Mass Effect

Killzig · Post by **Killzig** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:41 pm

Kotor and Halo 3 had a baby, then raised it on episodes of BSG/Serenity/etc and gave it a shitty after-market cover system.

sarge112 · Post by **sarge112** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:15 pm

Sounds...gross

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:23 pm

Sounds illegal. Or at least should.

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:32 pm

It's elite; the very best of the best!

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 6:33 pm

I'll be getting it for christmas, so I will have my professional review ready around then for whoever are waiting for a reliable review.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 9:22 pm

I'll give you a review when I'm further through it.

MR Snake · Post by **MR Snake** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:04 pm

links or it didnt happen.

Post by **Dogmeatlives** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:39 pm

I was waiting for a thread on this.. it sounded like a pretty decent time. I'll wait for pooper's review.

Splatterpope · Post by **Splatterpope** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 3:01 am

I asked their customer support why I couldn't get it to run on my computer.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 10:16 pm

Thus far I must say they have built one of the most ridiculously well crafted worlds (err... galaxies, I guess?) that has been done in gaming in pretty much forever. With KOTOR they just had to expand upon the huge Star Wars franchise and every aspect of the universe that had been entered to it in the last three decades, but with this game they had to start from the ground up and it seems they've done an amazing job. Actual review to come in the next few days.

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 8:49 am

...waiting for third K.o.t.O.R.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 3:50 pm

3rd kotor = jade empire - too bad.

M.E. will be a trilogy, FYI

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 3:58 pm

...but still got a timeline to the reach of the beginning of episode1

Killzig · Post by **Killzig** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:51 pm

I'm almost done with it, I have a few thoughts. It might sound negative but overall my reactions have been positive. The conversation system actually has more impact/use than I thought it would (though still not to the extent of something like Fallout or Arcanum)...

There's enough side stuff to keep you distracted from the main quest line for a while. You still get the same basic filtering through in a linear fashion that you would expect. Not a lot of quests with multiple paths. I don't see any branching, maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

Obviously, it's very combat heavy but once you get the hang of the semi-shitty control scheme (back button for grenades then back again to detonate, walk into the wall for a few seconds to try and stick to cover) it becomes almost fun. But there are a lot of really annoying things about combat. They didn't give a lot of care to the maps in the combat areas so a lot of times they throw these crates in a big open area and toss the enemies in. What makes it funnier is that a lot of times it looks like they expected the player to come around and actually flank enemy positions. HUR HURRR, good idea BUT....... the enemies will usually just run head first at you and try to melee you. Even well armed ones so my tactic has become stacking up my squad on the hallway before the door to BIG OPEN AREA W/CRATES, opening the door then walking in just enough to 'trigger' them and slowly backing into my squadmates' line of fire while I pop a few heads off as they come into view. They also do the really stupid thing of waiting to spawn enemies in those big open rooms until you're right upon them. There's an area of the game that this is especially stupid because you actually see the waiting enemies on the ground in front of you but you can't even shoot at them because they haven't been "triggered" and thus made hostile.

The mini game is garbage, they might as well had asked the console kids to drool on themselves for a few seconds as it's basically the same effect. You just respond to a quick 4-5 button mash simon says thing and you're done. The only difficulty inherent is that the stupid thing doesn't register correctly a lot of times.

So yeah, all of this sounds really negative. In the realm of RPGs the combat is good. If you're doing what I'm doing and judging by the rainbow games, call of duty or shit even the new medal of honor game the combat is less than average but saved by the fun weapons/powers.

The skill system is too forgiving. There is absolutely no way you could possibly fuck up a character build. It might have been better with all the skills available to every character but you can easily max all your most useful skills by level 40. (capped at 50 on first play through).

so what's good?

the exploration is neat. a lot of times I stumbled on side quests just by compulsively exploring every star cluster. derelict ships, overrun outposts, hidden enemy bases. etc. now Oblivion had things that were similar and I think it's safe to say that most of us here were bored with the way it was handled in Oblivion's sandbox. ME manages to tie a lot of the side missions together in their own story arc that ties into the main story arc. The dungeon loot is actually good. Besides uncovering more story and unlocking some more quests, you actually get useful loot in the process. If not for you, then for one of your NPCs. Even the more isolated side quests provide their own stories and they do try to mix it up a bit more than just 'go clear this dungeon' ...

It's a good game with obvious flaws, take it in the context of what else is on the market right now and it's definitely more than passable.

/end ramble.

Nameless_One · Post by **Nameless_One** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:43 am

Shit, all of these are truths...overall it`s very BASIC too but anyway I`ll play it a few more times until Kotor3 shows up itself.

CloudNineGT · Post by **CloudNineGT** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:08 pm

I haven't finished the game yet, but a few things have come become apparent that are worth sharing.

Firstly- The game can be very cinematic. Its been a long time since I've seen video game dialog that actually moved me partially because its usually so campy/stupid/self-absorbed that anything they try to convey comes across as just stupid. Not so in ME. The voice acting and character expressions while not entirely lifelike are a step in the right direction and go a long way to make a conversation about aliens and shit more believable. During the course of the game, rather early in fact, you are asked to continue a conversation with a man for a given amount of time so that something can hack something about his something for some company... in any case you are informed that he scratches his neck when he feels uncomfortable and that to ensure a longer conversation you should press on about any topic that elicits this behavior. Awesome.

Secondly- (negative) The game is glitchy. I've had problems with my character getting stuck in places and once had an entire enemy base fail to render until I tried to get out of the MAKO, landing me somewhere between a wall and a giant graphical glitch that forced me to load from a save that was way too far back.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:10 pm

isn't that what downloadable content is for?

MR Snake · Post by **MR Snake** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:55 pm

Is this a console game or a pc game?

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:23 pm

MR Snake wrote:Is this a console game or a pc game?

Is there even a difference today?

Killzig · Post by **Killzig** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 6:30 pm

CloudNineGT wrote:Firstly- The game can be very cinematic. Its been a long time since I've seen video game dialog that actually moved me partially because its usually so campy/stupid/self-absorbed that anything they try to convey comes across as just stupid. Not so in ME. The voice acting and character expressions while not entirely lifelike are a step in the right direction and go a long way to make a conversation about aliens and shit more believable. During the course of the game, rather early in fact, you are asked to continue a conversation with a man for a given amount of time so that something can hack something about his something for some company... in any case you are informed that he scratches his neck when he feels uncomfortable and that to ensure a longer conversation you should press on about any topic that elicits this behavior. Awesome.

where did you get this quest? what character? I didn't come across it and I was pretty compulsive about checking every nook and cranny.

beyond getting "stuck" on objects. Usually happened to me when I was sprinting close to a wall, I'm not sure how QA missed that one. The FPS takes a nose dive ever so often.