Just wanted to wish everyone here on Gamespot happy holidays, and Merry Christmas. I'll be writing an update soon to let you know the goodies I recieved.

I realize that in my previous post I may have sounded a little too...condescending with Mass Effect. While I was writing the blog I did feel like Mass Effect in some way had let me down, if I recall I may have been "slightly dissappointed." Well in my 23rd hour of playing Mass Effect I can say that I'm enjoying the game to it's fullest. I just needed to learn how to effectively play the game.

Well let me get to the meat of this blog. I was playing Mass Effect oh say an hour ago...I had just landed on a world which held the objectives to the sidequest I was actively engaged in. I noticed that the game had been loading alot more, taking brief pauses everytime I entered a new area or went onto the galaxy map. The game had just given me the reigns of the game after a cutscene...that *sigh*...was when it happened. Not a second after I resumed control, everything went dark, my tv shutoff, and up came 3 red lights that I prayed I would never EVER see.

Yep. I caught the 3 Lights of Death....my reaction was instant, vulgar, and very loud. What's mind boggling is that my 360 is an Elite, everyone I talk to is surprised that my Elite got the 3LD (3 lights of death). I asked everyone why and supposedly the Elite somehow is "unable" to get the 3LD, and if that's true how come I was so lovingly graced with those deathly red illuminations. Well I powered down, and turned the 360 back on and it seemed to be fine, but I know "fine" is just an illusion...I honestly don't know what to do right now...I really don't want to send my 360 in to be repaired for obvious reasons...and I don't know if the elites are still around for purchase...I wonder what effects will happen if I ignore it and continue to play like it never happened.

If anyone can give me some insight as to why the Elites supposedly can't get the lights of death, please let me know.

You know it really is disturbing when you buy a game, experience its brilliant concepts and then feel slightly...if ever so slightly...dissappointed. I got Mass Effect today, I had to skip getting it on its release day due to financial reasons. I immeadiately popped that sucker into the disc tray, fired up and began my galactic career. Right from the get go I loved the game, amazing graphics, a deep epic story. During the first few hours of play I was in absolute bliss. Then I started noticing things, things in games that usually don't bother me unless it happens frequently...and it happened frequently. Don't worry, I'm not saying that Mass Effect is a bad game, no far from it...I am in fact theorizing as to how Mass Effect can be so utterly entrancing, and yet...it suffers from graphical glitches and framerate hiccups. By my 6th hour into the game the game these hitches were torturing me left and right. The texture pop in happens almost every second of the game. Say you look at one character, you turn your point of view, then return it to that same character, and most likely that character will most likely be the victim of an extreme amount of pop in. I'm not talking about the slight details of the face, I'm talking about the major texture in any and all objects. You will also notice that the game at points will constantly have to load, and that during almost every battle the framerate dips...whether it be major or miniscule. Although I can understand why there are so many glitches, hitches and bugs.

It literally is the Galaxy. Yes all who have played the game will know that Mass Effect is a really, really, really, REALLY big game. You'll travel across our entire galaxy playing this game. It's the scope...the magnitude of this game can sometimes...well most times cause these graphical distortions. It's funny actually, the game is so huge, so epic, that sometimes the game needs to catch its own breath. Oh well...the sooner you move past the glitches the more you'll enjoy the experience.

Tuedsday night the Sci-Fi channel had this show about Mass Effect. It was called Sci-vs-Fi, and it was about comparing the elements found in Mass Effect with the elements of space in real life. I didn't watch the entire show...actually I watched probably about 3 minutes worth of it. And in those three minutes, it was a bunch of people from the gaming community (developers in Bioware, magazine editors, those idiots over at IGN, even someone from G4 *shock*) talking about how big the game was, how different it can be for different people. There was one quote that caught my interest. I forget who said it but whoever it was, was referring to ME's combat system, and the statement was: "You can play the game different ways, you can play like a chess player, or you can play...like a Halo player." This sentence...is the biggest LIE. I tried it...I tried to fight in Mass Effect like I would fight in Halo...and guess what...I got murdered everytime I even THOUGHT about trying to run and gun. No, to succeed in combat you must play as the chess player, strategizing each and every move, then executing them with startling efficiency.

Besides those two lil'...nitpicks aside, Mass Effect is excellent, it's a fun new experience. I truly appreciate that BioWare made this game so epic on a grand scale.