A lot of games remind me of a period of my life. Halo reminds me of my teenage years playing till late at night with friends and Burnout Paradise of a long summer of boredom but the Mass Effect trilogy is a series that hit me at some pretty big moments.

Mass Effect founds its way into my console shortly after I had just purchased my XBOX 360 but perhaps more importantly around the time I discovered Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny and Rich. The summer before its release I started to really take an interest in gaming and of course I needed some advice on which games to play. I gravitated towards Gamespot and the constant exclusive clips of Mass Effect shown on On the Spot appealed to the Sci-Fi nerd within. When the game launched I was about to sit down and properly play my first RPG. It wasn't without its issues but the story was interesting enough for me to forget about the dodgy combat and frame rate. As for the Gamespot stuff it wasn't long before Giantbomb launched and I have been glued to this website since the Arrow Pointing Down Podcast and the blog. Mass Effect is a game that was not only the start of a great trilogy in gaming but a game that reminds me of discovering the website that I now call home.

At the start of 2010 I was in a bit of a bad place. I was halfway through my first year at uni and after my girlfriend of over 2 years broke up with me after a rough few months I needed an escape. Luckily I had a week off from full time lectures and Mass Effect 2 was in the post. As much as I enjoyed the first Mass Effect, the sequel was on a whole other level. Assembling a crew of memorable characters and completing missions in order to learn more about there lives, motives and feelings was exactly what I needed. A rich universe to explore with back stories of every race, perhaps the best ship in video games and a suicide mission that had real consequences. All I wanted at this time was to keep my head busy with other things and Mass Effect 2 managed it pretty darn well. Despite being one of, if not my favourite game of all time, Mass Effect 2 managed to be in my console at the time when I most needed it.

So that leads to today. I am about 10 hours into Mass Effect 3, enjoying university a lot and Giant Bomb is going back to CBS. At a time when Giant Bomb has gone full circle its hard not to look back at my time with the site. While I will reserve judgement on the final part of the Mass Effect trilogy till I have finished it, I will always have fond memories of this trilogy not just for its high quality but for the personal effect its had on me over the last 5 years.

Do you guys have good memories of the Mass Effect trilogy or perhaps another game that will stick with you for a long time?