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[The Lamonster]

Saying that is a little much I think.

The first part or the second part?

or both?

 

[Masta_Killah]

Indeed. This game is aptly named because the mass effect influences almost everything in the galactic community. So much of the technology now revolves around it, not just interstellar travel but down to how bullets and shields work. Also, I like the concept of omni-gel. It's all very realistic.

The only thing about the story that I find unrealistic is that mankind discovered the mass effect only nine years ago. It seems unlikely to me that they would have developed all of this cool shit in less than a decade around a science they didn't know existed before.

You do know that the humans

Spoiler

were already colonizing Mars before the discovery of ME right?

I'm pretty sure that they would need some advanced technology to accomplish that feat. Also, in one of the side missions,

Spoiler

the humans also discovered intact space vessels.

With their knowledge of space travel, reverse engineering wouldn't be too difficult. And since they are considered

Spoiler

for a seat on the council

, it wouldn't be too far a stretch to believe that the other races may have helped them out, technology wise.

Its interesting, the side missions and all. It actually gives you a good backstory leading up to the events in the game. For instance, the soldiers on Virmir have a prestigious background. You would only know about their background though by doing the side missions. I had an "oh shit" moment when the commander for the ground assault gave his speech. I would have thought that it was a normal "Braveheart" type speech if I hadn't discovered their origins and past history. Also explains why there wasn't a larger ground assault team as well.


Question: Is Bioware going to have dlc planets, like it was first announced some months(years) back?

 

[Big-E]

The first part or the second part?

or both?

Second part.

 

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

Explorers found the technology on Mars. But I would imagine humanity was already in the stars at that point. Probably just flying around the solar system. But I imagine it had already colonized Mars and was probably doing research on other planets. Not that hard to believe nine years could be enough time to stumble across the Citadel.

when you go to the sol system i think its called and read the bios on the planets in the solar system it talks about some of that stuff.

 

[Zzoram]

I just beat the game as an Adept on Veteran.

Spoiler

Wow, those final choices feel like they'll reshape the order of the galaxy.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Pulling a sequel out of this will be tricky. What kind of choices will Bioware make for you (regarding characters and ending), will they pull the lame "Oh i have amnesia" BS? And how will they expand on the universe? (DVD limits) Maybe they will simply cut planets from ME1!?

And i guess in ME2 we will get to see earth? That would rock. And more races. Oh and it would be cool if they did a gathering, like in Star Wars, tons of Races in one place to discuss the future and stuff like that. I'm getting Mass erection.

 

[Superblatt]

No, in all ways. In Mass Effect, humans are the underdogs - and that's cool.

Actually, I agree. Being the first human spectre for the entire race makes your journey feel vastly more important. Humans are always right there tech wise with alien races in the majority of sci fi -- including Star Trek and Star Wars.

Having Mass Effect's cannon based around humanity's inherent newness to the galactic universe is a major ripple in the sci fi norm. To put it simply -- it's also much more plausible. Do you really think when we run into other specifies on other planets one day we're going to be the advanced race?

Just look at us now. That concept is laughable.

 

[The Lamonster]

Second part.

I think it's more interesting to be the underdog than the majority. If humans were the majority of the galaxy, there would be no conflicts with the council and the plot wouldn't be very exciting because of that. Also, less humans means more aliens, which is always cool.

EDIT:

Actually, I agree. Being the first human spectre for the entire race makes your journey feel vastly more important. Humans are always right there tech wise with alien races in the majority of sci fi -- including Star Trek and Star Wars.

Having Mass Effect's cannon based around humanity's inherent newness to the galactic universe is a major ripple in the sci fi norm. To put it simply -- it's also much more plausible. Do you really think when we run into other specifies on other planets one day we're going to be the advanced race?

Just look at us now. That concept is laughable.

Well said. That's what I was trying to say but you did a much better job. Even though you misspelled canon.

 

[Oni Link 666]

I was expecting Tali to start talking about a multipass at some point. :lol Her voice just reminded me of Milla Jovovich's character in the 5th Element.

Spoiler

Some of the decisions I made;

- Killed the Rachni
- Reloaded my save and saved Wrex from Ashley by putting 2 more points from a level I had not used the points from into intimidate.
- Sent Ashley to die. :lol I hated her.
- Did not save the council
- Made Anderson head of the new council

The sequel is shaping up quite nicely.

 

[WrikaWrek]

After trying all endings, i gotta say...i prefer the one

Spoiler

where you save the council

.

I like being a renegade, and i was a mean son of a bitch but the better ending was that one. Even for the sequel, sounds like a better sequel with that ending.

 

[medze]

So I just finished a Renegade playthrough after beating it only doing Paragon choices. Did anyone else feel like a racist prick at the end of the game with that whole "all species must follow humans" talk?

 

[FFChris]

Just got the game.

Fantastic gameplay, but the framerate, glitches and texture pop-in are just terrible. Luckily I can look past those, but seriously Bioware, fix that shit in the sequal.

 

[WrikaWrek]

So I just finished a Renegade playthrough after beating it only doing Paragon choices. Did anyone else feel like a racist prick at the end of the game with that whole "all species must follow humans" talk?

*Raises hand* That's why i liked the other ending better.

 

[Hugin]

The universe feels like Babylon 5 to me more than anything.

 

[Masta_Killah]

Just got the game.

Fantastic gameplay, but the framerate, glitches and texture pop-in are just terrible. Luckily I can look past those, but seriously Bioware, fix that shit in the sequal.

I doubt Bioware will vastly improve on these glitches. After playing KOTOR and experiencing the glitches on that, I thought Bioware had learnt their lesson and would make Jade Empire perfect. It wasn't. Same old problems, especially with framerate and texture pop-in.

 

[Zzoram]

The universe feels like Babylon 5 to me more than anything.

That's EXACTLY what I thought. The whole First Contact War thing felt just like the first contact with the Mimbari (sp?).

 

[Zzoram]

I doubt Bioware will vastly improve on these glitches. After playing KOTOR and experiencing the glitches on that, I thought Bioware had learnt their lesson and would make Jade Empire perfect. It wasn't. Same old problems, especially with framerate and texture pop-in.

Frankly, if they keep delivering in the gameplay and story department, I can overlook technical issues if they have the same issues in all their games.

 

[besada]

Did a New Game+ and found something funny. You can dress Jenkins in any kind of armor you have, including Krogan, but it doesn't change his model. And he still gets killed, even wearing Krogan Battle Armor with +240 shields:lol

Getting to allocate 70 points at once on the characters was super-sweet.

 

[Woo-Fu]

Did anyone else feel like a racist prick at the end of the game with that whole "all species must follow humans" talk?

Felt more like Patriotism than Racism and you could even draw some parallels to the US vs. the world.

 

[Masta_Killah]

Frankly, if they keep delivering in the gameplay and story department, I can overlook technical issues if they have the same issues in all their games.

Oh, same hear. Im just saying that I wouldn't hold my breath for much improved framerate and texture loading when it comes to Bioware and console games.

 

[Zzoram]

Oh, same hear. Im just saying that I wouldn't hold my breath for much improved framerate and texture loading when it comes to Bioware and console games.

Ya, their PC efforts tend to go over a bit smoother, but CRPGs are always better on PC.

 

[Big-E]

Oh, same hear. Im just saying that I wouldn't hold my breath for much improved framerate and texture loading when it comes to Bioware and console games.

It will be interesting to see if EA will bring anything to the table in this regard. Mass Effect 2 will be a perfect game if they can fix the technical issues, inventory and provide more depth to planet exploration and sidequests.

 

[65536]

Stupid question - I've put one point into Commando so far - the description is:

"Increases damage with all weapons by 6%
Still provides Infiltrator talent bonuses"

But after that, all the other descriptions drop the "Still provides Infiltrator talent bonuses" line - I assume that's just an error on their part, and I do still get my bonuses?


Which made me realise something else - why isn't there a status screen in the game? On my inventory screen I have weapon details, but there's nothing that actually tells me what my actual damage is once my talents and any mods etc are applied.

 

[WrikaWrek]

Felt more like Patriotism than Racism and you could even draw some parallels to the US vs. the world.

How could it be patriotism when we are talking about other races? Not other countries with our race, but other species.

Looks like racism to me.

 

[Big-E]

Stupid question - I've put one point into Commando so far - the description is:

"Increases damage with all weapons by 6%
Still provides Infiltrator talent bonuses"

But after that, all the other descriptions drop the "Still provides Infiltrator talent bonuses" line - I assume that's just an error on their part, and I do still get my bonuses?


Which made me realise something else - why isn't there a status screen in the game? On my inventory screen I have weapon details, but there's nothing that actually tells me what my actual damage is once my talents and any mods etc are applied.

I was wondering this too. All we get is our hp and paragon or renegade points.

 

[medze]

Felt more like Patriotism than Racism and you could even draw some parallels to the US vs. the world.

As WrikaWrek already stated, all these species live in the same colonies. Members of the council are multi-cultural

Spoiler

unless you let them die and reform as human only

as are the Spectres. This is why it's more racist than patriotic in my eyes.

There were even more examples throughout the game the more I've pondered this like

Spoiler

killing the Rachni Queen or ignoring Wrex's complaints on Virmire

. In the ending and in both of these examples, along with countless others in the game, the renegade choices feel like racism to me.

 

[JMPovoa]

Just got the game.

Fantastic gameplay, but the framerate, glitches and texture pop-in are just terrible. Luckily I can look past those, but seriously Bioware, fix that shit in the sequal.

I've been playing it since yesterday and i wouldn't call the gameplay fantastic, although it is very competent. They should have made it more Gears of War in terms of cover (the use of the A button for hitting a wall would do the trick) or at least Rainbow Six like (sort of guessing you're near a wall and take cover with LT). Instead they went more of a Ghost Recon style where you have to insist on getting near a wall to enter cover mode. Even then it's not as accurate. Other than that the shooting part is pretty good, but just a simple thing as cover makes a big impact on the overall gameplay part.

On another subject, the dialogs in this game are just overwhelming, you can easily spend hours on end talking with everyone. Also, i haven't read through the whole thread, but i believe there were some comments about Bioware having overpromised and underdelivered on the revolutionary dialog system, being that the conversation interruptions shown in some earlier trailers were absent from the final game (i might be crazy on this, but i think John from 1Up said something about this?) is actually untrue. As you'll notice, there are many parts during conversations where the "wheel of speach" actually shows up quite a bit early when someone is speaking to you. As they are still speaking, you can choose your answer. What normally happens is that even if you choose the answer as early as the wheel appears, you'll still answer only after the other character finishes his speach. But in having chosen your answer, if you quickly press the X button while they are still talking, you will interrupt them with your answer right away. This can become extremely cool from a cinematic point of view and i advise anyone who didn't know of this to try it in some very particular dialog sequences.

I'm almost five hours in and i'd say it's still pretty early to pass judgment on the game. The combats are still too few for now, but i'm guessing Bioware went with the information down your throat first and more action later on, since it's a totally new IP with unknown worlds and alien species.

I have to say that at least so far i haven't come to so many technical issues as some have pointed out. The framerate isn't that bad and so far it's way better than KOTOR's ever was. The only major thing i've run across is indeed the texture warping at some scenes, but even then not to the point of being distracting. Again, i'm saying SO FAR. It's still too early to tell.

The graphics in this game are amazing. The places i've been to are absolutely beatiful and big in scope. There's nothing really horrible that you could point out in them. The UE3 face selfshadowing is still weird though. Worse even if you're using the film noise filter. You'll have to disable this to really appreciate how much detail went into every cutscene and whatnot.

Will have more definite impressions when i finish the game.

 

[Captain Pants]

Will the EA acquisition of Bioware affect whether or not we get DLC for this game? I'd love it if they offered more sidequests, and more planets. I think they could add more content in pretty seemlessly. Not that Mass Effect is short on content, but I know that eventually I will explore every inch of the game and want more.

 

[WrikaWrek]

As WrikaWrek already stated, all these species live in the same colonies. Members of the council are multi-cultural

Spoiler

unless you let them die and reform as human only

as are the Spectres. This is why it's more racist than patriotic in my eyes.

There were even more examples throughout the game the more I've pondered this like

Spoiler

killing the Rachni Queen or ignoring Wrex's complaints on Virmire

. In the ending and in both of these examples, along with countless others in the game, the renegade choices feel like racism to me.

You can actually have discussions with

Spoiler

Ashley and later in the citadel

, about racism.

Is there a shortcut for the spoiler thing? like ctrl something?

 

[Walshicus]

when you go to the sol system i think its called and read the bios on the planets in the solar system it talks about some of that stuff.

Yep. We Europeans first on Mars, believe.

 

[Mrbob]

I have had a couple days now of glitch free gameplay and I am hooked.

I love exploring all these differnet planets, and have finally figured out the equipment menu. Just finished the mission too which allowed me to add some specialized training for my Shepard character.

It has been a long time since I've been hooked like this on a RPG.

 

[beerbelly]

I finally got a chance to spend about a day playing this game, after some big projects and exams. I just became a Spectre; I read that most people hated Citadel but I love the atmosphere there, with the ambient music. I've got a question though: In helping Jenna I had go to the market to get a package from a Wrex-type of character. I can decide to kill him and his gang or just provide them with the money and get on with my business. I chose the ladder but is there something special to get if I killed them?

 

[medze]

You can actually have discussions with

Spoiler

Ashley and later in the citadel

, about racism.

Is there a shortcut for the spoiler thing? like ctrl something?

Not that I know of, just type it out

I wasn't aware about the conversations regarding this issue. I'm guilty of skipping more than one dialogs as the sheer number of them is a bit intimidating (and time consuming too!). I'm on my third playthrough now (wow its been forever since I've desired to play through a game multiple times) but this is my completion career now where I'm going to try to do every mission, get every codex, and read every dialog so maybe I'll run across some more stuff to help clarify all of this.

I finally got a chance to spend about a day playing this game, after some big projects and exams. I just became a Spectre; I read that most people hated Citadel but I love the atmosphere there, with the ambient music. I've got a question though: In helping Jenna I had go to the market to get a package from a Wrex-type of character. I can decide to kill him and his gang or just provide them with the money and get on with my business. I chose the ladder but is there something special to get if I killed them?

These kind of choices will come throughout the entire game and you'll often wonder what would've happened had you chosen differently. It's one of the aspects of the game that really makes it shine and encourages you to play again. So, on that note, start another career (you can have two going at once) and try something different

 

[verio]

Frankly, if they keep delivering in the gameplay and story department, I can overlook technical issues if they have the same issues in all their games.

Exactly how I feel. Mass Effect, to me, was very engrossing and I found it easy to overlook any technical flaws.

GOTY, imo.

 

[UnholySpectacle]

I'm 14 hours in and I am seriously addicted. I have never wanted to play a game so bad in my life. Everytime I give up the TV to my fiancee so she can watch her shows(Cold Case, Law and Order, etc) I start shaking and see bugs crawling under my skin.

I have never gone through an RPG more than once other than FFVII but I will surely play this a few more times.

 

[Big-E]

I finally got a chance to spend about a day playing this game, after some big projects and exams. I just became a Spectre; I read that most people hated Citadel but I love the atmosphere there, with the ambient music. I've got a question though: In helping Jenna I had go to the market to get a package from a Wrex-type of character. I can decide to kill him and his gang or just provide them with the money and get on with my business. I chose the ladder but is there something special to get if I killed them?

Experience and Renegade points I believe.

 

[MMaRsu]

Its UE3 games.

It happened a lot in Gears.

UE3 games get data off the disc a whole lot.

If your 360 drive isn't up to snuff, its fuck up.

Funny, my 360 drive is fucked up and can't read Halo 3, CoD4 and AC takes about 30 tries.

Mass Effect always works, and never had any read errors at all..

 

[UnholySpectacle]

Funny, my 360 drive is fucked up and can't read Halo 3, CoD4 and AC takes about 30 tries.

Mass Effect always works, and never had any read errors at all..

Sign of the apocalypse? At least you get to play ME before this world is cleansed...

 

[MMaRsu]

Sign of the apocalypse? At least you get to play ME before this world is cleansed...

Well yeah the 360 is fucked. I know it's gotta go before 2dec because my warranty ends then. But I don't want to get rid of it yet, and play ME some more

 

[yukoner]

I've been playing it since yesterday and i wouldn't call the gameplay fantastic, although it is very competent. They should have made it more Gears of War in terms of cover (the use of the A button for hitting a wall would do the trick) or at least Rainbow Six like (sort of guessing you're near a wall and take cover with LT). Instead they went more of a Ghost Recon style where you have to insist on getting near a wall to enter cover mode. Even then it's not as accurate. Other than that the shooting part is pretty good, but just a simple thing as cover makes a big impact on the overall gameplay part.

Click the thumbstick to pop in and out of cover.

Took me 20 hours to figure that out, but made the combat much smoother after I did.

 

[Bebpo]

Just finished it. 23 hours, lvl.47. Think I did pretty close to everything. Couldn't find any more sidequests and did all the ones I found.

AWESOME GAME.

The battle system was SO DAMN GOOD. It successfully combined an FPS with stats and lets you have the overpowered fun you have in other rpg battle systems in an FPS game. While I used a lot of cover early on, once I did all the sidequests and became insanely overpowered, I just did run n' gun and it was soooo fun. Run down a corridor blasting away enemies with guns and bio/tech powers while gaining XP and loot? Awesome. It's lightyears ahead of the KoTOR "I'm going to stand in front of you and swing while you swing back and then I swing back" lightsaber fights. This is actually the game I wanted Bioshock to be, but Bioshock failed in the rpg department and was just an FPS with powers :\

The story was excellent. Not only was the worldview extremely detailed and interesting, and the numerous sidequests were all good episodic stories, but the main quest had a darn good story from start to finish. Writing was top-notch throughout and your support cast were mainly good.

Another thing I liked is that the plot and dialogue branches were really well thought out. Charm and the other one were actually useful and not just for stupid stuff like getting free credits or something. Choices you made actually effected stuff but didn't damage the main plot which kept moving at a good pace.

Graphics = excellent. The grain filter MADE THE VISUALS. Conversations looked like a movie, levels looked great, some parts even looked like Gears of War THE RPG.

Music great.

Content = Pretty good. It's interesting how even though the game is half the length as your average jrpg, by the end of 20 hours you feel like you did a hell of a lot more quests and stuff than a 40-60 hour jrpg. I guess it's the large amount of long dungeons in jrpg that gives them the larger playtime.


Now the game had a shitload of flaws, but everything was so good you could pretty much not care. The balancing is crap, the vehicle levels were meh, the planet side missions were repetitive as hell gameplay-wise (luckily the stories and the fact shooting dudes is always fun made up for it). Framerate took more than the occasional hit, and the checkpoints were sometimes at stupid places. But none of that really brought down the game much.

I'm mainly just surprised how good the main story was. I never really got into PC w-rpgs, so I've only played console ones and personally they've generally been dull tales like Oblivion or generic like KoTOR. But Mass Effect's story beats the pants off a hell of a lot of j-rpg in actually making sense and not falling into chaos and ridiculousness by the end.


I think ME was my 2nd favorite game this year behind SMG.

 

[AndersTheSwede]

Personally I think Mass Effect is closer to the Star Trek Universe than the Star Wars Universe. And in someways better than Star Trek

Your both wrong

ME is the virtual rebirth of Babylon 5.

And thats a good thing.

Yep. We Europeans first on Mars, believe.

I laughed when I saw that. Cheeky Bioware.

 

[Captain Pants]

Content = Pretty good. It's interesting how even though the game is half the length as your average jrpg, by the end of 20 hours you feel like you did a hell of a lot more quests and stuff than a 40-60 hour jrpg. I guess it's the large amount of long dungeons in jrpg that gives them the larger playtime.

Couple that with no pointless level grinding, and you are spot on. I am sure that 75% of the time that I spend with most JRPGs is spent running around in circles waiting for a random battle to occur so that I can level up. It is sooo nice to not have to do that in ME.

 

[mandiller]

Personally I think Mass Effect is closer to the Star Trek Universe than the Star Wars Universe. And in someways better than Star Trek

 

[Bebpo]

Couple that with no pointless level grinding, and you are spot on. I am sure that 75% of the time that I spend with most JRPGs is spent running around in circles waiting for a random battle to occur so that I can level up. It is sooo nice to not have to do that in ME.

I don't grind in j-rpgs *shrug*

Though I do think in general there are a lot more battles in a j-rpg. I like the ME way of less battles, but more XP gained per battle.

 

[GenericPseudonym]

How could it be patriotism when we are talking about other races? Not other countries with our race, but other species.

Looks like racism to me.

They arent races they are species. How is that bad, we as humans annihilate every other species on our planet, its just a matter of time before we start doing so on a larger scale.

 

[LaserBuddha]

Spoiler

- Reloaded my save and saved Wrex from Ashley by putting 2 more points from a level I had not used the points from into intimidate.

Spoiler

I'm not at that part yet. If I save Wrex from Ashley, will that quash any chance of romance with her?

 

[WrikaWrek]

They arent races they are species. How is that bad, we as humans annihilate every other species on our planet, its just a matter of time before we start doing so on a larger scale.

Human race.

Thorian Race.

Quarian Race.

It's races.

How many times have you heard "Almost wiped out our entire race!"

 

[Eric WK]

Human race.

Thorian Race.

Quarian Race.

It's races.

No. They're species.

 

[WrikaWrek]

No. They're species.

They are both. You can say race.