Will looking at the achievement list spoil the game? Because I'm really curious to see it after what people said about it in the old thread, but I don't want to be spoiled.
It is incomprehensible unless you have played the game.
Not to mention nearly all of them are 'use this item x amount of times'
Will looking at the achievement list spoil the game? Because I'm really curious to see it after what people said about it in the old thread, but I don't want to be spoiled.
It has a few spoilers in it, but without context, the spoilers don't actually mean anything.
Well I gave in. Those are interesting achievements, one of the few lists where I feel obligated to get all of them.
What is the purpose of restarting your game with the level 50 character, though? I'm assuming that the enemies are scaled up in response, but since you can only get to level 60 after that, doesn't it completely kill the whole levelling up thing that is so core to RPGs? And I guess you could completely shift your alignment, but it still seems a lot like intentionally doing the same thing twice (even though I played through KOTOR several times as essentially the same character, I hope you see my point).
That "Majority of the game" stuff is annoying, though.
Those are always neat. You replay the game as your beefed up character and do things you didn't do your first go around.
Simple as that.
Yeah, but what's the point unless you unlock new items by playing +? I would rather play with a new character. Besides, I intend to do everything my first time through if at all possible.
I don't think so. Your choice of "Earthborn/Spacer/Colonist" and "Ruthless/War Hero/Sole Survivor", along with your sex and your alignment, affect which quests are available to you.
Also, is there like an actually gradient from "Evil" to "Good", or is it the usual "Pansy Fairy Fuck who's loved by everyone" or "combination of Hitler and Skeletor who's very piss is pure liquid malevolence" with no in between.
I don't think so. Your choice of "Earthborn/Spacer/Colonist" and "Ruthless/War Hero/Sole Survivor", along with your sex and your alignment, affect which quests are available to you.
Besides being slightly annoying, if cool, then that would be even more reason to start over with a new character, because you can't change your reused characters past.
Also, is there like an actually gradient from "Evil" to "Good", or is it the usual "Pansy Fairy Fuck who's loved by everyone" or "combination of Hitler and Skeletor who's very piss is pure liquid malevolence" with no in between.
You're always "good," it's just whether you are (to steal a metaphor from someone in the old thread) Jack Bauer good or Superman good. So I would say it's a bit more realistic. I don't know how much of a gradient there is, but Bioware said that it's nearly impossible to be purely Paragon or purely Renegade (they are two separate bars).
Good god damn I wish MS would just give up on the street date by now.
It seems to be on the West Coast now or tomorrow. Try your luck and mom and pop shops. No one ever breaks street dates in SoCal. But I got lucky. I get to make my own shepard tomorrow.
Good god damn I wish MS would just give up on the street date by now.
It seems to be on the West Coast now or tomorrow. Try your luck and mom and pop shops. No one ever breaks street dates in SoCal. But I got lucky. I get to make my own shepard tomorrow.
I'm headed up to my main store tomorrow after work for Assassin's Creed. It's a big chain, but I'm on good terms with the manager and he's let me grab games before the street date before. If he has Mass Effect in, I might just get lucky.
Of course, then Assassin's Creed will just gather dust for a few weeks.
This weekend has been pretty brutal for me game-wise without much fun/new to play, but in the next day or so I'll have Assassin's Creed and Bioshock (from Gamefly), then Mass Effect next week. And I'll have Everquest 2 just TAUNTING me to start playing whenever I clear that queue.
Throw in a half dozen or so things I have to do to apply for a new job I REALLY, REALLY want...
I'm glad I have a few vacation days at the end of the month.
Once I get Mass Effect I may not come up for air for a few days, screw the other stuff!
1) Hopefully it isn't Yahtzee's interpretation of Fable. Paragon is generally law-abiding and Renegade usually involves breaking the rules, but Paragon isn't as puppy-petting as, say, Light Side in KotOR. Renegade is meant to be "the guy willing to make some sacrifices to get the job done," so you're still fighting the bad guys, and the designers didn't need to do backflips to explain why Shepard doesn't join forces with Saren right away to take over the galaxy... but you're fighting Saren in a manner that results in a few more innocent corpses along the way.
2) Unlike in KotOR (or in D&D), where doing an evil deed lowers your GOOD rating, Paragon and Renegade are two completely different variables. You never lose Paragon points. You just gain Renegade points instead. There will be times where you have to choose whether you're going to gain Paragon or Renegade from a certain action, but there will also be times where one action is the default action, and doesn't give you Paragon or Renegade, and the other action is an "above and beyond" action that gives you some Paragon or Renegade game. So with that in mind, it's possible to do one playthrough as Paragon as possible, then go totally Renegade on the next playthrough with the same character. It's also possible to play a balanced character who makes some choices one way and some the other way, and you won't be "Joe Average, with no special stuff" like you would have been in KotOR if you alternated Light and Dark-side choices. You'll just get around 50% on each scale... not enough to unlock the sweet end benefits on either scale, but enough to unlock the cool introductory benefits on both.
Sweet. I was hoping that there were some choices which had options which didn't force you down one or the other, and that if you did play a more balanced character you didn't lose out.
Good god damn I wish MS would just give up on the street date by now.
It seems to be on the West Coast now or tomorrow. Try your luck and mom and pop shops. No one ever breaks street dates in SoCal. But I got lucky. I get to make my own shepard tomorrow.
I'm headed up to my main store tomorrow after work for Assassin's Creed. It's a big chain, but I'm on good terms with the manager and he's let me grab games before the street date before. If he has Mass Effect in, I might just get lucky.
Of course, then Assassin's Creed will just gather dust for a few weeks.
Let us know if you get it, Bionic, or PM me with the location, I'd be more than willing to drive from Hillsboro to pick it up.
Question about street dates. Um... what's the deal?
My basic understanding: product is delivered to retailer, often times days/weeks in advance of release date for logistical purposes. However, the manufacturer/copyright holder has stringent requirements re: the date of public sale. This is for whatever reason but mainly, I assume, to coordinate public interest (and thus sales) and to avoid the dreadful spoilers that will dissuade gameday purchases. For example, I can see how it'd be disastrous for a Harry Potter book to be sold days early.
So... why do stores get away with it with games? Mass Effect's gotta' sell upwards of 250,000 copies. That's up over $10 million dollars. How can games just break street date like that? For that kind of money I can see entire electronics departments being shut down.
Also, I was pulling batches in the electronic stockroom at Target maybe... a week, a week and a half back. Anyway, there was some box that had a prominent 'street date' sticker on it. I don't remember what it was, but it was already open (albeit packed tightly and not missing any games). Out of curiosity I scanned it (nop) and got unfilled planogram. When I subt'd it, though, it did show copies in the stockroom. It also showed a price. I'm relatively confident that I could have bought a copy that day without really getting caught, especially if I paid in cash.
How does that just... happen? Why don't games leak more regularly? If you're discreet about it and your manager trusts you to keep your mouth shut, can't you just take stuff?
Are there inspectors from Harmonix/EA/Bioware whatever that come around day of release to insure the entire shipment's still there?
Or do all games pretty much break street date (however limited) and I just don't know about it?
Tell him, from me, that I now have the Completionist achievement, as well as Quarian and Soldier Ally, meaning I've played through a crapload of the game, and "I Remember Me" still stands out as:
not only the best-written of the sidequests, but goddamn gut-wrenching when you fail (even if you canreload and try again).
Kickass. Will do:
Gut-wrenching was what he was going for.
Hostile Takeover is among my favorites because:
Helena Blake is just a damn interesting character in her own way. Really enjoyed that one and the multitude of options involved at the end. Reloaded and tried all kinds of different endings to see the dialogue.
I enjoyed writing that one:
The writers were kicking around ideas for one of your basic "crimelord who sends you after other crimelords" plots, and we were trying to figure out how to make it unique, and then one of us said, "Hey, what if you were sent to kill those people and then the original quest giver doesn't betray you?" We all looked at each other and went, "Yeah, wouldn't expect that from one of our games."
And while I can't say this about everything, that plot is just fucking made by the voice actor. I wrote "refined British-type woman" and hoped it would turn out well, and she just nailed it.
(Unlike other stuff I wrote. Did you play the plot with the pregnant woman arguing with her brother in law?
Man, I loved that plot. I was like, "Yeah, this is a sensitive and gentle portrayal of people in turmoil, and it raises important issues!", and then the voice actor sort of went to 11 on the emo and it reads like bad soap opera. Um. I should probably be diplomatically not saying that, but really... I'm new to BioWare (this is my first shipped game), and I might have botched the VO comments.
My third favorite is probably the one I just finished. Shepard Unleashed:
Don't remember the title offhand but I went to negotiate with some interstellar Warlord and he spent the whole time talking down to me. My options were either kiss his ass or blow his head off. I went the route that involved the most gunfire.
Playing Renegade, huh?
I wrote that one, too. (You've just pinged about half the stuff I wrote for the game. I was a writer on another project, and I came in to kind of pinch-hit when one of the main writers threw his back out and was out of work for two months. So every romance, every major world, the critpath... yeah, none of that is me. I got to write the tiny stuff, and there's a way in which that was fantastic, because once you get over the ego-bruising of not having a planet of your very own, you realize that those dinky plots have a lot of freedom, and you can get away with stuff you'd never be able to do in the critpath.)
That plot unlocks when you hit a certain Renegade level. As I recall, the lead writer gave me very specific instructions on that plot. I was asked to do my damnedest to write a plot in which it was technically possible to get out of it without violence, no persuades necessary, no special skill... but which nobody would ever get through without gunning the guy down. The tech designer who implemented that plot told me over lunch that even when he was playtesting it specifically to make sure that the peaceful ending worked, he gave in and killed the guy the first time he tried to test it. I think it was when the warlord asked him to say "Please."
Anyway, glad you're liking it. I can't wait to see how combat feels. (After playing it at 5 FPS with crashes every time you activated a biotic power, I'm pretty sure that anything is gonna be an improvement, but I'm still curious...)
Hostile Takeover:
I didn't realize it until you pointed it out, but that's exactly why the quest seems so original and cool even though you're right that there has always been a version of it. Not having the quest giver betray the player is just so... well... classy. It makes the standard dark/lightside conflict seem to lean a little more toward grey that there's this honorable thief who's going to restrict her gang to smuggling illegal technologies. No slavery, no drugs. Also the British-ish VA does help. Is that the same actress as Dr. Chakwas?
RE: The other quest you wrote:
Yeah, I saw the "Girl's pregnant with the brother's baby" one. um... wow. That's one of those quests you find in a BioWare game where you just kind of go... Why the hell are these people listening to my opinion? The dialogue was really good and everything and the intimidate options were pretty hilarious, but it's so out of left field in terms of subject matter that you find yourself looking askance at the screen just a little bit going "Why are they arguing about this in the middle of a busy thoroughfare in the rich part of town?"
Shepard Unleashed:
Yeah, I killed him the first time too, but I already had so many Renegade points by that time that I reloaded and went through trying to find a Paragon solution. Hackett's reaction afterward was pretty close to priceless. "Well, to tell you the truth commander, we kind of expected you to kill him." I'm paraphrasing because I only heard it once, still funny though.
Other side quests that stand out:
-Dr. Saleon - Garrus' sidequest. Not so much the quest itself, but the Garrus conversations leading up to it. "Yes, Krogan testicles run for 10,000 credits apiece. That's 40,000 for a full set."
-Mallene somethingorother. Asari Businesswoman on Noveria who wants you to bug an opposing businessman. I didn't have the intimidate to go through the whole conversation with Vargas, so I just turned her in. Then lied about it. Then intimidated her for more money.
-Khalisa al-Jilani - Tabloid reporter when you revisit the Citadel. Many fun conversation options there. Though most of my choices seemed to have the same end result.
Punched her right in the ovaries.
-Samesh Bhatia - Guy who wanted his dead wife back. This was one of the harder ones to decide how to proceed. Because both sides are incredibly reasonable and seem equally deserving in different ways. Very well done.
I haven't found a "This guy's on trial for something or other, convince these seven judges blahblah." That's pretty much a staple, is it in there somewhere?
Anyway, it's all very well done and, most important of all, none of them seem broken or like I can get stuck in an unfinishable position. Which is a first for a BioWare title.
Most games that are not a huge release don't arrive at stores until literally their day of release, so in most cases there's simply no opportunity to break street date.
In the cases where games arrive substantially early, it is a total crapshoot whether or not it gets sold early. Some stores have their systems set up so that a game cannot be scanned or sold until the date, so those are safe. And some...don't. And the longer a game sits in a stock room, the more likely it is to get sold.
Also, your estimate of 250,000 copies is, I think, dreadfully low. But even with that kind of clout, publishers aren't always willing to push the issue, especially with powerhouses like Walmart and Best Buy.
Some stores have their systems set up so that a game cannot be scanned or sold until the date, so those are safe. And some...don't. And the longer a game sits in a stock room, the more likely it is to get sold.
Hmmm. This has definite possibilities, considering the managers at my store.
Also, your estimate of 250,000 copies is, I think, dreadfully low. But even with that kind of clout, publishers aren't always willing to push the issue, especially with powerhouses like Walmart and Best Buy.
Yeah, I was just taking a wild guess. I know nothing about game sales levels. I just Wikipedia'd how much skate sold and cut it in half. I didn't know Mass Effect was all that popular outside of sci-fi nerds.
I got the tracking info email just a bit ago. I will check to see its progress tomorrow, but hopefully I will get my ebay-purchased copy Wednesday.
I just so happen to have gotten time off work Friday through Sunday for a hospital check-up, but it turns out I won't be put under, so that means the weekend will be Mass Effect weekend.
]Yeah, I was just taking a wild guess. I know nothing about game sales levels. I just Wikipedia'd how much skate sold and cut it in half. I didn't know Mass Effect was all that popular outside of sci-fi nerds.
I feel safe in saying that if Mass Effect sells only 250k copies, BioWare will be taking a huge loss, both financially and morally.
Posts
It is incomprehensible unless you have played the game.
Not to mention nearly all of them are 'use this item x amount of times'
What is the purpose of restarting your game with the level 50 character, though? I'm assuming that the enemies are scaled up in response, but since you can only get to level 60 after that, doesn't it completely kill the whole levelling up thing that is so core to RPGs? And I guess you could completely shift your alignment, but it still seems a lot like intentionally doing the same thing twice (even though I played through KOTOR several times as essentially the same character, I hope you see my point).
That "Majority of the game" stuff is annoying, though.
Those are always neat. You replay the game as your beefed up character and do things you didn't do your first go around.
Simple as that.
Or so I heard. I may be wrong.
I am such a whore for new loot. Yet weirdly, I hate MMOs.
Also, is there like an actually gradient from "Evil" to "Good", or is it the usual "Pansy Fairy Fuck who's loved by everyone" or "combination of Hitler and Skeletor who's very piss is pure liquid malevolence" with no in between.
It seems to be on the West Coast now or tomorrow. Try your luck and mom and pop shops. No one ever breaks street dates in SoCal. But I got lucky. I get to make my own shepard tomorrow.
Final Fantasy XI -> Carbuncle - Samash
I'm headed up to my main store tomorrow after work for Assassin's Creed. It's a big chain, but I'm on good terms with the manager and he's let me grab games before the street date before. If he has Mass Effect in, I might just get lucky.
Of course, then Assassin's Creed will just gather dust for a few weeks.
Me too, Shoe. Me too.
totally
goddammit canada
Throw in a half dozen or so things I have to do to apply for a new job I REALLY, REALLY want...
I'm glad I have a few vacation days at the end of the month.
Once I get Mass Effect I may not come up for air for a few days, screw the other stuff!
Two notes about the alignment style:
1) Hopefully it isn't Yahtzee's interpretation of Fable. Paragon is generally law-abiding and Renegade usually involves breaking the rules, but Paragon isn't as puppy-petting as, say, Light Side in KotOR. Renegade is meant to be "the guy willing to make some sacrifices to get the job done," so you're still fighting the bad guys, and the designers didn't need to do backflips to explain why Shepard doesn't join forces with Saren right away to take over the galaxy... but you're fighting Saren in a manner that results in a few more innocent corpses along the way.
2) Unlike in KotOR (or in D&D), where doing an evil deed lowers your GOOD rating, Paragon and Renegade are two completely different variables. You never lose Paragon points. You just gain Renegade points instead. There will be times where you have to choose whether you're going to gain Paragon or Renegade from a certain action, but there will also be times where one action is the default action, and doesn't give you Paragon or Renegade, and the other action is an "above and beyond" action that gives you some Paragon or Renegade game. So with that in mind, it's possible to do one playthrough as Paragon as possible, then go totally Renegade on the next playthrough with the same character. It's also possible to play a balanced character who makes some choices one way and some the other way, and you won't be "Joe Average, with no special stuff" like you would have been in KotOR if you alternated Light and Dark-side choices. You'll just get around 50% on each scale... not enough to unlock the sweet end benefits on either scale, but enough to unlock the cool introductory benefits on both.
Anyone who's played feel free to elaborate.
and posting in an unlocked thread like pharezon says
because they're stupid and posting in a thread that shouldn't be unlocked
edit: If I can grab a copy before rush hour, perhaps Pharezon could be playing too. Perhaps.
So Cal FTW
Final Fantasy XI -> Carbuncle - Samash
Let us know if you get it, Bionic, or PM me with the location, I'd be more than willing to drive from Hillsboro to pick it up.
now this is the CURRENT thread and I win.
I think I might change the title of the other thread to spite you just because you're Shoe.
don't you
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Now I feel that everybody has the game except me. I hate broken street dates.
Why did I watch those dialogue videos when I don't have the money for an Xbox 360? Why?
Fuuuuuck
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You don't get to walk away, Olivaw. You've seen too many conversations.
it's not all that hot. but also, I didn't see a thorax bristling with nipples.
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My basic understanding: product is delivered to retailer, often times days/weeks in advance of release date for logistical purposes. However, the manufacturer/copyright holder has stringent requirements re: the date of public sale. This is for whatever reason but mainly, I assume, to coordinate public interest (and thus sales) and to avoid the dreadful spoilers that will dissuade gameday purchases. For example, I can see how it'd be disastrous for a Harry Potter book to be sold days early.
So... why do stores get away with it with games? Mass Effect's gotta' sell upwards of 250,000 copies. That's up over $10 million dollars. How can games just break street date like that? For that kind of money I can see entire electronics departments being shut down.
Also, I was pulling batches in the electronic stockroom at Target maybe... a week, a week and a half back. Anyway, there was some box that had a prominent 'street date' sticker on it. I don't remember what it was, but it was already open (albeit packed tightly and not missing any games). Out of curiosity I scanned it (nop) and got unfilled planogram. When I subt'd it, though, it did show copies in the stockroom. It also showed a price. I'm relatively confident that I could have bought a copy that day without really getting caught, especially if I paid in cash.
How does that just... happen? Why don't games leak more regularly? If you're discreet about it and your manager trusts you to keep your mouth shut, can't you just take stuff?
Are there inspectors from Harmonix/EA/Bioware whatever that come around day of release to insure the entire shipment's still there?
Or do all games pretty much break street date (however limited) and I just don't know about it?
Hostile Takeover:
RE: The other quest you wrote:
Shepard Unleashed:
Other side quests that stand out:
-Mallene somethingorother. Asari Businesswoman on Noveria who wants you to bug an opposing businessman. I didn't have the intimidate to go through the whole conversation with Vargas, so I just turned her in. Then lied about it. Then intimidated her for more money.
-Khalisa al-Jilani - Tabloid reporter when you revisit the Citadel. Many fun conversation options there. Though most of my choices seemed to have the same end result.
I haven't found a "This guy's on trial for something or other, convince these seven judges blahblah." That's pretty much a staple, is it in there somewhere?
Anyway, it's all very well done and, most important of all, none of them seem broken or like I can get stuck in an unfinishable position. Which is a first for a BioWare title.
Simply outstanding.
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In the cases where games arrive substantially early, it is a total crapshoot whether or not it gets sold early. Some stores have their systems set up so that a game cannot be scanned or sold until the date, so those are safe. And some...don't. And the longer a game sits in a stock room, the more likely it is to get sold.
Also, your estimate of 250,000 copies is, I think, dreadfully low. But even with that kind of clout, publishers aren't always willing to push the issue, especially with powerhouses like Walmart and Best Buy.
Hmmm. This has definite possibilities, considering the managers at my store.
Yeah, I was just taking a wild guess. I know nothing about game sales levels. I just Wikipedia'd how much skate sold and cut it in half. I didn't know Mass Effect was all that popular outside of sci-fi nerds.
I just so happen to have gotten time off work Friday through Sunday for a hospital check-up, but it turns out I won't be put under, so that means the weekend will be Mass Effect weekend.
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