Mass Effect universe discussion thread

[gotthammer]

re: consoles
Yeah. It's still ultimately about preference. I WANT a console (a PS3 for the exclusives and as a BD player), but it's not a priority (when compared to upgrading/getting a new PC) as most of the stuff I want is on the PC (I can't imagine playing something like Hearts of Iron w/ a controller, even if they ever 'ported' that game )

re: DA:O and visuals
Yup. DA:O doesn't even compare, visually, IMHO, to ME1.
While they did try to do dark fantasy, it was lacking (the abused elves/non-humans, for example, isn't new, and, again, visually, a lot of the darker theme weren't translated well to the screen), esp. in terms of 'atmosphere' (lighting, for the most part, I guess, as well as the environments).
The characters (dialogue and whatnot), on the other hand, were, IMHO, great.
Dragon Age 2 looks promising...too bad it doesn't have the Warden as the main character (maybe 3? And don't reply w/ spoilers from Witch Hunt...I haven't bothered to finish it yet...won't be for a while, too, I guess, since I've started on ME2 again.)
*looks at clock*
I've been playing ME2 for nearly 12 hours? :O

...

And my copy of Civilization 5 is waiting for me at the game store.
<--- doomed

[kharn the betrayer]

heh iv been Addicted to League of Legends ontop of ME1/2, I also have Avernum 6 to run through which iv been putting off since I keep getting distracted >_<

oh and another Dawn of War 2 expansion coming out next year and Golden Sun Dark Dawn for DS... yeah...

on Dragon age.,..I mostly played it for the characters (well Dog, Morrigan, Shale, Loghain and Nathaniel,Justice, Sigrun) and the combat(which got hilariously dull because of how easy it is and fighting the same trash mobs suck)

the story was just blah, the "dark fantasy" was hardly there at all (want dark fantasy play the witcher) and it just felt awfully generic oh and I took way too much pleasure in

endgamespoilers

Spoiler:

executing that whiny hypocrit alistair and putting myself on the throne with Anora,

oh and if theres a gay romance option in DA2 I sure as hell hope its not a pretty boy flamboyant manwhore assassin with corny accent again I want a freaking human warrior that looks male and normal and doesnt hurt my ears

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Console wars are utterly retarded IMO

some gaming genres work better on pc some work better on console its stupid to argue over them I dont own any next gen console because I dont see the point of me buying one when all the games Im interested in come out for the pc and with extra crap as well alot of the time (Dragon age, both mass effects, Morrowind/Oblivion, Devil may cry 4) for example

Console wars, please, there's just a hierarchy. From top to bottom it goes something like this

Fans of the Total War series of games on PC

All other pc gamers except those that play the Sims

The console masses. They can work out their own hierarchy, the only thing I'm sure about is screaming 12 years olds who play too much Call of Duty and Halo should be at the bottom.

People who nothing about videogames

Jack Thompson

People who play the Sims.

Some genres of games work better on the consoles. On the whole however the pc continually produces more interesting, innovative and clever games. You do not get stuff like this on consoles.

PC gamers have often had to suffer games being dumbed down (as for example the Deus Ex Invisible war debacle) or the fact that gaming technology for the pc got so far ahead that we've been waiting for the consoles to catch up, Crysis came out in 2007 and still hasn't been bettered technically. Then every few months some idiot keeps proclaiming that pc gaming is dead. Ohh look how little shelf space there is devoted to pc games in the shops.. blah blah blah, conveniently forgetting that pc games sales account for about a 1/3 of the gaming market and that most of it has moved online, Valve of course is rolling in cash thanks to Steam. Meanwhile a little game called Starcraft 2 managed to sell over 3 million copies in a month. Blizzards other little game World of Warcraft with around 10 million subscribers pulls in about $1 billion in gross profits per year.

In the end what you play on is all about preference and I can't exactly come down the internet and change what people play there videogames on, but pc gaming is undoubtedly the top tier of gaming. Of course there are disadvantages that come as the price of being the top level, more complexity and more price for instance (though the latter is grossly exaggerated by people, you can buy or build a decent gaming pc for only a bit more than a console if you shop around) but if you want the best experience then pc is best.

Dragon Age is the best example of this. On 3 versions for the different systems you get the same official content and dlc's, which is the correct thing to do. Nothing pisses me off more than one game getting preferential treatment with official content. But the pc has advantages that the consoles can't support, a better control system, smoother graphics, the tool set and mod support...

Anyway in the end as I said you can't force people, nor would I wish to to, to change their gaming preferences. It is easy to wind console owners however, which is all I was doing with Col Foley. Although of course as evidenced by my long post here, us serious pc gamers have a habit of getting worked up too.

[Xarn]

I'd like to comment on the lack of creativity in fantasy settings... I think it is mostly due to the fact that most unusual settings flopped. And that I think is because most players lack the creativity to appreciate them. I would like to use Planescape as an example. It was something different then your everyday generic-Middle-Earth-adaptation, highly original (with no dwarves/elves to be found, wheee!)... and for most PnP players completely unplayable, because they lacked any frame of reference of what they are supposed to do. In contrast, everyone has read Tolkien's work and knows what horrible overused cliches they are supposed to act like.

[kharn the betrayer]

Mighty platoon I tend to ignore those kinds of idiots who proclaim the doom of PC gaming(I havnt gotten SC2 yet though and even when i do ill mostly just play around in the map editor and play UMS maps like I did in SC1 and WC3) and didnt I also state PC versions tend to extra crap?(and I did list dragon age which as you pointed out pretty much got star treatment between the topdown view, much better GUI that lets you hotkey all you and your parties spells/talents and yes the mod tools, same with the eldar scroll games with their mod tools, and Knights of the old republic 2 has that restoration project thats PC only...)

also my comps by no means a gaming comp its a 6 year old PoS and the only updates where the processor and graphics card 2 years ago and can run ME2 on max settings

edit:and to Xarn Planescape(the setting) does actually have elves and dwarves Planescape torment just happened to cut them out and left all the interesting stuff in

[gotthammer]

re: 'generic' fantasy settings
I think a lot of devs/companies are going for 'darker' fantasy now, to try to move away from, well, the stuff we come to expect when we think 'fantasy'.
The Witcher was great in that regard, but, then again, it had source material to draw from (I liked 'The Last Wish' by Sapkowski. 'Blood of Elves' was 'ok', but it was a bit slow...as I understand it, it's supposed to set up things for another book).
The Witcher was able to convey a 'dark fantasy' both visually (esp. in terms of atmosphere) as well as in the themes the game tackles.
On the other hand, Dragon Age, which they called a 'dark heroic fantasy', IMHO, failed visually, and, perhaps, the impact of the dark/mature themes present weren't conveyed well enough due to the lack of visual atmosphere (case in point: the path leading to the Broodmother). I dunno. Maybe it was also the viewpoint? (The Witcher's over-the-shoulder versus DA:O's, usually, isometric/tactical view, perhaps?) Still, even if you change POV/perspective, IMHO, the environment of DA:O was quite lacking.
I mean, DA:O shared themes w/ The Witcher (such as the abuse of some non-humans, in the case of DA:O, the elves), but, I guess unless you played one of the Origins (I personally haven't played a dwarf or elf origin...never could get around to playing a non-human *shrugs*), maybe it's less apparent (which, is, of course, kinda bad ).
Oh well, maybe the final version of the DA Redesigned mod will help some of that a bit, but since that only tweaks character/NPC appearances, and not the environment, it won't be much...
During one of the interviews (or the live streams, I forget), Bioware mentioned new lighting and whatnot for DA2...I really hope they fix the 'atmosphere issue' that DA:O had (and maybe patch DA:O with an 'atmosphere fix'? )

re: Planescape
Never played it. I've heard about it a lot, but I've never gotten around to playing it. For one thing, I was never fond of the 'planes' setting of D&D, which I guess stopped me from getting it then. Maybe I'll get around to playing it...someday.

[gotthammer]

also my comps by no means a gaming comp its a 6 year old PoS and the only updates where the processor and graphics card 2 years ago and can run ME2 on max settings

Nyahahaha. Same here (more or less).
I'm looking to upgrade soon.
I'm gaming on an aging P4 3.0GHz, 2GB RAM (1GB of which I bought about 2 years ago) w/ an 8800GT 512MB GPU that I got shortly after release.
Heh. ME2 runs smoother than ME1 or DA:O. I hope it'll run Civ5 with no problems...

[kharn the betrayer]

Nyahahaha. Same here (more or less).
I'm looking to upgrade soon.
I'm gaming on an aging P4 3.0GHz, 2GB RAM (1GB of which I bought about 2 years ago) w/ an 8800GT 512MB GPU that I got shortly after release.
Heh. ME2 runs smoother than ME1 or DA:O. I hope it'll run Civ5 with no problems...

I have 1GB of ram...I do plan on buying 4GB this weekend though

and yes ME2 runs ALOT better than Dragon age and ME1 for me

edit: also what Class combo should I try next...

either shotgun infiltrator(tactical cloaking shottie blasts to the face lol), shotgun adept or shotgun Engineer(saw a video on youtube and looked damn fun)

[Xarn]

edit:and to Xarn Planescape(the setting) does actually have elves and dwarves Planescape torment just happened to cut them out and left all the interesting stuff in

Okey I kinda misspoke... obviously planescape has elves and dwarfs and about anything that can be imagined (duh), however the focus is shifted.



Gotthammer: Darker fantasy isn't necessarily better. (IIRC, comics also went down this route... it got rather stupid rather quickly)


Btw, if anyone wants to buy SC2 just for the UMMs, I would recommend waiting whether battlenet gets better. (I haven't checked with patch 1.1 yet, but it used to be regression beyond the W3 one)

[gotthammer]

Gotthammer: Darker fantasy isn't necessarily better. (IIRC, comics also went down this route... it got rather stupid rather quickly)

I agree. I mean, 'dark fantasy' is just a 'flavour' of fantasy, after all. Too much of the same will, after all, get boring. I'm all for 'grim dark' and all that, but if an ENTIRE game or movie or book or comic is like that, then...wouldn't it be 'bland'?
Whether the overall them is 'dark fantasy' or 'heroic fantasy' or 'whatever fantasy', IMHO, it's best to have stuff have a nice blend of various 'flavours', just to keep it interesting.

@Kharn:
I'm boring in ME: I just play 'soldier'.
"Get some! Get some! Get some!"
*runs for cover as he realizes he's out of heat clips...*

[kharn the betrayer]

I honestly utterly hate the soldier class I really do I find the class so freaking dull and boring to play its not even funny

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I honestly utterly hate the soldier class I really do I find the class so freaking dull and boring to play its not even funny

I guess it depends on your personality and play style. I happen to love playing the soldier. It's simple and to the point, when I play every combat situation is clear, get a good firing position and put lots of accurate rounds down on the enemy till they're dead. I guess my real life training rubbed off on to how I play Shepard.

[Ouroboros]

Got to put in my vote for soldier to. There's something to be said for the simplicity of just dominating everything with superior weapons and shooting skill.

I'd really argue against it being boring to. Some of my most tense moments came in soldier playthroughs as I rushed ahead of my hopeless teammates doing slow-mo magdumps into the faces of my vile enemies.

I like other classes to, but Soldier is the one I'm playing first in ME3 for sure, just like it was in ME2 and ME1.

Mordin is a "just for fun character?" he synergies amazingly well with Engineer shep I mean stupidly so

his cooldowns when maxed are as low as sheps and Area Overload/Incinerate/reave+Area Cyroblast is absolutely deverstating with mobs and you can literally just spam the crap out of it its whats made my Engineer run on insanity so damn easy

I never played engineer so I can't say how well he synergises there. I always found him to be just as big of a bullet magnet as Jack is though.

His cryoblast is ok but Jack's shockwave is likewise a pretty nice lead into an adrenaline rush headshot bonanza, as it pops enemies out of cover, shielded or not. Just about any of the characters have some redeeming features, I just don't consider them all to be as equally useful as say, Grunt or Kasumi.

Ranking them in terms of power/usefulness in pure gameplay terms I'd go something like this.

-Grunt, Kasumi

-Jacob, Zaeed, Garrus, Samara

-Legion, Miranda, Jack, Mordin

-Tali, Thane

Also I disagree with Thane being a "just for fun" character as well even though i hate his character also LoTSB can remove that awful point in Shredder Ammo

Miranda has warp and overload and Zaeed has the same sort of skill damage bonus only he's AR/Sniper and has disruptor ammo.

Thane's in almost the same boat as Tali, anything he can do someone else can do better than him.

He really should have been the one they gave "Shadow Strike" to.

also thanks for the link that converts youtube vids to MP3's iv been downloading so many unreleased ME2 songs its not even funny

I remember when I first discovered it I converted all this stuff I'd favorited before. Youtube should just give in already and make this an inherent feature.

I've also got a firefox plugin that lets you download their videos although that can be done even more easily by just replacing the "y" in "youtube" in any given video's address with a number 3. Takes you to yet another easy to use conversion/download website with the vid in question already selected for conversion via the address.

[kharn the betrayer]

I love Kasumi but she would would be alot better if her passive worked(it doesnt)

also Miranda is pretty much the best NPC in the game considering she has warp, overload(meaning she can strip all types of defences in this game) and gives pretty hefty squad buffs she also gets 31 squad points unlike every one else and is gotten really early (and I hate her character)

and the incisor Sniper rifle is GODLY in NPC hands having a character with Warp and sniper rifles is a massive boon if your an Adept (your shouldent even have your NPC's using Assault rifles if they have the incisor sniper rifle) and saying Zaeed does the job better than thane is wrong they both have different abilities, Zaeed has squads disruptor ammo, thane has Warp you take either one depending on the situation (there passives give the exact same damage bonus also)

and if you dont believe me that Allies shouldent use the incisor(except Legion with his widow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0PsjaAEv0U

[Ouroboros]

I love Kasumi but she would would be alot better if her passive worked(it doesnt)

Is it bugged on her or something because it worked fine when I took it as a bonus power. The only thing is it only works on enemies who've been stripped of all defenses, which is pretty disappointing.

also Miranda is pretty much the best NPC in the game considering she has warp, overload(meaning she can strip all types of defences in this game) and gives pretty hefty squad buffs she also gets 31 squad points unlike every one else and is gotten really early (and I hate her character)

Miranda is good but suffers from the same sort of fragility issues as Jack and Tali I find. I'm using her more often than I did before and don't really notice the squad bonus either. I'd have ranked her higher but I find the squad mates that are most useful to me are the ones that can either tank or put out a decent amount of damage and generally survive on their own for a while without me having to constantly babysit them.

If I feel the need to pause and micromanage every second of a battle I'll play dragon age.

and the incisor Sniper rifle is GODLY in NPC hands having a character with Warp and sniper rifles is a massive boon if your an Adept (your shouldent even have your NPC's using Assault rifles if they have the incisor sniper rifle) and saying Zaeed does the job better than thane is wrong they both have different abilities, Zaeed has squads disruptor ammo, thane has Warp you take either one depending on the situation (there passives give the exact same damage bonus also)

I'd rather have disruptor all the time than the occasional warp some of the time though. I can see how Thane might be more useful to an adept but other than for exploding singularities, and for some reason vs Hocks gunship, I've never been especially blown away by warp as a power.

and if you dont believe me that Allies shouldent use the incisor(except Legion with his widow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0PsjaAEv0U

Oh I know about the incisor bug, it's not like Thane's the only one that can use it though. Zaeed and Garrus can both do it as well, and it's even nastier with disruptor or AP ammo.

I also gave Jack another try in LotSB only with my adept Shepard, and it's noticeable how much better she gets when you're actively trying to strip shields for biotic combos yourself. The Geth shotgun with the warp ammo bonus is pretty brutal to. She's still not as good an adept buddy as Liara though, now she is just ridiculous. It's like having another version of yourself with insta hit powers.