Mass Effect 2

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BioWare explains how Mass Effect saves play into the sequel

 

BioWare’s Casey Hudson has sat down and explained to PC World how players’ Mass Effect saves come into play with Mass Effect 2.

 

Apparently, the firm has taken every possible ending and integrated it into the sequel so that the experience can be as flawless as possible.

 

“[Mass Effect 2] is completely different from anything you’ve played before, because it’s literally, potentially threaded into everything that happens,” he explained. “When you’re playing the first game, everything that you do is setting a variable so that as the story progresses we know that you did a certain thing on a certain planet, and then internal to the game, we can reference those things. Your Mass Effect save game contains all of that information.

 

“When you import it into Mass Effect 2, now we can continue mining all that information. And it’s not just what your ending was, or a couple of the big choices, you know, where we could have stuck a conversation at the beginning and asked you what you did and moved on. This is literally hundreds of things.

 

“Anytime we have a plot or a character or situation in Mass Effect 2, we think about what you did, potentially, in the first game that might affect said plot or character or situation in the second. We can look at each variable and dynamically change what happens in the moment. It ranges from small things like, by way of example, Conrad Verner was a fan of Commander Shepard’s that you met in the first game, and it’s like you meet this guy in an alley and you can be nice to him or you can be a jerk to him, and at the time you might have been thinking of it as just a trite role-playing convention, good-guy bad-guy, and that’s that.

 

“Jump forward two years. Now you’re playing Mass Effect 2, and oh my god, who’s this, it’s Conrad Verner! And based on what you’ve done, you realize that while the moment in the first game maybe seemed throwaway, now Conrad’s back and involved in another plot in a game you’re playing two years later…and what you did two years ago is meaningfully affecting what’s happening.

 

“That’s a small example.”

 

More through the link.

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BioWare working on a secret technology feature for Mass Effect 2

 

A mysterious tweet from BioWare developer, Christina Norman, has seriously hinted at a big tech feature thats upcoming for Mass Effect 2.

 

“Working on the new “technology” feature for #masseffect2. It’s secret, and awesome! Don’t tell anyone.”

 

Whatever it is, it can stay secret for too long… right?

 

Game’s out in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PC.

[ikaruga24]

Για να δουμε τι θα δουμε. Χαλαρα το παιχνιδι που περιμενω περισσοτερο απο ολα.

[kostacurtas]

Mass Effect 2: Shepard begins game with abilities wiped

 

BioWare’s Casey Hudson has told Computer World that players will notice Commander Shepard is not as powerful in Mass Effect 2 as he was towards the end of the first game.

 

Apparently, stats for the character have been reset to basic abilities so that an improved system could be implemented, but to compensate for the lack of prowess, his storyline will delve into the reasons why he is weaker than before.

 

“There’s something that’s happening with the story that explains what happens with your abilities,” said Hudson. “It’s something we can’t go into detail about for obvious reasons, but it actually happens the other way around. Our goal with the story, in terms of getting the game started quickly and players into really compelling story situations…that dictated and allowed us to do certain things including changing the way that your abilities work and the way you develop your character.

 

“Part of it, too, is the fact that we’ve gone in and improved literally every system in the game, your powers, the controls, aiming, the way that your character stats work and how you build a character, the inventory system, weapons, and so on. All of those things have been dramatically improved, so there’s no direct way to map the stuff you had in Mass Effect over to Mass Effect 2 anyway.

 

“That said, we’re taking into account all of your accomplishments in terms of building a character from the first game. So things you’d expect to be acknowledged, like if you were a level 60 character, or you were highly Renegade and don’t want to start out at the middle again. If you import your save game from Mass Effect, these kinds of things will be acknowledged in ways that map across to the new system.

 

“You will feel, even in terms of the character that you build, that you are continuing as that character.”

 

Hudson goes on to chat about the new vehicle and other ME2 details, and talks a bit about emotional attachment in games like ICO through the link.

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Mass Effect 2: See the box art

 

BioWare's unveiled the Mass Effect 2 box art on its Facebook.

 

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Mass Effect 2 - New Screens

 

The drell assassin Thane is featured in these new Mass Effect 2 screenshots released by BioWare tonight. The character is one of the many new faces from the upcoming sequel's cast.

 

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Mass Effect 2 - GamesCon 2009 Trailer

 

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Exclusive: VG247 talks Mass Effect 2 with associate producer Jesse Houston

 

Mass Effect 2 associate producer Jesse Houston sat down with VG247 during GamesCom to talk a bit about the game that everyone and their kitten is gagging to get their tiny paws on.

 

Seems the game has double the amount of physical content of the first one, combat is much smoother as everything’s 30FPS, it will ship simultaneously for 360 and PC, and includes a new interrupt system.

 

There are loads of goodies in the interview, you should read on past the break.

 

 

VG247: You just mentioned that the game’s shorter. Is that correct?

 

Jesse Houston: No, we’re actually trying to make it around the same length as far as the play-time you would have experienced in the first one. That being said, some of our guys stripped through it really quickly, some of them took a lot longer. That being said, we find that you chew through content a little bit more quickly. The physical amount of content in the game is almost double this time round.

 

You mean in terms of visual assets?

 

Houston: Visual assets, dialogue, how conversations work: the game itself is absolutely huge.

 

You’ve obviously done a lot of work on combat. Is the control system more exact?

 

Absolutely. It’s not just the control system. If you look at most good shooters, they lock down frame-rate at 30FPS: we’ve done the same thing. Bam. Everything’s 30FPS, streaming is fixed up so that… If you remember in Mass 1, if you took a step backwards and you hit a weird stream and it’d pause for a moment. We’ve done a away with that. What you’re seeing here is pulled straight from the game. It’s not E3 Voodoo.

 

You’ll feel that the controls, the animation and the FPS combine to make for a faster gameplay experience, and a smoother experience.

 

Some were some pretty significant differences in the controls between the PC and 360 versions last time round. Is it the same with the sequel?

 

We learned a lot from building the PC version before, and having built it six months later there was a big difference. So we actually took what we learned from PC and put it back into 360. Fundamentally, we want you to have the same gameplay experience, but just with the difference in controls. This time round, doing it at the same time for a sim-ship, we can control the differences much more smoothly because it’s the same team building it now.

 

Do you enjoy being a in a position where you only have to worry about one console format?

 

Do you mean developing for just Xbox?

 

Yeah.

 

I actually don’t personally. This is purely a personal thing, but I actually like the challenge of multi-SKU shipping. It makes you think more modularly, to think about your features as contained units and how they interact rather than the game as a whole and that’s a better place to be in overall.

 

Story-telling was obviously a huge part of the first game. How have you advanced for the second game in terms of virtual acting?

 

Houston laughs

 

Short answer, then.

 

It’s a lot more difficult than I originally anticipated. This is my first time round dealing with the digital acting side of Mass Effect, and it’s definitely been one of the hardest things that I’ve personally had to deal with. We had great digital acting before. I believe was had some of the best in the industry, and I’m not trying to brag, or anything like that. We just pushed ourselves very hard to do that. We really had to sit down and take a hard look, and we looked at better facial animation, better integration between cut-scenes, cinematics and conversations… We react to the environment more cleverly.

 

We’re doing new stuff that we’d never thought about doing before. You know, having conversations in cars, walking, having tons of people in [a conversation]. We’d never thought we were going to be able to do conversations with eight guys in them, but we do. Killing guys mid-way through conversations, this sort of thing. Obviously, there are visual improvements as well. We ripped out the lighting system and put in a new lighting system, and that affects the whole game, not just conversations, but it’s really visible in the conversations, where we have some of our best-looking graphics. Just trying to bring everything up, then add new things. For example, we now have the interrupt system, which is the way we’re trying to let players control the pace of conversations a little more, without having them just mashing the X button and lose the suspension of disbelief. We want to keep them there, but allow them to control the speed still.

 

What about the camera angles? Do you use people that are used to using physical cameras?

Absolutely. We have a number of departments of cinematic designers and cinematic animators, and all they do is deal with these conversations and the story-telling aspects. We sget a lot of these guys from film backgrounds. Our tools are based around film concepts.

 

Thanks for your time, Jesse.

 

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Mass Effect 2

PAX 09: Companions Gameplay (Cam)

 

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Mass Effect 2

Subject Zero Trailer

 

New character reveal trailer for Mass Effect 2.

 

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Mass Effect 2 is “darker, harder” than original

 

BioWare boss Greg Zeschuk has likened Mass Effect 2 to Empire Strikes Back in terms of its place in the ME trilogy. Things are about to get nasty, yo.

 

“Yeah we have definitely designed it in that fashion,” he told IGN AU.

 

“If you recall, Empire Strikes Back was the darker chapter and that is how we designed the ME2 story and experience: to try and make the player reflect on the challenges of the character. If you put ME2 next to the original it is definitely a darker, harder game.”

 

Hit the link for more. Beware of spoilers, though. It’s out for PC and 360 early next year.

 

[ikaruga24]

Δωσε στο λαο να γουσταρει!!!! Το παιχνιδι απλα θα τα σπαει. Δεν υπαρχει αμφιβολια. Φενεται η ποιοτητα ρε παιδι μου τι να λεμε τωρα. Ο μονος τροπος για να μην τα σπαει ειναι να εχει επαναλαμβανομενα περιβαλλοντα (δυσκολο αν κρινουμε απο το πρωτο) η αν η ιστορια του γινει "καπως" (που παλι δεν το πιστευω).

 

Σε αντιθεση με το Dragons Age που τα βιντεακια του σε καποια σημεια καπως με χαλασαν το Mass Effect 2 συνεχιζει να ειναι εκει ψηλα στην κορυφη. Αργει ακομα βεβαια αλλα ευτυχως εχω πολυ ΤΟΠ πραμα που δεν εχω παιξει ακομα.

[kostacurtas]

Mass Effect 2 Arrives January 29th

 

Mark your calendar and lock in your copy of Mass Effect 2 now! Leading video game developer BioWare, a division of Electronic Arts Inc. today announced that the epic Shooter/RPG Mass Effect 2 will be on store shelves in the UK on January 29. With its larger-than-life hero Commander Shepard, intense shooter action, nuanced characters and a rich storyline, the sequel to the original award-winning opus is one of the most anticipated titles of 2010. In support of the launch, BioWare is releasing unique Mass Effect 2 pre-order incentives at key retailers in North America and across Europe. Codes for downloading these items will be provided to players who have pre-ordered, usable when the game is released.

 

“Our fans are in for a genuine thrill in the New Year with Mass Effect 2 – the second installment in the trilogy will be of amazingly high quality,” said Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder, BioWare and Group General Manager of the RPG/MMO Group of EA. “BioWare’s fans worldwide have been eagerly awaiting this epic sequel, and we couldn’t be more excited to reward them for pre-ordering by delivering some awesome bonus content!”

 

Pre-order bonuses include special-ops armor and weaponry that are designed to boost Commander Shepard’s skills and abilities. Terminus Gear includes the powerful Terminus Assault Armor and the M-490 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon. Terminus Armor is designed for use in extreme planetary conditions, increasing run speed and personal shields, and augmenting weapons with an additional magazine of reserve ammo. The M-90 Blackstorm Heavy Weapon generates a high-powered localized gravity well, accelerating particles to near-infinite mass, and ultimately expanding the selection of heavy weapons available to players when they gear up for combat missions in Mass Effect 2.

 

Inferno Armor will also be available as a separate pre-order incentive. This item is used by officers to monitor battlefield conditions by recognizing elevated heart rates, and regulates sub-systems with extreme efficiency to allow for greater response times – together these abilities translate in-game into a negotiation bonus for Commander Shepard and an increase in run speed and augmented damage from combat powers.

 

[Sadman]

χαχαχα(έπρεπε να είναι 28,μαζί μετα γεννέθλια μου )

 

ΒΤW,love the new battle suits

[ksaplostra]

Το τυφέκιο δεν μοιάζει κάπως με του HL2;