Mass Effect (PS3)
Until recently I thought I'd never play ME. The PC version is out of question because of DRM, I don't have an Xbox 360, and on PS3 the first game of the series is only available in the Trilogy Edition, which is kind of rare and expensive. Then a few weeks ago I got lucky and found a used copy of the Trilogy in excellent condition and for a fair price. Picked it up in an instant, and here I am, having completed the first game.
ME already received enough praise throughout media and community, so let's focus on its flaws for a change, shall we?
First there is something I did not expect at all: Bugs. And I'm not talking about flickering textures or wall clippings. I'm talking about game breakers and crashes. Three times I had to restart the console and lost my progress, all in all about two hours. Is this only an issue with the PS3 port?
Next there's the loading times. They're ridiculous. Even the "Press Start" screen after launching the game takes about ten seconds to load up completely. Hell, even saving freezes the game for multiple seconds! Again, is this due to a bad PS3 port?
Last but not least my biggest complaint: The menus are horribly dysfunctional. For an RPG, where you spend a lot of time navigating through menus, that's quite a big issue. For instance, when you're at the weapon mod selection screen there's no Back button. You are forced to select and confirm one of the items in order to leave this screen. And it took me a while to figure out that the currently equipped item is always the one on top. Why couldn't there be a clearly highlighted slot for that? And why couldn't there be a fucking Back button anyway? Every other screen has it, except for this particular one where the button is greyed out. Oh, and the menus at the merchants are a total mess with no sort options whatsoever. When your inventory is full you have to browse through 150 randomly sorted slots. And guess what: You can't scroll by holding down the button. No sir. You have to tap it for every single step...
So, how did I like the game overall? Well, I generally dislike space/Sci Fi settings, and RPG isn't my no. 1 genre either, thus my expectations weren't too big. And as expected, it didn't impress me that much. But I can see why so many people love it. It's ambitious, addictive, well made (except for the flaws mentioned above), and offers a decent amount of content. Took me 40 hours to finish it. In a few months I'll get back to part 2.
-my 2016 list-