Same here. Mass Effect actually brought me back into PC gaming. I never owned a 360 and the only other way for me to play Mass Effect was on PC. Picked up a decent video card and the rest was history.
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The Mass Effect Community Thread
- Thread starter shinobi602
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Same here. Mass Effect actually brought me back into PC gaming. I never owned a 360 and the only other way for me to play Mass Effect was on PC. Picked up a decent video card and the rest was history.
The Artisan
Member
alright, my bad. i'm not much of a fan of dragon age so i wasn't following their production cycles much at all. i didn't know if bioware felt like they were caught off guard when the 8th gen consoles were announced during their work on da3 or anything like that.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I'm under the impression that Inquisition was a bit of a weird middle ground for BioWare, where the game originally started as a last/cross generation title and after numerous delays/revisions finally ended up a Frostbite 3 current generation title. While I'm sure it was a challenge getting the last gen builds working, Inquisition isn't really doing much as a game that strikes me as too demanding for last generation hardware (obviously, given it's on those platforms!). On the plus side, something I love about most work done on Frostbite 3 games is that even when they're cross generation they've a number of awesome effects that scrub up nicely maxed out. Battlefield 4 still looks stunning (campaign especially), and Inquisition too is doing a ton of shit last generation couldn't, like tessellated rocks and pebbles. A mate of mine was playing it on PS3 (he only just got a PS4), and when he saw my PC build he was blown away, couldn't believe the difference.
Much like Battlefront III, a lot of what excites me about Mass Effect 4 is how it'll be made primarily for current generation hardware limits on an extremely capable and already gorgeous engine. Scene density is a big one. Inquisition has some insanely gorgeous patches of forest with dense foliage, but with fewer CPU/RAM limits how far can they take it? I also wonder if destruction will enter the picture in a big way. Frostbite is obviously attuned to destructive environments, and BioWare intended for Mass Effect (2, I think) to let biotics rip and blow stuff apart, but last generation hardware (and UE3) didn't have the chops. Now those limitations will be removed.
I'm excited to see how far they take it. Going by what's been shown so far (so very little) uncharted world exploration is back in a big way. But it's one thing to render a snowy tundra with distant mountains. What about denser stuff? Imagine seeing a rich, thick forest and being able to actually go inside it, dense with foliage, on a mysterious uncharted world. And when fighting within that forest, having explosions knock down trees.
There's a lot of potential with this series, stronger hardware, and Frostbite 3. I still think, like the Batman games, UE3 really nailed Mass Effect last generation. At least on PC, maxed out at 1080p with SGSSAA the games scrub up extremely well and look fucking gorgeous. The playspace was just always limited, with the exception of the first game where said playspace was empty as fuck anyway. I expect them to explore larger playspace with greater detail in the fourth entry.
EDIT: I mean, despite being a game that can run on X360/PS3 tier hardware, Inquisition can scrub up to look like this;
Much like Battlefront III, a lot of what excites me about Mass Effect 4 is how it'll be made primarily for current generation hardware limits on an extremely capable and already gorgeous engine. Scene density is a big one. Inquisition has some insanely gorgeous patches of forest with dense foliage, but with fewer CPU/RAM limits how far can they take it? I also wonder if destruction will enter the picture in a big way. Frostbite is obviously attuned to destructive environments, and BioWare intended for Mass Effect (2, I think) to let biotics rip and blow stuff apart, but last generation hardware (and UE3) didn't have the chops. Now those limitations will be removed.
I'm excited to see how far they take it. Going by what's been shown so far (so very little) uncharted world exploration is back in a big way. But it's one thing to render a snowy tundra with distant mountains. What about denser stuff? Imagine seeing a rich, thick forest and being able to actually go inside it, dense with foliage, on a mysterious uncharted world. And when fighting within that forest, having explosions knock down trees.
There's a lot of potential with this series, stronger hardware, and Frostbite 3. I still think, like the Batman games, UE3 really nailed Mass Effect last generation. At least on PC, maxed out at 1080p with SGSSAA the games scrub up extremely well and look fucking gorgeous. The playspace was just always limited, with the exception of the first game where said playspace was empty as fuck anyway. I expect them to explore larger playspace with greater detail in the fourth entry.
EDIT: I mean, despite being a game that can run on X360/PS3 tier hardware, Inquisition can scrub up to look like this;
Night Hunter
Banned
Man, if there is no trailer this E³ I am going to flip the fuck out!
Most anticipated title we know about (seeing as The Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity are coming out soon) by a mile.
Most anticipated title we know about (seeing as The Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity are coming out soon) by a mile.
The Artisan
Member
there is definitely gonna be footage e3. there has to be.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
cgi trailer maybe
jediyoshi
Member
Depends. There's a lot of set piece based environments that look better in ME3, but otherwise they very deliberately kept the fidelity the same so it'd be less jarring when reusing assets.
TheUnsunghero26
Member
Yeah, they had destructible environments as a feature when they first started showing ME1 at E3 2006. The game shown there is pretty unrecognizable from what the final product ended up being. BioWare was still getting used to the new engine and the new Xbox hardware at the time.
There will almost definitely be a substantial gameplay trailer. The game's been in the works for at least two years and they'll want to get it out this year alongside The Force Awakens.
EDIT: Wrong headspace. For some reason I thought you were talking about a CG trailer for Battlefront.
Idk, I expect it to be released late winter/early spring like the previous games. If so, Bioware should have more to show us come E3; there will almost certainly be a cgi trailer, and some kind of "in-engine" footage (trailer or demo).
The Artisan
Member
not unless the trilogy remaster is real. then that comes this year and Me4 is Q1/Q2 next year.
Agreed! I'm banking on a Q1/Q4 2016 release, and expect to see something by E3.
EDIT: I'm going to just as well assume that right around the time they project a release, a delay will follow so... I'll say anywhere from Q1 2016 - Q1 2017. Any later wouldn't make sense I think.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Bluepoint was able to get Titanfall running on 360.
It's not unheard of for a 3rd party to downport.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
How could it have possibly have taken you 50 hours to do everything in that game? My first playthrough netted me 31 hours and I did absolutely every single sidequests in the game. Did you wander around the Citadel for hour upon hour?
EDIT: my first playthrough did not include Leviathon, Omega or Citadel. If your playthrough included all those, then yeah I can see 50 hours.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Why does it HAVE to be? It's unlikely that ME4 is coming this year and there shouldn't be a rush to show it.
Watch Dogs is a perfect example of what can go wrong by showing your game too soon.
Slackerchan
Member
There's probably next to no chance of ME4 coming out this year. IF we get anything at E3 I suspect it would be a CG trailer and perhaps a behind-the-scenes video showing off some early gameplay.
Mass Effect 4 is, at the earliest, a 2016 title.
Mass Effect 4 is, at the earliest, a 2016 title.
I've been putting off playing ME3 the last few years because when I beat originally ME2 I lost Garrus and a few others, so that completely put me off from playing through ME3 for a long time. Finally went back this week and ran through the game without losing anyone (Legion and Miranda were disloyal too) in the suicide mission and it felt so good getting through it with everyone still alive. Now I can play ME3 and get the full experience 
The Artisan
Member
I just have a good feeling, is all.
DOWN
Banned
Hope they try and outclass the Deus Ex Human Revolution CGI trailer, but do recall that BioWare tends to lean toward gameplay outside of maybe a brief teaser and the long famous CGI trailers come closer to launch after we've seen the game a lot.
Agreed. Even Battlefield is light on it.
That game was shown 2 painful cross gen years before release. We already know we're much closer to ME4 release and e3 is within the speculated standard ~1 year minimum for marketing after announcement. Assuming ME4 is a 2016 game, there's nothing rushed about showing it at e3 and after. We also know they get to invest fully in maxing out current tech, unlike Watch Dogs.
It is when the engine is internal only, I suppose. Titanfall isn't from an EA studio, so I'd imagine they had the option to outsource because they weren't on Frostbite.
That's because they cut a bunch of systems that wouldn't work on the last gen systems.
If you look at the early PAX Prime demos of Inquisition, they're doing a lot of stuff like Keep sieges and defenses, and army tactics/battles that Bioware has later come and said were all cut in order to have the game able to run on last-gen machines.
That's why it's a good thing that ME4 will be current gen only. They won't have to compromise in the same way.
shinobi602
Member
DAI isn't Titanfall though.
It used Source which is a common third party engine. There were insane amounts of collaboration between Bioware and DICE given it was their first go around with Frostbite, a proprietary engine. Throwing a third party outside studio into the mix and communication going on a massive game like DAI wasn't in the cards.
The Artisan
Member
agreed. I think we as fans are due for some footage, preferably gameplay, come e3. but something.
EA Partnership with Xbox, expect more of it tbh.
Thus far the deal has only been announced as the first story DLC for DA:I.
However, as others have pointed out, EA and MS have been getting cozy.
On the other hand, EA games have been selling best on the PS4, apparently.
DOWN
Banned
First scenario is more likely, IMO. But I think EA and BioWare are beyond teasers. Even Mirror's Edge 2 showed gameplay already. BioWare has shown in-engine renders/protoypes. Battlefront has shown prototypes. They don't seem into simple teasers lately.
Yeah, I'm counting DLC in that. Vanilla ME3 took me 30 hours, which is still a good length for an RPG, and the DLC added another 20 on top.
Ivory Samoan
Gold Member
If a remaster is announced at E3 that will include the Beta MP for ME4... well, that would be a good move one would think
pls BioWare.
Weren't they polling for features people would want in ME4 on Twitter like a week ago? I assume they're still towards the middle of development if they still have to time to design, architect and implement whole new systems.
Also, as I recall the dancers at Afterlife were mo-capped by strippers, but I don't recall anything else being done that way. Was there extensive mo-capping that I missed, or will this be a new thing for ME4?
Also, as I recall the dancers at Afterlife were mo-capped by strippers, but I don't recall anything else being done that way. Was there extensive mo-capping that I missed, or will this be a new thing for ME4?
Yeah, I don't recall there being mocap done for the first 3. It kind of felt like that with the animations too but I may be wrong.
shinobi602
Member
Prior ME games also had scenes and some animations done via motion capture. Still, there are some new things happening this time around so it should be a good improvement over the trilogy which, well, I would personally say animations weren't it's strongest point lol.
So, how far along in the development process does mocap happen?
All the way through.
One thing I hope they fix for ME4: Their algorithms for where Shepard should be looking in a scene.
Something I've noticed during this replay of ME3 is that they have Shepard look at somebody, then the person wanders around the scene, so Shepard's head starts turning in ways that are straight out of the Exorcist. Seriously, I'm shocked he hasn't broken his neck dozens of time already.
The worst, and most unintentionally hilarious, is during the first conversation with Liara on the Normandy. At some point both Liara and Shepard are talking face to face, then they look at Glyph who says something before flying behind Shepard. The rest of the conversation proceeds with Shepard doing his best attempt to have his head turn totally backwards, while Liara's is turned almost fully to her side while they attempt to talk to one another. I've seen this scene at least 5 times, and this has happened 4 out of those 5 times.
Something I've noticed during this replay of ME3 is that they have Shepard look at somebody, then the person wanders around the scene, so Shepard's head starts turning in ways that are straight out of the Exorcist. Seriously, I'm shocked he hasn't broken his neck dozens of time already.
The worst, and most unintentionally hilarious, is during the first conversation with Liara on the Normandy. At some point both Liara and Shepard are talking face to face, then they look at Glyph who says something before flying behind Shepard. The rest of the conversation proceeds with Shepard doing his best attempt to have his head turn totally backwards, while Liara's is turned almost fully to her side while they attempt to talk to one another. I've seen this scene at least 5 times, and this has happened 4 out of those 5 times.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
Dragon Age and Mass Effect, leapfrogging years. Calling it now that this is the new structure.
So ME- 2016, DA - 2018? Or do you mean ME - 2015, DA - 2016?
ZeroMaverick
Member
Honestly, not doing a remaster collection is just leaving money on the table. I bet it happens this fall with ME4 dropping September or October 2016. That's just what I would guess.
I need to replay that trilogy so bad, and I don't know whyyyyyyy
I need to replay that trilogy so bad, and I don't know whyyyyyyy
Weapon of War
Member
Money on the table is the perfect way of putting it. I'm usually quite patient and frugal when it comes to buying games, but I'd buy a remastered ME trilogy probably day 1 at almost any price. This series, especially the first and third games, are probably my favorite of all time. And even though I own the trilogy on PC, I refuse to play it with keyboard and mouse (where is the official controller support?) And this puts me in a bind, as I've sold both my PS3 and 360 and have no other outlet to play these games any more.
DLC without Bioware points. Thats the dream
Secretly, I just want more hair options in ME1.
We'll have to fit the new IP in there eventually, whatever the case.
The Lone Courier
Member
Check out XCOM: The Bureau its almost like they they took Mass Effects formula and substituted in XCOM lore. Things like the gameplay, dialogue system, and hub are just like Mass Effect.
Is it a good game, though? I kinda forgot it existed, but at one time I was really interested in it.
Poodlestrike
Banned
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
It's alright, but if you go into it expecting Mass Effect you'll be severely disappointed.
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