Only just started playing this so won't look around in this thread too much. I have to say though, in terms of transfering the way locales look in artwork into a physical 3D space and maintaining hues, lighting, framing and mood, some places in this game are absolutely, gob smackingly STUNNING. It's kinda too bad that you don't have a lot of reason to stick around on the citadel or in the different club environments, because they are completely breathtaking.

I don't think any game has managed to retain an almost hand crafted/artwork look this well since Bioshock. Super impressive.

Haha, game already comes on two discs. Game of the year edition would have to have TV series style packaging.

I'll tell you what doesn't look good though; anything the Illusive Man does.

Seriously, what... it's.. like.. why.. okay.. look. That model isn't great, let's just say, and as it turns out, neither is any of the associated animation or clipping. Every. Single. Time. he takes a smoke they zoom into his low res, pastey looking face as he awkwardly jams the cigarette anywhere except convincingly between his lips. Sometimes you can see, clear as day, the butt of it just sticking out of his chin, in a lingering "he's so cool he just sits there and fucking smokes" shot.. Well it would be cooler if he HADN'T IMPALED HIMSELF.

Oh and if you're real lucky you'll get a similarly moody shot of him pouring himself a drink through the nose.

I mean there's always wonkyness when polygon people do stuff that requires physical contact and/or convincing friction (unless the game is visual juggernaut Uncharted 2, of course) but it's kinda unflattering to essentially have a character that is ALL about moody closeups look like garbage *in closeups*.

Even Shenmue broke out the special occasion model for pore-exploringly intimate camera shenanigans, and this guy could certainly need one of those.

So there, excercise in making a relatively small problem seem big by writing elaborate post about it. Psst. I'm actually finding this game quite the looker, apart from that. I maintain that some areas look shockingly close to how you imagine the artist pictured it when drawing the scenes. I got the LE so I actually have some artwork for comparison, and I actually don't think there is a better example of artwork jumping onto the screen out there. Possibly Rayman 2 or King Kong.

How would you possibly ruin the overarching narrative of Mass Effect though? What is there to even ruin? In Mass Effect 2 I didn't feel like *anything* from the first game was of any real consequence. At least nothing that couldn't be summed up in a brief exposition scene or showing that hey, this model is in this game instead of this other model!

Just in terms of what ultimately actually is happening, in the bigger picture, these games really are astonishingly simple.