Mass Effect

Quote: Posted by chespace

"I'm playing this game right now. It certainly does look insanely good. I mean, it's ridiculous at times how good it looks. Not sure why those 149 screens were all captured with shaders uncached, but there you go. Still an eyegasm."

"You can definitely turn off both motion blur and the grainy filter, but I actually like the graininess. Makes the game look so **** cinematic. Gaaaahhhhh...."

"oh my dear god, this game is amazing so far....wow. I haven't really followed Mass Effect through the stages, except the occasional screenshot, but jesus christ the graphics in this game are ridiculously good... and what, Bioware basically created a 3rd person shooter a la GRAW, complete with cover system. Then underneath that is a deep RPG with an intriguing story and really good voice acting. Only a few hours in so far so take these impressions with a grain of salt. but whoooa, 30+ hours of this sort of bliss? who knows, maybe it'll suck in the 20th hour.

I can see myself leaving COD4 in its wrapper until I'm done with Mass Effect. I'll post more detailed impressions once I get further into the game."

"I'm literally scratching the surface of the game. So far, it's fairly linear but I've only had a few encounters on the first intro planet. Tutorial dialogue boxes are literally still popping up.

Still, I've been really impressed with the gameplay so far. There's none of the faux action game here a la Jade Empire. This is basically a 3rd person shooter first and RPG second, with a ton of other stuff going on underneath the action, as well as the ability to pause the action and tell your party how to kick butt."

" KOTOR doesn't hold a dying matchstick to Mass Effect so far, simply on the merit of gameplay alone. And then there's the graphics... bleeping ridiculous!"

"I had plans to do an elaborate post about this the whole time I've been playing.

"I'm about 8.5 hours into the game now and it's just gotten better and better.

Too much to talk about really, so I guess I'll just answer RStein's question.

Combat is really fun. There are occasional problems with the AI, but it's really nothing 3rd/1st person shooter fans aren't already used to in teammates found in the genre (GRAW, RS: Vegas, etc). I set my squad to "active" which lets the AI use both defensive and offensive abilities on their own (without you having to pause the action, choose targets, and say "perform a neuro blast" or whatever). They definitely get the job done and I often find them stealing my kills. Thankfully, XP and loot goes to the party and it's up to you to divvy up items.

When I said earlier that this game is a shooter first and an RPG second, I was wrong. It's really a great balance of both genres. Mechanically speaking, this is an action game through and through. You dodge bullets, spring to cover, and do all the things required of you in games like Gears of War. You point your gun at something and fire and there is a 1-to-1 cause-and-effect reaction and **** takes damage and blow up, etc.

Stats act more like modifiers. For instance, if I do a full auto burst with my assault rifle, the reticle will gradually grow wider and bigger the longer you fire, representing the kick and recoil of the assault rifle. As a result, the spread of your shots will go from tight to practically useless through the duration of your burst. As you invest in your assault rifle skill, that behavior improves so your spread is tighter even if you fire longer. Of course, if you play the game like I do and just do controlled bursts, it really isn't too much of a problem.

This basically goes for all weapons (sniper rifle, shotguns, etc.) and I think it works great. In the end, combat is an action affair and really there's no other game like Mass Effect where it combines my favorite genre with a genre I no longer play. It's such a nice RPG homecoming.

The only aspect of the combat that can be clunky at times is trying to get under cover mode against an obstacle that's shorter, as it requires you to duck. Whereas Gears of War automatically makes you duck and puts you against lower cover, you have to do so manually here so there's the added click of the left stick -- and in the heat of combat, it can be frustrating... particularly because combat is really chaotic and crazy at times.

Anyway, I know it's too early to know what's GOTY at this point since I haven't played SMG, COD4, or Uncharted, but I know for a fact that Mass Effect is already an easy contender.

I'll take some phone pics and post 'em tonight. This game is RIDICULOUSLY gorgeous and 8 hours later, I am still slackjawed.

Por cierto, hace mucho énfasis en la faceta de exploración que brinda el juego, con localizaciones enormes. Por ejemplo, todo el entorno que veis en las fotos, montañas alejadas incluidas, es totalmente explorable y así con varios planetas por sistema.