“We have the fastest elevators in the industry,” Mass Effect 2 executive producer Casey Hudson joked at a Comic-Con panel in July 2009.
What if by fastest, he meant waiting in none at all?
Elevator rides were a Mass Effect staple. On a design level, the elevators were a means of avoiding loading screens. But lacking in significant narrative or visual value, these excursions became too dull too fast for most.
The stares into oblivion. The shifting. The disconnected conversation. The radio repeating something mentioned in another ride hours prior to the current one.
Plans are in place to keep elevators in Mass Effect 2, despite grumbles. And while elevators are still a part of the game, waiting in them won’t be.
“The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn't have to show boring loading screens,” wrote associate programmer Thomas_R_Roy in recent ME2 official message board post. “However there were a lot of complaints, so we've gone back to loading screens and movies. We still have elevators in ME2, but you don't wait inside them. We'll cut to a loading screen instead.”
There will be something to the loading screens, according to _Roy.
“We've tried to make the loading screen more interesting this time by adding interesting visuals and information.”
What those little entertainment nuggets during loading screens might be, we haven’t the slightest idea. But it’s hard to argue that it won’t be more entertaining than watching Commander Shepard shuffle his feet.
[via The Save Points]
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Contest:
2:00 AM on 12.05.2009
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HEY! I loved the conversations in elevators =(
'“We've tried to make the loading screen more interesting this time by adding interesting visuals and information.”'
I hope that means giving you information about the world that you orginally had to go into the logbook/codec (?) to view before.
WHERE'S THE MULTICULTURAL
Seriously dude? So every screencap that is produced leaves half of us wondering who the F is that dude, is that Shepard, or a new Normandy crew member or party member, or what?. And besides, I'm not sure how the second one will be but it's been noted time and again that in the first ME, since the default model was actually modeled after some real dude, he was much better looking (in a graphical, render-y sense, not an aesthetic sense) than original creations. I bet ME2 will be no different, so they're using default Shepard for all their screens.
If you're going to bitch, bitch that they never show the default female Shepard.
the load screen is a boss is what im trying to convey in my message
genius? or genetically amazing i am?
Those loading screens make sense for COD because the progression is linear and the exposition is an extension of what just happened, ME and ME2 won't play like that because it's open ended.
The elevators would've been fine to me if they didn't glue you down, broke the illusion of seamlessness.
running around in circles impatiently is the video game equivalent of popping bubble wrap.
Wouldn't that be useful?
What!?! Not only did I find the elevators insightful into the characters it was the rare oppurtunity you actually got to see your party directly interacting and those radio broadcast (which also unlocked missions) were a cool way to keep up with the ME universe and never repeated for yours truly and I did plenty of elevator riding. More than neccesary.
I prefer the elevators over a loading screen vastly. Loading screens make everything feel so disconnected.
Also, this:
On another note. I'm sure the elevator bitchin' was from people that were too stupid to realize it was a tool to mask loading times. From what I've seen from the Dtoiders, that's not us. I get the feeling that the programmer that responded in an official capacity was masking his true response, that being "Oh so you guys WANT loading screens? Really? Uh, well, alright, dumbasses, you can have them. Makes it a lot easier on us soooo, thanks? I guess?"
I can not believe anyone would prefer loading screens. Even if they stick your feet to the floor. I think that's better and more realistic than a loading screen for every friggin' level of the Citadel.
The fact that this is STILL not known really shows that people don't go to great enough lengths to dispel propaganda spread by people that probably missed half the game's mechanics. Whenever I hear about Mass Effect some stupid elevator comment is near, and every single time it just shows the stupidity of the commenter.
They main thing about the elevators was that you couldn't teleport inside your ship, as in the Citadel. I never understood why the Rapid Transit stations led to shorter loading than the elevators though :)
Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought most of the elevator complaints were about how long it took the damn lift to get down to the armory/hangar in the Normandy. Pretty sure there wasn't a way to avoid them...
God, the elevator inside the ship pissed me off. So slow for so little change. And each ship level was not that big.
Seriously, did anyone ever actually bother to listen to what the characters said? I personally loved the elevator conversations because it gave us insight into the mentality and personality of the various party members. To see how Kaiden interracted with Wrex, or how Garrus and Tali talked, it was a nice touch that I thought made the elevator rides worth it.
And since they were used to compensate for loading, I guess now we get to have dozens of boring loading screens instead. Yay.
The elevators on the 360 version were sloooooow.
And I bet by "interesting information," they mean the typical "OMG TIPS" that you often see on loading screens. It' d be cool if they had a random entry from the codex show up on the loading screens, though. We'll see what happens...but either way the game will kick ass.
New Codex: Note
NEW QUEST AVAILABLE: Vague Quest Name Here
...open the Codex, read the damn note, ahh, so that's what started the quest.
...or when pickpocketing people, it always just says "Item Acquired" then forcing you to shuffle through your inventory to see what it was. Bleh, I don't know why I didn't like Dragon Age, probably because I played a console version, but I have my hopes up for Mass Effect 2.
Woah, straying off topic much? (short post: elevator scene was good)
WHERE'S THE MULTICULTURAL"
Have you ever played Mass Effect? The basic white, shaved head Shepard was the only one I ever used because the while the character creator was good, it was kind of like using a Created Superstar on SvR... They looked fakish and out of place next to the designed characters. Plus, this Shepard is badass anyways, so why change him?
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