BioWare is the Canadian game company who made the "Baldur's Gate "and "Neverwinter Nights" series. In November, BioWare released "Mass Effect," a third-person-shooter role-playing-game, for the Xbox 360.

I may love BioWare, but what about its newest release?

"Mass Effect" sold more than one million copies in the first two weeks. There is only one reason for this: sex. The game contains a 15-second sex scene that you see if you complete a certain side-mission.

This is pretty much the only reason the game a Mature rating, and the scene itself only has about half a second of nudity in it anyway. But, as we all know, promising a nerd the sight of boobs is like promising a hobo a sandwich - they'll do anything to get it. I can accept this fact.

In "Mass Effect," you are Commander Shepard, a man or woman with no first name. You may get to make your own character, but you have to be a plastic surgeon to make a character who doesn't look constipated or generic.

There is no way to be completely different in this game. You can only have black, white or tan skin and black, red or shades (dark, medium and light) of blonde and brown hair. The hairstyles are unchangeable and generic; all men have short hair and a goatee, and all women have their hair in buns or keep it short. I can accept this, too.

The game may be a shooter, but the violence is lacking. There are only four weapons you can use, and they all suck. It took me about an hour to kill the first boss (which is the Thorian, in my eyes).

Another thing that angers me is the array of classes. They are so unbalanced that if they were on a teeter-tooter, on would fly off into space when the other hit the ground.

The game has six classes from which to choose: the Soldier, for the shoot-first-never-ask-questions-because-I-have-bad-people-skills players; the Engineer, for the average "1337 h4x0r" (aka elite hacker); the Adept, for the spell-hurling jerks and three combination classes.

You're screwed if you choose a specialty class and don't play on the lowest difficulty, because the enemies' ammo seems to be made of kryptonite and diamonds. However, I can even accept this.

The one thing I cannot accept or comprehend is the length of the game. When "Mass Effect" was announced, it was billed as having 70 hours of gameplay in the main story alone, with more than 120 hours overall.

On my first time through the game, I beat everything -- side-missions and all -- in 15 hours. The second time through it was three. Three hours!!!

I was outraged. BioWare made this game ridiculously short but advertised it as this expansive shooter that you would play longer than a "Final Fantasy" game. That's false advertising, my friends.

Mass Effect gets a 3 out of 5 for unbalanced gameplay, flawed and complicated character creation, a clunky combat system and an incredibly short story.