Mass Effect

[miffy495]

Well, my media black out unintentionally came to an end when I was going to watch something on gametrailers and saw the gamestop advertisement for ME2.

I don't know if this came from EA, Bioware, or Gamestop, but jesus christ I just want to burst into tears, I may need to take a personal day for this.

I know it's just an advertisement, but fucking come on, toliet humor?

Yeah, those ads pissed me off to no end, and that's not even considering that what they're advertising is a bullshit gamestop-exclusive preorder bonus. On the plus side, you only get the toilet humour gun if you buy the game at gamestop, so just avoid that place and your experience will be fine.

I don't know how this happened, but the adblocker on my desktop PC stops gametrailers ads from popping up every time, but the exact same thing on my laptop doesn't stop the stupid ads. If I try to block it on my laptop, the whole video disappears. Anyone have a tip to get rid of this shit? I hate Gamestop already, I don't need their relentless stupid advertising to reinforce it. Might it be something to do with my desktop being on Vista and my laptop on Windows 7?

[mikemariano]

I completed Mass Effect this week. Overall it was good. It actually got better towards the end, which a lot of games forget about. The combat doesn't really become fun until you get to use all of your biotic and tech powers.

Many articles I read about Mass Effect 2 mention that they have improved the combat, but they don't mention biotic powers at all. I hope they haven't screwed it up.

The Bring Down The Sky mission was very good and had the second most gorgeous landscape in the game (after the Earth's moon).

Has anyone played Pinnacle Station? Its description makes it seem like nothing more than "VR Missions."

[Patters]

I completed Mass Effect this week. Overall it was good. It actually got better towards the end, which a lot of games forget about. The combat doesn't really become fun until you get to use all of your biotic and tech powers.

Many articles I read about Mass Effect 2 mention that they have improved the combat, but they don't mention biotic powers at all. I hope they haven't screwed it up.

The Bring Down The Sky mission was very good and had the second most gorgeous landscape in the game (after the Earth's moon).

Has anyone played Pinnacle Station? Its description makes it seem like nothing more than "VR Missions."

Don't get pinnacle station.

[mikemariano]

Hmmm, I just saw an interview from two days ago with Bioware's Christina Norman where she kinda sorta not really addresses the concern I have:

Q: Which of the new biotic skills do you think is going to wow us the most? Do you have a particular favourite?

A: The biggest wow factor for biotic players is going to be real-time power usage and our fast cooldown system. In ME1, every power had a long individual cooldown. This encouraged pausing, and spamming all your powers in every fight. Now all powers can be activated in real time and every power shares a fast cooldown. This has two benefits. First, you can use powers continually throughout combat. Second, you are rewarded for choosing the right power for the right situation.

But "Lift" is the right power for every situation!

[Murdoc]

I think at this point there's a race against time for my soul; Bioware vs EA Marketing.

Bioware for, hopefully, making an awesome sequel to my favorite game and EA marketing for, as much as I try to ignore, is getting hard and making me want to hang myself with solidified tears because they are pimping tits and ass for fucking mass effect.

[JonCole]

But "Lift" is the right power for every situation!

That power was "Barrier" for me, what with my biotic/close-range combat dude. It would be nice to not have to spam all my shit right at the beginning of combat because of long cooldowns... it's not really optimal to have to use lift, barrier, throw, singularity, etc in a row before you actually begin fighting.

[Sleepdance]

''It seams like biotic bulldog is exactly what any Sheapard wants or needs and she seems she is totally willing to do that.''-IGN.com on subject of Mass Effect 2

Edited January 16, 2010 by Sleepdance

[mikemariano]

Pinnacle Station is discounted to only three dollars in the Xbox Live Marketplace this week! I was tempted....

But then I remembered Patters's advice and decided to follow up with Metacritic.

Ouch!

Especially troubling is this part of Gamespot's review:

To add insult to injury, if you purchased the Greatest Hits edition of Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station won't function unless you employ a work-around that involves deleting the packed-in Bring Down the Sky content and then purchasing it from the Xbox Live Marketplace--essentially doubling Pinnacle Station's price. A future fix may remedy that problem, but even when in perfect working order, the latest Mass Effect add-on is shameful.

Um, that describes me.

[Murdoc]

6 days and I think I may have an ulcer by the weekend. I know Bioware's track record and what they did with that abysmal premise of Dragon Age is nothing short of amazing, but holy shit am I worried.... just let it at least be good as the first, that's all I"m asking.

[lobotomy42]

6 days and I think I may have an ulcer by the weekend. I know Bioware's track record and what they did with that abysmal premise of Dragon Age is nothing short of amazing, but holy shit am I worried.... just let it at least be good as the first, that's all I"m asking.

I feel your pain, man. I've been having difficulty focusing at work these past few days, because in the back of my head, there's Mass Effect 2. So close!

[Korax]

Especially troubling is this part of Gamespot's review:

To add insult to injury, if you purchased the Greatest Hits edition of Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station won't function unless you employ a work-around that involves deleting the packed-in Bring Down the Sky content and then purchasing it from the Xbox Live Marketplace--essentially doubling Pinnacle Station's price. A future fix may remedy that problem, but even when in perfect working order, the latest Mass Effect add-on is shameful.

That mess was fixed a couple weeks after the DLC hit. Now you just have to re-insert the bonus disc. An update will download and you can reinstall BDtS, download PS, and everything works.

[miffy495]

So in preparation for ME2 hitting soon, I'm replaying the original. Thing is, I played Mass Effect on 360 the first time around and want to play the sequel on PC. This means that I'm playing through Mass Effect on PC this time around so I'll have a save that will transfer over to the new game next week. Just beat Noveria, which was the first planet I went to after the Citadel. I played for 4 and a half hours without stopping tonight. It was pretty sweet. One complaint though: My god, I thought the Mako controls were shit on 360, but the PC version is completely fucked. So awful. Everything else is great though, and the inventory and squad management systems are great.

So yeah, great and pulling me through again. Definitely warrants its place as one of my favorite games of 2007, and still holds up. Had to say something about the Mako controls though. Goddamn.

[Korax]

I hate you so much.

[elmuerte]

Me too. Then again, still working on Uncharted 1 and Brutal Legend

[JonCole]

So yeah, great and pulling me through again. Definitely warrants its place as one of my favorite games of 2007, and still holds up. Had to say something about the Mako controls though. Goddamn.

Heard that the way to go was plugging in a 360 controller for the Mako.

[Patters]

Heard that the way to go was plugging in a 360 controller for the Mako.

You can't use a controller on Mass Effect PC, can you?

[JonCole]

You can't use a controller on Mass Effect PC, can you?

Maybe not, I dunno, I could have read it on a site where people use joystick mapping programs for games that really should support it.

[miffy495]

Yeah, it was the first thing I tried. No 360 pad support.

[ThunderPeel2001]

So I finally finished this on my PC...

Lovely graphics. Great voice acting. Plus, I really enjoyed the twist at the end -- Very clever how they took what you thought you knew and turned it into something else. Loved that!

Also, Femshep! What a revelation! It's amazing how much more interesting she made the same dialogue sound than Sheploo.

...but otherwise, what a chore! Exploring planets was so incredibly dull. As was doing the same dungeon over and over. Even with unique locations, in terms of level design, (for example The Citadel and other locations) they were unnecessarily huge, empty spaces that added nothing but frustration as you tried to remember where you needed to go. And the endless lift journeys!

My idea of the worst kind of amateur sci-fi writer is someone who thinks the world they've created is just so... epic. And important. And deep. Mass Effect seemed to suffer from this attitude continuously. There was absolutely no humour in any of the characters. They were so goddamned earnest and overwrought about everything. The beginning was the worst; it just hits you over the head again and again with its mythology. The history of the races, the council, the Citadel. Yes, yes, BioWare, very clever, very detailed, but very DULL.

KOTOR was an amazing game by comparison: There's a reason Star Wars caught people's imaginations. The world and its mythology, while not deep, is immediately compelling and interesting. Adding depth doesn't automatically equate to a better universe. For example, in the original SW movie: You don't need to know every little detail about the creatures you see in the Mos Eisley Cantina. If you did, it would quickly become very boring,

With Mass Effect I felt I was being bludgeoned with pointless, uninteresting tales about alien races. It was like BioWare were going, "Hey everyone, look at all the history and detail we've put into this thing -- let me tell you about it. This creature is an Asari. They only have one sex (they're all sexy female, natch). The live for hundreds of years. They have three stages of life: Maiden, Matron, and Matriarch. (Otherwise known as "Whore/Sex Bomb", "Madonna/Mother", and "Too Old/Wise Woman -- but with big cleavage".) Matriarch's are considered super wise and intelligent. When Asari have sex, they "bond" with their partner and are able to mate with any species. They can also mate with each other, even though they're all kind-of female. See how interesting and clever we are to have created this race? See how "hard sci-fi" we are? What? Why do they all speak perfect English? Why do they look mostly humanoid? Um. Let me tell you about the Elcor... " And on and on and on.

None of that is compelling. None of it is interesting. It's just "facts" (if you will) repeatedly pummeling your face.

*sigh*

Still, the wonderful twist at the end made me just about forgive what it put me though.

Making it so the Protheans didn't actually create the Citadel, but were, infact, just the last creatures to be "harvested" by the Reapers was a pretty cool idea. What's weird is that I've watched the video ending of ME3 (although I can only vaguely remember it) and, IIRC, it basically just restates what the first game tells you -- I think? The cycle of races being destroyed over and over.

Anyways, despite all that, I'm looking forward to ME2 to see if things improve any.

[mikemariano]

Also, Femshep! What a revelation! It's amazing how much more interesting she made the same dialogue sound than Sheploo.

It's true! She had a great world-weary deadpan that reminded me of Harrison Ford.

As FemShep, I get to play as Han Solo! Male Shepard didn't give me that opportunity.

[Argobot]

Can we all just read the Tom Bissell essay where he interviews Jennifer Hale (the actress who did FemShep's voice) and then discuss the completely surreal moment when he plays Mass Effect 3 with her?

[lobotomy42]

Link?

[elmuerte]

Zelda!

[Lu]

Hey, listen. Watch out.