So the PC version of Mass Effect.

[Fabricated]

I got a processor that's a generation+ behind (Athlon X2 4400+), 2 Gigs of RAM, and a good upper-midrange card (8800GT, OC'd a tad). It actually runs pretty good with everything cranked at 1680x1050...in VISTA. Port team, you managed to not make another NWN2/KOTOR1-2.

That said, so far I feel pretty fucking lost playing this. I have no idea how/where to spend my points (got 3 points into charm AND intimidate, none in soldier), and this game is sidequest hell. The combat feels good but my squadmates are mildly retarded unless the terrain is really straight forward, and I mysteriously get the piss shot out of me regardless of cover. So uh yeah.

Also I have no idea what the benefit of the Paragon or Renegade meters are.

[Big Gulp]

Also I have no idea what the benefit of the Paragon or Renegade meters are.

They're just the equivalent of Light/Dark Side meters.  Don't worry about it too much since you won't be unlocking any of those sweet, sweet 'chievies anyway.   

[Fabricated]

Also I have no idea what the benefit of the Paragon or Renegade meters are.

They're just the equivalent of Light/Dark Side meters.  Don't worry about it too much since you won't be unlocking any of those sweet, sweet 'chievies anyway.   

Actually the achievements are in the game. What they're for, I have no idea.

Also, in KOTOR 1/2 the light/dark meters had a pretty good influence over a lot of stuff from character interaction to available skills to items.

[Mazakiel]

You basically want to pick charm OR intimidate, not both, at least on first play through.  Paragon is the GI Joe path of righteousness, Renegade is the mustache twirling douchebag path, if you go all out on either.  Charm is tied to the paragon value, Intimidate to the Renegade, in that you have to have high marks in the path, to unlock the ability to train higher in the skill.  Follow the regs, be a upstanding paladin type, and you'll get paragon points, and you'll be good at charm.  Be a violent asshole, and you'll get renegade points.  Alot of the options for themaren't so much being flexible with the rules, but ignoring them completely to fuck everything up.  The paragon option tends to be the top left option, the neutral response the middle one, and the renegade one the bottom left one. 

Ultimately, the morality/diplomacy thing in the game is rather simplistic, like pretty much every recent Bioware game, so you'll want to decide to be 'hero' or 'villain' and throw all diplomacy points there.  My very first character, I tried to do both, and ended up making alot of the unlocked dialogue choices early on for either path unusable due to low skill.  Generally speaking, if there's a 'diplomatic' solution to a problem, either tree solves it in their own unique ways.  AFAIK and all that.   

Combat wise, I have no idea if and how they might have changed it for the PC.  Until you get higher up in skill, and psi powers if you have them, you'll be spending alot of time ducking behind crates and such.  Crates and stuff can be floated off by psi powers, though, so you can be safe until a teammate uses a psi power and gets rid of your cover.  Also, I think they have HP, too, so you can't stay behind some of the cover forever. 

The easiest way to do things, for me at least, was to focus on one skill at a time until it got decently high before branching out.  Jack of all trades type builds seemed to be more trouble than they were worth, at least early on.

[Kitsune]

Definitely keep points in one of the dialogue skills; that should be a top priority, as you'll miss out on opportunities if you have no skill for negotiating.  If you go goody-goody, you'll get free points in charm as your goody-meter rises higher; likewise for being a jerk with intimidate.  Nothing prevents you from trying to max out both your goody-meter and your jerk-meter and filling out both charm and intimidate, but it's essentially a waste of skill points.

Now, as I understand it, you get one point in both charm and intimidate at a point in the storyline, and you receive an additional point in each as your alignment bars reach 10%, 50%, and 75% full.  After completing the game, new characters you make will start the game with those free points already gained.  So if you max out your goody alignment bar and restart the game, your new character will have four points in charm and one in intimidate, for free.

Likewise, you should have at least one character with maxed electronics skills to open doors/salvage stuff.  It doesn't have to be Sheppard, as long as they're in the party.

[bhodi]

Oh yeah. They snuck in an addional protection;

InvalidBuild(or nInvalidBuild=1) variable to 1 in the BIOengine.inf, every time the game starts when using a crack, they deliberately fubar the galaxy map and disable your saving when this happens. You run into this about 2-4 hours into the game (depending on how fast you play).

None of the cracks (even the one that says it's fixed) resolve this issue. I'm sure it'll be fixed soon.


As for the game itself, I am fairly unimpressed with the PC port. You can't even remove a key config - you cannot make it empty without resetting all settings. You cannot make them ctrl/alt X, either. I wanted the squad commands to be ctrl-wasd, but that's not possible.

They don't tell you that you can't change the last name, it's not greyed out or anything, i spent a few minutes clicking on the last name hitting tab and other keys to try and figure out why the hell I couldn't change the last name. I finally looked it up and it makes sense for a lot of the spoke dialog, but I wish I had known that. Just another little annoying thing.

Elevators are stupid. Loading doesn't take that long on the PC, there was no reason to include such long elevator rides.

I hate the inventory system; it should have been scrapped and recreated.

The spacebar popup thing was a neat idea, but I'm not sure that it really worked all that well. Squad commands have to be hotkeyed, the spacebar menu is too clunky.

It's definitely sidequest-hell, but that's not always terrible. I'd say if you like KOTOR you'll like mass effect. At least the story and world seems neat.

I don't understand why you can't run / what the point of the shift key is when you aren't in combat. It seems really annoying, they shift the camera to make it LOOK like you're moving faster but you don't actually move any faster. Why bother?

I created as vanguard but melee combat was too annoying and I got mowed down trying to get to the guys so I just restarted as generic soldier.

[Kitsune]

Melee combat?  What the hell lead you to believe that you were supposed to engage in melee combat?  They don't hand out lightsabers; they give you a back full of guns for a reason, chief among them being the fact that you're supposed to shoot things.  Hitting things with your gun is slow and clumsy and not at all ideal; I only do it whenever something big and mean is in my face to knock it down long enough to shoot it or blow it across the room with my super psyker powers.

[Yegolev]

You do actually get quests from the elevator, so they had to leave that in.  Too bad about the inventory, though.  At least Bioware is an equal-opportunity employer.

[Fordel]

My largest complaint about the inventory is the 150 item limit. What made the giant list of items OK in KotOR was the fact I did not have to give a shit about said list until I decided I needed X amount of cash for some item or wanted to equip a new party member. I've taken to selling anything under X version and/or turning it into hacking goo. Combine it with the way you 'loot' the random bad guys you kill a long the way, and I've already had a few times where I got stuck having to goo items I could've probably used, because of the limit and the interface.



Melee Combat in Mass Effect really means Shotgun range 



I have a love hate relationship with the Elevators, on one hand the waiting sucks, on the other hand the little news updates about what I just blew up are kinda neat, as it the little dialog my party members have with each other at times in them. The only Elevator that needs to not fucking exist is the one on the Normandy. Shit that one is annoying.

[bhodi]

The vanguard gets heavy bonuses to melee as one of the skills and a character creation faq I read led me to believe it could be the way to go. From what I could tell, you just bump into them and they go prone and helpless or something. I never really figured it out, as combat was way too hectic and you die too fast if you just sprint to them.

I quickly discovered that was not the route I wanted to take, and so I remade my character :)

[Mazakiel]

The full on psion/adept/whatever it's called was what I had the most fun with, and finished with.  It's a bit annoying at first, but once you get your abilities levelled a bit it becomes pretty fun and powerful. 

[Fordel]

The Soldier has that same 'melee' bonus in one of its skill lines. It's mostly for smashing things that get too close, so you can shotgun them in the face in peace.


Apparently as you unlock the power/gun achievements, this in turn lets you make characters that normally wouldn't have access to that specific power line.

[Sky]

I've got some odd shadow issues during the close-ups, anything shadowing human skin (hair or clothes) is making a messed up cross-hatch pattern. Just updated my drivers, not sure what's up. A little distracting, but the visuals are still nice.

While I'm griping, I was hoping to play with the gamepad, but the pc controls are pretty solid. Wish the Spacebar tactical menu was a toggle. Wish squad controls had a better layout. Wish character creation allowed you to rotate the character, I ended up making a dude who looked like me square-on, but his profile had this beakish aquilonian nose, his mouth was twisted and he looks like he has herpes on his lip. So....I think I'll be re-rolling. I did try one reroll, Leroy Shepard, but black hair on a black guy was hard to make out during creation and I ended up with the homo hair flip thing, and Leroy don't roll that way. And I had to wait through the entire unskippable beginning knowing I wasn't going to use that character. Meh.

Otherwise, a stellar (heh) game. Haven't gotten real far because I play slow and also listen to and read all the lore stuff they throw at you. Really digging it.

[Fordel]

You can turn the head just by dragging along it during the customizing.

[Yegolev]

I've got some odd shadow issues during the close-ups, anything shadowing human skin (hair or clothes) is making a messed up cross-hatch pattern. Just updated my drivers, not sure what's up. A little distracting, but the visuals are still nice.

Since this is what you see on the 360, I expect it is a feature rather than a bug.

[murdoc]

Apparently as you unlock the power/gun achievements, this in turn lets you make characters that normally wouldn't have access to that specific power line.

All you PC guys are cute as you discover what us, with a 360, have known since before Xmas.

[WindupAtheist]

Man, why is it everytime Bioware makes an RPG, I see a bunch of you chuckleheads complaining about how you tried to act out a complex and morally ambiguous character but the game cockstabbed you for it?  It's a Bioware RPG.  You will either rescue the kitten from the tree for Good Points, or rescue it and then stomp it to death for Evil Points.  That's it.  This shouldn't be surprising by now.

[Fordel]

Apparently as you unlock the power/gun achievements, this in turn lets you make characters that normally wouldn't have access to that specific power line.

All you PC guys are cute as you discover what us, with a 360, have known since before Xmas.

I was surprised it even had achievements on the PC version to begin with, since there doesn't seem to be any way to showoff my Badge-Peen like Live.

[Mazakiel]

Man, why is it everytime Bioware makes an RPG, I see a bunch of you chuckleheads complaining about how you tried to act out a complex and morally ambiguous character but the game cockstabbed you for it?  It's a Bioware RPG.  You will either rescue the kitten from the tree for Good Points, or rescue it and then stomp it to death for Evil Points.  That's it.  This shouldn't be surprising by now.

Well, for me it's because I recall stuff like Baldur's Gate 2 having a little more variety.  Maybe I've just built it up in my memory, though, it's been a couple of years since I played it. 

[Sky]

I love Bioware games, but they have yet to come near BG2 again imo.

[Merusk]

Man, why is it everytime Bioware makes an RPG, I see a bunch of you chuckleheads complaining about how you tried to act out a complex and morally ambiguous character but the game cockstabbed you for it?  It's a Bioware RPG.  You will either rescue the kitten from the tree for Good Points, or rescue it and then stomp it to death for Evil Points.  That's it.  This shouldn't be surprising by now.

Well, for me it's because I recall stuff like Baldur's Gate 2 having a little more variety.  Maybe I've just built it up in my memory, though, it's been a couple of years since I played it. 

You've built it up.  There was a good an evil and a neutral choice. Yes, it's more than "Good or Evil" but it's only because they wanted to give you a "fuck the Druid" storyline with Jahira, who was True Neutral.

[Fordel]

I love Bioware games, but they have yet to come near BG2 again imo.

Nor will they ever again since all the voice acting and 3D animation costs a bajillion dollars and takes 50 years.


As much as I'd love essentially a 2d Isometric "BG:3" I don't think it's in the cards :( . Heck, even half the stuff in BG:2 ended up being cut due to time/cost constraints. Maybe DragonAge or whatever it's called is the grand hurrah, since they've been working on it since the dawn of man.

[Fabricated]

Apparently as you unlock the power/gun achievements, this in turn lets you make characters that normally wouldn't have access to that specific power line.

All you PC guys are cute as you discover what us, with a 360, have known since before Xmas.

I can actually fix my PC if it breaks down. Also, my PC doesn't break down.

[Tebonas]

I'd like to order one of yours, my PC broke down a few times over the years. Granted, I could fix it in a heartbeat which always is nice.

[Murgos]

I'd like to order one of yours, my PC broke down a few times over the years. Granted, I could fix it in a heartbeat which always is nice.

I buy quality parts, usually, I don't think I've ever had any break, except maybe an antique FDD.  I do usually replace most of the pieces every few years though.

[Yegolev]

I don't have to fix my 360 when it breaks.  I send it to someone who will fix it for me or send me a check for the purchase price.

[bhodi]

Oh yeah. They snuck in an addional protection;

New crack is out, fixes all map issues. Anonymous kids in their parent's basements win again, as expected. Bioshock took longer.

[schild]

Oh yeah. They snuck in an addional protection;

New crack is out, fixes all map issues. Anonymous kids in their parent's basements win again, as expected. Bioshock took longer.

Beyond Divinity took longer.

[Sky]

Great game.

Random lockups not so great.

[nurtsi]

The game seems ok, but the console background is so damn obvious: textures look like shit and stairs are not even real stairs, they're slopes with a stair texture on them . In some ways it feels the game engine was made for the original XBox and not the newer one. And what's with the weird noise filter the apply on top of the graphics? Are they trying to fake anti-aliasing since I couldn't find any place to enable it.

Anyway, it's still a good game.

[schild]

Great game.

Random lockups not so great.

You talking about Mass Effect or Beyond Divinity. Because Beyond Divinity had Star Force. Has. Whatever.

[Sky]

And what's with the weird noise filter the apply on top of the graphics? Are they trying to fake anti-aliasing since I couldn't find any place to enable it.

Have you looked at advanced options?

Schild, Mass Affect. I had less problems with Starforce, I played some BD but didn't like the double character mechanism (LOVED the first game, though). Never had problems with the Freedom Force sequel with Starforce installed.

Mass Affect was running great the first couple nights I played, but now it's basically unplayable and nobody seems to know why. Nothing has changed on my end, drivers are updated and all the normal jazz. It's a fairly common problem and people are trying to blame drivers. It's just Mass Affect, the only common. I ran through all the Eden Prime stuff and 3/4 of Citadel (doing all the side quests) before it showed up. Now it will freeze at random points, no coherence. There's a big bug lurking in there imo. Hope a patch will fix it, otherwise there are a lot of fucked PC gamers. I'm surprised at Bioware, and quite disappointed.

[Bunk]

And what's with the weird noise filter the apply on top of the graphics? Are they trying to fake anti-aliasing since I couldn't find any place to enable it.

Have you looked at advanced options?

The "film grain" effect was toggleable if I remember correctly. As Sky says, likely under Advanced Options.

[Fordel]

The Film Grain 'effect' caused me a small panic at first, thinking my Vid card was frying or something. 

[Fabricated]

Mass Effect has that classic Xbox 360 texture-popin problem on the PC, and the environments don't impress me too much. The character models on the other hand are pretty fantastic for the most part.