Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8i53TtQ6IQ

[Dragaros]

https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/ma ... ry-edition

[Dragaros]

https://www.gameinformer.com/2021/02/02 ... g-this-may

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021 ... se-revival

[Deano]

ME1 improvements look really nice actually.

I thought Casey left though?

Edit: Wow I really want that helmet. Do you have any links to that Drag?

[Dragaros]

ME1 improvements look really nice actually.

I thought Casey left though?

Edit: Wow I really want that helmet. Do you have any links to that Drag?

Here you go:

https://gear.bioware.com/products/mass- ... ndaryCache

[Dragaros]

"BioWare used AI upscaling to remaster Mass Effect’s original textures"

"Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launches May 14 with significant upgrades"

[Mazder]

Can't wait for that helmet to fit as good as the Master Chief one that released for Halo (it was tiny).

Also I am not massively impressed myself.
Looks about as good as a good mod team, texture-wise.

About 2 moments in the trailer looked objectively "better" to me and that was the Saren grip and the frontal shot of FemShep.
The models are clearly better and the textures are clearly better for Mass Effect 1, but 2 and 3 are, at best, HD texture packs that will only be good if you're able to actually run in 4k.
Right now it's not worth £54.99 for the Pre-Order.

[Deano]

Here you go:

https://gear.bioware.com/products/mass- ... ndaryCache

Cheers.

BioWare store we meet again, with your insane international shipping prices.

[Mazder]

Here you go:

https://gear.bioware.com/products/mass- ... ndaryCache

Cheers.

BioWare store we meet again, with your insane international shipping prices.

Yeah, I already bought an ME3 paint scheme Normandy off them recently, I am definitely not paying for anything from their store any time soon. Basically doubled the price.
Fuck THAT.

EDIT: Also it doesn't include the game.

[Alienmorph]

Okay, so they made ME1 look nicer, and there might be some gameplay streamlining judging from the interface, after all. Took the time to back-import the good FemShepard's face in ME1 and 2, too.

That's nice, but if you want to me to spend money to go for another ride on this particular rollecoaster, I'm gonna need a bit more than that.

[Mazder]

All of the known features of the Legendary Edition so far.

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/bioware/status/1356301456488472576

[Dragaros]

"Mass Effect: Former Developer Reveals Han Solo-Inspired Cancelled Spin-Off Video Game"

[[ “I like the idea of exploring a ‘grayer’ character, akin to a smuggler/pirate type in the ME universe. It also allows you to see the world from a different point of view than the one of the chosen super- soldier. It's a bit like exploring the Star Wars universe without being a Jedi, or the Warhammer 40k universe without being a Space Marine.”
“We all needed to focus on Mass Effect 2, which was the right call at the time. I think the concept was really strong, though, and I would definitely like to see a game like that one day.” ]]

[Dragaros]

"Mass Effect 3 Could Have Had A Completely Different Ending"

[[ "Writing an ending for Mass Effect 3 that pleased everyone was never going to be possible. BioWare was approaching the close of what had become one of the most beloved and established trilogies in the history of games, and so it was only natural that some people were going to be disappointed. But when Mass Effect 3 finally launched in 2012, the hypothesis that it’s impossible to please everybody violently imploded, with fans all over the world inciting outrage towards what they deemed to be a bit of a cop-out.

It’s important to qualify this: Mass Effect is known for making excellent use of cause and consequence. Spend too long on the fence between right and wrong? Wrex is going to die before the first game even ends. Urdnot Wreav then replaces him, opening up unique possibilities in later games - if Wrex dies in Mass Effect, you can save Mordin in Mass Effect 3, because Wreav is stupid enough to fall for an elaborate ruse. Wrex, on the other hand, is far too bright. Over the course of the next few weeks, he slowly pieces it all together and realizes that the Genophage is still alive and well. Now you’ve made an enemy of one of the best and smartest krogan in the galaxy.

These trilogy-spanning permutations operate across all kinds of relationships, meaning that your playthrough and mine were probably completely different to one another. But at the end of Mass Effect 3, right at the climax of a story people spent five long years participating in, all of that seemed to go out the window. You were given three options to deal with the Reapers: Destroy, Control, or Synthesis. Each of these choices was also partially determined by the amount of war assets you’d managed to amass by the end of the game. In almost every permutation of the Mass Effect 3 ending, Shepard dies.

This wasn’t always the case. According to Mass Effect 3 writer Chris Hepler, the end of Shepard’s story could have been radically different. Hepler started working on Mass Effect right at the beginning. Although he wasn’t formally part of the team yet, he did additional design, chipped in for playtesting, and offered a fair amount of writing feedback during development of the first game. He had a much more active role on Mass Effect 2, writing the Codex entries, the Galaxy Map, and spearheading the Cerberus Daily News initiative. By the time Mass Effect 3 rolled around, Hepler was writing EDI, Thane, Citadel missions, and was generally considered to be the project’s “loremaster.”

“The ending relies on space magic, and the lead writer, lead gameplay designer, and executive producer all just embraced that and owned it from the get-go,” Hepler tells me. “‘Any sufficiently advanced technology’ and all that. They wanted and got a really big decision that affects the whole galaxy. If you give it a moment's thought, none of the three options are perfectly moral or the ‘right’ answer for everyone. Destroy may not solve the problem of AI and organics; Control rewards the Reapers; even Synthesis, which is harder to get than the other two and sounds like it'd be permanent peace, basically violates the entire galaxy's bodily autonomy without consent. So that part, I think, works.

“Did it satisfy the fans? Hell, no, not at first, and I found a lot of the criticism to be legitimate. The Extended Cut gave us a second chance to make an ending that acknowledged many more of the players' choices, and was about as good as we could reasonably make given the decisions we'd already made. I felt a lot better about myself and us as a team after the EC came out.”

Hepler explains that fans had observed several hints throughout the trilogy that pointed in completely different directions. For example, there are aspects of the lore that actually lean towards the Citadel species allying with the Reapers in order to collectively tackle a dark energy anomaly, as opposed to the Reapers remaining as the Big Bad right up until credits roll. Hepler confirms that there are explicit lore details that lean into this idea, but that he never personally heard about capitalizing on them. Remember, this is coming from the Mass Effect loremaster - if he says there is lore to back up a dark energy anomaly that only the Reapers can save us from, it certainly exists.

“Now, what would I have done?” Hepler asks. “I wouldn't have done space magic at all. I planned to write three Codex entries on the Crucible rather than one, reflecting on what scientists think it is at first, what it appears to be once construction has really made progress, and a third detailing how it will kill the Reapers, readable right before you return to Earth.”

Hepler explains that he wanted to take inspiration from Nancy Kress’ novel, Probability Moon, in order to have the Crucible use the strong nuclear force as a weapon. Kress’ superweapon is designed to create a massive burst of energy that is completely harmless for objects that have a low atomic weight, like organic flesh made of carbon chains. This means that the vast majority of Citadel species would be virtually unaffected by a blast from this weapon.

Objects with a much higher atomic number, however, would be annihilated by the beam. This weapon is constructed in such a way that it emits life-killing radiation for anything made up of heavy metals. “So cybernetic creatures like the Reapers and husks would have their organic parts fried because they're right next to the heavy metals, but the organic creatures a safe distance away, like a civilian population, would be just fine,” Hepler says.

“The rebuilt Shepard, who had a fair bit of cybernetics, would die heroically, but that was always likely to be on the cards. In talking with Ann Lemay, another writer on the project, we theorized that the metal most likely to be the atomic weight cut-off-point was niobium, which today is used in piercings and surgical implants because it doesn't rust and you can embed it in flesh without ill effects. It's even blue when exposed to oxygen, like the glowing blue husks we've been fighting since [the first] Mass Effect. So it would make sense as a building block for the Reapers and their ultimate weakness.”

So, what happened? Unfortunately, Hepler never got to pitch his ending. The design leads moved pretty fast with their Destroy/Control/Synthesis trifecta, to the point that the whole premise had been approved before Hepler even got around to finishing his second Codex entry. As a result, he hadn’t got a full description of how this pertained to the entire galaxy yet - although looking at it now, it could have borrowed from the best bits of each ending. The Reapers would be neutralized, but the tech would be there. Given that Mass Effect is largely about the coexistence of humans and cybernetic creatures, it would also have had an impact on other aspects of the universe - what would happen to EDI?

“I [also] had some concern that Nancy Kress might notice and sue us if I didn't do my homework,” Hepler says. “And there was no time to do that homework, which would be me telling all the leads to hold off for a week while I exchanged a crap-ton of emails with my subject matter experts. ‘Sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable from magic’ was far easier and had much more project momentum.

“I recycled some of the strong-force-as-a-weapon tech into the Reaper infantry weapon, the Blackstar. In retrospect, I wish I'd spoken up more, or thought it all out faster, but them's the breaks.”

As well as Hepler’s own ending - which obviously never made it into the final game, despite sounding as if it had a lot more hard science behind it - Hepler is a big fan of the popular Indoctrination Theory. However, he was pretty open about the fact that this wasn’t something BioWare consciously designed.

“The Indoctrination Theory is a really interesting theory, but it's entirely created by the fans,” Hepler says. “While we made some of the ending a little trippy because Shepard is a breath away from dying and it's entirely possible there's some subconscious power to the kid's words, we never had the sort of meetings you'd need to have to properly seed it through the game.

“We weren't that smart. By all means, make mods and write fanfic about it, and enjoy whatever floats your boat, because it's a cool way to interpret the game. But it wasn't our intention. We didn't write that.”" ]]

[Someone With Mass]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhC46YsFDR0&ab_channel=GameSpot

[magnuskn]

Wat, Pinnacle Station is not in the legendary edition, because it's source code has been corrupted? Apparently not enough that I can't currently install it if I do a new Mass Effect 1 install, but whatevs. No more infinite rerolling of perfect armor, boo. Also no multiplayer. Grrr.

I wonder what version of the hacking minigame we'll get now in all three games.

[Sinekein]

ME3’s Multiplayer is not included.

I should go.

[TTTX]

well ME1 looks better, everything else just look like the usual HD upgrade so basically a giant meh overall, since there isn't much else different.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtBq6xvIhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yTf82Tk23A

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irNhWv6lJl0

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN-HQtDFZKs

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdwafYDlXtU

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Sinekein]

I mean, I will most definitely buy it at some point, because they look like they put effort into making the games prettier, especially 1.

But not for a full price. Once it hits €30, I'll think about it. 60? No way I'm paying that price for a texture mod that doesn't include multiplayer.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, miffed about the "no multiplayer" part, I would have liked to continue my hunt for the Harrier. ^^

But I'll get it. That's why I have a full-time job, to be able to pay for stupid shit, like an RTX 3090.

[Spartanburger]

Wat, Pinnacle Station is not in the legendary edition, because it's source code has been corrupted? Apparently not enough that I can't currently install it if I do a new Mass Effect 1 install, but whatevs.

The loss of the source code is reportedly why Pinnacle Station never made it to PS3. The PC DLC of it is basically a straight 360 port.


I'll probably get MELE so I can rip the assets - one of the devs who worked on it is the person behind Umodel and although the tool doesn't yet work with MELE, they said they'll probably end up releasing an update that supports asset extraction.

I'm liking the updates to ME1 - they seem the most substantial. ME2 and ME3 is basically just a uprez (or ALOT mod if you're on PC) with some slight adjustments to color grading, tonemapping, lighting. The framerate uncapping is nice - had to mod that in with the prior games. Turning on AO for the whole game is interesting - maybe I didn't notice it before but I'm surprised that AO didn't exist in the franchise outside of select times in ME3. Really surprised about the addition of subsurface scattering though - those usually require some advanced shaders and additional texture maps that the original game did not have. Shaders would need a way to distinct between skin and not skin, so either a texture map for it, or by creating different material groups for different parts of the body. The OG textures and materials are basically just one texture for a full body of a character, skin and clothes. So how they're going to do it is beyond me. This is UE3 though, so it's probably an inexpensive method of faking it.

Also, booooo no multiplayer. I know it would've been a lot more work (supposedly), but I'd love to have it included, even if it resets my manifest. Ah well, guess I'll have to keep ME3 and ALOT installed.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, dammit. MP gave the third game so much more longevity. I'm really a bit nonplussed that they didn't include it again, since it would have been a bit of a cash cow.

[Alienmorph]

I mean, I will most definitely buy it at some point, because they look like they put effort into making the games prettier, especially 1.

But not for a full price. Once it hits €30, I'll think about it. 60? No way I'm paying that price for a texture mod that doesn't include multiplayer.

Yeah, it's a remaster of a decade old series, it's not going to stay full price forever. Heck, probably not for a long time at all. I still don't know if I'll ever want to play the ME trilogy again, but if I do, I'd definately give a few bucks for playing a visually improved version and run it through Steam instead of Origin.

But preordering this, and for 60 bucks? Ahahaha... noooope!

[TTTX]

Yeah, it's a remaster of a decade old series, it's not going to stay full price forever. Heck, probably not for a long time at all. I still don't know if I'll ever want to play the ME trilogy again, but if I do, I'd definately give a few bucks for playing a visually improved version and run it through Steam instead of Origin.

But preordering this, and for 60 bucks? Ahahaha... noooope!

if you bought ME3 between june 11th 2020 and may 14th 2021, you get a 17% discount on steam for MEL.

so instead of 59,99 euroes it's like 49,79 euroes which is still expensive, just not as much.

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

What kind of sick monster skips the squad banter?

I never minded the slow elevators that much; I found the squad dialogue amusing, the news blips were entertaining, and you could always rotate the camera to check out just how snug those quarian suits were in all the right places…

[magnuskn]

Your signature seems more ironic with that last image. ^^

[Alienmorph]

Speaking of butts, apparently Walters has confirmed there will be adjustments to make certain scenes less "problematic". He specifically mentioned the Miranda butt-shots and a few of the scenes where if you're playing with a FemShep in skirt you'd be getting an accidental panty-shot, as examples. The good news is that they have not gone in and removed or redesigned any of the characters, because that'd be too hard to do, so it's gonna be mostly stuff like adjusting camera angles and not outright censorship, so... whatever. There are quite a few weird or akward shots here and there, and getting rid of those really isn't a bad thing.

Good thing tho they probably cobbled this Remaster on a stringed budget, and aren't doing much more than some spit and polish, or I still bet they would have censored the shit out of certain aspects of the games.

[Deano]

Speaking of butts, apparently Walters has confirmed there will be adjustments to make certain scenes less "problematic". He specifically mentioned the Miranda butt-shots and a few of the scenes where if you're playing with a FemShep in skirt you'd be getting an accidental panty-shot, as examples. The good news is that they have not gone in and removed or redesigned any of the characters, because that'd be too hard to do, so it's gonna be mostly stuff like adjusting camera angles and not outright censorship, so... whatever. There are quite a few weird or akward shots here and there, and getting rid of those really isn't a bad thing.

Good thing tho they probably cobbled this Remaster on a stringed budget, and aren't doing much more than some spit and polish, or I still bet they would have censored the shit out of certain aspects of the games.

I get some of it, the miranda stuff was a little OTT. But this kind of thinking is a part of why BioWare's stories and characters have become so stale, they're so afraid to do anything.

[Alienmorph]

I get some of it, the miranda stuff was a little OTT. But this kind of thinking is a part of why BioWare's stories and characters have become so stale, they're so afraid to do anything.

You can extend that to pretty much the majority of mainstream western media.

I'm glad they're limiting the tampering to sensible adjustements in this case, at least. Even tho it sounds like it's by necessity and not by choice.

[Ragabul]

I have mixed opinions about the Miranda's ass thing. It's *really* dumb in ME2 and it is actually one of the better examples of problems in design that appear when you make really stereotypical assumptions about who your audience is. (Another being femshep talking to Jacob like a cat in heat).

However, in ME3, they repackaged it into a self-aware joke in which some shots are so intentionally ludicrous as to become amusing. In particular is one conversation with Shepard, Shepard is talking but Miranda's ass is given the dead center of the screen and takes up about 50% of the screen. It's so stupid and in that instance I took it as a nod to Miranda fans and also just a nod to forum jokes and a bit of self-awareness of how stupid such things are on Bioware's part.

So the ME2 scenes going away is not something that I will miss, but in as much as they set up the joke in ME3 and I'm sure the joke is also removed, they are removing a bit of old, fun, funny interchange with fans.

[Vol]

1) Fan service is not inherently bad.
2) Mass Effect is an appropriate setting for it.
3) The creators (presumably) intended for those shots to be as they are.
4) Thus altering them is asinine at best, malicious at worst.

The greater point to be made is where their priorities are with this project.

That said, I truly hope the ME1 map makes finding those fucking Keepers easier. Every single time I did that quest, I"d miss 1, and it'd never be the same one, and I'd spend at least an hour doing circuits to find it.

[TTTX]

I have mixed opinions about the Miranda's ass thing. It's *really* dumb in ME2 and it is actually one of the better examples of problems in design that appear when you make really stereotypical assumptions about who your audience is. (Another being femshep talking to Jacob like a cat in heat).

However, in ME3, they repackaged it into a self-aware joke in which some shots are so intentionally ludicrous as to become amusing. In particular is one conversation with Shepard, Shepard is talking but Miranda's ass is given the dead center of the screen and takes up about 50% of the screen. It's so stupid and in that instance I took it as a nod to Miranda fans and also just a nod to forum jokes and a bit of self-awareness of how stupid such things are on Bioware's part.

So the ME2 scenes going away is not something that I will miss, but in as much as they set up the joke in ME3 and I'm sure the joke is also removed, they are removing a bit of old, fun, funny interchange with fans.

even before the game came out people where questioning the Miranda ass camera, at least I remember an interview with a question about the subject.

to be fair there are a lot of stupid stuff in ME2 (if I remember correctly not a single of the female squad mates wear armor only skin tight clothes or are basically Jack or uses a helmets in very dangerous environments, just to name an example), the Miranda ass came was just one of the noteble ones because it is such in your face at some point when you are talking with her.

true it was a different time, when BW was good and hadn't alienated their fan base to the point they shut down their forums (alhtough considering ME:A and anthem it was probably a good thing they did, because that place would have become more toxic if they hadn't).

[TTTX]

That said, I truly hope the ME1 map makes finding those fucking Keepers easier. Every single time I did that quest, I"d miss 1, and it'd never be the same one, and I'd spend at least an hour doing circuits to find it.

I know one doesn't pop up (all the keepers are there before you talk with Chorban to start the scan quest, but one disappears ass soon as the quest starts, I know this because back in the day I pretty much learned every location of every keeper in ME1 because I played it so many times and it wasn't at it's location) until after you have talked with Chorban's partner and begin that part of the quest.

[Ragabul]

1) Fan service is not inherently bad.

It's not but at a bare minimum, I think you can say that it's an epic fail at fan service. What's the actual market for enthusiasts for ludicrous Miranda ass shots? My hunch says mostly people who romanced Miranda. It's probably neutral or an active turn-off for most of the rest. You can't make everybody happy, but the common sense solution of "keep stupid Miranda ass shots in the Miranda romance" doesn't seem like a particularly unreasonable design decision for them to have put together.

Other notable examples are asari being constantly up-ons and Shepard having no option but to just passively receive it. This seems to be pretty much universally disliked by everybody but Liara romancers. It's another game but another excellent example is Yu in Persona 4 having no option but to sit around like an idjit allowing Rise to pretend like they are dating even when he's in a relationship with someone else.

I get that these are almost certainly getting removed for more or less censorship reasons and that can be dodgy. But you can make a perfectly fine argument for removing them for basically director's cut reasons because they actually suck for reasons well beyond political correctness.

*Edit* Also I'm done on this topic so this thread doesn't just become an argument about censorship.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDbZrg64Vbs&ab

[magnuskn]

Oh, boy, that dude again.

[Deano]

The no game thing makes no sense. I'm from the UK so I'll be doing a bit of guessing.

But most Collectors editions that come with a fairly big statue or equivalent AND the game will retail around $200-$300. So the legendary cache being $150 is perfectly reasonable. I actually prefer it this way as it gives you a choice of what retailer to buy the game from, or you can acquire through other means if you don't feel like the game itself is worth the price. What a stupid hot take.

[Alienmorph]

It's a pricy collector's edition, that even comes with a steelboock case, but no physical copy of the game that's supposed to go in it. Like, don't do the stupid pins and give me a g'damn physical version of the damn game. It's like having a bookshelf full of carboard boxes with the title of whatever audibooks you listened to last year. You can make it look fancy all you want, but I question the damn point of it.

The helmet is nice, and that kind of lifesize props can cost a lot more. But if you just want to sell people a glorified ME-themed lootcrate, don't pretend you're doing anything but that.

[Mazder]

Honestly if they'd had the helmet, art and pins separate they'd probably have been able to make more money on it so it's either benevolence for not shafting the consumers more or it's poor business planning.

But, seeing as it's mostly intended for the US audience anyway due to shipping I honestly don't care enough about it.
I bet it's just like the cheap plastic clone trooper helmets when Star Wars Episode 2 was in theatres.

[Dragaros]

I get some of it, the miranda stuff was a little OTT. But this kind of thinking is a part of why BioWare's stories and characters have become so stale, they're so afraid to do anything.

Agreed.
I think the famous/infamous Miranda butt shots was one of those situations where the old phrase "context is king" comes to mind. They could have made it better if it was, say, during Miranda romance path, where the player choses to engage with Miranda in a romance of their own volition, and she and Shepard are flirting back and forth, two adults expressing sexual interest in each other. It would match the tone of the scenes, the nature of the conversations, the emotions of the moment, etc. But focusing on Miranda's ass when she's asking Shepard for help, or with her sister in clear and immediate danger, is a mood whiplash. It'd be the same thing with Tali: If there was a camera angle where Tali's rear or hips covered half the screen while flirting with Shepard or right before she pounces Shep on the bed, that would fit the context of that scene. Do that when she's telling Shep she just got news of being charged with treason, or discovering the body of her dead father, and that would obviously not fit. A storyteller would want the player to feel empathy and compassion for Tali in that moment, not thinking "bow chicka wow wow." There's a time and a place to make something work, and a time and a place were it doesn't work, narratively speaking that is. Proper context makes things work.

Your signature seems more ironic with that last image. ^^

How unintended but fortuitous!

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]