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Destructoid: Mass Effect is disappointing but nice looking

Yoboman

Yoboman

Member
Some people hate gaming

14039-550x-Mass-Effect.jpg


Watching the first 20 minutes of Mass Effect played by a cute BioWare representative, I couldn't help but be reminded of a ventriloquist I saw on America's Got Talent a few nights ago. Why I happened to be watching America's Got Talent is none of your business, but let it be known that I wasn't happy about it.

Now, the thing about Mass Effect is that it seemed, more or less, like a ventriloquist's dummy. Of course, it was a very nice-modeled, well-rendered dummy with nice textures, but nothing more. The game, much like Pinocchio, lacks life.

The gameplay looks like your standard FPS fare, which is to say that I didn't see anything great or remarkable. There's a variety of weapons and abilities to use, but my pants didn't get wet or tight because of them. Gameplay is kind of hard to judge without an actual controller in your hands, so I'm going to reserve judgment on that.

Where the presentation really fell short, however, is in the emotionless voice acting and subpar facial animations. Not only did the conversation lack the natural ebb and flow to which we were all looking forward, but it was as if the voice actor's took commas, question marks, and exclamations points out of their repertoire. The dialogue has about as much emotional engagement as a grocery list. Even worse, the facial animations match the shoddy voice acting: the mouths move, and that's about it. It'd be great for a Joan Rivers botox sim, but it doesn't really make for a compelling video game.

At worst, Mass Effect is disappointing. The best reaction I've heard all day was this: "It wasn't that bad, just more of the same." If "not that bad" is all you've got going for you ...
Ho hum.
Click to expand...

http://www.destructoid.com/pax-2007...ointing-but-nice-looking-40483.phtml#comments
 
Z

Zilch

Banned
B-b-b-but overhyped console-exclusives CAN'T POSSIBLY be mediocre! (see Heavenly Sword thread for details)
 
Yoboman

Yoboman

Member
Amir0x said:
I don't believe this news. Bioware won't let me down, they have a path to my heart.
Click to expand...
Actually now that I look closer, I see these wretches didn't even play it and they're bad mouthing it. I bid you lock this thread before further harm comes to Mass Effect's good name.
 
E

Eric WK

Member
Yoboman said:
Actually now that I look closer, I see these wretches didn't even play it and they're bad mouthing it. I bid you lock this thread before further harm comes to Mass Effect's good name.
Click to expand...

.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
Lets see, who am I more inclined to believe, Bioware whom I love dearly or Destructoid who represent everything that's wrong with gaming journalism


hmmmm
HMMMMMM
 
Z

Zzoram

Member
It's obviously not standard FPS fare, even the trailers show as much. I get where they're coming from though. The voice acting isn't as good as it needs to be, and the characters do seem a bit stiff in some of the trailers. Bioware should really consider re-voicing a lot of the game right now, especially key and dramatic moments. They still have 2.5 months to polish and they should consider that a top priority, along with framerate.
 
E

Emiru

Banned
Watching the first 20 minutes of Mass Effect played by a cute BioWare representative, I couldn't help but be reminded of a ventriloquist I saw on America's Got Talent a few nights ago. Why I happened to be watching America's Got Talent is none of your business, but let it be known that I wasn't happy about it.

Now, the thing about Mass Effect is that it seemed, more or less, like a ventriloquist's dummy. Of course, it was a very nice-modeled, well-rendered dummy with nice textures, but nothing more. The game, much like Pinocchio, lacks life.

The gameplay looks like your standard FPS fare, which is to say that I didn't see anything great or remarkable. There's a variety of weapons and abilities to use, but my pants didn't get wet or tight because of them. Gameplay is kind of hard to judge without an actual controller in your hands, so I'm going to reserve judgment on that.

Where the presentation really fell short, however, is in the emotionless voice acting and subpar facial animations. Not only did the conversation lack the natural ebb and flow to which we were all looking forward, but it was as if the voice actor's took commas, question marks, and exclamations points out of their repertoire. The dialogue has about as much emotional engagement as a grocery list. Even worse, the facial animations match the shoddy voice acting: the mouths move, and that's about it. It'd be great for a Joan Rivers botox sim, but it doesn't really make for a compelling video game.

At worst, Mass Effect is disappointing. The best reaction I've heard all day was this: "It wasn't that bad, just more of the same." If "not that bad" is all you've got going for you ...
Ho hum.
Click to expand...

This is bullshit, this guy is an idiot.
 
Yoboman

Yoboman

Member
Zzoram said:
It's obviously not standard FPS fare, even the trailers show as much. I get where they're coming from though. The voice acting isn't as good as it needs to be, and the characters do seem a bit stiff in some of the trailers. Bioware should really consider re-voicing a lot of the game right now, especially key and dramatic moments. They still have 2.5 months to polish and they should consider that a top priority, along with framerate.
Click to expand...
I'm sure it's acted well where it needs to be. The voice acting of NPCs don't need to be top of the line
 
Blackace

Blackace

if you see me in a fight with a bear, don't help me fool, help the bear!
:lol :lol

facial expressions are bad? wow... ok..
 
D

dionysus

Yaldog
They're thousands of gaming journalists, most working for small sites with no quality control. Can we just agree to stop caring what they say? I mean, I trust GAFfers impressions way more than most journalists. If Mangod said this, I would be worried though. :D
 
B

bounchfx

Member
I call bullshit.

In fact, I've seen videos of Mass Effect. They are everywhere. Yes, videos of the conversations and such: I'm fine with it. It made me more than happy and I didn't see anything wrong, they had enough life (and facial animation) for me, it wasn't just their mouths moving.

and from what I've seen of the combat? Looks great there too.. standard? wtf? what game was this guy watching? Stranglehold?
 
M

MightyHedgehog

Member
Since when did RPGs demo well outside of really sitting down and playing it for yourself. Dialogue delivery might be a bit on the muted side of things (I don't know as I'm avoiding all things ME/Halo 3/etc. until I get them), but it's pretty hard to judge it without the context that playing brings.
 
Tieno

Tieno

Member
bounchfx said:
I call bullshit.

In fact, I've seen videos of Mass Effect. They are everywhere. Yes, videos of the conversations and such: I'm fine with it. It made me more than happy and I didn't see anything wrong, they had enough life (and facial animation) for me, it wasn't just their mouths moving.

and from what I've seen of the combat? Looks great there too.. standard? wtf? what game was this guy watching? Stranglehold?
Click to expand...
This guy saw a video/presentation and hasn't played the game, all those of us who are hyped on the game have seen videos of Mass Effect.
 
S

Skilotonn

xbot xbot xbot xbot xbot
Now I don't want to be a huge contradiction to myself about thinking that people who get mad about games that they overhyped are idiots, but this guy didn't even play the game first of all, and up to the latest video that I've seen contradicts everything he says about facial animation and voice acting, unless BioWare magically wiped everything they had before and started from scratch again...

And then he goes on and said it's standard FPS affairs - when it's not even a FPS... okay...
 
karasu

karasu

Member
I'm looking forward to this game, but I have no problem believing this report since the last couple of play throughs we've seen looked boring as shit. The facial expressions are bad. There's something wrong when your lead character's eyes constantly go crossed while hes talking.
 
W

watership

Member
Zilch said:
B-b-b-but overhyped console-exclusives CAN'T POSSIBLY be mediocre! (see Heavenly Sword thread for details)
Click to expand...

Did you just compare an hyped game by BIOWARE, to a hyped game by.. Ninja Theory?

Come on.
 
DCharlie

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
i often find the best way to judge a 20+ hour RPG is from the first 20 minutes.
 
L

Lostconfused

Member
I played through jade empire at least 5 times, i am sure i will be happy with this game no matter the reviews.

Honestly i dont get the hate for jade empire, maybe it was overhyped and maybe bioware did better with Kotor, but ill take any bioware rpg i can get my hands on.
 
G

GilloD

Banned
More of the same? As in more KotOR? "No thanks, I've had too much delicious ice cream. I think I'd rather have some filthy garbage".
 
S

Scribble

Member
What I've seen of the characters is incredibly bland so far, but I put that down to "they're more three dimensional than the KOTOR bunch." We'll see o_o
 
C

cartoon_soldier

Member
Zilch said:
B-b-b-but overhyped console-exclusives CAN'T POSSIBLY be mediocre! (see Heavenly Sword thread for details)
Click to expand...

But Ninja Theory makers of Kung Fu Chaos. Bioware makers of KOTOR.

Its possible the person did not like what he saw, but its 20 minutes of a 40 hour game too. We will see when reviews come out.
 
Alex

Alex

Member
I'm sorry, but there is one thing I'm not questioning it's a big Bioware RPG, there is no fucking way this game is going to be less than great.
 
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