The Mass Effect...Affect.

It’s 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night, and I’m playing Mass Effect. I’ve been sitting in the same seat for 4 hours now!? When it dawn on me maybe I play video games entirely to much. Granted I’m on vacation this week so I can spend my time doing whatever the hell I please, but still I got Mass Effect on Saturday and only played for 2 hours and on Sunday morning I played for another 3. Okay see right there that doesn’t seem like a lot, but I just went to save my game and happened to look at the time played and it says 19 hours. 19 hours that means means within the course of 2 days I managed to log 14 hours of gameplay for 1 game. Here’s the strange part, within those 2 days I also played Rockband, Call of Duty 4, and Call of Juarez(nobody should ever play this game); and picked up Anti-freeze and de-icer for my car and got a new tire for my car. Also it should be noted that this is the first night in over a week that I have been on my Xbox 360 past 10 p.m..

This article came about because, when I bought Mass Effect or rather my girlfriend bought Mass Effect to keep me occupied on my vacation while she was at work, I was flipping through the booklet for the game or the manual for my new wireless headset I know I had seen it only now I CAN NOT FIND IT ANYWHERE, and it said that you shouldn’t play any game for more than 3 hours and that every hour you should take a 15 minute break. And I’m sitting here like WTBF man, anymore time spent playing this game and reality is totally going to start to fucking warp. It’s games like Mass Effect that this warning is for, once you get into the swing of thing you start to zone out, and next thing you know 7 hours of your life just disappeared but you racked up some sweet achievement points though.

Although there is no multiplayer, this game can fully engulf your time like CoD4. The story-line is fantastic, the choices you make about your character in the beginning of the game aren’t just for show. Throughout the game at various points your backstory is brought up in friendly and not-so friendly conversation. The classification system is pretty cool, based on your picks in the beginning of the game you are giving certain weapons that you are “trained” for. That’s not to say that you don’t acquire other weapons as you progress and level up, your just not “trained” for their use. Basically your redical takes up the entire screen so you have no idea where your really aiming. Its a pretty badass idea because if you want to get each of the weapon, tech and biotics achievements your going to have to play more than once. Like a lot of games that are played most people don’t want to play the story mode again, that is not the case with Mass Effect. With roughly two dozen main missions, and almost 60 side quests with 3 different way to interact with each character throughout the game (5 counting your special convo skills when you reach the proper levels) it’s hard to get tired of it and want to turn the game off.

Whether your a fan of RPG’s, Sci-Fi or not into those genres at all, the immersive story and seamless gameplay make this a must have for anyone who is a true gamer. At the time of finishing this review/article it’s 2 in the morning I have already finished 3 Rockstar energy drinks, Top Ramen Cup o noodle soup (beef flavor of course) and every part of my body is numb, I’m exhausted and now I’m going to play some CoD4 i have to level myself back up because I caved to the peer pressure from my clan and started prestige mode even though I swore I wouldn’t because it took me to long to get to level 55, what can I say I’m weak willed. (As I finished that last sentence I saved my game I have close to 21 hours logged but seeing as how when I die or mess up I reload, the time played before the load doesn’t count so in essence I have well over 25 hours of game time in Mass Effect.)