Mass Effect DRM detailed

[Cogar]

The revised activation policy is definitely a step in the right direction, which should create less inconvenience for the people who are actually purchasing the game.

[traveler]

Is Mass Effect first person?

[TQ]

Third person.

[polonyc2]

Mass Effect (PC) review

"It almost goes without saying that BioWare remains one of the very top single-player RPG makers on the planet, and Mass Effect only reinforces their position. This is easily one of the best RPGs on the platform in recent years, delivering a terrific new universe, a fun blend of action and role-playing, and a deeply satisfying story. If you have any love of science fiction or space opera, then you owe it to yourself to check it out."

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[traveler]

Interesting. From the review -

First, here's a disclaimer: I played Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 last year and it was an excellent and engrossing game then. The PC game is identical in terms of content, and yet I still found myself engaged and enthralled by the universe. In fact, I caught quite a bit that I missed on the Xbox 360 with the PC game, like a number of side quests that I never knew existed. So if you've already played the Xbox 360 game, there's still plenty to discover in the PC game, plus you can enjoy higher resolutions, faster load times, more save slots than you can shake a stick at, and the precision of the keyboard-and-mouse controls, to just name a few benefits. And if you haven't played Mass Effect, then you need to.

[ATINUT]

I got my copy of Mass Effect today, however I'm not going to start playing it until I get through the RPG Lost Odyssey on my XBOX 360.

[polonyc2]

I'm still deciding whether or not to get the game...I'm not a huge fan of 3rd person games...I wish Mass Effect was 1st person then I would have definitely gotten it...after recently finishing Assassin's Creed I realized that playing 3rd person games once in awhile is OK but not all the time

[TQ]

My copy arrived yesterday. I installed it last night and configured my character (Soldier/War Hero).
Interesting how the game auto-detected my system and configured it almost exactly the way I would have: 1680x1050, high-quality graphic everything. The only thing it defaulted to that I changed was audio, as it chose "software" and I changed it to "hardware".
Fantastic looking game. I can't wait to get into it this weekend.

[polonyc2]

Mass Effect for PC has been released in North America, and BioWare will soon make available the free 'Bring Down the Sky' Downloadable Content (DLC) for the PC version. To make sure you can access this DLC quickly when available, register for a BioWare Community account at the link below...

Mass Effect Community

[Cogar]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

I'm still deciding whether or not to get the game...I'm not a huge fan of 3rd person games...I wish Mass Effect was 1st person then I would have definitely gotten it...after recently finishing Assassin's Creed I realized that playing 3rd person games once in awhile is OK but not all the time

It seems that most everyone who uses first person perspective can do it well, but third person is done many ways and a lot of them are a pain to use, have poor camera angles, etc. It would be nice if first person/third person perspective was selectable as it is with Oblivion, Morrowind, Vampire Bloodlines, etc.

[traveler]

Originally Posted by TQ

[snip]

The only thing it defaulted to that I changed was audio, as it chose "software" and I changed it to "hardware".
Fantastic looking game. I can't wait to get into it this weekend.

And the differences are??? In computer performance and to the ear?

[TQ]

Originally Posted by traveler

And the differences are??? In computer performance and to the ear?

Couldn't tell you. Since I had the option I set it to "hardware" and didn't see any reason to A/B the two.

[BPW]

Originally Posted by yamawho

Man ... glad I'm not much of a gamer.

The trend may push more towards console gaming and as less PC games get sold, the price will increase effectively killing off PC gaming.

Is it just me or it there much less games available these days ...

I used to be a gamer, but no longer, so I'm not too excited about that copy-protection junk either. But guess what - more intrusive anti-piracy mechanisms will also get established with ordinary application software in the future.

As far as the new PC games issue is concerned, I've got the same feeling. There don't seem to many great new PC games around, and most of them are either not appealing to me (like Bioshock) or are just a graphically enhanced "been-there-done-that" experience (Crysis).

In case I feel the urge to play a game occasionally, I find myself playing the old classics like HL1-based stuff, UT2k3/4 or IL2.
All of this is quite old already. Maybe I'm getting old as well ...

[Cogar]

AAA game franchises are becoming more like movie projects, complete with a host of people involved in their production. Although this results in a game that is technically superior, the game play of virtually all of them has declined in the last half dozen years. Look at the difference between Morrowind and Oblivion, for example. Both were great games, but the story and game play of the former greatly outshone the latter, even though Oblivion reigns supreme in most of the technical production values.

For this reason, I have been exploring non-mainstream games as alternatives. Some, like Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, have been excellent. Others, like Arx Fatalis, have been a mixed bag (still worth checking out, though). In some cases, I have found games in a genre that I would not normally enjoy, such as the CSI games, which are surprisingly good even though they fall into a game category I would not normally play: adventure games.

[traveler]

I will play Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay again some day.

Right BPW. Ordinary apps may soon be very intrusive also.

Keep in mind, games of old had more in the box than just software on a disk like games of today. Think "The Orange Box" vs "Aces of the Deep".