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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $29.99
Buy New: $26.48
You Save: $3.51 (12%)
New (27) Used (4) from $24.99
Rating:  192 reviews
Sales Rank: 956
Format: Dvd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Genre: shooter_action_games
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows 2000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 19081
Model: 19081
UPC: 014633190816
EAN: 0014633190816
ASIN: B00140P9BA
Release Date: May 27, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 disappointment abounds... June 4, 2008
38 out of 54 found this review helpful
I was planning to buy Mass Effect, having enjoyed Baldur's Gate from Bioware. After reading about the DRM copy protection, forget it.
EA will only listen if few people buy their DRM games. I still haven not forgiven EA for destroying Origin (the Ultima games), and they seem to be on their way to destroying Bioware. There are no good game studios left...
 Mixed feelings June 4, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I'm torn. On one hand we have this incredible game. On the other hand we have a publisher who seems determined to do everything they can to bring down the experience with their heavy handed DRM techniques. I'd say the DRM thing has been beaten to death, so I won't focus on that. I can deal with the SecuRom, and I can deal with the game phoning home once to validate my copy. What I can't really deal with is the possibility that I might have to call to get more activations at some point in the future because I can certainly see myself wanting to play this game again.
The game itself has a few bugs. Every once in a while during conversation the main character option seems to flake out and "skip." Fortunately I don't seem to miss anything important in the process as it's always in the form of a statement or question that can be derived from the option you selected and the answer you receive.
The game also seems to be slightly unstable. Initially it would crash so frequently on my machine that I did some memory and CPU stress testing to ensure that the problem didn't lie with the hardware I was running it on. In the end I disabled V-Sync and am running the texture setting on `High' instead of `Ultra High.' My guess is that this game requires the hardware to maintain a certain minimum level of performance. If it dips below this, most games simply "chunk" and run at a much lower frame rate. It seems that this game would rather crash completely than be forced to run below its minimum performance threshold. I suppose this odd behavior is due to it being a console port. Now the game is 99% stable on my computer.
Aside from these issues, the game is mostly flawless aside from the one graphical glitch that seems to pop up every now and then. It's only a minor annoyance, but occasionally the shading is a little off. I updated my graphics card drivers, so that's not the problem.
All that said, this game is incredible; it's definitely worth playing. Whether or not it's worth purchasing is up to you. I'm enjoying the third person semi-RPG style game play, and the storyline is quite good so far. The game also addresses my major complaint with many modern games in that they're mostly too short. This game is certainly not short.
If this game lacked the DRM garbage, I could forgive the software glitches and give this game a 5/5. ...or, if this game lacked the software glitches, I could forgive the DRM garbage and give it a 5/5. Unfortunately, the combination of both makes my review a 3/5.
Deciding to Pass on an Old Evil June 4, 2008
30 out of 37 found this review helpful
In all fairness I decided to read through 5 pages of these reviews to see if I wanted to try this game. The reason for this is something that EA did long ago that left a bad taste in the mouths of THOUSANDS of gamers. EARTH AND BEYOND (Remember that EA?) was a game very similar in so much as it was space, multiplayer, etc. What EA did here was simply sell out the gaming engine to a larger company and WHAM they shut down the servers. After charging $60 a copy for this game, they ran it 2 years or so and destroyed EVERYONE'S access. I do not trust Electronic Arts but because this was a Space genre and I love them, I decided to just peek and see if things had changed. Apparently things HAVE changed, for the worse. NO, I will not install your "security" software that is being forcefed by your game. If you can't control access with game codes like 2/3 of the other gaming community companies, tough. This is another attempt by Microsoft to herd millions of gamers to console by selling a crap PC plat and then cashing in on a Xbox sale. NOT going to happen. And I stand by my original stance, I will never own another EA title... And btw, after so many pages of bad reviews, you see the 5-stars so many in succession, I would bet that EA has their PR department overloaded writing their own rebuttal reviews. Do yourself a favor, avoid EA, they deserve it.
 Fantastic Mass Effect June 4, 2008
2 out of 17 found this review helpful
yea! you can command your own starship through the galaxy - as any gender. finally, an RPG that offers a strong female protagonist player character selection. thanks BioWare!!!
DRM June 4, 2008
44 out of 57 found this review helpful
I've been playing computer games since before Zork on the Apple 2E. I've played all of the great games including System Shock 2, Planescape Torment and Arx Fatalis. I love playing a well made game but I have to say I will not play any game that requires an activation on line and a rootkit in my computer. When Half Life came out with Steam I wrote them a nasty letter saying that I would never play another Steam game, and I haven't. I also refused to buy Bioshock for the same reason. I always purchased my games and never pirated any but I refuse to go along with this DRM nonsense. A good game can stand on it's own merits and people will continue to buy from the same company. I loved Far Cry and I loved the Witcher. If the Witcher sold over 500,000 copies without DRM then they must be doing something right. Maybe if the customers hurt these companies in the pocketbook by not buying their products they will get the message.
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