Anyone who’s worked in the game industry for some time has been on a project that came in under the wire– so much so, in fact, that this is unfortunately many people’s exclusive experience with shipping games. Aside from the obvious negative effect this has on our quality of life, and our desirability as an industry for the world’s best creative talent, the last-minute cuts and the seemingly heroic hacks show through in the shipping product as well. Here are some elements to look for in determining how a game’s production went, from smooth sailing (mythical as that may be) to the worst bare-knuckle stress and drama.
Before I begin, I’d like to note that Mass Effect is a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed. I use it as an example here because it’s fresh in my mind, and because I get the feeling that it was meant to be more– maybe much more– than what ended up on the gold disc. I don’t know anyone personally who works at BioWare Edmonton, so everything you’ll read here is just a guess on my part. I mean them no ill– Mass Effect is all the more a triumph, and the team all the more laudable, for overcoming the adversities I’m certain the project faced.
Undue or odd simplicity.
Simplicity isn’t a bad goal. But there’s a difference between elegantly simple and oddly, strangely simple. When a game’s design has elements that vary wildly in their level of detail, odds are good that it wasn’t meant to be that way: game designers, like other artists, like to see balance in their creations.
For example, the items of Mass Effect are limited to weapons, armor, upgrades, and medkits. No other items can be obtained or inspected (quest items just show up in your quest log). There is no loot other than finding more weapons, and these automatically get better (in a completely linear progression: Assault Rifle I, Assault Rifle II, and so on) as you advance. Because they’re the only thing you can find, you’ll soon have piles of pistols and shotguns, which you can sell for cash to buy– what? The only thing you can buy is more weapons.
As one of my colleagues at work put it, the lack of any other kind of item than these in the game really detracts from the realism of the world. Imagine driving through a desolate ice field on a distant planet, picking up some debris on your scan, making your way to it and finding an old crashed probe, and finally, opening it up to find... a sniper rifle, of all things. It just doesn’t work that well. I feel safe proposing that BioWare, one of the leaders of the RPG genre, did not originally intend it to be this way.
When you find a very simple system like this– one in a game that in other areas pulls out all the stops to create a richly detailed world– there’s a good chance it was implemented under great duress, as deadlines drew near and the parties involved realized what they originally wanted wouldn’t happen. Either there was just no time left, or the original design wasn’t working and nobody realized it until too late. At the risk of sounding dramatic, these moments are when dreams die. You can sometimes spot their remains in what ends up shipping.
cf. any of the actual open-world gameplay in the big publisher “open-world” superhero games like Spider-Man 3 or Superman Returns; the canned, timed button-press moments in Call of Duty 3; and Final Fantasy XII’s License Board (in an admission of its weakness, the License Board was later replaced with a more fleshed-out character advancement system in a Japanese re-release).
Significant differences between demos and the actual game.
Good game developers don’t set out to lie about their games, and so when they create a demonstration to show the public one year out from shipping, we should assume they are making their best-effort guess as to what the game is really going to be like when it’s done. Obviously, things don’t always go as planned. When the final game diverges significantly from what was shown in the demonstration, you can bet the project experienced sharp course corrections.
About a year ago, a promotional movie for Mass Effect showcased numerous features that were nowhere to be seen when the actual game shipped. The Galaxy Map featured beautifully smooth zooming between levels and planets in dramatic three-dimensional orbits. The combat engine allowed the player to direct the squad to specific individual locations with an interface that paused the on-screen action, and the player could even take control of each member at will. Certain conversation lines seemed interruptible by the player.
Unfortunately, none of these features can be seen in the final game. In BioWare’s defense, a hugely important part of the creative process is taking out things that don’t work. But, making these decisions with one year to go in the production schedule is already cutting it close, let alone when they may have actually been made, sometime between the demo and the release to manufacturing. And these decisions are costly, especially on the well-being of the team. Because these big games are comprised of complex, interrelated systems, anytime a mid-course correction is made in one feature, many more features and plans need to be evaluated in the light of the modification. Flexibility is a good thing, but too many changes, too late, brings exhaustion as the developers try to work out the cascading effect of change after change on the game’s overall design and experience.
In a worst-case scenario, the project is changing so much that not everyone is fully up to speed on what the game actually is anymore; people make guesses, work gets wasted or thrown out, and tempers flare. As I stated above, I don’t know that this was the case in particular during the development of Mass Effect. But I do know that the easiest, most enjoyable projects are the ones where clear definition is achieved early enough that everyone can plan accordingly. The larger the team, the more critically important this becomes.
cf. This is similar to Halo 2’s demonstration at E3 2003, which featured an entire level that never made it into the final game. Half Life 2’s press materials for the same E3 featured some elements, such as the strange blue tentacle, that disappeared before release.
Sudden narrative leaps and loose ends.
The player reaches one point during the main story of Mass Effect where it seems as though a major decision is about be made. It’s presented as though the choice will have far-reaching consequences on the fate of the galaxy. But after it is made, the effects of this decision are never felt; in fact, the event is never referred to again after that particular mission is over. There are discussions the player can have with certain characters that seem to be leading somewhere, but the dialogue tree suddenly runs out of options, and conversation comes to an abrupt halt. And instead of the player finally figuring who the real villain is and what it wants, the villain simply shows up about two-thirds of the way through and explains itself directly to you, for no benefit to itself and seemingly no reason.
I’ve seen my fair share of emergency story patchwork up close, and each of these moments telegraph that aura. Stories in video games face adversity from many different directions. Most designers and players don’t like overly long cutscenes, and cinematics are often the first to get cut in any case. Scripts need to be adjusted to accommodate what’s doable in-engine and what the artists have time to create and animate. Worst of all, if a mission or sequence designed to reveal something important is cut at the last second, the same plot development needs to be squeezed into a place it wasn’t originally intended to be: a quick conversation, a disembodied voice over the radio, a wall of text.
Carrying the knowledge of how much better something could have been, or how the story of one’s game does indeed make more sense than players think it does, can be a burden at times. But that, ironically, is one of the saving graces of sequels (as they will inevitably come for Mass Effect). A sequel offers developers the chance to make Game 2 what Game 1 was supposed to be, and in do things in Game 3 that they talked about doing in Game 2. Let’s not pretend that isn’t nice sometimes– a sequel can be the perfect venue to refine a specific type of craft.
cf. Indigo Prophecy’s confusing jumps two-thirds of the way through the story; Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords’ hurried, abrupt conclusion; and Xenogears’ baffling second disc, where the game gives up on towns or cutscenes and simply teleports the player from dungeon to dungeon– explaining what happened in the meantime with scrolling text.
Loading and streaming issues.
Loading, streaming and caching issues all come from a problem set that has ensnared a sizable number of projects in this console generation. Because art assets are more detailed than before, files are larger in size, and thus there is more to load; compounded with the rise and popularity of open-world gameplay, ostensibly any of those assets needs to be able to be loaded at any time. Finally, to add insult to this injury, the Xbox 360 is a step backwards from the original Xbox in this respect, which featured a guaranteed hard disc that could be used for caching frequently-used data. Xbox 360 developers need to account for players who have no hard disc, and must stream directly off the disc as much as possible.
As BioWare’s first game on the Xbox 360 platform, it’s reasonable to expect some technological teething problems. One of the first things noticeable in Mass Effect is the tremendous amount of texture-popping that goes on as the player enters new areas. Occasionally, even just running from place to place results in a loading message appearing while the disc spins wildly inside. It’s clear that the popping wasn’t something the artists knew in advance to work around, since there are often shots in cutscenes that don’t even last as long as it takes for the texture to pop in: by the time the texture has actually loaded, the camera isn’t even on the object any longer.
Good systems can be designed to minimize load times and texture popping. However, developers frequently underestimate the amount of work this takes. Ideally, a plan to address the issue would be in place from the very beginning, allowing the artists to construct objects and environments that work in lock-step with the technology. Unfortunately, too often this doesn’t happen, for any number of reasons– perhaps the technology just wasn’t in place at all at the time, or the artists and engineers didn’t communicate well, or there was just gross negligence on the part of everyone involved.
Past a certain point (much earlier than most people realize), it’s too late to go back and change your environments, because the designers have already designed everything around the spaces they have. So the engineers are left holding the bag attempting to optimize loading and streaming for these assets after the fact, when they may not have been built for good streaming in the first place.
cf. Many Unreal-engine based titles, not just Mass Effect, show noticeable texture popping (BioShock et. al.), I don’t know if this is due to the way the engine works or the way certain developers have made use of it. Halo 2’s infamous cinematic texture pops are a telltale sign of last-minute content creation.
Lots of bugs.
I saved the most obvious one for last– overly buggy games are a clear sign of a project slamming into its release date at a higher velocity than what an ideal situation would dictate. Reviewers sometimes take it upon themselves to berate the QA (Quality Assurance), or test, department for the bugginess, but these people should be given a break: just because a game is buggy doesn’t automatically mean it is the fault of the testers. When a consumer encounters a bug in a game he or she has bought off the store shelf, the chances are fairly good that a description of that exact problem lurks somewhere inside a database on a developer or publisher server– found, detailed, and reported by one of the game industry’s testing legion.
Fixing bugs as the release date creeps closer is a delicate balancing act. Sometimes the bug is just found too late, because the system that is being tested came in late itself (see above). Other times, to address a bug would mean changing how something important works, which could cause more problems than it solves. It’s difficult to predict all the ways one change could affect everything else in the game, and so sometimes the best thing to do, in the case of something minor, is to let it go.
Of course, bugs in a game can indeed be the fault of the test department, too. It’s possible the issue just wasn’t found by them. Or, if the person in charge of test on a title is a pushover, his objections to release on the grounds of big bugs lurking in the code may be easily overruled or ignored by a producer. Most of the time, the financial considerations of missing a ship date will trump all but the biggest quality issues.
Mass Effect, being the huge game that it is, presents a challenge from a testing perspective, so it’s no wonder that bugs are rather easy to find. Playing normally, I got stuck on geometry several times, with no way out but to reload an earlier save. I flipped my supposedly un-flippable Mako vehicle. A step that I had not yet taken was registered as completed in my quest log. None of these bugs severely impacted my ability to enjoy the game, but they do affect the “fit and finish” of the final product. I have never worked on a game where we didn’t dearly wish we had just a few more weeks to address some of our biggest pet peeve issues.
cf. Both The Elder Scrolls III and IV, Morrowind and Oblivion, for all kinds of miscellaneous problems that were discovered, detailed, and exploited by the fan community; BioWare’s own earlier Knights of the Old Republic for similar issues; and, to be fair, just about any big, ambitious game.
Update 11/28/07: Though I felt I went to some length to state that I really enjoyed Mass Effect and think of it as a great game, it seems some people feel the main idea of this piece is “Mass Effect sucks”. It isn’t; my point is more that the Mass Effect team probably went through a very difficult period finishing and shipping this game. So, if you feel motivated to defend the game in response to this article, I recommend using that energy instead to thank the people at BioWare (if they’re back from their vacations) for the hardships they endured for the sake of the game. They’ll appreciate it.
Comments (38)
I thought it was way too short and uninspired. You only have 6 major areas and 5 of them are about driving a tank through a trench and shooting some people in a lab/base at the end of it. Incredibly plain... As for the uncharted worlds, it all about throwing a new texture over the sky, a new one over the land, and sprinkling some bad guys here and there if you're lucky. Otherwise you only get minerals and artifacts to scan.
Posted by Bog | November 27, 2007 5:34 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 17:34
Let's not forget the "disc read error" people are experiencing. In a quick poll of 10 people I know to be playing Mass Effect, 4 seem to be experiencing this error regularly. Of those 4, only one experienced anything similar with other games. So, for 30% of Mass Effect owners, this single title is causing serious issues with their XBox 360s. I personally have had a "disc read error" 4 times in about 12 play sessions, a problem I have never before experienced (not even on marathon sessions of Halo 3)...
Posted by RTM | November 27, 2007 5:39 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 17:39
Very informative! Thank you! What a great read.
Posted by Yian | November 27, 2007 5:56 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 17:56
For RTM: I think it would be fair to say that both BioWare and Microsoft share some responsibility for lots of Disc Read Errors. What is probably happening is that Mass Effect is hitting your drive so hard, and wildly (constantly seeking across the disc in different places for the data it needs), that your drive’s normal read failure rate is severely increased. BioWare could successfully claim this is a hardware issue, but at the same time, as a developer you can optimize the data layout on the disc to minimize the chance of this happening.
Posted by Matthew | November 27, 2007 6:16 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 18:16
I've logged 30 hours and had no major clipping ,Quest, or DRE error. Must have gotten lucky, or It might be that I have a newer 360 Elite with better components.
Posted by Gungriffon | November 27, 2007 6:59 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 18:59
To RTM
No offense dude but that entire survey you conducted wasn't very good.
I know 10 people (including me) that don't have any errors you seems to have.
That must mean 100% of Mass Effect Users don't have the problem!
See what was wrong with that survey? Now apply it to yours and it's the same thing.
Posted by Jeff | November 27, 2007 7:51 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 19:51
Great read. I agree that Mass Effect is a great game, however the obvious signs that it was rushed out the door really do detract from the game. I think part of the problem (as with so many games these days) is the amount of hype before its release. Had we not been expecting so much, we may have been more forgiving of these problems.
As a game programmer I'd like to make a small comment on the bugs section:
I find the biggest problem with removing bugs from software is related to the publisher or whoever is overseeing the schedule of development. Most programmers I know are aware that the earlier a bug is fixed the easier it's going to be to fix. I've worked on projects where we've constantly been fixing bugs as we introduce them and everything has gone well. Unfortunately it takes only a single big, unmovable, milestone (E3 anyone) to add so many bugs that'd you miss the next milestone fixing them all. This is only compounded closer to release when there is more pressure to complete the product AND less time to fix the remaining bugs.
It basically comes down to the fact that publishers often want every feature in a build without giving extra time. This is often impractical and the games industry is far worse than other industries I've seen in this regard.
Posted by Doolwind | November 27, 2007 7:55 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 19:55
Nice article
Exactly my words.
Very nicely dissected.
Though i can ignore popin, loading and gameplay issues.
But i was expecting Planets with good sdequests.
Longer substantial mainstoryline.
Only 5 main planets, and game got interested in virmire,ilos and then you get final level.
No tough choices like wrex one, only 2 to 3 choices.
Choices are not like desuex,rawdanger, wayofsamurai etc that can change entire course.
All in all much of the exploration stuff was SUPERFICIAL.
Though Graphics atleast outstanding.
Posted by John | November 27, 2007 7:58 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 19:58
BTW. I think the collision detection problem of getting stuck in walls is an Unreal Engine problem. The same thing happens to me on Bioshock, Gears of War(to the extreme on multiplayer), and even UTIII at times. Personally, I just rotate my character, withdraw my gun, strafe, or duck strafe to get out. I have never been permanently stuck in Mass Effect. My Mako did flip permanently after hiting a giant worm. I also noticed many conversation tree options that lead to the exact same line, or in some ways a slight addition to the exact same line. Many side quests also seem shallow in options. In my experience with Bioware games this one feels even more shallow than the Casual Audience targeted Jade Empire. It isn't really short if you do everything... but it isn't KOTOR that is for sure.
Posted by Bob | November 27, 2007 8:40 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 20:40
I pretty much thought the same stuff as you playing through the game.
There was so much stuff that didn't feel quite right, when other bits were just amazing, and although it didn't impact on the game at all, still left a sense of incompleteness to it.
Posted by Funky J | November 27, 2007 8:46 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 20:46
Wonderful piece; it pretty much summed up the way I felt after finishing the game.
Mass Effect included a few things I didn't expect, but dishearteningly, jettisoned - as you point out, probably for a variety of reasons - a lot I did.
Posted by Ozzy 8 | November 27, 2007 9:10 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 21:10
It's not perfect but at least it wasn't as unfinished and horrible as KOTOR II...
Posted by Brian | November 27, 2007 11:38 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 23:38
Great article. I'm glad you touched on the subject of streaming of disc. This constant strain on the dvd-reader is a problem, at least it proved to be the final nail in the coffin for my first-gen reader. An option to install (alá PS3) would be appreciated by us (me) that have a HDD.
Posted by LiquidSquid | November 27, 2007 11:57 PM
Posted on November 27, 2007 23:57
That was a really informative article. I had similar thoughts about the game, particularly about the textures and load screens. I really think that within the next year, MS is going to have to make hard drives mandatory for at least some games (GTA IV would probably benefit greatly from this, if rumor mongering was to be taken seriously). I also almost completely forgot about the E3 '06 demo.
That being said, I still absolutely loved the game. I disagree about the gripes some people have with the story; I think this was some of the best storyTELLING I've experienced since Legacy of Kain. If only Amy Henning could finish the legacy.
Posted by Persopolian | November 28, 2007 12:19 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 00:19
Having played through the game twice, I'm unsure of what portion of the storyline was cut out. What 'big choice' are you making that will effect that rest of the galaxy (besides the obvious ones) that insn't properly integrated into the story.
Spoilers:
(Are you referring to the Krogan/Wrex decision on Virmire? the Rachni Queen? the decision to sacrifice one of your squad?)
With the possible exception of the Krogan cure for the genophage, I didn't think any of the other events were abruptly cut short or left un-integrated.
Posted by Cdewarior | November 28, 2007 12:46 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 00:46
Great article. But with a couple of misstatements about Halo 2. First that level in the trailer did make it in, just with an updated art style. All key elements in the demo are there. Also texture pop was unavoidable, and not related to time constraints. It was about texture depth and cache issues, apparently unavoidable given the memory available on Xbox. Otherwise, very insightful!
Posted by David Kenny | November 28, 2007 1:17 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 01:17
I'm still working my way through the game but there were definate points where the story appeared to be arching but as you said no consequences were felt - I wonder if they did leave something out.
We all have deadlines to meet, be that as a game programmer, a web developer or a graphic designer - that's the crazy pace we all live our lives at these days. At least in today's modern 'next-gen' gaming developers can issue a patch to fix things up, no excuse for being lazy mind you.
Posted by Irregular Mutt | November 28, 2007 1:24 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 01:24
I couldn't have said it better myself.
I wonder if Microsoft or Bioware is more to blame?
Had they waiting until the game was "complete" (let's say come end of 1st quarter or beginning of 2nd) it would probably be a much better and more complete game, but their sales may also have been much less.
If only Grand Theft Auto 4 had shipped this holiday we may have seen the complete Mass Effect in early 2008.
Posted by Kidsmoke | November 28, 2007 1:47 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 01:47
Well put.
Those not in the gaming developer industry would otherwise have a tough time understanding the complications involved in creating a game of this scale.
All in all, I believe the game is a triumph in the end.
We humans seem to repeat the same mistakes over and over again, whether it be gaming development, automotive mechanics, electronics, consumables, toys, etc.
The Money factor always comes before quality of the product. Companies want to put their product on the shelves, no matter how flawed it is, so they can begin reaping the financial rewards.
They sure don't make'm like they used to.
Posted by scififreakazoid | November 28, 2007 8:23 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 08:23
David Kenny: For the Halo 2 E3 demo, I was looking at elements such as the Elite insertion pods raining down, the big Covenant gun in the background, and the geometry of the level. As for its texture popping, the problem may have been “unavoidable” due to the way the system and content were built, but the real issue was that there was simply no time at the end to change how it worked in order to correct the problem. I’m confident Bungie would agree.
Posted by Matthew | November 28, 2007 9:09 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 09:09
@ Doolwind:
I agree with everything you said...the major headache that is not visible/apparent to gamers at all is that making a game is very expensive, and takes a lot of time.
Honestly, publishers are really only concerned with one thing, the bottom line. They are very wary about making decisions that affect that bottom line, mainly allowing more time or pushing out the release date (brutally increasing the cost of development). Another effect of delaying the release on a project is that it affects the timeliness of the project, especially when you have a wildcat marketing department who has been over-hyping your game for years.
The thing that publishers seemingly are not as concerned about (but is arguably the most important thing) is the actual quality of the game. It takes copious amounts of iteration to make a game "feel" right, and publishers have no concept of this (it's a young industry, but come on, have we learned nothing yet from 30+ years of making games?). They don't realize that that also affects the bottom line (positively), although not immediately, because it can be the difference of 1 to several points off on review scores, which, whether we like it or not, have been shown in most cases to affect the sales of a game drastically. Especially, again, when the game has been over-hyped for years, and gamers' expectations are unrealistically high as a result.
I also agree about the dreaded E3 demo...IMO E3 is/was the biggest waste for developers, who work extra long and hard to get everything into the demo that they want people to see, sacrificing stability, organization, and general quality of code to make it happen. Unless a game that is near completion is being showcased, most of the extensive work done to get the E3 demo out the door and onto the floor ends up being throwaway work that either needs to be re-done or gets scrapped altogether...very hard on the developer's quality of life, as well as morale when you are pumping everything you've got into a ton of work that ultimately ends up being a waste of time.
More and more I believe that publishers should not show *anything* until, well, almost everything is finished. This would prevent gamers from feeling like they are getting gypped when they see awesome things in the demo that aren't delivered on, and the developers would get to stop wasting time to showcase a bunch of things that will probably never make into the final game anyway.
Whew, didn't intend for that to be so long winded. At any rate, Mass Effect is one of the best titles to come out since, well, probably KOTOR, and I enjoyed playing it intensely, in spite of the the myriad technical issues present in the final release of the game. I really hope EA takes a good hard look at what people are saying and give BioWare the adequate time and resources to really nail it the next time around, as they (and the game) will certainly be all the better for it.
Posted by Toadkick | November 28, 2007 9:55 AM
Posted on November 28, 2007 09:55
This is still a brand new generation of games/consoles and there are gonna be "issues" at every level of development. Bioware did do a great job of delivering a solid game and yes I'm sure ME2 will be that much better. Caching from the hard drive would solve alot of problems and sadly giving developers 5 years to polish a game would be best too but then we are at a new generation. Good article.
Posted by Frenchy | November 28, 2007 1:57 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 13:57
@ Toadkick
"it's a young industry, but come on, have we learned nothing yet from 30+ years of making games?."
I think you hit the nail on the head here. It keeps coming back to the fact that software engineering is still (relative to other engineering disiplines) in it's infancy, and game development is even younger.
I left out my E3 anecdote as my post was getting long, but I thought I'd share it now:
I worked on a game a few years back and we had to push a build out for E3. The lead and I coded for something like 30 hours straight to get the features in for the build. They all made it in, however we spent THREE entire weeks fixing the bugs we added. I remember looking at a piece of code I had written and couldn't for the life of me remember writing it.
Posted by Doolwind | November 28, 2007 2:18 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 14:18
I enjoyed reading your blog post on Mass Effect. I too have worked on various games (educational games and online poker site) and I totally understand what you were saying.
I think for those who don't work in the game industry, might have a harder time realizing how much pain we go through to bring out a finished product in a timely fashion.
In some of our games, we obviously released some that did have minor bugs since we had to get product out at a set date. Some of our customers did notice them but were not bothered by it much.
There were times when we had major bugs in the game(s) that would require us to make major revisions and thus I had to alter some of my original art assets for that particular game (frustrating to say the least).
I remember working long hours (one time i worked 36 hours straight) just to hit our deadline. I really sympathize with people who work in our industry and I completely understand why certain bugs are left in the game and in fact I'm more forgiving on minor bugs such as the ones you mentioned.
Great work on a great game!
Posted by David L. | November 28, 2007 3:41 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 15:41
Another thought I've had since I first heard about Mass Effect years ago, and cemented by playing the game:
Is/was the pure distillation of what Bioware wanted to create, and by proxy what we as gamers came to expect from the project, actually a generation ahead of itself?
Posted by Ozzy 8 | November 28, 2007 9:02 PM
Posted on November 28, 2007 21:02
Great read. Well thought out and well written. I don't really disagree with your points, but I'd like to counter a few things:
1)As for "the effects of this decision are never felt"... this is a trilogy. We don't know what will carry over and what won't. There's the potential that a lot of the decisions you made (and I'm not just talking about the last hour or two) will effect major stuff in games 2 and 3. We'll see. Of course, I'd like to know exactly what you're talking about just to be certain.
2)As for the supposedly loose story-telling and the using of the bad guy sitting there, telling you his plans... that's actually BioWare. Happened in KotOR. Happened in Jade Empire. Happened in Baldur's Gate I & II. Unless I'm missing your point...
Either way, I do love this game. :)
Posted by yonderTheGreat | November 29, 2007 2:09 AM
Posted on November 29, 2007 02:09
I am getting Disc Read Errors every time I play. Other than that the game is fun.
Posted by Tim Maldoon | November 30, 2007 4:18 PM
Posted on November 30, 2007 16:18
I also seem to get disc read errors. It seems like I get one within minutes of getting into the game, and then I am good for a while. I just got one during a cutscene during one of the romance subplots!
I really did (and still am) enjoying the game, trying to beat it on Insane. I think though that your item rant really hit the nail for me. The amount of loot in baldurs gate was insane. I think a lot of that comes from merging with the FPS aspect. Any more slots for equipment on your characters, and an already clunky inventory system becomes complex. This is a good way to turn off a good chunk of this game's market.
I wanted to compile a list of all the little gripes about the game in one place, so the ME guys could make it all better in ME2.
Posted by Caligo | December 5, 2007 8:07 AM
Posted on December 5, 2007 08:07
I agree with everything in the article...I even think some issues regarding ME were left out or not given enough attention in the article...
Everyone can see the game is something special, but i guess everyone should be able to see that alot is missing or not functioning as it should as well....
For instance, there's a total lack of balance in the game, whether its graphical detail or (action related) gameplay. Its clear some areas like the citadel and the normandy were give a lot of attention, as well as virmire and ilos, the rest just feels like a rush job: way to generic and boring worlds with nothing to do and no one to speak to...this is no proper RPG. Its a very well thought out universe and a great story with some astounding graphics here and there but thats not enough to create a real RPG of the level of the first KotOR. (Nevermind all the technical issues)...
Anyway, i thought that these problems (Mass Effect, as the author of the article points out, of course isnt the only game) could be solved when publishers were free to sell their games at higher prices. That way it would be no problem to extend the developing time and thereby making sure a game is finished when it hits the market. If this game was everything it promised to be i would be glad to pay like a hundred euros for it (thats about 140 dollars)... But since this isnt possible, and publishers are only interested in making money they would rather sell crap and making a profit then sell gold and recording losses as a result of exceeding the developments budget...
Posted by Frank | December 5, 2007 11:55 AM
Posted on December 5, 2007 11:55
For someone who follows video games and doesn't understand the actual process, this was an amazing read. For anyone educated they should know you aren't ripping ME.
I actually thought I was misinformed when the interupting when talking wasn't happening during my play.
And do I ever agree that the items in this game lack innovation. But I understand why now at least, and it doesn't drive me as crazy as before.
Great job, continue writing about the industry, its a really good read.
Posted by George | December 6, 2007 3:09 PM
Posted on December 6, 2007 15:09
I recently finished the game, and for the most part had no qualms with the game as a whole. While an ambitious move on the part of Bioware, it was a little ahead of its time. Though the gaming community needed something like this to come out to raise the bar on what we call a video game. I read the book, though not many have who have played the game as I've seen. I guess what irks me the most is that some people compare this to KOTOR which as a project standpoint is valid. From a writer's standpoint the two aren't even in the same ball park. KOTOR, no matter how original the storyline was, was still weighed down by the fact that it was a SW game. This limits the writer into only having to think about things that could exist in such a universe and gets to ignore anything that dosen't fit. It could be most likened to Cardiff castle in Wales, where the new castle was built by extending the idea of the existing castle. This is a completely new world, where the writer has to make everything up from scratch. The amount of detail that was placed into the world its self is staggering. all in all there was only one map that didn't have to be totally imagined and that was the Moon. Though I still felt a sense of awe as a gazed back at the Earth. As far as the decisions not having any impact, you get to pick who is humanity's representative on the council, which will have the most impact on any future games. yes the worlds were on the most part recycled, but imagining the universe in the way that they did was sheer genius. The story (backstory, technology, plot line, text, explanations, and the very essence of the people you meet) blew me away and felt more real than the book did,(which is hard considering the gap between facts that the imagination can deal with in books and the empirical data that the brain processes through the visual and auditory stimulation of a game or movie) this single aspect, though normally left completely untouched by those who are just criticizing a game by its flaws, saved the entire game from any sort of oblivion. I'm sorry that this became so long winded, but as a writer I felt I had to explain to programmers and developers that no matter how hard the programming is, its still the writing and story that brings the entire work together an alpha and omega to the project. Y'all have to realize that Mr Karpyshyn made up an entire universe, it's physics, language, its very essence of being out of thin air, with nothing but a pen and paper. (or whatever he writes with)
Posted by Corbin | December 6, 2007 4:50 PM
Posted on December 6, 2007 16:50
Great sum up, and I think anyone in the creative industry can sympathize.
As a gamer, I intellectually felt it was a bit rushed, as many people have mentioned, because of the lack of interesting exploration. Since Star Control II, the random exploration has always been my favorite part of games, and why I'm so excited every time a new sci fi game hits the shelves... and often why I'm so disappointed.
I felt quite satisfied after finishing the game, which I think speaks wonders to the story and overall design, as well as general good fun factor of the game, but I can see lots of room for downloadable content. The planets just weren't interesting.
Posted by Ian Aleksander Adams | December 8, 2007 1:38 AM
Posted on December 8, 2007 01:38
That was a very enjoyable read and I totally agree with you. I am curious as to what the major plot decision is. I couldn't think of it myself. However, I am suprised you didn't mention what I consider the most major flaw in the game, the save-points. The lack of regular automatic save-points resulted in me having to play through over 30 min of gameplay again on more than a few occasions. How would that fit into your article? Would you consider it as a bug or something else?
Anyway, very nice article.
Posted by Pete | December 8, 2007 7:44 AM
Posted on December 8, 2007 07:44
I believe that Bioware underestimated how much resources it would take to develop an new intellectual property, thus they never had enough time to actually make the game.
At least I will keep telling myself that and hope ME2 will live up to my expectations.
And yes ME is good, but it could have been better.
Posted by Viper | December 9, 2007 1:13 AM
Posted on December 9, 2007 01:13
Disc read error thing is totally false. It's your xbox that sucks, not Mass Effect cd. Btw, in a quick poll 1 out of every 10 students have been raped by aliens. Hey that's really easy to make up.
Anyways, to the guy writing this review - fair enough. Your points are valid, as Mass Effect certainly has it's flaws. It's magnificence outshines the flaws, but whatever. Some care more for small issues, like yourself.
Mass Effect is the greatest RPG I've ever played and probably one of the best games period.
Posted by Chris Brown | December 9, 2007 1:31 PM
Posted on December 9, 2007 13:31
On the texture-popping issue: as the lead programmer on Bioshock, I can attest to the fact that there were bugs in Microsoft's hard drive caching software which, under certain circumstances (such as playing only for a short time before quitting the game), would cause file accesses to cached data that should have taken a couple milliseconds to take hundreds-to-thousands of milliseconds instead.
I won't claim that this caused all of the texture popping that people observed in BioShock (because a little is to be expected), but it definitely affected a lot of players and, when it happened, caused excessive amounts of texture popping and even greater hitching issues.
Depending on which version of the Xbox 360 XDK Mass Effect was linked against, this problem may have affected that game as well.
Posted by Chris | December 29, 2007 11:14 AM
Posted on December 29, 2007 11:14
Thanks for the informative post, Chris. HD caching on the 360 sounds un-fun by all accounts.
Posted by Matthew | December 29, 2007 12:07 PM
Posted on December 29, 2007 12:07
I agree whole heartedly.
Mass effect was an amazing, innovative, long, versatile game. I just wish there was more and more every turn i take in this game. I haven't even finished it yet and i have 28 hours of game play time!
And about the texture problems. Its the 360's, there to pussy for the game. I have a regular 360 and my friend has an elite. i NEVER see the issue on his elite because its so much faster with the new falcon drive cores and fans and such. So maybe its Microsoft's fault as much as it is bioware's problem.
Alot of issues i saw that i appreciated what they did do but i thought could be so much better i will list here.
1.Conversation options UNCLEAR.
I figured out later on that the options on bottom were the dick/renegade thing to do, middle was neutral, and nice/paragon was top. BUT in the beginning i did not know this. some of the options on the bottom didnt seem what they were, or were unclear of what they were going to say. Vice versa for the top or middle options. I never had the problem later on because i just knew and also the red and blue options were a bit obvious and the text in them indicated a lot more that you were going to be a dick/problem solver. This issue was probably because of the deadline they didn't have time to go back through and make the text on your choices a little more clear. But it didn't interfere to badly with my enjoyment of my ability to be paragon/renegade when i wanted to. also maybe in the middle a few options like Punch them in the face or something. Just thought it would be cool
2. Lack of ship options.
As soon as i got the ship i was stoked to fight in it, upgrade it, or even customize it. I thought at first i was going to be able to get a free "specter gets a ship card" And i would go customize my own and then that would be it with my own name and everything. Also the lack of the ability to enter ship to ship fights was disappointing. But it was an unnecessary feature that just would have been cooler to have. Probably would have took way to long to make. I just would have loved this feature though.
3.Character construction options
Don't get me wrong i loved the face maker in this, they looked real,nice, and smoothly done. I just wish more options for the hair were available, maybe multiple scars, and maybe one eye a different color option, maybe a body build option to make your character more built, fat or skinny.
But i still liked it none-the-less.
4. Codex
Well i liked the codex system, anytime my friends are playing a game and they ask me about something i feel like a goddamn dictionary for this game or something.
But the pictures of the races didn't have a picture of each sex of the race, or maybe quarians didn't have picture of them without the masks on, seriously wtf do they look like, Also the secondary ones were nice, for the different types of geth, i would have liked a picture and maybe a voice read out there to. But again more time needed. But over all it was good and i loved the codex system.
5. Weird quest involves Bane's. (SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!)
If you must read this then highlight this to read it
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 issues with this quest actually
a. A glitch where if you already do the hade's dogs quest and kohoku is dead, the captain still tells you he is in the tower and to go talk to him, but hes dead.
b. No journal entry??
self explanitory i think
c. If you dont do the hade's dogs quest first and go talk to the doctor after 1 or 2 off world main missions to attain this quest . He just say's bane's is dead and its left at that. WTF
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I believe it was an issue of something they wanted to have in there but had to tie up because of dead lines
6.Censorship
I know they were aiming for a T rating but it could have been better if they allowed some things for more realistic backgrounds and such. Not alot of swearing i noticed, and no frontal nudity, not alot of gore either. But it was still a good game, even without the M rating content, though parents now days allow there kids to play alot of games, which is good in my opinion but this is about parenting. its about mass effect.
7.Random deer that you can talk to?
I found these odd deer like animals on a planet which name i forget
it gave me an option to talk to them but nothing happened. disappointment and confusing
8.No statistics area???
I kind of wanted to see where my stats in accuracy,and such fell out. You get the idea right? Probably to much coding to put in on the deadline
9.Starting options
i liked how you could be say earth born only survivor etc..
maybe it would have been cool to be a different race, such as a turian,quarian,krogan,salarian,asari, etc...
with the same story lines just certain main characters and locations like the embassies would change. But i also have come to the grim realization that it would be way to much to do for any deadline.
10. Hand to hand?
when i tried to use the melee attacks it was confusing i wasn't sure how, Maybe a melee weapon like a nightstick, brass knuckles, or a sword or knife or something would have been cool, or some futuristic bull shit i haven't thought of yet. and skills as such applying to those.
11.Water?
There was no water on the game, that you could go in at any great. I think i saw water once but i doubt it.
Just another thing
12. Mako/peice of shit
This thing was the most frustrating thing to drive over mountains, the jets didn't help they just shot me around like a rag doll, and i flipped it countless times, IN FIRE FIGHTS. Also i would have liked more vehicles, and this to be customizable. but that is also a dream crushed by deadlines
13. I swear it did nothing
I found several beacons, that did nothing, and geth outposts, that did nothing, Made me mad ish but i just ignored it. Any clue what the hell this is about?
14.Grenades?
i didn't find any new grenades, just upgrades.
and i also didn't see any resupply on the ship.
15. Geth armory
just would have liked to see more from this manufacturer other than assault rifles and some krogan armors
and an explanation of why you can get this license and where it comes from....
Seriously, thats illogical
the geth, selling me Rifles and krogan armor?
16.What, no jump?
Self explanitory.
17. Sniper-Rifle
I loved this
it was so realistic
i just wish, I could lay down to decrease the instability of the cross-hair
And the inability to change the cross hair to personal preference was gay, also with better rifles more zoom,maybe thermal scope, night scope, x-ray to target vitals just as options
18.Love story lines
I found this view realistic yet not
First off it was an addition to add personality to your character
but i didn't find enough options
i figured out its possibility right away
19.Earth
So far i haven't been able to land on earth
and i am mad.
-.-
just about it
20.First person
I wish there was an option for this
but it was still great
21.Cant shoot civilians
Would have been more realistic
22.Auto save
It doesn't always save when you believe it would
just more auto save points would be cool
24.Armor
Heavy armor had like no biotic/tech resistance
I think it should be better based on if its heavy medium or light
all around
A soldier is going to need good protection to run up and hit someone but he would be able to carry it because he is strong. where a biotic would need to move around and dodge fire and stay back, so would use light armor.
25.Online co op play
maybe you could have your own character-race story etc...
and join games to play with other people and do quests or just raid bases and kill stuff to get achievements
would have been cool
id have more but i feel like im ranting a bit to much
i have developed games my self
but only half-assed 5 man crew on my home computer games with shitty programs
thought i had dark basic for a while with 3ds-max and programs like that
they worked well
i just lost them
well the keys i mean
if you want to contact me and discuss a little more about any other games and maybe some games you and i have developed our selves
Posted by Cyber_DemiGod | February 6, 2008 2:29 PM
Posted on February 6, 2008 14:29