Mass Effect

[ilnadmy]

This game is, in a word, magnificent. Installed it a few days ago, and I've been doing nothing else in my free time ever since. BioWare has now jumped to the top of my favorite developers list, tied with Kojima Productions. The combat is what really strikes me about this game - it's really fun! I enjoyed combat in KOTOR, not so much in Jade Empire, but here the combat is amazing. It's a shooter, but you can feel the RPG elements in it, and it's totally satisfying. The production values are probably better than the combat, but that's something I expect from a BioWare game ever since KOTOR, so it didn't awe me as much as the combat did. The dialogue is great, the voice acting is MGS-quality (maybe even better).

What I really like is how the side-quests are integrated into the game. You get the Alliance (read: Human) Military radioing in to your ship with reports that you can decide whether or not to follow up on. When you're walking around you'll overhear conversations, which will clue you in that you can go and talk to that person and get a side quest. And these quests are pretty unique and imaginative too. Some of them don't even feel like side quests because they're so fascinating.

Finally, the graphics are sublime. I'm running a GeForce 8800 GTS 320 MB, Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz, and 2 GB RAM, and I'm running the game with all details set to high without a single framerate hitch. Not a one. The facial details are simply a joy to watch, and it's crazy to think that my character I completely customized at the beginning of the game. The way she talks and acts and looks around, you'd think she was individually modeled by BioWare. Crazy stuff.

I wholeheartedly recommend this game to all RPG fans. If you liked KOTOR, you'll absolutely love this one.

[Mochan]

Well I hated KOTOR but I will try this one anyway, I'm always a sucker for trying out the next RPG even if it's by Bioware. That it plays like a shooter is one of the main reasons why I am giving it a shot. I like Shooter RPGs.

You also mention it runs sublime, that is good to hear because the 360 version ran like crap from what I remember reading.

[G07H1C]

I was just wondering about the hype for this game, you do not work for BioWare do you? I'm kidding! I was mixed with KOTOR, and I am kinda 50/50 with shooters as well.
You have made some strong points nonetheless! I'm currently looking for Arcanum, and will give this serious consideration!

[Renzatic Gear]

I'm so very close to biting the bullet and plunking some cash down for some hot hot ME action. If you can titillate me a bit more, I might just pick it up tonight.

So...impress me.

[Intangir]

I played through some of the beginning so far, but haven't played it since I became a Spectre. The game hasn't hooked me yet, but then it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time to warm up to RPGs these days.

The combat so far is usually me pushing forward from cover to cover while my comrades leisurely jog behind trying their damndest to absorb the enemies' bullets. Mostly I just spam their skills at the beginning of combat and then do my thang and come back around to them when the enemies are all killed--usually by then my squad will be just getting out of the unconsciousness state. I'm not too excited about the combat thus far, but I haven't really messed around with all the weapons, combos, and tactics yet so I can't really say one way or the other.

While the story thus far hasn't done anything for me yet, the voice acting in the dialog has been pretty solid. Except for that one race that's written in such a way that they can only speak in monotone. If I ever have to go to their homeworld later on just kill me now. I'm also a little worried about the Paragon/Renegade morality thing since I want to pump up persuasion, but apparently I have to get more paragon points to do so. While I do tend to be a good guy in RPGs, if I'm faced with, say, an NPC who wants me to fedex his item around a town (god forbid a galaxy), I'll sooner do the "Punch him in the face" option then comply just for the sake of being good. That pretty much goes for any other boring or cliched, binary choice I'm confronted with. Because of that my Paragon/Renegade meter has been pretty much neck and neck right now which makes me wonder if I should even bother putting points in persuasion/intimidate.

Performance has been decent for the most part although my framerate was in the low 40s when walking around the Presidium. Looks alright to me, although the dynamic shadows can really look like ass sometimes--especially when one plants itself across someone's face in a conversation. It does feel a lot like KotOR to me... to the point where I was walking around the Presidium with "Carth" and feeling like I've already played this game.

As I said, I'm still in the very beginning so a lot of those things are still subject to change when I'm out and about in the universe itself. I'll have to log in a few hours into it this week and see what happens.

[Friend_Bear]

I've been way to busy with Age of Conan :)

[ilnadmy]

Just finished the 6th story mission (the one on Virmire or whatever it's called), and DAMN!! This game keeps getting better and better. The combat is really impressing me and, honestly, it handles better than many shooters I've played. The ability to use powers on the fly as opposed to the 360 version where you have to pause the game to use a power makes a massive difference and the game flows so beautifully because of it.

I'm also really impressed with the story. The pacing, the dialog, the acting...oh, it's genius. This game, my friends, is the real deal. I've put in about 20 hours so far, but only because I've been doing every single side quest I could find. They're pretty boring compared to the main story missions, but they're still interesting enough that I don't feel like skipping them. I came across a bug where when my shotgun overheats it stays overheated until I die or load a previous save. It's pretty annoying, to be honest, as it leaves me with only a pistol to use. It's almost game-breaking, but it never happened to me until the last hour I've been playing. I'm thinking that it has something to do with the combination of mods I put on my shotty (one that increases heat and increases damage and one that decreases heat), so I'll see if there's anything that fixes it.

Other than that though...get this game. It's fantastic, and I'm definitely going to play it through again once I'm done with this run.

[Mochan]

You're tempting me way too much! I will still keep my apprehensions as I've never met a Bioware game that I liked.

[Renzatic Gear]

Yeah, okay. I'm buying it. But I'm gonna wait. I went overboard and bought both Sins and the Devil May Cry boxset this week. if I get anymore, I'll just overload my brain and not play anything.

[Lemonio]

Well I hated KOTOR but I will try this one anyway, I'm always a sucker for trying out the next RPG even if it's by Bioware. That it plays like a shooter is one of the main reasons why I am giving it a shot. I like Shooter RPGs.

You also mention it runs sublime, that is good to hear because the 360 version ran like crap from what I remember reading.
you hated kotor!?!?!?!??!!??!
WTF
That was the best game of all time!!!!
:(. i've only played it 3 times...
lol

I really want to get mass effect. Once i finish Grim Fandango and get tired of SWBF2 again.

[Mochan]

Well, hate is too strong a word... but I certainly did not like it.

[Bakken Hood]

Jealous snarl..................:mad:

I'm probably the 360 board's biggest Mass Effect fanboy, what with how I played through the whole thing five times, and got every last achievement, and want one of these
<img src=http://store.bioware.com/products/mass_effect/images/product_me_tshirt_247x209.jpg>
but I swear I'm going to burn down Bioware's office if ME2 still has the glitches and texture pop-in that y'all don't have to worry about.

ilnadmy, concerning your smokin' shotgun: does it really stay overheated after the fight is over? A few of the bad guys use the Sabotage tech skill, which will keep your active gun overheated for up to a minute (I think), but it goes away.

[Intangir]

The weapon overheating thing is one of the known (http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=633350&forum=104) bugs (http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=634345&forum=127) for the PC game.

Also the Mass Effect TweakGuide (http://www.tweakguides.com/ME_1.html) is out. I'll have to try their proposed workaround for removing those wonky dynamic shadows on people's faces.

[ilnadmy]

Well, I finished the game, and I have to say that the final hour of the game (i.e. the "ultimate showdown" part of the game) is one amazing freaking set-piece. When you play through the game, the story unfolds slowly through the different missions you do. Little by little you uncover different aspects of the plot and find out the truth behind the antagonist's plot. Things really come to a head in the mission before the last, and it's really mind-boggling how all the little things you experience throughout the game – the backstory more or less – turn out to have a real influence on the story. Basically, there are little things you come across in the game that you don't really pay attention to, but they turn out to be massive clues when the plot twists (yes, more than one) are revealed.

The reason I explained all that is because the reason why the final showdown is so impressive is because it pretty much brings every aspect of the game to bear in one massive set-piece. I mean it was insane how hectic the entire thing was, and when I finally beat the game and saw the immediate effects of my actions I was actually cheering because it felt so damn satisfying. I really don't want to spoil any of the story, so I'll leave it at that, but I immediately started a new character and am playing through the game again. My first character was a female Vanguard (biotic/soldier) who I marched down the path of the Renegade (Mass Effect's version of dark side). My new character is a male Assault (soldier) who is going to be a Paragon.

I am kind of disappointed in the number of story missions though. I spent 22 hours playing the game before I finished it, but most of that time was spent doing side missions, which aren't really that interesting. I'd reckon if you only did the story missions you could finish the game in about 6-8 hours. In my second run-through I'm only going to do those essential missions, so I'll let you know how long it takes. There is also some texture pop-in in a few of the cutscenes, but only a handful throughout the entire game. And the combat is as fun as ever. Using the new character I created, I can use assault rifles and sniper rifles, and they're really fun, since they handle totally differently than the shotgun. I plan to play an Infiltrator after playing through with the Assault guy, and then maybe the biotic/tech class after that. The replay value of this game is through the roof.

Quick comment though: the voice actor for female Shepard is MUCH better than the voice actor for male Shepard. She's magnificent. Playing through as male Shepard I feel like the game is so lame compared to the female version I played through the game with the first time. She's badass.

[G07H1C]

Did you not feel a little cheated on the amount of game hours played? Was it worth it to you? Just questions, just curious! The replay value could count for a lot I guess!

[Mochan]

Well a lot of games today finish in less than ten hours. It's not a big deal.

[G07H1C]

I expect some of the RTS & Shooter games to take less than 10 hrs I guess, but not any type of RPG, but I suppose 22 isn't bad!

[Mochan]

Heh RPGs definitely should not be taking just 10. In fact, 20 is short for me. Good RPGs should be 30-40 hour affairs in my book.

[G07H1C]

Absolutely!!! If I see RPG in the genre description at all, then I'm expecting 40 hrs of game play minimum.

[Mochan]

Absolutely!!! If I see RPG in the genre description at all, then I'm expecting 40 hrs of game play minimum.

And a *really* good RPG makes me not want the game to end. I put in around a 100 hours into a single game of Gothic 3 and I don't regret a single second of it. And although it's a JRPG, Persona 3 I put in more than 120 hours and I was very sad to see it end.

[Bakken Hood]

As far as hours of gameplay, I got spoiled on Oblivion. Still, ME is plenty long if you take all the side quests and explore every available planet, though I was disappointed with the length of the core quests. For better or worse, you pretty much need to take some of the side quests just for XP, as you need to be a pretty high level to handle some of the missions (Noveria is brutal for a low-level character), so it winds up taking a good long time for a single run through.

And yes, replay value is where it really proves its worth. I'll grant that I'm an achievement whore, but seeing how everything plays out differently depending on your actions is addictive, and trying out all the different biotic and tech skills is glorious fun.

[ilnadmy]

Haha Noveria was the first mission I attempted, and it was brutal. I did manage to get through that ridiculous boss fight, but damn it annoyed the f*** out of me. Cheapest section of the game by far. (Noveria is the ice planet, right?)

Yeah I did feel cheated by the length of the game. I was expecting a lot more main story gameplay time. I guess they spent a large chunk of their time working on the non-important planets, which is alright I guess, but they're all rather bland and samey. In every solar system there is one planet you can land on, which has two points of interest that you can scan and then one installation that you have to enter, kill everyone, find an item, and leave. It gets old after a while, and I wish they had put more "missions" in the game, since those are unique and designed very well, not to mention they are where the plot unfolds.

Still, the replay value is great, so I'm not all that bummed, and since it's a trilogy I'm hoping that they'll fix this for the next installments.

[G07H1C]

And a *really* good RPG makes me not want the game to end. I put in around a 100 hours into a single game of Gothic 3 and I don't regret a single second of it. And although it's a JRPG, Persona 3 I put in more than 120 hours and I was very sad to see it end.

I put in 114 great hours into Gothic 3, and if they decide to release an expansion pack similar to G2 NotR, I would purchase tomorrow! Persona 3??? Not familiar! For the PS3? I just got my son a PS3 this past Christmas, with a 37" ws LCD TV. Now he won't let me on his PS3, not that often anyways.

[G07H1C]

Sounds like both "Ilnadmy" & "Bakken Hood" both enjoyed the Mass Effect game, which is key to me. If it passes the fun factor test, the satisfying test, and the replay value is good - then it is worth every penny!!!

[Lemonio]

lol if you're worried about a game ending too fast just get an FPS. my x-fire tells me i've spent 335 hours playing SWBF2 and since i always turn it off to play, im pretty sure i've spent a lot more. lol. i can't wait to get mass effect. if its anything like kotor i'll love it.

[G07H1C]

Ok that's a lot of hours! I'm sure that Mass Effect will be fun to play! I'm still not sure about FPS, some I like, some I do not! I guess the same goes with any genre.

[Mochan]

FPS mutliplayer is crack. Same way MMORPGs are. God knows how many hours I've sinked into playing Counterstrike. I played that game so much, I literally injured my left hand fingers with RSS due to the WASD configuration.

Persona 3 is a JRPG on the PS2, which can be played on the PS3. I don't recommend you get it unless you like this sort of stuff -- JRPGs, renai games, anime and iconoclasm. It's definitely an acquired taste.

[G07H1C]

Thanks, I just recently looked it up, I'm not sure if that's me at all!

[Mochan]

That's what I thought.

Elsewhere, I just played Mass Effect. Hmm I'm still not getting what all the hype is about. I just got to the Citadel Tower and finished my hearing with the council.

For starters the shooter gameplay is pretty primitive with really basic (I should say stupid?) enemy AI, the action is slow, the the weapons not formidable (with a worse case of sniper drift than Deus Ex at low skill level!)

The graphics are impressive in some parts but totally not in others -- the character model animations are pretty good but there is something unbelievably wrong with the shadowing. I actually ended up turning off the dynamic shadows because they were so bad. The men in this game look okay but the women are ugly. What's with that?!

The texture quality is also unbelievable low-res for a 2007 game, is this another problem with getting an XBox port where they can only work with the limited texture RAM of the box? I mean I could have sworn KOTOR PC had better texture quality.

Voice acting though is pretty good, on par with Bioware's other offering KOTOR, and way WAY better than that abomination called Jade Empire. The sound effects though are more iffy especially the gun sounds which are not as convincing and sound more like bleeps and bloops at times.

I also don't see much in the way of freedom and roleplaying. As you would expect from a Bioware game, the only "roleplaying" you have is to choose whether to be a polite goody two shoes or rat bastard -- neither of which seem to have any effect on the course of the plot other than to raise a Paragon or Renegade bar which serve no discernable purpose right now except but will probably serve some marginal purpose later. Just like Bioshock I get the feeling I will be seeing one "good" ending and one "bad" ending based on which bar is higher.

Tangy makes a point about the guy who you really want to punch in the face, and hey screw being a "good" guy or what not the guy DID have it coming and hitting him has nothing to do with being good or bad, it's the smart thing to do considering his incessant whining would probably endanger the other woman and possibly draw enemy attention to them. It's this kind of paper-thin "role" playing that has always put me off from Bioware games and their dubious concept of a moral compass.

Overall I'm getting the same feel for this game as KOTOR. I guess if KOTOR was good enough to be hailed as the savior of the RPG genre then this one is much the same. I'm not warming up to the game yet but it's not bad per se so I can keep playing it without any real reservations.

[ilnadmy]

You're very much mistaken about the ending. There are many different aspects coming up that will affect the ending, and there is more than just two endings (I think...at least that's the impression I got after all the decisions I had to make). And plus, with this being a trilogy, your decisions in this game will affect the plot in ME2 and ME3. And give the combat some time - once you pick up some new skills and you start facing some of the tougher enemies, combat can get pretty hairy. At the beginning it's admittedly simple and easy to breeze through. Hopefully you're playing on Normal, since on Casual it's too easy.

[Mochan]

Well let's see if the game warms up to me. Let's see if there is more to the plot branching, that is what makes RPGs alive in my book. I will probably feel better about the combat when it gets harder, I am indeed playing normal so hopefully it will look up later.

That's an interesting design there. So when ME2 comes around, you load your saved game and the plot is really different in ME2 than if you loaded a different game? That's pretty insane, I"d like to see it.

[G07H1C]

I was under the impression that there were many different endings, based on the replay value alone. If it's just 20 hrs & only 2 endings?????

[Mochan]

Well, my impression was that the replay value came from trying out all the different classes and abilities. If there are a ton of endings available then that would be better.

[Mochan]

This Renegade Paragon crap is hilarious, leave it to Bioware to come up with completely ridiculous morality meters and situations.

What is a Renegade? That's a person who goes against the law and society in general, right? Well in one situation you have this Indian guy asking you to get his dead body's wife from the military. The military tells you his wife's body suffered wounds which are totally new in nature, so they are studying it to develop technology to counter the new weapons which created the newtype wounds.

So if you help the military you are going in accordance with government's laws and will to help the greater good of the human race. But by doing this you get RENEGADE points LOL.

How screwed up is that? They should ahve just named it "Good Boy" "Bad Ass" meter it would make sense since doing "good deeds" seems to increase the Paragon er "Good Boy" meter while doing assholish things increases the "renegade" er "Bad Ass" meter.

Hilarious, Bioware once again reminds me why the writing in their freaking games stink.

[Lemonio]

lmao. but the idea is the good person is supposed to be helping the good authority, and these are bad authority. lol
it makes perfect sense...

[Aku]

I don't know if Bioware's ideas on good vs. bad has anything to do with the quality of the writing. I've seen lots of really good writing and stories in Bioware games. I agree it can be frustrating in any rpg to have to sit there and figure out what the ramifications will be if you choose to do one thing versus another, and sometimes the consequences can seem pretty arbitrary.

[Lemonio]

the witcher had a good system for your decision's ramifications. you weren't really good or evil. your actions affected you more directly. too bad i got stuck and stopped playing it :(

[Mochan]

Lemonio, the human government is corrupt in this game?

[Mochan]

the witcher had a good system for your decision's ramifications. you weren't really good or evil. your actions affected you more directly. too bad i got stuck and stopped playing it :(

Yeah, that was the nice thing about The Witcher. It wasn't about abstract notions of Good and Evil like we usually see in Dungeons and Dragons and Bioware games. It was just about choices and how they would affect you later on.

Gothic 3 was similar, it was more about picking sides in the coming war and just trying to figure out where you fit in it all, without any kind of morality baggage. Fallout was funny in this respect in that you did get Good and Bad Karma but strangely enough the "good karma" never felt like I was being a good boy, if that makes any sense. The dismal post-apocalyptic setting may have something to do with it, and the fact that the game never really takes itself seriously. Arcanum had a rudimentary standard fantasy good evil thing going on but somehow it was never that simple (as evidenced by the Dwarf Crypt mission) -- there were "standard" ideas of good and evil in the traditional sense (elves are good, orcs are evil, etc.) but the game went to great lengths to create an upheaval in that way of thinking by presenting obtuse situations where there was no real "good" or "bad," just people (or monsters) going about their business. In the end though you did end up doing "good" or "bad" things for your alignment but the "good" NPCs were never just flowery nice people and the "bad" NPCs were never just drunken sots out to rage and pillage at the drop of a hat. It never felt as contrived or preachy as Bioware games tend to be.

[ilnadmy]

I kept the body with the military but I "intimidated" the Indian guy so I got Renegade points. I don't think Renegade specifically means "against the law" in the context of this game, but I do agree that's the literal meaning. Don't take it literally though, Renegade here simply means badass with no concern for morality.

[Mochan]

Exactly, they should have just made it the "Bad Ass" Meter and the "Boring Dork" Meter.

[Lemonio]

lmao. "boring dork" describes the good guys in kotor perfectly ;O

[aarathy]

I played this game. It has powerful storyline. Dialogue options of this game keep you constantly engaged in your missions. It has great visuals and superb voice acting. I liked this game very much.

[DBS]

Just installed this so have to see how it goes. I have the witcher to get through as well but waiting on the expanded game material coming soon.

[Robert-The-Rambler]

Just installed this so have to see how it goes. I have the witcher to get through as well but waiting on the expanded game material coming soon.

I've been playing it a lot on my quad crossfire Radeon 3870 rig and surprisingly it is playable at 1920 * 1200 with 32x FSAA. I'm only using a low power consumption Athlon X2 5600 clocked at 2.7ghz and it does the trick. It only consumes 65 watts, too. And yes that is 32X FSAA forced via the Catalyst Control Panel. The frame rate amazingly just hovers around 30 frames for much of the time for that type of game is spot on. I've discovered that with my rigs Vista 64 bit is total junk. I switched to 32 bit Vista and the performance issues and stuttering with just about everything is gone. Since I switched I'm getting amazing performance that is really consistent now.

The movie like quality of Mass Effect is awesome and the battles are exciting. I'm hoping to wind up engaging in relations with Ashley. She did say that if I had asked her to kiss her commanding officer she would have my command stripped. I guess that is not a good start. I let the leveling up be automatic since I really am not familiar with the different skills just yet. Anyhow I bungled up my original Quad Crossfire rig so bad that I wound up with 2 Quad Crossfire rigs and a triple crossfire rig. My god that is 11 videocards. LOL

[Intangir]

I've been playing it a lot on my quad crossfire Radeon 3870 rig and surprisingly it is playable at 1920 * 1200 with 32x FSAA.
Good god, and here I thought I was big pimpin' running Dungeon Siege 2: Broken World at 1280x960 with 8xCSAA, 16xAF, and some TrAA.

:(

Pics!