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One of the best games, bar none, that I’ve played for the Xbox 360 yet is Mass Effect.  Chances are you’ve had a chance to see this one by now, so I’m not going to be hugely worried about spoilers.

And if you haven’t already taken a run at this magnificent sci-fi epic, then I really, deeply feel for you.  This sucker is unbelievable.

Basically, you play as Commander Shepard, a man on a mission to save a galaxy in turmoil by whatever means available.  You’ll fight smugglers and terrorists and indigenous space monsters and all manner of robot in your pursuit of justice and peace for the galaxy.

This is one of those rare games where your decisions count, and not just on some arbitrary bar that tells you if you’re lawful good or chaotic evil, either.  Helping people out may net you new and interesting items, while selling them out could get you a load of raw cash.  What will you do?

There is a LOT to love about this–the varied sets and characters, the different modes of play (sometimes you’ll be driving a dune buggy around, sometimes you’ll be neck-deep in a firefight, and other times you’ll have to try and talk your way out of trouble or possibly into it depending on what you want to do.  You’ll proceed around in groups of three, so you actually have some potential to make complimenting squads that work together.  Even better, all the characters have backstories that you can find out more about as you progress through the game.  Or, conversely, if you couldn’t care less about how the blue-skinned alien kangaroo babe managed to land on your ship and with your team, well, you don’t even need to find out. You can just play the game and play like crazy until you come out the other side.  Your call.  You can even go so far as to have sex with your teammates—that’s where you heard all that stuff about the lesbian sex scenes in this game.  There are technically a couple of them, but you have to go through quite a bit of conversation to get that far.  It’s not like they just hop in bed with you for no clear reason—it’s actually part of the narrative.

There are down sides here.  If you notice similarities between this and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, it’s because both were made by BioWare, the same company.  They clearly used a lot of the same techniques in the development of Mass Effect.  The engines are the biggest similarity—but then, why would that be a problem?  It’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic we’re talking about here. That game was all sorts of good.

So if you’re craving an RPG with lots of sci-fi elements, a huge plot and some humor, and you don’t mind more than a few similarities to an older, but high quality, game, then you’re in for all the treat you can handle with Mass Effect.