i knew it would just be another FPS. i never even heard of it until a few weeks ago.

Darc Requiem said: "The gameplay looks like your standard FPS fare, which is to say that I didn't see anything great or remarkable. There's a variety of weapons and abilities to use, but my pants didn't get wet or tight because of them. Gameplay is kind of hard to judge without an actual controller in your hands, so I'm going to reserve judgment on that." Am I the only one that see's a problem with this particular paragraph? I mean setting aside the fact that Mass Effect is neither a first person game nor a shooter, the paragraph comes off as contradictory. If you can't judge the gameplay, which is quite obvious because he/she just stated that the game looked like standard FPS fare when its an RPG, then why even bother with a critique of the gameplay at all. I mean confusing a Third Person RPG with a shooter is a huge red flag IMO.

 Watching the PAX dev walk-through at Game Trailers, I know what he's talking about. He probably said FPS instead of TPS, since it's a more well recongized term, all though Third-Person Shooter would have been more accurate. The actual action in the videos reminded me a lot more of Gears of Wars than Knights of the Old Republic, just a hellva lot less interesting. You see John run to cover behind a rock, scoots over to the edge, than pops out to shoot a few baddies. I don't think he's contradicting himself though, he says it "looks" like a standard FPS affair, but reserves actual judgement untill he actually can play it.

As for the face thing, I felt that was dead on, least from what I saw in the PAX video. The Voice acting is kinda stiff,
but they're suppose to be Military, so it's understandable. But the facial animations just aren't there, almost literally, makes me wonder if they simply weren't finished at the time of the demo. You hear John's voice get a tiny bit annoyed and possibly insulted when he says "Are you trying to scare me?" but his face seems so subdued, it actually kinda clashes with actual body language which comes off more defensive than a moment ago.

All though the article wasn't particulary well written, it's refreshing to hear some counter points in between all the 
drooling and lavish praise any unreleased title that looks mildly interesting. 

Darc Requiem said: "The gameplay looks like your standard FPS fare, which is to say that I didn't see anything great or remarkable. There's a variety of weapons and abilities to use, but my pants didn't get wet or tight because of them. Gameplay is kind of hard to judge without an actual controller in your hands, so I'm going to reserve judgment on that." Am I the only one that see's a problem with this particular paragraph? I mean setting aside the fact that Mass Effect is neither a first person game nor a shooter, the paragraph comes off as contradictory. If you can't judge the gameplay, which is quite obvious because he/she just stated that the game looked like standard FPS fare when its an RPG, then why even bother with a critique of the gameplay at all. I mean confusing a Third Person RPG with a shooter is a huge red flag IMO.

This is actually an incredibly good point. Most RPGs (especially Japanese ones) tend to have fighting systems that consist of selecting your guys, selecting the target and watching the action. With Mass Effect they're trying to make it a bit more interesting by giving it substantial FPS elements... and those idiots complain it's not as good as most FPS games? My hat is off to Bioware for trying to innovate in an otherwise very stagnant genre.

They tried it with Jade Empire, which honestly didn't work too well IMHO, but hopefully they're wiser now.  

That negative impression has been ripped apart about 100 times already. Destructioid wanted big press, so they gave neg. impressions about an uber-game.

ME still looks fantastic, no matter what one obscure website says. Maybe they'll give some negative SMG impressions next.

Parokki said: This is actually an incredibly good point. Most RPGs (especially Japanese ones) tend to have fighting systems that consist of selecting your guys, selecting the target and watching the action. With Mass Effect they're trying to make it a bit more interesting by giving it substantial FPS elements... and those idiots complain it's not as good as most FPS games? My hat is off to Bioware for trying to innovate in an otherwise very stagnant genre. They tried it with Jade Empire, which honestly didn't work too well IMHO, but hopefully they're wiser now.

Mass Effect is their more action-oriented roleplaying game, giving it more shooter elements, which kind of makes sense for the platform it'll debut on (360, although i assume it'll make it's way to PC eventually). For the more traditional roleplaying experience you'll have to go with Dragon Age, the game they're making for PC. I have faith both will be pretty awesome, given Bioware's near perfect track record. (Jade Empire is their only mediocre game)

yacjuman said: i knew it would just be another FPS. i never even heard of it until a few weeks ago.

How is that even possible? It's been one of the most anticipated games all year.

Bioware is not following the typical turn based lead by the hand format. Instead they specialize in adaptive story systems. So they will not have some of the advantages that other games in the genre can make use of. Specifically scripted scenes. The interactions happen in real time, and have multiple outcomes.

The combat system looks to be a step up in my opinion. Frankly turn based combat in these games is generally filler material, and is not all that engaging. Basically you find the few critical moves and abuse the hell out of them. I beat my way through Kotor with heal and critical strike. Occasionally I tossed a grenade. The path to success was opening every box. Once you have enough advanced med kits your virtually unstoppable.

Generally I welcome any system that requires even a bit more thought behind the combat rather then lock on hit the same button over and over. Personally I have gotten used to the rather shabby combat in these games. Any other genre and the developers would be crucified. So even if the system looks like a dated FPS from five years ago it will be a massive improvement.

Generally speaking if you really like Knights of the Old Republic you will probably end up liking this game. The issues sound like issues I would expect. The combat in these games is nothing all that fantastic, and if Mass Effect is being put on par with FPS games the combat has seen a massive improvement. You were not going to see a lot of scripted cut scenes regardless from Bioware. Characters were bound to interact off of a adaptive system, and since the variety was going to be huge there were bound to be some bland moments.

Hopefully Bioware will flesh the interactions out some more before they release the title. They have the time to do that before launch anyway. Other then that this seems to be in the same vein that Kotor was in. So if you still pull out Kotor to play and consider that game to be one of the best games of all time. What are the chances this game will not satisfy.

Sounds to me like Destructoid would take issue with Kotor as well.

Yes, good post Dodece.
It's like... If you break down every part of Kotor, individually, they weren't very good. But as a whole it became something special.

This time around, the different parts of Mass Effect look waaaaay better than those of Kotor, so I can't see how this won't be a really really awesome game.

zaphodile said: Yes, good post Dodece. It's like... If you break down every part of Kotor, individually, they weren't very good. But as a whole it became something special. This time around, the different parts of Mass Effect look waaaaay better than those of Kotor, so I can't see how this won't be a really really awesome game.

Not every part is better. No Star Wars licence means no lightsabers.

And I'm sure that Bioware couldn't come up with a better weapon in Mass Effect without Star Wars cliches?

KOTOR made me care about Star Wars. I never knew the difference between any class of alien from SW before KOTOR. I have MANY friends that know far too much about Star Wars just from KOTOR because KOTOR was so well done - I can only wonder what BioWare can do in a space setting without the Star Wars hinderances.

IMO, even if the shooting is TPS based, I feel that BioWare will far surpass what other TPS/RPGs have done. Fallout 3 has already shown to be following a similar line as ME is in terms of real time/paused time combat. I certainly welcome it, because as said, in KOTOR, at some point, the combat became real easy.

I just think having a plasma rifle, hit points, and pausing the game to initiate orders to my RPG PCs is going to be a welcome definitive moment in Western RPG land. Remember, we're talking anything-goes WRPGs here, not JRPGs. There is no standard to what makes a WRPG a WRPG outside of stats, and a good storyline, so meshing shooting elements will be great. As long as I get a long game and good story, and tons of in-depth character customization and skills, I will be happy. And Mass Effect still seems to be putting those things to the forefront.