[360] Mass Effect

silhouette said:
Just finished reading the prologue book. The writer is the same guy who writes the story of the game. His resume also includes the story of KoToR and another NY Times bestseller StarWars book. The story in the book itself is above average. It begins with nice, fast paced action, then slows down, and then ends with something that you do not expect from the main character. However, it will give you lots of information about the mainbad guy, Saren, in the game, and also, the admiral (Anderson) whom Shepherd was speaking in the beginning of trailer. I also bet that we will see more characters from the book in the game - though a little bit aged..

Although the story is above average, the backdrop world - or should I say galaxy - is excellent. You will understand why they call it "jack Bauer in space". Spectre, of which Shepherd is also a member, is an elite group, whose members are few but kind of above the law. In order to protect the galactic peace, they are allowed to do anything: this includes torture to extract information, setup a team as a bait (it does not matter if they survive or not), even commiting actions that result in loss of thousands of civilians life - if all of these leads to saving of billions of life, that's what a spectre -you- should do. That's why the creators of the game says you will face though choices throughout the game, and reading the type of tasks given to spectres in the book, this is something sure we will see in the game.

After reading the book, I also know think that Bioware creates an excellent setting for themselves. Being a shepherd means you have to take any task that is given from the council, and it does not necessarily mean that it is related to main quest. I think with this in hand, they can easily expand game by adding quests as DLC. Even maybe, we will see some episodic content, who knows...

Anyway, the book is worth reading, at least for getting more familiar with the setting and the characters. I am alot more excited for the game now!
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Thanks a lot. I was planning to ask about the book but not seeing many reviews online and lack of mention here, I thought there wasn't much interest. Now I have to pick a copy. :)
 
I ordered the book after reading the prologue chapter online (readable on Bioware's Mass Effect Website), which I found quite enjoyable. Surely nothing worthy of entering the grand halls of science fiction literature, but a good read. I too am now much more hyped about the game, the story and universe and characters now!
 
An new clip here http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/85139.html is showing the new dialog system.
It's very movie-like, and you can also *cut* the other one in middle of sentences. It'll be huge for replayability.

I bought the xbox360 mainly for Mass Effect as I'll move where Bioware release their single-player RPG.
While I'm not sure the FPS part will be interesting, at least I know I'll spend hours trying every dialog branches (Could it beat Planescape Torment ?).
 
I like how the characters don't just repeat what you select, and they play it out smoothly into the conversation.

Nice detail with the facial expressions and all, but the eyes were kinda weird for the girl. And well... Sheppard looked like he needed to take a crank. :LOL:
 
AlStrong said:
I like how the characters don't just repeat what you select, and they play it out smoothly into the conversation.

Nice detail with the facial expressions and all, but the eyes were kinda weird for the girl. And well... Sheppard looked like he needed to take a crank. :LOL:
Click to expand...

Apparently Bioware acknowledged a small bug with the girls eyes, making her appear cross eyed sometimes....or at least that's what I heard :p

Really does look great though, these cut scenes rival any realtime cut-scenes, yet they are only very loosely scripted.

And the animation in Shephards face, WOW. Really has evolved by leaps and bounds, the feeling and emotion is written plainly across his face now, very cool to see. For example, when he asks her if she's lonely, he looks like a typical greaseball...would you like some dick with that???
 
Just simply awesome god I want this game so bad. Why are not more people taking about this game here? This could very well be the greatest RPG ever. It has every thing a huge universe stunning graphics and a great dialog system from the looks of it.

Here is some more a QA at gamespot.


http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect/news.html?sid=6175375&tag=newlyadded;title;1



Quote:
GS: You mention the "critical path" kind of core storyline. How linear is that storyline? You've said that this game is or may be the first part of a trilogy, so are we looking at, say, multiple possible endings, or is it going to be a more fixed progression for the storyline?

CH: There are definitely multiple endings, and it's actually a matrix of endings, and not just because it branches out into a few different points from one decision point. It's actually based on a combination of the way that you play the entire game and the decisions that you make throughout the ending sequence, so that both of those things actually really matter. It's nice to be able to make really important decisions as you approach the ending of a game to decide what's going to happen. But you don't want to have a situation where you can just reload and make different decisions and see a different ending, and see [all the endings] that way. Because, really, that's the value of being able to play a certain way throughout an entire game, is that that makes for a fundamentally different ending.
 
I don't know why more aren't frothing over it. Maybe because it's single player and not a fantasy MMO? Heh. Yuck. I fear that we live in times when a large number of gamers shun story in favor of multiplayer.

I live for these sci-fi RPGs. Can't wait to get my hands on it.

In the meantime, go beat KOTOR again. I would if I hadn't beaten it 3 times already, heh. (Refuse to try playing KOTOR2 again until Team Gizka is done). Another option is some System Shock 2. If you haven't played that, you're doing yourself a disservice. ;)
 
THe extended E3 trailer is cool. If they smooth out framerate it will be an instant classic. This game has everything: bald space marines, chicks, huge space battles and frogmen. :p I have Mass Effect Revelation novel, but still haven't read it - I have to finish other books first. But I have plenty of time beore the game ships.;)

I love the matrix of endings idea. It will really add to replayability, but I hope it won't make endings unsatisfactory.
 
Nesh said:
lol think so?
Click to expand...

thats what came to mind, yes.

AlStrong said:
I guess I should clarify what I meant. :oops: I was referring to the mass extinction of biological life in the galaxy that shows up plenty of times in sci-fi, including Halo, Stargate, even Descent: Freespace to an extent - and they all involve some sort of "ancient civilization" that's all high and mighty.
Click to expand...

should fit in that scenario pretty well then? you could skip that mass extinction part....

scooby_dooby said:
Apparently Bioware acknowledged a small bug with the girls eyes, making her appear cross eyed sometimes....or at least that's what I heard :p

Really does look great though, these cut scenes rival any realtime cut-scenes, yet they are only very loosely scripted.

And the animation in Shephards face, WOW. Really has evolved by leaps and bounds, the feeling and emotion is written plainly across his face now, very cool to see. For example, when he asks her if she's lonely, he looks like a typical greaseball...would you like some dick with that???
Click to expand...

hahahaha. thx for the lolzers...

pls don't spoil on the book. This game is going to be SICK!
 
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Everything else they've made has come to PC, I think.. Maybe in a year or so. Heh.

I think the lack of AA is the most "disappointing" aspect of the game. But, I'll get over it. Looks incredible otherwise. My old skool 36" SDTV will hide that stuff anyway.
 
swaaye said:
Everything else they've made has come to PC, I think.. Maybe in a year or so. Heh.

I think the lack of AA is the most "disappointing" aspect of the game. But, I'll get over it. Looks incredible otherwise. My old skool 36" SDTV will hide that stuff anyway.
Click to expand...

I thought AA was mandatory on all 360 games?
 
Ostepop said:
nope, HD resolution is mandatory.

The thing about the 360 and AA is that supposedly you can have 4x AA for a very little performance hit (5%) if you make a proper engine that uses tiles.
Click to expand...

I doubt the 5%. This is Microsoft (or is ATI's) quoted number, but you know how these things go. If it were really 5%, I doubt many devs would be using anything else. You are right about the engine of course.

4x AA may only give a 5% hit, but in conjuction with the requisite tiling, I'm sure some situations bring about a significant jump in % hit (redundant geometry).
 
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