Play Magazine Reviews Mass Effect - 8.5 *Contains Spoilers*

Play Magazine writes:

"Space is not a bad place to be." Please note that this review contains what some may think to be minor or major spoilers. If you do not want to know about any plot points, please do not read the review. This review is better intended for those who have played the game.

[ktchong]

It gave Lair 90%!

And the same magazine also gave 10/10 to Heavenly Sword, Ratchet & Clank Future, and Uncharted - *ALL* of them!

I looked up Play Magazine's review history at Metacritic, and I discovered that the magazine has NOT given any Xbox 360 game a 10/10, not one, not recently since August. NOT BioShock. NOT Halo 3. NOT The Orange Box.

Yet Play gave 10/10 to at least three PS3 games during the same period.

Hm. Strange... very suspicious.

P.S. Nice story image.

[toughNAME]

I look forward to see if the 360 camp will sink as low and the Sony boys

hmm...

[Douchebaggery]

I thought conspiracy theories were reserved for Sony fanboys

[iceice123]

There isn't one. You give Lair a 9.5 and ME an 8.5 and all other PS3 games a 10 it is painfully obvious they're biased.

[Method]

I thought this was already common knowledge.

Ratchet and Clank & Uncharted both perfect 10's?

Epic Lulz.

[razer]

Their PS3 fanboys or they were paid off by Sony.

Any freakin mag that can give that giant piece of crap Lair a 9.5 is total garbage.

360 owners BOYCOTT THIS MAGAZINE!!! Let's get a petition going quick!

(sarcasm)

[C_SoL]

explain G4's and gamespots X360 reviews....like Killzone devs said:u pay the reviewer more money the more likely that game will get a better review score & u know what that would lead too: more sales...but yet it seems like play mag pefers PS games...i doubt that they're getting paid though..but i must agree that lair doesn't deserve a 9.5 maybe a 7.5....like i said R&C doesn't deserve a 7.5(GAMESPOT)

but you xbots r just mad cause this review destorys the average score of Mass Effect, so it ain't a triple A period haha, i'm just saying by ur beliefs Xbots. but ur beliefs are wrong cause a review is a persons opinion of the game...but don't believe me this is not a AAA.

[ngg12345]

I am sorry, but 10's for every ps3 game, and low grades for every xbox game.

[sheng long]

play magazine goes way back, didn't they used to be gamers republic?
I actually agree with the 8.5 given to ME, what did they give to bioshock? the game truly deserves a 10/10, but if they gave it a 9 or 9.5 then it's still a great score.

[ktchong]

But do you agree with Play Magazine giving 9/10 to Lair and 10/10 to Heavenly Sword?

9.5. To Lair.

Play Magazine does give out 10/10... but just not to any Xbox 360 game, obviously.

It's okay to give 8.5 to Mass Effect. There are currently about 5 magazines/sites that give a score below 9 to Mass Effect. (5 out of 38 sites.) However, the weirdest thing is that Play is NOT known for having a high standard. Play is NOT like GameSpot or Edge (those guys are harsh - but they are some of the respectable sites. You have to respect GameSpot and Edge for being consistently harsh.) But Play actually gave 9.5 to Lair, and then a series of 10/10 to all recent PS3 exclusives. During the same time, it did not give a single 10/10 to any Xbox 360 games. Not even one. Not even BioShock or Orange Box. Don't you think that's just... unusual?

[AnalFace]

Well.... sometimes you have to take it. lol

[ChronoTrigger87]

a 9.5 for Lair isn't. lol lair was not even close to being a 8.5 forget a 9... so yes, even though im a ps fan, this score for ME is bogus.

[Shadow Man]

i believe ME deserves this score at best it's relatively fun but KOTOR rocks this game and the visual glitches and frame rate make it almost unbareable at times maybe the second will be better

[sheng long]

hell no, i'd give lair a 7.5 max, which is a respectable score.
I love the hack n' slash genre and to me heavenly sword is a 9.0 the only thing holding it back is game length.
the only games i feel deserve a 10/10 this year that i own are bioshock and Uncharted.

[giovonni]

that COD4 is a game that should be GOTY listed too.

[giovonni]

I careless, I give ME a 9.5, and that's because it made me look at RPG's in a different light. I could careless what a magazine gives a game really, as specially in these console war times. they gave a great score to dead rising, and i thought it wasn't that good. the only games I've played that I can say should have 10's were Halo, Mario 3, Super Castlevania, Mike Tyson's Punch out, Zelda for Nintendo 64 and Wii, Gears of War God of war, Get what I'm saying.These magazine writers are like our friends trying to hook us up on a blind date are you going to trust his judgment, or try it out and make up your own grade?

[cherdman]

Anyone that reviews Mass Effect less than a 9 is an utter moron. And an udder.

[Hadtosay]

The same could be said for anyone giving Uncharted less then a 9.5.

[ktchong]

According to Metacritic:

Only TWO reviews give Uncharted over 95%. 2 out of 26 reviews - that is less than 1% of all reviews give Uncharted a score of 95% or better. One of them is from Play Magazine, which also gives 95% to Lair and 100% to Heavenly Sword. That pretty much speaks for the quality of Play Magazine's reviews. The other one is Cheat Code Center, which gives 96% to Uncharted. That is the only two reviews that gives 95% or better to Uncharted, out of 26 reviews.

Mass Effect got 16 reviews that are over 95%, out of 44 reviews. one-third of all reviews give Mass Effect a score of 95% and better. 15% give Mass Effect 100%. Which reviews give Mass Effect over 95%? GameInformer, GameTrailers, GameSpy, Pro-G, GameDaily, GameDaily, G4, GamePro, ...

[bumnut]

The world is too sparsley populated to be believable.
you go to a space station and there are about 10 people on it, it is not very impressive.

And you can only land on 1 planet in each system, it is not as free roaming as we were led to believe.

If you land on a planet you drive round for 20 mins, kill a few bad guys, pickup a first aid kit and then leave.

7/10 max in my opinion

[Lordimus]

I disagree with the fact that PLAY feels the need to spoil most of the key events ME in their review. Why would someone go watch a movie if the critic states a bunch of situations that are supposed to be experienced and not told.

I think ME is an amazing game. It held my interest all the way through. For a new IP I think Bioware did an incredible job. I would lean to a 9 score myself but 8.5 still is fine so long as you explain it better then PLAY does.

PLAY also over does it with the love triangle comments. The romantic interests in the game hardly take center stage. In fact you might not even have an interaction at all if you don't pursue it directly. According to PLAY it seems as though all the player does is talk and experience soft porn which is a shame.

Reviewers should focus on trying to enjoy a game instead of just flying through them. How can you feel anything for a game or it's world if your on a deadline and must rush to complete it? Gaming to me isn't work, i don't listen to reviews that don't seem well thought out and comprehensive.

[wangdiddy82]

Play usually gives high scores to games..

Mass effect is so over rated.. Good luck on getting through this whole game.. Make sure u have a lot of red bull and cocaine so u can stay awake.. Im tired of all these crappy 360 games getting so over rated and the truly suck balls.. Halo 3 is halo 2. mass effect is mass boring with glitches up the a$$..

360 tag bigdaddycrosby

ps3 wangdiddy

[Mucudadada]

Play game Gears a 10 out of 10
Play gave Halo 3 a 9 out of 10
Play gave Bioshock a 9.5 out of 10

And you cry foul after one review? Maybe you should all realize that game reviews are mostly opinions. Why did Lair get a 9.5? Maybe the reviewer liked it. I know a lot of people that liked it and would rate it that high. Same thing with Heavenly Sword. Maybe Mass Effect just let them down a little and wasn't' exactly the Play reviewer's thing. People need to see that reviews are more about telling you the content of the game, as opposed to telling you if the game is good or not (The media is making it into a "BUY THIS" fest in recently). If you like what you read, you buy the game. Me? Well, that's why demo's are bliss :)

We need to all do ourselves a favor and not let this blow up like the RatcheT/Gamespot fiasco.

[ktchong]

Play Magazine's unusual "pattern" started back in August of this year, when they reviewed Lair.

If you look at all the review scores, Play is the ONLY one that gives Lair 90%, the ONLY one that gives 100% to Heavenly Sword, the ONLY one that gives 100% to Uncharted.

NO other reviewer - NOT a single other reviewer - give 100% to Heavenly Sword or Uncharted.

NO other reviewer - NOT a single reviewer - gives 90% to Lair.

On the other hand, with all the 10/10 Xbox 360 games have been getting recently, Play Magazine has not given one -- not even one -- 10/10 to any Xbox 360 game.

That is something very odd there.

[aggh im on fire]

Reviews seem all over the place lately. I mean look at Edge giving 'Bladestorm' 8 out of 10...whats that all about.
Having played Mass Effect i admit it does have some problems though nothing that ruins the game. Its because the game exceeds in so many areas that these niggles can be overlooked. Is COD4 a rubbish game because of the infinite enemies with unlimited grenades and terrible A.I?....No. Its still a good game because the good outshines the bad. Same goes for Mass Effect.