Oh you. You game. You wondrous game. How you only get better after each completion. Finally I'm up to the insane difficulty. You show your true colours. Wait, wait, let's start from the beginning...

I do mean choosing the only beginning that's awesome. The survivor scenario. Your squad burned, perhaps by your hand? It matters not, you are scarred from the experience in the end. Your life changed and nobody can trust you. Will you reveal your darkly sick side or your sickly angel from the outfield god-like personality. What shall it be? It matters not, you will save the galaxy. As poor Jenkins will always die, much like Aerith, you will never be able to rescue him from his lack of cover. (He just runs out there! You idiot, why?)

I served the universe well. I completed every mission I could scavenge. I became a paragon and a renegade. I've fallen from grace as well as I have risen above the call of duty. I just wonder how much it really mattered. Do I really care about the council? Well, in some "make your own world" games it seems, you really have a lot of influence on absolutely everything. Sometimes it seems even the smallest thing you do can have everlasting effects. However in Mass Effect the biggest choices you can make are whether you wanna be a complete dick to your teammates or totally get some with them. Well that and you get to pick who is in charge of the council (or takes its place). It seems in the world of Mass Effect the only two places that show their age are your ship and the Citadel.

Is this meant to send the player message, like "the universe never changes, only your next door neighbor," hm? I wonder. Well... there's one thing terribly wrong with this universe and only one thing. Its limitations. The game slows down to crawl, walking around bumpy surfaces can be terrifying (apparently your character cannot walk up hills inclined above 30 degrees), and surfaces constantly become blurry and strange. I believe that as beautiful as this game is it cannot keep up with itself. Due to that fact, the amount of data apprently was limited as to reduce in-game lag. The "real" choices you make that have any real impact on the outcome of the game could be counted using just my eyes.

I'm very dissappointed in this games many (and I did mean many) tiny glitches and the result of attempting to limit all those glitches. However, I do love the style and strategy this game contains, especially when you reach Hardcore, but the trip is so well traveled by then is it worth it?