Category: Previews (Page 3 of 17)

      Mass Effect 2 will be missing the elevators

      December 7, 2009 /

      Mass Effect heroine riding the elevator. The BioWare forums have been a treasure trove of Mass Effect 2 information over the weekend. This latest tidbit concerns the ubiquitous elevator loading sequence we saw in the original game. That’s going away, replaced by a classic loading screen with extra information and visuals. Oh boy!

      Here’s what BioWare’s Thomas Roy said:

      The elevators were made in ME1 so we didn’t have to show boring loading screens. However there were a lot of complaints, so we’ve gone back to loading screens and movies. We still have elevators in ME2, but you don’t wait inside them. We’ll cut to a loading screen instead.

      We’ve tried to make the loading screen more interesting this time by adding interesting visuals and information.

      The elevator conversations had some funny moments, but hopefully people will enjoy this new system better than the old one!

      Any way you slice it, loading screens are lame, but I think I prefer games that don’t try to mask the fact that there’s some behind the scenes work going on with occasionally funny moments.

      Development, Previews

      Mass Effect 2 will cover 2 discs

      December 5, 2009 /

      Mass Effect 2 box art.More Mass Effect 2 news today, and who can complain? It’s a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while, even if it’s missing that MMO feature I would really love. I still think it’s going to be awesome, and so does Bioware community coordinator Chris Priestly, who said one the Bioware forums, “You cannot fit this much awesome on one disc.”

      Yes, sadly Mass Effect 2 will span discs. That’s a great stat for content hounds, but kind of annoying for everyone. Priestly promises it won’t mess up your mojo, though. He claims the disc swap happens at an appropriate time so as not to ruin your experience.

      “Even though there is a disc swap, it occurs at a carefully planned place in the game (that does not interfere with gameplay) and is done once. You do not swap back and forth. 1 swap and then done.”

      I’m not sure how they managed to pull that one off, other than duplicating serious amounts of content on each disc. Maybe it’s just that we get the opening credits, cinematics, and the first few quests on a shorter disc, and everything else is packed onto that second one. In any case, I’ll be interested to see if this really doesn’t interfere. I mean, really, who wants to get up from the couch?

      Source: Mass Effect forums

      Development, Previews

      Don’t expect to be pampered in Mass Effect 2

      December 4, 2009 /

      Mass Effect 2 Shepard.Mass Effect 2 producer Adrien Cho thinks games have gotten too easy, requiring less problem solving skills than ability to best a game’s cheap mechanics.

      “Just recently, a game like Demon’s Souls is fantastic because when you die, and you fail, it’s not because the game was cheap it’s usually because you didn’t do something properly,” Cho told Video Games Daily.

      “It goes back to that learning mechanism of ‘Well, I tried this – it didn’t work. I’m going to try something different.’ And I think that’s going to be something in Mass Effect 2, we don’t want it to be a cakewalk, you want a challenge.”

      I like the attitude, and if anyone can pull off a decent challenge it’s Bioware, but I’ll definitely wait to see the game before singing Cho’s praises.

      Development, Previews

      December 17th brings a shady GT5 demo

      December 4, 2009 /

      Gran Turismo 5 shots.Today, Sony said we’ll get a look at their next-gen racer before year’s end. There’s just one small hang up: it’s not really GT5. Not by name anyway. Well, not in the US, anyway. The new content, available as a download on December 17th, will be called “Gran Turismo 5 Time Trial Challenge” in the US and “GT Academy 2010” in Europe.

      So why not just a demo? Why not a racetrack from the game, like we saw for Forza 3? As things are, it seems like Sony is just trying to tease us along, reminding us that GT5 exists. The whole thing feels like some really poorly done GT5 marketing, where no one goes home happy and everyone wonders what the hell happened last night.

      The worst part is…this is GT5! Come the hell on, Sony! This is the game that pioneered serious racing for console gamers. The game that created the Forza franchise. The be-all-end-all of racing sims on any console. Looks like we’ll be waiting a few weeks to see anything remotely inspiring about the franchise.

      Development, Previews, PS3

      Ubisoft Montreal: “3D is to pictures what Dolby Stereo was to sound”

      December 1, 2009 /

      James Cameron's Avatar.Three-dimensional imaging has come a long way since the days of cardboard glasses. Now we can get incredible depth out of images that could previously only come out of the screen, not recede into it. When it releases on December 18th, James Cameron’s Avatar is set to become the pinnacle of 3D achievement to date, a milestone Ubisoft hopes can make some money.

      Ubisoft created the video game version of Cameron’s vision. Avatar: The Game, which releases today, puts the player in the same 3D world, with one major restriction. You need a 3D TV. Otherwise you’ll just get two-dimensional version like every other game. I’m going to go ahead and guess the game is terrible in terms of play, but probably pretty cool if you’ve got the 3D rig to support it. Ubisoft, like many others, is banking on that cool factor to make 3D games the next big thing.

      “3D is to pictures what Dolby Stereo was to sound. No one wants to go back to mono.” That’s from the head of Ubisoft Montreal, Yannis Mallat. In a sense, I think he’s right, but there is a glaring difference between the progression from mono to stereo and 2D to 3D: the glasses. I’m not trying to be a luddite here, but I think 3D has a ways to go before I’ll be enticed to put on the glasses to watch or play something in my home. It just isn’t practical yet. Where Dolby Stereo could almost immediately be appreciated, I would guess 3D still has a decade before serious adoption, from both consumers and film-makers/developers. There just isn’t enough hardware to support the medium.

      According to the Financial Post, Ubisoft wouldn’t have made Avatar if it didn’t think people would someday purchase 3D TV sets. So let me get that straight – you developed a 3D game that next to no one will see because someday people will own 3D TVs? And they’ll still want to be playing Avatar when that day comes? Huh. The movie must be a whole lot better than I expect.

      Source: Financial Post

      Development, Previews

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