Mass Effect 3's Metacritic Problem divides critics and players

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Dubious story complaints overshadowed by big gay elephant in room

Mass Effect 3 is out, and the critics love it. We love it (in a sensible, reasoned sort of way). You guys, being switched-on exemplars of 21st-century gaming, have some great points in the comments as to whether Bioware's latest lives up to the series' promise. But over on Metacritic, it's a different story. Aggregated critics' scores rate the game 93/100 – putting it in respectable company such as Skyrim and Minecraft – while the game's user score languishes at 2.5/10. That's a little worse than Postal 3. Wa'happan?

While many user reviews have their beef with the game's ending (the one that some 260 players have seen already?), far more ire's directed at the game's earthling-on-earthling, man-on-man love scenes. Some, like us, wondered whether the choice to display The Love That Dare Not Speaks Its Name via the medium of waxen-skinned puppet-sex might not have been the game's high point. Others were less measured in their disagreement. Let's stay away from directly quoting semi-literate hate-speech, shall, we? This is a classy joint.

In fairness to the Teeming Masses, many users' criticisms are more technical, ranging from the game's darker textures to overemphasis on DLC. EA has acknowledged that at least one technical issue, the inability to import ME2 cloud-saves, is in need of attention; here's a workaround for that particular problem. Whereas if you feel that dude-on-dude affection's some sort of gross thing that games should stay away from, maybe this is the fix you're looking for?

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