring.

IGN, Fox and the teams of directors employed at the studio where Mass Effect and it's sequels we're born are examples of evil capitalist scum, which will kill art and video games in order to make sure that they make the fastest buck.

Ron is some guy who I don't know who posted his opinions on a forum.

I know who I would trust. Neither of them. I would trust my own intuition. The same intuition that made me decide to stop playing GoW2 in the large underground tunnels section because I found it to be dull and boring, and the characters made me feel as though I was insulting my own intelligence by continuing.
And that was one of the last times I played a game on my XBox 360. Though I diverge, for that is another heart warming tale, which I will conserve for another post, some other time. 

"IGN, Fox and the teams of directors employed at the studio where Mass Effect and it's sequels we're born are examples of evil capitalist scum, which will kill art and video games in order to make sure that they make the fastest buck."

OK, whatever you say. Discussion isn't possible with this sort of hate in the way. Thanks for the reply! 

Just flicked through that with sound off but from your description and faith in it, I agree. Could be very cool. GFX are a bit Bioshock in graphical quality as well as style, but definitely has potential. 

I know that such strong words are a lot to handle, even for you. How a discussion can continue with all of the curse-words I keep using, god only knows.

Anyway, that's my honest opinion, I can honestly say that I honestly think that IGN are a bunch of dis-honest fuckers who are sat around with their dicks in their hands, feeling all 'important' when actually they are just slaves to a big money making system. I went through a phase of trusting IGN and was disappointed by them many times.

I read their review of the new Star Wars MMO, and in the first couple of paragraphs the reviewer explained how the training element of the game was rubbish, and that the 'battles in space' parts of the game we're also rubbish. Yet the game score was still displayed - 9.5 out of 10.

Then there was all of the hype with Far Cry 2. But that was a very boring and repetitive game to.

Eventually I start to read the website and just think - 'Yeah - you guys are either stupid, or you are taking bribes for some of these scores'.

Fox - OK, well there's a company which totally ruined the Aliens franchise. Nice work Fox, way to go - why not take all of the cool stuff out of Alien movies, and replace it with cheap from-a-can nonsense, slap a PG13 rating on it so that you get the best box-office windfall. Cause that all the fans care about, surely. 

I get it, Ricky, thanks. Like I said, there's no real discussion to be had if you've already decided that professional reviewers are evil scum bags out for the almighty dollar. I get that. And that's fine, that's your opinion - but it leaves no room for discussion so we're done with this, yes? 

And this goes without saying but your tastes are running fairly orthogonal to most other gamers I know. Even shooter fans. Mass Effect and Far Cry are well loved in every other circle I run in. So there's that... 

But yeah - ME series being good - so the official line is that "That's the word on the street". All the hip folks back home really love the ME series. Yeah. Well it's not for me. And I tried to like Far Cry 2, I really did. But it was so repetitive, and the fast travel system was still tedious. By the end I just didn't have the energy for it.

I'm just a random gamer discussing my opinions of the mainstream gaming media. And a mainstream game. And yes, I have a narrow opinion, who doesn't. I know what I like, and I like what I know.

You don't seem to be able to handle my harsh criticisms of said mainstream gaming entities, is that because you have a vested interest in them? 

Me? I don't care what you say about media outlets or whatever. Rant away. My issue was with your calling one review honest and others not, without having any knowledge of their motivations OR even having played the game yourself.

That's all. 

Dishonored looks great. Steampunk = awesome. Long as I can just shoot shit up instead of listening through keyholes to random conversations. Lots of whores in it as well, which is always a plus. I'm glad Arkane are doing it, it's about time they did something new - it's been 6 years since their last game Dark Messiah. 

are the rpg elements in ME3 further simplified from ME2? that was one of my major problems with ME2. :(