Mass Effect - Bioware - 360

[SnakeCharmer]

You're probably very right in terms of my expectations regarding an FPS vs straight up RPG.  I suppose I was hoping for something more actiony, faster paced.

And most of the the music sucks.  Sounds like something out of a '70's sci fi movie; Blade Runner comes to mind.

[MisterNoisy]

Mako combat got a ton easier after I found the zoom option.  (edit: just realized it was pointed out here in the other thread).

Also, I'd kill for a PnP RPG set in the ME gameworld.

[Tebonas]

Its really funny how different expectations can change perceptions. I was glad that the game had a lot of story in form of dialogue and cutscenes and doesn't cater to the typical short attention span crowd (god knows enough games already do). And I found the 70s sci fi movie sounds perfect for a game that went for exactly that scifi feeling.

[Yegolev]

I felt the music fit the atmosphere and it wasn't cloying, so I'm OK with it.  Could have been worse.  I actually appreciate the general lack of music; I even disable the music completely in Forza 2.  The musical high-bar in scifi games for me is Phantom Dust.

Counter to other posters here, I seek out and read all of the text and engage all of the dialog I can.  This is difficult when you're trying to get Renegade points and the bottom response is often "End Transmission" or "No thanks" or "How about I just shoot you instead?".  I was bothered that I told a reporter to fuck off and it just completed the side mission without giving me any points, but I hadn't saved recently enough to justify a redo.

[KallDrexx]

Awesome game.  Just beat it at 19 hours /played, and I didn't even complete most of the sidequests.  I'll probably play it through again to get most of the subquests done, though there's only a select few I am really interested in doing.  Very good game, even with some of its flaws.

[Sky]

Are they going to release it for the PC? For some reason I assumed they weren't. If they do that's a definate wait.

Gizka have really seemed to slow down as they got closer to finishing it over 2007. With 8 issues left (4 being tweaks and 4 being minor) I'd have hoped they perhaps could have gotten them done in the last 2 months, or at least the next update will be the release one...

I don't know. However, they actually did say they'd never release Jade Empire on PC, and eventually did. I think the long time between releases hurt JE's pc sales, though. If I wasn't a bioware fanboi, I wouldn't have bought it for the pc. I waited forever for the announcement of the pc version, finally gave up and bought the xbox version from the bargain bin and was put off by the low-res graphics, it's the first game that demonstrated to my fiancee why I'm a graphics whore.

Still don't like the control scheme, but what can ya do?

Gizka...you can't really go by the WIP. You have to watch the Mantis tracker. As they solve some bugs, new bugs crop up, sometimes they just crop up anyway. One bug was keeping them from testing Malachor, so some new Malachor bugs will probably pop up. They did bang out the translations pretty quick, I bet the translator folks were chomping at the bit to get it done after all this time. You can't expect much from a side project, they have to be sooo tired of the damned game by now. But it's been soooooo long. I bought KotOR2 last year out of the bargain bin because I was worried it would be off the shelves and unavailable online by the time they finished.

[SnakeCharmer]

I probably wouldn't have so much a problem with the dialogue if there was a means to skip it on a scene I have already..seen.  I was redoing some content last night because I forgot to save before going after Matriarch Benezia and died.  So, I had to go through ALL the goddamn dialogue options and hear ALL the spiel - multiple times because I died several times.

If I've already heard it?  Give me a chance to skip past it.

And the loading screens suck.

[Yegolev]

Skip with X button.

[SnakeCharmer]

I've pressed every button on the damn controller.  Does this skip the cutscenes or dialogue, or both?

[Mazakiel]

Cuts to the next line/segment of dialogue.  You don't want to be too spazzy with it though, else you'll autoselect a dialogue option you might not want to.  I'm fairly certain it'll cut through most cut scenes too, but I could be wrong on that one. 

[Rasix]

I've pressed every button on the damn controller.  Does this skip the cutscenes or dialogue, or both?

Just dialog.  The Benezia scene is nearly all dialog you can rapid fire X through.  Plus, certain points autosave in that encounter. 

[SnakeCharmer]

OK.

So, I've readjusted my attitude with regards to ME.

I'm enjoying it immensely, but with some somewhat minor issues:
1)  Occasionally causes my frame rate to drop waaaay way down - mostly due to some of the really big booms and biotechs going off I suppose
2)  Still not a fan of the music
3)  More than a few game stopping bugs (can't get doors to open without saving, closing it out, and reloading it is the main culprit).  Some odd graphical oddities.  Lizabeth's daughters gun was hanging in mid-air pointed at my during the dialogue sessions is an example.
4)  Hate not being able to hop up on ledges and such

Other than that, I've really gotten into the story.  Since I've gotten better at it all the way around (UI, mods, etc), I'm tempted to start over with a new character and go full renegade.

[Yegolev]

I had to restart the Benezia fight twice.  First time, after she knocked me down at the start of the fight, Shepard lost his ability to move.  Since the enemies were hiding behind crates out of my line of sight, I had to reload.  Second time, I just got killed.  Somewhat related, I did the fight with her before I went into the hot labs, and that scenario was obviously not tested by Bioware QA.  Otherwise I haven't had many notable bugs... unless I can count the entire inventory system as a bug.

[SnakeCharmer]

The inventory system blows major chunks.  With such a looty game, it makes inventory management an absolute chore and exercise in futility.  Especially upgrades.

Edit:  This game is also BEGGING for online co-op play.

[Rasix]

A good way to alleviate some of the inventory system pains is to sell stuff after missions to the supply officer instead of turning it into omni gel.  It's much faster. And you won't ever need 1000 omni gel anyways.

[Bunk]

Omni gel was kind of a silly waste considering I had Tali with me on every mission. Who ever decided to have the inventory jump back to the top after breaking down something should be shot though. Also, who ever decided that the save system would overwrite the newest save by default instead of the oldest. Having to scroll down every time I saved - which I'm OCD about, I hate redoing stuff in RPGs - got annoying after a while.

I think it's the first game that made me decide to say fuck finishing the rest of the side missions, I want to finish the main plot. I usually obsess over every side mission I can, but ended up doing about 75% and then finishing it. Still took around 35 hours played I think.

[Xilren's Twin]

I had to restart the Benezia fight twice.  First time, after she knocked me down at the start of the fight, Shepard lost his ability to move.  Since the enemies were hiding behind crates out of my line of sight, I had to reload.  Second time, I just got killed.  Somewhat related, I did the fight with her before I went into the hot labs, and that scenario was obviously not tested by Bioware QA.  Otherwise I haven't had many notable bugs... unless I can count the entire inventory system as a bug.

Actually, thats the order I did it as well and didn't have any problems with that fight (other than dying 3 times normally).  My son did the hot labs first and the remaining security guards attacked him when her went to the dormitory section saying they were under Benezia's orders. 

I really love exploring all the side star systems and checking out the planets.  That concept is something a mmorpg SHOULD be able to capitalize on but no sci fi game to date really has pushed the Exploration aspect.

[Yegolev]

A good way to alleviate some of the inventory system pains is to sell stuff after missions to the supply officer instead of turning it into omni gel.  It's much faster. And you won't ever need 1000 omni gel anyways.

There's a cap of 300 omnigel and I tend to stay there, especially now that I know how to drive the Mako properly.  Agree with the back-to-top issue, though.  My main issue with the inventory is that I'm a control-freak and I only want to sell my crappy assault rifles, for example.  Figuring out which two or three to keep is a massive pain.  I suppose it's possible that I need to RTFM but I don't know of any way to filter the column.  I could probably save loads of time and grief if I would just sell off shit and let God sort'em out, but sometimes a version IV rifle is better than a version VI from a different manufacturer.

I also want to be able to compare the current item to everyone's equipped items, not just Shepard or the current party.  Also the lag from loading the graphic for each item is balls.

The equipment mod screen is only moderately annoying.  It needs a B-to-cancel in it.

The thing that seemed broken about doing the hot labs after Benezia was how that Russian guy and Sheperd talked about her like she was still alive.  Being locked out of the entire facility after that with no closure was also rather lame.  Also, if I really did kill everyone in there, I should have gotten some Renegade points at least.  I need closure!

[Azazel]

However, they actually did say they'd never release Jade Empire on PC, and eventually did. I think the long time between releases hurt JE's pc sales, though. If I wasn't a bioware fanboi, I wouldn't have bought it for the pc. I waited forever for the announcement of the pc version, finally gave up and bought the xbox version from the bargain bin and was put off by the low-res graphics, it's the first game that demonstrated to my fiancee why I'm a graphics whore.

Nod. I rented Jade Empire on X-Box (after all the hype) and lasted about 10 minutes, because of the combo of low-res graphics and gamepad controls. I just picked up a new copy of the PC-SE off ebay the other week for dirt cheap, hopefully it will arrive in the next day or two so it can take it's rightful place amongst the pile of stuff I may never get around to playing. I'm still seeing KOTOR2 around here and there, but it's still 50% more expensive than it should be, so I'll continue to wait. Ah well, plenty to tide me over for a year or two before seeing if ME gets a PC release...

[Yegolev]

I was wrong in that the omnigel cap seems tied to the number of main-story-worlds you complete.  It was definitely 300 for a while but now (at +55 hours) I have completed the second story-planet and I have more than 340 omnigel.  Or I did before that thresher maw surprised me.

I complain about the inventory system, but this game is so much better than Jade Empire that it's ludicrous.

[murdoc]

I spent a TON of time (for me) playing this weekend and finished off Noveria. After reading about the difficulty with Benezia, I had done Feros and got Liara first, then did a TON of sidequests so I was outfitted with Spectre weapons.

Benezia didn't last long.

I finally got to the point though, where I am tired of driving around planets to get every node, crash, and anomoly checked out. I only have two more side-quest planets to explore, and I'm at the point where I land, head to research facility/base/mine to complete quest and then leave the planet.

[Yegolev]

I finished the collections last night.  Didn't get anything special.  I am still surveying anyway because it pays well, and I enjoy it.

[Surlyboi]

Stopped surveying when I got to 9999999 creds.

And this?

And most of the the music sucks.  Sounds like something out of a '70's sci fi movie; Blade Runner comes to mind.

Heretic! respect your sci fi music roots.

[Koyasha]

One point that isn't obvious in the game is that you get less exp for killing things while you're in the Mako.  Which means it's almost always to your advantage to get out of the Mako and kill things on foot.  If it's big stuff, you can soften it up in the Mako, then jump out and finish it off on foot.  Also, trying to get a particular type of armor is a pain, and I wish there were a mechanic in place by which you could get whatever armor you want - at least, eventually, without reloading a thousand times.

I tapered off my playing a bit after my second full playthrough, about 1/3 of the way through my Insanity playthrough.  The game is really quite short, at least in the main story aspect.  Most of the older BioWare games have been longer even if you skip side missions and plow through the main story.  I suspect the amount of voice acting had something to do with that - I just hope ME2 and 3 are longer in main storyline and less random 'clear out this bunker here' stuff.

Still, I think it's the best BioWare game in a while.  Compares favorably to the Baldur's Gate series, which I still consider their top achievement ever.  In different ways, though, all things considered.

The main gripe I get in the end is one that I only really started noticing late into my second playthrough.  All these cool choices you get never actually come back and give you any consequences later, it seems, either beneficial or detrimental.

(Edit: Somebody tell my G15 that pause/play does not mean 'click post on a forum').

[Tebonas]

Yeah, I loved bringing the big worms to low health and then finishing them off per pedes.

[Yegolev]

I don't worry about the XP much.  My guys are level 49 and I have never even been to Virmire.  Also I'm almost at 9999999 credits.

[SnakeCharmer]

Also, trying to get a particular type of armor is a pain, and I wish there were a mechanic in place by which you could get whatever armor you want - at least, eventually, without reloading a thousand times.

If you get the Master Spectre gear from the guy at CSec, it makes the game ridiculously easy.  I haven't tried Hardcore yet, but on Normal the game was a breeze once I got the Master Spectre assault rifle.  I never used the pistol or sniper rifle, and only used the shotgun on the undead looking guys.  I maxed out Spectre and Assault Rifle skills before anything else, and absolutely flew through the game.  The same guy also sells some pretty narty armor with 60 something damage protection, but 240+ shields.  I don't think I ever used any of my specials once I got that gear.

[Stormwaltz]

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/14/conservative-blogger-claims-mass-effect-offers-customizable-sodomy/

[murdoc]

Finished this on the weekend and when it all ended I really felt like I [spoilers] had just put the Galactic Empire in power. [/spoilers]. Renegade ftw!

Awesome game, looking forward to replaying it.

[Phildo]

…And because of the digital chip age in which we live - “Mass Effect” can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

Amazing.  Just amazing.

[Sky]

Ooo!

[Murgos]

http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/14/conservative-blogger-claims-mass-effect-offers-customizable-sodomy/

[Roac]

…And because of the digital chip age in which we live - “Mass Effect” can be customized to sodomize whatever, whoever, however, the game player wishes.

Amazing.  Just amazing.

So he rates it Buy It, then?

Chop that review down to 400 words and front page it   

[murdoc]

I saw a blue butt on my play-through!   

[sidereal]

Did you customize yourself to sodomize it?