BioWare knows there were a few technical issues with Mass Effect. Rather than putting the blinders on and forging ahead, the team took a step back and looked at what in the development process caused those problems to exist and then came up with a new process for the sequel. As Corey Andruko, project manager for Mass Effect 2 summed it up at the close of BioWare's talk on its iterative level design process at the Game Developers Conference, "We had a little bit of a hitching on the Citadel...maybe the loading on the elevators was a little long...We definitely feel we would have been able to resolve these problems."
RPGs are often huge, sprawling endeavours. With limited playtime, we have to choose wisely, so here's the best western RPGs available today.
"I started playing games yesterday" the List... Meh!
How about a few RPGs that deserve some love instead?
1 - Alpha Protocol - Now on GOG
2 - else Heart.Break()
3 - Shadowrun Trilogy
4 - Wasteland 2
5 - UnderRail
6 - Tyranny
7 - Torment: Tides of Numenera
And for a bonus game that flew under the radar:
8 - Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden
Not only glorious jank, but the idea that the story can completely change depending on what you do, or say, or side with, makes it one of the most forward thinking games ever. The amount of story permutation is the equivalent of a Hitman level but in Story Form. And it wasn't just that the story changed, no, it was that you met completely new characters, or missed them, depending on your choices. Made Mass Effect feel static in comparison.
Alpha Protocol was absolutely glorious, indeed. And it was, and still is, more Next Gen than most anything out there these days. In this regard at least.
Pity.
Wealth of Geeks explores some of the best gaming romances that have stolen our hearts over the years.
Diandra worked on Diablo 4 and also other games at Blizzard including WoW: Dragon Flight. She’s also been at Bioware, Carbine, RIOT, and she is currently working at Crystal Dynamics.
Brian was the Lead Writer on Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls, worked on StarCraft: Heart of the Swarm, StarCraft: Wings of Liberty, and was also a writer on Mass Effect 2. He’s also been involved in movies such as the Iron Giant.
Diandra and Brian discuss their industry experience, the games they have worked on, how the writing process works, and much more.
Personally, I didn't mind the elevator times, I mean long loads are part of almost every RPG. I mean compared to the KOTOR on the xbox, Mass Effect load times were quick. The only real problem I had with the game was the framerate stutters at areas of intense action.
They admit ME1 had problems at least, and hopefully ME2 will be an improvement from a technical standpoint. It seems like it will from what they are saying. Personally, I did not experience too many problems playing ME1. Maybe it's because I had the NXE install? The only problems I saw were the texture pop-ins and maybe a a rare drop in framerate on a snowy planet or large-scale battle. That being said, please BioWare, TAKE YOUR TIME. Make this a masterpiece no one will ever forget. :)
Pop-in was annoying, framerate stuttering was bothersome at times and the elevators made me wanna scream. I had some parts where the game froze and I had to restart it. I actually had to return the original copy to Gamestop and get a new one because it wouldn't load an entire area of the Citadel. I'm not a hater though, I still really loved the ME, it was an engaging experience and very fun. I'm happy to know they are acknowledging the issues though. Hopefully they can use the NXE install as a reference to help themselves.
Good to see Progress has been made. I always felt that Mass Effect was a "good" game that could have easily been a "great" game had it not been for the technical issues. Plus, it did always feel to me that a lot of it was cut out or something, now they admit it and I'm not surprised.
ME2 is still a day-1 purchase for me, though.
Mass Effect was easily in the top 10 games released so far this generation for any console. I didn't find much problems with the game at all and really enjoyed it.
Can't wait for ME2.