I'll post more impressions and answer questions later today. Going to play more now.
Dude, this game is too much. It just keeps throwing shit at you to do. I'm about 10 hours into the game and I've barely even touched the main quest.
To answer the question about the moon buggy physics... no it definitely isn't a canned go-from-point-A-to-point-B type of affair. Like I said, it's Warthog meets Scorpion tank and you have thrusters so yeah you are doing INSANE stunts the whole time. You can't ever flip over (although you come close and then the computer rights you up again) but you can do some pretty funny stuff.
Vehicular combat is also very satisfying. There's also a "hood view" for the moon buggy if you pull down the left trigger. Makes it REALLY immersive when you're exploring new worlds or an ancient ruin... driving slowly in hood view, right thumb on the right turret stick, looking independently of where you're driving... so awesome.
And yeah, different planets have different climate effects. I went to one planet where it was having a meteor shower or something. Shit was raining down from the sky... of course, it wasn't like you had to dodge the meteors but it looked and sounded cool as hell.
The characters are really good in this game too. I've already become attached to 2 of my characters, and because I'm playing a female character, I've already had one of my male Biotic engineers hit on me during one conversation. It was... uh, awkward.
But it's the NPCs and the plot in this game that really does it for me and propels you forward. I've never really been a fan of Bioware's console RPGs (yeah, gasp, I know) because I felt they were trying to do these emotional, deep, cinematic dialogues, but it would always fall flat on its face because of the game's shitty graphics which couldn't support the kind of drama Bioware was going for. Plus, it didn't help that KOTOR had basically like 10 character models in the whole universe and you kept running into the same black guy or the same alien guy.
Well, that is NOT the case here... every character in the galaxy has been unique so far, and fucking WOW at the graphics/acting/voiceover for the most part. There has been some good writing and very interesting interaction with both my crew and the rest of the NPCs out there. Really awesome informational tangents and personal anecdotes. At first I was playing with subtitles on because I didn't want to miss any details or whatever, but after a couple hours, I turned them off and I swear to god it was like watching a gorgeous CG movie where you can somewhat control the outcome of events.
This is next gen RPG folks. Gonna go play now before the wife wakes up and makes me go to the farmer's market.
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