ZZZzzzzz... huh?

There hasn't been a lot going on lately with the Xbox. I have sent back Mass Effect (sorry, I didn't get far enough to warrant another review). I have Call of Duty 4 on it's way, as well as LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga sitting next to the 360 now.

I haven't played Star Wars yet, but I may get around to it this week. Otherwise, it'll be a toss up between Undertow, which is a free download for the rest of the week, or Call of Duty 4 (provided it arrives).

Once I sit down in front of the Xbox again, I'll be back with more reviews.

Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: 11/20/2007
Genre: RPG
Number of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: Mature


Since I have not completed this game, I don't feel that it's fair to do a full review. Therefore, I will start what will be the first of many serial reviews. This week I will review the character creation, and my first experiences with the game.

When I first heard that BioWare was doing a Sci-Fi RPG game for the Xbox 360, I was pretty excited. I really enjoyed both of the KOTOR games, and hoped that this game would be up to those standards. I must say, so far, I am not disappointed.

The game starts you off by having you "sign in" to a faux mainframe. Naturally, the mainframe has forgotten all the information about you, and it is up to you to update the records... enter the character creation mode. I thought this was a nice step, and in a way makes the character creation part of the game, rather than part of the set up for the game. Of course, after I decided to restart three times, because I did not care of the look of my character, I found this to be a little annoying, as there is no way to quickly skip this step. I applaud the innovation, I only wish there was a way to skip it after you've already been through it once.

The character creation mode itself is pretty solid. There are a lot of options, such as hairstyles, eye color, skin color, male or female, and other visual options. They also ask you other questions, regarding your character's background. While I feel this really helps throw you into character, I have a feeling that this will also play into the story in some way. There are three different character classes, basically it lets you choose whether you want to focus on more mental powers, physical powers, or if you want an even blend. Pretty routine, and since this was my first run through of this game, I picked the balanced character.

Once your character is created, you enter the game. It's mostly cut scenes for the first 10 minutes or so, but when you are finally turned loose, be sure you take some time to learn the controls. I spent a good hour or so dying before taking the time to learn how to use my abilities, and figuring out which weapon to use, etc. Once I had the controls figured out, I was able to play for the next couple hours without dying.

The fact that the fighting appears to be handled more like a first person shooter, and less like the roll of a die, this makes a good gateway RPG for people who are used to games like Halo or Call of Duty. That is not to say that this won't appeal to the die hard RPG players, but it may be a little something different than what they're used to.

All in all it's been fun. I have only been to one large city so far, but thankfully there is a system in place that allows you to jump from location to location without all the walking. I am hoping that this is available in all cities that you visit, because as mentioned in other reviews, the elevators all travel extremely slow. So with these jump points, you're able to skip some of the elevators, and therefore keep some of your sanity.

The story seems pretty basic so far, your typical good guy vs. bad guy... however I'm sure it will become more complex by the time the game is over. Please check in with me again in a week, when I come at you with part two of my review.