f13.net

Best news all week. Sky can shut the fuck up in every other Mass Effect thread now.

Every other? All but one, I think.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/02/12/mass-effect-to-drop-for-the-pc-in-may-ea-to-publish/

Maybe they'll add that fully interactive orgasmic sex we've been hearing about.  :awesome_for_real:

ctrl-F13 is the hotkey for it I think

About goddamned time.

I'm having it installed on my machine this afternoon so I can write tutorial popup strings.

You going to be fixing the "inventory system" while you're in there?

Optimized for the PC, Mass Effect for the PC incorporates the following features:

* Optimized controls designed specifically for the PC.
* High resolution visuals - Mass Effect for the PC features highly detailed textures, characters and environments.
* Fully customizable controls - PC gamers can re-map the control scheme any way they like.
* Run & Gun Control - Players can assign biotic powers or skills to 'hot keys' allowing them to play Mass Effect with a heavier focus on action.
* New decryption mini-game.
* New inventory screen GUI and functionality - The enhanced inventory system makes it easier for players to equip and modify their weapons and armor.

I'll avoid a new topic incase its been mentioned elsewhere, but they have also announced the downloadable content coming nextmonth:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/m/masseffect/bringdownthesky.htm (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/marketplace/m/masseffect/bringdownthesky.htm)

Sounds like 400 pts for about 90 minutes worth of adventure. Not sure what I think of that.

Buying a console for mostly one game is fucking stupid. Hate yourself.

I've spent more money for less value. At least I didn't buy the PS3 for Uncharted yet. But only because taking away the backwards compatibility pissed me off!  :awesome_for_real:

Buying a console for mostly one game is fucking stupid. Hate yourself.

When I say mostly I mean it was the tipping point. There's reason to own a 360 beyond mass effect and I do have other games, Mass Effect was just the game that got me off the fence. I certainly wouldn't go out and buy a console if only one game had me interested.

I also don't regret the purchase because of Mass Effect for PC, I regret it because the shitty console broke and I have to fuck around getting it fixed and this announcement is salt on the wound.

Some games are just better on console.

Meet the controller connected to my PC (http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/gaming/productdetails.aspx?pid=091) :)

Directx 10 only?

Is it?

About fucking time! There's already not enough good games as there are!

Is it?

I hope not, I was about to wipe the timebombed Longhorn Server beta and put XP or 2K3 back. For gaming. Fuck Windows.

(http://www.shacknews.com/images/image-o-matic.x?/images/sshots/Screenshot/9197/9197_47b1fbe17f9b3_preview.jpg)

ME-PC != Vista-only

uhh
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/12/mass_effect_staying_a_xbox_360_exclusive/1

 :ye_gods: no way!

uhh
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/02/12/mass_effect_staying_a_xbox_360_exclusive/1

 :ye_gods: no way!

Yeah. They'd need to port the engine itself to the PC, anyway, to have a middleware ready for any other upcoming PC RPG. Porting Mass Effect itself to the PC would be minor work only, I guess. EA wouldn't want to miss the potential income, either.

The game looks largely the same as it did before, though its visuals are noticeably sharper. BioWare hasn't decided on a maximum resolution yet, though 1920 x 1200 is likely, but even so the glowing red stars hanging in the sky on alien worlds, dust blowing across plains, and reflections of interstellar light on the Mako were rather striking. More impressive were the loading times, which appeared to be between one and five seconds. As far as texture pop-in goes, an issue that frequently occurred on the Xbox 360 version, it occurred far less frequently from what we saw, and when it did all the textures loaded in rather quickly. Also addressed were the lengthy elevator rides in the Citadel, which will now apparently be a bit shorter in duration.

As with most PC games, all the controls can be reconfigured, but at default they use a WASD movement scheme for your character. Commander Shepherd, the game's protagonist, can hotkey all his special abilities with the 1 through 8 keys, and can instantly switch between weapons with F1 through F4. The game will also support quick-saving with F6, and the number of hard save slots has been expanded.

With party members you'll now have an added layer of control, as it's possible to order them around independently as opposed to the system on X360 where they had to be ordered as a squad. This is accomplished through a command ring which can be popped up at any time. With the cursor a move command for each squadmate can be selected, then their destination ordered with a click of the cursor on the landscape. Hopefully this will make team orders more useful in the PC version than on the console.

The Mako, the ground vehicle you pilot to explore alien worlds, has had its controls augmented so now the camera functions independently from its direction of movement. This will address, according to BioWare, its "squirrely" handling on the Xbox 360.

As you can see in our screenshot gallery, the buy / sell and inventory management menus have been given a UI overhaul to make them a little less cumbersome. The item list, item selected, and item equipped screens have been moved around to positions BioWare thinks is more readily accessible to users.

For dialogue sequences, you'll now be able to select responses with either the mouse cursor or by moving between options with the arrow keys and activating a response with the enter key. The decryption mini-game has also received a facelift. Instead of timed button presses, you'll now have to navigate a small arrow through rotating concentric rings. If you successfully navigate the arrow through rings to the center without hitting any of the rotating block barriers that exist in the rings, it'll be a successful decryption.

The Xbox 360 controller is also supported, though if you're buying this on PC it seems somewhat pointless. No demo is planned at this point, and BioWare declined to comment on the timing of future releases of Mass Effect content or its sequels on PC and Xbox 360. Look for Mass Effect on PC this May.

If three weeks is what it takes to not get another KOTOR2, they're welcome to it.  I'd rather wait than wind up buying a game that's less than polished.

I think the PC version is being done by "demiurge studios" (from wikipedia). Probably a lot of hand-holding by Bioware though.

IGN: So to what extent is BioWare working on this and to what extent is Demiurge working on this?

Diarmid Clarke: It's pretty much co-development now. Demiurge has primarily been responsible for the bulk of the work of moving the game onto the PC, dealing with all the PC technicalities, and also putting some of the improvements into the game that we highlighted that we wanted to do.

What we've focused on is being the guardians of quality, pushing little new changes of design and things that we wanted to make work for the PC. Obviously Matt sent out the information on the new tactical HUDs and we developed that with the core Mass Effect team. They're the right guys to do something that's a fundamental change to how you interface with the game.

Bah, I was hoping for the additional content. Throw us a bone for having to wait this long, dammit.

Huh? KOTOR2 wasn't Bioware.

I'm guessing Stormy's still using an AGP board here