Best video game ever

Basically, use this topic to advertize your absolute favorite game. Do include a reason why you believe it's so great.

Here's mine!

Spoiler:

I can go on forever about my favorite video games but I think I'll just talk about Mass Effect for now.

Mass Effect is probably one of the best games I've ever played. Not often do you see a main character as moldable as Commander Sheperd. Your character is plain and simple, a badass, and they let you know it. You're the toughest of the tough, always get the job done no matter how much the odds are stacked against you, even eluding death. Bioware does a fantastic job helping you identify with this badass. Not only do you make his/her appearance, but every little choice is yours and it's not just one of those good, bad, and neutral pathways, there are plenty of options that don't exactly lean one way or the other. They leave you to decide whether it was right or not. There is the Paragon and Renegade things but they aren't exactly good or bad. Either way you're out to save everyone, but it's just how you go about it whether being a very by the book, righteous hero, or a bit of a wise ass rough hero who does what he want's necessary even if people are sacrificed. The story really pulls you in with every choice you make, especially since they all effect the story as a whole. All your choices come back to grace you, or haunt you in the sequels. Even the smallest things will reappear in Mass Effect 2 and the soon to be released Mass Effect 3. Did Wrex survive the mission on Ilos? Did you release the Rachni Queen or brutally destroy her? Did you completely pwn that reporter lady in the face? Everything makes an impact. Also in the second game there isn't a single character on your ship that's immune to death, not even you, and after all you go through with your team you really feel like you've lost someone close to you when someone dies. Did I mention you could have crazy hot inter-species alien sex? :3

I've gone on for a bit about the story stuff, but how is the gameplay? It's damn excellent. You get 2 squadmates on every mission so choose wisely for the threats you have to face. If you know you're going up against the zombie like husks you're probably going to want someone with lots of fire damage to take out armor and health such as mordin and his fire blast thingyand perhaps someone good for crowd control like Jack with her shockwave ability. If you're going to be fighting lots of robots however, you should go with a character like Tali and her tech abilities and hacking prowess. There's plenty of depth in squad selection. Unfortunately they got rid of a lot of the weapons and attachments from Mass Effect 1 and not to mention the ability to give different armors to your squad other then Sheperd. Although they are bringing it back for 3 and it didn't ruin Mass Effect 2 in any way, it just made things a little more action based. The powers are fun to use, no matter what class you pick. You could be a powerful biotic master, grabbing enemies and throwing them about, or a techie who can make shields and overheat your attackers weapons to prevent them from firing, then of course there's the all guns soldier who can use any gun and taking lots of hits, or you could do a little of each. I don't think I'll go into the cover mechanics too much, if you've played gears of war you know what to expect from the cover. You can duck, aim, blindfire, shift between different locations, yatta yatta yatta, it's aaaaaaaaall good.

I think I should stop talking about this for now before I just run my mouth until you all fall asleep. I guess I'll just summarize this all up and say Mass Effect is fucking awesome, with it's believable and enjoyable characters, great gameplay, and interesting universe . All in all, this shit's awesome, go play it, and imma be first in line when ME3 comes out.

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