Wolfram01 said:
You make it sound so... pants on head retarded.
Seriously though, couldn't get through 10 hours of ME1, and got ME2 for free for having DA2 and have next to zero interest in playing it... especially now.
BioWare, IMO, does not make very good games anymore. Mediocre games, I think. DA2? It has it's moments, but it's not good. BioWare has really, completely, fallen off my list of competent devs I pay attention to.
Your selling yourself short by not playing Mass Effect 2 (or finishing Mass Effect 1). Don't let some insanely sketchy nitpicks defer you from most people's GOTY.
I'll say this... I acknowledge there are some holes in Mass Effect's plot.. but only because the nature of the game is too big to thoroughly tie up every loose end and because great gameplay trumps asinine reasons for good gameplay.
More over, Mass Effect 2 having some plot holes and flaws is NOT a sign of their "incompetence" or that they have junior writers panicking and trying to make it all make sense. I would venture to say nearly every single game ever made, from Final Fantasy to Bioshock to Shadow of the Colossus to Red Dead Redemption to even prior Bioware games, has some gaping plot holes due to the very nature of gameplay-driven design.
Even what many consider to be the "greatest movie ever", Citizen Kane, is rife with plotholes and inconsistencies if you research it.
My point being is Mass Effect 2 was JUST fine. Was it perfect? No, far from it. It did have some stupid moments (MY moment was when everybody got onto the shuttle for... some reason... and the Collectors attacked while they were all away). But I do think it's a bit unfair to pick on Mass Effect 2 as the go-to-example of bad storytelling or plotholes when it, by and large, has very few and the overwhelming majority of the game is insanely well written and the characters supremely developed. For the sake of gameplay, however, you need a certain level of suspension of disbelief.
How does everyone hear alien dialogue in their own language, including lips and mouths that vocalize perfect English? Why does the crew only wear oxygen masks instead of helmets in sub-temperature, atmosphere-free environments? Why are mono-gendered Asari 100% feminine instead of androgynous? How can EVERY store on the citadel be Shepard's favorite? If Cerberus is paying Zaeed, and you betray them, wouldn't his loyalty be to the people who write his checks? Why do Kaiden, Ashley, or Liara never even acknowledge a prior teammate if they're in your party when you meet them? How exactly CAN Shepard and any of his or her alien partners make sweet, hot, alien love? How many calibrations does Garrus have to do before he talks to me again?
I adore a good story as much as the next person, but if you're so bent out of shape on a few minor inconsistencies instead of enjoying a game as a construct doing the best it can in the limitations of its medium, then you need to take a break from story-driven games and just play Angry Birds or Bejeweled. Otherwise, you may go mad asking yourself questions that simply have no justifiable answer because a decision was made to make the gameplay during those portions a priority over the narrative and they lacked either the time, skill, motivation, or resources to ensure it was satisfactory to everyone.
I don't demean Bioshock for the idiotic scene where you jam a strange, glowing syringe into your arm without knowing what it does, or Dead Space 2 where you slide into a machine that jabs a needle into your eye, or Final Fantasy VII for not having Vincent and Yuffie show up in the ending cutscene, or Resident Evil 4 having some strange merchant follow you everywhere and never questioning why. At the end of the day, it's a video game, and one must suspend disbelief to ever enjoy or immerse themselves into a game world. Don't give the flaws a free pass, mind you, but don't let the sum of ultimately trivial flaws sour one's perception of a game that outright succeeds in nearly every single area that is vastly more important.