Mass Effect 2

[Purkake]

Oh, sure, whatever helps hide that weird sewn up mouth.

[HoonDing]

I'm really interested to see how much of a jerk you'll have to be to actually develop creepy cyber eyes. Or do you really piss someone off and they'll give you cyber eyes out of spite?

 

@Maria: That is a really appealing picture of him...

 

Isn't that Max von Sydow?

[Meshugger]

The eternal question:

 

Is Shepard a replicant?

Only if he finds little origami unicorns on his doorstep.

 

[Nepenthe]

" The charm and intimidation skills that unlocked special conversation options in the first game have been melded into the Paragon/Renegade system, which now unlocks options based on how much of a swell guy or jerk you've been. "

I really don't like that one. I'm OK with taking the conversation skills out, as they didn't add much to the first game and generally led to very poorly written ("you should reconsider" "oh, yeah, you're right") conversations-as-cover-for-a-skill-check. But this essentially ensure that, as in KotOR, the metagaming utility of conversation choices is going to trump roleplaying. Players will pick early on whether to go from the top or bottom of the dialogue wheel, and just do that over and over again for the rest of the game, or else risk the ineffectiveness of their character when higher level checks start coming in. They might as well just make it an option at character creation and take the dialogue choices out altogether.

 

Maybe the companion loyalty meters can make this a bit more complex, but I'm not optimistic.

 

Well, considering that paragon/renegade progress unlocked the ability to buy ranks in charm/intimidate in the first game, I'm not seeing as big a difference as everybody else seems to.

[Guest Slinky]

New video time: Mass Effect 2 Planetary Exploration

 

Shows some bits on armor customization and flying around star systems.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Jesus who employed that idiot Mark Meer, (again) even I have a better voice.

Edited January 15, 2010 by RPGmasterBoo

[Guest Slinky]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one here who doesn't have anything against Mark Meer

 

Okay, he's not Michael Ironside but still..

[Enoch]

Well, considering that paragon/renegade progress unlocked the ability to buy ranks in charm/intimidate in the first game, I'm not seeing as big a difference as everybody else seems to.

Oh, I agree that it's not that different from ME1. It was poor design then, and it's poor design now.

[Nepenthe]

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one here who doesn't have anything against Mark Meer

 

Okay, he's not Michael Ironside but still..

 

No, we just don't feel obligated to repeat it ad nauseam every time the opportunity arises.

[Purkake]

Well, considering that paragon/renegade progress unlocked the ability to buy ranks in charm/intimidate in the first game, I'm not seeing as big a difference as everybody else seems to.

Oh, I agree that it's not that different from ME1. It was poor design then, and it's poor design now.

Hey, at least they're staying true to the original, right?

[Gfted1]

New video time: Mass Effect 2 Planetary Exploration

 

 

Great looking graphics, makes me wish I had a rig that could run it.

 

Oh and lol at Parrish Lay, lead cinematic animator, moustache.

[Volourn]

"I still say its a ripoff to take stuff out of the game and pretend its "extra content" that you just happen to have ready right at release. Its just like they're selling cars with "buy now and get all four wheels included for free!"

 

Not remotely the same thing.

[entrerix]

The eternal question:

 

Is Shepard a replicant?

Only if he finds little origami unicorns on his doorstep.

 

 

WIN!!

 

 

edit: love the new quote thingy mr. boo

Edited January 15, 2010 by entrerix

[RPGmasterBoo]

Thank you,I wish I could have done it better but I'm no good at photoshop

[Pidesco]

New video time: Mass Effect 2 Planetary Exploration

 

Shows some bits on armor customization and flying around star systems.

 

 

That really shows how Mass Effect is really all about the production values.

[Purkake]

New video time: Mass Effect 2 Planetary Exploration

 

Shows some bits on armor customization and flying around star systems.

 

 

That really shows how Mass Effect is really all about the production values.

You say it like it's a bad thing.

[RPGmasterBoo]

The one question that crosses my mind is where will the price be paid for this level of graphical detail since the hardware of the consoles is limited. Something's gotta give.

I would have settled for ME level graphics if there were more unique locations.

[Purkake]

I don't think it the graphical improvements are at anything else's cost. If you throw enough time and resources at a game you can optimize the hell out of it, especially when there's only one hardware configuration. The experience from doing ME1 probably helps as well.

[Pidesco]

New video time: Mass Effect 2 Planetary Exploration

 

Shows some bits on armor customization and flying around star systems.

 

 

That really shows how Mass Effect is really all about the production values.

You say it like it's a bad thing.

 

Depends on what someone wants out of their games, I guess.

[Volourn]

I doubt the graphics designers whoa re paid to make graphics look awesome somehow make the writers, and gameplay designers, and combat rules guys to do their jobs worse. How does that math work even?

 

It's like if you work at a restuarant and then claim because the cooks aere so damn awesome that somehow that will make the servers even worse.

 

Illogical logical at its worse.

[Pidesco]

It's called money and allocation of resources and making game design follow after the visuals and the audio instead of the opposite. The writers in Mass Effect had to adapt dialogue writing to the fact that full voice acting costs a lot of money, for example.

 

I also remember a Bioware guy explaining how Citadel Station was designed before the actual content for it had been done. What that meant was that Citadel Station's content was limited by the fact the 360 could barely keep performance in those empty open areas, much less with a significant number of actors in it. And that's how the Citadel became a mess of disjointed, shoehorned side quests and a bare hub for assigning quests developed elsewhere.

 

Finally, I'd imagine the giant amount of resources and time taken for the creation of such impressive production values had something to do with the dozens of side planets being 2 or 3 empty, incompetently designed locations repeated ad nauseam.

[RPGmasterBoo]

It's called money and allocation of resources and making game design follow after the visuals and the audio instead of the opposite. The writers in Mass Effect had to adapt dialogue writing to the fact that full voice acting costs a lot of money, for example.

 

I also remember a Bioware guy explaining how Citadel Station was designed before the actual content for it had been done. What that meant was that Citadel Station's content was limited by the fact the 360 could barely keep performance in those empty open areas, much less with a significant number of actors in it. And that's how the Citadel became a mess of disjointed, shoehorned side quests and a bare hub for assigning quests developed elsewhere.

 

Finally, I'd imagine the giant amount of resources and time taken for the creation of such impressive production values had something to do with the dozens of side planets being 2 or 3 empty, incompetently designed locations repeated ad nauseam.

 

Thank you for saving me

[Purkake]

ME2 quite obviously has a bigger budget than ME1 did. Also writing and graphics design aren't exactly equal, adding more writers doesn't make the writing any better at a certain point, while having a thousand artists do every every texture and animation will make the overall game look better than it would with less artists.

 

While it is possible that what you're saying is true, it is wholly illogical to assume that having better graphics would make any other part of the game worse and not in fact, better. Especially considering that they most likely have a higher budget for ME2.

 

@Boo: There's no saving you, your soul is forever lost in the abyss of irrational hate for fun things.

Edited January 16, 2010 by Purkake

[RPGmasterBoo]

It seems obvious that pouring money into one aspect causes another to be lacking. Eg:

 

Mass Effect, more graphics > less content

 

Dragon Age, sh!t graphic > much more content

 

(content = quests, areas)

 

Which part don't you understand?

 

Its not a rule set in stone of course - that because one part is obviously favored that the others will be lackluster. But it makes that option much more likely, given that there isn't such a thing as unlimited time and funds.

 

Unless of course, you're Duke Nukem.

 

@Boo: There's no saving you, your soul is forever lost in the abyss of irrational hate for fun things.

 

That's not true - I like table tennis.

Edited January 16, 2010 by RPGmasterBoo

[Purkake]

The thing you're ignoring is that they probably have a bigger budget which means that all the aspects could have improved equally, you just haven't seen any other than graphics.

 

And that doesn't take into account the fact that they have most likely optimized the engine and know the engine better now that they have already made one game using it.