Need HDMI if you're planning to use the xbox dvd player to upconvert dvds.

Having just finished it, here are my thoughts... I had very few serious framerate issues while playing. There were a few minor things, especially while driving, but none that really impacted my ability to control myself or fight. I had expected more in battle but didn't really have that much even with a lot of action on screen. I mean don't expect Halo framerates, but the action isn't as fast paced so it works out fine.

I had a couple texture issues but only a couple times and they were gone next time I loaded. Didn't have any popup issues and I never got stuck in an object (don't think I even saw the CPU do that).

AI teammates had the occasional issue getting stuck behind something while following me, but that was pretty rare. You sometimes have to be careful not to be in their line of fire, but that was easily manageable. Enemy AI isn't great, but I doubt a patch will come to really fix that.

Overall I definitely say buy it now. Well worth playing as it is now.

Well, if I'd seen this I would have posted here first.

I played as the paragon infiltrator.  I also chose Ashely, sacrificed Kaiden, managed to not kill Wrex via maxed out charm, and got Saren to shoot himself via charm before fighting his zombified corpse.  All choices were paragon choices, so I saved Feros, saved the council at the cost of the Alliance fleet, etc... Turtle didn't mention it but I also freed the Rachni.

For Kaiden does anyone know if anything happens if you're a girl character? Is he a love interest or no? Wondering if that adds more to his character. I actually liked him more than Ashley (who was very annoying with her Xenophobic stuff), but I felt bad after dumping her for Liara and had to save her. Oh, and I definitely hooked up with Liara.

Early on I switched teammates a lot, but later on I used primarily Ashley and Liara (or someone and Liara). Being an infiltrator I was a little underpowered (not a huge fan of the class) and actually used a pistol for almost all of the game (of course by the end you can get a damn nice pistol). I was very impressed with Liara and Ashley's power by the end of the game using biotics and weapons respectively. Of course by not having Tali around I couldn't hack anything, but it worked out.

I agree it would ahve been nice to have more big decisions that impacted the game.  However, I can understand limiting them since it is a trilogy and they want it to make sense in the later games... Would have been fun if decisions such as saving the Rachni .

My main complaint is that there was too much driving/fighting in the Mako. I mean really... it was fun in doses, but if you do side-quests (e.g. the Geth bases) then you end up doing way too much of this. But it was really a minor issue for me. Overall, loved it.

My January 2006 system is still going strong and has handled some 6 hours stretches of Mass Effect (knock on wood).

Just finished today and I was happy. The ending is a good way to handle a trilogy and shouldn't leave anyone pissed off. I enjoyed the game a lot more once I got really good at combat. Of course by the end that was getting a bit easy, as I played almost all of the optional quests and ended at level 47 or so (took me about 30 hours + one or two of deaths/replays). I'm definitely going to replay as a female badass (I was a male paragon), but I think I need a break before that. My wife let me get it as an early birthday present, and I finished it before my birthday (oops  ). Plot stays consistently solid throughout the game, although I wish a couple of the recurring secondary mission characters/relationships had gone a bit further.

I'm about 10 hours in and am enjoying it more. Combat was an issue for me at first, but once I got the hang of it (e.g. sniping) and got used to how you use the abilities with right trigger it became more managle and enjoyable. Plus, Unity is nice so you don't have to replay nearly as much if you hit a tough spot. I've only advanced the main quest a bit, been having fun with side quests in the Citadel and on other planets. But I'll get around to more of the main plot this weekend. Only did the one looking for the scientist/daughter of the starting quests. There are a lot of interesting quests that pop up in the Citadel that have kept me amused (although I could be easily amused...). As someone else said, I understand complaints about the combat and interface, but they don't seem any worse than in KOTOR or Jade Empire which didn't necessarily have killer combat... Overall it is keeping me playing longer than any game in a LONG time. Only Halo 3 has come close for me in the past year.

Only finished Eden Prime so far, but enjoying it. As you say, combat is a bit clunkier than some games (e.g. Halo 3 which I've been playing), but cutscenes, conversation, story, etc are better. Haven't hit the main stuff yet so can't judge it too much. Interface for equipment and upgrades is a bit clunky, but it's not really a big deal. Can't imagine it bothering anyone enough to hurt their enjoyment of the game.

I could definitely go for the Wii (already have a 360, and who wants the arcade anyways?), Toshiba HD drive, or the 46" Samsung tv.

I continue to be fine on my first that was purchased in January 2006 

Pretty much just played some Halo 3 mp (team objective for the most part). Good times... Halo is meant to keep me busy until my birthday (Nov 30th) when my wife has been informed I am suposed to get Mass Effect.

Well, my kmart is sketchy as hell and frightens me... but for those prices I might give it a try. Sale prices actually posted anywhere online?

Oh, and if you get what the others scan for I'd be very interested in hearing what they were...

Ah, Bill's columns were always good, but couldn't compare to some of Rich's stories... I hope he and his family are well. I always loved the site and the contributions Rich made. I remember when it first started getting posted in gaming magazines too.

The other movie with him wasn't that bad... I definitely thought it was worth watching. Not amazing, but decent.

Some of my favorites...

A New Found Glory (Sticks and Stones)
Ingram Hill (June's Picture Show)
Jimmy Eat World (anything)
Three Doors Down (anything)
Bowling for Soup (A Hangover You Don't Deserve)
Juniper Lane (Sirens From a Mile Back)

There a free one, or recommend paying for the free2dvd ($20).

Hey, can anyone point me to a particularly good tool for converting movies to Zune movie files and a quick summary of the process (from dvd to zune).

Thanks!

Eh, I did the same thing with Speedball 2... one of those games that didn't live up to my memories...

Am I the only one that really doesn't mind disc swapping as long as it is only between key points? If it is every 2 minutes like some old adventure games I understand, but if it is twice in a game (e.g. Blue Dragon) then I could care less if a game fits on one disc.

I think most are selling for about $140 used without movies. So pretty well.

Well, they didn't let me get the extra two movie, but my HD-DVD drive and Season 1 of Heroes are up on ebay now. I'm keeping the UPC and rebate to get the mail-in movies. Figure I'll break even + get 5 free movies (although I'm only really excited about a couple).

Really? That's unfortunate. Split screen is annoying in Halo due to size, but better than no split screen.

I ordered on the 15th too, but mine just says "Order is in".... so I guess it hasn't shipped yet?

Some people said that was a seperate 2 disc thing... the two in box for the Toshiba, but also 2 from best buy for any. Who knows though.

Oh, and if I did it I'd sell the drive and heroes (since I just watched it on netflix). But that would net me 5-7 free movies...

Plus there is some debate about maybe getting another 2 movies free instantly with it...

My wife and I ordered one from woot on the 15th so hopefully it'll be here by the end of the week

I say, safe? Not entirely. Worth it absolutely. As for Elite, only if you expect to be storing/downloading a lot of non-game stuff.

Yeah, it says sold out. Too bad, I would have bought and flipped the stuff I didn't want too for such a good deal.

But look at the rest of those companies... all of them used to be the most innovative and interesting companies... now most of their IPs have been discontinued

Different game.

What's the pricing going to be?

Huh. Dunno. I know Circuit City and Gamestop by my house were both sold out. Guess I had bad luck.

For anyone who hasn't gotten it yet, I know most of the major stores by me were sold out. Places that do have it around me are Radio Shack and Blockbuster.

It's got an 80 at metacritic right now with 10 reviews. So doing about the same as blue dragon there, but with less at the very high end and none below 70.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/eternalsonata

Yeah, but you can learn to ignore both the boss music and marumaru... plus, they are very "anime", so it somewhat fits the style.

I did most of the side-quests, but didn't go back to places to find treasures I couldn't access earlier. And didn't do a few things such as finding the dragons. Plus I don't think I spent as much time leveling up as most people.

Hehe, congrats on the many achievements... glad to know it would have taken me over 30 more hours to get them though... makes me feel ok about not doing so.

Finished it! Had a good time... I'll give more thoughts later through. Just wanted to let you know that I did manage to finish with about 90 achievement points... You don't even get any for beating the game :-p. Despite that I enjoyed it though. Not sure I have the drive to load a save point and play another 20 hours with no real point other than to try to get some of the achievements. In the end I think my characters were in the low 50s for level and I had about 43 hours (+ a couple from redos). Overall I'd give it a 8.0 or so. Enjoyed it, and I played through, but I wasn't blown away.

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