Mass Effect - "the" Xbox360 title to get

[GoodKingJayIII]

I wouldn't say "Horribly." But yes, first game in the tech-stream, done on an engine that was still being completed as we worked on the game, so there are definitely some hiccups. And the elevators get old. I'm the guy who wrote the banter and news-vids to try to make the elevators seem less dull.

The game's averaging 93 on Metacritic right now (30 reviews), which implies that it does more things right (and some of those things right-er than they've ever been done before) than it does wrong.

If you have a 360 already, it's currently the 6th-highest-rated 360 game on Metacritic (behind a few well-established IPs, Rock Band, and BioShock, and hats off to them). That's still comfortably in "safe buy if you like RPGs and buy 3 or more games per year" territory.

Hey takyris, thanks for the response. I checked out metacritic yesterday after my post and saw the high review. Very glad to hear it, and after reading some of the reviews there, I'll definitely be picking this one up.

 

[FunkBGR]

Avoid Assassin's Creed if you can't stand repetitive gameplay
/hijack over

I'm about 4 hours into Mass Effect, and I haven't once noticed any of the problems people have been having, so it's prolly a crapshoot.

I also haven't had problems with the menu system at all.

I've definitely not been twitchy at this game during combat. I tend to take cover, get all my guys to take cover, and slowly pick off enemies as I go. Sometimes (timed missions), you have to go a little faster, but a good ol' bull rush takes care of that.

As for the red icons, they show where enemies are, but some enemies have jammers and an ability to mask their presence. You need an upgrade to see them clearly on the radar.

Hacking game is definitely twitch - I can't hit the buttons fast enough.

Seriously fun game though - loving every minute of it.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sounds cool. Games like this (and a burning desire for a decent driving simulator) have me considering a 360, and I haven't owned a console since the NES.

Just curious: is it "mass" as in "large, many" or "mass" as in "matter"?

 

[Felon]

Sounds cool. Games like this (and a burning desire for a decent driving simulator) have me considering a 360, and I haven't owned a console since the NES.

Just curious: is it "mass" as in "large, many" or "mass" as in "matter"?

Mass as in...both, really. The Mass Effect is basically a universal force, like gravity or electromagnetism. It is the explanation for why the universe's mass continues to expand when gravity should be causing it to contract (I suppose that's why biotic powers seem to have a lot of gravity-defying effects).

 

[Vocenoctum]

I tried it with a (er, Guardian maybe, I forget) and combat with a pistol was most unfun. Sure I'm "low level" but it's tedious, and the NPC's killed more than me. I disabled AutoSave since it was more trouble than the load times. I switched to default soldier and it's been better.

Combat sucks, IMO. I don't know if any of you have tried Tabula Rasa, but it has the illusion of "twitch", but is figured mathmatically. ME combat was just bad, I think. I'm not comparing twitch factor to Halo or anything, it's just clunky for me.

The (at low-level at least) sniper rifle is silly, no gun moves that much unless you're drinking or something.

The story is good so far, and I'm still holding out hopes for an RPG, but gameplay has let me down a bit.

I also really don't see the "revolutionary" dialogue system. It's a radial menu of options... woohoo?

The Simon Says stuff is so-so, I get it most of the time, but damn, they didn't even explain what it was, and the first time I had lost before I understood what I was supposed to do!

So, at this early (3-4 hours in) juncture, I'm not impressed, but still hopeful.

 

[Felon]

I tried it with a (er, Guardian maybe, I forget) and combat with a pistol was most unfun. Sure I'm "low level" but it's tedious, and the NPC's killed more than me. I disabled AutoSave since it was more trouble than the load times. I switched to default soldier and it's been better.

Yeah, I suspect I may do that. Infiltrators are supposed to mix combat and tech abilities, but they really seem deficient in the combat department, being only skilled in pistols and sniper rifles.

There's really not a lot of skills on the whole, and they're almost entirely for firefights, not any other portion of the game. There are no stealth skills or anything like that (enemies seem to detect the party and open fire immediately). And again, hacking requires a certain skill level to attempt, but the attempt itself doesn't incorporate any skill. Given that, having a class called "infiltrator" seems odd.

But the text says pistols have good things going for them, like not overheating, low recoil, and maintaining accuracy while moving. And I'm probably selling the debuffs short for lack of understanding on how effective they are.

 

[Felon]

Well, spent many hours playing. The experience has picked up quite a bit. Tooled around the big city doing various assignments that were pretty emjoyable. Netted a Scholar achievement, and then zipped off to conduct a solar-systemwide search for someone.

In the process I got a distress call from an uncharted planet. Landed there and got another nice achievement, and enjoyed rolling around in my big, bad tank until something popped up out of nowhere that made my ride look like a Tonka truck by comparison.

Looks like there's some resource-harvesting elements in ME, which I think is pretty nifty. Unfortunately, harvesting the element is another Simon game. There's also salvage, but apparently that takes some major electronics skill (mine's higher than any of the NPC's, and it still wasn't cutting it).

I really like the aliens who joined my party...err, crew. I envy them having access to skills that I don't, though.

I do wonder how the heck I'm ever supposed to afford anything that anyone is selling, with those items costing tens of thousands of credits while I'm only earning them a couple hundred at a time.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'm planet hopping, though a guide telling me how to would have been nice...

I read the planet survey and it seemed like a peaceful enough place, so I deployed with tech girl and a soldiery type, only to find myself in a situation where I'm fighting aliens. Whoops.

I don't mind the load times so far, but I'd have rather had a smaller ship/ smaller cities than having to run for a few minutes to reach a different place on the same level.

I"m still underwhelmed with the dialogue thing, which always had so much hype to it. Too many of the options are vague and seem to give responses that are the opposite of the one I'd have thought it was.
"I don't like aliens on board"
::Choose option "we can use the help::
::response my character says instead:: "Well, they're here, so stop being stubborn and stupid you jackass and pilot my ship before I kill you!"


(Paraphrased from memory...)

 

[Felon]

I"m still underwhelmed with the dialogue thing, which always had so much hype to it. Too many of the options are vague and seem to give responses that are the opposite of the one I'd have thought it was.
"I don't like aliens on board"
::Choose option "we can use the help::
::response my character says instead:: "Well, they're here, so stop being stubborn and stupid you jackass and pilot my ship before I kill you!"

I think it's self-evident that there was some goal with the dialogue system that never came to fruition. In the preview, they gave you the response options before the NPC was finished speaking. In one example, a crew member is giving you lip, and you cut him off and tell him you're in charge here, not him. The only way to do that in ME is the same way you'd do it any other BIoware RPG: cancel the dialogue.

There's other stuff that was in the preview that isn't in the game. There was a battle with a big geth called an armiger, and the pause interface offered tactical squad control on an individual level. You could tell one guy to go here, and another guy to take up position over there. Now it's really basic: advance, follow, and take cover.

Unfotunately, I've died a couple times now because the party AI wasn't smart enough to walk around a simple obstacle (like a small crate or a table). I either have to waste time finding a spot they'll go to, or survive the fight without help, then lay down a path for the NPC to baby-step around. It was really amazing to me that I had to do that, because even fairly mediocre, low-budget games have AI's that draw very elaborate paths to reach a destination. I'm not saying it happens very often. Just enough to be noticable.

 

[Banshee16]

Good, but rated far too highly considering how buggy it is. Unfortunate.

Oh, and a quick "screw you" to M$ for not releasing the LCE in Canada. Up yours.

No kidding. I'm getting sick and tired of getting stiffed on some of that stuff....particularly when Bioware is *in* Canada.

I tried looking for it. For some stuff like the Witcher, I've needed to have stuff shipped to the U.S., and then run cross border to pick it up....I was going to do that with LCE, but the cost was ridiculous. And on EBay, there are asking prices well north of $100 for it. I like extra content as well as the next guy, but to add $30 to the cost, in order to get it? No thanks.

Banshee