GameAlmighty reviews Mass Effect - 8.7/10

A great review of this great X360 game has come in.
This is what the reviewer said :-

" Planet exploration is honestly a blast, in my opinion. Bioware apparently knew that the planets weren't much to look at (look down more for those issues), and to make up for it, gave the player some sort of vehicle made of condensed FUN. This super-fast 6-wheeled tank+minigun, with rocket boosters, the best traction in the known universe, and an immunity to fall damage, is the single greatest vehicle I've had the pleasure of exploring stuff in. I spent hours climbing mountains, just because I could. "

[HarryEtTubMan]

"Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune thus succeeds in so many ways. It has the best console graphics to date, gob-smackingly good cutscenes, a modest yet twisting plot, an incredible soundtrack, perfect pacing and combat that you’ll want to keep returning to. Only the simplicity of the platforming and puzzling, as well as the slow paced jetski levels hold it back from being a perfected masterpiece. But if you don’t play this game, you really are missing out. You need to buy this game…right now."

hahahahahaha yea Gametrailers, IGN, and Ripten "just liked Uncharted better". I guess maybe they thought Drake wa cute? I think you and your crappy console can't stop being PWND!!!!! LMAAAOOOOOO Read this kids response its soooo funny!!!!!! Uncharted= Numero 1 until proven otherwise. And I'm willing to bet it will be another PS3 game ; ) Gonna be a long 2008 and beyond for the Xbots
Uncharted confirmed for a 3rd time as the Best console graphics on the market. This was also said by Gametrailers and Eurogamer. PWD XBOTX

It recieved a 9.4/10

PS3 IS NUMERO UNO LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[power of Green]

They were smoking Dope Uncharted looks like sh*t in my opinion.(Its just painted in, detail looks too drawn its too cartoony).

Uncharted has folds and wrinkles on clothing that just looks very poor for next-gen with all its lack of bump mapping piss poor lighting and HDR greatness.

They just liked UC better.

[wil4hire]

LACK OF:

Bump Mapping (as if modern games use this anymore?!?)
HDR Lighting

Uncharted has the most advanced normal mapping as well as displacement mapping for the environments. In place of lame BUMP MAPS. Everything is painted in Zbrush and the Uncharted engine applies the normal maps to the characters, and the displacement for the environment.

HDR Lighting is the ONLY thing lighting all of the scenes. There are area lights & volume lights for the interiors. BUt you can also use night time/noon time HDRI's to light darker scenes. So how can you say there is no HDR lighting? There are night time scenes, noon scenes, and as the map play goes longer the sun changes position. The game actually has "COOL" shadows in the evening, and warm shadows when the sun up. It even has a mixture of the two in real time. THis is exactly the result we try to attain while lighting using an HDRI map.

My Background is Visual FX. Where I currently work as a 3d Generalist and a Vfx Compositor at Digital Domain. I've recently worked on Pirates of The Caribbean among other films.I've been working in this industry for 5 years.

Why do you feel like you have to make up nonsense about this game? Uncharted has all of the things you mentioned plus some. It is the BEST example of next gen gaming. Very High Resolution texture maps. That not only have a diffuse channel, but they also are reflective. There is NO such thing as specularity, so Uncharted uses reflection maps to drive all of the glints of light on the rocks.

You really do appear to just make stuff up as you go along. Every reviewer that has reviewed this game has commended Naughty DOg on creating the best looking game out on consoles right now, along with solid story and gameplay mechanics.

There are no loading hallways and elevators here. Everything is streaming, and they have pulled it off flawlessly. Much like Bioshock where the first seconds of a new map fill in. Unlike Mass Effect to where there is noticeable stutter and framedips or... you are waiting to load.

The game doesn't look good to you, thats not surprising. Very odd, but not surprising. No Review of this game has knocked the visuals, or the gameplay. Just the story or the single player aspect.

Cartoony Textures? The game uses 2000x2000 resolution texture maps for its characters. Even larger resolution textures combined with procedural elements for the Environment. These are all taken from 4000x4000 rock/terrain/skin reference images.

It is the same exact process we do for our texturing and lighting.

I also see that youa re trying your hardest to take a crack at the Folding of the clothing... Once again Naughty Dog has used the exact same methods that we do. Instead of actually calculating cloth dynamics, we use a combination of Normal Maps & literally deforming wrinkles into the mesh to aid whichever bones are being bent. In this case, once again... Nathan Drake has over 30 different seamless wrinkle transitions. These are all using the same high res model of his shirt to create. Reviews have already commended Naughty Dog on this as well.

I am really looking forward to seeing WHERE you got your information that Uncharted doesn't use "BUMP" maps or HDR lighting.

You have permission to knock Uncharted because it isn't your type of game.

Do not attempt to try and make everyone believe that you have any idea about what goes into these games.

Uncharted is a technical Masterpiece. It is F L A W L E S S. Every review has said so. I keep mentioning reviews, because its all you xbots go on.

edit @ firstknight:

And what does any of what I said.. have to do with a "purchase" Its all facts. SOmething that you guys cant deal with

POG claims the game has no bump mapping, or HDR. It does.

[Korosuke]

why do you bring uncharted here ? what a useless thing you did.
mass effect and uncharted, both games released a same timing but totally different genre.
no need to compare, both games are great, that's all.

[FirstknighT]

You have to excuse Wii4hire. He continuously shows his frustration on here with his purchase.

[snoop_dizzle]

Mass effect is a pretty good game with some issues. Textures take a few seconds to load, and thats about it for me at least, other people have had worse issues however.

AS for uncharted, once i have enough money, I'm getting it. It was either uncharted or cod4. i picked cod4. I could wait till Christmas but i don't want to wait that long. I really want to play it.

anyways that went off topic. Yes indeed an 8.7 is just terrible, just terrible....how will i survive?

[FirstknighT]

HAHA, I guess Shmee/Nasim is trying his hardest to bring this title down. And I guess and 8.7 is the best he can do. Thanks for the great review Shmee! The majority of reviews have given this game low 9's with the minorty of high 8's. AAA confirmed!!!

Looks like Shmee is finally jumping in!

92% average baby! No ps3 exclusive can say that! :)

[Charlie2688]

My copy of Mass Effect should be arriving in a few days (monday?) I cant wait to play it :)

a disagree? I guess it wont be monday then?

[remix]

it probably truly is a great for those that are into this type of stuff.
props where props is do. this game seems to be one of those games where the expierence as a whole overshadows the faults but still no game deserves a 10.
good job bioware.

at first night, shut the hell up with your fanboyism. thats why you cant even respond to wildfires comment intelligently. truth is, you dont know shi*. get off of this site please

[greenenvy]

the petition is now officially up online!!!

http://www.petitiononline.c...

sign it and pass the word, this is going up on 100+ safelists, the editor's inbox will be FULL!!!!!

LETS LET OUR VOICES BE HEARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[gamesblow]

My problems playing Mass Effect were simply the system couldn't handle the game like it was meant to. It's frame rate and pop in and just sloppy performance overall, not to mention the noise factor at which it makes the xbox 360 run... really shows you how hard the game is making the 360 work to pull off even what we get.

Graphically, Mass effect is solid... It's not near Uncharted. The lighting you wanna talk about in Uncharted, well... MAss Effects HDR isn't half as intricate. Uncharted has wowed so many people who come in to see it at my store. It's the game people are askin.. what is thaT? Mass Effect... They're not.

[wil4hire]

Those guys act as if every single review for this game HASN'T mentioned the technical complications and failures that they choose to ignore. The 360 cant handle this one, and if this one is "next gen" well..

well..

[InMyOpinion]

It's too obvious that you haven't played it and are just in here to flame.

[Agent VX]

LOL, is this a joke response. Don't be jealous that Mass Effect is a "AAA" exclusive for the 360, and Uncharted is just an "AA" exclusive for the PS3.

That's right, professional reviewers all say Mass Effect owns Uncharted, so your opinion which might be seen as important to people like your mother, really is unwarrented.

Mass Effect >>> Uncharted. Sorry sport, them the facts....

[power of Green]

LOL You PS3 fanboys are comming in here to spite this game because KillZone 2 looks like a PS2 game.

[sephy 9 2 5]

Yeah okay....

[rowdy 1]

You're a complete brainwashed tool. Uncharted is a visual masterpiece and the gameplay and story are just in your face awesome. And to say KZ2 looks like a PS2 game is fukin stupid on you're part, get your head out of whoever's ass you got it in and just except that these games look good, and play good. Plus no one has even really seen KZ2 to say anything about it,a nd since they did come close to matching the CG trailer I'd say it's far from looking like a PS2 game. Man you show your intelligence everytime you type.

[Agent VX]

Confirmed Mass Effect - "AAA" Material.

Metacritic has this game at a 92%, a sure winner. Had a chance to play it for an hour at my cousins place, and it's a fantastic game with awsome graphics.

Although 360 owners get another "AAA" exclusive, the poor PS3 owners are still looking for their first "AAA" exclusive. Uncharted, HS, Lair and, R & C all failed to deliver.

[RadientFlux]

Uncharted and R&C are definitly AAA (I know since I've played both). The whole argument that "the PS3 has no good games" is as old as the whole XBOX360 only has FPS".

[THE TERMINATOR]

Mass Effect is crap, very mixed reviews definately not AAA sorry. With all its problems (framerate, slowdown bad loading and texture pop in) the limit of 360 has already been reached. 2008 doesnt look very bright for this console.