New Mass Effect Footage

[Llyranor]

http://masseffect.bioware.com/gallery/

 

'X06 Gameplay Video'

 

First off, urg framerate. The semi-action/squad-based gameplay could have potential when they fix that.

 

Second, finally a good view of how the 'real-time' conversation system actually works. It's too bad you can't see the full responses, but the interface implementation of it (each response linked to a separate button) sounds intuitive enough. Seeing the conversation unveil in 'real-time' actually looks like it could work. Depending on how they pull it off, this could actually be nice.

 

Galaxy map is nice.

Edited December 8, 2006 by Llyranor

[mkreku]

I checked it out in Quicktime 480p and I must say that it didn't exactly change the way I felt about this game already. The character models are amazing (even if the girl in white looks.. weird), the galaxy map reeks of potential (best thing about the game so far!), the dialogue system still confuses me and the combat looks horrible.

 

I thought the framerate looked decent considering this is still in early stages, thus unoptimized.

[Volourn]

The footage looks great, and had no hang ups for me. My biggest beef was the annoying voice the girl had. Argh.

 

Combat looked like it was a lot fun. Sure beats the KOTOR series. Not hard to do that though. I'm hopeing for a more refined version of G3/BL style combat.

 

 

"dialogue system still confuses me"

 

How is it confusing? I thought it's pretty clear, and any questions of how dialogue actually works should have been answered by this footage. I'm with Llyr, and it does seem to be not as crappy as I first feared. We shall see... I'm still on the fence.

 

 

"considering this is still in early stages"

 

Early? It's due out supposedly in March, or April. That's about 6 months, and it's probably been in development for 2-3 years. Not exactly early.

 

 

Good stuff.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Volourn

[jaguars4ever]

That video was awesome and in 720p no less. But yeah, the chick's voice was like something out of the Rugrats.

[Pop]

With this and (in a certain sense) Bioshock, I'd say 2007 looks pretty good for RPGs that aren't of the hack-and-slash variety. If some kind of NWN2 expansion is released towards the end of the year, we'll have had a pretty good crop. Certainly better than this year.

[Wistrik]

It looks good in HD 720p, though the character shadowing flickers unrealistically, just as it does in NWN2 when enabled.

 

They talk about customizing weapons and all that, which sounds nice, but in Bioware fashion you can safely bet there will be bosses that are immune to just about everything you work hard to gain. That's fun to some, annoying to me. The videos make it look incredibly easy, but these guys get to play while developing so they're used to it. Still, if troop coordination works as well as discussed and is capable of bringing down the big boys, that'll be fine with me.

 

Looks like forced parties are the way of future games, so I'll have to hang up my solo hat. No more Space Rogue/Elite style adventures.

 

It'll be interesting to see if it's as fun as the two Starflight games or Space Rogue. I had a blast running around the galaxy exploring random, fractal-generated planets with realistic ecosystems, battling the evil Spemin, and even traveling through time (Starflight 2). They are old games now, but I've yet to find a space-based game that's been as fun. One of the things I liked was that it was about 70% exploration and 30% combat. When I wasn't fighting, I was mining, collecting samples, turning a profit, and upgrading my ship. I could also explore the galaxy and map wormholes that allowed rapid travel across lightyears of space. Most games today focus more on combat and less on other things, which has been a turn-off for me.

 

The gal in white armor did have a grating voice, but that's much like real life where there's always someone who looks funny, has an annoying voice, or has some weird mannerism that bugs you. I like how your dialog responses determine a resulting action, so your characters don't just stand there looking dead while interacting. I also didn't see any ridiculous self-clipping that mars so many 3D games, but that would have been edited out of promo shots so I'll wait and see. Assuming, of course, I bother to pick up a copy of the game after it comes out. I think I'll wait and read several reviews first. Hopefully someone who's played the older games from the 80s will weigh in with some real experience.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Wistrik

[Musopticon?]

With this and (in a certain sense) Bioshock, I'd say 2007 looks pretty good for RPGs that aren't of the hack-and-slash variety. If some kind of NWN2 expansion is released towards the end of the year, we'll have had a pretty good crop. Certainly better than this year.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How is Mass Effect not a hack'n'slash? To me, it seems that the planets are shaping up to be self-contained little dungeons full of third person shooty combat.

[Diamond]

I think by the time it hits PC, I will know if it is a worthwhile game.

 

Feels like a mix of Star Wars, Aliens, and Homeworld. The only thing that bugs me is some glowy-plastic feel to it. Sometimes too much fluff to make it look "future".

 

 

PS

And the I don't see why there is a problem with chick's voice, makes her a bit more believable.

[angshuman]

Looks fantastic. If there's any game that could make me get an X360, this is it. The only thing that sucked in the video was the framerate. I do hope they fix it.

[Pop]

With this and (in a certain sense) Bioshock, I'd say 2007 looks pretty good for RPGs that aren't of the hack-and-slash variety. If some kind of NWN2 expansion is released towards the end of the year, we'll have had a pretty good crop. Certainly better than this year.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How is Mass Effect not a hack'n'slash? To me, it seems that the planets are shaping up to be self-contained little dungeons full of third person shooty combat.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Aside from that bar scene, they haven't shown a lot in the way of interaction, true. But as far as far as pretenses go, this doesn't look as thin as, say, Diablo or Dungeon Siege, where your quests are loot-expedition excuses initiated by merchants. That's what passes for "Action RPGs" these days. I don't expect it to be PS:T or Arcanum, either. But I'm expecting something like a KOTOR weighted more heavily towards combat. That doesn't bother me. I don't expect anything less out of Bioware these days.

 

As for the chick's voice, I don't like it, but I don't like any of the voices I've heard so far. But I'll get used to them.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Pop

[Morgoth]

Oh, that girl had such a sexy voice in the E3 movie, now she's sounds like an annoying prolo bitch.

 

And the dialogs are totally cheesy. Hollywood cheesiness at it's best!

 

"We must save them!"

 

"No, our mission objectives didn't say anything about civilians..."

 

"Strike hard and fast! GO GO GO!!!"

 

I mean, c'mon? Even I could have written better dialogs.

 

But other than that, the fidelity of the characters are awesome!

 

Kudos to the artists! And a big "Meh" to the writers.

[jaguars4ever]

Oh, that girl had such a sexy voice in the E3 movie, now she's sounds like an annoying prolo bitch.

 

And the dialogs are totally cheesy. Hollywood cheesiness at it's best!

 

"We must save them!"

 

"No, our mission objectives didn't say anything about civilians..."

 

"Strike hard and fast! GO GO GO!!!"

 

I mean, c'mon? Even I could have written better dialogs.

 

But other than that, the fidelity of the characters are awesome!

 

Kudos to the artists! And a big "Meh" to the writers. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey, these are grunt mercs we're talking about - not exactly hired for their prowess at stimulating conversation and philosophical introspection.

 

That's what happens when you don't listen to John Kerry's advice to stay in school. Now they're in Spaceraq. :ph34r:

[Morgoth]

Oh, that girl had such a sexy voice in the E3 movie, now she's sounds like an annoying prolo bitch.

 

And the dialogs are totally cheesy. Hollywood cheesiness at it's best!

 

"We must save them!"

 

"No, our mission objectives didn't say anything about civilians..."

 

"Strike hard and fast! GO GO GO!!!"

 

I mean, c'mon? Even I could have written better dialogs.

 

But other than that, the fidelity of the characters are awesome!

 

Kudos to the artists! And a big "Meh" to the writers. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hey, these are grunt mercs we're talking about - not exactly hired for their prowess at stimulating conversation and philosophical introspection.

 

That's what happens when you don't listen to John Kerry's advice to stay in school. Now they're in Spaceraq. :ph34r:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Doesn't matter, real grunts don't talk that way, either. At least I didn't talk to my mates that corny when I was in the army (but well, Austrian army != TEH US-Army). They could have at least write the dialogs a bit more unpredictable.... This "Get ready", and then the lizard dude reminds him of the mission objectives while the gal must serve the opposite is just way too cheesy. Bio puts so much effort into creating highly detailed characters, why not putting more effort into how they interact with each ozher?

[Darque]

This looks like it's going to be awesome.

 

As for the dialogue: they're warriors, not poets.

[kirottu]

Dialogue is in real time. Hmm, does that mean your response changes if conversation has move past it?

[Azarkon]

If the FF series can be considered RPGs, then I suppose Mass Effect could be considered one, too. Though, from what I've seen of it, Mass Effect plays more like an action game with dialogue than anything else.

 

To be fair, that's probably the intent. Presumably, this will be the future of single-player action/shooter games, and if ME makes it big, perhaps other games of the genre would follow.

 

Can't disagree with that.

[mkreku]

"dialogue system still confuses me"

 

How is it confusing? I thought it's pretty clear, and any questions of how dialogue actually works should have been answered by this footage. I'm with Llyr, and it does seem to be not as crappy as I first feared.  We shall see... I'm still on the fence.

Well, for one thing, is it in real time? What happens if I don't choose any of the (really bad) dialogue choices? Will he randomly select one or will there be an awkward silent moment just before my mates go Brokeback Mountain on my ass?

 

Also, how do you know what your character will do when you choose one of the dialogue options? I mean, the main character jumped into one of the other NPC's faces when selecting one of the replies. I thought that was a bit overkill, but it didn't seem like he would do that judging from the text. A simple full-hand point (like my officers always did) and a stern order would have sufficed. It doesn't seem that intuitive to what you're going to get when you choose a two-three word sentence.

 

Ok, maybe the game isn't in early stages, but it's not finalized. The point I was trying to convey is that it's still unoptimized code. The framerates weren't that bad considering this fact.

[Slowtrain]

That looked great in 720! I do agree it looks a little too shiny; the environment could use some Firefly style grunge to make things look a little more lived in. ANd the graphics seemed to have an odd plastic sheen that made them feel a little flat, pretty but flat.

 

It will be interesting to see if they can pull off this squad-based tactical gaming in this style of game. Looking Glass did it pretty well with Terra Nova many years ago, but I haven't played anything that does it well since. I look forward to the day when Jag 2 style games can be done in a more FPS-style.

 

I hope there is more to the gameplay than just travel to planet X, land, start shooting, then go back to aspace station for a bit more dialogue. Right now the gameplay seems a little thin.

 

I thought the framerate was OK. A few hitches here and there on some of the effects, but otherwise not too bad. Playable, anyway.

 

Dialogue and voice-acting were wretched. I felt like I was watching Attack of the Clones and listening to Anakin and Padme proclaim their love. gah. Hopefully that's just filler.

[Spider]

I thought the framerate was OK.  A few hitches here and there on some of the effects, but otherwise not too bad.  Playable, anyway.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

And while thos framerates would have been acceptable on my PC, this is a demo for an Xbox 360 we're talking about. There is just no way that framerate issues can be acceptable on a console imo. Devs keep saying that it's much easier to work with consoles because they don't have to adjust for different hardware. They know exactly what the players will have. So if it stutters, that's some bad game-designing right there.

 

Of course, there is a good chance it'll be taken care when the game is actually released.

[Volourn]

"The videos make it look incredibly easy"

 

Also, chances are they were playing in 'god mode'.

 

 

"Well, for one thing, is it in real time?"

 

Some good points, you have. It's all my biggest beef with the dialogue. I suggest reading the ME FAQ. It should clear up a lot of things.

 

 

"Though, from what I've seen of it, Mass Effect plays more like an action game with dialogue than anything else."

 

Of course, that's the intent. ME is an Action RPG. Much like JE, BL, and G3 are Action RPGs. Combat wise, it combines player skill + character stats. RPG/non combat wise, it works like any other RPG. It likely will have more role-playing than any other BIO game.

 

 

Edited December 9, 2006 by Volourn

[Gromnir]

am still gawking at the size of the higher resolution files. we coulds download at work on monday, but such files makes Gromnir's personal dsl connection cry.

 

*sigh*

 

am gonna wait... not wanna view in crappy mode.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Darque]

Dialogue is in real time. Hmm, does that mean your response changes if conversation has move past it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That would be awesome.

[kirottu]

Dialogue is in real time. Hmm, does that mean your response changes if conversation has move past it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That would be awesome.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There are few problems in that. It would probably mean that dialogue would be rather simple and/or longwinded so that player wouldn

[Darque]

Then again, it could be complex depending on how they did it.

 

For example... let's say the line a character has to say takes about 1 minute to complete.

 

They could section each part off so that certain replies can occur at different points in that discussion, say reply 1 is possible within the first 15 second, reply 2 second, etc.

 

The longer you wait to jump in, the less... or more options you'd have.

 

Hope that made sense. It sounded better in my head.

[Llyranor]

Theoretically-speaking, an actually dynamic real-time conversation system could work. That would require quite some extra work, though. Would Bioware actually take the extra step? Can't say I'd be surprised if it turns out somewhat shallow, in any case. Then again, who knows.