[PC] Mass Effect

[Rezz]

I found vanguard to be the weakest overall class in the game when I rolled through it on the x-box. And while ashley is fairly stout, wrex embarrasses the hell out of her in the survivability department. Tali/Wrex is probably the best combo of team mates, esp. if you roll as a pure biotic.

[Vorph]

Ugh. I'd say this game was a huge disappointment after all the praise it received, but I have zero expectations from Bioware anymore to begin with.

The combat is a horrible "worst of both worlds" mishmash of RPG and FPS, the UE3 engine still sucks ass (yay for pixelation with depth of field on, and self-shadowing that looks more like blobs of shit smeared on characters' faces), and the so-called good/evil dialog amounts to pathetic ass-kisser or rude sociopath just like every other Bioware game in the last 6 years.

WTB a developer making real RPGs again... is that really asking so much?

[Agraza]

Haven't played this yet, but what RPGs did you like? In this vein, anyway.

The most disturbing thing is the criticism of the inventory system. I find equipment to be one of the most fun parts of RPGs, and if the inventory system sucks that insinuates a lack of enjoyment in that part of the game.

I just want Morrowind with new graphics and keyboard-driven interaction with everything. I don't want to touch my mouse unless I'm adjusting my camera. I know that isn't Mass Effect, but that's where my interests lie. Unfortunately the would-be-decent RPGs seem to all be slated for consoles, thus draining them of all potential to be awesome.

[Bristlebane]

I played through and beat this on 360 and liked it.

However, the sheer amount of dialog is just boring me on a second playthrough on the PC. I quit after about an hour. I might go back to it eventually.

[Vorph]

Originally Posted by Agraza

Haven't played this yet, but what RPGs did you like? In this vein, anyway.

My biggest complaint is that I feel like I'm now playing KotOR for the fourth time now. Everything about Mass Effect feels utterly derivative of both KotORs and Jade Empire. FFS, they've even got the voice actor for Carth playing a character in ME who has the exact same [annoying as shit] personality.

The engine issues are a definite second on my list. I forgot to mention that the game is vert- rather than hor+, which is pretty gay considering even Jade Empire got widescreen right.

As for what I do like: Planescape: Torment above all else, followed by the Fallouts, Baldur's Gate 2, Temple of Elemental Evil, etc. I don't necessarily hate the idea of a FPS/RPG hybrid, as that certainly worked with Deus Ex, Gothic 2, Arx Fatalis, and VtM: Bloodlines. I'd still much prefer a true turn-based system over anything else though.

The most disturbing thing is the criticism of the inventory system. I find equipment to be one of the most fun parts of RPGs, and if the inventory system sucks that insinuates a lack of enjoyment in that part of the game.

The inventory system isn't that awful, on the PC anyway. It's bizarre that all characters carry 4 weapons at all times, and it's a pain in the ass to switch characters when a new person joins the group because you have to remember to not turn at least one of each weapon/armor type to gel in order to be able to change out someone's gear. I can see how it would have sucked trying to manage all the crap you pick up with a gamepad though.

I just want Morrowind with new graphics and keyboard-driven interaction with everything. I don't want to touch my mouse unless I'm adjusting my camera. I know that isn't Mass Effect, but that's where my interests lie. Unfortunately the would-be-decent RPGs seem to all be slated for consoles, thus draining them of all potential to be awesome.

I think everyone here knows what I think of Bethesda so I'll refrain from commenting there. Suffice to say that's definitely not what I'm looking for.

[Agraza]

Never tried Temple, but point made. I just felt Kotor was too short and too shallow, but MMORPGs have spoiled me. I expect to quest for 8 hours merely to obtain the HILT to the magnificent weapon I will some day wield. Quest, not grind/work.

[Jabberwhacky]

Originally Posted by Vorph

Ugh. I'd say this game was a huge disappointment after all the praise it received, but I have zero expectations from Bioware anymore to begin with.

The combat is a horrible "worst of both worlds" mishmash of RPG and FPS, the UE3 engine still sucks ass (yay for pixelation with depth of field on, and self-shadowing that looks more like blobs of shit smeared on characters' faces), and the so-called good/evil dialog amounts to pathetic ass-kisser or rude sociopath just like every other Bioware game in the last 6 years.

WTB a developer making real RPGs again... is that really asking so much?

I think the graphic issues you mention are the same gripes I had after mere minutes playing the game. The whole game seems grainy to me, and I feel like my character takes up 75% of the god damn screen. The world feels just as linear (if not more linear) than KotOR. Shit, the very first "world" I was sent to had exactly one path to move down, with one alcove off to the side with a fucking med-pak booster thing.

Why even bother with next-gen graphics when the game is still so linear and restrictive? Why do I want to see super-high res rocks and hills on a 5 foot slope that my cybord-android-superhuman-biotec ass can't fucking walk over?

I also agree with your sentiments on the stupid dialogue system. After just 2 conversations I could already tell which options would make me a OMG RENEGADE and which would make me whatever the opposite was (paradigm?).

[Mist]

I played through as an infiltrator and I thoroughly enjoyed the game, about as much as I liked Deus Ex, a little more and a little less in some ways. Definitely one of the best games I've ever played, despite some faults. The whole statistical RPG/inventory system was pretty awful, you just got too many junk items constantly, and junk upgrades, with no particularly good way to sort anything. The vehicular parts weren't terrible but they did seem like they were put in just to make the game seem bigger/longer. The graphics were absolutely amazing on my machine, can't see any complaints there besides the shadows on the neck often being a TINY bit messed up. The plot was a little weak, but the presentation of that plot and the amount of characters to interact with made up for any structural weakness in the arc of the plot. The good parts of the game were very, very good and made up for all of the bad parts and then some.

Then again, the game starts off with +1000 cool points just for being a space opera if you ask me.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

The whole game seems grainy to me

There's a film grain effect in the options menu, it defaults to on but you can turn it off. It says "Film Grain Effect," plain as day. You can also turn off motion blur.

[mexpak]

Originally Posted by Jabberwhacky

I also agree with your sentiments on the stupid dialogue system. After just 2 conversations I could already tell which options would make me a OMG RENEGADE and which would make me whatever the opposite was (paradigm?).

It states in the manual that the top choices are paragon and bottom choices are renegade, also left for depth and right to end conversations.

[Jabberwhacky]

Ok well ignore the fact that my superior intellect enabled me to decipher such a complex system and instead focus on the fact that renegade boils down to "Shut up, I don't care!" and paragon boils down to "I value your friendship and would like to work out our differences over a nice cup of Earl Grey."

Unless that's wrong too and you can tell me that the choices become more subtle and nuanced. I'm considering how KotOR's good-evil system worked too, where it seemed like you either wanted to be perfectly good or perfectly bad, because you could look at your alignment and see the exact bonuses and think "Man, if I just told 7 more people to fuck off I'd get a damage bonus to my lightning bolt." Just seeing the two meters of Renegadeness and Paragonness in the character screen makes the system seem just like KotOR's.

[Vorph]

To be clear, I'm not talking about film grain (which I like) or motion blur (which I shut off because it often blurs things that aren't actually in motion).

This is what every light in the game looks like for me. Not my image, but it's the same as what I see in game. Shadows look like a grey version of the same thing. Supposedly, Catalyst 8.6 (no mention of a nvidia fix eta, though people with 8800/9800 cards have reported the same issue) will fix it, but for now the game looks horrible with depth of field on, and with it off everything is in focus which isn't how it's supposed to look.

[Mist]

It's not the same because it's not zero sum or mutually exclusive. In some situations you can gain paragon or renegade without missing an opportunity to get the other one.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by Vorph

To be clear, I'm not talking about film grain (which I like) or motion blur (which I shut off because it often blurs things that aren't actually in motion).

This is what every light in the game looks like for me. Not my image, but it's the same as what I see in game. Shadows look like a grey version of the same thing. Supposedly, Catalyst 8.6 (no mention of a nvidia fix eta, though people with 8800/9800 cards have reported the same issue) will fix it, but for now the game looks horrible with depth of field on, and with it off everything is in focus which isn't how it's supposed to look.

ATI cards are bugged. All specular lighting is broken. It doesn't happen on Nvidia cards, at least not with the proper drivers.

[Vorph]

Yeah, it seems to affect 100% of ATI cards, but there are also nvidia people with new cards and the latest drivers reporting it as well.

There's still no excuse for releasing the game with this flaw, as well as making it sound like it's ATI's fault. It especially sucks that ATI released a new driver barely a week ago, so it's unlikely that 8.6 will be out until late June.

Edit: Oh, and it's not a specular lighting issue, it's depth of field. The same pixelation on the light above affects my character during dialogs when the camera is focused on a npc. Anytime the game tries to blur something, that's what it looks like. Editing an .ini and turning off depth of field is a temporary, if imperfect, fix for the problem. I highly doubt anything will fix the self-shadowing issues though. I've never seen a UE3 game that was capable of doing that properly. It's irritating that turning off dynamic shadows to get rid of that has the side effect of removing all shadows on the environment too. I haven't found an ini fix for that one.