aries202
Erudite
Mass Effect's marketing seemsd to be aimed at the FPS crowd, hitting on the shooter elements in the game, e.g. you can duck&cover, you can give orders to your squad (a la Geras of War). And then adding on to that, saying - for every choice there is a consequence, which leads to different endings etc. (gamespots interview with casey+the good doctors July 19th 2007).´
The romance options is in, I believe, mostly for the girls (and for some of the men). What's interesting to me, at least, is that Bioware is one of the only (rpg) video game developers out there which consciously seems to make, and market rpg games towrads girls and women. And that without falling into clichees about weak women and strong men. From what I've seen in the preview for ME, it looks like Ashley easily can hold her own when fighting monsters (as could Jaheira ). For that, Bioware deserves praise
The dialogue system seems also to be targeted, or aimed directly at shooter players. At least in the extended version of the trailer (can be found on gamespot.com, too). Most shooters seem to have a story line in which there is - story - dialogue - story - and a a dialogue where there isn't choices in what you're going to say as well. In Mass Effect, you can affect the game by choosing one line of dialogue over the other. (just like the scene from XO6 in the bar with the bartender).
This is, of course, a selling point, aimed at the FPS crowd. However, I'm not that sure that the FPS crowd (or fans) quite understand what this means. RPG fans (such as us and others) know how this plays out but the FPS crowd doesn't. My qualified guess would then be that the FPS crowd won't (at first) understand why they just can't shoot everyone in sight, why the just don't get missions to solve, and then come back to the council and get another mission. Or how come when they hit a guy, or a monster, he or it, doesn't die. Or how come if they hit say a monster it seems like they haven't it at all?? (because of low skill in say plasma guns).
I'm sure there's a decent, and OK (action) RPG under the hood in Mass Effect, that Ii'm going to enjoy, while on the surface it just looks like a shooter, or more precisely like Gears of War. And I'm pretty sure that the FPS fans would rather play Gears of War anyway than Mass Effect...
But that's just me, I guess
The romance options is in, I believe, mostly for the girls (and for some of the men). What's interesting to me, at least, is that Bioware is one of the only (rpg) video game developers out there which consciously seems to make, and market rpg games towrads girls and women. And that without falling into clichees about weak women and strong men. From what I've seen in the preview for ME, it looks like Ashley easily can hold her own when fighting monsters (as could Jaheira ). For that, Bioware deserves praise
The dialogue system seems also to be targeted, or aimed directly at shooter players. At least in the extended version of the trailer (can be found on gamespot.com, too). Most shooters seem to have a story line in which there is - story - dialogue - story - and a a dialogue where there isn't choices in what you're going to say as well. In Mass Effect, you can affect the game by choosing one line of dialogue over the other. (just like the scene from XO6 in the bar with the bartender).
This is, of course, a selling point, aimed at the FPS crowd. However, I'm not that sure that the FPS crowd (or fans) quite understand what this means. RPG fans (such as us and others) know how this plays out but the FPS crowd doesn't. My qualified guess would then be that the FPS crowd won't (at first) understand why they just can't shoot everyone in sight, why the just don't get missions to solve, and then come back to the council and get another mission. Or how come when they hit a guy, or a monster, he or it, doesn't die. Or how come if they hit say a monster it seems like they haven't it at all?? (because of low skill in say plasma guns).
I'm sure there's a decent, and OK (action) RPG under the hood in Mass Effect, that Ii'm going to enjoy, while on the surface it just looks like a shooter, or more precisely like Gears of War. And I'm pretty sure that the FPS fans would rather play Gears of War anyway than Mass Effect...
But that's just me, I guess