New Mass Effect Footage

[Epiphany]

(something's wrong with the forum database, i didn't see your post until Spider responded to it)

 

My point was as Spider mentioned, that i'm worried about this emotional response. It is great in a theoretical sense, but I usually play sarcastic, evil or good characters that relies on wit and intelligence to get through. So far, this game has only shown taunts and other drivel which characterizes a regular fighter. Hopefully it may just be a selling point for ADHD people out there.

 

And why not a combination of those two? You can read your text and still see an animation that suits the response of your character. This way, skills (if there are any like this) like awereness, wisdom, intelligence, diplomacy and bluff can be used WITH a nice animation to it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

They're showing the more emotional dialog because it is a stronger selling point. I don't think it has anything to do with "ADHD people", it's simply an aspect of the game that seems 'cool' to lots of people.

 

While you may play a sarcastic person in your mind, games by the most, don't reward the player for thinking "Hey, I'm going to say this line sarcastically", so there is no benefit since the game is black/white.

 

They're wanting a real time conversation feeling, so they're allowing you to quickly scan the responses and choose the one that you want to portray. Keeps the dialog flowing.

[Slowtrain]

A return of blood thirsty sentient machines is hardly a scintillating story concept, btw.

 

I think an attack of giant killer rabbits from Beyond Space would be more interesting than another story about machines bent on exterminating the universe.

 

Once again, computer developers show that their ability to dream up interesting and original story concepts is truely non-existent.

 

 

Compared to ME's story concept, Bioshock appears postiviely exotic and madly brilliant.

[Volourn]

"Bioware has a great oppurtunity to make a great FPS with RPG-elements,"

 

No. ME was never meant to be an FPS. It's an Action RPG where the number one focus is the RPG elements with 'actiony' combat thrown in.

 

Game over.

[Meshugger]

"Bioware has a great oppurtunity to make a great FPS with RPG-elements,"

 

No. ME was never meant to be an FPS. It's an Action RPG where the number one focus is the RPG elements with 'actiony' combat thrown in.

 

Game over.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

What on earth are you blabbing about? When did I say that ME isn't what Bioware defines it? All i said was, that with the ME universe, i wouldn't mind if they did an fullblown FPS with stats (like Deus Ex) instead of an Action-RPG.

[Volourn]

You mentioned an 'oppurtunity'; they didn't have that oppurtunity. Making an 'FPS with stats' likely wasn't even on their radar. Action RPG it is!!!

[kirottu]

"One could almost go as far as claiming the story to be a complete ripoff from Vandread."

 

Eh? The basic premise of ME is as old as time. It's not original; but I think it's rather hard to point out something specific that it's 'ripping off'. That's silly talk.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I think everyone who has seen Vandread agrees with Meshugger, but that applies only to the basic premise.

Edited December 12, 2006 by kirottu

[Darque]

A return of blood thirsty sentient machines is hardly a scintillating story concept, btw.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

There's only so many story concepts to go around, and most if not all have already been done at least once.

 

I think how they use it will be more important than what they are choosing to use.

[Tel Aviv]

"We could get a Jade Empire or we could get a Baldur's Gate. Without having played the game, I don't see how we could say with absolute certainty that Mass Effect is going to continue Bioware's recent slump (if we consider KOTOR to be of lesser quality than earlier offerings, which I think is safe) We can still be surprised."

 

JE is their best ROLE-PLAYING game so I wouldn't call it a 'slump'. R00fles!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not disagreeing with you, I enjoyed Jade very much but... could you explain what you just said, why do you think that?

[Volourn]

Because, it's the BIO game whose quests had the most possible solutions. In fact, very few quests or interactions (beyond the usual one liner placeable npcs) had at least two different outcomes or at least ways on how the PC could react. Plus, despite being an 'action game'; it (to me) felt like it has less combat per foot than other BIO games and it was very rare to have simply frivilous combat just for the sake of it. The vast majority of the combat in JE had to do with the actual stories, plots, and drama going on.

[roshan]

One thing interesting about the trailer is at the beginning there is a debate about entering the mine to search for civilians. However, at the end it looks like there is no choice but to enter the mine anyway.

 

All in all the game looks like the same garbage Bioware has been pumping out all along, where you can simply click on random dialogue options because they all lead you to the same place anyway.

 

At least Mass Effect is not going to be as bad as BG2 where you would have 4 or 5 different dialogue options and all of them lead to the same reply. (Forget about impacting the game, the choices didnt even impact the dialogue itself! LOL!)

[Dakar]

My interest in this game has wained considerably as time has gone on. As it is I'm anticipating Dragon Age much more and it's doubtful Mass Effect will get a purchase from me on day one.

[roshan]

Dragon Age will use an enhanced verson of the Mass Effect dialogue system.

[Musopticon?]

One with text?

[roshan]

I dont know. Thats all Ive picked up from the Bio Hypemachine.

[Meshugger]

One with text?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

ZING!

[Volourn]

ME has text. Did you guys even watch the demo?

 

 

"BG2 where you would have 4 or 5 different dialogue options and all of them lead to the same reply. (Forget about impacting the game, the choices didnt even impact the dialogue itself! LOL!)"

 

You obviously didn't play BG2.

[Epiphany]

ME has text. Did you guys even watch the demo?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Because they can't read every word of the spoken dialog, it's dialog without text. Their standards for story-telling are vastly different, plus it's cool to be cynical.

[jaguars4ever]

Guys, guys!

 

When you pick a dialogue option in a cRPG half the fun is seeing how the NPC will react. But with ME, we're treated to the surprise of seeing how our PC will react as well - double the trouble, double the fun! As long as our PC doesn't go Brokeback on us.

[Volourn]

"As long as our PC doesn't go Brokeback on us."

 

HAHA!

[Musopticon?]

ME has text. Did you guys even watch the demo?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Because they can't read every word of the spoken dialog, it's dialog without text. Their standards for story-telling are vastly different, plus it's cool to be cynical.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I just thought it was funny.

[Tigranes]

Go through your favourite PC dialogue options in any RPG, then try and reduce them down into ME-compatible [Feeling] snippets.

 

Didn't think so.

[alanschu]

Go through your favourite PC dialogue options in any RPG, then try and reduce them down into ME-compatible [Feeling] snippets.

 

Didn't think so.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Actually, I'd bet it's probably not as difficult as you may think.

 

Though I'm just going for memory.

 

 

I could see PST being difficult, because they tended to have a multitude of dialogue options on a large variety of dialogues.

[Pop]

Go through your favourite PC dialogue options in any RPG, then try and reduce them down into ME-compatible [Feeling] snippets.

 

Didn't think so.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I dunno, any high-drama parts would be easy. Confronting Sarevok or Irenicus, for example. Confronting the crazy president in Fallout 2. All that jazz.

 

But regular dialogue? rather boring.

 

I'll see how it turns out, though. I might not miss imagining my character's reaction as I think I would.

[Tigranes]

Little tags such as [Angry], [sympathetic] or [innocent] fit complex pieces of dialogue about as well as you would try fitting Radiohead into a music genre. It can be done ("alternative rock" or something, whatever), but in the end it is a gross simplification and obfuscation. Furthermore, remember that the whole point of ME is to make you spend less time on picking dialogue options; in the end you would be guiding the general flow of the conversation and not controlling the conversation itself. The pace will be more cinematic but any golden quotes that are emitted will not be from the player, but rather from yet another NPC. It is not necessary 'worse' - but it makes it more like a movie (I don't see why that's necessary when movies do it better).

 

I'm absolutely convinced that in most cases, if they do up the tempo as much as they promise to, PC dialogues will end up becoming much shorter and much simpler / direct (which also fits your general's pre-made personality).

[Pop]

I see where you're coming from (as for Radiohead, Alt Rock by way of IDM). It wouldn't matter to me if I could choose full dialogue options, if my PC personality was preset. That seems conservative even for recent Bioware standards. Would they just have "good soldier" and "bad soldier"? I don't know about any of you (actually I do in some cases) but I've always considered the smartass to be the best character type.

 

But I just don't know. I can't know that this "innovation" will have come at great cost to roleplaying until I've played it. And even then, I might find the premade character to be fun, for a single playthrough.

Edited December 14, 2006 by Pop