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Mass Effect for PC - Reviews and Opinions

post #1 of 19
6/2/08 at 8:54am
Thread Starter 
To start off with, I picked up this title last week based on the recommendation of a 360 owner. Usually, I am very hesitant to pick up a console port - most of them just don't feel right on PC [Assassin's Creed is a prime example].

Well - I'll sum it up quickly and say Bioware got this particular port right. Gameplay is smooth (I play at max settings, 1920x1200 monitor), story is immersive, and the controls, while still a bit intricate, are easy to manipulate.

I found myself playing the game for several hours off and on over the weekend - plugging along on the multitude of side missions you encounter throughout the game.

The only 'bothersome' facet of the game I found (so far) were the long dialogues you're forced to endure when eliciting information from some of the game's characters.

Here is a review for the PC version from ArsTechnica. While I can't compare it to the console version of the game, I can say that their opinion of overall gameplay is largely accurate.

Edit: There is one issue I forgot to mention. With Vista's UAC, you have to right-click on the MassEffect.exe and Run as Admin.
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post #2 of 19
6/2/08 at 9:46am
I enjoyed the dialog. I love how you can take it there different directions. The game does require patience.
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post #3 of 19
6/10/08 at 12:39pm
Thanks for the review. I was waiting for a good opinion on the PC version before I spent the money and bought it. I saw it on the 360 and it looked amazing. Thanks Buck.
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post #4 of 19
6/10/08 at 12:57pm
I loved playing it on the 360. One of the best RPGs ive ever played.
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post #5 of 19
6/10/08 at 4:42pm
<--- Is playing it now
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post #6 of 19
6/10/08 at 9:45pm
Great game.
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post #7 of 19
6/11/08 at 12:49am
How taxing is this game on your machine compared to BF2/Oblivion/Crysis?
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post #8 of 19
6/11/08 at 3:07am
It uses the Unreal 3 engine. That should say enough.
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post #9 of 19
6/11/08 at 7:29am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarqWang View Post
How taxing is this game on your machine compared to BF2/Oblivion/Crysis?
Here are the rec specs...
Operating System:
Windows XP or Vista

Processor:
2.6+GHZ Intel or 2.4+GHZ AMD

Memory:
2 Gigabyte Ram

Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GTX or higher.
ATI X1800 XL series or higher

Hard Drive Space:
12 Gigabytes

Sound Card:
DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card and drivers – 5.1 sound card recommended

I will say that you'll need at least a single 8800GT to turn up some (but not all) of the eye candy. The game, at a high resolution, looks fluid.

I wouldn't compare it to Crysis. It is a demon in it's own category.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fenuxx View Post
It uses the Unreal 3 engine. That should say enough.
True - but I bet that 9800GTX handles it quite well .


One more thing I like about the game - it is VERY LONG. Definitely worth the price. Oh, and almost forgot...

*SPOLIER*

you can has secs w/ other characters too
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post #10 of 19
6/12/08 at 1:06am
What I meant by that comment (UE3 powered) is that should give a hint as to how well the game runs. There's nothing I've encountered that my 9800 GTX can't handle.

Every Unreal game I've ever come across (and this is still holding true with the UE3 games I've come across) run on different levels of hardware very well. My M1710 handles all UE3 games at 1920x1200 at max (or near max) settings. It's just the nature of how damn good the engine is, because I don't know of any other modern engine currently that does that well, save for Source, but even that's starting to show its age.
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post #11 of 19
6/12/08 at 3:08am
how about the DRM like BIOSHOCK?
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post #12 of 19
6/12/08 at 7:13am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LimpMan View Post
how about the DRM like BIOSHOCK?
DRM was initially reported to "phone home" every 10 days to verify the legitimacy of a user's copy, but I believe Bioware eased up a bit after some bad press.

I know it's still there, but am now unsure of exactly how it's use is implemented since the change.

DRM, albeit unpopular, is here to stay.
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post #13 of 19
6/19/08 at 7:37am
Thread Starter 
Mass Effect and DRM woes.....

Quote:
Last month, many reports came out on the obscene DRM that Bioware and EA were planning to deploy on newer games, Mass Effect and Spore in particular. The outcry from the community led to a quick backtracking of their original goals. EA, for instance, opted to dispose of the “phone-home” functionality of the DRM and instead switched to a limited activation policy. In essence, the software would no longer phone home every 10 days but could only be installed 3 times.

That “friendlier” but still unfriendly method of authentication has now proven itself to be flawed, as it seems that people are burning through activations so quickly that they have used them up less than a month after purchasing the game. Something as simple as replacing a video card can use up an activation, and gamers who constantly upgrade would obviously be hit by this pretty quickly. Interestingly, the solution provided by EA was for someone to buy another copy of the game.

A single OS reinstall followed by a GPU replacement leading to someone being forced to buy another copy of a game or do without seems pretty ridiculous, and just goes to show how DRM is nothing more than companies punishing paying customers rather than punishing pirates.
TechSpot
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post #14 of 19
7/12/08 at 7:00am
Just finished uninstalling it....I found this a very frustrating game,the story is good,the combat mechanics,inventory,upgrade's system,long dialogue's,map system,was really testing for me.
Its like they designed everything to be as slow and time consuming as possible,even taking a ride in an elevator is a test of patience.

Never have been a great fan of RPG's really,and this one didn't do much to change that.
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post #15 of 19
7/20/08 at 3:36am
I've owned Mass Effect for XBox 360 for quite some time and just now sat down to start playing it. For anybody thinking this is a shooter, it's not, it's an RPG, which means the action sequences are going to be spaced pretty far apart and will be quite short. Not only that, alot of combat can be avoided entirely.

Compared to other RPGs though, I like this new take on the genre. My biggest beef with other RPGs was that the combat became quite tedious and rather boring because it was a highly passive experience. Especially in JRPGs like Final Fantasy. Mass effect's combat is much closer to Quake than it is to KOTOR. While not suffering from alot of the same pitfalls as shooters, like being stingy with ammo (there isn't any ammo except for nades). The Dialog system is much more streamlined and makes it more like a game rather than reading a novel.

The story is what I like the most though. I don't mind the occasional licenced title now and then based off a film, book, or TV show. But it's a breath of fresh air to play something with a completely new cast of characters and setting.

The only thing that I didn't like was banging Ashley Williams only to later realize that was also the name of Bruce Campbell's character in Evil Dead. Felt kinda weird after that.
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post #16 of 19
7/20/08 at 9:09am
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post #17 of 19
7/31/08 at 8:51am
Thread Starter 

Mass Effect for PC Patch, Additional Content

Quote:
Those who haven't been enjoying Mass Effect on the PC have been missing out: we stand by our assessment that the PC version is by far the superior one. Though it has been in the works for a while, Bioware has finally made good on its promise to deliver the game's only downloadable content, the "Bring Down the Sky" pack, to the PC. Players can download the DLC alongside the game's first patch now.

"Bring Down the Sky" includes a side-story with approximately 90 minutes of additional gameplay focusing on the newly-included race, the Batarians. The added mission involves stopping a runaway asteroid station on a collision course with Terra Nova. As for the first patch, a few minor fixes have been made, including crash issues with multi-core AMD systems, a variety of specific crash issues with the game's GUI, and more. Both are available from the game's official website.

It's good to see that Bioware kept its promise with regard to making the DLC free for PC gamers, but hopefully this isn't the end of content for the company's epic space opera. My Shepard is longing for more worlds to explore, and I'm sure he isn't the only Shepard in the great, big universe doing so.
ArsTechnica
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post #18 of 19
8/6/08 at 11:34am
so what do folks think of ths game

I have t sitting heren yet to install

is it worth the time.

IMO I prefer games like Battlefield and COD etc.
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post #19 of 19
8/6/08 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 
Hey Dave - coming from a FPS person, I liked it. Like MrEvil states below, it is an RPG, but gameplay is more action-oriented and much smoother compared to other more recent RPGs.

You can spend a multitude of hours on the side missions, where you travel through the galaxy in search of pirates, enemies of allies, etc.

But...gerry also makes a good point - don't be in a rush to get from points A to B. I agree - taking a 20 second ride in an elevator can try your patience a bit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by MrEvil View Post
I've owned Mass Effect for XBox 360 for quite some time and just now sat down to start playing it. For anybody thinking this is a shooter, it's not, it's an RPG, which means the action sequences are going to be spaced pretty far apart and will be quite short. Not only that, alot of combat can be avoided entirely.

Compared to other RPGs though, I like this new take on the genre. My biggest beef with other RPGs was that the combat became quite tedious and rather boring because it was a highly passive experience. Especially in JRPGs like Final Fantasy. Mass effect's combat is much closer to Quake than it is to KOTOR. While not suffering from alot of the same pitfalls as shooters, like being stingy with ammo (there isn't any ammo except for nades). The Dialog system is much more streamlined and makes it more like a game rather than reading a novel.

The story is what I like the most though. I don't mind the occasional licenced title now and then based off a film, book, or TV show. But it's a breath of fresh air to play something with a completely new cast of characters and setting.

The only thing that I didn't like was banging Ashley Williams only to later realize that was also the name of Bruce Campbell's character in Evil Dead. Felt kinda weird after that.
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