Thanks for your comments. Is it also true that Mass Effect will be a trilogy?
I have no idea whether I'm supposed to comment on that, but I can say quite truthfully that if you look at what Microsoft website, the question is answered when the lads at 'Soft say "First in a trilogy!"
Also do you have any other details to divulge? This site is rife with hardcore RPGers, including some from the ultra-cynical RPGCodex
so you'll need a pretty juicy tidbit to sate our appetites. Hehe.
Nothing huge at the moment. I will say, though, that the purpose of the X06 demo was to show off combat, not to show off conversation. We showed off conversation in the big demo before that (E3? Can't remember -- I wasn't on M.E. at that point), and THAT was the one where we were showing off the conversation system and facial effects and everything.
So those people saying "It looks like another shooter!", well, yeah. In that demo, it did. But saying that it's not an RPG based on that demo would be like watching a demo of NWN2 combat animations and concluding that it was an arena combat game.
I don't know what any individual person uses to define "RPG", and that seems to be a great way to start an argument, but in Mass Effect, you're gonna have:
- Inventory management
- Upgrading of items
- Selectable abilities that make you better at things (ie, character customization)
- Choices that affect the fate of a whole lotta people, in ways that let you see the results, and which aren't obvious "I'm the hero! / I'm psychotic!" choices
I'm still being vague, I know. Partly, that's because I don't know the specifics of how some of that works (like, say, class abilities -- I'm playing through the game to test story and crashyness, so I've got bad guys set to "I look hard at them, and they keel over", which means I haven't explored that stuff), and partly that's because, again, I'd get fired.
But that demo was, I'd say, the attempt to appeal to the Halo crowd. You'll see the RPG elements in more detail as we get closer.
I notice you didn't comment on my remark on the "possible" PC port. Hazardous area, i guess
For me, yeah.
I have no idea what the plan is regarding a PC version. We got to work on Jade Empire for the PC as quickly as our contract with Microsoft (which mandated a wait in order to justify calling Jade an Xbox Exclusive) allowed. Just as somebody in the biz, I'd be surprised if we didn't have one someday.
Right now, though, the main concern is getting the darn thing working.