37 hours and 54 minutes since the opening credits and 27 levels of experience later the final credits of Mass Effect 2 have played out. All that can be said about Mass Effect 2 is that it isn't just a game, it's an experience. It represents the best merger of narrative and game available today, beating the standard set by the original Mass Effect. It weaves the two together effortlessly and creates a story woven with conflict that you always feel the centre of, a major Grade A protagonist whose very choices are what the game is about. It's about fateful choices, all delivered in a package that weaves together film-like scenes while not forgetting it's a game. It truly is brilliant. If it doesn't get game of the year, despite being released so early, something pretty damned amazing will have had to have come along.

I now realise why you seem to exit the first disc very quickly in the play experience. When it happened, I worried the game was going to be very short, but after playing it all the way through you learn you go to the second disc because the first disc is full of the astounding final sequence. The epic assault of the massive enemy base by the heroic, space opera 'Magnificent Seven'. It is an exciting sequence, and a visual treat, while layering it with significant choices, excellent scenes in which you direct the 'script' and still, you guessed it, remaining a game. You take risks, people can die, including yourself, and I know I was excited about how it might play out. I know my heart was in my mouth when Shephard went diving across the collapsing platform to grab Miranda at the last minute, I really thought she was going to die. That would have been unfortunate, after our romantic encounter just before heading off on the suicide mission.

In short, they all survived but for one: Tali.

I have to say, the death of Tali was quite sad. It had an emotional impact. I feel I let Tali down, twice. She was one of the cast of the original Mass Effect and was consistently on my team as Tali and Liara added tech and biotics to my soldier skills. The trouble was, I just never got my Paragon or Renegade level to a high enough level to do right by her. I couldn't avoid a painful choice during her trial and neither could I keep both her and Legion's loyalty when they fell into conflict. As a result, she was exiled from her people and then I chose Legion over her meaning I lost her loyalty. Then she died in the final battle holding the line. There should have been another way. In another game, by another player, there probably was.

Despite not having the loyalty of Tali, Zaeed and Thane, only Tali died.

Is there any negatives to Mass Effect 2? Only two, and they are very minor. The process of scanning planets for minerals is a bit laborious, but you don't have to scan a lot of them to be able to upgrade the Normandy for the final battle and get a good core of upgrades. I think I spent less than 10% of my time actually scanning for minerals. Note this doesn't include zapping around the galaxy and orbiting planets to see if they have anomalies (missions), as this is much quicker and fun. The scanning for minerals is only an irritation in so much as the rest of the game is so fluid, and stripped of traditional RPG baggage, it is odd that they went with something like the mineral scanning. It's not that bad, as these elements go, it was a good way to do it, but it just feels bad next to the rest of the experience. In truth, there is an argument to say Mass Effect 3 need not included any RPG levelling or resource gathering activities and should focus on the action and story elements completely.

It could also be said that the story is better in the original Mass Effect. It has an epic story, which just has a bigger scale. This isn't to say the Mass Effect 2 story is bad, it isn't, but it's less epic, while still being big, and has a different focus. Mass Effect 2 is more like a mosaic of character studies explored through the personal missions and as you recruit your 'Magnificent Seven'. These individual pieces are good. It's also good how the conflicts are woven together and how this relates to your hero and the loyalty of others. It's also good how your choices in the original Mass Effect are woven in. It's just the combination of both the games makes you want the scale of the story in the original Mass Effect combined with the streamlined RPG aesthetic of Mass Effect 2. No doubt we'll get this in Mass Effect 3.

In the meantime, all I can do is hope they release some solid and sizeable downloadable content between now and whenever Mass Effect 3 comes out. Unless Bioware do something incredibly stupid, this trilogy of games is going to go down in gaming history.

I've played Mass Effect 2 for over 30 hours now. Even if you knock off three hours for scanning planets for resources, and that's an over estimate, that's a lot of content. Not only that, it's pure content, as virtually zero time is spent faffing with inventory or making complicated, agonising levelling choices. In fact, I auto-level. The dropping of the RPG baggage only leaves room for the awesome for the most part.

A part of the game that is hidden unless you look for it is a host of mini-missions, some of them linked together in a chain. This is because they don't come to you via the various characters in the game, such as the personal quests and the main story, instead they come via scanning planets. Any time you enter orbit of a planet the Normandy does a scan and informs you if an anomaly is present. An anomaly is effectively a mission. They're not as long as the personal or main story, but they are engaging and take place in different environments against different enemies.

I've spent some time gallivanting around the Milky Way making sure at least every planet has been pre-scanned. This is easy to do as the galaxy map tells you what percentage of planets have been pre-scanned. This means zapping to an areas, sector, nebula or whatever via a Mass Relay and then using FTL to go to every system in that sector and scan it. The location of anomalies tends to expand the planets and sectors available on the galaxy map in order to complete the multi-part missions which in turn give you more planets to scan.

I've been investigating space stations taken over by rogue virtual intelligences, searching the wreck of a spacecraft collapsing around me on the edge of a cliff, re-instigating the shield that protected a colony from its sun, rescued a large vessel falling into the atmosphere on a timed deadline and innumerable planetary missions involving archaeological digs, mining and nefarious plots of the Geth, pirates and mercenary outfits. It's been great. Even better, in true Mass Effect 2 style you experience no pork, you find the anomaly and are delivered straight to the point of the action and conflict via a glorious scene involving your shuttle landing at the actions doorstep. Yes, it's a different scene each time, not just a generic rendering.

In short, this process reveals a whole lot of content which is worth playing. It's hard to say how much but it's quite a bit. I think I'm near the end of it, but then I thought I was a few hours ago only to realise I'd been that busy travelling to sectors with exploration to be done I'd not noticed the 'chain effect' and a whole host of new mini-missions having been triggered. It's a busy life going around poking your nose into everyone's business.

While I'm doing this the next main story plot sits on my to do list. I suspect once I do it I'll be taken head long into the final play so I'm making sure I've scoured the game for content. I've also done all the loyalty missions, which I'll no doubt talk about at some point in the future. I'm also sure Miranda wants to jump me, she's just waiting for the most dramatically appropriate moment, no doubt when we are both looking death straight in the eye. In a game so full of full on awesome as Mass Effect 2, that's the only time it's worth propositioning a potential partner.

This is spoiler free. I'm going to try and take a different approach to the one I took when I played the original Mass Effect and try and include less of the actual story. We'll see if it works out. So, after about nine or so hours of play what's great about it? What's great about it is many people are questioning whether it's a role-playing game at all, mostly because of it kicking out the RPG baggage, and this is officially a good thing.

It kicks out the RPG baggage. I've discussed this before so I'll keep it brief, but Mass Effect 2 throws out a lot of the baggage that traditional role-playing games began to ditch in the eighties, though computer role-playing games kept a lot of the baggage for much longer. Mass Efffect 2 is all about getting to the awesome, whether it be playing out an action scene or one of dramatic worth. It's not about managing inventory, levelling up characters, having random encounters while walking from City A to City B and whatever other old rubbish. In a way, it's the CRPG to come closest to a very scene-focused storytelling game focused on conflict and choices. Hell, it even maintains the results of those scenes not just in the game but to the next two.

It focuses on player skill and not character skill. Okay, I've discussed this before and back then I was still focused on role-playing games being based on characters skill. That's the point right? You're playing a character and just like in a traditional games I might be crap at shooting but my character may be great. I was wrong. I wasn't thinking it through. Mass Effect 2 changes things, it makes you realise it's all about player skill because the elements combine to create something unique. Once a CRPG has dropped all the RPG baggage then it's all too easy to see character skill as just another facet of that baggage. A CRPG is different to a traditional RPG and as such character skill is less important, because player skill in terms of interfacing with the game is a totally different dynamic. I can't use my skill at shooting in a traditional RPG but I can use my skill at 'shooting' in a CRPG. This makes it more visceral and more immediate, which works well with a fluid, scene-based game blending game and interactive narrative almost perfectly. The narrative, the scenes, the action and the choices sort of blend into a continuum of awesome.

It kicks simulative play in the bollocks. Mass Effect 2 is following a trend in the traditional RPG market of giving simulative play of a setting a kick in the bollocks. There is very little myth of reality. There is no need to create stuff and have things happen, just to maintain the illusion of being in a real world. It's not about engendering verisimilitude for the sake of it. It's about telling the story, as it pertains to the protagonist, with colour to provide a contextual awesome, and choices to be made. This is why the game is constructed to cut to the point of action or narrative, it doesn't feel the need to present the setting to you as having value in itself. Don't get me wrong, the setting is there, but it's not valuable in and off itself, it's valuable in terms of the fabric of colour.

The setting is awesome. The setting of Mass Effect 2 (and the original) is pretty, damned fine. They've managed to do something with a computer game that is rarely witnessed: provide a setting that is just brilliant. It doesn't feel like a CRPG setting, it feels real, it has weight. It sounds real. It looks real. The concerns of the people and species within it all feel incredibly important. It does this without labouring you with world building, as the setting comes through via the brilliant visuals, the excellent acting of the cast and the dramatic choices you make. This is how setting should be revealed.

The soundtrack is great. I rarely notice the soundtracks to games, but I notice the one is Mass Effect 2 just like I do a great film soundtrack. It's not just the bombastic moments, it's the relatively subtle music when speaking The Illusive Man, or the music in the club on Omega. It's very good stuff, and I'm listening to it on a very basic sound system, I can't even begin to contemplate the aural part of the game if I had something good blaring it out across the room.

The characters are exciting.Last, but by no means least, the characters really draw you in. Basically, it's the science fiction magnificent seven (well, more than seven I think) setting off on the ultimate 'suicide mission' to save the galaxy. The characters are visually exciting and excellently drawn in that grand, soap opera manner of melodramatic awesome. They are a varied and unique bunch. Not only that, they are each backed up with an individual quest that focuses on their back story. I've only done Miranda's, but it was very good. It was exciting. It was sad. I'd even say those computer characters go a long way to actually acting. If each of the personal quests is as good as Miranda's that's some awesome sauce right there.

The irony of all this is Bioware has released two games, in almost as many months, that define two radically different CRPG approaches. Dragon Age: Origins harks back to how such games used to be done. It's about the party. It's about tactics. It's about character over player skill in terms of ability (the player skill comes in choosing what character us used where and does what). It's about a lot of the old baggage updated only slightly. It has a setting that feels more like you're 'walking around living in it' rather than just being part of a narrative within it. It's the traditional RPG. Mass Effect 2 is much closer to the story game approach. It drops all the old baggage. It doesn't have character skill, it's all player skill. It's about aggressive scene framing whether it be an action or dramatic scene. It's about setting coming through action and colour rather.

As one can expect, the two approaches are divisive. Only about 40-minutes ago I read an article on how Mass Effect 2 is no longer an RPG for the very reasons it cuts out all the things that Dragon Age: Origins keeps. The argument wasn't that dissimilar to why some story games aren't role-playing games because they cut out simulative goals of setting verisimilitude and various elements of RPG baggage.

Today I spent eight hours playing Mass Effect 2. The game can be summed up in one word: awesome. I'm sure I'll wax lyrical about it a lot over the coming weeks, but for the moment I'm interested in one set of choices the game design encompasses. Computer role-playing games and traditional role-playing games face many of the same issues, just in different ways. A traditional role-playing games faces them in terms of game design and decisions at the table, while the computer role-playing game faces them largely in game design as that also covers the play experience. In the past, I've discussed conflicting issues over player versus character skill, the handling of character death and whether opponents should scale. Now Mass Effect 2 brings up some interesting issues regarding the tossing aside of traditional RPG baggage.

Historically, traditional role-playing games came with a host of sacred cows and baggage. It's hard to list them all, but a selection of them would be: character build science, encumbrance, random encounters, gear, the importance travelling to places and no doubt other things I can't remember at this stage. In terms of traditional role-playing games, key products arose that challenged the concepts upon which role-playing games were based: Ghostbusters (1986), WEG Star Wars (1987), Prince Valiant (1989), (Over the Edge (1992), Fengshui (1996) and no doubt others I'm missing. They shifted what was important in a game away from the aforementioned elements to storytelling and supporting genre conventions.

Computer role-playing games have kept the traditional RPG baggage for longer. In fact, the biggest games in the genre have had a focus on the baggage. Virtually all of them have a strong element of character building as an important part of the game in order to be more effective. They've also involved inventory management and collecting gear, often plugging into the character building. A number of them even have travel and random encounters. This has been true for a very long time, though Fable ditched a lot of the elements. The big Bioware games like Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate II, Neverwinter Nights and even the Knights of the Old Republic held onto the baggage, and Dragon Age: Origins is a nostalgic throwback to such games (not a bad thing). The Final Fantasy games are all about the baggage, right down to grinding experience to confront non-scaled enemies.

What makes Mass Effect 2 different, is not only does it represent an even more perfect merger of game and interactive narrative, in that they are one and the same, it also strips down the baggage.

The levelling and build science of the original Mass Effect is stripped back to a lean set-up that seems to be so lean the game is almost experimenting with advancement not being important. The choice of skills for each character is that limited the efficiency gains for playing the build game is probably very small, if not non-existent. They have set abilities rather than a palette of many choices which can result in highly varied ranges of character power. This has two advantages for me. First, I don't care about character power advancement. Second, it means the game can be more effectively balanced as the variance will be smaller (or the chance of a particular build rendering the challenge irrelevant will be smaller).

The need to manage inventory and gear and even fancy ammo types has been almost completely removed from the game. It's just a non-issue and what is there pretty much happens automatically. Yes, you will see yourself having one pistol and at some point using another, but this seems to happen without major decisions needing to be made. Not only that, once you have that pistol everyone in the team seems to be able to use. It's like you gain the right to use the equipment rather than finding a single pistol which then has to be micromanaged across your team. Simple and efficient, a simulation of reality be damned. It's the same with gear upgrades, as it's done by research. You just seem to pick up ideas for upgrades and get resources from surveying planets and every so often it's just possible to research an upgrade. All of these are not specific items, but equipment spanning bonuses like +20% on all assault rifle damage. It's in the game, it's good to get the bonus, but it doesn't count as a 'game' in and off itself.

What this means is Mass Effect 2 has made the transition to a new type of computer role-playing game. It's focused on delivering a grand, exciting space opera in which are central to the story, making choices on which 'great things rely' and the game is a mixture of enjoying the cinematic action scenes, soaking up the brilliant colour provided by the setting and getting to be a major protagonist in a science fiction epic. It weaves and imaginative and dramatic fabric that is truly brilliant.

I am playing it, and as I set out in my resolutions for 2010, I'm making notes. It might be useful one day.

I've just finished Mass Effect, and I have to say I'm in awe. Conclusions are hard to do, it's so easy to let the 'audience down'. Mass Effect doesn't let you down, this is an epic conclusion, it's like attack on the Death Star amazing, or Sheridan's attack towards Earth in Babylon 5, and then some. I'm still coming down from it. In my view, Mass Effect is worth buying an Xbox 360 for. If I was running a space opera role-playing game I'd want to play Mass Effect. It makes you want to run a space opera game!

Warning:This does contain spoilers.

I'm not going to give a detailed run down of the story, as it gets particularly dense, dramatic and very well paced at this point. It's going to have be a brief overview. Basically, you come away from Virmire having sacrificed one of your crew, and a lot of the facts you need to take the pursuit to Saren, the trouble is most of it is in your character's head in a fragmented fashion. The Council don't believe Saren is working with a Reaper. The human ambassador sides with them as he puts getting humanity on The Council above 'trusting' Shephard. It was all about getting humanity on The Council. They even close Shephard down and stop the Normandy from leaving. Queue a heroic plan to escape and pursue Saren to Ilos.

You go to Ilos, have a romantic encounter along the way (I got to have sex with Liara), as the fate of the universe hangs in the balance. You discover a Prothean archive on Ilos which was the last attempt by the Protheans to save their race or the organic life forms who would come after them and subsequently be killed by the Reapers. The scenes with the virtual interface of the archive are really good. It all kicks off. The Citadel is the device that allows the Reapers to come from Dark Space as it's a really advanced Mass Relay! It's been disabled by a secret Prothean mission millennia ago, hence Sovereign working with Saren to find out how and why. The conduit is a Mass Relay in the archive that gets you directly into The Citadel. Queue a mission to stop Saren as Sovereign and the Geth fleet attack The Citadel.

It all ends with the Alliance fleet showing up, a battle with Saren and Soverign and it all plays out in front of you in a way that some films would envy. It is really good. I'm paraphrasing all this, missing out all sorts of individual scenes, both conversations, individual bits of cool heroics and massive battle scenes that are inter-cut between the personal action. You even get a choice to save The Council or not? Does the human fleet risk their progress to Sovereign by rescuing The Council or leave them to die in the belief Sovereign's attempt to open the Mass Relay to Dark Space must be stopped? I chose for the human fleet to not save The Council.

In the final moments, in the epilogue, the humans find themselves at a pivotal moment in history. The Council races are weakened. The Council is dead. A conversation plays out that is influenced by your Paragon and Renegade ratings, and in my case it saw the human race ceasing power in a way reminiscent of the rise of the Empire at the end of Episode III of Star Wars. It probably wasn't that bad, but it was certainly along the lines of a single race taking control of The Citadel, and making sure the galaxy was prepared for the Reapers. The the credits rolled.

At the moment my last save is just before the final fight with Sovereign, which concerns me slightly as it's not really a firm, final save with the last few decisions recorded? Anyway, at some point I may play the ending again to see what other options are available. For example, I did have an option about restoring The Council, but I don't know if it would result in that based on my Paragon / Renegade scores.

The important thing is, this was a game that played host to a story that isn't really that far removed from Star Wars or something like Babylon 5. It is was astounding, and it had a conclusion that really delivered. I look forward to Mass Effect II and Mass Effect III which apparently follow on from the established ending.

After the exciting adventures on Noveria and battling an ancient creature below Feros, the Normandy sets off to Virmire as The Council has received a brief but disturbing message from a Salarian covert operations team. Virmire is a lovely, lush green world that plays host to another secret.

Warning: This does contain spoilers.

The Normandy drops off Shephard and his team in the Mako, the objective being to clear the AA guns along the route to the Salarian camp so the Normandy can land. This is quickly done and it's discovered that the Salarian covert operations team has discovered Saren's base of operations and he's breading Krogan warriors. He's apparently found a way to cure the disease the Taurens unleashed on the Krogan after it proved they bread too fast (and after the Krogan had saved the galaxy from the Rachni).

The plan is set. The Salarian's will attack from the front, an action that will get a lot of them killed. They will destroy three of the four AA guns at the base. While Shephard's team hits hard from the rear, destroys the final gun and gets inside. Once the AA guns are clear the Normandy can fly in and rendezvous with Shephard's team and set a nuclear device within the hardened structure. First comes a choice though, as the Salarians need an extra team member to lead one of the combat units, you are given a choice of Kaiden and Ashley. I picked Kaiden to go with the Salarians.

The assault is pretty cool as it's a run, gun and cover battle along valleys and through sections of the base. At this point you have some significant weaponry, including lots of fancy ammunition types which are useful to play with. Liara's powers also send things flying at regular intervals so at times you're shooting things as they are lifted into the air or violently thrown across the graphical landscape. It's quite high action, if not that hard. Still, I like the feeling of high action and the action movie feel, rather than it being a very challenging, tactical game so it's working for me.

Inside the base another Prothean Beacon is discovered which adds to Shephard's memories passed down from the Protheans. It's not long after this that Sovereign, the ship used by Saren contacts the base and speaks to Shephard. Sovereign is a Reaper! The ship is a Reaper, one of the ancient artificially intelligent, technological life forms from beyond the edge of the galaxy that wiped out the Protheans 50,000 years ago. They are back and Saren is working with them again to wipe out organic life. It happens every 50,000 years apparently as part of an eternal cycle. The Protheans didn't even create the technology that allows interstellar travel or The Citadel, the Repears did. They let galactic society mature then reign destruction down on it.

The nuclear device is set.

A message comes through from the Salarian assault team which has Kaiden with them, they are hopelessly pinned down at the wreckage of their final AA gun. In true heroic fashion Shephard sets off to rescue them leaving Ashley and some forces to guard the nuclear device and make sure no one interferes with it. Halfway to the final AA gun the Geth sends reinforcements and start making an assault on the nuclear device!

Our hero can only be in one place at a time, what's it to be: Kaiden or Ashley? I chose to rescue Kaiden, and gave the order for Ashley and her team to stay behind and defend the nuclear device at all costs.

Shephard and his team arrive and clear the Geth from around the surrounded Salarian team, but then Saren himself arrives clearing the area with powerful biotic abilities. Shephard and Saren face off in a dramatic conversation, with Saren arguing the only way to secure the future of all organic life is to work with the Reapers, otherwise they will destroy all sentient organic life. The trouble is, Saren is having to fight the influence of Sovereign himself. Shephard ain't a man to be some machines slaves and a battle results, but the two combatants part as Saren escapes when the Normandy arrives.

We blast off into space, the Normandy is seen in the background as Ashley heroically defends the nuclear device, setting it off as she watches the Normandy rise into the sky.

To say that this segment of the game was brilliant isn't doing it justice. It was amazingly well paced, giving you plenty of game stuff to do while hitting you with killer scene after killer scene in a bang, bang, bang type fashion. It just kept going and did not stop. Slightly re-tooled it would have made a good action film sequence, and it is certainly one of those experiences you wish you had a in a tabletop role-playing game in a perfect merger between exciting action and dramatic, consequential decisions that just keep coming.

The best scene since last time? It's hard to say. It could have been the dramatic confrontation with Wrex when I told him I can't let Saren complete his experiment to bread Krogan even though it might rescue his species. Amazingly, I pulled this off, but I understand if you don't have the required skills and haven't helped in the past he can die in this scene. Great stuff. Then you have the very well done scene with Saren, or the dramatic moment you give the order that will result in the death of one of your team. The ominous conversation with the holographic Reaper? It is all good stuff. The best scene probably wasn't a one with a conversation though, there was just something about seeing Ashley, injured, resting by the nuclear bomb, valiantly defending it with the Normandy rising away in the distance that was very effective.

It was just a seriously good two hours of entertainment.

As to why I let Ashley die? Well, it did take me a bit of time to make the decision. You see, for me, Kaiden has been a complete non-event. Each time I talk to him he hasn't said anything extra, or contributed to the drama in any way. He's not that interesting either. He's the pretty boy romantic interest if you're playing a female character, so that's probably why his dramatic options are minimal for me. So, it'd be logical to drop Kaiden. Ashley, despite being a conservative, right wing, xenophobic marine has been a dramatic participant. I also can't help but like her in some way as she's a bit of a kindred spirit to my version of Shephard, if a bit more extreme. Ultimately it was her back story, she has issues with her grandfather being disgraced for surrendering to the Taurens during the war. I decided it seemed fitting for her to die in a blaze of glory.

You know what? Life for some parents must be hell, as they perpetually live in a world of fear and ignorance, and what's even worse, they can often seem to be set on living in fear of things that can be controlled, while being totally ignorant of some things that are quite abhorrent and probably invisible to them.

Take a recent item on Fox News, purveyors of fear and ignorance based journalism, which took great delight in telling me I owned a Se'Xbox. See how clever that is? Apparently there is a new game out that has full digital nudity in it and your character can have graphic (no pun intended) sex! That's outrageous. They are, of course, talking about Mass Effect.

What's even more shocking is how little research they put into the item. Just think about it for a second. If this was a film and featured full nudity of both sexes it would have to be an 18, I believe. The game isn't an adults only game so it's almost certainly not going to have full nudity on that basis. It might also be wise if you actually did some research, and possibly played the game. If you did you'd find out that the sex scenes in Mass Effect show hardly anything, certainly less than the average movie available to 'children' of 17+. Not only that, the sex scenes come after a romance plot line that goes on for some time, in a game that's 20+ hours long, and interacts with events in the story and as such the actual sex scene, when it comes, is given more credence to being based on a romance than some films available to audiences younger than 17. In fact, there are films available that show relatively little sex that have a more negative image of women available to teenagers, and I'm not even going to get into the sexual imagery surrounding young, female pop starts with a teenage market. A typical 'child' can see more sexual imagery just by glancing at the magazines shelves while shopping with his Mam.

The ignorance on display wasn't just annoying, it was abhorrent. They had a psychologist waffling on about the influence such scenes have on an adolescent mind, and how the child will always push the 'I want sex button'. There is no 'I want sex button'. There is a series of dramatic conversations, over the course a 20+ hour game, which play out like a script in a film and it often is entirely obvious which options will annoy the character or not so you're best sticking with character-based choices. You could try and 'out think' the game to get the sex scene but it's a far cry from an 'I want sex' button. It's easier to just put in a DVD with a sex scene in that shows a more. You can even select the scene for easy enjoyment. The gaming expert raised this point with her, totally invalidating her opinion when he found out she'd never played the game ('as if' was her reply), so she just said 'she would rather believe the research'. Yes, but the point is, even if we assume your research is right, this isn't a situation were your research applies because you're talking about desensitising images of women being used as objects which is clearly not the case in Mass Effect. She didn't even understand that in the game you can play a woman and have a relationship with a man, so where does you desensitising commentary come in now?

Despite all this, remember the game is a mature title and as such should only be played by people 17 years and older. Kids will play it though they cry, what do you think a kid will do when his dad's out but play the game with the sex in it? Again, it takes a lot of story-based time to get to that scene and then the numerous branches and relationships in the plot mean it's not guaranteed. Second, the Xbox has mature content controls meaning any parent who is not a dimwit will have enabled those to make sure that the kid can't play a mature title as the unit will actually stop it running. Let's not get into the detail though, when fear and ignorance plays much better.

It got even worse, because after the two rival talking heads they went to the panel. None of them have obviously played the game. None of them had even seen adverts or trailers for the game, which the news reader had at least done. Why didn't it get an adults only rating one cried? How can you make that decision without seeing the content? Did she even realise the difference between the rating Mass Effect has and an adults only rating is someone who is exactly 17 can't play it? Another classic comment eluded to it being 'Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dalls' despite never having played the game.

I've never seen such a big example of people being brought on to talk about something they know nothing about. The one person who did know got the worst deal in terms of air time because he was ruining their sensationalist slot.

Still, this is a country which has a level of journalism that allows one of their prospective presidential candidates to lose votes because 'it is out there' that he is a Muslim. Ignoring the fact it probably shouldn't matter for a second, it is a lie that is insinuated and plays into a air of ignorance that factors into the decisions of individuals. This news item about Mass Effect was the same. Queue a load of ignorant parents watching and ringing their senator or whatever to fuel the call for more censorship in games.

Think of the children! Think of the parents I say, some of them need some form of re-education. The irony of it is, they'll take the Mass Effect game off the shelves of one of their kids and then let them continue to play Halo on-line. They have no idea that they've took something off the child that is relatively harmless, even for kids younger than 17 to be honest, depending on the rest of their environmental factors, and instead let them continue to play a game on-line that has a community full of people who think Gay and Jew is the latest in insults.

I'm not someone who will defend games all the time. I see some games like Manhunt and certain incarnations of Grand Theft Auto and the like, and even I question what the actual point is, and that it would be wrong for kids below the rating to play them. Hell, my experience of some of the Grand Theft Auto games even makes me question what people who are legally allowed to play the game get out of it, as there seemed to be minimal dramatic context other than running around being a cool criminal? At the same time, I'm open minded and let it ride since the games are rated.

But this was just ignorance running riot.

After the exciting adventures on Noveria, and the death of Matriarch Benezia, Altus Shephard immediately set off on the second plot strand hanging like fruit in his journal: the colony of Feros. Feros was attacked by Geth forces and then all contact was lost with the colony. The objective was to find out what happened and why the Geth chose this colony specifically.

Warning: This does contain spoilers.

The unique thing about Feros is a substantial percentage of its surface is covered by one big Prothean ruined city, which has been picked over by the subsequent races of the galaxy over the millennia. The Normandy lands and finds a planet at war. The colonists are hold up in a part of the Prothean city, and the Geth are still attacking. After securing the colony and making sure it has its basic needs sorted, figuring out what the Geth are up to was the order of the day. This involved driving through the massive city and getting to the ExoGeni Corporation HQ who funded the colony.

The time in the ExoGeni Corporation involved the team detaching a Geth ship from the side of one of the ancient towers in order to get out of the HQ after retrieving vital information. The ExoGeni Coporation funded the colony because they'd found an ancient creature living beneath the ruins. A vast being with tendrils spreading out throughout the city, which can also psychically control thralls above ground. The colonists are the ancient beings thralls. This lead to a dramatic choice: try and save the colonist or slaughter them? I chose to wipe them out, and the attack on the colonists complex began. It was a tense battle involving the colonists and 'zombie husks' which I took to be the ultimate form of a thrall of this ancient being.

Eventually, I made it to the chamber in which this great being resided and the battle ensued. It involved hordes of 'zombie husks' as well as a strange Asari, Shiala, that the creature kept giving birth to. The goal was to cut off the creature from its tendrils that spread throughout the city, which would kill it. Once the battle was won Shiala was born a final time, but this time she was herself. She told the tale of how she was a disciple of Matriarch Benezia who had allied with Saren in the hope she could persuade him off his destructive course, but had fallen pray to Sovereign, his ship, that can slowly control minds. Saren had come to speak to the ancient creature for it possessed knowledge from before and during the time of the Protheans. It had the knowledge of the Cypher which the Asari had obtained by melding with the creature. Saren had then betrayed the creature by having the Geth attack. She dumped the information into Shephard's head. I then faced dramatic choice number two: let Shiala live or kill her to make sure only Altus and Saren had the Cypher?

I'm not actually doing it justice here, the story was epic and exciting. The whole feeling of Feros being an ancient city under attack was quite well done. It was a bit like being in the middle of a Mega-City One block war. The whole battle below the ground with the forces of the ancient creature and the spawned Asari was pretty good. In fact, all the conversations with Shiala constitute the best 'scene' since last time, as the conversations were both dramatic and exciting.

Now Atlus Shephard has two Prothean 'dreams' in his head, one from very early in the game from the Prothean Probe on Eden Prime and the other from the memory of Shiala, which in turn came from the ancient creature below Feros. The trick is now to make sense of them, as they don't make much sense at the moment.

Other than that, the next stop is Virmire, after receiving another strange message. Regrettably, Liara is still holding out on me. I did get to mind meld with her to see if she could make sense of the images in my head, which had erotic overtones. She does live for hundreds of years, she possibly thinks Shephard has got that long as well.

As I discussed last time, I've been venturing off the rails and as such I've been away from the central, dramatic story of Mass Effect for some time. I've potentially spent more time off the rails than on them so far. Since I cleared my mission log earlier today, I jumped back on the rails and settle myself in for the rollercoaster ride.

Warning: The does contain spoilers.

Noveria, a cold and remote world and home to a privately chartered colony set up by the Noveria Development Corporation. It's basically a nice little research and development location for a number of high profile, big business companies. If you've got research you don't want people prying into, go to Noveria and do it within a mountain or glacier where no one is looking. It's corporate heaven, as the place doesn't even come under Council law, and is ran by its own executive board.

Anyway, 'take no shit Shephard' didn't have any time for too much corporate politics. He told the internal security where to shove it, helped a few people out just to piss off the corporate stooges and even brought down the head administrator on corruption charges for good measure. All this was a side issue, or part of the journey to Peak 15, a secret research lab which Matriarch Benezia had taken a particular interest in and was apparently still there. Benezia is the mother of Liara T'Soni, the sexy blue biotic scientist in my team, and is apparently in league with Saren.

After assaulting and gaining access to Peak 15 it becomes apparent its corporate owners have been conducting experiments on an ancient, and terrible race of aliens long thought dead. The Rachni. A race of insectoid beings that spread across the galaxy like locusts two millennia ago. They spread across the galaxy and they could have well wiped out all humanoid life (not that humans were gallivanting around the galaxy at this point). Luckily, the Krogans became part of the galactic community and due to their war like history, they could fight effectively on the home world of the Rachni, and they destroyed the race forever. The Krogans then went on to bread like rabbits and in turn the Tuarans nearly destroyed them with a genetic plague, but that's another story.

It would appear, a lone Rachni egg had been found, it turned out to be a queen, and tests were being conducted on it at Peak 15. Needless to say, it's young escaped and started slaughtering everyone. Shephard had to destroy the alien infestation and in the process find Matriarch Benezia, stop her and find out what she was up to for Saren. Having destroyed the alien horde Shephard found Benezia and defeated her forces only to find out she was being controlled against her will by Saren (he has some fancy ship that slowly invades the minds of those within it). She had been sent to secure the general location of an ancient relay and to secure the Rachni Queen as a resource in Saren's diabolic scheme. In an attempt to gain what redemption she could, she gave Shephard the same information she'd sent to Saren. Regrettably, she died.

Then the killer scene. The Rachni Queen in its containment chamber animates one of the dead Asari Commandos and speaks through it. In a complex conversation in which it used music as an analogy for its way of speaking telepathically, it makes it's case to be let free. I was given a situation, with a dramatic choice..bang. Do I listen to the Rachni Queen and believe it wants to go away and live in peace? Or do I destroy it on the basis history tells me it will spawn another horde of galactic locusts and kill millions? I wanted to kill the bitch I really did. I was ready to get all Ripley on its ass and press that button that would fill its isolation chamber with acid. After all, it's the only way to be sure, right? That's something 'take no shit' Shephard would have done. The trouble is you have other characters with you and they try and change your mind! I pressed the option to release the acid but Liara gave it one less try and ultimately I decided Shephard secretly had a heart of gold and let the Rachni Queen go. Well, that's not exactly true, Shephard realised in that moment he didn't stand a chance with the fine piece of blue alien ass and decided to risk a future horde of alien locusts rather than risk his chances with Liara.

This is one of the best bits about the game though, as if I'd not had Liara on my team, and say I had Wrex instead, who is a Krogan mercenary, I may not have had anyone arguing the case for letting the Rachni Queen free? I certainly wouldn't have had a sexy blue alien looking at me with those deep eyes making it quite clear I'd have about as much chance with her as a Rachni if I pushed the acid release button. My decision was changed by the actions, and I'll admit it, the words and the acting of the characters around me.

The best scene since last time? Well, the Benezia conflict was good, as was the scene with the Rachni Queen. Neither of these was the best one though. The best one was after the conference with my elite team after returning from Noveria, as Ashley and Liara approached me to discuss their disagreements, born out of their mutual attraction for me. It was really well done, and I had options that allowed me to take the conversation in either direction (including humorous ones about liking cat fights). Ultimately I chose Liara and give Ashley the brush off. Still, Liara is still playing it shy and cool, and playing the long game.

If releasing that Rachni comes to bite me on the ass later on, even if it's in Mass Effect 2 or 3, she better have been worth it, that's all I'll say.

As some people may know I'm playing through Mass Effect, and what's weird about the game is it's essentially two games. One is an epic science fiction drama that almost seamlessly, or at least better than any other game released so far, merges the the need to weave a narrative and be a game at the same time. So far, while I've been on the rails of the road, it has been an awesome, inspiring and exciting experience. I left the rails after rescuing Doctor Liara T'Soni, for those keeping track.

The trouble is everyone 'knows' railroading is 'badwrongfun', and as such the game offers you all sorts of side things to do, primarily by giving you the Normandy, a map of the galaxy, with a sizeable section of it detailed, and the ability to go anywhere. Just like a role-playing game, the ability to actually go anywhere and do anything is illusionary to one degree or another (especially without healthy doses of player created stuff, which obviously isn't the case in a computer game). In the case of Mass Effect it adopts the old staple of the things 'off the rails' just being less interesting than submitting to the inevitable, not necessarily in a bad way, and riding that train for all its worth.

If you stick to the rails you get an epic story, that has been told well so far, and is amazingly acted (for a game) but if you go off the rails you get all sorts of relatively inconsequential missions. These missions come quite frequently from numerous sources, such as media broadcasts you overhear, or the admiralty of the human navy, and they are all nicely logged in your journal. There is a certain sense of achievement and fun in zapping around the galaxy signing these missions off. They may be a lot of similarity between them all, but it's fun nonetheless. It also works to train you up in how the combat works in the game, which is good for us slow learners, but more on that later.

What is interesting about Mass Effect, is while the main story is holding up to be the best one Bioware has done, the side stories are a lot weaker. As is usually the case in these games each NPC character you have hanging around has a background story to tell which results in at least one side story specific to them. Even these are relatively weak, Knights of the Old Republic did them better, for example. In Knights of the Old Republic the stories seemed to have a bit of drama, a bit length and, unless I'm remembering them completely wrong, they had a bit of drama. I've done two NPC side stories so far and both of them have basically fallen into the same format as all the other side missions, the only different being, if you have the right character along (and it's marked in your journal which NPC triggered the mission), you get a bit of extra dialogue. I've done the side stories for Wrex and Garrus so far, and neither of them have been anything that dramatic. I can't help but wonder if the production values of the main story, and all the dialogue has caused a crunch on time, and potentially space (on the DVD). Due to being significantly older, Knights of the Old Republic had less dialogue, less space hungry graphics (which may also account for some of the similarity in locations) and didn't bother with trying to merge a first person shooter with the role-playing experience yet they both have to fit on the same DVD disc and be developed within a realistic, commercial framework.

They're not all bad, some of them are interesting, such as the one were you take down two crime bosses to make way for a third and then face the choice of how to handle the last remaining crime boss. It's possibly that the main story is so well done, so far, that the others pale in comparison.

The spread of skills is also a bit annoying, as you are essentially spread across biotic, technical and combat skill sets. This means, unless you are very wise and selective, some might suggest even psychic, with your experience distribution you seem to inevitable lead down the path of having the lead biotic and technical character on your 3-man team if you are a soldier. I've tried taking other people, but whenever I do I find I'm low on the technical skills meaning there are certain things I can't loot. It feels wrong to leave things not looted. I can't do it and hence I bring the aforementioned trio. The main problem seems to be the technical character to be honest, in truth I could swap the biotic lead for Wrex who has a combat and biotic mix. Still, if you don't vary your team much at least you don't have to go through the horrible process of re-assigning gear, which is easy for a core 3, not so easy when that core 3 changes.

The good thing about the side missions is you do slowly learn combat 101, and while I'm sure people who have more fatal thumbs do it a different way, I'm finding my best strategy is to play as cautious as possible. Stay back. Stay in cover. Bring them to you. Anything more akin to a frontal assault just gets me wasted very fast. This is either because the enemies outnumber you and concentrated fire takes your shields down fast, or they have weapons that seem to take them down fast anyway, or both. When fighting a battle based on mutual cover though, they are extremely dim. I am still really bad at dealing with enemies that rush you, but I've found I can minimise that by fighting 'Star Wars style' along a corridor or other choke point. All I need is a garbage compactor to jump down into and I'd be good. I seem to have my two team mates under better control, but I still don't feel like I get exactly what I want from them. The other thing you learn is to put your party on the active setting and let them use their powers, this is especially true for the biotic and technical characters as enemies explode and get flung around on a whim, it's good to see.

Still, it's a great game, I'm enjoying it a lot, and all is well because the sexy blue alien recently hit on me. Ashley, my fellow marine, did the same thing, but since she seems to be some sort of US, right wing, religious, middle American, conservative xenophobe (or the science fiction galaxy equivalent) who, at times, gives the impression she'd line aliens up and shoot them, I'm giving her a wide birth. I may be trying to create the Spectre version of Dirty Harry but I have my limits.

The story continues, can Altus Shephard, soldier, shock trooper and Spectre save the universe? And can he get himself a bit of blue alien love along the way? Only time will tell.

So, last time on Mass Effect, the gruff, take no shit marine, and now Spectre, Altus Shephard had just rescued the gorgeous, if blue, Liara T'Soni from the Prothean research site. Since then I've been doing the computer role-playing game staple of ignoring the main plot, and the fact the whole galaxy may be at risk, and gallivanting around the galaxy righting wrongs. A bit like a sheriff of the wild west, but I have a bigger gun and I can travel between worlds. In computer terms, I've been going from one end of the galaxy to the other doing side missions. What's even weirder, is the human leadership seems keen to keep giving me them? You'd think they'd be worried about the rogue Spectre and a potential galactic apocalypse as well wouldn't you?

As I've gone from planet to planet, with the odd derelict ship in between, killing terrorists, biotic extremists and whatever else, I've had to learn the game a bit more. The main thing I've had to learn is the controlling of your team never really feels fluid, accurate or natural. It's like the game makes you think you have control of them but you don't really. Basically, the game pretends to be a science fiction version of Rainbow Six Vegas, but it isn't, and you sort of end up with something that is just a bit odd. I know it's not supposed to be a tactical shooter, and I don't want it to be a tactical shooter, but I'm not fully sure what the games ended up with either. It's workable, but it is at times frustrating. In a strange sort of way, the less fluid Knights of the Old Republic system felt better, probably because you felt you were more in control.

I still haven't managed to pull any of these killer or 'I Win!' strategies other people are talking about. I am now using a team loaded up with technical and biotic skills, which seems to help a bit, with the heavy fire power coming from myself.

I also find myself agreeing with the complaints about the lack of variety in the locations. While the planets do look good, the internal locations tend to be very similar. It doesn't ruin the game for me, it just could have have increased the epic factor if they'd been a bit more exotic. You do get the odd good one though. Just today I entered a mine that proved to be full of space zombies, that was pretty good. As usual it took me a few times to figure out how to handle the situation. Despite the vessel being quite small, and a slight variation on the internals of the Normandy, I also enjoyed the little side quest on a derelict vessel with the mad biotic woman on board, and her husband in stasis. I probably enjoyed that more because I was playing the game at the same time as my nephew and we spent a couple of hours talking on Xbox Live and just happened to do that mission at the same time (and he was jumped by the mad woman first). It added to the atmosphere a bit.

I also decided to find and rescue a hostage a bunch of biotic terrorists had holed up on a space ship in the middle of nowhere, which was a bad idea as a I got my ass handed to me by multiple people with strong biotic-fu! They just kept knocking me flat and then filling me full of lead when I was down.

In short, no real dramatic meat to report. This is to expected, as I've become fixated with clearing out the missions from my log before I do anything else with the main plot. Not sure how long that will continue, as I'm finding myself wanting to experience the next part in the grand epic drama of the first human Spectre trying to save the Universe!

The Mass Effect adventure continues, and it's exciting, awesome and epic, and is causing all sorts of space opera ideas to fly around in my head. The other thing Mass Effect is proving is reading up on a game before buying it can sometimes be a bad thing. Read some posts or some websites and they make the game sound unplayable, with load screens everywhere, really bad 'glitching graphics' and an inventory system that makes you want to throw the controller at the screen. I've not found these to be a problem. I'd have not even raised them as a criticism personally. I can agree with the inventory system though, even from someone who probably doesn't 'pimp out the characters at every opportunity' it could have been made easier.

As for complaining about the conversations and dramatic scenes? I think they are smoking something, it's simply the best game ever made in terms of the quality of the script, the voice acting and the acting ability of the computer generated models.

What all this does prove is expectations in actual play can vary in computer role-playing games exactly like they can in traditional role-playing games. While it's not true for everyone, some people complaining just want an action RPG, first person shooter hybrid and the story is a distraction.

Give me a game that is best savoured and played at a slower pace any day...

Warning: This does contain spoilers.

As discussed last time, Altus Shephard had dramatically been made a Spectre, the first human to be given the honour, and a decision that everyone and every species has an opinion on. Ready to set off on the hunt for Saren, the Normandy left the Citadel and headed off into space. I visited a few planets, looking at them from orbit, and scanning the odd one, before finally coming to rest in the Artemis Tau sector, Knossos system in orbit of the planet Therum.

I chose to land, and it seemed the fickle hand of fate had chosen to make the first planet I landed on one in which important events were unfolding. What I'd stumbled upon completely by accident was my chance to gain the last member of my team, Liara T'Soni, a young Asari scientist working at the research station on the planet looking into Prothean artefacts. She also has the dubious honour of being the daughter of Matriarch Benezia, who is in league with Saren.

The escapades on the planet basically involved me making my way overland using the Mako, this involved numerous combats with various Geth, as well having to get out of the vehicle to assault gated outposts that were stopping the progress of the Mako. It was quite a lengthy exercise. All this was really a pre-amble to finally getting to the mining complex that housed the uncovered Prothean artefacts and Laria. I may be easily pleased, but it all seemed very exciting and dramatic to me. The combats down into the mine were atmospheric, and the scene where you discover Laria trapped in some form of Prothean status field bubble was really cool. I still think the voice acting is superb.

Anyway, using an old piece of drilling equipment I rescued Laria, but rendered the whole mine unstable, resulting in a final confrontation with Geth forces and then a great cut scene using the excellent handheld camera, in game engine footage they have going on showing the team escaping from the collapsing mine. It's hard to explain, it's the attention to detail, the way the characters act and a load of other small things that really make you feel like you are in a sweeping space opera.

One of the strange things about the game is it doesn't really have a comprehensive tutorial, neither does it have a detailed manual, as a result you do end up figuring things out in actual play. I'm starting to do this, mostly driven by two set-piece combats while on Therum trying to rescue Laria that caused me to investigate other options. As an example, I'm still not sure what all the Tech abilities do, but apparently some of them are very useful, as I used one on an enemy and it froze him in place allowing myself and my other team mate to blast him to pieces with our assault rifles. Lot to learn, but it's interesting doing so. I need to use the biotic abilities more, but I've not really had a biotic in my team yet. I've used Ashley and Garrus almost exclusively.

Interestingly, out of the female characters in the game, Laria is by far the most attractive as she's intelligent, physically attractive and also has a demeanour which I find more appealing. I'd be more tempted to have my character pursue Laria, but I'm going to try and stick to the role-playing angle I have going on, and have Altus go for Ashley, who fits into his more pro-human, take no shit marine attitude. While it's not as bad, falling for Ashley is a bit like falling for Vasquez off Aliens. I think they'd be slightly dysfunctional, but it seems to fit the character more. As a result, the Laria relationship will have to wait for another play through assuming that ever happens.

Who knows though? Romance may come from unexpected angles or not happen at all, that's sort of the beauty of it.

One of the coolest scenes that has happened since last time? Well, ignoring all the great scenes with the major characters as I rescued Alaria, the best one was when I returned to the Citadel. A human Admiral was standing on the docking ramp and tried to dress me down due to me being a junior officer of the Alliance military (he had his own issues with current galactic politics). He wanted to inspect the Normandy, because he thought it was a waste of time (they could have had a frigate or two for its cost). I had the great joy of literally telling him where he could shove it, as I was a Spectre, and he didn't have any sway with me or the Normandy. Great stuff. I may pay for it later, the drama may change as a result, but that's all good.

I have a few things to do on the Citadel, and then I'll be heading off into deep space again to try and investigate some of these assignments I've been given (some picked up via media broadcasts last time I was in the Citadel, and others from Alliance HQ while travelling between worlds).

I think I'm about four hours into Mass Effect and it's genius just keeps on coming. It just has everything, great visuals, an epic story and above all else, and this is the main thing, killer scenes you get to be part of, and influence, that you'd die to be part of in a pen and paper role-playing game. Never mind that, you'd want to see them in a film. If anything, that's it's true genius.

Warning: This does contain spoilers.

Altus 'bad ass and scar-faced' Shephard was selected to potentially be the first human Spectre, the elite, special forces operatives of The Council. The Sprectres are basically the Jedi of the setting, but they don't necessarily have 'psychic' powers, certainly don't have lightsabers, and are more like special forces operatives with a license to kill. He is also starts as the XO of the Normandy, one of the most advanced Alliance (the Human military) vessels, it even has some sort of stealth device. In the opening scenes he finds himself on a secret mission to Eden Prime to retrieve a beacon built by the ancient Protheans, who developed the star drive technology all the alien races are using. He also finds himself in a universe in which humans are progressing rapidly, too fast for some, and are itching to get a seat on The Council (as only three races have that privileged).

Anyway, much action on Eden Prime ensues, the female marine Ashley Williams is rescued, it is discovered a rogue Spectre, Saren, is working with the mechanical entities known as the Geth. Altus also receives a vision when he comes in contact with the beacon, which then explodes. Then we have a dramatic trip to The Citadel, the giant space station that houses The Council and is generally the centre of the universe.

This is where things kick in, as while there is the usual assortment of quests at the Citadel, helping people out with various thing, they feel less small scale due to the dramatic structure of the game and the immersive nature of the setting. As an example, one quest involves helping one bar maid, in the posh bar, get her sister out of her undercover job in the 'Mos Eisly Cantina Bar', It's great because the conversations are dramatic and the settings are great. As part of the main plot you even get to raid the criminal bar, fighting your way to the boss in a an exciting gun fight. As a result the usual 'side quests' have a dramatic edge. I could list all sorts of aspects about the game, such as getting 'side missions' by listening to the media broadcasts, but I'd be writing for ages if I did. It's just great.

It's the big scenes that pay off though, and they are really good. Take the confrontation with The Council after returning from Eden Prime, they obviously don't believe, without any proof, that Saren would have gone rogue. They certainly don't believe it when it comes from the ambitious humans. So you get an excellent scene with the three Council members, the human ambassador and yourself having this great conflict-laden scene as you try and convince them, and of course it throws in all the issues of humanity biting at the bit to be on The Council, feelings of mistrust and it's really good. Again this is all enhanced by the grandeur of the setting, the acting ability of the characters and the way the game is produced. The cool bit is you tweak the scene via the speech selections as it all flows out like an acted script. I probably didn't help with my blunt, antagonistic responses.

That scene is topped by the one in which you finally march in with the proof you need to persuade them that Saren has gone rogue and that he is working with the Geth to try and open some strange portal to bring back an ancient race of mechanical beings who will wipe the galaxy clean. It's fantastic, and has all the emotion and excitement you would feel if you got to do that in a good pen and paper role-playing game. This ends with The Council making you a Spectre in response, charged with hunting down Saren and stopping him (though they still think you're nuts over the apocalyptic bits). This is done really well, as it really is hard to describe how it plays out like a dramatic movie with the game acting like a camera. The music kicks in, The Council make their proclamations and while this is happening the camera cuts to the galleries above you showing people watching, and humans looking on in expectation.

The first human Spectre. It didn't just feel like progress in a game, I felt the weight of the human race's expectations upon me during that defining moment in history.

The final cool moment, and keep in mind these are just the amazingly cool moments that stand out amongst a game full of them, came when I'd finished at The Citadel. I went to the hanger and was made the Captain of the Normandy. It's my ship now, to do whatever I need to do, in whatever way I need to do it, to hunt down Saren and stop him. The cool bit? I get to do the launch speech to the crew over internal comms! The music kicks in, the camera roams around the ship showing the crew listening, and I make the speech, picking what I wanted to say from the options. It actually felt like a speech, and it was appropriately blunt, no messing and pro-human, we don't have any help, we can do this ourselves, etc. Fantastic. The Normandy then blasted off to hunt down Saren and stop the apocalyptic end to the Galaxy.

Did we really stop playing Pulsars and Privateers? Oh man, the game is both pleasure and pain at the same time. Excellent stuff.

The phrase it's like an interactive movie has always been the curse of video games. At one point in time it was viewed as a sign of quality, but people soon realised that it wasn't true in reality, as there was always the danger that in trying to be an interactive movie, the product loses any sense of also being a game. You don't have to go back far to find games that have made this mistake. Final Fantasy X was a bit like this my opinion, way too many cut scenes and exposition and very little game squeezed in between.

The beauty of Mass Effect is it may have actually nailed it.

Mass Effect takes a different route, instead of squeezing small amounts of play in between cut scenes, it reveals the story through interaction with characters. The game is very similar to Knights of the Old Republic in how it does this, in the sense that you interact with characters and through that the story is revealed and dramatic encounters and missions result. The difference is the characters you interact with actually act, dramatically. The voice acting is astounding, and the movement of the characters and their expressions are good as well. The game then weaves in your response choices so what you actually get is the typical game play of choosing responses in a branching conversation, but it doesn't feel like that because 80% of the time it plays out like a dramatic script, you're just altering it's flow. It's good stuff, these are dynamic scenes with movement and everything.

It also helps that everything is done in the engine, so even when the odd cut scene does come along, which are always short, they fade in and out as part of the current actions. It's not perfect every time as the game can't account for every possibility when engaging with the cut scene trigger, but it's accurate enough. It will also put small cut scenes in as you progress through the action, so you may be fighting your way to the ancient beacon you're trying to secure but in a moment of downtime it will cut scene to Ashley Williams trying to escape the enemy assault. You meet her a short time later. It feels fluid, dramatic and that you're part of a dramatic story while never missing out on the fact it's a game. Not only that, the fact it is a game makes the drama stronger rather than weaker.

The other impressive achievement is I'm only about 90-minutes into the game and I've accepted the universe and the setting already. It comes across like a license product, as if the setting exists somewhere else and has had years to mature. It hasn't, it is an original setting made purely for the game. It feels more than that. The visuals, the sense of history and the dramatic conflicts have a sense of age and weight. It just feels right. To be honest it made me think of Pulsars and Privateers (and it did make me want to play it) with the clash of sensibilities between Star Wars and more military science fiction like Honor Harrington as Mass Effect probably represents a good compromise. The music is even brilliant. It really is good.

I want to know more about the Universe. I want to know about humanities journey to become council members among the intergalactic races. I want to know more about my characters journey to become the first human Spectre (the elite operatives of the Council). Even more impressive, I want to role-play in the game. This is a significant achievement, as I've always taken the view that if I want to role-play a dramatic story I'll play a pen and paper game, leave my computer role-playing more towards the gamist end. The way the drama is weaved into the game, and the new script trees (the bane of most supposed computer 'role-playing games') and their power to create dramatic scenes, has me picking options appropriate to the character I've created. Not only that, at the moment I'm inclined to think I'll want to play it again with a different character as I'll almost certainly get a different result, and probably won't discover all the dramatic avenues first time.

At the moment I'm Altus Shephard, a soldier, who grew up on Earth (in a hive of scum and villainy) and was involved in an infamous incident in his past in which he lost 80% of his men in a 'successful' military action. This is chosen during character creation, and is weaved into the game. He's a bit of a bastard, a badass and means business. The second play through might be with a female character, with a more naval background and with a more honourable and altruistic attitude (she might also be a different class).

It is a very interesting game. It will be very interesting to see where they take the technology, the story (apparently they plan three games) and the setting.

Bioware role-playing games always have a bit of romance, in the early days, the chances are you were half imagining it, but there was always a suggestion, if nothing else. I can't have been the only one who tried at every opportunity to lay on the charm to try and get the female Jedi companion to fall into my character's arms in Knights of the Old Republic.

It would seem you can take it a step further with Mass Effect. Not only do you get to actually get a romance, you also get the sex scene, just like you would in a film. Not only that, you're not limited to humans either, as there is a cute blue alien you can do the wild thing with. Not only that, in a fit of controversy, that blue alien just happens to look like a sexy female, but is really asexual, as a result it's fine for your female central character to nail her as well. You can see the results below (or you could at one point), which basically plays out like an artistic sex scene in a film.

This has obviously caused all sorts of trouble, with people vowing to not buy the game because of the sexual content. The reasons are numerous, some aren't buying it because they think it's juvenile, as if this content is some throwback to daft Leisure Suite Larry antics. Then you get the people who just think it's crude, a bit like the secret unlocks you could find in Grand Theft Auto (or even the rather silly mechanic of shagging prostitutes in cars to get your energy back up). Then you get the equality brigade complaining that there isn't an option for some male on male sex scenes. I'm all for equality, but some people just have to be realistic. Bioware are pushing the envelope enough as it is having a sex scene in the game, never mind going all out and having a male on male one.

Still, I have to say I'm impressed, as I'm pretty sure the story in Mass Effect is going to be a grand, epic, sweeping romance of a space opera and taking the game to the next level in terms of romantic storytelling seems tellingly fitting.

Note:There was a video attached to this entry, but it seems Bioware is hunting every copy down and removing them from the Internet, So, alas, you get a trailer instead.

So, I can't wait for Mass Effect to come out, right? It looks like it's going to be a great story, told in cinematic style, but with an RPG engine underneath. Have you seen the conversation selection process and how that results in the fluid scenes that look like cut scenes? Fantastic. Anyway, as well as acting as an excuse to put more Mass Effect images on the site, it also got me thinking about other Bioware games I've played. It's not actually something I've thought about much, but looking back on it, they probably give Blizzard a run for their money in terms of actual play time.

In the dim distance past, I played Baldur's Gate quite a bit. I didn't finish it, but I remember playing it a lot. Strangely enough, I remember two distinct things from Baldur's Gate. The first thing is one member of my party was a cute female thief who talked like she was 17 and was obviously present to give male players someone to aspire to giving a good shag at some point in the game. It would never happen, of course, but you just know that was why she was there. The other thing I remember is learning to positively hate, no, I actually mean detest, the whole system of speech trees. In fact, I didn't see the point of them at all. They didn't really add any significant role-playing, and you had to read them all. People loved Baldur's Gate because it was a role-playing game, it wasn't just hack and slash. What a load of bollocks, the process of speaking to characters was just another form of mini-game with you having to pick the right choices. I wanted to burn through that and get on with delving into dungeons with my party, or assaulting Gnoll strongholds. This was why I liked Icewindale a lot better as a game, a lot less talking, and much more focus on getting your party through landscapes and dungeons by killing things and taking their stuff.

What about Baldur's Gate II? I actually think I bought that game, but it was a major mistake and I don't think I played it much at all. Since it was effectively Baldur's Gate but even bigger and more complex, I should have known I wouldn't stick it out. By this point I'd realised that what I wanted out of computer role-playing games was a tactical exercise of killing things, taking their stuff and levelling up. I certainly didn't want any of this 'supposed role-playing' rubbish, and endless speech trees. If I wanted role-playing I had traditional role-playing games to play.

I didn't play a Bioware game until Neverwinter Nights came out, and I'd followed the development of Neverwinter Nights on and off due to the supposed ability to control the game from a DM perspective. I don't think I bought the game immediately on release, and when I did buy it I remember being annoyed with the single-player campaign, which had all the worst bits of Baldur's Gate's speech trees masquerading as role-playing, as well as the strange choice to have you control one character but have them use henchmen you had no real direct control over. As a single-player game, Neverwinter Nights would have been shelved and forgotten.

The saving grace for the game was Neverwinter Connections, which allowed me to realise the potential of Neverwinter Nights as a medium, rather than a game. During my time in the Neverwinter Connections community I played in a number of campaigns, about three of which were really good, and I even ended up co-DM'ing in one, which was excellent fun. The community even started to run on-line conventions, which I helped with. Regrettably, the community slowly died for me as the people I valued in it dropped out of the scene, as I did as well really. The campaign we were running had to undergo a break, only a few of the players returned and none of us really had the energy for recruiting new players so we shelved it, and left the community at the same time really. I still check in on the Neverwinter Connections site every so often, very sparingly, and it would seem Neverwinter Nights 2 isn't really as accessible, or designed as well to accommodate DM'ed games, which is unfortunate. For a couple of years though, I was playing Neverwinter Nights at least one 'evening' a week, and at some points I was playing more than this and in a couple of campaigns. I was playing in more Neverwinter Nights campaigns than I was traditional role-playing campaigns.

Finally we come to Knights of the Old Republic, which I played on the Xbox, and would have almost certainly played to completion if I hadn't decided to go off on some damned fool crusade to Australia, which caused issues with my saved games when I got rid of the Xbox. Knights of the Old Republic had something, and what it had was that elusive ability to capture the movies in a bottle and put them into a game. It was cinematic, it was exciting, it even had your scoundrel type hero getting the chance to hit upon your posh Jedi partner all Han Solo like. It was really cool learning Jedi powers and using them in the game, and you just wanted to get to see more of the game, just like reading a good book. Did it have speech trees? I suppose it did, but it didn't seem to matter as much in this game, not sure why. I think it was the Final Fantasy VII effect, if the speech treas are actually revealing an interesting, dramatic story you don't overly mind them, and certain put up with the more banal ones that come in between.

This brings me to Mass Effect, which looks like it's going to be a next generation Knights of the Old Republic, with characters that look like they are acting out the lines you choose, and a more interactive combat system, complete with a whole universe at your command and a space ship and a fancy ground vehicle to do it with. I can't wait.

Ever since the Las Vegas Strip was saved from the insidious terrorists, I've been contemplating my next Xbox 360 challenge. It could have been the further adventures of The Defenders in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the pulp adventures of the delectable Miss Croft in Tomb Raider: Legend or the bullets and gore-fest of Gears of War? I started playing Gears of War again tonight, and I immediately got drawn back into the experience. Lots of bullets, lots of blood and four testosterone fuelled marines in hulking great armour.

The experience so far has involved making my way through an industrial factory so that I could get access to the mining carts in order to be taken on a journey to the upper portion of the mine. Needless to say, as the mine carts moved deeper into the mine I was assaulted on all sides and it soon became frantic battle. It was sort of a military scifi version of the scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but not as fast, and involving more bullets. After that it was a journey to the massive drills, so that we could descend into the lower caverns below the city. That was going quite well until I encountered a massive underground creature of some sort. I didn't manage to beat that before something came on TV. Still, I think I've got its number for next time.

This pick a game and knock it down down sort of approach is working well, and I'm looking forward to completing Gears of War. I certainly need to complete a few games relatively quickly, which probably won't happen, because it's not long before Mass Effect comes out, and once that hits my Xbox 360 it will probably dominate everything, a gaming Goliath that will trash everything in its path.