Still managing to play Mass Effect... having completed a PC playthrough of the first and seeing many decisions impacting the second.. it's looking like I'll have to play John Shep soon through both.
I have another question about it though,
An appeal perhaps since I just can't stand some aspects of the games core mechanic.. which is menus.
Why isn't this experience moving away from menus? can't you just walk up to people and have them join your shore party? meeting you in the airlock or there and then joining a party?
Which begs another, of why isn't there more on ship drama? which needs you to solve mysteries aboard the normandy instead of just talking to people.. being able to tease the cerberus files out of the system (through hacking or other mechanic) would make procuring the data for Jack more meaningful.
Also being able to hack EDI might unlock other useful things.
I'm wondering if teleportation would be out of question for the sequel too.. I'm all for drop ships and the thrilling arguments about being able to position the team in specific places on a planet etc... fun but not so much.. or the use or portals? would it be too cheesy? It has been done SO well in Prey and Portal.
But really the core of my malaise comes from the menus.. I'd like to be rid of them on the PC version at least. And by menus I mean load screens and transitions between rooms and getting from ship to planet.. why?
Way can't the experience be more seamless?
While Shepperd might not be a qualified pilot that doesn't mean the ship itself, drop ship, elevator can't be a physical object that moves you in real-time.
I'd understand if people like these interlude and want to skip them, but they add to the over all continuity and flow of the game which is interrupted constantly by these pointless load screens.
As in why can Grand Theft Auto be made to stream so much of its environment... but Bioware games can't?
GTA being a reality tv show while Bioware's games are more like books which you're made to turn pages...
Not to mention the lack of vehicles and tiny nature of Mass Effect's shoreside environments. Especially if you aren't piloting the vehicle yourself (the game says you can), then having it go from point a to b without a load screen is even easier. You're field of view is very limited outside and most of the time is just building facades. You could expect more time to talk to your team in such situations. Where there's so very little that you can talk to them about. Even if it is just text based it would be great to know more about them.
So I'm looking at ME2 and really asking myself if the core game play is just broken or if it can be more like GTA... no load screens, more to talk about, more environmental interactivity if not just it being more real.. with people moving around.
For people who have played any of those free roaming games, especially Assassin's Creed.. it's nice to have characters (NPCs) that move around. Once you're used to that it would be great to ask EDI where a character is on the ship if you need them for something (going ashore).. or have them meet you somewhere. That would be hot.
There's room for the game to have more life in it. To be more natural instead of so rigid and old school.
Would playing the 3rd, based on this core game play.. end up feeling more of the same? hopefully the graphics and combat get updates because it might not be worth the wait to just have essentially the same static experience all over again. Trying to talk to statues that have preciously little to say. Visiting places where everything is static and you can't even start a bar fight. Traffic that is decoration and you can't even drive yourself around (beambreakers/scrapland was such an awesome (original) concept for navigating a 3D city).
--
It also comes to mind that they really need to consider more economics based mini games such as there being a Council trade economy or ship so that you can find more than the base 4 minerals and trade them for cash. There little you can spend your money on, but that's because you're half expected to complete the mission. But given you can keep playing after the game ends.. what the hell are you meant to really do?
Shouldn't there be options for over powered weapons, slave trading, hunting down and eliminating pirate ships and corrupt government officials.. crime syndicates etc?
In these things I think Bioware would be best to consult with guys like Richard Morgan, Neal Asher and many others. While the game stands on its own.. sure, it would be nice to have other others write some really gritty and novel sequences/missions into expansions.
I'd gladly hold off on ME3 if Richard Morgan, Neil Asher, Chris Moriarty, Richard Gibson (provide others please) and even Orson Scott Card could each provide a mission or two.
Sci-fi, but especially this kind of sci-fi, what's become of Mass Effect, would make such expansions, not just DLC packs, really worth the money.. the first three know how to craft stories in these worlds that would be worth playing through. For the violence, psychological thrill and novel take on game play in the Mass Effect universe, it's cultures and technologies.
I have another question about it though,
An appeal perhaps since I just can't stand some aspects of the games core mechanic.. which is menus.
Why isn't this experience moving away from menus? can't you just walk up to people and have them join your shore party? meeting you in the airlock or there and then joining a party?
Which begs another, of why isn't there more on ship drama? which needs you to solve mysteries aboard the normandy instead of just talking to people.. being able to tease the cerberus files out of the system (through hacking or other mechanic) would make procuring the data for Jack more meaningful.
Also being able to hack EDI might unlock other useful things.
I'm wondering if teleportation would be out of question for the sequel too.. I'm all for drop ships and the thrilling arguments about being able to position the team in specific places on a planet etc... fun but not so much.. or the use or portals? would it be too cheesy? It has been done SO well in Prey and Portal.
But really the core of my malaise comes from the menus.. I'd like to be rid of them on the PC version at least. And by menus I mean load screens and transitions between rooms and getting from ship to planet.. why?
Way can't the experience be more seamless?
While Shepperd might not be a qualified pilot that doesn't mean the ship itself, drop ship, elevator can't be a physical object that moves you in real-time.
I'd understand if people like these interlude and want to skip them, but they add to the over all continuity and flow of the game which is interrupted constantly by these pointless load screens.
As in why can Grand Theft Auto be made to stream so much of its environment... but Bioware games can't?
GTA being a reality tv show while Bioware's games are more like books which you're made to turn pages...
Not to mention the lack of vehicles and tiny nature of Mass Effect's shoreside environments. Especially if you aren't piloting the vehicle yourself (the game says you can), then having it go from point a to b without a load screen is even easier. You're field of view is very limited outside and most of the time is just building facades. You could expect more time to talk to your team in such situations. Where there's so very little that you can talk to them about. Even if it is just text based it would be great to know more about them.
So I'm looking at ME2 and really asking myself if the core game play is just broken or if it can be more like GTA... no load screens, more to talk about, more environmental interactivity if not just it being more real.. with people moving around.
For people who have played any of those free roaming games, especially Assassin's Creed.. it's nice to have characters (NPCs) that move around. Once you're used to that it would be great to ask EDI where a character is on the ship if you need them for something (going ashore).. or have them meet you somewhere. That would be hot.
There's room for the game to have more life in it. To be more natural instead of so rigid and old school.
Would playing the 3rd, based on this core game play.. end up feeling more of the same? hopefully the graphics and combat get updates because it might not be worth the wait to just have essentially the same static experience all over again. Trying to talk to statues that have preciously little to say. Visiting places where everything is static and you can't even start a bar fight. Traffic that is decoration and you can't even drive yourself around (beambreakers/scrapland was such an awesome (original) concept for navigating a 3D city).
--
It also comes to mind that they really need to consider more economics based mini games such as there being a Council trade economy or ship so that you can find more than the base 4 minerals and trade them for cash. There little you can spend your money on, but that's because you're half expected to complete the mission. But given you can keep playing after the game ends.. what the hell are you meant to really do?
Shouldn't there be options for over powered weapons, slave trading, hunting down and eliminating pirate ships and corrupt government officials.. crime syndicates etc?
In these things I think Bioware would be best to consult with guys like Richard Morgan, Neal Asher and many others. While the game stands on its own.. sure, it would be nice to have other others write some really gritty and novel sequences/missions into expansions.
I'd gladly hold off on ME3 if Richard Morgan, Neil Asher, Chris Moriarty, Richard Gibson (provide others please) and even Orson Scott Card could each provide a mission or two.
Sci-fi, but especially this kind of sci-fi, what's become of Mass Effect, would make such expansions, not just DLC packs, really worth the money.. the first three know how to craft stories in these worlds that would be worth playing through. For the violence, psychological thrill and novel take on game play in the Mass Effect universe, it's cultures and technologies.