Mass Effect

just three or four different video game podcasts with 2-4 people each

Anyway, I am at the point in the game where it really opens up and you can run around exploring the galaxy. It is so fun. It really feels almost like Master of Orion 2, with the wonder of flying around looking at random planets and learning about their old dead cultures, but isnstead of not actually being able to explore thme ,you get this KoTOR-style closeness to the planets. It is really, really fun exploration-y stuff, and THEN on top of that... there's the actual storyline. Also, you can totally do dumb things, like fight guys you're not yet strong enough to fight, which I miss in video games. Too much railroading in games... they should let you get into trouble sometimes.

I really like this game.

i just bought this and the clerk said "good man!" which makes me want to kill myself.

ha ha!

What I'm curious about is how much of the game is conversation? And if the conversation parts hold up to be actually interesting, or is it just a bunch of pseudo-sf jibber-jabber that you wish you could skip through?

A huge amount of it is conversation. I really dig it; the world is actually interesting and rich enough that I want to learn more about it. I turned off subtitles after a while, because just listening to it is a lot more immersive. I find the conversation very interesting, but I can't really explain why. I even like flying to the uncharted worlds and surveying for thorium deposits or whatever. I am just very into this game. Once my speakers and etc are set up again (we been painting) I am going ot wear headphones to play, though, because I keep getting interrupted by gf/blenders/cat/other shit that makes me not hear things. It's probably a good thing that I don't live alone though, because I would jsut boot this game up and... not stop playing.

i think the conversation is in no way annoying. the characters and voices are all thoroughly interesting! need to log some more hours, though...

Ok, I finished it a while ago, and despite its shortcomings, this game was really, really awesome.

PC version is out in May with possibly some improvements... according to the press release...

* 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.

May!? I was hoping it'd be much sooner than that.

Is this game anything at all like Battlestar Galactica?

I'd say that it's more like Star Trek or Babylon 5 in terms of the back story (a federation of different races, each with their own strengths), and more like Star Wars in the sense that you have powers that are Jedi-like. It has the cool, austere feel of BSG, and with a soundtrack that's reminiscent of Vangelis's work for Blade Runner.

There isn't any (user controlled) space combat, and you don't use the lunar lander's attack capabilities very much.

I bought this last night. I hope I don't regret it. Haven't opened it; waiting to finish Bioshock, which should happen whenever I have time to actually play it again.

i used the car thing's attacks all the time. especially the cannon.

i used the car thing's attacks all the time. especially the cannon.

Did you ever struggle to dispatch anyone with it? I really liked the feel of driving around in the lander, but it just seems like that aspect of the game was very underdeveloped.

yes, the driving part is terrible.

I agree the driving is a bit lame, but apart from that i think it's totally awesome.

I found the game became a lot easier after getting decent a sniper rifle and decent sniper skills

more like ass effect

You guys hear about that ridiculous DRM they're putting in the PC version? Like, it's bad enough so many of these new games put SecuROM on it (as a freakin' WIndows service that's hard to remove) but now if you pay $50 for the privilege of owning this game, it'll check every 10 days over the internet if your key is legit. If your internet is down, too bad, you wasted your money on a single player game.

The sad thing I was actually considering buying this, but like Bioshock, I guess I'll spend my money elsewhere.

more like ass effect

Kotaku is hiring!

oh god s1ocki please get a kotaku job, that would be super hilarious awesome

until the moment i killed myself

this game is the best conversation with aliens simulator ever

i bet it's not as good as star control 2

Is anything as good as Star Control 2?

i need to play this fucking star control 2 game

Wow, they actually backpedaled on the 10-day phone home thing got a huge backlash. Surprising. Still, at least they listened.

The 3-times only hardware profile activation thing is still obnoxious (say goodbye to your resale rights or lending out the disc to a friend) and one-time online activation is kind of reasonable, if lame for an offline single player game, but I guess this is the point we're at when it comes to lame PC copy protection.

I'm not shocked they pulled that. It completely changes the context of the fact that these games are still using the utterly deplorable SecuROM. ad they simply said "we're using SecuROM" people would be like "fuck this shit." Once they said "We are using SecuROM+++" and people said "fuck this" and they said "just kidding secuROM" people were like "oh ok i will buy this then."

I'm still seriously considering not buying Spore because seriously, SecuROM is so broken it's excruciating. I won't lie; I've pirated a lot of PC games. I haven't for a while, though, but one of the last games I bought for my PC was Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (I pertty much stopped playing PC games after this). The SecuROM on that game was so excruciating that I almost pirated it just to avoid that shit. I ended up just playing the game WAY less than I wanted to. I fucking HATE that shit. Would'nt recognize my DVD drive half of the time. ARGH.

ugh is there a way to automatically make this less FPSy

My girlfriend was a little stoned watching me play this and the character creation thing BLEW HER MIND (she's not a video game person). "So you just MADE that man... And now he's in the GAME?"

It also blew my mind, but then I'm used to that slight difference between what's clearly you-controlled and everything else.

I mean, all the subtle tells in other games that I've gotten used to over time actually make me appreciate it more - like (to switch genres wildly) I like the way that in the Lego games you know when to stop beating the crap out of the background when it doesn't look like it's made of Lego any more.

the benefit of waiting a year is this now costs pennies

yeah I'm still intrigued by this too

i played this for two hours and didn't understand it at all. it seemed so disjointed.

I started to enjoy it about four hours in. It's a total slog before that, and although it does get better, I don't know if it makes up for those first few hours. And damn, do I really want to take 30 hours to play through an episode of Babylon 5, a show I could never stand for more than a few seconds?

By the end of the game, when you have a variety of special powers that are maxed out and awesome, it's totally worth it.

Playing this now, since my upgraded mobo/system finally is stable enough to not constantly crash during play.

Am in very early parts of came, on the Citadel, and it strikes me that you could very easily use this engine/game to make a Doctor Who title. You already have a hero running around corridors on a space station or various class-M planets, accompanied by one or two companions, hacking into computers, badgering alien races for information, etc.

even though my character was all special powers - i found them all really upsetting and the controls for choosing them sucked.
never beat the game. the main highlight for me this whole game was trying to max my relationship potential with whats her name (the human girl).

Kinda wish there were more voice-actor accents in this than just bog-standard midwestern American.

dope

How far in are you?

only about an hour and a half in, just starting out

the voice acting is pretty great and the story is startlingly undull

It gets a LOT better.

dope indeed. can't wait for the sequel

I think i was reading that ur character's traits and shit are carried over into the sequel?

Yep. Can't remember what traits I had though.

New character video for ME 2

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/27/mass-effect-2s-subject-zero-looks-awfully-unfriendly/

Looks kinda ridiculous. THIS CHICK IS TO THE EXTREME.

On sale on Steam for a mere $10. I'd grab it but my video card is officially below spec :(

dope
― cozwn, Tuesday, June 16, 2009 4:30 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

now's as good a time as any for a bump. fuckin hate this game

Sorry homes

It might be rudimentary, but I really liked how the ME2 ending lets you choose different team members to lead different squads or perform a specialized task to create the sense of teamwork (beyond having your two AI squaddies shooting enemies). Hearing my tech specialist tell me that it's getting hot in the pipes definitely immersed me further.

Started into ME3, I finished the Priority: Tuchanka mission, and omg, Mordin! Right in the heart!

This installment feels like the most fully inhabited in that I actually enjoy the conversations with the characters. The dialogue is generally sharper (even if a lot of Shep's dialogue branches still have that bad habit of paraphrasing the preceding statement) and the characters have more concrete personalities.

Gameplay-wise, I don't enjoy the combat as much as I ended up liking ME2 (of course, that may just be the learning curve), but one thing for certain is that my left hand hurts from holding the L1 button down so much.

The War Asset mechanic thing seems promising in that decisions seem to be a little more consequential, specifically that some decisions invariably involve tradeoffs no matter your paragon/renegade level -- I'm thinking of the Salarian who wanted me to sabotage the genophage cure.

Oh noes I missed the Thane cameo permanently. :(

Which was better, ME1 or 2?

ME2 easily. The writing is generally better (ME1 has too much extraneous detail that made it easy to lose track of what was going on), your squadmates are better developed, and obviously the gameplay is better.

Finished the game yesterday! I kind of stopped following the details of the main plot by the middle of ME1, so the plotholes don't bother me so much; the ending(s) don't seem horrible (aside from the possibility that Tali gets stranded on an alien planet after just helping to reclaim Rannoch, that is some cold Exodus-style blue balling) and in fact had some great pathos IMO.

So: loved the character interactions (in other RPGs I have little patience for running around my ship to see if ally dialogue is unlocked, but in ME3 it was a highlight of the game), gameplay not so much (the last level that spams Banshees == no thanks (I finally cheesed it by using tactical cloak to get to the goal)).

I'm envious of the fact you've been able to play these back to back, odd thing about playing them as they got released meant that through ME3 I was bumping into minor NPCs who were telling me about the outcomes of choices I'd made 5 years earlier, and I had no memory of the characters or of anything they were talking about.

lol I don't know about that, I finished a bunch of ME3-specific side quests where Shepard sez "Here's this thing you said you needed" to some NPC and I have no idea when I picked it up or even talked to the NPC.

Apparently the Citadel DLC is the exact sort of fanservice that I want but $15??? I paid $30 for the whole trilogy!

Are there ever any DLC sales?

Found a copy of the "Legendary" edition for $10. I will get around to it in ... 2024.

https://kotaku.com/playstation-plus-mass-effect-legendary-biomutant-leaks-1847556405

You're welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC2ib_efdRs

https://kotaku.com/mass-effect-teaser-n7-day-andromeda-1850999958

Gonna have to play the original trilogy (for the first time) this winter.

Looking forward to you finding out that the people fueling the ME3 ending controversy were screaming babies.

I played ME3 not having played any previous entries so my response to the ending was entirely "???".

I thought the whole deal with the series is that each one builds on the previous, and your decisions matter? Funny you started with ME3.

Don't know anything about a controversial ME3 ending, except that people don't like "Andromeda."

The non spoiler summary of the controversy is that you get presented with the same set of choices at the end no matter what character and story routes you took in all the preceding gameplay, and supposedly contradicted the "choices matter" ethos of the series. As someone who doesn't believe in free will, I didn't much mind.

An illusion of choice is an apt summation of countless video games. It's an aspect of their novelty, that they can produce compelling gameplay even when the typical conclusion (survival! victory!) is preordained.