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Ok, so, its been out on the 360 for a bit now, and came out for the PC a month and a half ago. I was away for June, but picked up when I got back home (for the PC). Great game, reminds me of a cross between KotOR, Halo, and Starflight. I am praying we'll see another KotOR game from Bioware using this engine, the game is brilliant. I'm on my second playthrough.

Anyway, surprised we haven't had a post on this game yet. I cannot recommend this game enough.

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F^&*(ing awesome, thats the best reply I have seen all day.

Alright folks, is this game better, or at least on par with KOTOR? I believed in Bioware after playing that game.

in some ways yes... some ways not so much. I personally liked the real time fight mechanics a lot more and the graphics and emotion engine are really great. The weapon and armor customization is pretty good as well, but hampered by one of the clunkiest inventory systems in recent memory. And the main story is very engaging with a huge bang of a climax. And the various classes are really distinct and allow for some really different gameplay which helps replayability.

On the other hand, KOTOR has much wider variety and much more emotionally engaging system of side missions... and the while KOTOR has fewer visitable worlds, the worlds you do visit felt much fleshed out than the ME offerings. Definitely the side missions in ME feel

(and are) repetitive and rather pointless. It felt like level grinding.

There are some technical glitches in the 360 version of ME as well. The 360 apparantly can't dynamically flush its memory so after a while textures just stop loading and load times in mission can get rather long (15~20 seconds of loadtime disguised as the world's slowest elevators).

I think the game is worth playing. Bioware has already released a DLC mission and a sequel is planned (supposed to be a trilogy) which is supposed to pick up directly after the end of ME.

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There is more DLC on the way (for 360 and PC), and I believe (and please correct me if I am wrong) they are talking about a spring 2009 release for ME2.

And I missed all the chatter in the 360 thread, as I am not a owner of one. :)

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Lov the game as well. Also on my second playthrough, though i put it aside when GTA4 hit and havent been in much of a gamng mood for awhile.

i got the first DL content level, which Im playing ATM, and is quite engaging. looking forward to more!

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"Bring Down the Sky" is being held up for the PC because of a single, hard to squash bug. They aren't saying what it is, only that it should be out soon (along with a patch to fix some other issues). No word yet on what the next DLC will be.

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I've said it before, but I think I'll say it again... Mass Effect is, IMO, the single best game available for the Xbox 360. Now that it's available for PC as well, there is no excuse not to play. Is it better than KOTOR? That's pretty subjective. The game is similar in some respects, but it's somewhat different. KOTOR has the added advantage of being set in a well-known and beloved universe. With that in mind, I think I personally prefer Mass Effect (technically, I preferred Jade Empire as well). BioWare has done a fantastic job of fleshing out ME's universe, and I preferred the real-time combat (as opposed to turn-based combat acting out in real time).

Bottom line: if BioWare makes a game, it's going to be good. Bring on Dragon Age!

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I liked Mass Effect well enough. I kind of want to see where they take it for the sequel... there was a lot in ME1 that I felt was kind of "half developed" and I saw a lot of room for addition, modification and improvement. It was a very good "start" and a very good game, where it goes from here is what will really enshrine it as a classic IMHO.

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After reading a few of the comments here, I'll go hunt a copy down for my PC. I've been a fan of Bioware long before KotOR, going back to Baldur's Gate.

They're usually one of those dev teams that know how to get it down right. Maybe a hiccup here and there, but good in the end. So, off to hunt for one.

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After reading a few of the comments here, I'll go hunt a copy down for my PC. I've been a fan of Bioware long before KotOR, going back to Baldur's Gate.

They're usually one of those dev teams that know how to get it down right. Maybe a hiccup here and there, but good in the end. So, off to hunt for one.

I just hope you have a killer PC to run it on... this game is very graphically intensive... its on par with GOW graphics so be prepared. I played through the console version and I liked it alot... one of the more unique games out there.

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And be sure to check 10,000 posts in the PC self-help section of the ME forum to try to get ME running on your PC! It took me DAYS (and hours per day) to finally get my copy going. I hope---no errors the past 5 hours. (and I still don't really know exactly what was wrong, or how re-copying all the files help)

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And be sure to check 10,000 posts in the PC self-help section of the ME forum to try to get ME running on your PC! It took me DAYS (and hours per day) to finally get my copy going. I hope---no errors the past 5 hours. (and I still don't really know exactly what was wrong, or how re-copying all the files help)

Doesn't sound like it's worth it if you've have the 360 version.

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Thankfully, the community on the Bioware site is usually on top of these things. If they don't come up with a work around, they get enough attention from the powers that be to look into it. A patch is in the works.

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Uh, I think there are some armor mods out, and an achievement modifier that is leading to a save game editor, but, I haven't seen any major work yet. Its early though, game hasn't been out that long.

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Re: Mods. We'll probably have to wait until more people get it working before we get some serious mods. :) (also, we really need more UT3 engine mod/editors to be able to work on ME)

I've done a few armor recolors. (I take requests) It's also very easy to replace Shepard's model with just about any other character from the game. (yeah, I'm playing through as Liara at the moment) Changing henchmen's appearance and NPC's can't be done yet. (just about everyone wants Liara to look like Shiala from Feros--including me)

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What are you using to mod the armor?

It drives me batty that the Colossus armor looks like a COBRA reject from the GI Joe toy line. I wanna take the gloss off of this thing and change the red. Wouldn't be so bad if it was someone else in the squad, but I have it for my Shep, and its just so hideous, LOL. Its all I see.

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How does the Mako handle on the PC? That was one of my chief complaints about the control scheme on the Xbox was that the Mako drove like a drunk hippo.

Well, it handles like a 6 wheeled vehicle with an artificially lowered mass driving in a low gravity environment. :lol:

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Well, it handles like a 6 wheeled vehicle with an artificially lowered mass driving in a low gravity environment. :lol:

I just seem to have had a lot of "wobble" when I was driving it on the Xbox... I think it had to do with the "go forward" control constantly shifting depending on where the camera was aiming. So if you turned your camera to aim and shoot at something but wanted to drive around in another direction there was this brief "whoops" when the Mako would bobble and you'd have to adjust your steering to straighten it out. This phenomenon was compounded in the times when I'd get the Mako "stuck" and have to "Austin Powers" my way out of a jam (constantly throwing the thing into forward and reverse to "rock" out of a spot).

Some folks I know who have the PC version told me the Mako steering was "greatly improved" but they had not played the Xbox version, so I was kind of curious as to how it actually steers and shoots.

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The Mako in the PC version drives with all the grace and control of an intoxicated ballerina with an inner ear condition. I hope to god that it isn't improved over the X360 version, because that would mean that the 360 Mako was a true nightmare to drive.

The Mako is the only thing holding me back from playing the game more, really.

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Well, the Devs did talk about making changes to the control scheme onthe PC, and it certainly sounds like the PC version is improved in this area (because of having both the mouse and the keyboard). Personally, I have no issue strafing in the Mako, or aiming in general.

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Texmod is the program used to actually override the textures in the game. It's very simple to use--it's basically a launcher for ME's .exe file, but it can override any texture with one of your choosing.

Now, I can CHANGE colors very well, as well as lighten/darken/brighten. But don't ask me to alter the shininess--that's way beyond my ability to adjust layer specular highlighting and glow, etc. (The ME models are actually inherently glowing blue, with a transparent texture of pure shine over that, all wrapped in an armor texture with transparent layers of armor to selectively allow certain parts to glow or shine)

I can totally remove all shine I think though--haven't actually tried.

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Well, the Devs did talk about making changes to the control scheme onthe PC, and it certainly sounds like the PC version is improved in this area (because of having both the mouse and the keyboard). Personally, I have no issue strafing in the Mako, or aiming in general.

same here, I thought the mako drove just fine. What makes me laugh about it is the fact that any gun (eventually) is stronger than the cannon mounted on that thing.

I would have REALLY liked it if the mako were upgradable as well. And then there's the mako armor exploit... no matter how damaged it is, save game, load game and ta-da! your mako is brand new.

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