Mass Effect 2 to appear in GDC

[Calax]

"since eventually you had enough shield to survive anything and you were better off just strafing."

 

wut? I stayed out in the open for too long and I would auto die espicially against multiple enemies. But, hey, it sure beats KOTOR where there was no such thing as cover, and you can stay out in the open all day and live.

 

 

How powerful you are for the main planets depends on how many UCW you've done. I will say though that a 30 + level soldier can easily stand in the middle of a firefight for long periods of time soaking damage.

Add to that the Stormtrooper (? not entirely sure what exactly it was called any more) prestige class that was designed to be a tank.

[Montgomery Markland]

If you use biotic powers combat is pretty cool, just like combat in Bioshock is pretty cool if you use your plasmids. Gun-only combat in both games isn't quite up to snuff with games that focus solely on ranged combat and nail it, but that's understandable given limited resources split among multiple combat systems.

 

Hell, you sound a bit irritated in responding to me. That's no fun.

 

Dude no worries, I wasn't irritated at all; just being snarky. You have to admit the nazi/straw man joke owned.

 

Also, whoever was arguing about outsourcing and stuff... whatever. If you want to outsource your art to a second world country and get poorly optimized meshes with weaksauce normal and spec maps, go for it. Your level designers who ignore aesthetics won't care.

[Meshugger]

What i have learned from this thread is that dissecting a game into components and extrapolate your own experience from them gives great pleasure and argument basis.

 

So, any report ME2 yet? And more importantly, has Bioware said anything on what they what to improve upon in ME2?

[Volourn]

"How powerful you are for the main planets depends on how many UCW you've done. I will say though that a 30 + level soldier can easily stand in the middle of a firefight for long periods of time soaking damage."

 

Eh? No. No matter how much of the side quest planets you do, you will probably end up about the same level anyways. *shrug* Enemies will slaughter you whole sale if you just stand out in the open for long periods of times no matter how much damage you can soak. But, meh, whatever makes one feel better.

[Gromnir]

What i have learned from this thread is that dissecting a game into components and extrapolate your own experience from them gives great pleasure and argument basis.

 

So, any report ME2 yet? And more importantly, has Bioware said anything on what they what to improve upon in ME2?

 

instead of adding character generation/development options, bioware has decided to focus their efforts on stuff like their Innovative dialogue system.

 

am still utter mystified by how successful bioware was in selling their radial dialogue thingie as an innovative advancement. sure, is an innovation from developer pov 'cause it replaces dialogue bifurcation with truncation, but how on earth did biowarians sell their resource saving device as some sorta major feature that would improve gameplay? am understanding that if you got full vo you gotta be creative with dialogues/writing, and making one genuine dialogue response count as 2 or maybe 3 "choices" for the player is slick... but am genuine disappointed that so few gamer review sites or magazines exposed the biowarian con job for what it were.

 

oh well

 

in all seriousness, Gromnir has heard virtual 0 'bout me2 and what is goals and changes... though Gromnir did hear that at least a few biowarians conceded that they would probably do less uncharted world stuff in future me installments.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Calax]

Not much, appearently at GDC the Bioware devs will be giving a 60 minute talk about level design. Also we should save our Saves from the game because we will be able to upload the Shepard we used (and their choices) to ME2 and continue play. Characters will also be returning provided you didn't kill them.

 

How much of that is true, how much of that will make it to the finished product is yet to be seen.

[mkreku]

Then again, ME isn't a shooter...

It isn't? So how do you win battles without manually aiming and clicking (like you do in ALL shooters)? Please explain.

[alanschu]

@gromnir

Well you certainly learn a lot about the current situation on Kashyyk, and you get to participate in it. And Geth had meaningful interaction? You mean shooting them? Yes, ME did give you tons of background info, but you had to read it, in a game!

 

 

Heh, you say that like it's uncommon.

[alanschu]

"Ashley clammed up early,"

 

She talked to me throughout the game. *shrug*

I chewed her out for unprofessional conduct (gossip about her superior officer).

 

 

Heh, sounds like she's also a plausible character. You show her that unprofessional behaviour is not tolerated and what do you know...she keeps her mouth shut and does her job.

 

Don't blame bad writing for the character actually acting in a believable way. Don't tell her to act professional and reprimand her when she isn't, and maybe she'll behave differently.

Edited January 14, 2009 by alanschu

[Nightshape]

Also, whoever was arguing about outsourcing and stuff... whatever. If you want to outsource your art to a second world country and get poorly optimized meshes with weaksauce normal and spec maps, go for it. Your level designers who ignore aesthetics won't care.

 

Don't be a tard. If you're not willing to converse about the topic, that's fine.

 

EA outsource's alot of artwork, I know for a fact they did this with burnout paradise, I also know that if an asset wasn't of a high enough quality it was ditched.

 

I'm merely commenting on trends and how companies work... Obsidian as an independent developer isn't likely to work the same way as an internal EA developer.

 

"Your level designers who ignore aesthetics won't care."

 

I wouldn't say that about a single level designer I work with. Infact I know the extents they're going to.

[Llyranor]

Yeah, man. Nightshade's secret PS3 game will have excellent level design AND aesthetics. YEAAAAH!!!!!

[kirottu]

I

[Nightshape]

Yeah, man. Nightshade's secret PS3 game will have excellent level design AND aesthetics. YEAAAAH!!!!!

 

[Morgoth]

Codemasters? Codemasters.... Oh, now I remember. Colin McRae. Dirt. Grid. All these racing games. Is Nightshape working on a PS3-exclusive racing game? Will it have great level design?

[Pidesco]

Codemasters? Codemasters.... Oh, now I remember. Colin McRae. Dirt. Grid. All these racing games. Is Nightshape working on a PS3-exclusive racing game? Will it have great level design?

 

 

You're forgetting Advanced Pinball Simulator. The best pinball game on the Spectrum. Also, I think the awesome Micro Machines games were by Codemasters.

 

 

This thread is awesome, by the way. It has been a long while since a thread was as active as this one.

[Morgoth]

Heh. Now that I remember, wasn't there also a Pinball game done with the Unreal Engine (!) ? Epic Pinball I think it was called. Might wanna check that out if you're into Pinball.

[Pidesco]

I think so. I never tried it, though. The best Pinball games ever were the Digital Illusions games.

[Nightshape]

Codemasters? Codemasters.... Oh, now I remember. Colin McRae. Dirt. Grid. All these racing games. Is Nightshape working on a PS3-exclusive racing game? Will it have great level design?

 

 

Answer is: NO!

[Wrath of Dagon]

"Ashley clammed up early,"

 

She talked to me throughout the game. *shrug*

I chewed her out for unprofessional conduct (gossip about her superior officer).

 

 

Heh, sounds like she's also a plausible character. You show her that unprofessional behaviour is not tolerated and what do you know...she keeps her mouth shut and does her job.

 

Don't blame bad writing for the character actually acting in a believable way. Don't tell her to act professional and reprimand her when she isn't, and maybe she'll behave differently.

I didn't say anything about bad writing. I say whatever I think my character would say, otherwise you're just metagaming instead of roleplaying. A better design would be to end the possibility of romance, but still have her talk about other things so she's a more interesting character.

 

As for combat, it was kind of weak, compared to something like Half-Life 2 or even Halo 3. But the cover, the Biotics, having a squad to command, being able to upgrade weapons and abilities made it more entertaining than an average grind shooter, so for an RPG the combat was pretty good. Unfortunately there wasn't much other RPG content.

[Llyranor]

ME combat wasn't good 'for a RPG'. Nor was KOTOR. Shallow gameplay with limited tactical breadth and depth doesn't make for compelling RPG combat.

[Wrath of Dagon]

It wasn't good enough to carry the game by itself, that's what I'm saying. KOTOR combat was even weaker, but it was still fun, and it worked well in the context of the rest of the game. But I wouldn't play either game just for the combat.

[Llyranor]

Which is a pretty sad state of the current WRPG industry. RPG combat *should* be compelling in and of itself. It just hasn't really been in the last few years except for Magical Volo and Hades. And Gabs re: FO3.

[Volourn]

"It isn't? So how do you win battles without manually aiming and clicking (like you do in ALL shooters)? Please explain."

 

It's an Action RPG. Also, I never played a RPG where you didn't have to manually aim and click so your silliness is silly. ME is not a shooter. It's an Action RPG. I think you are confusing the two.

 

 

"ME combat wasn't good 'for a RPG'. Nor was KOTOR. Shallow gameplay with limited tactical breadth and depth doesn't make for compelling RPG combat."

 

ME's combat is better than most other RPG combat including the so called 'old skool' ones. It definitely has more tatical 'breadth' (lol) and depth than most.

 

 

"Which is a pretty sad state of the current WRPG industry."

 

L0L Like old skool RPGs were any better on the whole. Also, are you actually claiming that JRPG combat is better? HAHA.

Edited January 14, 2009 by Volourn

[Montgomery Markland]

Also, whoever was arguing about outsourcing and stuff... whatever. If you want to outsource your art to a second world country and get poorly optimized meshes with weaksauce normal and spec maps, go for it. Your level designers who ignore aesthetics won't care.

 

Don't be a tard. If you're not willing to converse about the topic, that's fine.

 

EA outsource's alot of artwork, I know for a fact they did this with burnout paradise, I also know that if an asset wasn't of a high enough quality it was ditched.

 

I'm merely commenting on trends and how companies work... Obsidian as an independent developer isn't likely to work the same way as an internal EA developer.

 

"Your level designers who ignore aesthetics won't care."

 

I wouldn't say that about a single level designer I work with. Infact I know the extents they're going to.

 

You got served

[Niten_Ryu]

ME had best combat I've seen in any game for awhile. Actually fun combat and combat mechanics were to sole reason why I started new run after I finshed the game. And good thing I did, as 2nd and 3rd run opened up the world aspects better for me.

 

Actually DeusEx, Bloodlines and now ME (with best combat system out of all) were all excellent for me who find just about all real FPS too easy. Sure it's fun to rocket jump and bunnyhop from time to time but it's also fun to drop enemies from great distances with gimpy sniping rifle and aim that wobble around the screen. To get perfect shot under those conditons is really rewarding. On 3rd run (insane difficulty), I even had to use my companions in some situations to create tactical advantage for me. Sure it always didnt work and NPCs didnt always duck and cover correcly and got gunned down. Then again, sometimes it worked great.

 

I loved KotOR's world (as I like Star Wars universe before the movies era) but combat was definately one of the worst aspects of the game. To have KotOR with ME's ranged combat (and abilities with pause for those who need it) and Jedi Knights II melee... Perfection for me.