Mass Effect - PC

I shiver at the mere thought of the size of all HL2 textures in their original max res uncompressed, and I shiver at the thought of the bandwidth costs for distributing those textures.

Oh, I didn't download any steam stuff. I didn't really think of that.

I bought my discs at the store because I like something tangible. I expect they could fit the uncompressed versions of the HL2 (and expansion) textures on 1 DVD without a problem, probably even include it packed on the Episode disc.
 
I see no reason for devs not to release high res compressed versions of their textures on torrent sites or whatever. With 2gb of ram you could play hl2 with 1024x1024 textures, and it would look much better.
 
So is this game any good?

From what I've gathered from everyone's impressions :

1) Fantastic story and lore.
2) Great graphics.
3) Superb music and voice acting.
4) So-so combat system.
5) Crappy side quests.
6) Alright dialogue system.
7) Not much replay value.

Irregardless, I'm still checking it out.
 
I think people are being too rough on the combat system, I really enjoyed it. It's not perfect but it's far and away the best combat system I've seen in an RPG. There's also a lot of replay due to how different your character plays depending on your class. The classes were also well balanced ... I felt just as powerful as a soldier with my "mage" class. I also didn't mind the Renegade/Paragon system ... I didn't make my decisions trying to lean towards one or the other, but just by making the best out of every situation and would up on the Renegade side ... a far cry from KOTOR where in order to be dark side you had to choose between giving someone 500 credits or eating their children. It's also got the best conversation system I've ever seen, though it still needs some work.

Though the lack of variety in side quests was a flaw. At first they're cool, dropping you on a giant planet in a dune buggy and letting you go about the mission ... it feels cool initially, but then you realize you'll be doing it about 20-30 times over the course of the game and monotony sets in. It's still about 10 times better than the dungeon crawls of most RPGs, and you're actively engaged in the game rather than clicking for your character to move or attack and then just sitting and watching, passively managing spell or potion use.

Great game, one of the best RPGs I've played and I can't wait for the sequel.
 
From what I've gathered from everyone's impressions :

1) Fantastic story and lore.
2) Great graphics.
3) Superb music and voice acting.
4) So-so combat system.
5) Crappy side quests.
6) Alright dialogue system.
7) Not much replay value.

Irregardless, I'm still checking it out.

I'd add decent character creation to that list as well. The voice acting is v.good, but aside from Shepard and some of the other principal characters, some of the lip movements are a bit off. The old black dude you're under the command of was lousy, as is the pilots and I found that pretty distracting when trying to listen to them. It was like trying to listen to someone with a cold sore, you want to listen, but your eyes can't help put watch the lips. :LOL:
 
If you can, rent this game or get it for a bargain price, its great on the first play through but after that it has pretty much a none existant replay value.
 
Not really. The reason why Episode One and Two look much better is because of advances to lighting effects, particle effects, etc. rather than any major increases in texture resolution. Even games like Unreal Tournament 3 have fairly low-res textures, but other effects make them much less noticeable.

Yes really it would look much better, also I'm pretty aware of the low res textures and how they achieved their looks in ep1/2 amd ut3.
 
Textures in HL2+episodes look blurry/muddy. It looks like its about a 5 year old game because of this.


But the episodes are new so why can't they upgrade the textures - especially if they already have them lying around?
 
If you can, rent this game or get it for a bargain price, its great on the first play through but after that it has pretty much a none existant replay value.

Being that this is a thread on the PC version release, both suggestions seem's a bit off.
 
I didnt see what all the fuss was all about on the 360. Being a big Bioware fan though, if there was a demo (pretty much impossible) I may reconsider for PC.
 
Is Mass Effect essentially 24 in Space
No. It is an awesome homage to the best 80s sci-fi out there. Any fan of Star Wars, Aliens, Blade Runner, or Tron owes it to themselves to buy this game and play the sh!t out of it. Complete it and then marvel at the fact that this is only the beginning!! :D
 
Being that this is a thread on the PC version release, both suggestions seem's a bit off.

Disposable disks would certainly come in handy here. Much like a rental, but you wouldn't have to bother returning it - you simply play it once and it dies.
 
It's a shame EA owns the Mass Effect franchise now, so soon enough we'll get Mass Effect 2010, 2011, 2012 etc.
 
Mass Effect is a great game, but have a few let downs. If you play good or evil, the story doesnt change much, or dont change at all. Its possible to play trough the game as good, but then turn evil when its 1 minute left of the game, and you still get the renegade ending.

The cover system is just a cool waste. At the beginning the enemies are very easy, so you dont have to use it. Once you advance in rank you get powerfull enough to just ignore the cover system.
 
Mass Effect is a great game, but have a few let downs. If you play good or evil, the story doesnt change much, or dont change at all. Its possible to play trough the game as good, but then turn evil when its 1 minute left of the game, and you still get the renegade ending.

The cover system is just a cool waste. At the beginning the enemies are very easy, so you dont have to use it. Once you advance in rank you get powerfull enough to just ignore the cover system.

Some the fights later on the game were ridiculously hard, some had me tearing my hairout (fighting the evil witch women with the big breasts for one example).
 
Some the fights later on the game were ridiculously hard, some had me tearing my hairout (fighting the evil witch women with the big breasts for one example).

I find that big breasts always makes it harder.
 
Is this game coming out or what? D:

Just cos all you 360monks have already played it...
 
Tomorrow I think. im spending most of my last 70 dollars on it.



I need a job :(
 
Since EA decided to whore Mass Effect out to SecuROM, I opted for Lost Planet Colonies Edition and Alone in the Dark CE.
 
Atleast it isn't Starforce, Securom never did anything to me.

Got my game pre-ordered and everything.
 
20080509.jpg
 
They got rid of the periodic checking, iirc.
 
Yeah massive fan outcry forced 'em to.
 
There was a whole thread about it. Way to be behind the times Mikael!
 
Plan on getting this. Love Bioware games and hopefully this will be a good one on the PC!
 
In Australia. Scared of phones. They might bite me.
 
Yeah, because you suck. But I don't. So no sucking for me.
 
How about you walk to your local video game shop so that you'll lose some of that fat.
 
What about websites? Just open a new tab in your browser and get google going and see if it is out yet in your territory--you won't even have to close the HL2 tab!! It's great!
 
Surely that 14 gigs thing has to be a typo... I mean come on, 14 gigs? Bullshit...

The only time you should ever need that much memory is far in the future for gaming, or now for render farms which does not even involve gaming.
 
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