Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Editorial Eurogamer retrospective of an old classic

Monolith

Prophet
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Messages
1,298
Location
München
Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect

<a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/">Eurogamer</a> have suddenly realized that there were games <b>before</b> Dragon Age and justifiably honored...<a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/mass-effect-retrospective">Mass Effect</a>.
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>A game with a lot of information to impart better be good at it, and Mass Effect is, for the most part, thanks to a good conversation system where you use the analogue stick to point to possible responses. You don't always get six options, but there are six possible positions for the options to appear in, and each is a particular flavour of reply; charming and intimidating comments, for example, are always top-left and bottom-left respectively when they're available.
<br>
<br>
Because you already know the tone of the option you're pointing at, BioWare can also be economical with what you're actually clicking on, so each option is represented by a few words. While you may click on "Let's go", Shepard may say "We should get this f***ing show on the road mof***ers." This was an awesome move, because unlike many of its RPG predecessors you don't feel like you've already answered by the time you hit the button; you direct exchanges rather than waiting for your character to mouth the sentiment you've just expressed with the A button. (Incidentally, in order to avoid even the slightest story spoiler, I have invented dialogue for the above examples. Mof***ers.)</blockquote>
<br>
I wonder if you need DosBox to get that thing running nowadays.
<br>
<br>
Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com">The usual</a>
 

WhiskeyWolf

RPG Codex Polish Car Thief
Staff Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,990
The Hype-Machine for ME2 is being rolled out of the hangar.
 

Multi-headed Cow

Guest
And also, however much you love the game - and I love Mass Effect - you have to admit that the cover mechanics were a bit 2006. It was 2007!
 

Monolith

Prophet
Joined
Mar 7, 2006
Messages
1,298
Location
München
Multi-headed Cow said:
And also, however much you love the game - and I love Mass Effect - you have to admit that the cover mechanics were a bit 2006. It was 2007!
2006/2007, I hardly remember thee, days of yore.
 

snoek

Cipher
Joined
May 5, 2003
Messages
1,125
Location
Belgium, bro
I thought mass effect was p. ok, way less cliched than dragon age at least... dragon age was like the pandora's box of cliché, how boring can fantasy actually get...
 

WhiskeyWolf

RPG Codex Polish Car Thief
Staff Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,990
Mass Effect was a snoozefest. Didn't finish it, thank god for that.
 

Longshanks

Augur
Joined
Jul 28, 2004
Messages
897
Location
Australia.
2007? Back in the Dark Ages. Wasn't Bush still president?

Anyway, best defense of shitty real-time combat ever:

Eurogamer said:
But BioWare was right to go shooter, even if it fell a tiny bit short, because it also serves an important narrative function. In a vast, ponderous galaxy where the smallest units of time and distance are years or tens of thousands of kilometres, the immediacy of gun combat reinforces that scale: engagements are over in a matter of seconds, even if you insist on the optional granularity of constant micromanagement; mere specks of space and time in a universe with bigger problems. As Douglas Adams pointed out, space is big. Mass Effect respects that.

Well, maybe not best. But it's p. amazing.
 

relootz

Scholar
Joined
Sep 9, 2009
Messages
4,478
codexragedeclined.gif
 

dragonfk

Erudite
Joined
Jun 19, 2007
Messages
2,487
Longshanks said:
Eurogamer said:
But BioWare was right to go shooter, even if it fell a tiny bit short, because it also serves an important narrative function. In a vast, ponderous galaxy where the smallest units of time and distance are years or tens of thousands of kilometres, the immediacy of gun combat reinforces that scale: engagements are over in a matter of seconds, even if you insist on the optional granularity of constant micromanagement; mere specks of space and time in a universe with bigger problems. As Douglas Adams pointed out, space is big. Mass Effect respects that.

:lol:

Truly there is no limit to human stupidity.
 

circ

Arcane
Joined
Jun 4, 2009
Messages
11,470
Location
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Eurogamer said:
As Douglas Adams pointed out, space is big. Mass Effect respects that.
Hehehe I love it. Space may be big, but Mass Effect isn't. Unless MR EUROGAMER never went to the non mission critical planets and just imagined that HEY THERE ARE 100 PLANETS IN THIS GAME. SO LATER I CAN EXPLORE THOSE AND THEY WILL ALL BE DIFFERENT AND NOT JUST LAZY FRACTAL CODING GONE HORRIBLY WRONG WITH THE EXACT SAME THREE DUNGEONS ON ALL OF THEM. GOTY. Even if you somehow thought that though I don't know how, how could you even call the main planets big? Token shopkeeper and then static models doing jack shit, go outside, drive around for 5-10 minutes IN THE EXACT SAME ENVIRONS WITH DIFFERENT COLORED WEATHER EFFECTS. OMG MASS EFFECT IS HUEG!!@!11!LOL!
 

Jim Cojones

Prophet
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
2,103
Location
Przenajswietsza Rzeczpospolita
Because you already know the tone of the option you're pointing at, BioWare can also be economical with what you're actually clicking on, so each option is represented by a few words. While you may click on "Let's go", Shepard may say "We should get this f***ing show on the road mof***ers." This was an awesome move, because unlike many of its RPG predecessors you don't feel like you've already answered by the time you hit the button; you direct exchanges rather than waiting for your character to mouth the sentiment you've just expressed with the A button. (Incidentally, in order to avoid even the slightest story spoiler, I have invented dialogue for the above examples. Mof***ers.)
Is this a troll site? A gaming version of The Onion?
 

WhiskeyWolf

RPG Codex Polish Car Thief
Staff Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
14,990
Jim Cojones said:
Because you already know the tone of the option you're pointing at, BioWare can also be economical with what you're actually clicking on, so each option is represented by a few words. While you may click on "Let's go", Shepard may say "We should get this f***ing show on the road mof***ers." This was an awesome move, because unlike many of its RPG predecessors you don't feel like you've already answered by the time you hit the button; you direct exchanges rather than waiting for your character to mouth the sentiment you've just expressed with the A button. (Incidentally, in order to avoid even the slightest story spoiler, I have invented dialogue for the above examples. Mof***ers.)
Is this a troll site? A gaming version of The Onion?
Sadly, no.
 

janjetina

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 28, 2008
Messages
14,231
Location
Zagreb, Croatia
Torment: Tides of Numenera
Eurogamer has always been a refuge of mentally deficient individuals, i.e. target audience of games like Ass Effect and F:POS 3.
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,158
Space is big... Space is huge...
Dude! My hands are huge! They can touch anything but themselves. (He puts his hands together) Oh, wait.
 

Dyspaire

Cipher
Joined
Sep 26, 2008
Messages
285
Location
Relative
There weren't a lot of classic games released for Win 3.1, so it's nice to see one of the best get some love.

Sure, at the time it was a bitch to configure, and the framerate was atrocious, but with modern hardware it's not unheard of to get 15-17 fps now; a totally playable rate for such a deep, tactically complex crpg like ME.

It still amazes me that the programmers were able fit over 100 highly-individual and gloriously-expansive, fully-realized planets onto a mere seven 3.5" disks.

I remember it taking over 20min to unpack all the graphics files... probably another 30min to get the midi and the digitized voices working at the same time. It was so worth it though.

With such a truly novel and daringly-original storyline, I would have played the game to completion for that fact alone. But my fondest memories come from the hours I would spend laboring over the tactical minutia found in the incredibly complex combat system.

Really nice to see this forgotten classic so fondly remembered.
 

Xor

Arcane
Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
9,345
Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Coming up next week: Dragon Age retrospective! A review of the classic game Dragon Age! 11/10 A++!
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
Multi-headed Cow said:
And also, however much you love the game - and I love Mass Effect - you have to admit that the cover mechanics were a bit 2006. It was 2007!

Holee sheet I thought you were trolling.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom