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[adamma666]

The truly scary thing about this thread is it proves Dyack is right.

what did he say? i guess i missed that.

 

[Geoff9920]

The truly scary thing about this thread is it proves Dyack is right.

No, it just proves that Bioware needs to be more careful about the media they send out.

 

[Busty]

What? These aren't officially released shots. I haven't done any game programming, but 3D graphics packages have a quick render option where the textures are all low rez samples to do quick tests of animation and things. Jeux take images from wherever they can get them, so it's hard to judge the final game from them until the source is known.

I repeat: The final game will not look like this.

The hard facts are these. This game comes out in a few months. Whether these shots are based off an earlier build and were released by accident or some other explanation, these do not look like the earlier media that was released.

I don't for one second believe that jeux france somehow managed to steal these shots from within a dev kit in Bioware. Someone, somewhere approved them for release.

I'm not saying the final game will look this poor (in comparison to the E3 shots. I am saying that these shots for publicity purposes don't look anywhere near where they should for a good game with this much potentia,l this close too launch.

No, it just proves that Bioware needs to be more careful about the media they send out.

QFT.

 

[EktorPR]

If these screens didn't show up in the official Mass Effect area in Bioware's page, it means they didn't get approved by the 'doctors' themselves. I'd say that wait is better than whine.

 

[Ryudo]

Is anyone really suprised here ? Bioware arent graphical gods and always have issues getting game engines to run properly - let alone looking spiffy.

I have a feeling those screens were resized though, they look too dull to be native captures.

 

[Zenith]

Hmm, Too Human looks better now.

troll.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

If these screens didn't show up in the official Mass Effect area in Bioware's page, it means they didn't get approved by the 'doctors' themselves. I'd say that wait is better than whine.

i didn't know this about bioware, so you are saying that someone leaked these?

 

[nubbe]

Well, Bioware are certainly not denying the presentation of these screens on their forum.

 

[Shake Appeal]

lol@gaf

 

[nelsonroyale]

troll.

yeah, its certainly not true....even in these shots, mass effect>>>TH....its the art baby

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

i didn't know this about bioware, so you are saying that someone leaked these?

They appeared on GameSpot too, I don't think they're leaked. And someone from BioWare already said in the official forums that they was taken from an incomplete level, for what's it worth.

 

[XSamu]

yeah, its certainly not true....even in these shots, mass effect>>>TH....its the art baby

Lol what? Mass Effect looks great, but the art isn't that great, it's nice, but that of Too Human is better.

 

[Tieno]

This is what the Bioware community manager had to say.

Well, you are right in that I should not have called the concerns "silly" and I'm sorry for doing so. That was definately a poor choice of words on my part. You all are our customers and, if you have any concerns no matter what they may be, we should take them seriously to some degree. However, we have not "down-graded" or "compromised" or "reverted" or whatever the quality of the art in the game at all. Lets take a look at the art comments for a second.

As I've said, we have changed Shepard's head again. It will likely be changed a bunch before we ship. That is what happens at this stage. It isn't yet a reflection of which we think is best or anything. As the team makes changes to the customization feature, the heads slightly change. Today, the head for Ashley had radically changed (due to a bug inteh system she looked pretty awful) and then, in a later build, had no head at all. This doesn't mean she's not going to have a head when we ship, just that things aren't finished yet. And, as pointed out, many of you will change the heads anyways, so it only matters to those who won't. And I wouldn't worry about it until we say "That is the final Shepard".

Now, for the screens themselves. What do you want me to say? I can say one thing and the cynical of you will say "But he's just a marketing Dev/shill. Of COURSE he's going to say that." I could tell you the unabashed truth and many of you would still doubt what I say or question it or whatever. That's pretty much what happens on the internet. I work for BioWare, so of course I'm going to be positive. Some of you are fans, some of you aren't. Maybe a few of you actually dislike us for some reason. In the end, you will all have to make up your minds yourselves. It doesn't matter if I say "It was the build, the lighting, the compresson, whatever" until we turn out something that impresses you (or not) you'll stay skeptical. There's nothing wrong with that. It's up to us to impress you after all. It's what we need to do and it's what we will do with Mass Effect.

Well Manager 2, what would you prefer? Some screenshots that aren't perfect yet or no screenshots? Believe me, it would be MUCH easier for us not to have to do screenshots, but we know that if we are going to generate interest in the game, we need to put our materials about it (screenshots, videos, Dev interviews, etc).

We could (and I am well aware of companies that do this) make special builds to take screenshots in. They'd be amazing and knock your socks off, but would not necessarily end up being what you see in the game. When we went to GDC we took a build of the game, not a special build, not a demo build, just a build. We want people to know how the game is comming along. Is it perfect yet? No. Is it what it will look like when you get your copy yet? No. Will it get better befoe then? Absolutely.

However, I will also remind you to watch the name calling here. Sure, we have some fans and we have some fanboys as well. But just because they disagree with your opinion doesn't mean they are "sucking up" for agreeing any more than they may think you are "being a prick" for disagreeing. They have their opinon and you have yours.

 

[rs7k]

Apart from the blahness of the fourth shot, and the N64 cliff texture in the third shot, it looks decently okay.

But these screens are nowhere near the older ones. NOWHERE NEAR. It's only natural to question the downgrade.

 

[Haunted]

Lol what? Mass Effect looks great, but the art isn't that great, it's nice, but that of Too Human is better.

whatdog.gif

 

[Muppet345]

bioware community dudes are always great at answering those questions. screenshots from shitty builds is just going to happen unless the game goes on a media blackout until shipping.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Sometimes I forgot just how full this forum is of critical, cynics. You guys are so constant at it you're even starting to pull me down to your level, and that sucks.

 

[mentalfloss]

This isn't just Bioware's fault. It's pretty typical of any company to release doctored shots to get hype going early. The casual gamer that hasn't seen these won't know the difference anyway. It's called the 'Amped Factor'.

 

[jet1911]

New screens from Jeux-France.com :-

Hello bag jpeg compression. How are you today?

Jesus they really should be more careful how they capture their screens...

 

[Fallout-NL]

This is what the Bioware community manager had to say.

Nothing basically.

 

[rs7k]

You know what's also possible? Maybe they had to compress the textures to fit on DVD and that's the issue? I mean think about this game, it must be MASSIVE with all the different audio clips (all the different conversation paths).

If you think about it, it totally makes sense as they're launching soon and probabaly needed to change filesizes/compression to get it under 9GB.

That was my concern from day one, and I got called a troll. It's totally plausible too. It's a concern I have for all 360 games because some publishers are cheap asses and would rather ship everything on one disc.

I don't understand how the guy says if they don't release screenshots, interest in the game will wane, but that's exactly what they're doing.

I still have faith. Bioware rocks.

 

[nubbe]

One could expect less amazing screen when the game was first seen at the end of 2005. But now when they are ramping up to release? I'm skeptical about that.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I swear to god these pics looked good to me. Now I'm looking for flaws because GAF says they are not up to par.

What the hell?

The GAF FUD machine rolls on

 

[TekunoRobby]

I saw the game last month in a lengthy demonstration, latest build. The game is a mixture of both the old and new shots. Some parts of the demo looked OMFG good and some parts looked decent. Not trying to defend the game but these really are bad shots.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

I LOVE Mass Effect, but c'mon:

How can anyone think these images are showing the same graphic level? I don't know where these news screens are from and if they're from a "test version" of the game with many effects disabled, but they surely are disappointing.

 

[mentalfloss]

Sometimes I forgot just how full this forum is of critical, cynics. You guys are so constant at it you're even starting to pull me down to your level, and that sucks.

I agree some people overdo it. But you can't find something like this acceptable because it's pretty much false advertising.

 

[dark10x]

Oh yeah, one more thing:

people saying it is scaled down because of the framerate are simply wrong cause we have seen some gameplay movies before and the framerate wasn't exactly bad (and the graphics were sweeeeeeeeeeeet).

Something... something strange has happened in Bioware that pushed them to release these disappointing screens. The game looked great and played great earlier as some of the folks that have seen it first-hand state.

EDIT: Agent Icebreezy nailed it. Note that there isn't any kind of shadowing in the recent pics, NONE AT ALL, just like it would be switched off on a lame-ass Windows XP PC.

The framerate has been poor in every single demonstration (including press demonstrations). Of course, nobody is expecting them to nail the framerate based on their previous games.

I'd imagine there is something strange with the screens as well, but at the same time, it's also possible that we will see minor downgrades in order to improve performance (shadow removed).

The same situation occured with Gears of War, for instance. They dropped the unified lighting model and simplified certain aspects of the game in order to achieve a smooth framerate. The game looked insane enough already, though, so it wasn't a big loss. However, Bioware is not on the same level of technical expertise as Epic and may not be able to pull off the same feat.

 

[Rorschach]

^Screens spider_jerusalem posted:

looks like part of the problem is horribly washed out screens. However, that wouldn't explain the better lighting and textures in the first screen.

 

[rebel^pudding]

looks like crap now

 

[Geoff9920]

The framerate has been poor in every single demonstration (including press demonstrations). Of course, nobody is expecting them to nail the framerate based on their previous games.

I'd imagine there is something strange with the screens as well, but at the same time, it's also possible that we will see minor downgrades in order to improve performance (shadow removed).

The same situation occured with Gears of War, for instance. They dropped the unified lighting model and simplified certain aspects of the game in order to achieve a smooth framerate. The game looked insane enough already, though, so it wasn't a big loss. However, Bioware is not on the same level of technical expertise as Epic and may not be able to pull off the same feat.

Who knows, maybe some devs were screwing with the compression/lighting so they were borked for that build of the game. Stranger things have happened. Then again, maybe it's like you said and they had to compromise.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

looks like part of the problem is horribly washed out screens. However, that wouldn't explain the better lighting and textures in the first screen.

Right... just look at the glow from the gun. In the old screen, it lits the face and body of the guy, and in the new screen it simply doesn't. And look at the difference in the gorund textures...

Something weird is going on with these pics, but I'm faithful the final game will be a blast

 

[mabuza]

i dont know why some people are defending this, it clearly looks worse compared to what we've seen before, no one knows why, but hopefully they will be much better later on, but defending it and calling people troll for stating the obvious is quite stupid really

 

[Hagi23]

Like someone said earlier maybe the early screens are from some high spec pc version and these new screens are the actual 360 shots.

Would be funny if true im just glad i never cared about this game being im not a fan of "white" rpgs. :lol

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

these have to be older screen of pics from an older build. this is like a pic with everything turned off. games don't gp down in quality this fast, especially since we've seen it in motion. Marketing and PR needs to be taken to task for this. You don't do this to a system seller.

 

[Router]

Meh, I see little point in overacting to a few (very) bad screens from a game that is still in development. I do think developers should be really careful over what images go out though.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

Meh, I see little point in overacting to a few (very) bad screens from a game that is still in development. I do think developers should be really careful over what images go out though.

I referenced this eariler, you don't have OMGWTFBBQ pics all the way up to about 2 months before the game ships and then start dropping stinkers. You just don't, especially not to a game of this caliber.

Li
Would be funny if true im just glad i never cared about this game being im not a fan of "white" rpgs. :lol

..................................

 

[Borys]

I just noticed that on that screen Spider posted there's just one light source - sun above. You can see its glare on the gun and on the bodies on the ground. It is coming straight from above.

There are no other lightsources - the muzzle flash doesn't give any light.

ANSWER: Looks like they disabled dynamic lighting for this batch of screens!

 

[Muppet345]

looks like crap now

Jesus Christ, I'm glad I'm not this bad.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

ANSWER: Looks like they disabled dynamic lighting for this batch of screens!

And did you notice they're the same creatures in both screens? They even aren't lit up on fire under the plasma shots...

I think this must be more of a PR mess than other... maybe some PR got his hands on development screens and gave them away. I HOPE!

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Like someone said earlier maybe the early screens are from some high spec pc version and these new screens are the actual 360 shots.

Would be funny if true im just glad i never cared about this game being im not a fan of "white" rpgs. :lol

FUD and a racist comment all in the same post. I see big things in your future here, junior.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I just noticed that on that screen Spider posted there's just one light source - sun above. You can see its glare on the gun and on the bodies on the ground. It is coming straight from above.

There are no other lightsources - the muzzle flash doesn't give any light.

ANSWER: Looks like they disabled dynamic lighting for this batch of screens!

Any PC gamer can play with the settings of any game and see how much they turned off with these pics. It's a lot of shit that isn't functional.

 

[Borys]

Would be funny if true im just glad i never cared about this game being im not a fan of "white" rpgs.

So you only like yellow ones?

WOW / Wario64

 

[plagiarize]

i think it's hard to say anything about texture quality given how compressed and washed out these look. have they been upscaled? i can't tell. are they showing anti aliasing (earlier screens didn't) i can't tell.

either they've added a 'badly compressed jpeg' filter to the game, or this is a badly compressed jpeg.

looking at the circle on his shoulder, i think his armour texture is actually the same, it just looks much worse thanks to the awful compression (perhaps upscaling) and no lighting.

still, there's no question that the lighting in this is practically none existant compared to earlier screens. hopefully that won't be the case in the final version.

 

[kaching]

Is image compression typically responsible for this degree of washed-out contrast? That seems to be the biggest affront of these screens and certainly not a problem you'd expect to originate from the game itself but rather somewhere else along the way after obtaining the screens.

 

[Ash_69]

That is a HUGE downgrade compared to the previous pics, theres no denying it. In the new pic quoted above, look at the guy's gun and shoulder ffs. Thats bad textures even for the xbox and is way under par for 360!

I'm guessing April fools and the next batch of screens look no different from those previously released.

Spoiler

I'll cry it ends up looking like that due to the framerate issues.

 

[Great Rumbler]

I LOVE Mass Effect, but c'mon:

OH NO!! Now I'm even starting to see the N64-level cliff textures in the older, amazingly awesome pictures that are totally perfect and not cleaned up at all and totally better than these really bad and horrible shots that we got today that make me want to vomit they look so bad!!!!

 

[Meier]

Looks good to me. I couldn't give two shits about the graphics though JUST GIVE ME THE GAME! I'm ****in' dying over here Bioware! Please release it in June like the rumors suggest... *whimpers*

 

[Imperial Hot]

It has to be a bad capture, the press has seen this game and they have all been saying that it looks awesome(besides the zombie-eyes). There had to of been a massive downgrade for those screens, which doesn't seem likely. This is just a bad capture.

 

[Meier]

That's awesome. :lol :lol Might want to slow it down some a bit though IMO.

 

[Shawn128]

http://pici.se/pictures/fsTzor.jpg
http://pici.se/pictures/FK4HfP.jpg
http://pici.se/pictures/l8DqkM.jpg
http://pici.se/pictures/pJWzty.jpg

And we're back on track!


...

Added motion blur, contrast and bump mapping on stones... IS THIS WHAT YOU PEOPLE WANT?

:lol

On a side note, how do you pronounce Jeux-France? This is gunna sound bad, but everytime I read it, I read it as Jew-France (I swear I'm not a bigot lol)