Fans of V-sync and acceptable frame rates unite: Mass Effect coming May 2008

[quote name='Chacrana']this AND DMC4 acting up? I don't think it's the games.[/quote]

Here's the thing, I already have over 30 games installed with 0 problems (including the infamous FF7).

My DMC4 only crashed twice, but WMP & utorrent were running in the background. Once I shut those down it hasn't crashed ever since. I've ran the demo, as well as the benchmark over 10 times already. Also, keep in mind, it's just a demo, there may be a bug.

As far as Mass Effect goes, I was beginning to think that, YES, perhaps it is my PC's fault , since it is a finished product....

until I saw this:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=632469&forum=127

Over 13 pages on a single thread? and the game has only been out a week or so?
 
This is a great port! It runs excellent on my computer :

Q6600 @ 3.0Ghz
4850
4GB RAM
Vista

Every thing is maxed out at 1650X1050, the game looks great better than the Xbox version. The problem is that when playing the Xbox version on a standard def TV the game is basically being played at a resolution that is around 640x480 using PC standards. Now, what that does is have a nice blur effect which cancels out the rough edges and such. On the PC and ata high resolution you can see some of the flaws with much more ease, for instance the hair on the characters looks bumpy and rough.

One of my friends was one day playing a game I had on PC that he had played on the original Xbox, I can't recall what it is but it doesn't matter. Anyways, he said it looked too much like a computer game "too PCish" he said, and he mentioned he liked the console look better so what I did was is turn the resolution all the way down and he told me that now the game looked like it was supposed to.

My point is that although Mass Effect looks awesome on the PC, the higher resolution, if not done right, can actually make the game look worse in some areas than better. A good example are low-res textures, they will always look better when they are blurred.

Regardless of anything the only thing wrong with this game are the achievments, which do not work with you Xbox Live account, just in game.
 
Currently installing this... hope it runs on my laptop (T5450/2GB/8400M GS.) *crosses fingers*

Wonder if my character should be male or female... I guess some hot girl-on-alien action would fun. :D
 
Well that was fun. Installation took a while, but I didn't need to register online (contrary to the box art), unless it was automatic. Haven't played too much of it yet, but I've got the graphics maxed out (low res though) and the story seems pretty interesting so far.

Best part is I don't need the DVD to play!
 
[quote name='keithp']I'm still interested in getting this, but with the DRM I'm waiting for a REALLY good sale price somewhere.[/quote]

I got around the DRM just by downloading a crack, I originally wanted it for the NO-CD, I didn't even try it with the disc, I just assumed it was needed. Anyway, I played the patch before playing it the first time and it never asked me for the thing again. I know it is a bit shady to do that but screw it, DRM hurts only the customer and I will do whatever the hell I want with stuff I buy, including circumventing the DRM.
 
My 7950GX2 runs this thing poorly. I have to run at 1024x768 to get a decent frame rate which sucks since my monitor is widescreen. It stretches the image out.
I ran a fraps bench mark for a few min just to see what it was really getting.

2008-07-14 10:40:09 - MassEffect
Frames: 9691 - Avg: 25.530fps - Min: 2fps - Max:62fps

The 62 I imagine is in the hacking screens when I was opening boxes and things.The computer I am running it on is

e6600 dual core 2.4ghz
2.4gb PC2-6400 ram
7950GX2 1gig video card

So far the game is enjoyable though. A few times I have gotten stuck on an elevator and had to restart to the last save game. Then I had one really annoying lockup.

It was the part where you fight the giant plant. I beat it the first time I tried but then died to something after and had forgotten to save. No big deal right? Just beat it again. For whatever reason I kept dieing on one of the stair cases. I imagine it was just me sucking. Eventually I beat it again and while I was talking to the woman that was in the plant pod it locked up on me. Took me another 3 or so trys to beat it again. Thankfully I was able to save before any lockups or deaths.

Since then everything has been running smooth. I hope they come out with some sort of fix for the elevator lockups soon as well as that extra download content. Its good enough that I would play through again to explore the extra stuff I missed. I think I kinda screwed my self since I picked engineer. I should have gone with something that has better attack. Though with the pistol skill maxed its not so bad.
 
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[quote name='dtarasev']Why? What did you not like about it?[/quote]


It seems to ride on graphics and dialogue...the graphics are kinda pretty but marred by UE3 (I'm not a fan of UE3 at all anymore.) I also can't get into Bioware's dialogue heavy games these days. Even the "evil" dialogue trees are not as interesting as they were in KOTOR.

Then the action is just kinda functional but not much fun compared to games with the same style.
 
Wooh finished the game yesterday. Seemed surprisingly short: clocked in at 18 hours but I did skip most of the sidequests. The last battle was kinda disappointing but the ending was great.

I still like KotOR better though. :D
 
Well I think I'm fucked. I'm on my first planet, the one where you have to find the missing archaeologist, and I'm not at a high enough level I think to beat the creatures at the end when that big thing touches down, so I went back to the moon buggy and it won't let me go back to the Normandy. So I'm screwed. I have a save from right when I touched down but it won't even let me go back to the ship at that point. What kind of piss-poor game design is that?! I guess I have to replay the last several hours....this game is starting to annoy me...
 
[quote name='keithp']Well I think I'm fucked. I'm on my first planet, the one where you have to find the missing archaeologist, and I'm not at a high enough level I think to beat the creatures at the end when that big thing touches down, so I went back to the moon buggy and it won't let me go back to the Normandy. So I'm screwed. I have a save from right when I touched down but it won't even let me go back to the ship at that point. What kind of piss-poor game design is that?! I guess I have to replay the last several hours....this game is starting to annoy me...[/quote]

That planet has some incredibly hard fights if you do it with low level characters, but you can do it. Just try to incapacitate anyone who rushes over to you and then make liberal use of cover. It may take a while but you should survive.

Alternatively, you can always bump the difficulty down temporarily if you're ever stuck on one battle like that.
 
I was trying to decide between this, The Witcher and Hellgate. The last few posts made me decide to eliminate Mass Effect from the running (I wasn't a fan of KotoR at all, so hearing KotoR > ME... well...)
 
Just as a second opinion, I liked Mass Effect a lot better than KotOR. I read all the glowing praise saying it was like the second coming, but it didn't really impress me. Then I played Mass Effect and to me it was like playing the game everyone was talking about in the KotOR reviews.

I hope you'll give it a chance after you're done with those other two games, at least. :)
 
[quote name='metaly']That planet has some incredibly hard fights if you do it with low level characters, but you can do it. Just try to incapacitate anyone who rushes over to you and then make liberal use of cover. It may take a while but you should survive.

Alternatively, you can always bump the difficulty down temporarily if you're ever stuck on one battle like that.[/QUOTE]

It's my first playthrough and I just got the Normandy so I just picked a planet without knowing the boss was going to be a bitch. But I've now learned to keep a save handy before hitting the surface! Good idea on bumping the difficulty down, I may have to do that. Part of it I think is my equipment still sucks, every shop I've come across is EXPENSIVE, so I haven't really upgraded alot of stuff, but I haven't really had any difficulty up to this point.

I'm still too early to decide whether I like KOTOR or this better, but my first thoughts are that this story's better, but I give the gameplay on KOTOR the nod.

We'll see if I change my mind.
 
[quote name='metaly']Just as a second opinion, I liked Mass Effect a lot better than KotOR. I read all the glowing praise saying it was like the second coming, but it didn't really impress me. Then I played Mass Effect and to me it was like playing the game everyone was talking about in the KotOR reviews.

I hope you'll give it a chance after you're done with those other two games, at least. :)[/quote]

ME had a great story like KotOR, and the combat was more action-oriented (KotOR was more turn-based), but the side-quests didn't really interest me. On the other hand, KotOR had relevant side-quests and better allies IMO (HK-47 ftw).

[quote name='lanleague']How will this run on a Mobility 2600 XT? (2.4 GHZ T7700)[/quote]

Should be okay. You may have to turn down the graphics though.


I blew through the entire game on the easiest difficulty just to see the main plot. I'll play it again once it's all patched up.
 
I much prefer the turn based combat of KoTOR. I guess I'm really looking forward to the KoTOR MMORPG then, eh?

Mass Effect fails in characterization of the allies and sidequests. But the main character customization is awesome, and the ending is worth it.
 
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