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DRM kills the game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 05, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am writting this review because I love to keep great games and play them years later. The DRM on this product prevents me from doing this. What happens when the game is no longer supported but I haven't used up my 3 activations? Since the DRM wouldn't be able to contact the "Mothership", again I am out of luck. No more strolling down memory lane. What happens if the game studio goes out of business, again, the game is no longer usable. What happens if EA goes out of business next week, everyone who is currenly playing this game would be out of luck. Isn't that a nice picture! Then what happens to the DRM still running on your computer. If you are lucky, it doesn't do anything. If you are unlucky, you will be reinstalling your OS and your games again. Oh, btw, you just used up another installation credit for any other games using DRM.
You would like to think the gaming industry would have learned something from the music industry fiasco. Treating your paying customers like crooks will only cause your sales to drop. The harder your squeeze, the more customers you will lose.

I have never stolen any games and never will, but this type of treatment won't earn the industy my hard earned money.

To all gamers out there, please take a stand and not purchase games that support this type of treatment. To those people out there who think I am just a whiner, more power to you. Eventually DRM will progress until it finally impacts your fun and then you will understand how your rights have been taken away, one step at a time.

A great game with minor flaws, but DRM overshadows everything

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Firstly, I must agree with other reviewers that the DRM scheme is a major turnoff. Neither EA nor Bioware have yet to specify anywhere just what circumstances these 3 activations are triggered. Bioware and EA should be ashamed of themselves for subscribing to a DRM scheme that only succeeds in punishing loyal customers and treating them as little more than criminals.

Now, onto the game itself. The voice acting is uniformly very good to excellent. The storyline for this game is exceptionally strong. Unfortunately it's conveyed through loads of dialogue, which can sometimes slow down the pace of the game at crucial points. Also, the Mako combat vehicle doesn't handle well over hilly ground in the side-quest maps. Also, I wish the side quests had been used to explore the different cultures of the species more, rather than being told about them via the Codex. KOTOR did this very successfully - why couldn't Mass Effect.

In fact, in almost every single area except one - storyline - KOTOR overshadows its successor. The side quests aren't as good. The main campaign is far far too short, with only four...possibly five major planets in the main campaign. And the combat interface is nowhere near as good as KOTOR's.

But it's the DRM scheme that is the killer for this game. Is there really any point in buying a game (for full price) that you can only play 3 times before it's deactivated? My advice? Pull out your old copy of KOTOR instead - if only so that you can remember a time when Bioware were a reputable development company, and not slaves to a bunch of Corporate shills.

Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: August 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the better games. Be able to make choices and explore all of the game.

The only draw back is that no matter what you decide it does not effect the final outcome (this ia a minor draw back).

New Gameplay Style Greatly Overshadows It's Faults

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: August 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I want to respond to everyone talking about the Digital Media Rights, or DMR, stuff. Face it, this game is not an MMORPG, or any sort of game like that. You won't spend hundreds of hours playing this game, so I don't see any reason to cry about three installs (including a fourth one, which if you need, means you must be rich enough to be making upgrades so often to your PC in the first place). I don't know if it's me, but these reviews are for the game itself, not some DMR stuff. If you want to play down BioWare then go somewhere else. This is about the game itself. It shouldn't be given a 1-star just because you can only install it three times.

::Brief Overview (My Experience)::

This is one of those super fun "immerse yourself for twenty-ish hours of mega fun gaming" games. It took me around 20 hours to beat the game including doing most if not all of the side quests. The game does have a decent replay value because of the "achievements" system and the ability to unlock higher levels. Ultimately, though, it doesn't really unlock any bonus content or such. For those guys who like to beat RPGs 100% this is a very challenging game to play on the "Hardcore" and "Intense" modes. These modes really force you to use the Tactics HUD.

People say the game has lag issues?
I've played this game for over thirty hours, and NOT ONCE have I lagged or my screen has been even slightly sluggish (even in the biggest combat areas). I've read about many people getting jumps, but it hasn't happened for me. I guess that does mean if you run the right settings and your computer is capable enough to handle it, then you should be fine with no lags. My specs are Dual Core 3.00 GHz Intel Processor, 3 GB of Ram, and HD Radeon 9800 XT 512 Mb. I run at maxed out settings at 1680x1050 resolution and everything is fine.

::Pros::

Well, this adds to the list of the RPS, or Role-playing shooters, that I've played, and it is just fantastic.

Graphics: The graphics are quite excellent, especially considering the fact that it is just a port from the XBox.

Music: I love the music. It gives you that outer space feeling, like you're really out there.

Learning Curve: The game mechanics are taught fairly well in the beginning.

Science: All of this "Tech" and "Biotics" might seems confusing, but they do explain a fair amount of it through the game, and eventually you'll come to understand the two new concepts. It is very fun to use the special abilities that come with these classes.

::Cons::

My character bugged a couple times during cut scenes, where the option selection for dialogue would disappear. The event occurring only the couple times out of all of my game time isn't bad though.

Repetitive Side-quests/Buildings: This is probably my biggest disappointment, and the reason I gave it a 4-star rating for overall gameplay. Aside from the main missions, there are 10+ side quests that you can do, in which you must land into a world with your vehicle (the Mako) and explore and accomplish a quest, usually saving somebody or getting ambushed. The drawback here is that it gets quite repetitive. Although the terrain is different and sometimes it might be raining or snowing, it gets quite repetitive. At the end of exploring the world, you will always enter either a warehouse, bunker, or a mine. Yes, they only included THREE different level designs for 10+ side quests. So you'll basically be exploring the same buildings each time, only with a different situation and monster each time. Basically, during mid-game, the game can get very, very repetitive if you're trying to finish all of your side quests.

::Conclusion::
Get this game. It'll be worth every penny. I even bought one of the Mass Effect books after playing this game, and now I am definitely ready for the next game in the series to come out. I can't wait!

EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: August 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

That is all that I can say about this game. EPIC!!! I have played it through twice and I am on my third time through.

Yes, it works with Vista, I am even running the 64 bit version and it works fine.

Was well worth the $50.

Read the warnings.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wouldn't have known about the trojan program attached with Mass Effect if it wasn't for all the one star reviews posted to Amazon. I was going to buy the PC version for the added content but due to DRM I absolutely won't. I encourage you to boycott DRM as so many other users have suggested.

DRM'd to death

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to love this game. I even tried to love it. But I couldn't, and here is why:

1. DRM that sucks the life out of everything good the game has to offer. We as consumers have got to stop accepting this garbage. It limits playability, prevents legitimate use of the game we purchased, and treats the consumer as "guilty until proven innocent." I really wish I had NOT bought this game for that one reason. Never again will I give my money for a product with DRM.

2. Poorly ported. As many others have noted, the camera that follows Shepherd around is frustrating, and doesn't allow for the immersive quality of a first person view.

3. Control of the rover vehicle thing is clumsy and frustrating. The physics on planet surfaces is so poor that I didn't want to do many of the side quests. You can drive up nearly vertical surfaces, bounce hundreds of feet down the sides of mountains without suffering any damage, all using slippy controls that don't feel right for a bad-*** personnel carrier.

4. Many sound bugs. The processing of sound in this game is horrible. The sound fades out during many of the movie sequences. The only option is to turn on subtitles, which hurts immersion into the game. At other points in game sound glitches cause ambient noise to disappear while shooting a weapon, or the opposite, so that you only hear ambient sound, and muffled or nonexistent weapons fire. I have a extremly high quality sound card, the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude so this is NOT due to my system. Even the recently released patch does not solve this issue.

5. Inconsequential rewards for accomplishing side objectives. There are two levels to this. The first is that if you take the time to find all the rare earths, gases, metals, etc., you are rewarded with nothing more than cash. That would be fine if there was anything worth buying with it. However, once you're level 25+ all of the weapons you can buy are either the same, or inferior to what you already have. The mission based side quests provide little reward also. There are very few bosses, and they never drop weapons or equipment that is specialized or unique. I was hoping that side quests would allow access to weapons and armor that were otherwise unavailable. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Other than being a completenic, there is no reason to pursue side quests at all.

6. Short main campaign. The main campaign can be completed in 20 hours or less. That would be fine if side quests were more rewarding, but they're not (see #5). I liked the main campaign quite a bit, and thought the story was fairly interesting, but it would have been nice if the story took less of a linear path. What I mean by that (given that you can choose to go to the planets in any order) is it would have been interesting if the game required you to return to planets you had previously visited (other than the Gate) for additional objectives/story arcs. For example, a mission that required you to travel to several different planets. The main campaign would not have been disappointing in the slightest if they had made it less linear.

So all that said, why 3 stars and not 1? Because the game is not a total failure. The storyline is much better than average, the voice acting and writing is of a very high quality, and the combat is pretty fun. This game is not a failure, it is just not that great. It doesn't deserve 1 star anymore than it deserves 5.

Again, the principle reason NOT to buy this game is the awful DRM that infests it. We as gamers and consumers need to show that we will NOT accept crippled games that we are essentially leasing. We need to put our money where our mouths are and avoid these games until their makers start to pay attention. If enough of us refuse to buy games with DRM, eventually they will get rid of it.

The principle reason to buy the game are quality writing and acting, a good storyline, and entertaining combat sequences.

***Whenever I write a review that mentions DRM, I like to give a plug for Amazon. They have DRM free music downloads. If you're going to buy digital music, buy them from Amazon.***

one of the worst games I've ever played

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: August 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Games I liked for reference: the Total War series, KOTOR series, Fallout 1, Jagged Alliance, Sins of Solar Empire to name a few.

However, this POS is horrible. BORING. Spent way to much time just running around. The inventory management system is annoying. They make it difficult to give the best weapons to the best people. You have to click around every time. Also, you have no idea if a person is really effective with a given weapon. KOTOR had the great idea of allowing you to see the combat log(D&D style).
In everyway this game falls short of a real PC game. I'll be much more careful of buying anything from BioWare in the future.

A great experience and a lot of fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A lot of people have complained of bugs and other issues, and I am sure they are telling the truth. I was one of the lucky ones and had literally zero issues or bugs and I replayed this game four times. Although it gives off a sandbox feel at first, it is deceptive as you will quickly discover there are just minor variations to a rather linear plot. You have to accomplish the same objectives on various planets, for example, but you can do them out of order.

Still, the game is of cinematic quality and has great production values. The PC version , if it works ok for you, is astonishing. I really enjoyed it and those I recommended it to also purchased it and had no issues. They also enjoyed it a lot. Great game, a definite A.

Big Success

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First, I need to say that this game is lovely. Lighting is dynamic and the feel of the game is almost surreal. I pre-Ordered this game and had no problems out of the box. I play this cutting edge title on a computer that is almost 4 years old, but it was configured as a gaming machine (XPS gen4). The video card's chip is a an nVidea 7950 w/ 512MB, CPU is 3.25GHz(single core), 3GB RAM, Win XP. I suspect that most folks that are having issues with the game are playing with underpowered machines or vista or both.

Like some reviewers i found the targeting and movement ports from XBox360 a little annoying because it did not fully utilize the mouse. But I quickly adapted to it and it became less irksome as I played.

What makes this game great is the story. It is like a good scifi book--or maybe a movie. The characters are generally likable--or at least engaging. Just like a really good book, I reached the pinnacle of the story late at night, and had to play it through to the end... I love stories that compel you to finish them. When I was done, I eagerly started a new character, with different skills to replay the game making different choices. Replay should be further enhanced by an upcoming expansion for the game (not yet available).

Combat is definitely a large part of the game, but there are many FPS games that send you to the lab to clean up the results of bio-tech experiments gone awry. The thing that makes this game unique is the story, composition, and character development. Your decisions are important and affect future game play and other characters.

Voice acting is great. Although *Chuck Norris* is not listed as a voice actor, the actor providing the voice for the male protagonist sounds just like him. I swear, he must have used a pseudonym. Marina Sirtis (Star Trek TNG; Deanna Troy) does a NPC voice as well. All in all the voice acting is superb!

I think anyone who enjoys sci fi--especially readers--will enjoy this game. I say this because the story line, not because there is lots of reading involved. If you are running a cheaper system, you may want to play close attention to the negative feedback by people that have had problems to determine if you can run the game on your machine. Enjoy!

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