My sister got me a best buy $50 gift card a few days ago and I can't decide which of the following game(s) to buy with it.

- Mass Effect ($50)
- Crysis ($50)
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare ($50)
- Unreal Tournament 3 ($20) + KotOR 2: Sith Lords ($20)
- Something else (you suggest the game)

I'm sold to Mass Effect personally. While it doesn't have the replay value of, say, UT3, it is an amazing ride and an excellently crafted Sci-fi adventure.

No matter what, I would say 20$ for KOTRO2 is a waste of money. The half-assed/broken game is just not worth it unless you really want a force powertrip. And even then, if you have an x360, I'd suggest waiting for September 16th and Force Unleashed.

My vote is for Call of Duty 4, although I was tempted to recommend Mass Effect. The reason I'm going for CoD 4 is that, although it's fairly short, it doesn't have one bad level, some of the cutscenes are intense, and the ending was really rather sad. Which is way more than I'd come to expect from the series. Also, Veteran difficulty is absolutely insane, which should make up for the overall length.

BIOSHOCK [/color][/b]

I need to get around to playing that game.

Mass Effect. The dialogue and story progression is just like KotOR, so you'll feel right at home if you liked that. It's a little short compared to KotOR, and the side quests can be repetitive, but if you do it right, these two complaints will balance each other out. Mass Effect has my favorite shotgun out of any shooter. It's actually effective further than three feet in front of you (much further in fact), and you can kill almost anything in one shot if you outfit it right.

Mass Effect was a great story. Equally great gameplay, but not really any replay. I have yet to get around to downloading the new free mission/quest from Bioware. I would say getting it on PC would be better if you have a machine that will run it.

I'm running a Intel E6750, 2gb ram, 8800gt and with all the graphical bells and whistles on at a moderate res never had a single slowdown outside of the citadel...

I think you can get 1-3 runs out of the game if you are the type who likes to experience various classes.

Example, I played as an infiltrator and my play through was mostly done with sniper rifles and sabotaging people's shields and weapons while my team mates Soldier and Krogan Battlemaster) moed others. A few different teams could be interesting to try out, not to mention the various twists and turns in the storyline (though the results are generally the same). There are some fun things to experience, since you have a choice in the order of missions.

Example (minor spoiler) you'll get different reactions and interaction if you visit a certain NPC with her daughter in your group, and if you do so without her. Essentially the results become the same, but its fun to see both. I guess its a little deeper than KotOR, but in a similar style : Variations in turns of events, different endings, but generally a typical result.

I always liked the options you can in the final hour of the game.

I've only played through once now, and talking about it is making me want to start up a soldier and see that shotgun action for myself.

I've always planned to play a Bruce Willis look-alike type of soldier character, and then a female biotech (magic!).

I'm on my third playthrough, this time as a Soldier with Singularity unlocked. That's another nod to the replay value: Most of the achievements actually unlock bonuses for future games. 150 kills with a weapon will unlock that weapon, 75 uses of a power gets you that power, beating the game with more shield damage taken than health gives you a permanent shield buff, etc. I love it, and I wish more games used achievements like this.

Whoa, I didn't know that! How fun, its making me wish I'd paid more attention to that on my first play through. I think I got the sniper and pistol achievements, along with the rich one.

I do know that the rich achievement unlocked some equipment vendors on the citadel.

Yes, the best guns in the game, and they will now always be available to you. I think they range from about 250k to 600k space bucks.

You can only use one weapon/power unlock per character, so use the one you'll really want. Adept with a Shotgun was pretty fun, but a smarter person might have chosen Sniper Rifle.

Haddock IV.

Well I've done the sniper thing and that was really fun, but now I wanna try something a little more up in your face.

While Mass Effect is good, Call of Duty 4 has about 3 times more play time from me than Mass Effect. I'm willing to bet it's the most fun multiplayer game I've ever played.

Do you play on Xbox Live? (Or did you get the pc version?)

I've been hoping to get into a good multiplayer game on live, and as much as I liked gears, it seemed to be ruined by tons of morons just using glitches and exploits.

For Mass Effect, there's also a difference depending on which order you complete the first three planet missions. Basically, go find Liara's dig site last and see how she's coped with being stuck in that Prothean defence mechanism during the time you've been screwing around on Noveria and Feros. . It's only a small difference in the direction the conversation goes, really, but it's pretty interesting.

I highly recommend Call of Duty 4. It has a great single player with good story and requires you to actually push forward and risk getting your butt shot off instead of the typical formula of "enter area, kill everything, go to next area, kill everything, etc etc" that most shooters have. In many areas if you do not forcefully push forward, you will not advance in the game. The multiplayer is also really fun and keeps you playing with a system that allows you to unlock many different weapons and bonuses called "perks". It also has a rank levelling system(it's how you get new weapons and perks) and has Challenges, basically the same as Xbox Achievements.

I do not know much about UT3, but from what I heard it might as well be a remake of UT2k4. KotOR2, it's not bad if you enjoy Star Wars games, but you'll spend most of the game switching back and forth between being nigh invincible to being as impotent as a child with a glow stick. Smart career and power choices can help alleviate the latter part of the issue.

Crysis is a really good game. Not as good as CoD4, but good. They basically took FarCry, stuck it with steroids, and gave you an AI intelligent enough to kill you if you screw up. If you enjoyed FarCry, get Crysis. Just make sure your computer can run it. My laptop is a year old and can run it fine, but I didn't get to see all the pretty extras in the graphics. Still looks good on minimum settings though. IMO, don't get this game for the multiplayer. It's kind of retarded. It tries to rip off Battlefield 2, but does a poor job of it.

I can't recommend Mass Effect. I'm a shooter, but I do play some RPGs simply because I love good storylines and let's face it, shooters aren't usually known for mind blowing storylines. The reason I don't play more RPGs is because they all seem to have a hard-on for ridiculously restrictive combat systems that require more number crunching than actual combat. What I like about Mass Effect is that it takes the story and class elements of RPGs and combines them with the combat aspects of a shooter: can be fast paced while still tactical and a little bit of skill is involved. Now, while Mass Effect has a great storyline, it has one big glaring flaw that breaks it imo: it's too short and full of filler. The main storyline can be beaten in no time at all and in order to lengthen the game, the developer decided to throw in random side quests and pointless exploration. However, if you do decide to go for Mass Effect, I urge you to have biotics in your party as immobilizing your enemies while you kill them is pretty much all the friendly AI is good at(I recommend the cop and the mercenary, both aliens, forgot their names). They left their brains at home.


(I double post and don't even realize it. wtf... >.< )

[CENTER] SPORE [/SIZE][/CENTER][/U][/I][/B]

COD 4 is a GREAT multiplayer game, but I whizzed through the single player mode in a single day. It's really not much... Mass Effect took me about a week. (2-4 hours a day)

edit:

I also started as an infiltrator, however my rifle barely ever left my back. The pistol does almost anything you need it to with the right power-ups.

I played Infiltrator as well. It is a class that definitely starts slow, what with having to pump up pistol to improve you sniper rifle and needing to max out Intimidate/Charm, Decryption, and Electronics ASAP if you want to get the most out of the game, but once I got later on in the game I was picking off enemies with the sniper rifle like they were plastic targets. Kind of wish I had gone with Vanguard, though. I would have both a close range and a medium-long range weapon(shotgun/pistol) instead of two long range weapons and it seems the biotics powers are better than the tech powers.

Eh, do you get the achievments/unlocks on the PC Version?. I finished it and got nothing.

Try playing it on Veteran mode. People need to stop being panzies and playing war games on easy/normal difficulties. Hard and Veteran modes are where it's at, it's a whole new game filled with strategic planning, patience, and survival.

Which game are you talking about?

Yes there are achievements on the PC version... Not sure about unlocks.



I don't play 'war games' (AKA FPSers) for the barely immersive story or AI(Almost Intelligent). I play the SP mode most of the time just to learn how the game works, then play Multiplayer. Whats the point of FPS singleplayer anyways? As good as Mass Effect was (being a first/third person adventure shooter) it would have been far better with an online co-op system.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPKvwd9vJZY

Ok.

Mass Effect? You will have gotten something. Go into Options on the Main Menu (right after the "Press Any Key" title screen, not after loading a game) and then Achievements. Scroll across the medals and they'll tell you how to get them. You won't find out what they do until after you've achieved them, however. Some of them don't come with any bonuses, but most do.

That's a shame, because in this case, you really missed out. I normally don't play SP either, but I ended up playing it for CoD4 on the insistence of my friend. It's an absolutely incredible single player game, but you need to play on a higher difficulty.

IS AWFUL

Dont bother with Crysis either, the designs of the aliens are so bad I want to cry

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

Video games are a medium for story telling, you can't tell a story the same way with multiplayer.

coop

I've played Mass Effect way too much... I'm trying to get a Level 60 character in every class. Vanguard, Soldier, Infiltrator and Adept are all awesome if you play them right, Engineer is pretty poor, and I haven't tried Sentinel.

But yeah, get Mass Effect. And if you don't, get Call of Duty 4.

Hmm, I guess it's between either mass effect of call of duty 4 then. I guess I'm going to grab some dice to decide on those two because both games look good to get.

As for Bioshock and Spore, I already own Bioshock and Spore's Creature Creator. I might get spore when it comes out next month just to justify the price of Creature Creator since that tool by itself was a waste of money.

Mass Effect is cheaper, get that.

Best Buy only, I'm trying to make use of the gift card.

I miss Bioshock.