Of the games at E3 2006 that raised eyebrows, BioWare's Mass Effect stood out just as prominently as Gears of War. This ambitious sci-fi action RPG is without question the closest the industry has come to actually producing a game that looks just as cinematic as a film. From the way the camera's been adjusted, the angle of the shots, and the character animation. Mass Effect might as well be plastered on a movie screen than on someone's HDTV. And it's because of this one reason why I'm so intrigued with what BioWare's been cooking. It's safe to say that when it comes to such experiences, Square Enix got the ball rolling with its Final Fantasy series, but by the time Mass Effect is released, its developers may have been the only ones to actually get it right.

Aside from the way the scenes have been scripted, there's plenty to be excited about. Much like in BioWare's previous games, Mass Effect allows you to shape the outcome of situations (including its conclusion) by selecting different types of responses, but unlike games KOTOR and Jade Empire, it's not always necessary to be good or bad per se. Rather, the game's developers are working on designing the game in such a way that there will be an "in between", a grey area, so to speak, so while you should think twice about pissing off certain characters, there are plenty more options at your disposal. Yes, you can be a nice guy or an ass, but you can also be a nice guy who does shitty things from time to time. However, what you do will have a great impact on how you are treated, as characters will react to you and your party (up to two other characters) differently depending on how you respond to questions as well as your previous reputation. In fact, even your party members may take exception to your antics. The same holds true to characters in Knights of the Old Republic, but in Mass Effect, they'll actually leave your party! I'm not exactly sure how much it takes to really piss someone off that much, but it'll certainly be interesting testing the boundaries and pushing their buttons.

What's also impressive is how the conversations play out. You now have six moral choices to select from, located in a ring at the bottom of the screen, and the way things have been set up, dialogue flows a hell of a lot better than in Jade Empire, which features awkward pauses. You can even cut off the person/alien that you're talking to, though I'm not sure if interrupting them has any bearing on the outcome of a given situation.

As for combat, it's pretty much the same as in KOTOR, a mix of real time and turn based battling, except in this case, you'll be using more high tech weapons such as blasters and what not instead of swords and light sabers, making Mass Effect more of a tactical shooter. You can also manually aim before firing which should enhance the gameplay, and you can issue orders to your party members. There are even destructible environments in the game, and you can blast them in order to defeat enemies.

It's also worth noting that Mass Effect is an enormous game. The space station that serves as the central hub, the Citadel, is thirty miles long! And on top of that, there are numerous planets to visit that, once landed on, can be explored either on foot or inside of your all terrain vehicle that can be upgraded (adjust horsepower, grip). However, there doesn't appear to be any space combat, so don't expect wild firefights en route to the next planet. The game has a galaxy map, and it appears that you'll just select where you want to go, but you will encounter asteroids and derelict starships. There's just a tremendous amount of stuff to do and things to see, and if BioWare has its way, there will be downloadable content, though I'm not exactly sure what that means. It's entirely possible that the game's developers will be able to add new weapons, costumes, and missions, but whole planets may be out of the question.

Mass Effect sports an interesting, if not cliched story about a horde of homicidal robots that have swarmed across space destroying life. It's not the most original of plots but it works, and so do the game's visuals, which are just outstanding. Sony can make whatever boasts it wants about its PlayStation 3, but BioWare has demonstrated a true mastery of Microsoft's hardware, constructing wondrous sci-fi locales that are brimming with exquisite detail. Lights reflect off armor, characters have an eerily lifelike appearance, lips actually mouth words instead of moving unrealistically, and environments stretch on for miles. It appears to be the type of game that can suck hours from a person's life, similar to Knights of the Old Republic.

Reading some other previews around the journalism community, it's annoyingly obvious that a lot of writers want to sleep with Mass Effect and that's fine since what BioWare showed off at this year's E3 was incredibly impressive. But having become disenchanted with its last project Jade Empire, which I lacked the patience to wade through, I'm going to refrain from gushing too much, at least at this early stage. Hopefully in the near future, Microsoft and BioWare will hold an event where I'll be able to test the game's combat and further poke around within its delicious looking innards. But for now, it's one of the best looking Xbox 360 titles on the horizon, and I'm very much looking forward to exploring what should be an imaginative and deep world populated by a host of exotic creatures.