Mass Effect launch trailer elevates excitement to critical mass

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 11th 2007 at 3:05PM }

For those not lucky enough to snag an early, blue light special copy of Mass Effect, we humbly offer you this incredible launch trailer to slake your thirst. The short video does a great job of showcasing the game's ambitious cinematic qualities - we just hope it doesn't collapse under the weight of its own hype. Remember, you're just nine short days away from getting some strange tail in space.

Tags: Bioware, Mass Effect, MassEffect, Microsoft, Trailer

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Fox318 @ Nov 11th 2007 3:19PM

I can't wait for this game. I need to find a K-Mart or any other store which broke the street date.

Ratuna @ Nov 11th 2007 3:21PM

Willing to bet the voice-over narration is done by Keith David.

toLkKi @ Nov 11th 2007 3:31PM

Yea.

Seth Green is also in it, can't wait for this game.

wtf @ Nov 11th 2007 3:22PM

shootan game?

Ranus Studios @ Nov 11th 2007 3:33PM

Aw crap. I'm out of money, but now I HAVE to get this.

Dammit.

And damn YOU, Keith David, for having such a kickass voice.

toLkKi @ Nov 11th 2007 3:36PM

I second that, Keith David was the only reason keeping me awake through the horrendous Halo 2 storyline.

dan stabbingworth @ Nov 11th 2007 4:07PM

I love me some Halo, but nothing can save that storyline short of free blowjobs with every playthrough.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 11th 2007 4:25PM

pssh lies. Halo 2's story line was pretty damn good. I like the fact that it made the covenant much more than targets for the Master Chief to shoot at.

The Purveyor of Justice @ Nov 11th 2007 10:43PM

They also had the awesomeness that is Micheal Wincott for the Prophet of Truth, but noooo, stupid Bungie has to fire him for halo 3 in exchange for some hack who sounds like he's eternally constipated!!

ronald.raygun @ Nov 11th 2007 3:38PM

god i need a 360 so bad

Jerk Face @ Nov 11th 2007 4:56PM

I KNOW!!! Seeing this trailer and knowing that I have to convince my wife to get me a 360 for Christmas if I want to play it is hurting my body in the worst way.

horngreen @ Nov 11th 2007 3:40PM

Nice to see a game without spaceships that look like they came rght out of Aliens for a change. I think 20 years of that look was more than long enough.

Jeff @ Nov 11th 2007 4:01PM

I'm assuming you mean "didn't" look like Aliens, in which case I agree wholeheartedly. Sci-fi, in my eyes, should be the area where innovation and creativity are the easiest to unleash. Instead, everyone just rehashes the familiar.

Foggy Bottoms @ Nov 11th 2007 7:10PM

if he added "didn't" it would make his statement a double negative (because he used the word without) which would mean what you thought he meant without the word "didn't." you follow me? but yeah i agree with both of you. i think when designers come up with spaceships from the future they're like "well they're in space so they can be boxy," but then they fly on earth and wouldn't be very aerodynamic at all with their boxiness so this is a refreshing/sensical change.

Jeff @ Nov 11th 2007 10:58PM

I misread. I apologize =P

Flashover @ Nov 11th 2007 3:46PM

Meh...Doesn't look very innovative or groundbreaking...Bet you it barely sells 300,000 copies.

Slaziman @ Nov 11th 2007 5:16PM

OMFG, you must be the biggest troll in history

I don't know what games you play, but I'm willing to bet not every single one of them is TEH GROUNDBREAKINGZ

Mal F4cti0n @ Nov 12th 2007 1:57AM

Yeah, and Assassin's Creed will only sell 300K between all consoles and Killzone 2 will only sell 50K.

/sarcasm

Shockgamer @ Nov 12th 2007 10:44AM

I only like games that are cartoons!

Orangecoke @ Nov 11th 2007 3:53PM

Thanks for that Flashover!

Anyway, there will be an extended version of this trailer (not hugely-extended, but a bit longer) on masseffect.com this Tuesday (BioWare's community site).

Flashover @ Nov 11th 2007 3:56PM

Just trying to even out some of the M$ X-bias on this site.

Babel @ Nov 12th 2007 12:15PM

I just had a gander at your history of comments, Flashover, and every one is either:

a) Making the ole '360 breaks down a lot' joke. Oh, such fierce wit!

b) Saying how the PS3 is so great and resucitated your dog or something.

c) Making yourself look stupid.

You should be proud, buddy ;)

AJ @ Nov 11th 2007 3:53PM

Previously on Battlestar Galactica...

JerJerBinks @ Nov 11th 2007 3:57PM

More like ...

"Previously played on Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic ..."

And, its not a troll. I really want to play this game.

Jeff @ Nov 11th 2007 4:03PM

Honestly, KoTOR had one of the best plots a game has ever seen. I can't wait to see what the amazing writers at Bioware can do without being stuck in the confines of an established IP. They did more for the Star Wars universe than George Lucas has since Empire.

Let's see what an amazing universe they can craft for themselves.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 11th 2007 4:26PM

I would like to add this.

While KOTOR was an amazing game, it had possibly one of the worst endings I have ever seen. It's pretty bad.

Jeff @ Nov 11th 2007 11:01PM

Wow, I completely forgot-- totally overshadowed by the rest of the plot. The evil ending was quite a bit better than the good one, imho. But jeeze, that really was terrible. But I think that was because of it being set in a established IP; I think they wanted it to seem like the ending of a new hope.

Jeff @ Nov 11th 2007 4:00PM

This game makes it so hard not to buy a 360-- I'm a huge Bioware/RPG/sci-fi/lesbian aliens fanboy.

But this is on the Unreal engine, right? Shouldn't be hard at all for them to port it to PC around the time I get bored of Crysis and UT3.

Isn't everyone joking around that EA is going to try and put Mass Effect out for every console? A Games for Windows version would behoove both Microsoft and EA. And hell, I'd buy Vista for this game, if that's what the jerks make necessary. Dual boot ftw.

Slaziman @ Nov 11th 2007 5:18PM

buy? lmao

get with the times...

syco @ Nov 11th 2007 5:50PM

No game actually needs Vista, there are ways around DX10.

Don't subject yourself to Vista if you can at all avoid it.

Slaziman @ Nov 11th 2007 6:19PM

Jeez what's with the irrational Vista hate?

AnnoyingGeek0xFF3 @ Nov 11th 2007 4:09PM

I don't know why, but that trailer doesn't so much excite me as it does make me think the game is cheezier than it actually is (now granted, I know it's a great game, that trailer though...). It seemed like they were aiming to make it a hollywood movie trailer, but in my opinion, it just doesn't show off the games cinematics very well...just my two cents though, ignore me if you like.

Andrex (NDF - Host) @ Nov 11th 2007 4:11PM

Yeah same. The narrator's tag lines and the villains little bit were really cheesy. I agree it will probably be a good game though.

Jake @ Nov 11th 2007 6:04PM

Let me guess, you guys either don't get into sci-fi or don't have a 360...

Andrex (NDF - Host) @ Nov 11th 2007 4:10PM

For some reason that trailer didn't look so hot IMO. Some of the animations and interactions looked a little to computerized.

*Is voted down to hell... and below*

Flashover @ Nov 11th 2007 4:20PM

I love how all comments that are not pro 360 are voted down on Joystiq. Xbias 360 forever!!!

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Nov 11th 2007 4:28PM

the same can be said for anything that isn't pro ps3 and pro nintendo.

so....fuck you?

Slaziman @ Nov 11th 2007 5:20PM

THE XBOX IS FUCKING ACE MAN FUCK YOUR ASSHOLE

FUCK YOUR SILLY PS3

360 IS THE WAY TO GO BIATCH

Slaziman @ Nov 11th 2007 7:30PM

How the hell did I not get downvoted? Looks like FlashOver was right after all

gonk @ Nov 12th 2007 3:06AM

because you were obviously joking :)

only xxxmarcusfenixxx actually makes posts like that

James @ Nov 11th 2007 4:58PM

In all honesty, why the huge hype for this game. Looking at Bioware's past efforts there is nothing to mind-blowing (subjective, I know). I mean I can see why Mario Galaxy has hype (Miyamoto, 'nuff said) and Metal Gear 4 (Kojima, 'nuff said) but why exactly did the internet decided this game was some sort of holy grail.

I just don't want to deal with the same thing I did with Bioshock (slightly overyped relative to its quality) and Halo 3 (*massively* overhyped relative to its quality).

Jake @ Nov 11th 2007 6:11PM

This game is in the same vein as KOTOR was. KOTOR received more game of the year votes than any other game that year, I believe. It was one of the Xbox's very best games ever and was well received on PC as well.

Mass Effect is in a way the spiritual successor to KOTOR. This game is a very big deal. It will most likely take Game of the Year honors from several, if not the majority of, major gaming publications.

I hope you and others here are not serious when you crap on this game. Halo 3 is great. Just got done playing and there were 400k people online. Bioshock was great, though I admit it had no replay value for me. You guys need to just give up and crawl in a hole until the PS3 has something that people really care about. It is kind of pathetic.

toLkKi @ Nov 11th 2007 7:17PM

James you really need to go educate yourself, or better yet go pickup KOTOR; it's about $10 at the used games bin and it's easily the greatest western RPG ever made.

Bioware has released nothing but greatness.

KOTOR, Baldurs Gate Series, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights Series.

All together that's over 70 different GOTY awards, how can someone (who owns a 360) not be excited about this?

James @ Nov 11th 2007 9:02PM

How come I ask a simple question ("Why are people excited about Mass Effect") and everybody gets all butt-hurt like how dare I ask that question.

Not everybody has played obscure Xbox games (especially those who may have been in countries other than America at the time the original Xbox was active and thus it practically didn't exist) or plays PC games (i'm console only), so it's quite easy to have no clue who the hell Bioware is.

Fact is (to me) Halo 3 is quite possibly the most overrated game ever made (it's an above-average shooter, that's it. 100 my ass) and Bioshock, while good, is still just a few new tricks on the same tired shooter formula. So forgive me for being skeptical about the next big 360 game when the 360 hype machine is so obviously in overdrive.

And what the hell does this have to do with the PS3? Who even brought that up. I mentioned a couple of game designers, that's all.

tmacairjordan87 @ Nov 11th 2007 9:11PM

james dont get offended by that when you say you're a console fan and dont even know who bioware is. when games win game of the year, they're most definitely not "obscure titles"

i'll agree with you on halo and even bioshock (bio was fun but only a 9/10) but if you read a lot of the previews and watch a lot of the videos then you'll see that mass effect really is taking RPGs in a new direction, and who knows maybe even kill the jrpg in the US (can only hope, i can't play turn based, linear rpg games anymore because of games like kotor and oblivion)

why not the LS2/LS7? @ Nov 12th 2007 3:37AM

tolkki:
I own a 360 and I'm not at all excited. Don't get me wrong, I understand why some people might be. But I just don't like BioWare games.

I own Jade Empire and don't like it. I despise KOTOR. I liked Baldur's Gate though, but not a lot, just enough to play it for a while.

I most definitely will not be getting this game. It just doesn't appeal to me. I might borrow it off of friends, but it'll be months before I do so, I've got so many games to play first that actually do appeal to me.

I don't think BioWare will miss me much, I know lots of people who are totally jazzed for it.

I agree BioShock is overrated. I guess it's a 9.0, at times I was frustrated enough to call it an 8.5. I played Portal right after and it pretty much puts the lie to the idea that BioShock is the best-written game of the year. You identify with your own character within 15 minutes of starting Portal. In BioShock, you never care about your character. They spend all their time on parading caricatures with hackneyed accents past you. The art design is wonderful though.

How the playtesters played that game for weeks and never noticed it needed an inventory screen is beyond me. You get to a Gatherer's Garden and you have to decide whether to spend your limited ADAM on a new Engineering slot or Physical slot. But there's no way to look at your currently installed plasmids to determine which one to buy first. You can buy a new slot only to find you didn't have a good upgrade to put in that slot anyway. And then the U-Invents. You have to make new items without any indication as to how many of a given item you already have. So you build an RPG and find you were full already.

And the box on the back "invent new weapons"? You don't invent new weapons. You can't design your own weapon or add features to one that don't already exist. Instead, the U-Invent is just buying existing ammo with alternate currencies (rubber hoses, brass cylinders, alcohol instead of dollars).