Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
2:31 AM on 10.06.2007
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all talk no action
ill pass
I really can't explain why. Mass Effect has some gorgeous graphics, but the animations always seem so... stiff.
You should at least check out the gameplay footage. It looks rather fun to play, at the very least.
Especially with the amount of dialog in this game. It would take a team of animators a very long time to make proper synch for the full game. So they decided to automate most of the syncing. Can't say I blame them.
Games like Half-Life and such have great syncing because there isn't that much in the game.
The Mass Effect book sets up a really cool universe which some exciting potential, and Bioware have a good track record. Even if the animation is no better than this in the final product, which I doubt it will be as we're so close to release, I'm confident the story and hopefully gameplay will make up for it.
I'll say this, though, it seems to me that it's improved a bit since the last time I saw it.
Those eyes though.... man. They're not looking at you. They're looking THROUGH you.
I wasn't directing that towards your post buddy. It just bugs me that no matter what game comes out and how great it looks it will never be good enough.
However, if the characters would just learn to move their frigging arms while they talk it'd take one more step out of the uncanny valley.
Seriously, its like people have dumbbells for hands.
And if it's 30+ hours and has subtitles, I'll just be reading the subtitles and skipping through the most audio dialogue, just like in KOTOR. Maybe they just shouldn't have marketed it as having lifelike animations?
Can't wait for Mass Effect 2 :P
Someone mentioned the lip-syncing earlier, but it wasn't obvious enough for me to notice it. The humans just look emotionless.
Isn't it a good thing that people are never satisfied. Aren't those the people who keep looking for ways to take our games to the next level? Of course, I will say sometimes it's more useful for a certain group to be unsatisfied rather than another group...
Either way, this game has my interest. Can't wait to see more.
anyone knows if this thing is going to come to the PC?
Honestly, I can't put enough emphasis on what good V/O does for a story-driven RPG... the lack of proper facial animation does suck, but "good v/o, bad animation" is overwhelmingly preferable to the opposite scenario... there's nothing worse than have to sit through terrible voice acting, even if the animation is good.
so... can Bioware make a Gargoyles RPG next?
Well the game was being marketed as having great animation, and um, graphics are a part of what makes a game, and animations are a part of graphics. You should try a bit harder with your sarcasm, mate.
Mass Effect will of course have less appeal than your Cods, Halos and the like. But if Mass Effect comes up trumps and provides the best it can to people who like RPG/SciFi/Bioware titles, I would say it's acheived its goal. Some of the best games we've ever seen sold poorly, and it's little indication of the quality or of what a title can provide certain people.
I'm sure Jim will agree that niche games can provide pleasure you just won't find playing through your everyman blockbuster titles. While Microsoft are pushing Mass Effect as a big mainstream Christmas title, it was always going to offer a more acquired taste in my mind.
For example, Okami was leagues better than Twilight Princess, and sold so poorly the studio folded. From a consumer point of view, judging the success of a game on sales alone makes no sense, just as it doesn't with any other form of media.
Mass Effect is unlikely to be all things to all people, and will probably not receive the baffling sales of, for example, Halo. Mass Effect is still the game I hold the most hope for between now and Christmas, because I'd rather play a great Sci-Fi RPG than an equally great terrorist-killing sim. Different strokes for different folks.
In any case, lack of emotions is a bummer but everything else about this game looks like it will kick ass. For those of you complaining about the game, I'd challenge you to find another upcoming game that matches or surpasses this one.
They're promoting much more about this game than the animation however. I've read/watched a few interviews lately where they don't mention it at all, choosing instead to talk about the storyline, combat, character development and so on.
But yeah, I agree with the emotions. Although, look at it. Look how much they have pushed the graphics. It's insane already, I don't know how hard it would be to add emotions or not, but cut them some slack.
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hahaha... yeah... on their 1 minute demo reel that they spent months on.
seriously you just need to take things like this into perspective.
They day we can make a game like this and have exact human emotions is the day games begin to cost as much as movies and our team sizes increase substantially.
Facial mocap will help, but it doesn't just magically work. There's still a lot of work to be done by someone.
Lack of emotion and fairly awkward character animation and facial expression do some damage to the overall experience.
Still, Mass Effect is very impressive and I hope BioWare can make the gameplay feel like a true next-gen game and not let us down the way other highly anticipated games like PS3's Lair and Heavenly Sword did.
i dunno, maybe i'm just rationalizing.
all i know is when i first saw the animations i was a bit let down but now i'm ok with it... as long as the story delivers and the dialogue system is as deep as they say it is i'll be a happy camper.
Sorry, I'm just not as into BioWare are everyone else seems to be.