Mass Effect: 15 Minute Video Feature From Gamersyde:

http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-72626.aspx

:) Thanks for the link, but everyone else, there are marginal spoilers in the video.

:P That scraggly haired guy on the left sounds like our typical spoiled whiny, never-satisfied gamer type. Also, I don't get the hand cam visuals and the park scene, are they trying to make this a music video? Okay, 'nuff whining from this spoiled gamer type, heh.

Is anyone else ignoring the trailers not wanting to spoil the experience when the game ships? I remember Phantom menace where you basically saw the best bits and the actual movie was a real let down.....

First review is in.

Game Informer magazine gave it 9.75/10 in the latest issue.

Sounds rushed for the sake of getting the first review.

Not entirely sure how you gleamed that from the random review quotes above. :crazy:

What was rushed?

You'd think they could sacrifice more than a single page to review something that "comes close" to a perfect game. In fact, I'm sure they would if they only had the time.

Wow I'm glad both reviewers arrived at the same conclusion. If it had been anywhere below 9.68 I wouldn't have been interested in this game.

:shifty::shifty::shifty::shifty::shifty:

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/3...sigcopyyi5.jpg

Mass Effect has gone gold.

Agreed on everything, except that I would have added another :shifty:

It's waaaaaaaay too early for a review.

one (dumb?) question:
Now that Bioware (and Pandemic) was bought by EA .. doesnt that mean PS3 might be also having Mass Effect? It would be cool, the game looks awesome and more people could enjoy it. Like Devil May Cry 4 which is coming to 360 and PS3.

It could happen - one day :)

However, I believe the contracts with Microsoft were signed long before EA bought Bioware (and Pandemic). Maybe Bioware will make Mass Effect 1-3 port to the PC and the PS3 when all the Mass Effect's game has been released. But this could easily take 4-6 years from now. (2007).

But keep hoping and pressuring and buying.

It couldn't happen with the first game because the publishing deal with Microsoft has been signed a long time ago (unless Microsoft decides to port it to the PS3 :D). However, it might happen with the next two games, although I'm sure Microsoft will do everything in their power to keep them as exclusives.

It probably won't happen for Mass Effect, because MS funded its development, but I believe it will happen for its sequels. EA is a multi-platform publisher, and they rarely publish a game that isn't on all platforms. It also helps that Mass Effect uses the Unreal Engine technology, which will work good on the PS3 once UT3 comes out.

Would it make sense to publish only Mass Effect 2 and 3 on PS3? What's their market segment, people who own both consoles and for some reason prefer the PS3?

What's the reason for Metal Gear Solid 2 appearing on the XBOX, when the original was a Playstation exclusive? or for Resident Evil 5 appearing on the 360 when RE4 was only on the Nintendo and Sony consoles. Companies want to make money, and a lot of people who own a PS3 don't necessary own a 360 and vice versa. If there is a plot hole, they will probably explain it in the sequel and continue with the game. Anyway, this is just my personal opinion, based on EA's stand as a multi-platform developer in the past. Plus, Bioware did express their desire to make a game for the PS3, and they are a platform agnostic company as well.

Soccsie http://www.websmileys.com/sm/love/246.gif Trep

So sweet Trepsie :)

You taste like chicken.

Anyway, Assassin's Creed comes out in just over a week, and Mass Effect very soon after. I ordered a pair of Xbox compatible 5.1 headphones with removable mic for the very long nights ahead, LOL!

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...love_scene.jpg

Mass Effect Handles Inter-Species Sex With Restraint, Dignity | Kotaku

:) It looks very nicely done - scintillating, sensual, provocative, mature, subtle, AND tasteful. What they decidedly left out, we as players can fill in with our own personal recollections of sex and sensuality.

This game hits the stores in two weeks. Looking forward to it.

Its so unfair, theres lesbians but you cant have man on man action. :shifty:

Look at them (other trailers too) .. simply emotionless.. :crazy:

...is that really a bad thing?

True, man on male krogan would be a sight to behold.

I really dont understand why bioware would not put something like that in, its stupid.

Woman > Man
Woman > Woman
Man > Alien Woman
Woman > Alien Woman

So wheres the man action?! I thought it was all about choice. :shifty:

I'm sorry but this is a deal breaker for me. :P

And I didn't watch any of the trailers besides the really early ones, I dont want anything to be spoiled. Same goes for Assassins Creed.

;) But Tomb Raider never had man on man action. Actually, it never had ANY kind of that action. Oblivion had no sensuality whatsoever. You bought both those games.

Personally I'm not too disappointed. We enjoyed the options of same sex romance in at least two previous Bioware games. From what I've read they did have plans to include man-on-man love but they ran out of time.

As for this particular scene, I've read reactions from gamers who watched it on Kotaku. Seems many of them are of the "hawt-me-want-more-lesbian-sex" camp, typical of a lot of young heterosexual men with that kind of fantasy. And there are others (mostly men, I suspect) who were pleased that there at least choices other than man-on-woman, that in a game and story like this it should be natural for interspecies love to be possible (we get a lot of that in movies, anyway, and Bioware featured it in KOTOR).

As for TiAgUh stating how emotionless it looks, yeah I agree to a certain point. But it is a start, how many previous video games have explored this theme and actually depicted it in the game with a certain level of importance and sensitivity? I remember a kind of sex scene in Max Payne 2 (cutscene) and how at once fresh and awkward it looked; but I was happy it was there regardless, because the whole thing needed it. There were at least a couple sex scenes in Indigo Prophecy, and that was handled a little differently. It was more tender given the context of the story so it was done accordingly. The 'humping' mini-game, however, was dumb, imo.

Maybe the guys at Bioware need a bit of coaching from, say, some movie or TV director as to how to depict love in the most effective way. Rarely ever do nerds handle this kind of thing in an honest, candid, natural, and emotionally satisfying way. My argument is that they invest so much of themselves, their skills, working on things like gameplay, explosions, pixels, awesome death animations and cool factors that when it's actually time to show humanistic emotions and sensuality and vulnerabilities.......well, it's very new for them to explore.

:)

Mass Effect Handles Alien Strippers With Restraint, Dignity | Kotaku

http://smilies.vidahost.com/contrib/ed/laugh.gif This is just too awesome! And really weird. I love it!

"Many decisions lie ahead. None of them easy."
 

:shifty: Hookay, sorry for post-whoring (besides, no one else has posted for some time in between my posts), but...

30 second TV spot

Highly recommended in that it's a powerful and compelling commercial. Not a single word is spoken by the three characters (save for Shepard's voiceover, two sentences). Note the subtle facial expressions, hand gesture indicating "no, don't talk right now", the look of pain in Shepard's eyes upon listening to the transmission, then the look of conviction as the sunlight hits the Mako (the all terrain vehicle you'll be driving in the game). Though it's ultimately not purely in-game cutscene it does use the game engine in a slightly enhanced way.

Damn good ad for a video game, considering how much information and conveyance needs to be packed into a 30 second spot.

That has to be one of the weirdest lap dances I've ever seen. :crazy:

... and boring :Z

Well, according to a developer post in the Bioware community it's supposed to be 'boring'. That is, it's a 'semiotic' detail among other 'semiotic' details to deepen the immersion in the gameworld, much like, say, a slot machine you can interact with in a casino level, or a newspaper clipping you can read in some library.

;) In other words, TiAgUh, go get your kicks from real pr0n, not some video game. LOL!

When someone goes to the casino they NORMALLY show a bit of emotion, just like strip clubs right?... or do people just "sit foward"? :crazy:

damn this game is really gorgeous :P (new):

Vanguard Class Trailer
Adept Class Trailer

but after seeing this, should i be worried bout the enemies A.I.? :crazy:

I have now seen this lapdance, too, and I agree: It is rather boring. It does not deepen my immersion in the game, it just sort of irritates me a bit. It irritates me on two levels, the first being that it really isn't done well and that I don't really see the reason for it being there 2) the second one being that Bioware apparently now are trying to appeal to young adolescent men in the 15-25 age bracket, something Bioware NEVER has done before (I think?).

That's the only reason I can see for Bioware making this boring -ehm- erotic or should I say 'exotic'? lapdance.

My take on this is if you're going to do this sort of thing, you better do it properly e.g. make something that's well done and tastefully at the same time. I would rather have had them working on the Male-Male romance than this tame thing...

I guess in the 23rd century money & sex still makes the world go around...

edit:

And Tia: About the enemies AI.

I don't think you need to be worried about the enemy AI in the game. You can just use your stealth and lifting abilities while you play as an adept or vangaurd...

:) Yep and nope. I don't know if you've ever walked through a casino and observed people at, say, the slot machines. Their faces are often actually indiscernible from these:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outf...rt_289x400.jpg http://www.ladysmaidjewels.com/Blog/titianmag.jpg
Left - Shauna Frischkorn, Game Boys. Right - Titian, Penitent Mary Magdalen, circa 1560.

Game Boys: Photo Essay by Shauna Frischkorn | Mother Jones

And most likely, yes, this may also be exemplary of the facial expressions of clients at strip clubs or adult video booths - that is, the kind of expressions during experiences of intense pleasure, concentration, and transcendence. And in fact, your own facial expressions may be similar to these as well while you're firmly camped in front your TV or computer screen, trying to take down that Big Daddy in Bioshock or desperately trying to survive in Half-Life 2.

I said that because you can see, more than once, enemies just standing there shooting, no cover no nothing...
(please say Tiago, "Tia" in my language means Aunt ;) )

So Intrepid, my facial expression playing Halo is the same once i enter a strip club? :Z

It seems the street date may have been broken in the US.

People are reporting being able to buy it in Kmart stores.


Toys R Us and Newegg are showing the game "in stock" on it's website.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...ductId=2850708

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16874103035

Looks like this is kind of the final trailer for the game, 9 days before the game launches:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/27726.html

"Don't you understand? Everyone you know and love......everyone. You will all die."

- Dead Saloon, Moderator, Bioware forums post

From what I've read there looks to be a total of five difficulty levels, the hardest 2 of which are locked until the next playthrough. So even if some of the A.I. enemies just stand there shooting at you, you still need to make sure your skills and talents, and those of your teammates, are strong enough in the right places to be able to deal with a lot of enemies.

I imagine that classes and species of enemies are invicible against some kinds of weapons and biotic powers, but vulnerable to other kinds.

:P How would you know? Have you ever actually been to a strip club?

Yup, I got my copy 2 nights ago at the local Kmart. It is a wonder to behold. The 80s sci-fi feel is in full effect. Its a great great thing (even though I am only about an hour into it). The conversations are easily the most enjoyable I have ever experienced in a game and I love watching everyone talk and react to each other.

^ any letdowns till now?

new:

combat 1
combat 2

see what i mean when i say "worried about the enemy A.I." ? other than that, looks awesome :P