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Mass Effect 1 on Steam is legiterally reminding me that I enjoy gaming (no spoilers please)

teezzy

Banned
And no, I'm not talking about the recent Legendary Remake Edition or whatever. This is OG vanilla Mass Effect on Steam with all settings turned up. No mods. No BS. Just how I like it. Maxed out older titles with the creators' original intent in tact.

Also yes, this game dropped almost fifteen years ago. I'm calling it retro. Still... what a beauty eh?

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I'm not sure whether or not to consider this an LTTP or RTTP sorta thread. While I've played a fair portion of Mass Effect prior, on PS3, when the console was current - I must admit I never had actually beaten it. In fact, I rarely beat any games tbh. Always getting sidetracked by various life events or other games which look neat to me. Believe me, I had a problem when it came to always buying new games before finishing what I had. I enjoy these open world RPG titles but never seem to play many of them more than 20/30 hours or so before moving onto something else. Even the ones I've been having a blast with seem to get dropped by the wayside as I jumped ship from Mass Effect to Fallout 3 to Skyrim to Red Dead Redemption 2 to Witcher 3 to Divinity: OS to Cyberpunk, etc

The worlds are so fun to explore and I love talking to the NPCs and learning about their backstories and the lore of their realities. Reminds me of being a kid and working my way through Chrono Trigger, FF6, Earthbound, andSuper Mario RPG or Deus Ex: IW, KotOR, Morrowind on my Xbox as a teen. It all felt so palpable and vast, and I'd just get lost in these worlds. The fact that these expansive experiences existed within the confines of these cartridges and discs was jawdropping at the time.

People who can see these sorta of games to their respective ends have every ounce of my admiration. It's been very rare that I've been able to to do this since my teenage years (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, I'm looking at you dude :messenger_sunglasses: ).

Because of this, I've always felt out of place within gaming communities such as this. Like a poser or something. I enjoy the medium very much so, but I only ever experience 1/2 or 3/4 of the respective titles I claim to adore. I swear, I enjoy it though.

Nonetheless. Life has consumed me as of late. I'm spending more time working 50+ hours a week, trying to be more social, going to the gym regularly, etc. I thought I was over games for a while.

Yet here I am, playing Mass Effect. Shaking off some bad vibes after a hard week of work. Reminding myself why I like games like this. Hopefully I actually finish the game this time lol.

Cheers, GAF. Cya on the Citadel.
 
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Mass Effect was released in 2008 and the PC port was somewhat rough as I remember. The Legendary Edition did an excellent job of remaking the original and leave it redundant. Shame they didn’t do the same for the other titles.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Mass Effect 1 was the reason I went back to gaming, so I understand that. It was like 10 years ago, but still...
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
ME1 is definitely still the best of the trilogy. It's funny you mention Chrono Trigger OP, as I just recently played through Mass Effect again myself, (the fancy schmancy new Legendary Edition though), and I decided out loud to my wife that ME1 is definitely up there with Chrono Trigger and The Witcher 2 as my favorite RPG's of all time now, but for whatever reason I didn't really consider it as so for a long time. Pretty much a perfect game, shame the other two don't come even remotely close to the first in terms of atmosphere and vibe.
 

poodaddy

Gold Member
Unpopular opinion the series goes downhill after that. Instead of tweaking some aspects to improve them they just remove them completely in the 2nd. The first game isn't great but it had a solid foundation.
I disagree that the game isn't great with every fiber of my being, but the following games take massive dives in quality, that I definitely agree with.
 

teezzy

Banned
Praise the sun! I thought I was the only one. Mods are like someone painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.

yeah... it's very odd to me. people often attribute mods to being one of the perks of PC as a platform, and they often do look pretty but like... i'll take the original any day. i dont get it.

Reminds me of when I booted up Fallout 3 a few months back and had very similar waves of nostalgia for that 7th console gen. Color me stupid, but there's a real charm to how this era of games hold up visually.


DjdCiby.jpeg
 

Aesius

Member
The Mass Effect universe is incredible. And Mass Effect 1 is the best of the trilogy at showing it off. I absolutely love its retro-futurism aesthetic.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
Played the Mass Effect trilogy on my laptop during Robotics class which was mostly hand on at the time. Got immensely into it and suffice to say my group mates got mad. It’s an amazing game that really pulls you into the world. Enjoy it while it lasts.
 

kiphalfton

Member
It's crazy how playing an actual good game can suck you back into gaming, and renew your love for the medium.

That's how I felt when I played Prey. Been in like a 10 year gaming slump, only playing 5-6 games a year (max), and I thought I was done with gaming in general. Nope, just a matter of those other games that I had played in the past 10 years not being that good (many of them were critical hits, but they were by and large the same type of unoriginal games we see over and over again).

So I don't think it's just "rose colored glasses", but imstead game quality has in fact dropped in quality.
 
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Roufianos

Member
I have to agree, revisiting the trilogy was the most fun I've had gaming in years. Its shot up to probably my second favourite series after MGS.

Can't relate to playing the original over the LE though, they did a fantastic job updating the shooting.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Mass Effect 1 is one of the best games ever made. No matter how often I play it, I always get chills. 2 is great too but it was never able to offer that sense of exploration and awe. Wonderfully written, amazing sense of scale and with 40-50 hours gametime has the perfect length. No bloat, just pure focus. This game man…
 
Hopefully I actually finish the game this time lol.
You definitely should finish it. It has the most surprisingly epic ending credits music I've ever heard in a game. Beat it with my brothers watching and we immediately were just like .... what? Who the hell is this band lol?
 
but there's a real charm to how this era of games hold up visually.


DjdCiby.jpeg
I think it's that when you play some of these older games in high res, everything is exceptionally clear and well marked in terms of gameplay. Clean lines, more simplified geometry. Sometimes modern games can be so detailed that you lose playability. Nintendo always tries to have extremely clear art design so you can play easily. Some modern stuff you can't even hardly see items you can pick up unless they highlight them in some neon light when you pass over it, or give you detective vision. It looks good, but gameplay suffers sometimes.
 
I'm experiencing the same thing this week but with Super Metroid, the original from 1994. People like to pretend that it's not the games, it's just us getting older and we're blinded by our nostalgia. Well guess what zoomers? I'm 34 and never played any of the Metroid games in my life, I'm not even a fan of 2D side scrollers, and this game ROCKS! It's the most fun I've had in a very, very long time. The soundtrack, the story, the FRICKEN GAMEPLAY, everything is just so enthralling and had me sitting down playing for hours straight. First game in a long time to do that.

Moral of the story is no, it's not us, it's the games today.
 

WoJ

Member
Mass Effect 1 was the reason I went back to gaming, so I understand that. It was like 10 years ago, but still...
Same. I was a borderline casual gamer (if that) after taking 4 years off of playing nothing but sports games. ME1 introduced me to western RPGs and showed me what modern gaming could be. This was back in early 2010. I've played ME1 probably a dozen times and always do every sidequest, scan every planet, literally do everything. It never gets old. ME1 will always be a special game for me.

Regarding the post above....I replayed Super Metroid a couple years ago and it was the first time I had played it since release and agree with the sentiment. Games today are great but there is absolutely something games like Super Metroid capture that modern games often don't.
 
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