User Reviews (21 - 31 of 141)

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No Amount of Buffing Can Change a Pigs Ear

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 33 / 46
Date: June 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I think some are rating it 5 stars solely to try to offset the many that find the DRM oppressive.

Nothing can make a game good; story, graphics, effects, etc., when you will not be able to play the game in the future due to the limitation of 3 installs and the history of EA to pull the plug on many of their games and stop supporting them.

It is true, you can not make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Mass Effect DRM / SecuROM punishes consumers

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 66 / 114
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

SecuROM makes a comeback in Mass Effect requiring users effectively install rootkits on their PCs to ensure they are not pirating software. I can understand wanting to protect your product from being pirated, but the only thing this does is punish the end consumer actually paying for your product.

If you want to educate yourself as to what you will be putting on your machine when you install this game I advocate you read the wikipedia page on SecuROM, a technology developed by Sony who had no problems in the past putting a rootkit on your machine without your knowledge or consent (see Sony BMG CD copy prevention scandal).

I found the xbox 360 version of this game to be quite fun, but I can't give it more than one star for the PC due to their copyright protection scheme. It punishes legitimate consumers who purchased the product, especially if multiple activations are required due to the purchase of new computers or OS reloads.

DO NOT BUY THIS ORWELLIAN TROJAN HORSE

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 53 / 87
Date: May 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Everything has already been said by the other reviewers related to the secuROM trojan horse, rootkit, DRM madness that has deluded EA and the Mass Effect product marketing team.

DO NOT BUY THIS VERSION and send a message back to the EA myopists!

Avoid DRM

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 33 / 47
Date: June 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Don't buy anything with DRM. It's the company's way of tricking you into buying something with a very short shelf life, not to mention how it effects your rights as the owner. I still play games that are over 10 years old. You will not be able to play this game in ten years time, because the company may no longer exist and not have a support function that can issue you with a new license. This is a very sickening display of corporate greed and it is destroying the spirit of PC gaming. It has NOTHING at all to do with Piracy.

Securom can ruin a great game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 52 / 86
Date: May 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

They need to eliminate the Securom. I purchased Mass Effect as a digital download hoping that the faulty disc protection software would not be on that version, however it seems the Securom is on all versions. Now every time I log on to play, it's hit or miss- sometimes an error pops up stating "a required security module could not be activated", and sometimes it works. It's like pulling a handle on a slot machine to see if Securom will allow you play or not. Ridiculous for a game I spent $50 on. There's a whole thread about this issue on the official forums. Don't have this issue with other games that use less intrusive copy protection methods.

Fiasco...on a massive scale

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 23 / 29
Date: June 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This will be my first critical review of a certain company and their ways of distributing. After much anticipation for a game like this, I was eager to ease in on any info that could enlighten me abit. Now that I've brought it from a retail store (can't send it back to Amazon) I can think of only one word out of all this: ugh!

For one thing mass effect, despite its in-depht characters, the rich descriptions placed into this massive universe (which have been credited on the X360), and the amount of expectations from alot of PC Gamers, has fallen flat on its massive butt as being the buggiest game released to this date! We're given a flea infested port made in part by BIOWARE, the company that sold itself out to EA GAMES (whome we know all too well on how they do business). If your one of the few that can run this game beyond 3-4 hours, good for you(grunt)! For those that run in that range or below, you have my condulances. Never have Ive seen something like this before, nor having to deal with it on a regular basis! I have experienced, in short order, the following bugs.

#1. the 'black screen of death' bug which is constant.
#2. the lock-ups and crashes on a random scale.
#3. The all-to familiar text and dynamic shadow layout bugs (poor Garrus).

Lets not forget the massive amount of negitive reviews here, proclaiming to have a wide varity of DRM devices installed on your machine, WITHOUT ANY NOTICE ON THE COVER! I tell ya its sad that people on the top look down on us all and regards us as mere peasents with wallets sticking out of our pockets. Its even sadder when this game WOULD of had a better review (from me) if these issues were polished right before it was considered 'good enough'!

I hope some of you keep on protesting on this and much more. As you can see, EA GAMES keeps pushing out of the door lousy product that are glitchy, unplayable, and just another way to swipe the common folk of their green from corporate monoliths. So far your protests are having a mass effect! But if these bugs show up on Spore (a game that I have waited for FAR too long to see it get squished by bad reviews and bad glitches) then may EA's fall come sooner than later! Save yourselves the troble Bioware/Maxis and break away while you can! To see all of your work and devoted fans disappear within days, especially when creating something as good as this after all these years, to die is truly a heartbreaking moment. Also I will file a report on EA GAMES to give them a good run from the feds.

In Conclusion, if you want to buy this game, consider the list of bugs Ive just written and the amount of bad press MASS EFFECT is getting. Until Bioware fixes these and remove the DRM Installation for good, avoid this game if possible. Borrow it or play it on someone else's PC or X360 if you can. $60.00 is hardly worth a bug-infestation like this one.

Mass Effect Massively Disappoints :(

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 52 / 88
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'll be honest and say that I have not played this game. However, the point is moot, because no matter how fantastic this game is--it could be 10x better than COD4--I will not exchange my hard earned money for an untenable and abusive DRM scheme.
While it is true that EA has removed the dial-in portion--except to download content--they still only allow you to install 3x max, and it still installs the $$ecurom rootkit. I, for one, have reason to format my HD more than that over the course of the year, whether because of malfunctioning drivers, Trojans or whatnot, so am I supposed to purchase the game again--they'd like that wouldn't they.
Look at it this way, imagine if after you bought a car Honda sent someone to your house to install a machine in your car to scan your license to check that it wasn't revoked, and that you're current with your insurance, and that you don't drive past the speed limit, and if you do they take your keys away. And if you modify the car you have to pay them a fee and if you don't they'll sue you. This is in effect what EA has been doing with $$ecurom in their games.
Only in the software industry is it acceptable for the manufacturer of a product to want control over its use after the customer gives them the money. Imagine if the same logic applied to buying a newspaper. It would come under lock and key, they'd have to mail you the key to open it, and you'll have to pay extra for the metro section--50 cent extra fo style section.

-NO TO DRM TYRANNY!!!

Contempt For the Customer

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 53 / 91
Date: May 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The mandatory internet connection, and the limited installs are deal killers for potential buyers like me. If the usage restrictions are removed in the future I may reconsider a purchase, but for now I decided to cancel my preorder and select another sci-fi game in its place (i.e. Sins of a Solar Empire). Sins of a Solar Empire From a more customer-friendly company.

What a disappointment. Could have been brilliant, painful to play, agonizingly slow

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 46 / 78
Date: May 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I pre ordered like everyone else. Got the game, and its buggy from the install. Takes half a day to just get it to run (you have to launch it from the binaries folder, not the config screen, which crashes 100% of the time)

Once you get it to run, well, its another skanky console port. I can live with the 3rd person view, thats not too bad. But the controls are so clunky, you simply cannot get anywhere. Also, there is a quick save that does NOT work (it says, "quick save failed" 90% of the time). Turns out, you CANNOT save during a firefight, which is the only time most people WANT to save. Dumb, just dumb.

As far as game play, its a mixed bag. The story line is so so, seems like a mishmash of Doom3/Halo2/Advent Rising/et al rehashed at some level, but its decent. Voice acting is above par as well. However, the weapons simply suck, as they take 30 seconds to recharge (while you get killed), and the whole "level up" thing makes no sense so you can't seem to get anywhere. Also, in the grand tradition of console games, the action does things for you, like take cover, or make dumb decisions for you about where you stand (and get stuck). Its that thing that made Gears of War frustrating on the PC, and its here yet again. I find myself mashed against a wall, when I didn't want to be there. Aiming is also assisted, and it makes absolutely ZERO sense most of the time, especially because you cannot hit anything anyway

Also, using the scope on the assault rifle shakes so much, you cannot hit a thing. In many games, there is a breath/calm/stabilize function for scope use, or you can crouch to steady the scope, but not here. Totally useless 80% of the time. What were they thinking

It has an inventory system, that basically makes no sense, and the pamphlet that comes with it seems to be an even dumber downed version of the console version, with less information.

Some folks are talking about the grainy look to it, but that can be switched off in the options menu by de-selecting the "film grain" look button (why any game developer would waste their time with this whole thing is beyond me)

All in all, its another half baked console port. We are all tiring of them to be honest, as one can tell by the zillions of harsh and painful reviews for console ports. The developers just drop the ball nearly 100% of the time for whatever reason.

I don't mind many of the console action cues, or some of the basic control crossovers, but when there is ZERO effort put into making the PC versions work like a PC version can, its a huge letdown (just see the bloody aweful Lost Planet for the PC, nearly unplayable) Mass Effect is not a total dud port, but what was delivered to us is a major letdown, as the developer touted how much PC focus was going to go into the game. Oh well, another $50 down the drain

ADDED MORE 6/6/2008

I have tried to like this game. But alas, it was not meant to be. The designers simply were not thinking. Each firefight is painfully slow and repetitive. You cannot hit a thing, the weapons do not work, you cannot really hide, jump, or any evasive maneuvers. The story is very VERY verbose, which is ok I guess, but you have to hear it over and over and over again because it always comes before a firefight, and you cannot save during the talking or shooting, so you have to listen over and over and over. Simply atrocious.

Bioware knows they have an issue here, and they are deleting posts from their forums where people complain, and basically pretending nothing is wrong, which makes matters worse.

I tried, but failed to let this game grow on me. It is another example of the "professional reviewers" giving high scores to games of advertisers, where the game does not even come close. Crysis was another trainwreck like this, where players hated it, and reviewers said it was the next coming of the messiah. Uhuh

Crippling DRM

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 22
Date: June 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The PC version of this game contains DRM that will only let you "install" it a grand total of 3 times. This means if you install Mass Effect & have to format your PC more than once, then you'll have to *buy* Mass Effect again to be able to play it. Stay away from crippled PC games. If you absolutley must play Mass Effect, save yourself some trouble & buy the console version.

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