Comments on: Mass Effect 2 Details, Shakycam Footage

By: kr8

kr8 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 13:27:44 +0000

I did just play through mass effect about a month ago. (on PC) I thought it was great apart from all the bugs (greatest port ever? yeah right). I don’t think it lacked a proper ending. Actually, I thought they could’ve ended the series right there and I wouldn’t have minded. Sure, there’s still dangerous things out there and stuff, but you don’t necessarily need to smite them all for your closure. Contrast it with the second matrix film. Now that’s what I call a lack of proper ending.

I did find it sad that I missed out on some context in the end because when the story started to really develop I felt like I had to go out and save the universe instead of dick around and explore all those little planets. I also noticed there’s a “power gamer” achievement that’s exactly the opposite of being a power gamer, as power gamers steam through content as fast as they can. At least in my experience.

Anyway, that’s all personal, I just like playing story based games, and all the sandbox stuff doesn’t generally interest me much. I’m just hoping ME2 won’t be super duper millions of endings, huge immersive environments, etc. That’ll just want me to explore _all_ of it and suck the fun out of their game.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:34:57 +0000

Pffft, everyone knows Muppet’s Treasure Island has had the largest influence on video games to date! At least- on Diablo’s new art style -_-.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:32:35 +0000

Source medium of influence varies from game to game. Splunky is influenced by games almost to the exception of anything else. Where a game like diablo 3 is clearly influenced by muppet’s treasure island. I kid i kid!

By: Brandon

Brandon — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:27:43 +0000

Someone way up there said that they believe video games take a larger hint from movies than literature, but I believe just the opposite. I think, because of their nature, video games are much more like a novel. For example- Half-Life 2. Your character, similar to the main character in War of the Worlds- has very little to no personal input on the story- his roll, as is Gordon Freemans, is to take the reader/player through the story and describe the environments. Video games often use this method of storytelling, as opposed to movies, which often focus too much on their annoying, overblown, complainy main characters (Although, maybe J-RPGs take a big hint from this). Just my two cents.

By: DK

DK — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:33:03 +0000

for lack of edit: I’d also add that BG 1 was an actually concluded story. Mass Effect is yet another of the announced-as-trilogy-lacking-proper-ending fad.
Although I’d give a kidney to get the Advent Rising trilogy finished.

By: DK

DK — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:31:46 +0000

“DK: Because BG and BG2 looked totally different.”
While visually, they were quite similar, there were huge changes in underlying system. Mass Effect 1 and 2 looks more like a BG2/Throne of Baal situation.

By: Erlam (Shalrath)

Erlam (Shalrath) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:55:53 +0000

“It was very good, mind you, but it certainly had its flaws. It’s just, who could resist the allure of the Grand Ol’ Space Opera?”

Was I the only one who knew exactly what would happen in Mass Effect because I’d played Star Control 3 (the ‘worst’ of the SC’s)? I won’t give anything away for those who’ve not completed Mass Effect, but lets just say any ’surprises’ were pretty easy guesses due to that.

By: Gap Gen

Gap Gen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:51:40 +0000

Binho: That said, I remember listening to the chief engineer on the Normandy yak away and thinking “what utter bollocks”. Can’t remember what he said, though.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:45:59 +0000

DK: Because BG and BG2 looked totally different.

By: Binho

Binho — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:31:53 +0000

Actually, if you read the codex entries on space combat, Mass Effect actually comes off fairly ‘hard’.

The guys who wrote the codex entries clearly did their research. They talk about decks on the larger spacecraft being aligned perpendicular to the engines. They identify that the biggest problem in space is radiating heat, and even incorporate droplet radiator’s! Other stuff they mention is how lasers get weaker over distance, massive engagement ranges, and craft backing off before they overheat.

I’m 90% certain they read the Atomic Rockets website (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3t.html). Unfortunately, I’m 100% certain that when they do include space combat in the game, they’ll throw all the ‘hard’ bits out and do WWII dogfights in space, like everyone else.

I do agree some more ‘hard’ sci fi is needed. Or at least sci-fi that incorporates some realistic physics, even if it’s just for once respecting newton’s 3rd law.

I mean, doing space right is something that CAN be done on the computer, but never in Hollywood or TV. We can do zero-g without sending people on the vomit comet, or onto the ISS.

So why in every space game, do space ships have to have artificial gravity? Dead Space had zero-g levels, and all the reviewers loved it!

By: DK

DK — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:10:03 +0000

This looks exactly like Mass Effect 1. Back when Bioware was a good developer this would have been an expansion, but they obviously want to charge full price out of greed, so it’s a “sequel”.

By: Janto

Janto — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 10:32:11 +0000

Hard Sci-Fi chisels away – fairly big, fairly recent folks no-one’s mentioned thus far would be Kim Stanley Robinson, especially the Mars books, Stephen Baxter and Aleister Reynolds – who’s ideas of genocidal AIs are actually close enough to Mass Effects Reapers but with a better reason for existing. But it’s not what the kids like by all accounts.