click to enlarge
"But how could the PC port of a game that was released in November be delayed?" you moaned, upon hearing the unfortunate news that Mass Effect would be delayed from May 6 to May 28. Beats us, but we've got three letters to make it all better, friend. Aich. You. Dee. Put it all together, and that spells HUD. And then, err ... break it all apart again and you've got heads-up display, an "entirely new" one of which BioWare wants to share with you after this morning's downer.
The new HUD, activated with a simple slap of the space bar, brings up access to squad commands ("Get your ass behind that rock, Williams!"), Biotics powers ("Get thrown, Geth scum!"), and abilities and weapons interfaces (sorry, it's hard to narrativize this one). Hey, we're already sold. We're just wondering if any of this lovely UI work will find a place in the (for a time) gamepad-saddled sequel.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
Change for the sake of change? I hope not...
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/PC geek
A) Everything is easy to read
B) Lots of data should be shown
People would complain if it would have kept the same console-based HUD.
The hud here is cluttered, plain and simple. No need to put your allies abilities onscreen. The pause and select scheme for the 360 was better since it gave you time to think, and it was more fun to play with ai self using abilities anyway, to avoid having to keep track of your allies who keep taking cover in a crossfire. Maybe they could of put shepards abilities for click on the hud but putting your other 2 allies is just cluttering things up.
The "power wheel" was required for the console version because it had to be designed around the analog stick. You had to have something where each direction you pointed picked a different item. On the PC, with a mouse, they could lay it out however they wanted since the mouse moves freely. I'd imagine that if the game were designed for the PC first, this is how it would have been from the get-go.
Mike,
If I'm reading the article right, this functions the same way. That is, the HUD only shows up when you press the spacebar, just like it only showed up when you pressed the bumper in the PC version. The HUD does not stay on the screen indefinitely.
1) Overscan's a bitch
2) If your text looks 100% visible in photoshop, give it a 3px Gaussian blur, thats how it shows up on the tv.
3) SERIOUSLY, Overscan, WHY!?!?!
4) Console gamers like to see as little unimportant things as possible.
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If not, here's some info: You can't jump in Mass Effect.
"What can I say? Jumping is last-gen."
Yes, I am joking.... sort of.... in some cases...
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That screen looks like the weapon selection bars are there perminently.
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I bet PC users will be so frustrated when they find out their accuracy rating effects what you hit and not the mouse-precision aim.
thats what mods are for
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So a basic UI will be up, and then hit space to bring this up?
I'd like a radial menu also, via mouse button 3, for basic stuff.
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At least from the screen shot, that's what it looks like.
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If I would have known, I personally would have held out for the PC version...and I don't really play games on my PC...ever.
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As for the HUD itself, looks nice.
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I like the new Hud. It will make selection faster and less cumbersome and it can be
put away" by pressing the space bar. Well done.
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Do you here me 360-to-PC porters? KEEP THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND I WILL BUY YOUR GAMES.
'Cuz otherwise I might as well just play them (read: play not buy) on a friend's Xbox and get the points... *shrugs*
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They really really don't.
How about this - when you're playing Mass Effect on PC ask your mother to come in every 10 minutes or so and pat you on the head and rub your belly while saying "ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED".
There you go, isnt a mothers love much better than some meaningless integer value?