If you can't get enough of killing Zombies and co-operative play, Killing Floor may be a cheaper alternative to Left 4 Dead. It doesn't come close though and it's obvious that Killing Floor once was a mod for Unreal Tournament 2004.

Battlestations Pacific looks nice, but that doesn’t help if the rest of the game is just plain boring. Every mission plays like the last one, there’s no rise in difficulty and no real connection between the missions. After playing the game for a few hours you’ll ask yourself “What’s the point?”

Broken Steel raises the maximum level to 30, adds 14 new special talents and allows you to explore the world even after finishing the game. That’s all good, but it’s probably coming out too late for most Fallout gamers.

A very dynamic game. The fights are challenging, the puzzles and skill tests are entertaining. Sure, most of the gameplay elements have been taken from other games, but that doesn't hurt. If you are looking for a good action game, you'll have fun for sure. We just missed a combo counter.

It’s like a mediocre clone of the Splinter Cell games, but not as good as far as level design or free roaming are concerned. But the story is captivating and it's a refreshing change from all those WW2 action games.

Stupid name, stupid game. There are some games which will be remembered because of their quality. And then there are others which we would like to forget, but can't - because of their stupidity. This game is one of the latter, causing sore eyes and ears.

It’s not a third expansion, just a well done mini-campaign. The adventure takes place in busy Westgate and some smaller areas, there is no world outside of the city walls. There are a lot of things to do, weird characters to meet and dialogues which even surpass the quality of the main game from time to time.

13 years after the ship disappeared, you're boarding the nuclear-powered Russian ice-breaker North Wind to find out what happened. The game tells two stories, the present and the past, using interactive cut-scenes, soul-journeys and visions, while a constant sense of menace fills you with fear. But the hardware requirements are too high and there could have been more graphical diversity.

Immortal soldiers, attacking tanks with a pistol? Not in this game. Theatre of War 2 simulates battles between Germany, England and the USA with realistic weapons, true to their WW2 originals. If you are looking for a realistic simulation, here it is.

The online RPG The Chronicles of Spellborn suffers from a lack of players, so there is hardly any PvP and some tasks are almost impossible to be done alone. There are still too many bugs to attract more players, but once they are fixed, the game could be a nice alternative to the main players of the genre.

Zeno Clash offers a really good combat system, good AI and a real innovative design. But instead of seeing more of the world, you're back in the arena after taking a few steps. The story raises more questions than it answers. In the end, it's just a few hours of mandatory boxing.

Solo gamers won’t have that much fun with Demigod, but if you are into multi-player battles, you are in for a treat. Balance needs to be fixed, though. And it’s a bit too expensive.

DSC: Black Shark is full of technical details and you should read the 488 pages of the PDF manual, because the tutorials only show a handful of the functions. It's a tough and realistic simulation with 130 missions and a mission editor and especially fun in co-op missions over LAN or the internet.

This independent game is a creative jewel, so motivating and full of love for details, that it puts multi-million-dollar-games to shame. Braid shows how to create an amazing game using the right ideas.

The game feels like it came out a few years too late. GTA is much more modern in every way, but the strategy elements are unique and can be a lot of fun. On the other hand, the game is far too violent. That some opponents are immortal except when brutally executed just serves one purpose: voyeurism - and plays into the hands of people asking for video games to be banned.

The second add-on to Company of Heroes offers new campaigns, new multi-play modes and new units - but not enough of anything: only one small episode instead of a new campaign, only one map for each multi-player mode and just a few alternative units instead of new factions.

It may not be as good as the predecessor, but it's still a good game that can glue you to your chair for more than 10 hours. Vin Diesels voice is a bit over the top this time, there's only so much coolness one can bear.

Counting sheep may send you to sleep, but abducting sheep is much more exciting. Playing an alien, you need to abduct animals like sheep, cows, chickens or pigs while avoiding obstacles or hungry wolves. There are 50 levels and a simple editor to create your own ones.

This game turns everything upside down – and that’s good and bad at the same time. The physics simulation isn’t bug free and there is no story at all, but the puzzles are challenging, there are lots of save points to avoid frustration and even an online-ranking.

There's a line drawn between uncomplicated action and stupid nonsense and that's exactly where Wheelman is lurching about. In large parts it's like GTA with the exception that nothing really works. The game feels artificial, unfinished, has no soul and takes itself too seriously. At least that's unintentionally funny.

That's one thing we didn't want to know: That Creative Assembly can create bad games, too. The main reason for this is a new control concept that went terribly wrong. It's almost impossible to control your troops which enables the otherwise dumb AI opponents (no control problems there) to dominate in massive battles. In addition to being unplayable, Stormrise requires Windows Vista and a DirectX 10-card, too.

During the first four chapters, almost everything about Dark Sector is wrong: Boring levels, boring weapons and complicated controls. After he commits a murder for no apparent reason even the main character becomes unlikeable. It all gets better later on, but there's a lot of wasted potential.

The Japanese RPG surprises with challenging tactical battles and an almost stereotype-free and thrilling story. The excellent PC conversion offers more than a hundred hours of playing time, several small enhancements compared to the console version and runs fine on mid-range PCs.

Playing cards is just something for the elderly? Not Battleforge. The game combines card collecting with fast real-time strategy. After the good tutorial you have to digest a lot of information. Just imagine starting a strategy game with the last mission. But it's worth hanging on, there are a lot of possibilities. The game even looks good.

The search for the best angle to take a shot, the good controls and smooth gameplay combine into a fast-paced foray, which ends just as fast after only four hours. There should have been a multi-player mode, the father and son characters almost demand a co-operative mode. The game is cheaper than usual, but it's still too expensive for a game that short.

It’s simple, but nonetheless a motivating game with lots of mini challenges and variety. It’s probably more suited for younger fans of the movie.

On average, Fright of the Bumble Bees is as good as Telltale's Sam & Max adventures: a lot of humor, great dialogue and a charming style. But experienced adventure players may find the puzzles to easy and the game too short. It's still good value and we're looking forward to the other three parts.

Have you been playing World of Warcraft for such a long time, that streets in Stormwind or Orgrimmar have been named after you? Why not try a free alternative? Runes of Magic is really impressive. There is no pressure to buy anything, it's easy on beginners and at the same time a complex game thanks to the rune system and dual classes.

What's the worst that can happen to a fighter jet game? Playing it feels like sitting in a slow train. There's no difference between Mach 2 and the speed of a mallard, no difference between the F-117 Nighthawk and the Mirage III, and to crash your plane, you need to deliberately go for it. Only when there are far too many enemies, H.A.W.X. poses a challenge and never exploits its full potential.

Looks like Rome was ahead of its time: raw materials weren't transported, they were teleported. At least that's what happens in Grand Ages: Rome, because the focus of the game is not on building effective transportation. Instead you need to build an efficient economy. This can be quite motivating if you enjoy being rewarded for your city planning.

The successor to Faces of War (2006) has some useful innovations on offer, but is mainly about one thing: hard-core battles of WW2. It's exceptionally difficult, but not unfair. Veterans will enjoy using the innumerable amount of tactical options at hand. There's a multi-player mode for LAN and Internet for up to 16 players and a co-op mode for up to 3 players, too.

The first expansion for Red Alert 3 comes without a multiplayer mode. Producer Amer Ajani said there was need to care about game balance in single player missions. But in Uprising, some missions are highly frustrating and unfair, mainly because of the starting conditions and scripted encounters, others are almost boring. EA has gone too far disregarding game balance.

Being in the hands of several developers and publishers is usually bad for a game, but not this time. Codename Panzers is surprisingly good and the missions are designed brilliantly. If you don't need to be in the thick of it and prefer controlling highly specialized units, then this Cold War is for you.

Empire: Total War still has some teething problems, but the latest installment of the Total War series is its best one nonetheless. The game takes place in the 18th century with eleven playable countries. As usual, you govern you country and move your armies on the strategy map, while battles are fought in real-time, including sea battles. If you like strategy games, you need to play Empire: Total War.

The faultlessly working speech recognition of Tom Clancy's Endwar achieves its objective: you really feel like a military leader - at least for one hour, because in terms of speed and precision the human voice is still inferior to controlling the game with a mouse. The game itself resembles World of Conflict, but doesn't come close. Especially the game balance needs to be fixed.

More complexity doesn't automatically create more fun. The successor to Puzzle Quest, the entertaining mix between role-play elements and puzzle game, turns out to be uninspired and boring. It's more complex but confusing, even for experts. There are less rewards to motivate you and the AI doesn't work properly. A candidate for the list of bad sequels.

Quotation forthcoming.

The brute battles, the use of role-playing elements and the fast multi-play mode are exciting, but as far as mission design, story and balance are concerned, Dawn of War 2 doesn't live up to its potential. Relic created a novel strategy game, but the discrepancy between the more technical parts of the game and its mission design and story is obvious. Still, it's not a bad game at all.

The sequel to the controversial Vietnam first person shooter abandoned the use of torture and atrocities to civilians. It also abandoned good graphics, atmosphere and almost everything else needed for a good game. Dumb enemies, exaggerated splatter effects, boring levels and graphics right from the last century - Shellshock 2 has nothing interesting to offer.

FEAR 2 doesn't manage to cause panic like its predecessor because Monolith uses the same well-known techniques again. But it's still fun to follow Alma. This time, it's more uncertainty than fear that keeps you playing.

A scantily clad woman with two blades and lots and lots of monsters, that sounds like an entertaining game, but turns out to be a laborious task. It's fun for one hour or so. But once you realize that there is nothing more to the game than fighting huge amounts of monsters in similar looking areas, it becomes annoyingly repetitive.

What's left if you remove the roleplay elements from an action-based RPG? In this case it's three hours of uninspired action. Everything that made Fallout 3 a good game has been removed, obviously to rip off gamers who already explored the whole wastelands - and for those players it's totally worthless.

It looks like a chartered accountant but it's a real revolutionary, because it starts the online age for manager games. You're not managing an existing club, but one you create from scratch. Then you choose an association that fits your style of play, e.g. the Casual Weekend Association. The games are shown on 2D maps, so all you see is few circles running after the ball. Despite the meager presentation FM Live manages to be an entertaining game, even if you only play a few minutes a day.

The basic idea behind Conquest is cool: play the largest battles from Lord of the Rings from the perspective of a soldier. The out-of-date graphics, bad class balance and stubborn controls would be no problem if this was a mod for Battlefront or Battlefield, but this is a full price game. The only thing worthy of the big license is the soundtrack and that's available for less.

Sure, there are a few quirks, but Mirror's Edge is a well designed and well presented elaborate game. And it's fun, too. It's plays a bit like Tomb Raider, just faster and without ruins. Not a perfect game, but perfectly designed and it stands out from the mass of uniform games like a white skyscraper.

The "little brother" of GTA is loaded with action, variety and over-the-top characters and some mission can even be more fun than GTA IV. But the PC-conversion with all it's faulty controls, graphical errors and other annoying bugs needs to fixed soon.

Quotation forthcoming.

There are some good ideas, the fights look great, but Liquid Entertainment wasted their good concept. The fights turn out to be simple key bashing, there is not enough good dialogue for a RPG and far too much babbling for an action game.

A sweet love story, mixing humour and romance just right to enchant female and male players alike. Like in most new Ubisoft games it's necessary to accomplish the same tasks over and over again, but it's not as annoying as in other games. The unusual graphical style is beautiful.

The time for original concepts and new genres is not over yet. Defense Grid: The Awakening is a highly motivating game, it's not easy, but not unfair and there are always new elements added to the game. There's no story and the controls are not perfect, but the game can still glue you to your chair for days.

The game is stuck between being a dry simulation and an arcade-style game. It’s a weird mix without a lot of long time motivation. Some missions are too hard, the controls are not well done and it can get boring quite fast.

The basics are still the same, but GTA 4 is a masterpiece. The game world created by Rockstar North is simply amazing. The shootings, radio, TV, the story and the characters create more than just a sandbox game. It's almost a parallel world.

It looks like JoWood didn't learn much from releasing a bug-ridden Gothic 3 game. The new add-on is full of bugs, too. But even without them, the game wouldn't be as good as the other recently released RPGs. At least the quest and the story are well done.

The single-player campaign is only eight hours long, but full of spectacular and varied scenes. It's a lot of fun, but too linear, and the use of generic weapons, imprecise controls and inconsistent graphics show a lack of fine-tuning.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is a source of joy as long as everything works as intended and Lara follows the controls, leading the player to beautiful panoramas, seamlessly moving from gameplay to cut-scene. But at the same time, the game can be quite depressing if Lara doesn't reach moving platforms, the camera plays up and it's hard to solve a problem. It's an emotional roller coaster and great entertainment.

Do you have a six year old son who likes to watch CSI? Then this is the game for him. There's a shattered body lying next to the Empire State building, so we start collecting evidence all around it: Pretzels, empty cans, flowering pots and rubber ducks. That doesn't make any sense? That's right, this just a simple game of "find the hidden object" with a thin story and some CSI people. Asking 30 Euros for all that is nothing but a rip-off. Well done, Ubisoft.

It's a playable zombie movie. Would you like to hunt down the infected or rather rip human flesh to shreds? What may look like a simple shooter turns out to be very challenging, scary and a lot of fun. The game may be short, but with great replay value and different ways to play like versus mode or co-op mode.

Sauron is getting closer! The first add-on increases the scale of the game, adds new classes and items and moves the action a bit more to the east. There a few annoyances regarding game balance and small bugs, but they hardly matter because looking for new quests and leveling up is a lot of fun.

Instead of being some kind of "Best of" Need for Speed: Underground is nothing more than an uninspired generic racing game with high hardware requirements. It's a good game, but still very disappointing, because the good parts of the game are just like in NfS: Most Wanted and the new bits don't work very well.

Wrath of the Lich King doesn’t offer much for new players, it’s made for experienced players. It increases the scale of the game, adds a few new bits and improves the game while still using the same well known and polished game mechanics. This may sound boring, but it’s absolutely not.

A lot of minor improvements and the official UEFA Champions League license make sure that Pro Evolution Soccer can defend the number one spot - but this time it has to share it with FIFA 09. Despite the license, not all teams carry their original name and the Champions League is called European Championship. The online-mode works for the first time, but it's still too complicated and unclear. All in all, Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 is a bit better than last year's version, but only as good as FIFA 09.

Ascaron's second monster-bashing game returns to the huge and beautiful realm of Ancaria. It inherits both the virtues and weaknesses of its predecessor - and bugs, too. Possibly the best action RPG for a long time, Sacred 2 is addictive as long as it's not crashing. Ascaron is already working on new patches, which should be available soon .

Call of Duty: World at War goes back to the battlefields of World War 2. The game delivers well staged nonstop action and looks good, but the missions are barely connected, just like in the first three games of the series. It's still a good, maybe even a very good FPS, but not fit to hold a candle to its predecessor.

The fifth episode of the series is shocking PC gamers - with long distances to cover and stupid riddles to solve. It still has some well done horror moments to offer, but it's not as creepy as the earlier episodes. A lot of effects were just copied over, so instead of being scary they cause the feeling of "been there, done that".

Graphics and sound are good and the weapons are convincing, even KI and controls are good. If the game was longer and would have a convincing story, it could be a well done shooter. But the developers apparently forgot that second part of the recipe for good games and so the game is too short, without soul and too expensive.

The seventh C&C strategy game is a wicked mix of funny ideas, great cut scenes and comical military units. The Soviets have changed the time line again to weaken the USA, but the change also made Japan a super power. The game is great fun, especially the new co-op mode, even though the KI and the graphics engine are not really up to date.

Fallout 3, a successful reanimation of a classic role-playing game, is one of the best modern RPGs and one of the greatest games of 2008. With up to date 3D graphics, good game design and adequate playing time, it's one of those rare pleasant surprises one doesn't dare to hope for anymore. For some it's almost video game art, but it's definitely very good entertainment.

MySims was created for very young gamers, but is more than just "Sims Light" with cute graphics. It's actually quite complex, especially for children. The rewards and challenges are very well done. If you're less than 10 years old, this may be for you.

Far Cry 2 scores right in the core area of first-person-shooters: action. Players who like some logic and a good story even in a first-person-shooter will have their problems with Far Cry 2. Ubisoft's Africa is beautiful, but life in all its glory is missing most of the time. Travelling takes a long time and you are forced to make absurd detours because of mountains and valleys. Far Cry 2 can be reproached with a lot of things, but once the Savannah is burning they are forgotten, at least temporarily, because fighting the APF and UFLL is so much fun.

Welcome to Bullworth Academy, a melting pot of high school stereotypes. Outsiders are making plans to rule the world, teachers terrorize their pupils, sports aces and rock 'n rollers try to impress the girls while the posh students wrinkle their nose. While the GTA-style game itself is well done, the technical conversion to the PC is a bit sloppy. Should you ever be asked why video games are a cultural asset, show them Bully.

It's still a good hockey game, but all in all it's the same game sold four years in a row anyway. While EA Sports polishes the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, it neglects the PC version, e.g. it's impossible to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 and the maximum resolution is 1280x1024. Time for 2K Sports to step in with it's NHL 2k- series. It worked for NBA 2k9.

Dead Space is great entertainments for adults, not only because of the amount of gore and horror, but also because of the enthralling story with some nice twists. It's impressive how well pictures, dialogues and sound work together to form a cinema-like atmosphere.

The game offers 25 songs from Aerosmith, but hits like „Crazy“, „Cryin‘“ or „I don’t want to miss a thing“ are not included. There are 15 more songs from other artists like Lenny Kravitz, Joan Jett or The Cult. It’s still fun, but if you are an Aerosmith fan, you’d like to play the hits, not second rate songs.

X3: Terran Conflict is the last episode of the space saga from Egosoft. There is a huge war going on, a war against the Xenon and against the game's controls. Terran Conflict looks great, there's more action than before and it's possible to control lots of ships - theoretically. But in reality controlling more than one ship is very complicated, if not impossible. But if you liked the other X-series games, then you might like this one, too.

What a comeback! Finally the FIFA series has overcome its form crisis and is celebrating modern football (soccer) again, both graphically and gameplay wise. Not everything is new, but most things look better. Pro Evolution Soccer may be the better simulation, but the fast action of FIFA 09 is just as much fun. EA Sports is back in the top league.

Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway offers the best gameplay and narrative of all three parts of the series. It's a thrilling shooter, tells a haunting story that shouldn't leave anyone untouched and the cut scenes are fantastic. The AI has a few bugs, but most of the time the other soldiers act convincingly intelligent. The best "Brothers in Arms" so far.

Just like Lego Indiana Jones this game was inspired by the movies, but concentrates on fighting three supervillains, one in each mission. You can play Batman or Robin, each with his own abilities, while the AI controls the other one. The linear missions are full of weird riddles and machines. The game looks great and offers a lot of variety, even if you don't like the slapstick comedy and the pribble-prabble of the characters.

King's Bounty: The Legend is a mixture between RPG and strategy game. Battles are fought turn-based, but travelling takes place in real time, which enables some interesting tactical moves. The Quest are diverse and well done. The first fantasy-strategy game from Russian developer Katauri is already very close to Heroes of Might & Magic.

If you don't know the original game from 1994, you should play at the easiest level to understand the complex economy. There are three other nations competing with you to colonize the New World, the native Indians and, last but not least, the King of your nation in the Old World. The Independence War is one of the most entertaining ways to end a campaign ever seen in this genre. The game may not be perfect, but it's a motivating and challenging strategy game.

After playing hundreds of hours there is one thing we can say for sure: this is a good MMO, a very good one, maybe even the best. It offers great quests and great PvP and the fact that both help to gain levels is very motivating. Technically, the graphics are not that good, but landscapes and other places are full of details.

Great graphics, breathtaking stunts and fantastic driving feel - Pure is the surprise hit of the year as far as racing games are concerned. It's a perfect blend of fun and action and looks fantastic. It's possible to create more than 60.000 different Quads out of components, so no Quad looks like the other in multiplayer games. There is no story at all, but it's the perfect casual game once you're done with the short career mode.

Telling the story of Psycho, who appeared in Crysis, too, the game feels a bit like playing deleted scenes from the first game. But lots of things are improved, there are more scripts, even better graphics and the cut-scenes are better, too. If you like fast action and couldn't care less about the story then Crysis Warhead is for you. If you haven't played Crysis and don't know what's going on, you may feel a bit lost, though.

Worthwhile improvements and additional content - CD Projekt has put great effort into The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. With new animations, new voices, better combat, better controls and two new side quests the game is finally the great adventure the first version should have been. Buyers of the original game can download the additional content free of charge.

This game tries to tell what happened before Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl, but may require a few more patches to be able to do so. At least version 1.5.03 is full of bugs, crashes, long loading times, broken save games and design errors, which is a shame because that's what stops the game from being great. Theoretically this could all be fixed by patches and just like with Stalker, this may take a while.

Electronic Arts and Will Wright send you on a unique journey through Evolution. But it's less of a game and more of a colourful biological construction kit. Spore is sophisticated and rich in details, but all this is rarely noticeable because of its uninspired game play and lack of a story, which is such a pity. It's a paradise for creative gamers, but an expensive one, too. Electronic Arts asks 10 Euros more than usual - that's a rip off.

If you prefer creating things instead of destroying them, please forgo Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Playing a mercenary in Venezuela you blow up multi-story buildings, restaurants, hotels, factories, cars and boats in several missions. The controls could have been better, but it's still fun, and instead of complaining about the shortfalls of the game you could always just go and blow up something else.

Battle March adds the Greenskin and the Dark Elves as new playable races for a new campaign and multiplayer matches. The three chapters of the campaign alternate between Greenskin and Dark Elf missions. AI and game balance haven't been improved since Mark of Chaos, but that doesn't affect the big strength of the game: it's dense Warhammer atmosphere. If you liked Mark of Chaos, then Battle March is probably for you. But it could have been more challenging.

Spore is a simple game and the add-on doesn't change that. It can only offer simple adventures and there's not much use for thousands of them if ten are enough already. Instead of improving Spore, Galactic Adventures promotes the weaknesses of the game.

It's quite confusing: Flatout: Ultimate Carnage is the third game of the series, but at the same time it's the PC conversion of the Xbox 360 game, which was a new version of the PC game Flatout 2. Basically Flatout: Ultimate Carnage is a remake with better graphics and more cars. If you already own Flatout 2, there aren't many new things in the game to justify buying Flatout: Ultimate Carnage, but if you don't, go ahead and get it.

iRacing is a very tough simulation and can only be recommended to gamers immune to frustration. Only real motoring fans should pay a monthly fee and even more for additional packs. The graphics give the impression of an unfinished beta, but at least the atmosphere between the players is always friendly.

At the beginning it looks like investigating, secretly rummaging the abbey and questioning other characters could be fun, but the game turns out to be made of pointless little riddles and requires searching through the same locations over and over again. Why somebody did something doesn't seem to matter at all. The Abbey is not about playing through a story, it's about forcing the player to solve riddles. At least the music by Emilio de Paz is well done.

You're a soldier, fighting aliens and robots - as long as you manage to stay awake. The new game made by Chris Taylor fails because of its pointless story and that's not even the biggest problem of Space Siege. Uninspired levels, boring missions and the same opponents over and over again don't offer enough variety. It still has a certain appeal and would be worth 15 Euros, but definitely not 50 Euros.

Legend doesn't offer many new things, but if you can't be better than Diablo, you can at least try to create a good copy. In the case of Legand, this was a wise choice.

Devil May Cry 4 may not be a very subtle game, but it sure is a lot of fun. Ripping whole armies of demons to shreds at breathtaking speed or watching a mighty end boss giving kudos to you in "over the top" cut scenes - things like these create that special feeling of power. There are some weak spots like (levels are re-used, a few annoying mini games and riddles), but action fans should give it a go anyway.

Alone in the Dark is a perfect example of how to stage games: a story with twists, fantastic scripts and interesting characters. It could be a great cocktail of action and horror, but it comes with a bad aftertaste. Every minute obvious design errors can be observed. This could have been avoided with two more months of development time. Players who are easily frustrated should wait until patches fix the problems.

No pit stops, no car tuning. Race Driver: Grid is all about driving, having fun and running a racing team. The game drops you right into the race without training laps or qualifying. AI opponents with almost humanlike behaviour, physically correct damage modelling, up to 40,000 spectators in 3D, bloom effects, smoke and force feedback create an amazingly intense feeling of being right smack in the middle. Need for Speed feels like bobbycar racing in comparison.

Lego Indiana Jones enables you to play through the story of the first three movies. Fans will enjoy legendary scenes like the escape from the stone sphere, the roller coaster ride in a mine lorry or the motorboat chase in Venice. The game is a good mix of jump and run, action and riddles, but suffers a bit because of problems with the camera and AI. It's the third Lego game and these problems should have been solved by now. But it's still a lot of fun.

The abundance of details about politics, technology, planets and the different alien races create an unparalleled depth for a role-playing game. The story is captivating right until the impressive and dramatic finale. If it wasn't for the more or less necessary but repetitive side quests, the game would be exceptional. There is room for improvement, but as far as story telling is concerned, Mass Effect wipes the floor with the competition.