Mass Effect universe discussion thread

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I won't argue that digital distribution is 'the future' (I mean, it's here now, after all )...but I just HOPE that physical media won't disappear. I mean, Vinyl is still around, right?
(and we still have a Laserdisc player that works...tho' we only have Ghost in the Shell and the 3 Tenors for that one )

One word, Amazon, but I think shelf space for pc games are dying off and will be gone soon. But some people still want Physical copies, especially for collectors editions so companies like Amazon will supply that.

[Ouroboros]

I know. It just makes me rage when this is somehow the biggest game out at the moment. It is a deeply unimpressive rehash year after year. I suppose good thing is they've got about 3 years or less left in the franchise. At the rate they're pumping out games after another 3 or so cookie cutter games, even the general public might get sick. Plus off course there's the fact most of the original Infinity Ward (the original COD designers) team upped sticks and left to form their own company, so hopefully they'll cook something up that will blow anything Activision can produce out of the water.

I'm just returning to this point to say I did finally install COD Black Ops tonight and it's the worst ****ing turd imaginable.

The game is literally unplayable the performance issues are so bad. My set up runs Fallout New Vegas with upgraded graphics mods just fine, but this piece of **** chokes and dies into a ****ing slideshow regardless of changes to in game settings, steam being online or off, or even directly modifying the config file.

That's the hilarious part really. I can put it on 1280x720 with everything on minimum and get exactly the same performance, or lack there of, as when I put it on 1920x1080 with maxed out AA and AS filtering. It buggers belief. I can't explain it. I've never had a game that behaved this way before and it defies all logic and intuition.

A quick search around the Internet will tell you these problems are common and as far as I've been able to determine, no one else can solve either.

Avoid this buggy piece of **** like the plague this Christmas, or maybe buy it for one of your worst enemies or something.

[gotthammer]

^
Ouch. That bad, huh. It really sucks to get a bad game (*stares at Hellgate London Collector's Edition Box*).

On the digital distribution front: have you folks been getting games from Steam this sale period? I recently got Supreme Commander 2, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (this one's nice: I don't normally like the Lara Croft stuff, but this one is quite fun), a Deus Ex package (DEx and DEx:IW. IW locks up on start, tho'), and Star Wars KOTOR. Some were below 3 USD. Hopefully the picks in the next 7 hrs or so will be good. (hopefully Victoria II will be on sale...)

Playing KOTOR now...kinda weird (in a nice way): I think I was never able to max out the settings for it when I first played it.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I'm just returning to this point to say I did finally install COD Black Ops tonight and it's the worst ****ing turd imaginable.

The game is literally unplayable the performance issues are so bad. My set up runs Fallout New Vegas with upgraded graphics mods just fine, but this piece of **** chokes and dies into a ****ing slideshow regardless of changes to in game settings, steam being online or off, or even directly modifying the config file.

That's the hilarious part really. I can put it on 1280x720 with everything on minimum and get exactly the same performance, or lack there of, as when I put it on 1920x1080 with maxed out AA and AS filtering. It buggers belief. I can't explain it. I've never had a game that behaved this way before and it defies all logic and intuition.

A quick search around the Internet will tell you these problems are common and as far as I've been able to determine, no one else can solve either.

Avoid this buggy piece of **** like the plague this Christmas, or maybe buy it for one of your worst enemies or something.

It’s as I suspected then. I’ve no intention of buying it, what little I had also went out of the window when I, out of curiosity watched some play throughs of the single player campaign on youtube, Having watched them any remaining desire to play the game faded away quickly, aside from it being crap, the whole scripted nature of the game means that my play through would be no different and for all intents and purposes I’d seen all the game had to offer for free on youtube. The games so uninteractive it might as well be a movie, having watched large bits of it on youtube, what’s the point of shelling out money to sit there again watching it?

So yes I have turned to Steam for my Christmas gaming. Got myself the Witcher on a deal, I bought that game when it first came out, real gem but buggy as hell and with loads of cut content, but I lost the disc and never finished the game. The version I got of steam is the enhanced addition, no bugs and plenty of new dialog and content put in. Plus I’ve still got New Vegas to finish, 65 hours spent playing and I still haven’t got to New Vegas in the game And there are piles of mods to try for it, and if I get bored of that the Starcraft 2 and ARMA 2 modding communities have dome stuff I’m really interested in.

And we can still speculate on that new Bioware game that’s yet to be officially announced. the clues are so varied though and vague that I think no one has a clear idea though

[Ouroboros]

It’s as I suspected then. I’ve no intention of buying it, what little I had also went out of the window when I, out of curiosity watched some play throughs of the single player campaign on youtube, Having watched them any remaining desire to play the game faded away quickly, aside from it being crap, the whole scripted nature of the game means that my play through would be no different and for all intents and purposes I’d seen all the game had to offer for free on youtube. The games so uninteractive it might as well be a movie, having watched large bits of it on youtube, what’s the point of shelling out money to sit there again watching it?

You're also entirely accurate here. From what little of it I got through before giving up in a rage at my character having an invisible jackhammer permanently strapped to his back, it's incredibly linear.

It's so linear in fact that in sections where you have to run/carry something across an open area to a particular destination, they literally box your character into an invisible trench to make sure you don't get lost on your way to the giant yellow dot counting down in meters. That might otherwise sound like a joke made to mock the game but I assure you I'm 100% serious. The game just wants you to push W and I think might even pop up a flashing reminder to do that if you sit around for more than a couple seconds.

There was also a couple of times where I swear it seemed as if the game removed grenades, and/or the enemies that threw them, when I died too many times in a given section thanks to my skills not being quite as sharp at 11fps.

It's a shameful exercise, literally a game for people who can't play games and don't think they should have to learn.

It's definitely the last CoD game I'll ever buy. I already didn't buy the last one and only got this one because it was the first fps wargame I could remember to actually do something in Vietnam.

The transition from New Vegas to this would knock your teeth out of your head if your mouth was open.

[Eternal Density]

Arkham Asylum GOTY was on special on Steam; I couldn't resist.
Um, wasn't this the Mass Effect thread? I really better find time to play again soon, it's been too long. I need to play through more of my current play-through to unlock more of the extra content from the Shadow Broker's Lair... (I must take this moment to repeat how awesome the LotSB DLC is!)

[DigiFluid]

Mass Effect 3 officially announced tonight at the VGAs! There was a trailer too, but I don't think it's up online just yet.

Correction:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vg...-effect/708363


Holiday 2011! Damn, Bioware really IS trying to kill me next year

[Ouroboros]

Mass Effect 3 officially announced tonight at the VGAs! There was a trailer too, but I don't think it's up online just yet.

Correction:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vg...-effect/708363


Holiday 2011! Damn, Bioware really IS trying to kill me next year

Holy crap, so that leaked image was ME3 after all. Damn though, literally a whole year away. I almost wish they hadn't shown us anything this early.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Well I know what I want for next christmas.

And that was an epically awesome trailer. I felt such patriotic pride at seeing London trashed by aliens for once rather than some American city.

Also Elder Scrolls 5 was announced.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-Ox-69VBGM

No wonder the end of this year has been a bit sparse for gameing treats, they were setting up for 2011 which looks to be an amazing year for games.

[Giantevilhead]

It's obvious how Shepherd will save earth from the Reapers. He'll slingshot around the sun in the Normandy at warp 9 so that he could travel back to the 21st century. He'll then find a pair of giant squids at an aquarium and bring them back into the future so that they could communicate with the Reapers and stop their attack.

[DigiFluid]

No wonder the end of this year has been a bit sparse for gameing treats, they were setting up for 2011 which looks to be an amazing year for games.

Batman: Arkham City
Bulletstorm
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dragon Age II
Duke Nukem Forever
Gears of War 3
Mass Effect 3
Portal 2
Star Wars: The Old Republic

Plus maybe:
Half-Life 2: Episode Three
Hitman 5
Shogun 2: Total War




*dies*

[Daedalus-304]

Awesome, I can't wait. I can't believe it's coming out so soon. So the Reapers are going after Earth and you have to get the other races to help you out? I wonder how different decisions will play out, like if you killed the council, they'll say "Let Earth burn"

Wow, I thought 2010 was a great year for games, but look at 2011. I'm still trying to get caught up on past games (I'm waiting mostly on price drops). The one's besides Mass Effect 3 I'm looking forward to:

Uncharted 3 (still need to get 2 however)
Gears of War 3
Portal 2
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Dead Space 2
Fear 3
The new Silent Hill

[gotthammer]

Yeah. Next year looks great.

From Bioware (3 Games!):
Dragon Age 2 (ok, I'm still a bit skeptical of this one...still...I'm pre-ordering for the Sig. Ed.)
Mass Effect 3 (great teaser. I honestly thought it would be a spin-off thingy which some people suggested when that pic of the sniper first came out. I definitely didn't expect him to be where he was and that it would be ME3...but I was hoping, all the while, that it would be ME3 )
SW:TOR (also a bit skeptical, still. I'd get it, regardless, if only to play through the story...then, probably, as w/ my other MMOs, let the account lay dormant until I feel like playing it again. Or they offer 'free time', like EVE )

Then there's also...
The Witcher 2 (after the disappointment w/ some of the stuff I've been reading re: DA2, I'm really excited for this one, esp. since I enjoyed post-patch The Witcher )
Shogun 2 Total War
(maybe) RAGE (if it comes out next year... )
World of Tanks (goes live)
Uncharted 3 (hopefully I'll have a PS3 by then...and then at least I'll have the 2 earlier games to catch up, and burn time, on )
Deus Ex: HR
TES V: Skyrim (this one I didn't expect...then again, I'm not a big fan of TES series)

[PeteJ]

Those Reapers in the trailer looked really small. Baby Reapers? The plot sounds kind of half-assed at the moment, but I have 90% trust towards Bioware that they'll make it something epic with some major twists.

Regardless, the trailer gave me the chills and I can't wait.

[Ouroboros]

It's obvious all the reapers in the trailers are just Sovereign's model from ME1, maybe spruced up a bit. They all look identical where as the ones in the ME2 final cutscene had quite a bit of diversity in designs.

What I'm getting at is expect a lot of things relating to the attack on Earth to change as the game gets closer to completion.

I'm just eagerly awaiting news of how they're going to be handling the squadmates from ME2. About the only thing that could deep six this whole thing for me would be them deciding we needed to spend 80% of the playtime just recruiting a whole new team again. Then why did we bother keeping the last one alive.

I want to add on to the team, maybe even if it means trading away existing characters for new, but I don't want another. "spend the whole game gathering people for a mission that lasts 1 out of 40 hrs", scenario.

I got my elite team, let me put them to the test. The collectors were just the warm up lap.