Mass Effect 2
Game » consists of 21 releases. Released Jan 26, 2010
After a violent death by an unknown force and a timely reanimation by the human supremacist organization Cerberus, Commander Shepard must assemble a new squad in the seedier side of the galaxy for a suicide mission in the second installment of the "Mass Effect" trilogy.
GDC 09: Mass Effect 2's Evolving Design
That's not really what I was expecting Bioware to address with this panel. To me, the issue with the level design in Mass Effect 1 was that it was unbearably repetitive. They must have recycled the same three or four level layouts for the entire game, which grew really tiresome. It was especially bad when all they'd do to change a level is get rid of a side room...and still have it shown on the map. Hopefully Bioware doesn't forget creativity and variety with all this focus on technical performance, which didn't seem to be a huge issue to me when I played. I have faith though!
insanebear.com - A site about video games and video game culture.
"Caleston, a story-related "outland" planet with refineries and industrial cartels that was intended to be a part of the game's core story arc, was deleted from the game outright. We will never get that planet back, people. Shed a tear."
I obviously wasn't there to see, but it seems possible that Bioware could have thrown that little bit together for that specific occasion, as a demonstration. Though if it was a whole lot more than just that scene, then that assumption could be way off.
Also speaking from the "game fan" point of view, I don't know how to feel about that statement about level linearity. If the whole game takes on a more linear approach, they would obviously lose a lot of the craft on planet exploration, which I thought was cool. Then again, a lot of the main mission and even side mission stuff in that game was absolutely linear to being with, and the land vehicle itself wasn't the easiest to navigate with, so I could go either way.
By the way, whatever happened to the Mass Effect DLC plans? They were scrapped that quickly? I could have sworn I remember them saying there were going to be multiple Mass Effect DLC releases.
Hopefully Bioware will make the levels on the random planets interesting instead of numbingly boring.
Hopefully they also fix the trademark Unreal 3 Engine texture popping that was littered throughout the game.
I was there too... the guy next to me filmed the video on his phone, so you might be on the lookout for low-rez youtube videos at some point.
EDIT: Heck, they're already online.
Oddly enough, the "Shepard" they had in the video looked just like the one I made.
* SPOILERS *
You were being sent to a tower that held some "assassin" at the top you needed to deal with. You were told that there would be much resistance and that it would get stronger the closer you got to your goal. They had some other very rough gameplay video in the various stages of development with the player character popping in and out of cover and shooting what seemed to be Geth.
So... it's totally Mass Effect. Which is good!
I hope Shephard really is not dead. Hopefully they ditched the default Shepard look so press guys such as Brad can't confirm anything.
I bet you they lead people to believe Shepard and company are dead all the way up to the first chunk of the actual game, then maybe you as a new character discover he isn't dead and that'd be when you take over as Shepard. This would allow for tutorial and simple missions at the begining of the game without breaking the story line as well. I don't care if Shepard dies...no wait I DO care but I wouldn't be as hurt if he dies so long as it was in a significant and heroic way...preferably at the end of the series.
I am so pumped for this game. I like that they changed up how they are making the game. I am playing through ME on Insane right now on my may to getting the full 1050 in it and I do get a little mad everytime the game takes a little while to render the scene and how long the elevators are. Especially the one to the hangar in the Normandy is pretty freaking ridiculous. Anyway, I have no clue what they are doing for the game and that is just fine with me because I like my games to surprise me and not be super predictable.
Elevators aren't SUPPOSED to be fast though.. Well, teh one on the Normandy is WAY too slow, it goes down like, 10 feet for god's sake o.o But yeah, SHOW US STUFF! I want more details on this game, and I want them YESTERDAY. lol.
And to be honest, I wish shepard had died in the first game. I really didn't like that dude. Soooo ugly, and bald? Why?? Hopefully there is a new main character, with a voice actor that can actually, you know, ACT. I am so sick of games where the main voice talent is some 2 bit idiot. Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and so many other games that can't think of right this moment have horrible main characters in terms of voice talent. The funny thing is, all of the other voice actors are actually pretty good.
"I am so sick of games where the main voice talent is some 2 bit idiot. Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and so many other games that can't think of right this moment have horrible main characters in terms of voice talent. The funny thing is, all of the other voice actors are actually pretty good.""Steal from me?! I'll have your head!"
I'd like to see some very different locales, the industrial planet sounds dirty, smoggy and awesome. And Tali was my favourite too Vorbis! Her and Wrex.
yea that seems about right. if you can make a game fun with using only rectangles and circles like the original Atari.
then adopt a storyline that reads well on its own like a novel.
then toss in audio eargasms that a blind man would get off on.
then throw in as much polish as you can till time runs out.
biggity bam. an awesome game. seems easy enough. no wonder Bioware makes the dopeness.
Everytime people complain about the elevators...
Here's an interesting tidbit: ALL but ONE are skippable. Citadel Rapid Transit just gets you wherever you want with a loading screen.
Only the Dock elevator was needed to trigger events like the interview.
So whenever you see someone complain about the elevators and how they just want loading screens instead they were too dumb to realize they could just skip them.
Shacknews has the footage
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57916
I liked the first Mass Effect, but I thought it could have ben something a lot better then it was. Without really seeing anything new about it though, I am starting to get pretty excited about the new ME, I have a gut feeling that it is going to improve on its predecessor and become a very, very good game.
there was nothing wrong with the speed of the elevators! that's ridiculous. have some patience. lol I loved the elevators!
Come on Bioware, just give me more Mass Effect. I hate that I'm not going to be able to play this game by the end of the year. As long as it still plays as well as Mass Effect did I won't mind, if it runs a lot better then that's good too.
I would hope that a better level-design process would give them the time/technical ability to create more varied and enjoyable environments.
Faster elevator rides would be appreciated. That problem has been plaguing BioWare games ever since KotOR.
they did repeat a lot of areas that weren't in the main story arc on most of the planets and it was the only part of the game that i got bored of. i gave up exploring new planets and some quests because all the places they took me were pretty much the same. but i trust in bioware :) they always improve
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