Strong Bob

Azrael, I'm sorry if you're frustrated. If you don't like having someone disagree with you, then it would be wise to never state opinions. In regards to the graphics, I can easily do more than just post awards. I can post actual videos and screenshots that make you verifiably wrong in your critique of Mass Effect's graphics. (Which seemed to move from it's texture variety, to flashy special effects, narrowed down to just "facial" expressions all in one topic.) Also keep in mind, an award did not influence my statement. I played the game. However, I think you proved something I was trying to mention already. Your computer simply wasn't able to handle the graphics and you had character models screwed up. This isn't a demonstration of Mass Effect's graphics at all, it's a demonstration of your video card. You can walk away if you want. I was not here to insult or speak condescendingly, I have apologized for the one post where I did that already, I merely spoke to set you straight. Take a second look at your posts, Azrael. How many topics regarding Mass Effect, Halo, or whatever did you spend entire posts doing nothing but insult the game, without any analysis, merely because you didn't like it? Did you think, for one second, you could be irritating others that play those games?

Why fix something that isn't broke? I thought the elevator music was rather catchy. Well, like the theory I mentioned before. Are you using the PC version? You won't see these graphical features unless you have the graphics at full strength. Because, frankly, any individual, save for Half Life purists, will tell you the graphics in Mass Effect are far superior. (That's also a good 4 years of difference, however. So if you mean to take the times into effect, then you could certainly say Mass Effect may not have looked as good back in 2004. Episodes 1 and 2 use the same 4 year old engine, so by that logic, the expansions possess terrible graphics, as they haven't evolved much.) Those inexpressive faces also won Mass Effect an award for "Best Art Direction": http://masseffect.bioware.com/previewsawards/ Seriously, check your video settings. That might be the real culprit. Now, in regards to taste, I can certainly see why most people prefer the Half Life 2 architecture. Half Life 2 is much more down to Earth and doesn't rely on sparkly "warp drive" effects and laser guns. Also the aliens do not come across as 'too human', and therefore people get a better feeling of dealing with actual aliens. Half Life 2 is not even remotely "bad" on terms of graphics, but it's also old and aging rapidly. The game environment (Which has little to do with the graphics quality) is what makes up for this, however. Frankly, I realize you are a Half Life 2 fan, Azrael. Nobody will say it's a bad game, but you're giving it's graphics a bit too much credit, simply to discredit Mass Effect.

Touche. Though I don't think I know what RRP stands for. XD I've seen PSP games range from 10 to 60 USD here. But it requires a 160 USD system to use any of them. Not economically feasible with my income. >_<

And that is why I prefer to play real card games. For 15 bucks, as opposed to the 40 - 60 for the video game, I can play cards anytime, anywhere, and change whatever rules I want.

I never played Crysis, so I only went with word of mouth on that. >_< When it came to the elevator music, the only thing I noticed was that some of the music is actually just a remix of the main Mass Effect theme. Other than that, I really didn't see anything special. When it comes to model varieties, I read on the Bioware forum that they actually had twice as many character models than what actually appeared in the game. (Including Turian females and overweight humans) but they were removed only for two reasons. Disk space problems and a lack of time to implement into the game story. An interesting thing I noticed on the 360 version compared to the PC version. Before installing the expansion set, the Batarian entry in the codex uses a much earlier concept drawing of what a Batarian looks like. The expansion set changes this image to the updated model they couldn't put in originally. The difference between the two images is astoundingly drastic. The original Batarian image is still on the PC version.

Actually, I apologize for that post. Was having a bad day and the post was much more acidic than what I intended. It's no excuse, so I won't try to exonerate myself, I'm sorry. However, like I said before, I love to debate. The purpose is to incite thinking, not insult anyone. Which is why I challenged you on the guns. I could post a screenshot of the various kinds I have on my current character if you would like. It might be possible you simply haven't sampled the variety yet. Actually, I disagree with this. The 'engine' is what is top of the line for Half Life 2, and it is absolutely fantastic. I haven't seen anything else that managed to pull off physics like Half Life 2. (Even if everything in Half Life was as light as a feather...) But I honestly can't agree that the graphics are all that much better... I thought Halo 3 beat out Half Life 2 on terms of graphics, particularly when it came to facial expressions. Although the only glaring example of this with Mass Effect would be comparing the faces. In Mass Effect there is much more feeling to the eyes and skin, as opposed to Half Life 2, as that game was made when character models still look like dolls. They were very bold and insulting, not to me, but to the developers. Read your previous post. You accused the developers of laziness, and then proceed to admit a lack of experience in that area. My post wasn't meant to insult you so much as it was to make a point that you shouldn't be insulting people if you don't really know what they go through to make the games you play. There could have been any hundreds of reasons for their decision to make maps more uniform, ranging from time constraints to maintaining low disk space, and the only one you decided it was... Was an "excuse to be lazy". That was why I was so condescending. Although I am curious as to where you think I actually insulted you... If that is not what you meant, I apologize for that too. But even reading your previous posts now, it sounds like you're being overly acidic, just like I was before, and insulting the developers just because the game fell short. I have my own gripes with the game. And while I feel the roleplaying was a giant step backwards for the developers, I also realize this was necessary for their first venture into a large original property like this. I can only hope they grow from there.

Really? I would've expected more game than flashy graphics. As in content, locale, dialogue... etc. The graphics in Mass Effect are currently top of the line, beaten out only by Crysis at the moment. I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting here... *Shrug* Just take a closer look and raise the volume? I don't know, I saw the variations pretty easily. I guess it's not quite so obvious to everyone. There are only so many ways you can make a gun go "blam" before you run out of tones. The only weapon that I think was obviously different was the pulse rifle. (But of course, it was useless when you got it.) Then this is your chance. Mod the game and make us some good replacement maps. (I'm genuinely assuming you've experience in modding/coding games like this, and am not trying to be sarcastic. Otherwise your words are very bold and insulting to the real game developers.)

Or rather the reason very clearly stated in the codex entry. The repetitive bases never bothered me much for that reason. At the very least some bases had more to them than others. Unfortunately they all, admittedly, use the same framework. You only ever visit human bases, occasionally inhabited by other aliens, so this doesn't strike me as very bad. The story never calls for much more. This goes for freighters as well, but the excuse, once again, is that you only ever encounter one chassis of freighter throughout the game. (This can be observed when scanning the freighter beforehand) Look at your guns. Their models change drastically depending on their make. However, two different guns of the same make will look the same. The Avenger I and Avenger IX will have no difference whatsoever. However the Edge and Stilleto pistols have very little resemblance, and different paintjobs. Ranging from silver to dark blue to a blood red, your guns DO change. Are you playing the PC version? It's possible, though I might be wrong, that if you have the graphics settings turned down, all your guns are defaulted to a single model and texture. Even if they were as uniform as you claimed, I personally don't feel that textures and graphics make a game. I agree with this. The interface for the Mako belongs in games like Half Life, where mindless shooting and exploding is acceptable. It was so frustrating holding down the "W" key moving that thing to the next destination, only to snipe every enemy from 2 miles away with an incendiary cannon. I would've prefered the snipe option removed and have the vehicle function more like the Warthog from Halo, at least then it would be interesting to see your party members use the cannon. (Perhaps differently, depending on who is manning it.) However, with all this, I feel Mass Effect is an RPG and it's meat should be in the roleplaying aspect, not it's graphics or combat system. And while it's roleplaying is superior to other console games (Like Final Fantasy) it falls short of what Bioware's previous games are expected to have. This was a step backwards, and it actually kinda scares me. I'll remain optimistic however, as this was a brand new venture for these guys. Seriously, did anybody get any more dialogue options with Doctor Chakwas after the prologue? She's there the whole game, mentioned frequently, but no new conversation ever happens with her... Same goes with the XO Navigator Presly and the Chief Engineer. No new dialogue after the prologue, yet they're there the whole game. What about Joker? It wasn't so bad with him, because he was more involved with cutscenes, but by the end of the game he has the same dialogue options as directly after the prologue.

In prior games made by Bioware, there was a greater level of actual roleplay involvement. Looking back at games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, you'll notice that the roleplay element is substantially deeper, and the choices and dialogue options you choose have a deeper impact on how the game evolves by the end. In Mass Effect, the majority of the choices are simply "Good" and "Bad". This is reliant on whether or picked a conversation choice on the top or bottom of the radial dialogue menu. On top of that, to make things worse, the dialogue options are sometimes either a case of "Russian Roulette" (Where a dialogue option will be extremely vague. IE: In one case one of your dialogue options says "Sigh", but if you choose it, Shepard will anounce: "I should kill the both of you!") or just redundant to being nigh insulting. (In another case there are three, total, dialogue options. They are "What?", "Huh?" and "...". Each result in Shepard saying the exact same thing, complete with the exact same results in every way.) Another thing I find annoying, is that sometimes there are clearly good and evil choices, marked by blue and red options respectively, that both result in the exact same response, despite the fact Shepard says something completely different in each choice. The only difference is that you recieve either Paragon or Renegade points. At no point in the game are there truly difficult choices to make. Look at games like Neverwinter Nights or Fallout. In those games, sometimes just saying the wrong thing would have dire consequences. In Mass Effect, there is never such a problem. Every dialogue choice you make, the worst that could happen is that you miss the opportunity for extra money, items, or experience. No real ramifications. (The one and ONLY times I notice this is different, is during the romance plots. But those choices tend to be obvious as hell. Even being a little bit of a dick to your romance won't cause any problems, so long as you choose an apologetic response.) Even Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic suffered from this, but not quite as much. At least it didn't have the "Russian Roulette" dialogue. However, the one part of the game where I genuinely WISH there was a Russian Roulette kind of choice, is (SPOILER) when you're forced to choose which party member to die. This wasn't a real flaw, but it would've been 10 times better for the roleplaying value, if a party member died because of the actions you had taken throughout the game, not because you actively chose that one...(End SPOILER) An example of this can be found in both Fallout and NEverwinter Nights 1 and 2, where your roleplaying choices affected the fates of your party members in more unseen and realistic ways. Not saying Mass Effect is bad. Just not quite the RPG Bioware tends to make. I am being optimistic, and hoping that this is because Mass Effect is their first incredibly vast original franchise, and just needed to get it off the ground first. The one thing that really bugged me, however. (SPOILER) The actions you make throughout the entire game have virtually no bearing on what ending you recieve, or how it plays out. The last 2 hours of the game will always be the same, every time you play it. The one thing that changes the ending is whether or not you ask Joker to save the council, just prior to fighting the final boss. And frankly, this was not the kind of game that should've had a boss battle of any kind... (End SPOILER) This is the one thing that has prevented me from replaying the game until they release the expansion for the PC.

Actually, the problem you've stated is something that has infected media in general. However, as much as I agree more people need a sense of humor, we need to understand the concept "Time and Place". I do not think that any form of news coverage is a place for that kind of humor... Mostly because calling something like "Uncharted" akin to a porn movie will not likely yield positive reaction from those that haven't played it. And god forbid any uber conservative sees that, and Jack Thompson appears in order to sue Uncharted for it's pornographic content. (Which Take Two is obviously responsible for!) Frankly, I think the greater problem is in the gamers. But that is for another topic. Would rather not discuss it in here. I agree. I've been playing Bioware games since I was in elementary school. (Which makes me feel old, since I'm quite a ways into college at this point.) It's amusing to look back on how almost every Bioware game was ahead of it's field at the time. It's too bad, though. I felt Mass Effect, while a fantastic game, took a giant step backwards on the RPG front. I hope they recognize this and do a better job in their sequel.

Well, like I said. It really isn't much of an issue, especially since it is something we've been dealing with for many months now, without a care. Since this was percieved, by at least one other member, as a problem, I feel compelled to support it as a witness. Although I admit, there is some frustration that compells me to support it further. Foremost is that the first two responses to this topic were that the problem did not exist, until I elaborated, which caused some degree of frustration. (Kinda felt like the problem was being ignored, since both posters didn't even understand the problem yet.) There was further frustration when Pete claimed the problem doesn't occur on his IE8, even though after a fresh install, it happens with me. Secondly, I'm a known perfectionist, sometimes to even very trivial things such as this. Frankly, if Pete decided this was not worth his administrations, it wouldn't affect me at all. I'll just keep on doing what I've been doing here, after all this time. Seriously, do not kill yourself over this. It's just a tiny issue that is recieving more text than it really should at this point.

Pete... What you just said sounded a little weird, so I went and downloaded IE8 exclusively for this. (I know I need to be more constructive with my free time. >_<) I have just downloaded Internet Explorer 8 and the exact same thing is still happening. In every single way. I even cleared out every IE cache and temporary file prior. You sure you tried to emulate it by using the "Reply" button? This issue does not occur if you just click on "Log in". Also, I looked all over my control panel. I can't seem to find the forum skin options anywhere. On older versions of Invision Board, the skin option is right there in "Board Settings". I've been looking for several minutes and can't find the option anywhere in my control panel. Am I looking in the wrong place? Or am I absent mindedly glossing it over?

Alright, so it's a forum issue after all. Genuinely curious though, if this is a confirmed board issue, and not our own software at fault, what did you guys think we were talking about?

What plug in? This is a brand new laptop. Everything here is from scratch. If anything, logic dictates it would take a special plug-in to prevent the issue at this point. I will test this out on Internet Explorer now... EDIT: Yup. Currently using Internet Explorer and the same thing is happening. There is no excuse at this point. You're sure you understand the symptoms? Whenever we try to reply to a topic, while logged off, we hit the "ADDREPLY" button and are brought to the log in screen. After logging in we are redirected to the main page instead of the reply window to the topic we clicked "ADDREPLY" in. And in the address bar, the forum main page is pasted 'twice'. I can screencap it, for proof, but that wouldn't be anything spectacular. Nor would the "proof" be very valid. This has been happening to me for a couple months. On my old laptop, desktop PC, and this brand new laptop. The only thing that was really similar among them is that I used Windows XP pro and Firefox 2. And the browser is out of the equation, since I am encountering the same with IE right now. Well, it's not going to bother me if this doesn't get fixed. All this time I just thought it was just all part of the strategycore "plan". XD On a less serious note.... I think deleting those cookies must've killed Red. Hasn't responded since. Heh

That link is exactly how I found out about this. XD