Mass Effect vs. Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock vs. Bioshock 2 - Graphics compared

Mass Effect and Bioshock have some things in common. A great story, a nice anbiance and a huge community. And at least they both get a sequel. But what about the graphical improvements? PC Games took some screenshots and compared the original games with their sequels.

[-MD-]

I'm seeing improvements in both games over the originals. Mass Effect 2 looks amazing.

[ia_studio]

I don't see the big improvement in Mass Effect, but I do see the character models in bioshock have improved a lot.

[kingdavid]

bioshock is mainly just an improvement in lighting. Most of it looks the same, not that im arguing with that.

Mass effect, theres not any good comparisons there. Too Hard to judge.

[ShabzS]

yes the lighting is one of the major noticible improvements in unreal 3 ... this was really clear while playing gears 2 .... even the water physics were amazing ... the water waves react to your movements very well in the current unreal build... and it is something(water) we can expect to see a lot of in bioshock 2...

[STONEY4]

I thought Bioshock ran on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 2.5?

[mistajeff]

A lot of those ME1 shots are from the PC version, which looks a lot better than the 360 version, so it's not exactly a fair comparison. Though I'll admit that the ME2 shots look better, and since they're from the 360 build, I can only imagine how good it'll look on PC.

Yeah, Bioshock ran on a heavily modified Unreal 2.5, dunno about the sequel though. In OXM Hudson said that ME2 isn't using 100% Unreal 3 this time, and explains that that's how they were able to iron out the framerate and texture issues. They said it was really easy to fix the issues once they made the switch.

[TheIneffableBob]

BioShock 2 is still using UE2.5.

[yog-sothot]

What I really hope is that I will be able to play those two sequels on the same PC I used to play (and enjoy) the original games.

[Conviction_GoTy_2009]

Im going to get Both again.

[Mr Marbles]

disagree with this? He didn't say THE two best games of this gen, he said two of the best games this gen.

and that they diffenately are.

[sjaakiejj]

Mass Effect, Definitely one of the best games this gen. Bioshock however bored the hell out of me :/ The story was boring, the gameplay felt slow.. Overal the only good thing about it was the atmosphere

[PirateThom]

Yeah, I agree with Mass Effect. Easily one of my favourite games this gen... BioShock? Not so much, I didn't get it, either a physically copy or gameplay wise.

[ShabzS]

i always felt the shooting in bioshock was terrible ... and the non existant ai... granted the story and plot were all solid ... you never really felt those machine gun kills... although the wrench kills were satisfactory ...

[mistajeff]

I really enjoyed the narrative in Bioshock. I'm not gonna claim that it's groundbreaking like so many people do, because it's not (System Shock???), but it's a good example of the path that 1st person narrative should take in games, where the protagonist really is YOU, you don't see him react because his reactions are your own. Like Gordan Freeman in Half Life. More games need to be doing this, there's way too many FPS games that sacrifice effective narrative by essentially being a 3rd person game that slips in to first-person view when the gameplay starts.

And Mass Effect was just balls awesome.

[DragonWarrior_4]

meh . ME2 is gonna be awesome but both games are far from the best this gen. Ive played better last gen games.

[Mr Marbles]

what games can you name that are better this gen? Killzone? LOL

I don't think so.

[thewhoopimen]

What's so great about BioShock2? Me2 I can agree with but Bio2? I think there are plenty of games this gen that have surpassed Bioshock and even hit par with ME1 (MGS4's linear story is superlative even). Besides nobody is missing anything, not even ps3 players considering EVERYONE has a PC.

[Sez]

That has to be one of the dumbest comments I heard. Yes everyone may have a PC. But not everyone PC is able to run games like bioshock2 or ME2. Have you ever tried to upgrade a personal PC so it could run new games. It's not worth it. Sometimes(depending on the spec's) the game runs choppy or the quality is sh1t. And not everyone has a gaming rig.

[mistajeff]

My gaming rig cost me $300, minus the monitor which I already had. It runs games like Bioshock and ME infinitely better than my 360 does. It's not hard to make a gaming rig, you just need to take 30 minutes and research it. There's even video tutorials for how to put PCs together, it takes 15 minutes, you just have to put some effort into it. Consoles may be easier, but it's not that hard to get a gaming PC that'll run games a lot prettier for a comparable price.

Here's a useful tutorial I saw recently:
http://www.teckh.com/?p=690

You certainly don't need to upgrade your graphics card every year like people say, even to stay ahead of the console curve.

And even if your computer right now runs current PC games like complete @$$, whenever you get your new computer in however many years, you'll ultimately be playing a better looking game than the console versions. Like right now, for example, I could play the Xbox version of KOTOR, or the superior looking and playing PC version. It may have been easier back then to get the console version, but in the long run, the PC version is a better choice. My computer back then couldn't have run it better than the Xbox, but my computer now can, and I'm glad I made the choice to get it on PC despite playing it at a crappier quality back then.

Now that I've wasted a noticeable portion of father's day typing this comment, I think I'll go downstairs and do something more worthwhile than ranting for no reason.

[Tony P]

vega is right in that regard. Just because everyone has a PC doesn't mean they can play the latest games on it. Mainstream PC users can't even find Firefox on the web, let alone build/upgrade a PC for gaming.

It is definitely worth it imo to have a gaming rig. I'm not disagreeing about the value at all. If you know what you're doing or can follow directions, you will often reap richer rewards with better visuals and overall quality than the console version of a game.

But enthusiasts build PCs. Everyone else buys consoles so they don't have to.

[thewhoopimen]

What kind of PC today CAN'T run an Unreal engine game? WTF? What, are you pre-teens or something ... seriously? The engine is designed to run everything from a celeron with shared memory up to current processors. Even an iMac can run gears of war. I am shaking my head at some of the rebuttals above.

[Tony P]

Yeah, but running a game and running this 'superior' (or sometimes even comparable) version everyone brags about are two very different things. You don't often run a better version of the game from a factory card or an integrated gpu. Maybe on minimum or medium with low detail? These $500-$600 multimedia PCs most people buy aren't gaming rigs.

[DragonWarrior_4]

I can name several that are better, imo of course, here are a couple. Killzone 2, Cod4, Cod WAW, Motorstorm Pacific Rift, SSDHD, Folklore, Valkyria Chronicles, Lost Odessy, Half Life, left 4 dead, Midnight Club LA, do you want me to go on?

edit, thats the thing, I didnt even name a fraction of games I thought are better then bioshock and ME. I could name at least 20 more games, of course thats just my opinion, but at least your not calling me a fanboy. Thanx. BTW, ME was one of the most glitchy games Ive ever played. Bioshock was one of the most overrated and boring games Ive seen this gen. Have a good day.

[poopface1]

None of the games you just mentioned stand up to bioshock or mass effect except half life. LOL especially not midnight club and WAW, are you on crack.

[thewhoopimen]

Everyone has their own opinions I have mine. I am surprised right now how good Infamous is. I think Uncharted 2 will probably kick Bioshock's ass if not ME2 (I care about deep story). To me Bioshock2 looks more like its made capitalize on a sequel than to actually present a "real" story like the first one. Valkyria Chronicles is a very very good game and I suspect Demon Souls will be, once its out. For casual, Castle Crashers is one of the best I've played and I love the coop/pvp elements.

[KingKionic]

Bioshock and mass effect story were deep. Not many gamers got the meaning to the story`s.

[Dude420]

The real comparison will be to see the games in motion, not still shots. Sure I see some little graphical improvements in ME2, but ME1 was already an amazing looking game IMO.

The real difference however is that the game runs much more smoothly as the devs claim. To me THAT'S the major improvement.

[DelbertGrady]

Comparing games that are out to games that haven't been released yet? Classy.

[DragonWarrior_4]

I didnt compare games out now to games that haven't been released yet. BTW, I can name DS games that are better then ME and Bioshock. Chinatown Wars, Zone of the Enders, Dragon Quest 4 and 5. Cmon man, give credit where its due.

[Nihilism]

none of these games can compare to frogger so don't even try

[KingKionic]

Im glad mass effect coming out next year. I would never have time to play. But these pics dont do the game justice.

[DevastationEve]

Look at the PS3 fanboys try to downplay two of this gen's iconic games. Bioshock and Mass Effect were damn good reasons to get an Xbox 360 back in 2007! Bioshock was in particular was so well received that they even got to work on porting it over to the PS3. Whether or not it was gimped doesn't matter, you guys got to try out Bioshock for yourselves.

Bioshock 2 shows MAJOR improvements, I dunno HOW you guys can just downplay it as a just a quick rehash?! They've even expanded exploration into the actual ocean waters around you! And you're not even playing a human this time around!!!

And so far what I've seen of Mass Effect 2 it looks like it's going to meet my personal expectations. I just need to see how they've improved on space exploration.

[ASSASSYN 36o]

Mass Effect 2 looks sick. I can't wait. Got to pass on bioshock 2 though it got boring after a while.

[likedamaster]

Threads/posts like these just remind me of how much money will be spent by the end of this year. Sad times I tell ya, wifey will not be happy.

[Figboy]

unsatisfied in the end. it wasn't worth owning, but most certainly worth playing.

Mass Effect on the other hand was brilliant, but marred by poor technical issues on the 360 (ie, ridiculous texture pop in, load times, and horrible framerates).

i'm more excited about Mass Effect 2 than Bioshock 2, but i will most certainly be playing and enjoying both when they come out.