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Mass Effect for only $29 at Best Buy.

JackAxe

JackAxe

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 6, 2004
1,535
0
In a cup of orange juice.
I had been waiting for a price drop on this game, because of the problems that many had reported -- mainly the DRM. I picked it up at Best Buy for the mentioned price and so far I'm really happy with this game.

I had only intended on playing it for a about a hour last night, as I'm swamped right now, but I ended up playing it for about 6 hours. :eek:

I started my game on vetren mode(The hardest unlocked setting.) and it's a tad too easy so far, but there's 2 more difficulty settings that can be unlocked. The game also has a silly aim assist feature, which I put on low -- there was no off.

Anyways, from what I've played this game was well worth its price and I'm going to put The Witcher on hold -- which I'm absolutely loving -- to finish this one out.
 
If I didn't already have Mass Effect, I'd definitely go for this - and I've never had any issues with the DRM, my Windows install is expendable anyhow. :)
 
Same here. :) I figured since EA's Dead Space hadn't hassled me with its DRM, Mass Effect would be the same.

I'm really glad I picked this up. The story compels me to play more. I thought from the descriptions that this game would be like a modern Star Control 2 or Star Flight, but so far it feels like a Phantasy Star 2 or similar game.
 
It's a good game. I completed it on the 360 on the woose difficulty level. ;)

Being put into a position where you have to choose between who lives and dies adds some good tension to the game especially when you interact with your crew members and the opportunities for romance that pop up after the first major away mission. They (the crew members) hang out in the lower levels of the ship. And remember to to nice to them. :)
 
Video game pron... :eek: The Witcher has kind of a Pokemon card collecting thing going on whenever the "romance" happens... :eek: Definitely look into that game for the 360 this coming year, if you haven't already played it on the PC.

I landed on my first planet, found the Doctor girl trapped in a Protheus??? shield, and now I'm getting my arse handed to me whenever I reach the top of an elevator shaft. This is kind of difficulty I like. I had to go to bed, but I'm close to getting out alive.

Anyways, I should ignore most online feedback about EA games and DRM, because this game is great. It's a 3D take on all of the sci-fi games I enjoyed when I was younger.
 
Just wait until you begin exploring empty planets. Make sure to explore all of them if you want to get all the achievements. ;)
 
Also the addon/expansion is free to download for the PC version. Exploring new planets was interesting at first, but after going through a dozen planets or so, it kind of get repetitive. It's still a great game, but sometimes I wish the developers would come up with more variety on the explorable camps/areas etc.
 
I downloaded that the first day. :)

Why are achievements good? Are they artifacts? One aspect I enjoyed of Star Control 2 and the Starflight series, is that searching various systems lead to precursor tech, which I could use to upgrade my ship. I'm assuming I won't be able to upgrade the Normandy, but I'd like the option to upgrade the buggy and my characters with some cliché ancient tech.
 
JackAxe said:
I downloaded that the first day. :)

Why are achievements good? Are they artifacts? One aspect I enjoyed of Star Control 2 and the Starflight series, is that searching various systems lead to precursor tech, which I could use to upgrade my ship. I'm assuming I won't be able to upgrade the Normandy, but I'd like the option to upgrade the buggy and my characters with some cliché ancient tech.
Click to expand...
Starflight is one of my favourite game on Sega back then. In ME, exploring just net you more exp points and with that you get better equipment.
 
JackAxe said:
I downloaded that the first day. :)

Why are achievements good? Are they artifacts? One aspect I enjoyed of Star Control 2 and the Starflight series, is that searching various systems lead to precursor tech, which I could use to upgrade my ship. I'm assuming I won't be able to upgrade the Normandy, but I'd like the option to upgrade the buggy and my characters with some cliché ancient tech.
Click to expand...

Well, some of them offer bonuses to your XP or health regeneration or how much damage you can inflict, I don't remember all of 'em. But the buggy isn't upgradable either.
 
JackAxe said:
Video game pron... :eek: The Witcher has kind of a Pokemon card collecting thing going on whenever the "romance" happens... :eek: Definitely look into that game for the 360 this coming year, if you haven't already played it on the PC.

I landed on my first planet, found the Doctor girl trapped in a Protheus??? shield, and now I'm getting my arse handed to me whenever I reach the top of an elevator shaft. This is kind of difficulty I like. I had to go to bed, but I'm close to getting out alive.
Click to expand...

I've been through this part of the game twice. On the first time, I took my time getting to this particular planet and it was not too hard saving the girl. The second time I went there first and found it much more difficult, but figured out that moving around behind the obstacles and taking pot shots helps a lot in defeating the bad guys especially the head bad guy. :)
 
Interesting factoid: if you don't rescue the doctor until you've already completed several of the other main worlds, she goes crazy. ;)
 
LOL, that's great. :D How did you come by that one, about the doctor going crazy? She's proving to be a great team mate -- especially with the Geth that jump around like frogs.

-------

Thanks for the info about the achievements. I was thinking it was some leader board thing. :)

I finally made it past that level -- I just needed some sleep. I played this game for about 8 hours yesterday morning and if not for work and sleep, I would not have stopped.

What happens if your renegade points get too high? I killed that guy that was harassing me about my character's gang background. :eek:

This game is rich, but I kind of wish I could land on every planet and mine minerals. The survey option kind of takes away from that enjoyable cheese.

Also, I'm assuming when it says my tech is too low to salvage a probe, I just need to assemble a different landing crew?
 
I've read about it, next game I play I'm going to try it out and see if it actually works.

If only, if only. ;)

Haha, yeah, it can get quite involving. Sometimes I play and I know I need to take a break, but there's just oooooone more level I want to get through.

I've never actually played a renegade, I always feel bad. :D But mostly your dialog options change and you get different responses from NPCs.

Heh. Well, that would take up quite a bit more hard drive space. :) But yeah, I'm hoping they have quite a few more planets in Mass Effect 2.

Yes. You need a character with a high tech level – I like Liara or Kaidan for that. I hate it when I can't salvage something interesting. ;)
 
True, that would suck up resources or every planet would just look the same.

I'd take something like this though; :)
mercury.jpg


I jotted down the names of the 2 planets that I found probes on so far, I just need to go back.

I've been putting points into charm, so hopefully that will help with the times where the only response is black or white.
 
Mass Effect is a fantastic game. I played the 360 version, and I have to say it is the closest thing to actually being Kirk I've ever found in a game. And I mean that in a good way. Most Trek games end up emphasizing the moralisms of Gene Roddenberry rather than the quasi-piratical nature of Kirk. This one isn't a Trek game per se, but it has the reckless, womanizing but at his base decent guy with a shiny white space ship employed by a bureaucratic monolith - which makes it the best Trek game ever in my view.

Amazingly well done.
 
I got that Star Trek vibe also, especially after I made the decision to KILL one of my crew members -- which I figured would be the outcome. He had to go... :eek:

Did you ever play Star Trek 25th Anniversary? I played the CD version( It had the actual voices of the actors.) of this game and really enjoyed it. It really captured the old shows well.

This game is a cliché of every thing sci-fi, which is goooood.

I loaded from an earlier game before I made some of the key choices and maxed out my charm before approaching them again. It made all of the difference.
 
I completed this game last night. It was really enjoyable and hit my sci-fi craving on the nose, but it as WAY TOO EASY and this was on Vetren difficulty! :confused:

There were only 3 battles that gave me any level of difficulty, the first which I mentioned earlier was the hardest part of the entire game for me. After I reached a certain level, bullets just bounced off my armor and besides turrets, nothing could kill my team.

The last battle was over in about a minute and all my characters were standing. The only other boss fight I've encountered that was this easy, was the last guy in Zelda: Minish Cap, a GBA game.

I started a new game on "hardcore" -- this term equates so much cheese and carries very little relevance with most modern games. I hope it lives up to that title, instead being another cakewalk, but as noted, an enjoyable one at that.

I'm sorry, but this game should have been a PC title first. The menus were atrocious and they were improved upon for the PC, so I can only imagine how much worse they were on a 360. But when MS throws money at a company for an exclusive, they would be dumb to turn it down. I also noticed that the team that ported this to the PC was quite small, so they did a good job with what little they had to work with.

Visually, Mass Effect was very nice, but it was suffering in parts from low-rez console textures -- I played it on ultra high settings. Many of the levels were also a bit too small. The last planet was one of nicest levels in the game. I also liked the water planet level.

The ending of this game... It's like they wanted to say why things were happening, but those reasons had already taken with the Starflight and Star Control series. :eek:

Anyways, this game is one of my favorites. I really hope that Mass Effect 2 will be on a level of production equal, if not greater than this game. I'd like to see ship battles and a balance of character and vehicle upgrades introduced.
 
Mackilroy said:
Interesting factoid: if you don't rescue the doctor until you've already completed several of the other main worlds, she goes crazy. ;)
Click to expand...

I basically did this the first time through (not on purpose, that is just how it happened) and I found her to be delusional. But once I save her, she regained her sanity. :)
 
JackAxe said:
I completed this game last night. It was really enjoyable and hit my sci-fi craving on the nose, but it as WAY TOO EASY and this was on Vetren difficulty! :confused:
Click to expand...

It was not that hard but still enjoyable. In fact I don't want super hard when I'm playing most games.

What I find in this and every RPG I've ever played, dialog choices are so limited that it reinforces you are playing a game. I fantasy of mine would be a role playing game with free flowing immersive dialog but I realize this would be difficult to accomplish and most players just want to advance the plot.
 
I got this for the X360 last year, but ended up reselling it before I got a chance to play cause I was strapped for cash.

Any idea how this will run on the iMac in my sig?
 
As long as you don't play with all the options turned up, it should play relatively decently. Mass Effect looks great even with the options turned down. If I still had my HD2600 installed I'd tell you how it ran with that on a 1680x1050 screen, but that's not an option right now. Should be able to play alright at native resolution with the options turned to the halfway point, I'd suppose.

Anybody else?
 
mattcube64 said:
I got this for the X360 last year, but ended up reselling it before I got a chance to play cause I was strapped for cash.

Any idea how this will run on the iMac in my sig?
Click to expand...

Give it a go regardless, since this game's true strength is its story. Especially if you enjoyed it on the 360. It's only $26 on STEAM, but I'd personally still pay a few bucks more for the retail package.

The game was balanced around a console, which has many limitations compared to a PC, but on the other hand they can do more with less and this game was built for the ground up for a 360 and ported to the PC by a small team.

Here's footage of a 2600 pro;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg4kxdmL-HY
 
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