GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

[LilLowe]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Wow! I was just thinking about this question like 2 minutes before i got on the forum. I still have a long way to go in GTA so I'm going to hold off before I decide.

[Rainey]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Very tough question.. but I went with ME.

[allBthere]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

gta4 is overrated, and ME underrated in terms of review scores on gamespot for example. They are both great games, and I do think that overall GTA may be better BUTTT...

ME's story and intesity in the gravity of your decisions is unmatched, As are the character designs.
ME's camera movement and shooting is better imo.
I doubt I will be as 'wowed' when i beat gta as when i beat ME

GTA4 though has longer lasting power w/ goofing around and multiplayer.
You have more freedom in GTA, and driving is variable and much better.
GTA has some great humour and constantly amazes with the sound imo.

I would give ME and 8.8-9.2 and gta4 a 9.0-9.4 (I don't think gta's story is 'oscar caliber' the way some sights say, that's just reaching)

[davin]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

ME's story and intesity in the gravity of your decisions is unmatched, As are the character designs.
I doubt I will be as 'wowed' when i beat gta as when i beat ME
I would give ME and 8.8-9.2 and gta4 a 9.0-9.4 (I don't think gta's story is 'oscar caliber' the way some sights say, that's just reaching)

Thats what I felt. The ending of Mass Effect was great, I felt like I really accomplished something. As soon as I beat it I wanted to play again, but really wanted Mass Effect 2 that instant. When I beat GTA, it was like, ok I beat the main story. I also never felt bad at all about my choices. To me the story of Mass Effect and GTA aren't on the same level. GTA has a pretty good one, very good in terms of video games, but Mass Effect had an excellent one. The unexplored worlds kind of hurt ME, but I don't know that stealing cars or just driving from point A to B isn't that different at all to me.

Spoiler

When I killed Vlad, Playboy, other random guy early in game, Dimitri, Faustin, and Pegorino, I didn't feel bad at all. It wasn't some big choice I took several minutes to think about. On Noveria in Mass Effect it took me a good 5 minutes to decide what to do with the rachni, and at least as long in the final moments of the choice between Kaiden and Ashley (Ashley won because I was dating her in the game). I felt bad about Kaiden dying, I worried about maybe I made a mistake about the rachni, I felt bad about telling Wrex that the cure to the genophage wasn't important.

[billethius]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

The results of this poll are going to be greatly skewed because of the disproportionate popularity of the two games. That said, for me, Mass Effect was the more enjoyable experience. GTA IV so far has basically been an update to the previous games. That's fine, as it's still an incredibly fun game that I'm enjoying a lot, but it hasn't sucked me in in the way that ME did. As for the categories listed in the original post:

Graphics: ME - but with the caveat that ME is rendering much smaller areas at any given time. I've experienced framerate issues in both games, and there's a lot of minorly annoying pop-in in GTA (360).
Gameplay: ME, but again, it's largely because it knows exactly what it is. GTA is a combination of so many different types of games that it does a lot of things well, but no single gameplay element is excellent. The combat in ME is very fun, and a nice evolution of the KOTOR engine. I would have liked to have been able to control the individual team members, but the system worked as it was designed.
Story This is probably the easiest one for me. ME has a great story that really sucked me in. But that's all completely subjective - I happen to like the space opera genre much more than the crime drama genre - for games as well as movies and books.
Sound Again, ME wins. The radio stations in GTA are very enjoyable to listen to and the voice acting is excellent, but I've found the original score for ME to be just as good and I think the sound effects are a bit better. The voice acting is very well done in both games.
Replay Value GTA has to get the nod here. I'll finish my second play-through of ME shortly here, and I assume I'll play it again somewhere down the line, but the online play as well as the large open world in GTA can provide countless hours of new experiences.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Story gets ME the W IMO....just finished GTA.....both great games though....

I just think MEs over all experience was just awesome

[Tomba]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Not even close


GTA4 is hands down the best game this gen has seen apart from from'hopefully" MGS4 and the turn around which was ratchet and clank TOD...

[AuburnAlumni]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Mass Effect for me.

Absolutely mind blowingly awesome game!

GTA is equally cool, but what puts Mass Effect over the top is 1. Superior Graphics 2. INCREDIBLE ENDING!!!!

I love both though.

[jmood88]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Not even close


GTA4 is hands down the best game this gen has seen apart from from'hopefully" MGS4 and the turn around which was ratchet and clank TOD...

Did you even play Mass Effect? I don't recall you owning a 360 but I could be wrong.

[Sandman42]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Mass Effect.

GTa IV got a little to repetitive for me about halfway through. It's still a great game with tremendous replay value, but I got tired of the constant chase missions or the shootouts running up and down stairs in tiny apartment buildings. Every so often you'll have a great mission thrown in there like Three Leaf Clover or Museum Piece, but for the most part the majority of the missions seem the same.

Mass Effect's story was also able to pull me into the game a lot more than GTA did. Like davin, it took me a while to decide between Kaiden and Ashley, or Liara and Ashley. In GTA I never really hesitated with the decisions I made.

[Rocky]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Mass Effect has a much more engaging story and the gameplay functions alot better.

But the sheer depth of the GTA world puts it over ME. Not sure why so many people put ME's graphics ahead of GTA's. The scope of GTA's graphics and the detail they put in structures is fascinating.

[jmood88]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Mass Effect has a much more engaging story and the gameplay functions alot better.

But the sheer depth of the GTA world puts it over ME. Not sure why so many people put ME's graphics ahead of GTA's. The scope of GTA's graphics and the detail they put in structures is fascinating.

The graphics in Mass Effect are as close to photo realistic as we've seen so far. GTA has scope but that doesn't make the graphics more impressive than Mass Effect's.

[Tomba]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Did you even play Mass Effect? I don't recall you owning a 360 but I could be wrong.

Yes. i played it didn't beat it though and haven't had the urge to go and beat it.

[Tomba]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

The graphics in Mass Effect are as close to photo realistic as we've seen so far. GTA has scope but that doesn't make the graphics more impressive than Mass Effect's.

SOME truth to that. But technically GTA4 IS better due to draw distances,water effects,lighting and surface textures.

I've played BOTH the 360 version and ps3 version and to be very objective the ps3 version of gta4 is in some ways photrealistic wheras the 360 version looks much more plain. so i can see where your opinion stems from being as your basing it off the 360 version which is where your comment holds the most merit, wheras in the ps3 version it kinda doesn't due to the fact that the ps3 versions textures etc are MUCH MUCH better than the 360's

[Spectre]

Re: GTA IV vs. Mass Effect

Mass Effect is the best game I've ever played- the story was awesome and it had so much depth. Sure, there were some rough edges, but I enjoyed every minute of that game. I agree with jmood, the graphics in ME to me were better than GTA but they're two different beasts.

Very close decision, but I had to go with ME. I'm an RPG whore so I might be a bit biased. I love GTA IV though and its a phenomenal game.