Mass Effect - PC Preview @ GameSpy
 

A highly enthusiastic preview from GDC of the PC version of Mass Effect is up at GameSpy. This opening paragraph sets the tone:
It might be worth noting that when they talk about "feel", they didn't actually play hands-on but watched a demo. Still, sounds very positive.
Thanks, Prime Junta!
More information.

Why am I convinced that if Mass Effect was ported from PC to Xbox360 and this preview would treat about upcoming Xbox title then statements like:

would easily be present as well. Ofcourse after some lifting like replacing name PC with Xbox and adding "next-gen eXperience" and so on.

Is this going to be another one of those games where reviewers endlessly praise the port for fixing problems that they ignored when they gave A++++ 10/10 reviews to the original version?

Yes, it is. Expect the hype to soar in the skies above… and probably beyond, too. However, it remains to be seen whether the game will live up to even a portion of all the fuss and buzz that's being created around it. My guess: it won't. Based on reviews, I'm still concerned about the lacklustre - dare I say boring - exploration of planets and other shortcomings that do not seem to have been fixed. And also: if they are boasting about a revolutionary dialogue system, then implement the bloody interruption feature showcased at E3, ffs.

The Mass Effect comes to bear when hordes of gamers flood the nearest software shops.

I will certainly be one of those; I'm buying Mass Effect. :)

Hard to believe anything these days when everyone lies at facevalue. Its not just hype anymore. They must have spent fortunes to develop clever marketing&advertising ways to lead customers like donkeys on leaches. They are real pros now. Like legal con-artists.

You think? I can only recall one major disappointment with computer games over the past few years — Oblivion. Everything else has been more or less what I expected from the "hype," or even better.

I can come up with lots of cases. Take Kane & Lynch and lynch for example. It was not just hyped wrong but they also tried to force the reviewer to lie too. The only thing they could have added was a lie that its not going to be released on PC so people could have rushed to buy xboxes too.

As for just hype alone i.e mass effect and halo3 definetly had it and plenty with 100% reviews and all. They were like the next coming of robot jesus. My brother bought two editions of mass effect just so he can keep the CE edition in wrapped state forever.

Assasins creed was a hyped disappointment but it atleast got more honest reviews.

No it wasn't. I had great fun with it … or are you saying that only your OPINION counts? ;)

The only false claim about Mass Effect I've seen so far is the one about how you can visit hundreds of planets when in fact only one planet/structure per system is explorable. The rest is a picture and a description (and possibly a Survey button). Other than that, I must say Mass Effect has met or surpassed the hype surrounding it … in my OPINION at least :)

I haven't played Kane & Lynch, nor have I followed the hype around it — the Gamespot scandal was most definitely… scandalous, though. Nor Halo3 for that matter.

There's plenty of hype around, that's for sure — but somehow there seems to be enough good information out there that at least I have been able to get a pretty accurate picture of what to expect from most games out there. Oblivion being the big exception, of course — none of the glaring flaws in that game got much air time (outside the Codex) until long after it was out.

IOW, a healthy dose of skepticism is… healthy, but I don't think quite that degree of cynicism is warranted. Not all journalists are on the take all the time, and you're not being any wiser by assuming the worst of them than if you were taking everything they say at face value.

I don't really need hype; I instantly and intuitively know which game might appeal to me.

I'm beyond hype influence now (at least I hope so ;) ).

Actually after decades of hype I have noticed that cynicism is always the best alternative. The less you except from a game the better it will be. I always keep my expectations as low as possible and as a result I get more enjoyment out of the game.

Not me but others who find it lacking including som reviewers. Before the console release i was planning to buy it but now Im having doubts. Ill see how the PC version will end up.

Mass Effect got some decently balanced reviews (Gamespot gave it a very good one), but it also got some ridiculously over-the-top bought-and-paid-for "This game is perfect" A++ 5/5 10/10 reviews that completely ignored the game's numerous flaws. My trust in the gaming media gets smaller every year. I used to trust X-Play, but last year they started doing more and more of these half hour infomercials for games like Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty 4, and Mass Effect where there is a 5/5 score at the end which is basically a formality.

Gamespot took a lot of heat over the Kane and Lynch scandal, but in my opinion, Microsoft directly bribing reviews with $800 bags of goodies is more egregious.

There was an interrupt the conversation system on the XBox 360. Or are you talking about something else?

The dialogue system in Mass Effect is not revolutionary, but it's cool. What do you want them to say, that it's, meh, alright? Marketing will always be a sales pitch, so take it as such.

Assassin's Creed was a game where I went "Wow, this is very cool" with. I don't have that often. The problem with Creed probably is whether the game holds up over several hours of gameplay. I see some lost potential here, but otherwise the setting, atmosphere, graphics, animation, controls and story are all very, very good. It's also one of the more violent games I've played. :)

LOL! OK, that makes sense — but that doesn't make your cynicism any "truer" than starry-eyed fanboi-ism.

IOW, by all means be a cynic if you enjoy your games more that way; just don't expect everyone else to take you very seriously.

I'd love to say something huge and fight-starting, but I haven't seen the PC version at all. I didn't have any trouble with the power wheel on the 360 version, but if I'm driving with the mouse, targeting should be easier, so I won't need the power wheel to target. At that point, having hotkeys for abilities makes sense.

If you go in expecting an entirely new game… well, don't. Go in expecting the capability for better graphics (depending on the machine) and, hopefully, UI improvements that optimize it for mouse-and-keyboard and fixes.

I'm seeing Mass Effect as KotOR-without-the-IP-but-improving-on-the-strengths. Am I close? In other words, KotOR was a space opera with strong character interaction but pretty weak combat, so my reading is that Mass Effect embraces a more actiony combat instead of the silly pseudo-turn-based/poor realtime in KotOR. If so, I doubt it will make my top games ever list but it sounds like an enjoyable romp.

Its not mean to be totally serious always. Im a sarcastic person so people misread my posts every now and then.