Mass Effect

[Rennn]

I started the Mass Effect series with ME2 on my PS3, before I had a gaming PC, and I loved it. A few months ago Mass Effect 1 had a huge sale from either Steam or GFWL, I don't remember which. So I thought "what the hell" and bought ME1 for my pc for about $5.00. After that I didn't play it much, mostly because I couldn't find the down arrows in the options menu to set my resolution to 1080p (derp) and I didn't really want to play it at 1280x1024 fat and stretched out on my monitor. Believe it or not, the widescreen resolution options in ME1 are so hard to find there are forums full of people trying to find a widescreen patch, lol.

 

So anyway, Mass Effect 2 is on sale right now on Steam for the Autumn Sale, so I bought that a couple days ago. That reminded me of how much I loved ME2 on my PS3, so I seriously started playing ME1. I just finished it, with the goal of playing ME2 right after. (By the way, ME2's graphics on the PC are like fourteen times as good as the PS3 version, you wouldn't even believe it. It doesn't even look like the same game.) So anyway, I posted this to say that after playing ME1 and starting ME2 again, I can't believe how awesome these games are when played in a row. It's actually almost convinced me to buy ME3. So yeah. Mass Effect is awesome and I was just posting about that.

 

And the other point of this, is to dispel a couple myths and to give a couple of tech hints:

1. Mass Effect 1 does actually support widescreen resolutions. The selection arrow is just very well hidden in the options menu.

2. Mass Effect 3 does have tolerable ending dlc now, and it may still be free. Just a heads-up to people who stopped following the game after the original horrible endings.

3. Mass Effect 1's microstutter is not caused by having a quad core cpu in most cases, as I was originally told. It seems to be caused instead by vsync or framerate capping.

4. As it's based on the Unreal 3 Engine, the Mass Effect titles do not have good antialiasing. Post process AA such as FXAA or TXAA may work, but sampled AA such as MSAA will have no effect, and in Mass Effect 1 sampled AA may cause crashes. I use FXAA, but really since I play at 1080p I'm not really sure if it's working, because it's hard to see jaggies anyway.

5. Nvidia owners can force ambient occlusion in Mass Effect. Performance leaves quite a lot of flicker, so I use Quality. High Quality seems to be a useless loss of fps over Quality though.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Rennn

[marharth]

I always liked ME1 the best. I never understood why people liked ME2 or ME3 so much.

 

ME3 had a pretty horrible story. Good story telling, but horrible story. ME3 was a massive disappointment. You play the last two games trying to get allies and you get a magic space gun to solve all your problems. (not really a spoiler since it is found like the first mission in the game.)

 

ME1 has a pretty good story. It focused on showing you the world of Mass Effect and made you a part of a military force as well as a government agent with no restraints. It gave a large insight into how the ME universe worked and how the government worked. ME1 was more open world and has more dialogue options then the other games. The story was about a rouge specter and gave you the back story of the protheans and the geth. The reapers were more of a end game thing, which was interesting.

 

Once you get in ME2 you are forced into a terrorist organization, and you can't decline and rejoin the military. ME2 tosses away the older parts of the world and focuses on collectors, which are pretty obviously reaper stuff. You go around fighting space bugs and space gangs, and it doesn't show off the world nearly as much as it did in ME1.

 

ME3 was horrible. There is so much wrong with ME3 I can hardly even begin. You start in like the HQ of the most important people on the entire planet, which is for some reason in a skyscraper and not a bunker. Take note you blew up a entire solar system, and you are hanging out with the people who thought you were crazy for doing so instead of on trial or in jail. So reapers attack and somehow get to the moon before anyone sees them. Apparently telescopes and satellites don't exist in the future. Then Shepard is traumatized by some kid getting blown up, when he/she could of have seen their friends die, their entire crew dissolved into a DNA mess, multiple horrible Cerberus projects, a mind controlling plant thing, and so much more. A kid getting blown up should do literally nothing to someone like Shepard. Most of the game is bad honestly, so I could keep going for the entire plot. I just mentioned the first few starting areas.

Edited November 25, 2012 by marharth

[brokenergy]

Personally, the entire series was poor in writing. ME was horrible because it didn't focused on the plot and the characters were boring, ME 2 destroyed everything that was about ME and ME 3 was meh and ruined some great characterisation (I'm talking to you Ash :dry: ). I would dream nothing better than Drew, Mac and Casey and the art team never get near ME again and glad that it has moved to the Montreal studio but if people think that ME 3 sucked because of the ending, let me remind you that a) it was stated in the past 3 games that YOU CAN NOT BEAT THE REAPER CONVENTIONALLY USING CONVENTIONAL TACTICS, b) the entire series arc was about organics vs synthetics, a common sci fi trope, and c) the human terrorist organisation was ALWAYS evil. They were beating you in the head with it, you knew it but didn't accept it. The only reason I like the ME series is because it was fun and the multiplayer is a fun addition but the entire writing is poor in today's standards, even when compared with BioWare's other recent IPs.

[Rennn]

Personally, the entire series was poor in writing. ME was horrible because it didn't focused on the plot and the characters were boring, ME 2 destroyed everything that was about ME and ME 3 was meh and ruined some great characterisation (I'm talking to you Ash :dry: ). I would dream nothing better than Drew, Mac and Casey and the art team never get near ME again and glad that it has moved to the Montreal studio but if people think that ME 3 sucked because of the ending, let me remind you that a) it was stated in the past 3 games that YOU CAN NOT BEAT THE REAPER CONVENTIONALLY USING CONVENTIONAL TACTICS, b) the entire series arc was about organics vs synthetics, a common sci fi trope, and c) the human terrorist organisation was ALWAYS evil. They were beating you in the head with it, you knew it but didn't accept it. The only reason I like the ME series is because it was fun and the multiplayer is a fun addition but the entire writing is poor in today's standards, even when compared with BioWare's other recent IPs.

 

Most of that is an opinion. With the exception of whoever the Krogan was in ME1, I found the characters interesting, though they improved in ME2 with the addition of more personality flaws and quirks. I don't think the ME3 ending sucked because we lost, I think it sucked because all the endings were virtually identical, and the God Child was so stupid it was like beating myself in the head with a pipe. It would have been fine if it was impossible or almost impossible to win, as long as the God Child was gone and there was some measure of hope left for the future. And let me remind you, Bioware's writing is far ahead of most other studios, and their work with Mass Effect is no exception. Bioware traditionally takes a stereotype and reworks it to be amazing. Dragon Age: Origins had the typical LOTR plot. Neverwinter Nights could just have been called, "Dungeons And Dragons Generic Dungeonmaster 12." KOTOR is basically Sith versus Jedi the entire time. Dragon Age II was actually most unique in story, and it got bashed for that. And yet the games are widely loved, not because the premise is original, but because the characters and choices become so personal and involved.

Edited November 25, 2012 by Rennn

[brokenergy]

*snip*

 

I truely believe that the ME lead writers really poor at creating a story comparing to their DA counterparts. Not to say that the entire writing team sucked, there were great moments and character but it only because of the pacing and storytelling, which is completely different to plot and characters. And before anyone asks, the leads decide on who is included in the game and plan out the story in detail. So I can blame Mac, Drew and Casey for bad plot and the art team for creating spandex armour. It just feels that half the team didn't know what they were writing when they wrote the dialouge. I don't hate it per say, it is the best out of the series but I wouldn't give out an award for great writing. It's a typical Holywood blockbuster game, enjoy the ride like I did.

[hoofhearted4]

good to hear Renn. i got it on Ps3 cause i suck at shooters on PC, and i might have to wait till Christmas to see it on sale again, but if i do, and i have the money, ill probably get it on PC now!