More Mass Effect entertainment

Vault Dweller · Jan 17, 2007

I love those Mass Effect previews. They are like a competition of who will post the most retarded crap and get away with it. Anyway...
http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id ... ectionId=2

Rather than force the player to sit through page after page of wordy text, the entire exchange is expertly voice acted with believable dialogue.

I think that a common mistake here is using wordy text to complain about wordy text. I think that something different would be more effective. For example:

"Mass Effect is game, not book. Talking is real. Listen, don't read!"

What's amazing is that not only are the visuals some of the best we've ever seen in an RPG, but the entire experience feels more like an interactive movie rather than a series of predictable dialogue choices.

I suppose the new dialogue system is completely unpredictable. Like the Oblivion mini-game. Should I open a conversation with a joke or should I impress him with the size of my dick (boast) first?

Responses are merely summarized rather than printed out word for word (we're unsure if there are captions available for those hard of hearing...

The captions are in. Hardcore role-players love reading shit according to another preview.

... so you must actually hang onto every spoken word to get the full experience. Not only is this decidedly different from other RPGs in the past, but it's another sign that BioWare is putting the added power of Xbox 360 to good use to create a truly next-gen experience.

To take the beast down, he issues commands to his partners, disables the enemy's shields, and then takes it down with one powerful shot in a massive display of destruction.

Anyone else feels that Commander Shepard is definitely overcompensating for something with those "massive displays" of destruction?

What really sets Mass Effect apart from standard RPGs is the ability to issue direct orders to your allies, take full control over them for certain tasks, and coordinate your attacks in real time like a tactical squad-based shooter.

I refuse to believe it. There is no way that you can take full control over your party members in an RPG. What's next? Adjustable stats and swappable weapons? Yeah, right.

cutterjohn · Jan 17, 2007

Vault Dweller said:
Rather than force the player to sit through page after page of wordy text, the entire exchange is expertly voice acted with believable dialogue.

Click to expand...

I think that a common mistake here is using wordy text to complain about wordy text. I think that something different would be more effective. For example:

"Mass Effect is game, not book. Talking is real. Listen, don't read!"

Oh come on, VD, even the illiterati need to be able to have some fun, and they really SHOULD produce these items as audio stories so as to not tax their fans overly uch with lots of overly wordy text...

Vault Dweller said:
Responses are merely summarized rather than printed out word for word (we're unsure if there are captions available for those hard of hearing...

Click to expand...

The captions are in. Hardcore role-players love reading shit according to another preview.

Well if the captions were overly wordy and greatly expanded upon the simplistic dialog that they will use since it's limited by voice acting costs, it might have been worthwhile. I just wish that these imbeciles would get off this fully voice acted crap. Only Gothic 2 & 3, did ok as fully voice acted, and IMO Morrowind was a pretty decent balance for partial voice acting.

Vault Dweller said:
... so you must actually hang onto every spoken word to get the full experience. Not only is this decidedly different from other RPGs in the past, but it's another sign that BioWare is putting the added power of Xbox 360 to good use to create a truly next-gen experience.

Click to expand...

I just LOVE wasting my time for some 2 bit "actor" to ramble through his "lines".

Vault Dweller said:
To take the beast down, he issues commands to his partners, disables the enemy's shields, and then takes it down with one powerful shot in a massive display of destruction.

Click to expand...

Anyone else feels that Commander Shepard is definitely overcompensating for something with those "massive displays" of destruction?

Not really. After all it IS a 3rd person shooter... If it were 1st person and highly moddable, I may have liked it...

What really sets Mass Effect apart from standard RPGs is the ability to issue direct orders to your allies, take full control over them for certain tasks, and coordinate your attacks in real time like a tactical squad-based shooter.

...that's because it IS a squad based shooter...

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

This line with the "wordy dialogue" made me feel amused and sad at the same time.
Calling story-providing text which is interesting to read and adds up a lot to NPC personality "wordy dialogue" is just too funny... especially since dialogue cannot exist without words and thus HAS to be wordy.
On the other hands it makes me sad... sad that re and previewers have lost all sense of good gameplay components. And that developers have lost it, too.

Amasius · Jan 17, 2007

I wonder why they still write game reviews (and previews) like this, if their target audience can't read...

Kingston · Jan 17, 2007

Ass Effect is gonna be a shitty rpg.

Balor · Jan 17, 2007

Ass Effect is gonna be a shitty rpg.

Congrats! You've just officially renamed this game

.

doctor_kaz · Jan 17, 2007

So far, what I have gathered about Mass Effect is that they replaced the protagonist's textual responses with short commands that summarize actions. So, instead of

"[Intimidate] Give me all of your gold or I'll cut your throat."

it's

"[Threaten him]"

Chronicles of Riddick already did this and really it's not any different from a game like Fable, which goes to further extremes and makes all communication by emoting. But the gaming media has a serious case of Dick-in-mouth disease when it comes to Bioware, so now it's viewed as revolutionary. And so is the "save the miners" vs. "don't save the miners" choice that we have seen about 100 times now.

Jasede · Jan 17, 2007

I think this is the first time I read "Ass Effect" on this forum. Well done.

Focus:
I don't get it. What I loved the most in Ultima 7 was the great dialogue. Oh, it wasn't sophisticated, or deep, or wonderfully written, but it was evocative and, eh, let's use the buzzword, "immersive".
Sure, games aren't books. They shouldn't be, either. Text is there to add to the experience. To create pictures in your mind, to cause you certain emotions, to spark your imagination. I find those things can add immensely to the experience.
Now then - don't misinterpret me. I firmly believe excellent voice-acting can add just as much as great text. Good examples are Thief (Stephen Russell as Karras and Garrett), System Shock (Shodan) or Bloodlines. But - I find that the full-VA approach in an RPG is impractical. Very often, I lacked certain dialogue options in Bloodlines. I could not, for example, ask everyone about his job, or learn his past, or ask him about his opinion on X, something I usually can do in a non full-VA game like Ultima 7. That adds a lot to the world and the gaming experience. I wish they could do it as they did in Wizardry 8: Excellent full voice acting WITHOUT a loss of dialogue possibilities.

Also, why this focus on action and blowing things up? I actually think it was bearable in NWN (Well, in HotU); after all, a lot of D&D is about hack and slash. I don't mind it if it's done right. But why liken a game that is supposed to be an RPG to an interactive action-movie experience? Why streamline the dialogue system? If I want to play a movie, I will pick up Final Fantasy 12. Or smarter yet, I will visit the cinema.

Dammit, I am rambling aimlessly. Let's cut this short:

Ass Effect is gonna be a shitty RPG!

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

I also think there will be not much ingame books or other readable information about the gameworld ingame, if there is something like that at all.
"Not much wordy text" sounds to me like "no ingame lore through letting your character read stuff".

Actually this preview makes Ass Effect sound less like an RPG than Oblivion ever was.
And that's a huge accomplishment.

TalesfromtheCrypt · Jan 17, 2007

What's amazing is that not only are the visuals some of the best we've ever seen in an RPG, but the entire experience feels more like an interactive movie rather than a series of predictable dialogue choices.

Oh I love hoW those assheads jerk off about the fact that games are becoming more and more like interactive movies.
WOW D00D, ITZ LEIK IN TEH CINEMA!!!11

Its really funny. In my opinion the "cinematization" of games is one of the most important reasons why they suck so much today, yet I haven't read any, any article in the game press during the recent years which would at least have a critical view on this trend.

This is true for all genres, not only FPS or RPGs.
Who cares about boring, unchallenging missions in Company of Heroes, look at the friggin' cutscenes man...its like James Ryan, do you hear me? James Ryan!

Kingston · Jan 17, 2007

I can already see a presentation of the game in some convention:

"Well, here you can see the quests and dialog features..."

Crowd snores.

"Oh... er, L00K AT DIS GUN, LOL!!!1111 AND THE EXPLOSIONZ... YOU CAN SHHOT DA CRATES 2 LOOK!!!11"

Crowd cheers!

Castanova · Jan 17, 2007

What I find amusing is how Bioware and most other game companies are confused about their own goals with their game products. They make it a mission to streamline, remove "boring" dialogue, focus on the gameplay and yet, their games are relentlessly "cinematic." They hear the cries from the masses of the asses "OMG Planescape wuz boring." so they try to remove as many storytelling devices as possible. And at the same time, they structure their games as one long cutscene.

Which is it?

TalesfromtheCrypt · Jan 17, 2007

Castanova said:
What I find amusing is how Bioware and most other game companies are confused about their own goals with their game products. They make it a mission to streamline, remove "boring" dialogue, focus on the gameplay and yet, their games are relentlessly "cinematic." They hear the cries from the masses of the asses "OMG Planescape wuz boring." so they try to remove as many storytelling devices as possible. And at the same time, they structure their games as one long cutscene.

Which is it?

thats called doublespeak or PR bullshiting, and it works amazingly well with todays retarded gamer crowd.

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

TalesfromtheCrypt said:
This is true for all genres, not only FPS or RPGs.
Who cares about boring, unchallenging missions in Company of Heroes, look at the friggin' cutscenes man...its like James Ryan, do you hear me? James Ryan!

No, it would be more like this:
"OMG ITZ LIKE THE WW2 MOVIES ONLY WITH BETTER EFFECTS!!! AND T3H GRAFIX OMGZ TEY AHR SO REALISTIK THAT REALITY LOOKS SHIT AGAINST IT OMGZ FUCK T3H MOVIES TIS GAME LOOKZ SO MUCH BETT0RZ OMG!!!1!!!111!"

When the game industry has rwched that point, we know that it is on decline, at least decline in quality. Sadly, this means also huge commercial success.

I just wait until they make serious movies, not only cartoons, completely digitally. After all, the 3D models can get much better animations than real actors...

Jim Kata · Jan 17, 2007

"Mass Effect is game, not book. Talking is real. Listen, don't read!"

How is it that they are marketing to people who would read a review but would hate to have reading in the actual game?

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

Jim Kata said:
"Mass Effect is game, not book. Talking is real. Listen, don't read!"

How is it that they are marketing to people who would read a review but would hate to have reading in the actual game?

Because GAME IZ GRAPHIX LOLLOLOLZ!!!!

Seriously, the current teenage gamers cannot concentrate on both looking at text AND graphics at the same time. So they prefer to just watch the graphics.

obediah · Jan 17, 2007

Amasius said:
I wonder why they still write game reviews (and previews) like this, if their target audience can't read...

Laugh now you fucker, but the days of text on the internet are numbered. And I'm pissed about it. Look at all those video links on CNN, and interviews that are being put up as audio files. HaXor HOWTOs are being replaced by shitty youtube videos. It's the end of society I tell you.

Jim Kata · Jan 17, 2007

JarlFrank said:
Jim Kata said:

"Mass Effect is game, not book. Talking is real. Listen, don't read!"

How is it that they are marketing to people who would read a review but would hate to have reading in the actual game?

Click to expand...

Because GAME IZ GRAPHIX LOLLOLOLZ!!!!

Seriously, the current teenage gamers cannot concentrate on both looking at text AND graphics at the same time. So they prefer to just watch the graphics.

I don't think teens have somehow been genetically altered without my knowledge, that is just the crap being pushed on them.

Elhoim · Jan 17, 2007

Amasius said:
I wonder why they still write game reviews (and previews) like this, if their target audience can't read...

Excelent point my friend. Reviews should be a series of images showing the game and bugs without any wordy text. This reviewers are so not next gen...

Elhoim · Jan 17, 2007

After all, the 3D models can get much better animations than real actors...

PacMan pwowns Keanu Reevez!!!!

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

Elhoim said:
PacMan pwowns Keanu Reevez!!!!

I talked about the future, and PacMan is not 3D....

But I'm hell sure a hyper duper ultra super graphics pacman would sell amazingly well in the mainstream market.
If they dumb it down considerably, that is. Make the difficulty much easier [every eaten ball gives one extra life!!!!1!111!] and dumb the ghost AI down. Then everyone will buy it. Except the few real gamers left on this planet.

HardCode · Jan 17, 2007

... so you must actually hang onto every spoken word to get the full experience. Not only is this decidedly different from other RPGs in the past, but it's another sign that BioWare is putting the added power of Xbox 360 to good use to create a truly next-gen experience.

Next-gen, hun? The Commodore 64 spoke words, using the SAM program. I think their idea of next-gen is about 25 years behind.

Admiral Rimjob POOBUM · Jan 17, 2007

JarlFrank said:
Elhoim said:

PacMan pwowns Keanu Reevez!!!!

Click to expand...

I talked about the future, and PacMan is not 3D....

But I'm hell sure a hyper duper ultra super graphics pacman would sell amazingly well in the mainstream market.
If they dumb it down considerably, that is. Make the difficulty much easier [every eaten ball gives one extra life!!!!1!111!] and dumb the ghost AI down. Then everyone will buy it. Except the few real gamers left on this planet.

Does it have an Iron Man mode?

JarlFrank · Jan 17, 2007

Admiral jimbob said:
Does it have an Iron Man mode?

No.
Save and load whenever you want.
And a minigame after death to resurrect your pac man.

Gambler · Jan 17, 2007

Wordy texts are for losers, but so are wordy soundtracks. Behold the post-next-gen dialog system:

Sheppard: :!:
Evil party NPC: :cool:

Non-party NPC: :shock:
Good party NPC:

Sheppard: :twisted:
Evil party NPC: :lol:

Non-party NPC: :cry:

Sheppard:

Non-party NPC:

: :!:
Good party NPC: :!:

:
Sheppard: :!:
Non-party NPC: :!: :!: :!:
*Fight ensues.*

...

Imagine the reaction from the mainstream public:

Fanboy #1 said:
ZOMG, it so kewl!!! .

Fanboy #2 said:
This is revolution! I don't even have to listen to what NPCs say. That makes games so much more dynamic!

Fanboy #3 said:
Now I can pretend that NPCs are saying whatever I want them to say. This is the best role-playing experience ever!

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