All things Mass Effect Legendary Edition

[gregathit]

Well, apparently the rumor was true, they are hard at work getting a remastered version of all three games out the door.  Looks like the release date (for now anyway) is May 14, 2021.  I'd like to say that I won't be buying it (shit sakes they have enough of my money already) but sadly I'll probably break weak and drop the cash for it.  Mostly for the remastered 1st game, provided that it really is remastered.  If the graphics and textures are on par with game 3 (along with the mechanics) then it will be worth it to me.  The first game has a hell of a good story IMHO.  Now if they just enable 21x9 and that is it, well, as I said, they already have enough of my money from this series as I own every damn game and DLC.

 

Link:  https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition

[Kitty]

Heh.  I hear you.

 

I own all of them on Xbox 360.  As my interest with dealing with Xbox's Live crap got annoying, I found a Tri-pack CD release (and bought that), which was not too long before optical media began to go the way of the floppy disk and sooo..  I THEN bought the whole damn trilogy yet AGAIN on Origin (because they're apparently too special to partner with Steam - Or better yet GoG who's new Games Galaxy launcher/library thingy is just awesome btw) so I could play it on my newer laptops which don't have Opti-drives.

 

Hell.. probably even forgetting something in there where I tossed even more money at them... somewhere.  xD

Still.  Awesome games (as long as you forget the last 15 minutes of ME 3 ever happened IMO), but... 

 

I'd recommend waiting a bit.  Let them actually finish, release, and get a few outside reviews first since over the last several years, there's been SO many of these "Remaster" deals, and MOST of them are just a basic tweak to the UI to allow 16:9/10 resolutions and *shudder* upscaled textures over original, low-poly models.

I mean, sure.. it WILL make it "prettier", but hell.. those games are pretty easy for any modern hardware to run now, so you could probably find/extract damn near every texture and just resample them yourself and inject them with Textmomd (or whatever similar thing the cool kids are using these days) to get the same effect *without* spending the $60 - $120 this thing will probably cost on release.

 

Sorry if this is getting ranty.  Just sort of a peeve of mine lately, since SO many of these same deals have been done SO poorly, with the bare minimum of effort and yet they're still served up as if they're shiny, new, and worth the price of a brand new AAA title, which they just aren't (usually).

 

I'll keep one eye on it.  It's always possible they'll actually do it justice, but a true 4k UHD remaster of a game that dated (Especially ME 1 obviously) would require a full development team, completely new game assets, all of which will *often* mean you're constantly hitting the limit of the original engine which means you either limit what you can do or gee, you need to code a new one of those while you're at it and... lol  In the end, I guess I'll be filing this under W for "We shall see...." 

[27X]

1 hour ago, gregathit said:

The first game has a hell of a good story IMHO. 

 

And that would be the only one.

 

1 hour ago, gregathit said:

If the graphics and textures are on par with game 3

 

Actually the lighting and textures in 1 are more advanced than 3. As someone whom extensively modded all three games, the most graphics horsepower was spent on one, hands down, the only change in 3 that was WOOWOO GRAFX EXTREEEEEEEEME ATTITUDE was colored shadows. *jazzhands*

 

Furthermore, if you've played MEHEM-ALOT-ALOV-Happy Ending-Galaxy at War-Squad Mod, you've actually played a higher graphical fidelity version of the game and that includes cutscenes and that includes SNPC AI and abilities. The blender rerender cutscenes done for free are of better quality than cutscenes you'll be paying full price for in the rerelease.

 

The only advantage to this version is more efficient ambient occlusion, and that gunplay in one now plays like gunplay in 3, and if you played on console previously you now have all the DLC that was vendor specific like the Indra, Collector Armor, and Vortex Cannon.

 

They didn't do jack shit to the janky models and LITERALLY and I mean literally just ran the textures through ESRGAN on a bank of 3090s to get the "new" textures, and are happily charging you for it.

 

"It's in the gaem ?"

 

[gregathit]

14 minutes ago, 27X said:

And that would be the only one.

I'd agree it is the best story line.  But I did enjoy ME 2, mostly the loyalty missions.  And ME 3, not much story, it wasn't needed, the war is the story and with the MEHEM and all the rest those mods, I enjoyed the shit out of it.  EGM is balls out good stuff.  Personally, ME 3 with my mod setup would be damn hard to improve upon.  

 

If the models in 1 look like they do in 3 or close, I'm sold.  It is hard to really get into that game when you feel like you are playing minecraft.  LOL!

14 minutes ago, 27X said:

The only advantage to this version is more efficient ambient occlusion, and that gunplay in one now plays like gunplay in 3, and if you played on console previously you now have all the DLC that was vendor specific like the Indra, Collector Armor, and Vortex Cannon.

I actually did like the gunplay in 3.  Too bad all three games gunplay couldn't be upgraded to MEA.  That had the most fun gunplay for me.  

 

I'll keep an eye out.  I won't be pre-ordering.  I've learned that lesson.  Once I see some game play vids after release I'll decide.

 

As for the DLC, bought it all on PC.  I mean ALL.  If they would have made an in game coffee mug that did absolutely nothing but sat on your virtual desk in your cabin, I would have bought it.  Back in the day, I was an ME fanboy.  With the EA'ification and the red, green, blue ending, it was somewhat of a poison pill.  

[27X]

45 minutes ago, gregathit said:

it was somewhat of a poison pill.  

 

Yep. Same reason I didn't touch MEA's single player. At all. Never even clicked. The 100 hours i spent in MEA was solely MP.

 

Really the only solid takeaway here is you get a 100% integrated dx12 platform for modding.

[gregathit]

32 minutes ago, 27X said:

Really the only solid takeaway here is you get a 100% integrated dx12 platform for modding.

If I never have to use Texmod again that is worth it.  ROFL!!!  ?

[ToJKa]

Apparently Pinnacle Station DLC of ME1 won't be included. No great loss, but just a heads up.

 

Gameplay mechanics of ME3 in 1 and 2 and Ultra-Wide support without screwing anything up, and i'm sold

Seriously, it's easy money. Don't screw this up Bloware

[Zor2k13]

I was just about to say this, yeah no more pinnacle station. I can't get back into the series because I have looked at too much ME series porno and now I just expect to be able to go around screwing npcs while playing the game:-( MrBigJohnson is cranking out a bunch of detailed ME series porn for a while now specifically EDI porn.

 

All we really need is a mod to fix the grainy crap textures, fix the really crappy models and textures during the talkytalk scenes and a really good overhaul of all the face customization options. I went back and tried ME1 with my old save game from many years ago and couldn't stop laughing at my character face.

[gregathit]

32 minutes ago, Zor2k13 said:

I can't get back into the series because I have looked at too much ME series porno and now I just expect to be able to go around screwing npcs while playing the game:-( MrBigJohnson is cranking out a bunch of detailed ME series porn for a while now specifically EDI porn.

[gregathit]

2 hours ago, ToJKa said:

Apparently Pinnacle Station DLC of ME1 won't be included. No great loss, but just a heads up.

Well that is bullshit.  I wonder why they aren't including that?  I did have fun rubbing that Turian's nose in my high scores.

We'll still have the simulator in ME3 on the citadel, so I guess that will have to suffice. 

 

It just might be built into ME 1.  When you purchase the game on steam, it comes with the game and isn't sold as a DLC.  Maybe that is why it isn't on the list?

[Zor2k13]

The devs somehow lost the files for it that is why they can't include it:-( 

[gregathit]

15 minutes ago, Zor2k13 said:

The devs somehow lost the files for it that is why they can't include it:-( 

????????????  How in the blue bells of hell does that happen?  Sounds like an EA laziness stunt.

[Guest]

 

[Ernest Lemmingway]

22 minutes ago, endgame † addiction said:

Spoiler

 

 

I heard about that. Seems like every California-based game company is adopting the same double-standards and then the same strawman arguments to defend said double-standards. Remember when California was a place of liberty and free expression? Now it's the stronghold of the Cult of Social Justice: you're either with them or against them with no middle ground.

[Zor2k13]

 

[gregathit]

4 hours ago, endgame † addiction said:

snip

 

4 hours ago, Ernest Lemmingway said:

I heard about that. Seems like every California-based game company is adopting the same double-standards and then the same strawman arguments to defend said double-standards. Remember when California was a place of liberty and free expression? Now it's the stronghold of the Cult of Social Justice: you're either with them or against them with no middle ground.

 

NOooooooooo!!!!!  Hell, half the fun of game 2 was those cheeky shots of Miss M.  Messing with our T&A.  Them's fighting words!

But on a serious note, I find it funny the "ass shots" even made it in the game to begin with.  It almost felt like the game was made by a bunch of teenagers.  Not that I am complaining one little bit.  It just seemed a bit forced and tacky.  Even so, it isn't something I'd waste time messing with, especially with the hot mess that the red, green, blue ending was as the video pointed out.  Game 2 is playable and still looks ok so none of this bothers me.  Getting game 1 up to game 2 or even 3's look is what I am most interested in.

 

I wonder what changes (if any) they will make to game 3?  It will have to be something big for me to even bother to install it (if you can install the games separately).  I have game 3 modded to perfection right now.

[elys19]

6 hours ago, endgame † addiction said:

 

 

Oh, I see, more of this shit. Pass.

[Ernest Lemmingway]

19 hours ago, gregathit said:

I wonder what changes (if any) they will make to game 3?  It will have to be something big for me to even bother to install it (if you can install the games separately).  I have game 3 modded to perfection right now.

If I understand things correctly, nothing modders haven't already achieved. I'm waiting to see if this is another "Warcraft 3 Remake" scenario. I need a good laugh.

[27X]

Me3 has zero changes. The only * to that is war asset boosts are now doubled since MP is not a thing. Oh and they censored traynor's shower scene because male gaze, even though you can only get the shower scene if you're a lesbian.

 

Bioware Magic™

[27X]

1 hour ago, Doctor Cadaver said:

it'll take more than a fresh coat of paint to pull me back in.

 

Modding already does that and is free.

[gregathit]

3 hours ago, Doctor Cadaver said:

As someone who's beaten the original trilogy along with the DLC's, it'll take more than a fresh coat of paint to pull me back in.

If it sucks as bad as all that, it will be on sale for 5 bucks a couple of weeks after the release date, so no worries.  ?

[27X]

 

[27X]

Yes.

[sora3]

On 2/7/2021 at 9:50 AM, gregathit said:

????????????  How in the blue bells of hell does that happen?  Sounds like an EA laziness stunt.

Can happen if someone is an idiot and doesn't catalogue it properly. Then it just gets lost/deleted...

 

E.g. Square Enix actually lost Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 code and had to recreate it from scratch. Hence why those games had some interesting bugs happening.

[ToJKa]

And Anthem is officially dead. As a surprise to no one.

 

How many more failures is EA willing to fund?

 

I'd think success of this and DA4 is what decides Bloware's future.