Mass Effect - Review @ Blend Games

Dhruin

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4.5/5 is the score for Mass Effect in a review at Blend Games:
When you look back at a game there are precious rare moments where you realize that something has changed fundamentally about how you perceive video games. BioWare has done that with Mass Effect. Oddly enough, they have not redefined the western RPG genre, which was something that the game has been promising for months. Instead Mass Effect is better than that, taking the near perfect Knights of the Old Republic system and refining it.
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For Knights of the Old Republic fans who have heard this is simply a skin of that game

I wonder where they get those rumors from...
 
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Maybe from that dialogue system that was supposed to be something new. It does work well, but being able to choose from short options before the other guy is finished speaking isn't what I would call revolutionary. Not that I think they called it that, but they did put a lot of focus on it in their PR.
 
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Unique?

Maybe from that dialogue system that was supposed to be something new. It does work well, but being able to choose from short options before the other guy is finished speaking isn't what I would call revolutionary. Not that I think they called it that, but they did put a lot of focus on it in their PR.

Well it's extremely rare and has never been combined with good voice acting, emotionally expressive character faces, and a decent plot. Without those things I don't think an option like that would have mattered.
 
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Yeah, and still I like to wait and pause the conversation to think it over a bit rather than just go with what comes up first and keep the flow going...
 
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Actually haven't games like Half-Life 2 and Bloodlines done this before and better from at least the video clips I have seen released on the web?
Well, maybe not interrupting can't recall will have to check on the next play though, but easily the facial expressions, acting and dialogs where superb in those, certainly Bloodlines at least in the English version.

It sort of seems weird in the first place, why would you want to interrupt NPCs, isn't that the point of the Acting, Dialog, Animations and Story Depth?
Sort of sounds like just hitting the Space Bar during the conversation, which basically is the same thing, at least from the perspective of someone whom hasn't tried it yet. :)
 
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Choosing a dialogue option early hasn't interrupted an NPC for me yet. It waits until the other person is finished talking, then continues with your dialogue option so there is no pause in the conversation. I didn't know it was possible interrupt. Maybe it isn't, or was that something that was said by Bioware PR? Maybe it can happen in certain situations where it's intended.

Mass Effect blows Half-Life 2 and Bloodlines out of the water where facial animations and graphics are concerned. I thought, going on the videos I had seen that the lip syncing would be distracting, but it's pretty good. It's just that the faces look so good that anything less than life-like looks out of place.

It's not real-life-actor quality, of course, but I can lose myself in a good cut-scene. Just as a side-note: it's not just the faces that look good, but there is terrible texture pop-in because the game does not cache to HD.
 
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The facial animations do look amazing. Character models too.
 
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Good, it must have been the lipsync you mentioned that threw me off, seeing the video clips on the web. :)
 
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Yeah, absolutely. Character models are the best I've ever seen in a game. I do think it's a shame that they don't utilize the HD if there's one present, because the way textures and normal maps pop-in is worse than in any game I've seen, too. It's something the Unreal Engine 3 does, but it wasn't this bad in Gears of War.

I do miss the some emotion in the faces occasionally, which the characters in Half-Life 2 did have. A frown, a quick smile or a wink... they all look so serious in Mass Effect. Maybe later on in the game when hell breaks loose or something. :)
 
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Ahh, see actually that's what I was revering too, Bloodlines for instance had such a huge diversity of personalities, some with very complex personal problems, say like Jeanette/Therese, not only very diverse facial expressions but also psychologies. :)
The scenes I saw on video were emotionless, even before, after or during killing someone, now granted it could have been a bad clip or such, so I will be defering to you guys. :)
 
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