I’ve really been having fun with this Mass Effect game. Other than being periodically ninjamanced and having to ride over endless mountainous terrain in the annoying Mako, this game is definitely taking it’s place on my pedestal of “great Bioware games” along with the Baldur’s Gate series, Neverwinter Nights 1, and Jade Empire. Of course, those are every Bioware game I’ve played so far, so they really haven’t let me down yet. I’ve been playing this game almost exclusively for days.
I’d actually been interested in Mass Effect since before it was released. I would see things about it on the Bioware website and forums and I would have played it right when it came out except….I didn’t have an Xbox 360. At the time, Mass Effect was to be exclusive to the 360 and I only had a gaming PC and an original Xbox. I also hadn’t been planning on buying a 360, so I recall being very irked that it wasn’t coming out on the PC. Eventually, Bioware did release a PC version but by that time I was either deeply immersed in MMO’s and/or Oblivion and just never got around to buying or playing it.
Something inspired me to buy a 360 a couple years ago though. It was right when Modern Warfare 2 was released and there was a 360 elite Modern Warfare 2 bundle that seemed to be at a pretty good price for someone who no 360 or accessories. I bought it, played through the single player campaign of Modern Warfare 2, tried out Hexic HD, bought a few 360 games that included Mass Effect, and then got back to playing Everquest 2 (and sometimes Sims 3) for many months. Other than a couple fitness games with Kinect, the 360 was mostly idle.
In the past few months though, I’ve really started to enjoy playing more games on my 360, and it’s kind of weird that though I’d been so gung-ho about PC gaming vs. consoles, I’m actually kind of enjoying playing the games on the 360 more than on the PC. Maybe it’s because I actually like playing games with a controller, and the 360 controller is really nice even compared to other controllers I’ve used in the past. It’s also more mobile so I’m not stuck sitting in the chair like with the keyboard. Of course when it comes to game mods and modding, PC is still superior hands down.
So back to Mass Effect. I’m currently on my second playthrough. My first was with a male, default soldier, paragon Shepard, and my current is a female, adept + assault rifle, renegade Shepard. Although I’m having fun with this Shepard, the renegade options aren’t very natural for me and I’m glad I don’t know this Shepard b—- in real life because I’d really dislike her. I’m planning to make another paragon soldier later with singularity as his bonus skill, so I will be able to look forward to being less mean and nasty again for the future. 
I’m finally starting to like the adept class more now that I’ve built up more of the skills. Earlier in the game I would try the skills and it seemed rare that anything fascinating would happen. I’d recall Kaiden using a bunch of cool stuff when I was playing my soldier though, so waited it out to see if things got better and at last, they did! I’ll definitely be bringing this character over to Mass Effect 2 once she’s up to level 60. My goal is to have both a level 60 paragon and renegade to import to the next game. It will take a long time though as I’ll need multiple playthroughs for each to get to that point.
One thing that has happened with this character that has upset me a bit in real life (though my Shepard character is fine with it) is that she was mean to Tali and didn’t give her something that she needed and now Tali is mad with my Shepard and (rightfully) won’t talk to her except for this one snide sentence. The thing is that Tali is one of the two squadmates that I always bring on missions and it just feels weird and kind of upsetting to always have her there helping after what happened between her and Shepard. My current Shepard doesn’t care, of course, but I just feel horrible about it. She is such a meanie! So much stress for me with the renegade playthroughs!
