Mass Effect 2 relies heavily on dialog and story to grab gamers, but many playing the game are having problems reading the text. The problem is most acute for those with standard-definition sets or those with smaller high-definition televisions. There is a 14-page thread in the official forum with gamers complaining about the text, and we've had readers e-mailing us about the problem as well.

"I can barely make out what some of the words are, even on my friend's HD TV it's nearly microscopic, very annoying," one annoyed gamer wrote. "On ME1 I enjoyed reading about planets and so forth, now I nearly go blind from trying to read blurry small text on ME2."

Another gamer pointed out that the color of the text doesn't help."Most of the time the text is unreadable for me. Granted, I don't have an HD TV... part of the problem I have isn't the size of the text, but rather the color used. It would be nice if there were an option to change the colors."

If you're hoping for a response and a fix, holding your breath would not seem to be a great strategy. "I've gotten a number of PMs about this. Messaging me more will not speed up the process. We are looking at the threads, but unless we necessarily have traction on it—we can't post information we dont have," Bioware's Michael Gamble responded. It's not looking good for gamers squinting to read the text. "I'll have to talk to Casey about this (as any way to address it would have far reaching changes in the game), but please don't expect any decisions or a fix in the near future (as we are supporting a number of issues at this time). This was a design choice, not a bug."

We reviewed the game on the 360, with a 56" high definition television and had no problems. If you're having issues reading the on-screen text, sound off and leave details on your display.