GDC08: Mass Effect PC demo

by James Ransom-Wiley { Feb 21st 2008 at 9:30AM }

It was once called an 'Xbox exclusive,' but after one agonizing trip into the bowels of the tedious inventory UI, we knew Mass Effect was destined for a PC makeover. (Oh, what wonders a little mouse can do!) With keyboard in tow, BioWare took us through a short demo of Mass Effect for PC, the studio's first 'EA game,' though grunt work has been passed on to a third party, Demiurge Studios.

While of course rig-dependent, Mass Effect PC should display higher resolutions than its console counterpart (a maximum has yet to be determined), with fewer pop-ins, smoother framerates and more seamless loading. Does that mean lifts will operate at expected Space Age speeds? No, not necessarily -- many lift sequences are 'slowed' by intentional dialogue. Oh, and the Mako's still a bizarro Halo reject. At least, controls are now independent of the camera (the 'up' key is always forward).

Gallery: Mass Effect (PC)

One gameplay tweak we can really get down with (clarify: please, please patch the Xbox version!) is the addition of individual teammate assignments -- like, she goes right, you go left, and I storm the middle. Both teammates can be instructed using a circular, pop-up UI similar to the pre-existing weapon and biotic selection menus. And, using a keyboard teeming with hotkeys, you don't even have to access these menus to command Shepard's actions -- a playstyle BioWare likens to run-n-gun action (especially if you've set your squad to autopilot).

Still, many will most covet Mass Effect PC's new inventory UI, rearranged and greatly aided by the use of a mouse. But for those looking for more than a few polished bells and whistles, BioWare had little to confirm. There's a new manual decryption minigame, replacing the old one, where you navigate an arrow through a series of circles while dodging moving and stationary obstacles. (Yeah, not exactly bringing down the sky, is it?)

As for DLC, PC players will likely be offered something ... eventually. Achievements, however, will be available at launch, though not linked to Games for Windows Live (sorry again, Microsoft). Instead, BioWare will hand them out internally through its own servers. A renegade move? Nah, BioWare is simply enjoying its newfound status as one of the most independent, not-independent studios in the business.

Tags: bioware, demiurge, ea, gdc08, mass-effect, mass-effect-pc

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jerk Face @ Feb 21st 2008 9:59AM

I can't begin to explain how excited I am about this. Being a burgeoning PC gamer, getting to play a less broken version of this great game is going to be one of my gaming highlights this year.

Plus, one less reason I have to buy a 360!

Matt @ Feb 21st 2008 10:34AM

If you are in fact a "burgeoning" PC gamer, you're about 10 years too late. Unless, of course, you enjoy the Sims and WoW.

Jerk Face @ Feb 21st 2008 10:39AM

... Burgeoning, as in the 'newly budding' sense. I was a PC gaming hater until this past year. I'm pretty hooked now.

Jerk Face @ Feb 21st 2008 10:45AM

@ Matt

Oh, I get it. You were referring to the 'dying' PC gaming scene, right? It's been apparently on its way out for, like, 20 years so I'm not too worried. There's a lot of great gaming to be had on the PC.

Shawn @ Feb 21st 2008 11:28AM

Matt, are you referring to the PC Gaming market that's up 12% from last year and accounted for 30% of total video games sales in 2007? Hmm..If the PC is declining, I'll take that anyday.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1160#more-1160

You say 10 years to late? Spore,StarCraft 2,Dragon Age, STALKER Clear Sky, Warhammer, FarCry2, Space Siege, DemiGod, Battlefield Heroes, not to mention the already released Sins of the Solar Empire say otherwise.

Matt @ Feb 21st 2008 11:42AM

Shawn, Yes, they sell a lot of copies of the Sims and WoW.

My opinions are also reflected by people that are in the industry:

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=33298

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/02/13/gears-of-war-creator-update/

deaftly @ Feb 21st 2008 12:52PM

Im gonna get back into pc gaming. I figure I already have all 3 consoles this gen, might as well go batshit crazy and get a badass pc as well. im covered for the next year at least :\

hotnutz @ Feb 21st 2008 5:47PM

So what games are really exclusive to the 360?

I mean, it seems that all of them are made available on the PC within 4-5 months and all the bugs seem to be worked out while there are noticeable improvements in stability, graphics and content.

Shawn @ Feb 22nd 2008 2:56AM

Oh Matt, there are far more developers that would disagree especially Gabe Newell who said just the opposite, but given you are clueless about the PC side of things to even understand the pros and cons, this is pointless in discussing, but I'll try to help you.

I see you bought those "lines" about two games being the whole market hook line and sinker, huh? And by looking at US Brick and Mortar US Retail only, you would be correct, or listening to an overwhelming console centric gaming press.

The Prroblem is the NPD drastically under-reports PC Game sales, as stated by the latest PCGA press release and openly admitted by the NPD themselves. PC Sales in the US are in fact 2.76 Billion for 2007 and 8.3 Billion Worldwide, including DD and MMO figures. PC Game sales make up roughly 30% of all video game sales in the US, which is outstanding. Latest estimates put the PC with the largest userbase in the world at around 263 million users estimated. Wow, now I see what your saying, PC is doomed!!

http://pcgamingalliance.org/en/documents/PCGA_Announcement_Presentation.pdf

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/?p=1160#more-1160

You're telling me the Sims and WoW make up all of the that or even close to all of that?

Stop lying to yourself.

FrankTheCrank @ Feb 21st 2008 9:59AM

Boy, you guys make this game sound so good. Not.

The more and more I hear you go on about how bad this game is, it just makes me want to stay away from what seems like a badly engineered game.

Microswirl @ Feb 21st 2008 3:18PM

The game is decent if you can overlook the horrible framerate and loading problems. That, and of course the inventory system is absolute crap (if anyone wants to see an example of a GOOD inventory system, go play Oblivion). The good parts of Mass Effect are the story, voice-acting, and detailed character design, but even so I don't get how this game garnered 9.5/10 from a lot of major publications. I bought the game based on those reviews, and I feel like I was lied to. The game needs major polish, and until that happens I don't think this game is worthy of the high praise it was given by the gaming press. Nevertheless, I'm on my second playthrough right now, gotta get those achievements!

Microswirl @ Feb 21st 2008 3:19PM

hi2u @ Feb 21st 2008 3:24PM

Oblivion's inventory management was better than Mass Effect, sure, but it was still absolutely horrible. Let's not encourage *any* developers to take that as a standard.

Microswirl @ Feb 21st 2008 4:56PM

@hi2u

I think Oblivion's inventory system is pretty solid, considering the shear variety of items in the game. There's no cap on how many items you can carry, only a limit based on the total weight, and that can easily be worked around with a Feather spell. You can drop items on the ground instead of having to reduce it to omni-gel. And that's the other thing about Mass Effect: if you have 999 omni-gel and you're being forced to reduce newly acquired items to omni-gel its well goes above 1000, but when you go back into inventory it's back down to 999 -- bullshit! Why can't I just cancel out of this screen, go into my inventory, and get rid of the items I don't want, instead of the few that are listed here (without descriptions no less) Also, these are BETTER versions of items I already have which I'm being forced to destroy, and I don't even get omni-gel out of the deal. I'm being penalized for being good enough at the game that I don't NEED omni-gel. Oh and why do I have to reduce the items one at a time? It's not like I can delete 5 out of 6 items and move on, I am forced to destroy ALL items, and yet there is no "Reduce all to omni-gel" option. It is poor poor game design, it's like they didn't even test it. Oblivion, on the other hand, always gives the player a choice. You may become over-encumbered, but you don't have to remove items from existence in order to get to the nearest merchant to whom you can sell some excess items. If Bioware had made Oblivion then here's how it would go: You'd pick up a full daedric armor set and a screen would pop up telling you to destroy the boots, the greaves, the ganlets, the helmet, etc etc. There'd be no option to uneqip the retarded leather armor you have on now so that this uber-awesome armor can take its place, which would then allow you to destroy the leather armor, thus reducing your inventory below the arbitray 150 cap. There would also be no way of canceling out of this screen for the purpose of dropping excess items BEFORE picking up the daedric armor.

So, considering how bad Oblivion's inventory could have turned out in Bioware's incompitent hands, I'd say Bethesda did a pretty good job.

Stu L Tissimus @ Feb 21st 2008 10:32AM

Any word if the inventory changes will make the jump to the 360? I mean, hell, you don't need a mouse for the new inventory system shown above to be useful. ANYTHING is better than the cstatus quo.

I doubt it since another studio's doing the port, but there's always hope.

SoulBlade @ Feb 21st 2008 10:37AM

doubtful... none of the Gears improvements made it over. It's really a slap in the face to 360 owners sometimes, but it also provides a pretty solid reason not to get a 360 if you own a good PC. After all, the controller can still be used on the PC should one desire.

Ryan @ Feb 21st 2008 12:22PM

Ports that come out later than the original usually have some kind of exclusive content or fixes based on feedback from the original. This is nothing new, and is the tradeoff you make for getting to play the game 6-12 months earlier.

Leo-Jay @ Feb 21st 2008 10:41AM

Am the only one out there who -liked- the interface on the 360? I thought it was smooth, easy, totally intuitive and other than the stupid "jump back to the top of the list" bulls**t was awesome.

jc @ Feb 21st 2008 10:50AM

So what exactly is the incentive to buy this on PC?? This is a exact reason I knew it was a bad thing EA got there claws into Bioware.

"Achievements, however, will be available at launch, though not linked to Games for Windows Live" Ummm So where do theey go then??

They still have not fixed the texture pop up issue. ??

And then further outsourcing the pc port to some unknown company, wow way to F up a game ea! No thanks, I keep playing on my 360.

Don't get me wrong , I am trying not to jump on the EA bashing bandwagon. Back I was really looking forward to this and was hoping they were'nt going to F this up!

James @ Feb 21st 2008 11:18AM

Did you even read the article or look anything up before you fired off this comment? They that the pop up issue should be fixed along with a smoother framerate and higher resolutions. As for the unknown company, run a search for them. My firewall at work keeps me from going to their actual site, but one thing that pops at me is that they worked on Bioshock. That hardly hurts their credibility.

Kodros @ Feb 21st 2008 12:41PM

"So what exactly is the incentive to buy this on PC??" I think a gamer that wants to play it and doesn't have a 360 is a pretty good incentive.

Lekko @ Feb 21st 2008 4:11PM

Well, I have not bought either version yet, but my PC would walk circles around a 360, so I'll feed my PC the game instead.

deaftly @ Feb 21st 2008 10:52AM

Just bought a new rig and I havent played this on my 360 yet. Wondering how this will run on a AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8GHz, 3GB DDR2, and Geforce 8600 GT. I haven't kept up with pc's for about 5 years now and so much shit has changed heh.

Gehodra @ Feb 21st 2008 11:08AM

Why is he posturing his ass like that?

ThornedVenom (Ludwig Defense Force) @ Feb 21st 2008 11:37AM

Because not all gamers are guys nor straight?

Shawn @ Feb 21st 2008 11:18AM

Sold my 360 Mass Effect and picking this up on day one. It's good to see Bioware take care of the PC Crowd, and I like the fact that they aren't using GFW Live, rather their own achievement system, very cool. I would suspect given the large Bioware following on PC, this and Dragon Age this year should sell like Hotcakes.

neok182 @ Feb 21st 2008 1:52PM

damn. another non GFW-Live game. i want my achivements.

Derrick @ Feb 21st 2008 11:45AM

This article and a similar one I read at IGN make reference to a "maximum resolution" for the PC version. Uhh.. what? There should be no such thing as a maximum resolution, there's no reason not to support whatever your hardware and display can handle. 10 years from now I don't want to be stuck playing mass effect in a measly 1920x1080!

PSN: KillaKornbread @ Feb 21st 2008 12:59PM

cool. this was actually a game i was interested in on the 360. just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. i tell you what though, if the majority of the good games on 360 end up on PC eventually anyway, i have absolutely no reason to ever purchase a 360. my PS3, Wii, and PC should be able to handle just about everything.

and even better, i can play the PC games with my PS3 controller. best of both worlds.

Jeff @ Feb 27th 2008 8:58PM

Actually dude, playing with the 360 controller would be the best of both worlds. As a dedicated PC gamer, it is the only controller I have ever touched that didn't feel like a torture device after an hour.

Emophia @ Feb 28th 2008 6:04AM

Jeff, you ever considered taht people have different tastes in controllers?

Probably no, because you're too damn close minded.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ Feb 28th 2008 11:51PM

i have used 360 controllers before as some of my friends have them. i may be in the minority, but i seriously prefer the Sixaxis/Dualshock.

t_m @ Feb 21st 2008 1:07PM

If bioware can come up with a decent inventory/character interface I'll eat my hat.

Eggy @ Feb 21st 2008 1:07PM

Is this a very action orientated RPG like some of the video's suggest? Or can you get by without fighting too much?

jetenginejesus @ Feb 21st 2008 1:29PM

Wow. hey, BW, how about getting some people on, i don't know, maybe *fixing* all of the problems with the 360 version before wasting time on a PC version? If all of us x360 nerds hadn't shelled out for that half-completed, bug-filled game in the first place, you wouldn't be releasing a PC port, now would you?