Mass Effect is coming to PC

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Or new dance shoes.

 

They're fairly cheap (a good pair of men's leather dance shoes runs about $100)...

[samm]

Well, ME is no BG2 but it is lightyears better than NWN1 and KotOR.

ME is the best and most entertaining game BioWare has ever made. And I dont get this BG2 hype, sure it was epic and stuff, but the Fallout series had much better gameplay.

See, if I'd hear more such things, and of people I know that have the same taste in games (which both of you do to some extent), and important: of people in RL, I'd get it

[Nick_i_am]

The thing is it was a hybrid release with changes catoring to the console crowd and control scheme. I don't think console players are 'retarded', its that things often need to be simplified for the less accurate console control schemes.

 

Actually, this isn't the only issue, as Tale pointed out, the lines are correlating, but that doesn't mean that they're directly affecting each other.

 

Fact is that the games generating the greatest sales are those with an action element. Slower (esspesally turn based) games are, frankly, being phased out due to a market that isn't interested in them, and that includes PC exclusive titles.

 

Take a look at Homeworld 2, they followed the trend set by the later installments of Blizards RTSs and opted for a fast micro-heavy RTS. This was a COMPLETE turnaround from the original and yet, not a console in sight.

 

Look at Nexus, the 'perfect' PC game and yet the lack of sales forced the company to shut down.

 

Again, look at CnC3, they took all the features that made the original great, but then put the speed up by about 300%. Sure, it was released on consoles, but this was really an afterthought and it's very hard to pin any of it's 'new features' on 'simplifying for consoles' (esspesally considering that RA2 did exactly the same thing).

 

Consoles are a much larger portion of the pie than they used to be when games were, in general, slower but the 'problem' is much wider than that and can't wholly be blamed on games being cut down for consoles. I'm not even convinced that CoD2 would have been different if it had never been released for consoles.

Edited February 14, 2008 by Nick_i_am

[Hurlshort]

Well, ME is no BG2 but it is lightyears better than NWN1 and KotOR.

ME is the best and most entertaining game BioWare has ever made. And I dont get this BG2 hype, sure it was epic and stuff, but the Fallout series had much better gameplay.

See, if I'd hear more such things, and of people I know that have the same taste in games (which both of you do to some extent), and important: of people in RL, I'd get it

 

I haven't seen anyone on this board that played ME say they didn't enjoy it. I'd say it's fairly well spoken for among this grumpy group.

[Meshugger]

Well, ME is no BG2 but it is lightyears better than NWN1 and KotOR.

ME is the best and most entertaining game BioWare has ever made. And I dont get this BG2 hype, sure it was epic and stuff, but the Fallout series had much better gameplay.

See, if I'd hear more such things, and of people I know that have the same taste in games (which both of you do to some extent), and important: of people in RL, I'd get it

 

I haven't seen anyone on this board that played ME say they didn't enjoy it. I'd say it's fairly well spoken for among this grumpy group.

 

Except me.

 

This grumpy old pop didn't like it all. Keep in mind, my focus was on the story and characters.

[Guest The Architect]

The majority of console players are retarded, and the same is true of PC players. However, the minority of not retarded players is bigger on the PC side of things than on the console side. This isn't because the PC is inherently better but rather because the PC gamer crowd is smaller than the console gamer crowd. Generally, the larger a group of people is, the dumber it is.

 

But what's more important, the percentage or the numbers? Yes, since there's many more PC gamers than console gamers, technically there's more retarded console gamers than PC gamers because of the laws of probability, but if the percentage is higher on the PC side, one can argue that if the PC crowd was larger, there'd be more retarded PC gamers than there are console gamers.

[Slowtrain]

My real issue and peeve is established francheses like CoD, Elder Scrolls etc. that turn into hybradized dual PC/Console releases. You can look at each series and see the depth decline as much as the graphics increased from their previous incarnations.

 

 

Well, as far as the Morrowind -> Oblivion transition goes, there are REASONS, technically, why certain "dumbing -down" changes were made. For example, The much reviled Oblvion quest compass was added for 2 main reasons:

 

1) One of the most common complaints in Morrowind was that gamers could not find Caius in Balmora to start the main quest. I don't personally really understand how that is possible since the game gives you like 4 sets of directions on how to find him, but apprently a lot of people couldn't find him and got upset and quit the game. The implementation of the compass was a response to all the complaints the devs got in this area.

 

2) The devs wanted to implement NPC-schedules for all NPCS in Morrowind but playtesters found it too difficult to track down NPCS for quests since the NPCS wandered about according to their schedule. SO instead NPC schedules were removed and NPCS were locked down to specific location. WHich resulted in complaints from gamers that it seemed very unrealistic for the NPCS behavior to be set up in this method. SO again, the compass was added so that gamers could have an easier finding NPCS but npcs schuedules could also be added.

 

So from the devs point of view the compass added a lot of "good" to the game and it WAS added SPECIFICALLY to address complaints from gamers on how to make the game better.

 

I actually agree with your overall premise: that games are far more simplified now than they once were, but to be fair to the other side sometimes simplifications or ease-of-use features are put in from a genuine sense of good intentions toward making the gameplay better.

 

Just to point out here that I am not defending Oblvion as such: I personally think Todd Howard is the Uwe Boll of crpgs.

[Jorian Drake]

I cry bitter tears when I think about System Recommendations...

i don't because i am sure with minimum config i will be able to play it just like nearly anything else (exceptions are sumtin like Beowulf)

[Bos_hybrid]

Well, ME is no BG2 but it is lightyears better than NWN1 and KotOR.

ME is the best and most entertaining game BioWare has ever made. And I dont get this BG2 hype, sure it was epic and stuff, but the Fallout series had much better gameplay.

See, if I'd hear more such things, and of people I know that have the same taste in games (which both of you do to some extent), and important: of people in RL, I'd get it

 

I haven't seen anyone on this board that played ME say they didn't enjoy it. I'd say it's fairly well spoken for among this grumpy group.

 

Except me.

 

This grumpy old pop didn't like it all. Keep in mind, my focus was on the story and characters.

 

Different tastes, personally I feel its their best story, unfortunately its not that long. Characters were the BioWare standard. Looking forward to playing it on my PC

[Pop]

May 6.