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Mass Effect 1 on PC

Jun 18, 2009#1

Shegokigo

Just picked it up (Been playing Fallout 3 between WoW/TF2/L4D for the past 2 months) and I was just curious if there were any "patches" or "fixes" I should be getting if I bought it off STEAM?

One thing I noticed right away was some very weird graphical issue with dynamic shadows, did a little research but found little in response. Any help on that front?

Otherwise I'm looking forward to a well reviewed RPG and am going in 100% blind as I really didn't read any spoilers/in depth reviews on the game at all.

Jun 18, 2009#2

HowDroll

I've played the XBox version, so I can't really help you with the patches part. Mass Effect is a FANTASTIC game, though. I really hope you enjoy it.

Jun 18, 2009#3

Shegokigo

They had me at Alien Lesbian sex. :hump:

I seriously would have gotten into this sooner, but I have a strict "No spending over $20 for any game, ever" policy and when Mass Effect hit the $20 mark I was gifted Fallout 3.

Jun 18, 2009#4

B

bhamv2

I play the PC version, as far as I can recall I didn't patch anything. For some reason my game would crash to desktop every hour or so, but it's only a minor nuisance and one I can live with.

Oh, and I strongly urge you to continue to avoid spoilers. It'll make it a much better game experience.

Jun 18, 2009#5

Bowielee

I have the PC version, but I have the DVD version, not the steam version and haven't had any problems with it. Steam will automatically patch the game, so if there are any patches available, you alread have them.

Could you be more specific on what is actually happening? Perhaps a screenshot?

Jun 18, 2009#6

Shegokigo

Screenshot will have to wait till I get home, but the best way I can explain it is thus: the shadows make the game look horrible and they do not look natural at all, in some cases distorting the face of whomever it's focused on.

Jun 18, 2009#7

Bowielee

I know it's obligitory, but I have to ask, are you using the most current drivers for your graphics card?

Also, what type of graphics card are you using?

Jun 18, 2009#8

D

Dubyamn

Shegokigo said:
Screenshot will have to wait till I get home, but the best way I can explain it is thus: the shadows make the game look horrible and they do not look natural at all, in some cases distorting the face of whomever it's focused on.

Do the shadows look like hundreds of black dots on their face? Cause its the same deal on the 360 and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it because it never really bothered me.

Jun 18, 2009#9

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
I know it's obligitory, but I have to ask, are you using the most current drivers for your graphics card?

Also, what type of graphics card are you using?

GTX295.
Haven't checked the drivers in about a month though, will do.

On topic: I'm going nuts at work, I'm dying to get home and dive into this game. All I got to do last night was create my profile/character before having to call it a night! I love that my options in "chat" are fully voiced though. I'm gonna have alot of fun with this already I can tell.

Jun 18, 2009#10

Bowielee

do you mean shadows looking like this

If so, that's just they way they look.

Jun 18, 2009#11

Greendog

Just going to echo what people have said really, that this is an awesome game with a lot of twists and turns, as you'd expect with the lovely Bioware. I kind of envy you Shego, as I'd love to go back and play that game fresh without any knowledge of what happens.

Jun 18, 2009#12

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
do you mean shadows looking like this

If so, that's just they way they look.

Yeah, sorta like that, a bit more distorted at certain angles.

If that's the case, I can do without them.

Jun 18, 2009#13

Frankie Williamson

There's a way to fix the shadows so they look a lot better. It requires fucking with the config file but it's easy to do. Lemme check.

First of all, make sure that:

My Documents>Bioware>Mass Effect>Config and open up BIOEngine.ini

Search for the following line and change it to "False":

DisableHWShadowMaps=True

is the way it is.

Next in the ini file change:

DepthBias=0.030000
MinShadowResolution=512
MaxShadowResolution=2048

I did this, it makes the shadows look noticeably better. It also changes the rendering duties from your cpu to your gpu for whatever fucking reason it's set to be a cpu thing with no ingame option to change it. Lazy fucking port.

Jun 18, 2009#14

Bowielee

Well, now I'm tempted to reinstall and try that fix. I never did go down the evil path in that game.

Jun 18, 2009#15

CynicismKills

It's an awesome, awesome game, personally my favorite BioWare RPG up to this point. Dying to get my hands on ME2.

My only (non-spoiler) advice is, like every other BioWare RPG, get your Intimidate/Persuade (whichever you prefer to use) up quickly. Opens up all sorts of new and interesting dialogue options, from background info to extra money, etc.

Jun 18, 2009#16

Dei

The evil path is so hilarious. My husband won't play them in any game, so I played the evil line and he played the good one.

Jun 18, 2009#17

Bowielee

Is it just me, or do PC ports of console games take 10 times longer to install than games that were made for the PC?

Jun 18, 2009#18

B

bhamv2

I agree, the evil path is better in ME. Even the voice actors seem to be more motivated when they speak the renegade lines.

My favorite moment is when Shepard goes all "My BFF Jill" on the reporter.

Jun 20, 2009#19

Shegokigo

So far it's been great:

Renegade is really fun to play storyline wise. I'll post a screen of my character, I'm absolutely in love with the way she came out.

Two things:
The intro main menu music reminds me VERY much of Earthbound.

The entire game has a very KOTOR feel so far, at least Eden Prime and Citadel (which is all I've seen). It's just "in the air" as you play.

Neither of those were complaints btw.
[spoiler:bfrhow0h]I feel VERY jipped by the "sex scene" between me and the consort though....[/spoiler:bfrhow0h] :eek:

rly:

Jun 21, 2009#20

B

bhamv2

Shegokigo said:
[spoiler:1uyglbp2]I feel VERY jipped by the "sex scene" between me and the consort though....[/spoiler:1uyglbp2] rly:

[spoiler:1uyglbp2]There are some who believed the hype and were up in arms about it. Sounds like you believed the hype and were expecting it too much.

[/spoiler:1uyglbp2]

Also, you're not the first one to make the comparison with KOTOR. Even some of the voice actors are the same.

Jun 21, 2009#21

Frankie Williamson

Shegokigo said:
So far it's been great:

Renegade is really fun to play storyline wise. I'll post a screen of my character, I'm absolutely in love with the way she came out.

Two things:
The intro main menu music reminds me VERY much of Earthbound.

The entire game has a very KOTOR feel so far, at least Eden Prime and Citadel (which is all I've seen). It's just "in the air" as you play.

Neither of those were complaints btw.
[spoiler:gwf5p2dy]I feel VERY jipped by the "sex scene" between me and the consort though....[/spoiler:gwf5p2dy] rly:

Did you try the shadow fixes?

Also

[spoiler:gwf5p2dy]The consort isn't the scene people were pissed about[/spoiler:gwf5p2dy]

Jun 21, 2009#22

Bowielee

Actually, I tried the shadow fixes, and they didn't do anything. I ended up turning off dynamic shadows, like I did the first time I played it.

It really looks just fine without them as far as I can see.

Jun 21, 2009#23

Frankie Williamson

That may have not been the one I used then, the trick I used actually made a difference.

I'll do some checking.

Jun 21, 2009#24

Bowielee

So, I made an Infiltrator to go down the renegade path, but my talents for sniper rifles are blacked out. Isn't that supposed to be my primary weapon as an infiltrator?

Jun 21, 2009#25

Gusto

Yay, Mass Effect! There's a game I haven't played in a while. Yea the PC version tends to crash to destop sometimes and creates lazy shadows, but I had a pretty decent time with it overall.

Jun 21, 2009#26

Dei

Bowielee said:
So, I made an Infiltrator to go down the renegade path, but my talents for sniper rifles are blacked out. Isn't that supposed to be my primary weapon as an infiltrator?

Usually that means you need to get enough points in the weapon above it first to unlock it. Honestly, dumping all your points in sniper rifle right off the bat wouldn't be a great plan anyways, just because usually when you open with a sniper rifle everything comes running at you.

-- Sun Jun 21, 2009 7:52 am --

bhamv2 said:
Shegokigo said:

[spoiler:c9rp65fs]I feel VERY jipped by the "sex scene" between me and the consort though....[/spoiler:c9rp65fs] rly:

Click to expand...

[spoiler:c9rp65fs]There are some who believed the hype and were up in arms about it. Sounds like you believed the hype and were expecting it too much. [/spoiler:c9rp65fs]

Also, you're not the first one to make the comparison with KOTOR. Even some of the voice actors are the same.

[spoiler:c9rp65fs]The second alien sex scene is much better than the consort one, but you still don't really see much except some ass.[/spoiler:c9rp65fs]

Jun 21, 2009#27

CynicismKills

Like Dei said, you might have to pump stats into Pistols first, generally about 1/3 to 1/2 way through the bar.

Also I only used Sniper Rifles in the later levels, when you get more long corridors and places to hide while Ashley could draw fire like a good decoy. :heythere:

Jun 21, 2009#28

Shegokigo

Shegokigo Shepard:

Ashley? Any good renegade wouldn't leave their ship without Wrex and Garrus!

Jun 21, 2009#29

CynicismKills

I used the Infiltrator class, so I went with Ashley and Liara, usually. Was a good balance. I'm planning to do the evil thing next playthrough so I'll probably use Wrex and someone else for that.

Jun 21, 2009#30

Shegokigo

I went infiltrator as well. :twisted:

Jun 21, 2009#31

CynicismKills

Shegokigo said:
I went infiltrator as well.

I want to play through as a Soldier, but having the mix of lockpick/decoding for chests and lockers with some pistol skill is just too good to pass up.

Jun 21, 2009#32

Necronic

Man, I was JUST bitching to my friend about this game. Maybe its better with the PC version, but I was not a fan. Part of it was that its just not that good on a console controller and a non-hi def tv (almost impossible to read the menus.) But one the thing was, either make a shooter or an RPG. Mass effect is just a bad shooter and a bad rpg to me. Although, in fairness I think that RPGs should be more like Oblivion, where I do not have to follow this story that the game wants me to, that I can go make my own story. So I guess that that kind of RPG just isn't for me.

Jun 30, 2009#33

Shegokigo

So far so good, on my way to Viremire (taking my time and doing all the side missions for my side characters) but I have a gripe:

I'm going Renegade (obviously) but sometimes the choice is dumb: Kill this NPC and get nothing, or allow it to live and get a ton of money/xp/items/shop/etc.

So I get shafted and have to take in some Paragon points. I think that's just a cop out, why not have a renegade version of the choice in those situations?

I'm also dissapointed in the lack of different types of outfits/weapons. One thing I can never stand about an rpg is getting a new item and it looking exactly the same as the ones before it, or no matter what armors I pick up, the character's look stays the same. All the items/armor in this game are pallete swaps so far.

*sigh* Otherwise, great game.

Jun 30, 2009#34

B

bhamv2

Yeah, there's not a huge variety of armor styles. I guess body armor's body armor.

Enjoy Virmire. I did.

Jun 30, 2009#35

Bowielee

Shegokigo said:
So far so good, on my way to Viremire (taking my time and doing all the side missions for my side characters) but I have a gripe:

I'm going Renegade (obviously) but sometimes the choice is dumb: Kill this NPC and get nothing, or allow it to live and get a ton of money/xp/items/shop/etc.

So I get shafted and have to take in some Paragon points. I think that's just a cop out, why not have a renegade version of the choice in those situations?

I'm also dissapointed in the lack of different types of outfits/weapons. One thing I can never stand about an rpg is getting a new item and it looking exactly the same as the ones before it, or no matter what armors I pick up, the character's look stays the same. All the items/armor in this game are pallete swaps so far.

*sigh* Otherwise, great game.

I've already played through as a paragon and I can tell you that there are probably more choices where you get nothing by going paragon, then there are by going renegade.

Jun 30, 2009#36

CynicismKills

Armor style only changes between armor classes (light/medium/heavy), and even then only a little, sadly.

Jun 30, 2009#37

Bowielee

A little side note help.

I'm playing through as a renegade infiltrator as well.

How do you finish the quest with the evangelizing alien at the space station to get renegade points? I don't want to buy the dude a lisence, as that gives paragon points, and I can't see any other way to resolve it. My intimidation is maxxed out, and no additional lines of dialogue are showing up.

Jun 30, 2009#38

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
I've already played through as a paragon and I can tell you that there are probably more choices where you get nothing by going paragon, then there are by going renegade.

My problem is not "getting nothing" by going renegade. My issue was that there were situations where there was no choice but to go Paragon unless you wanted to severely hamper your progress.

Bowielee said:
A little side note help.

I'm playing through as a renegade infiltrator as well.

How do you finish the quest with the evangelizing alien at the space station to get renegade points? I don't want to buy the dude a lisence, as that gives paragon points, and I can't see any other way to resolve it. My intimidation is maxxed out, and no additional lines of dialogue are showing up.

See my above answer. :eek:

rly:

Jun 30, 2009#39

Bowielee

Shegokigo said:
Bowielee said:

I've already played through as a paragon and I can tell you that there are probably more choices where you get nothing by going paragon, then there are by going renegade.

Click to expand...

My problem is not "getting nothing" by going renegade. My issue was that there were situations where there was no choice but to go Paragon unless you wanted to severely hamper your progress.

Bowielee said:

A little side note help.

I'm playing through as a renegade infiltrator as well.

How do you finish the quest with the evangelizing alien at the space station to get renegade points? I don't want to buy the dude a lisence, as that gives paragon points, and I can't see any other way to resolve it. My intimidation is maxxed out, and no additional lines of dialogue are showing up.

Click to expand...

See my above answer. rly:

well, balls.

Jun 30, 2009#40

Shegokigo

I just really hope there's no downside to having a bit of Paragon even though my Renegade is nearly maxed. Like some kind of "neutral ending" bullshit.

Jun 30, 2009#41

Mr_Chaz

Bowielee said:
Shegokigo said:

Bowielee said:

I've already played through as a paragon and I can tell you that there are probably more choices where you get nothing by going paragon, then there are by going renegade.

Click to expand...

My problem is not "getting nothing" by going renegade. My issue was that there were situations where there was no choice but to go Paragon unless you wanted to severely hamper your progress.

Bowielee said:

A little side note help.

I'm playing through as a renegade infiltrator as well.

How do you finish the quest with the evangelizing alien at the space station to get renegade points? I don't want to buy the dude a lisence, as that gives paragon points, and I can't see any other way to resolve it. My intimidation is maxxed out, and no additional lines of dialogue are showing up.

Click to expand...

See my above answer. rly:

Click to expand...

well, balls.

Huh, you should be able to charm & intimidate either of the evangelist or the C-Sec guy to get one of them to leave (if this is the mission I'm thinking of). Worked for me I'm sure.

Jun 30, 2009#42

Bowielee

Shegokigo said:
I just really hope there's no downside to having a bit of Paragon even though my Renegade is nearly maxed. Like some kind of "neutral ending" bullshit.

When I played Paragon, I didn't really intend to go that way, I just picked the choices that I would have hypothetically taken if it were me and I ended up with a few renegade points. I still got the Paragon ending.

Jun 30, 2009#43

Shegokigo

You can intimdate the C-Sec worker, but that doesn't "complete" the quest.

Bowielee said:
When I played Paragon, I didn't really intend to go that way, I just picked the choices that I would have hypothetically taken if it were me and I ended up with a few renegade points. I still got the Paragon ending.

Amusingly enough, every renegade point I've gotten has been due to realistic choices I'd make in the situation. Every Paragon point I've gotten has gone against ever fiber of my being. :devil:

Jun 30, 2009#44

Bowielee

Shegokigo said:
You can intimdate the C-Sec worker, but that doesn't "complete" the quest.

Bowielee said:

When I played Paragon, I didn't really intend to go that way, I just picked the choices that I would have hypothetically taken if it were me and I ended up with a few renegade points. I still got the Paragon ending.

Click to expand...

Amusingly enough, every renegade point I've gotten has been due to realistic choices I'd make in the situation. Every Paragon point I've gotten has gone against ever fiber of my being.

In related shocking news.

Water is wet.

Jun 30, 2009#45

Shegokigo

Bowielee said:
In related shocking news.

Water is wet.

Snarky comment aside:

Hey, gotta love games that really give you the option to "let loose" and just flat out enjoy watching people beg as they die. [spoiler:18euz7b5]Like the woman in the thorian plant room, telling her she dies anyway, she just kneels down accepting her fate, I walk up to her and just fire into the back of her head execution style. Now that may have caused a backlash later on, but I was already pent up from having to save the colonists with the gas grenades.....[/spoiler:18euz7b5]

Jun 30, 2009#46

Frankie Williamson

The endings [spoiler:1xd2a1i1]don't give a shit whether you went paragon or renegade. The entire ending is based on a renegade or paragon choice you make near the end regardless of what your rating is.[/spoiler:1xd2a1i1]

Jun 30, 2009#47

Nile

[spoiler:ub3eakuw]Indeed. I think the only difference between the two endings is a background color change in the final movie.[/spoiler:ub3eakuw]

Jun 30, 2009#48

Dei

There's also a Paragon only quest and a Renegade only quest, but they don't affect the ending in any way. (Also you totally dont' have to save the colonists!)

Jun 30, 2009#49

Shegokigo

Dei said:
There's also a Paragon only quest and a Renegade only quest, but they don't affect the ending in any way. (Also you totally dont' have to save the colonists!)

You don't have to, but you miss out on a ton of cash/xp/items.

Jun 30, 2009#50

Dei

My favorite Renegade storyline honestly, was the ending of Bring Down the Sky. [spoiler:32ezoup5]Even if all the hostages did die.[/spoiler:32ezoup5]

Jul 5, 2009#51

Shegokigo

Without any spoilers, is there any reason to "discover" all the "hidden" mineral deposits on each planet. It's getting tedious having to scour a whole map during side missions.

Jul 5, 2009#52

B

bhamv2

Generally speaking, no. Mineral deposits are basically there for xp grinding.

Jul 5, 2009#53

Frankie Williamson

Yeah, XP and money is all they exist for.

I thought the Mako was fun for about half an hour, then planet after planet of incredibly steep mountains taught me why I was wrong to enjoy it.

Jul 5, 2009#54

Le Quack

Don't pirate it or you'll waste about an hour of your life.

There's a part that requires the actual CD that lets you continue to the game. Many pro-pirating patches havent fixed it.

Basically I had to go buy the game.

=[

Jul 6, 2009#55

Bowielee

Le Quack said:
Don't pirate it or you'll waste about an hour of your life.

There's a part that requires the actual CD that lets you continue to the game. Many pro-pirating patches havent fixed it.

Basically I had to go buy the game.

=[

Damn them for requiring you to purchase the game. Damn them straight to hell.

:eyeroll:

Jul 6, 2009#56

DougTheHead

Shegokigo said:
Bowielee said:

In related shocking news.

Water is wet.

Click to expand...

Snarky comment aside:

Hey, gotta love games that really give you the option to "let loose" and just flat out enjoy watching people beg as they die. [spoiler:1fybeynw]Like the woman in the thorian plant room, telling her she dies anyway, she just kneels down accepting her fate, I walk up to her and just fire into the back of her head execution style. Now that may have caused a backlash later on, but I was already pent up from having to save the colonists with the gas grenades.....[/spoiler:1fybeynw]

Why the hell did you [spoiler:1fybeynw]save them with the gas grenades? The gas grenades are just a suggestion; you don't fail the mission if you kill every last one of the colonists. That's how you get a bunch of renegade points- one for each colonist you kill, I believe.[/spoiler:1fybeynw]

Jul 6, 2009#57

Shegokigo

DougTheHead said:
Why the hell did you [spoiler:3llji1o8]save them with the gas grenades? The gas grenades are just a suggestion; you don't fail the mission if you kill every last one of the colonists. That's how you get a bunch of renegade points- one for each colonist you kill, I believe.[/spoiler:3llji1o8]

Because it seriously seemed like letting them die would jeopordize the vendor/future quests.

Jul 6, 2009#58

D

Dubyamn

Shegokigo said:
DougTheHead said:

Why the * did you [spoiler:3psoslqs]save them with the gas grenades? The gas grenades are just a suggestion; you don't fail the mission if you kill every last one of the colonists. That's how you get a bunch of renegade points- one for each colonist you kill, I believe.[/spoiler:3psoslqs]

Click to expand...

Because it seriously seemed like letting them die would jeopordize the vendor/future quests.

Nope Mayor'll give you some cash afterwords and everybody'll thank you but there was no downside to running and gunning.

And don't worry about the endings. You get to choose the ending no matter how completely paragon or renegade you are.

Jul 6, 2009#59

Frankie Williamson

Shegokigo said:
I just really hope there's no downside to having a bit of Paragon even though my Renegade is nearly maxed. Like some kind of "neutral ending" bullshit.

I don't know if anyone clearly answered this in the last while but [spoiler:n3xl0qo4]there is absolutely zero penalty to having paragon points if you're renegade and vice versa.[/spoiler:n3xl0qo4]

Jul 6, 2009#60

Shegokigo

Just finished and I'm pissed off:

[spoiler:qsr21suw]Not a single word about what happens to ANY of them? No commendation for Joker for amazing/kickass piloting? Does Tali continue her pilgramage? Wrex find a cure for the Krogan? Ashely get promoted? Garrus take over C-Sec or become a Spectre? Liara go back to studying or does she continue her life with Shepard?[/spoiler:qsr21suw] Seriously? Not a single word? *sigh*

Secondly:
[spoiler:qsr21suw]NONE of my Renegade choices made a freakin difference on the ending? I mean granted, it was GREAT seeing the action/reaction of my choices throughout the game, but NO changes to the ending based on what I did all game long? Weak Bioware, really weak[/spoiler:qsr21suw]

Finally:
[spoiler:qsr21suw]THAT was the three ending choice? Council Alive, New Council with Aliens/Humans, Council with just Humans? Ooooh Big freaking difference[/spoiler:qsr21suw]

All in all, fantastic game, really let down on the ending. Some say it's all about the journey, I'll partially agree there. The journey that it took me on was great.

Jul 6, 2009#61

B

bhamv2

If you think of it as the first installment in what'll probably a trilogy or more, the ending is a bit more palpable.

And it sounds like you decided to [spoiler:289qm7k2]sacrifice Kaiden[/spoiler:289qm7k2]. I usually do the same.

Jul 6, 2009#62

Shegokigo

bhamv2 said:
And it sounds like you decided to [spoiler:9pyatbq3]sacrifice Kaiden[/spoiler:9pyatbq3]. I usually do the same.

Well obviously. :eyeroll:

Jul 6, 2009#63

Frankie Williamson

I actually liked Kaiden. Dude had a rough go at life and didn't seem to let any of it bug him too much. Though, I also liked Ashley the God fearin' space racist too, despite her terrifying dead eyes.

Jul 6, 2009#64

Math242

Kaidan is not a great character but he's pretty badass when played right.

Kaidan+wrex+my bastion adept = most effective team ever.

Jul 6, 2009#65

Shegokigo

It was all about Garrus+Liara+Infiltrator for me that go around.

Next I'm going Wrex+Tali+Soldier.

Jul 6, 2009#66

Math242

try a bastion adept with shotgun.

you're not going to believe how powerful it really is until you play it.

I thought my inf was hot stuff (i played the game 5 times so far), boy was i wrong

Soldier is boring. if you're gonna play Tali+Wrex, take a vanguard

Jul 6, 2009#67

Shegokigo

Well the reason for Soldier is that I already played the game "at a distance", now I wanna get my hands nice and bloody on the front line, and Tech/Biotec don't seem the way to go for that route.

Jul 6, 2009#68

Math242

vanguard is the most in your face class =)

shotgun <3

Jul 6, 2009#69

DougTheHead

The decisions you make in Mass Effect 1 don't effect that game's ending so much, but from what I've heard they determine a lot about what happens in Mass Effect 2. I can't tell if this is the coolest thing ever, or a marketing ploy to force you to buy all 3 games and play through them 6 different times.

Jul 6, 2009#70

Shegokigo

Ok, now see, THAT would be great.

Kinda like "if you killed person A, then person B would come seeking revenge"? That would be fantastic.

Especially on Viremire, it had some delectable kill choices: [spoiler:3duadg96]Kill the Husks that were still Salarian instead of leaving them, killing the researcher below Saren's Lab, etc[/spoiler:3duadg96]

Jul 7, 2009#71

B

bhamv2

Just remembered something.

Mock Effect. Funny Mass Effect fanfiction.

Jul 13, 2009#72

Frankie Williamson

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclu ... fect/52551

UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGH Godddddd.....yeah...

Jul 13, 2009#73

Shegokigo

Frankie said:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-reveal-mass-effect/52551

UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UNF UUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGH Godddddd.....yeah...

*gleeeeeeeeeeee!* :hump:

Aug 23, 2009#74

Ravenpoe

Somehow I missed this thread when it first appeared.

I just started playing Mass Effect as well, and after fixing a few lines in the ini as well as downloading the Bring Down the Sky DLC (which includes patch 1.01a) the shadows look much improved. The only thing I ever turn off is the film grain, because I want to look at the pretty graphics undistorted, dammit!

A storm knocked out my internet access over a long weekend, so I ended up playing through in one long sitting (over two days). I went the good path, when I normally do the evil thing, because people looked to me like some goddamn war hero. I couldn't let them down! Playing a soldier was awesome, and towards the end I was a walking, invincible death machine.

I played a biotic briefly, grinding mostly to unlock the singularity bonus talent, and am now playing through again as a renegade vanguard. So far, I think I'm willing to say that pistols are OP, even more useful than the assault rifle (at least on Veteran difficulty, haven't tried hardcore yet). Can't wait to do an infiltrator next.

This is the first game that I've ever completed, and then immediately wanted to play through again. I left a LOT of side-quests undone though, so it's time to explore planets this time around.

Aug 23, 2009#75

Necronic

I may have to give this game another chance, but my first impression of it was bad enough that it has sat on my shelf ever since. The inventory system, the level tree, and the fact that only one class could use the assault rifle was enough to kill the game for me the first time through.

That and the fact that I couldn't read dick on my normal TV.

Aug 23, 2009#76

Ravenpoe

Necronic said:
I may have to give this game another chance, but my first impression of it was bad enough that it has sat on my shelf ever since. The inventory system, the level tree, and the fact that only one class could use the assault rifle was enough to kill the game for me the first time through.

That and the fact that I couldn't read dick on my normal TV.

The game uses an achievement system to unlock bonus talents. If you kill 150 enemies with the assault rifle, you unlock the achievement and the bonus talent, meaning you can assign the assault rifle skill to any future character you make.

Aug 24, 2009#77

Koko

Ravenpoe said:
The game uses an achievement system to unlock bonus talents. If you kill 150 enemies with the assault rifle, you unlock the achievement and the bonus talent, meaning you can assign the assault rifle skill to any future character you make.

And you can go to a world of unlimited monkeys and get that achievement rather quickly.
If you don't mind lighting up monkey things.

Aug 24, 2009#78

Frankie Williamson

Killing monkey's pumps your renegade rating, if you're into that sort of thing.

Aug 24, 2009#79

JONJONAUG

So can we finally have male homosexual relations in this game?

Aug 24, 2009#80

@Li3n

JONJONAUG said:
So can we finally have male homosexual relations in this game?

Hahaha... yeah right, that will happen.

Aug 24, 2009#81

Shegokigo

Gotta love how they argued the "It's not lesbianism cause she's multi-sexual". So in essense if you chose the male path and slept with "her/him" you were being as "homo-erotic" as the female storyline choosing "her/him".

Aug 24, 2009#82

Jay

The hell with this... I want to see some robot action. CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK oooh HK-47.... [Sadness] "Ooooh-hohoho, you're probing something, but I don't think it's getting anything fixed."

fuck ya

Aug 25, 2009#83

Ravenpoe

So, with new DLC on the way for Mass Effect, Bioware has released the 1.02 patch for the game. You can get it here: http://masseffect.bioware.com/me1/pc/updates/index.html

What does this patch do? Well...

* The player will no longer become stuck in the Feros elevator
* Quickslot abilities are now disabled in elevators
* The pixilated bloom and DoF on Radeon x1650 and x1950 cards has been addressed
* GPF crashes when playing Quasar have been addressed
* The player's weapon will not auto fire if the fire button is released as an active loading screen appears
* Low LOD on Garrus' face has been addressed
* Reconfiguring the PRIMARY INTERACT key (Default set to E) to any other key will no longer make the ENTER key interact TWICE when used.
* Player will not become stuck in his action station in elevators (primarily occurred in the Peak 15 elevators)
* Occasional crash when encountering Rachni on UNC_73 has been addressed
* Using the enter key to add and remove talent points will function properly
* GUI: Pressing U when first getting control of Shepard and then pressing ESC to close it will not cause the player to lose all input functionality
* Romance confrontation conversation will fire after 3rd planet complete
* The player will no longer become stuck when using the Enter key rather than the primary interact key to initiate conversation with certain followers on the Normandy
* Audio skipping during conversations has been addressed
* Addressed cases where Realtec HD audio users were experiencing issues with cut off / crackling audio after patching the game to version 1.01
* The issue regarding dynamic character shadows appearing grainy has been resolved.
* Nihilus and all Turians are no longer missing their face markings
* The issue of Garrus having no lighting on his face until a save is loaded has been addressed
* The game will now create save files when "My Documents" is set to the root of a drive

Aug 25, 2009#84

Frankie Williamson

THANK.

FUCKING.

GOD.

It only took a year and a half.

Aug 25, 2009#85

bhamv3

I'm just glad they remembered to patch at all, with ME2 coming out and everything.

Aug 25, 2009#86

Frankie Williamson

Yeah, so I installed the patch.

Now my ingame textures are all super low res, even though it's set to ultra high. Doesn't matter which settings I change, the game looks like shit now.

FUCKING AWESOME PATCH.

Aug 25, 2009#87

bhamv3

Okay, I'm not installing yet.

Aug 25, 2009#88

Ravenpoe

Frankie said:
Yeah, so I installed the patch.

Now my ingame textures are all super low res, even though it's set to ultra high. Doesn't matter which settings I change, the game looks like shit now.

FUCKING AWESOME PATCH.

Are you using the steam version? If so, there might be a seperate patch needed to download through steam. This was the case with the 1.01a patch, at least.

However, it could be that the shader cache needs to be reset. Run the configuration utility, and click on the repair tab. (Note: If you're running vista, and repair doesn't show, then run the utility in windows xp sp2 compatability mode).

In the repair tab, the last option should be 'delete local shaders cache' or something like that. Just click it. It won't give a confirmation, but it will delete the appropriate files. When you run the game again, it will take it a bit longer to start than normal, as it has to recache those shaders, but it should fix things.

Aug 25, 2009#89

Frankie Williamson

I don't have the Steam version, HOWEVER, after restarting my PC it went back to looking normal.

Aug 25, 2009#90

Bubble181

Never did end up buying this, mostly because of the DRM...Eh. Should I bother? I liked KotOR and KotOR2 well enough, I absolutely loved the Witcher, which all seem to be the most similar games...But I've heard a lot of hype and not really all that much *really* great about it. I'm not playing something KotOR-like with less choices and a less appealing universe :confused:

Aug 25, 2009#91

bhamv3

The Mass Effect universe is incredibly deep and detailed. I remember spending hours just reading the codex entries on the history, planets, alien races and conflicts of the past. The storyline's decent enough, kept me interested throughout the whole thing. Gameplay's solid, if nothing groundbreaking. Some annoying bugs though, some of which were fixed by the patches.

All in all, it's very much a great game, though probably not the "best game evar" as the hype might lead you to believe.

Aug 25, 2009#92

Ravenpoe

Bubble181 said:
Never did end up buying this, mostly because of the DRM...Eh. Should I bother? I liked KotOR and KotOR2 well enough, I absolutely loved the Witcher, which all seem to be the most similar games...But I've heard a lot of hype and not really all that much *really* great about it. I'm not playing something KotOR-like with less choices and a less appealing universe

The DRM doesn't bother me at all. Sure, it'd be much cooler if they were like the Witcher team and patched out the DRM, but in practice it isn't really that intrusive. It validates online once when you install the game, and once more whenever you install a patch. After that, it never needs validation again.

I love the game, and I love the universe it's set in. While the game does have a very KOTOR meets action sort of vibe to it, the setting itself is actually quite different. It's high sci-fi, with all the tropes and pseudo-scientific hand waving that comes with it, as opposed to the space fantasy SW setting.

In short, all I can really say is that it's fucking Bioware. I mean, if that doesn't do it for you, then I don't know what else to say.

Aug 25, 2009#93

Bubble181

Bioware's delivered greatness and craptastic stuff. And DRM doesn't need to want ot validate every time to irk me - the fact that it wants me to hook up my gaming pc to the 'net - at all - irritates me. That it installs stuff I don't want on my pc adds to it.
Ehh, I'll get it eventually, I guess. Now busy with Spellforce 2 :-P

Aug 25, 2009#94

Frankie Williamson

The only thing Bioware's ever really underdelivered on was Jade Empire.

Their track record is pretty solid.

Aug 28, 2009#95

Ravenpoe

So, I finally got a chance to try out that new patch, and will soon be playing the new DLC (once I get around to actually doing Bring Down the Sky).

All I can say is... Garrus face isn't fixed. They meant to fix it, even put it in the patch notes, and then accidently released the patch before the fix was put in.

At least the shadows look much nicer.

Aug 28, 2009#96

AshburnerX

Frankie said:
The only thing Bioware's ever really underdelivered on was Jade Empire.

Their track record is pretty solid.

What was the problem with Jade Empire? It was well written and fun to play.

Aug 28, 2009#97

Frankie Williamson

There's nothing wrong with a game written and created by white people in the middle of prairie country in western Canada that has overtly stereotypical asian names and a white voice cast doing wang chung asian accents.

Like one of my Chinese born friends once said, "It looks like if I had made a game about white people in powdered wigs duelling with names like Lightning Jackson and Kentucky Fried Michael."

Aug 28, 2009#98

Bubble181

I just noticed I mistaknely thought KotOR was by Obsidian and KotOR 2 was by Bioware. Man, my brain's been acting funky lately. Sorry about that. Ok, in that case, Bioware does have a pretty great set of games to their name.

Aug 29, 2009#99

Ravenpoe

I thought KotOR was the better game, but 2 had the better story.

Seriously, I loved 2. Even with all the flaws. Oh... what could have been.

Aug 29, 2009#100

Bubble181

I loved 2 as well. It was just released in a state not worthy of a game. Seriously, it's not strictly speaking the most fucked up game I've ever played in terms of lack of testing and such, but you can really see the potentioin shine through, and see how completely screwed over it came out, it's just not funny.
I've played through KotOR 3 times, I think, and KotOR2 four or five, but...*sigh* Oh, restoration projects, where art thou?

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