Listen, I'm usually the first one out the door on this kind of stuff, but the character designs in this game are 100% gratuitous, and basically are just parodies of themselves. And to be honest, for every way in which one could label these designs sexist (oh hey, the sorceress has large breasts!), they could also be…

BioWare aren't just "developers." They also have "execs" of their own. They're basically a subsidiary of EA. It's wrongheaded to think of a company like that as just a bunch of developers hanging out and making games. They have suits, too, who handle the business end of things.

I have to take exception to the "Pine Barrens" episode of The Sopranos. Not because it isn't great, but because it's such a go-to response to the question, and I can think of a handful of other episodes that hit the spot for me far more effectively. "Marco Polo" from Season 5 strikes a remarkably tender and memorable…

I agree. Seeing the impact in Mass Effect 2 solidified the worth of Mass Effect 1. Gameplay was always an issue, the neverending glut of identical equipment that was thrown your way in ME1 always annoyed me but they went to far in correcting it in ME2. They finally got it right in 3 (imo).

ME1 was definitely hinky, on consoles anyway. It was very glitchy, there were framerate problems, and certain things that should have been fun (like riding around on planet surfaces) felt really unstable and frustrating much of the time.