By Rob Bricken in
Video Games
Wednesday, Dec. 23 2009 @ 10:31AM
Okay, I admit, I haven't played Bioware's non-Star Wars sci-fi action-RPG Mass Effect. So I have no clue what's going on in this video for Mass Effect 2. While I might be ignorant of the game itself, I certainly know it has its fans, so I thought you'd want to check out full-length cinematic trailer, complete with Martin Sheen and Tricia Helfer doing voices (and inspiring character models, obviously). Frankly, I might have to play it just to hear Sheen get forced to say ridiculous alien names like "Sunny Tuchanka." Hee hee!
23 comments
Comments
Kris said:
I think "Sunny Tuchanka" was a reference to the planet Tuchanka being sunny, not the alien's name. As in, look at this nice sunny planet, oh my god giant killer worm!
Ford replied to Kris:
Yeah, it's a reference to the planet, the alien's name is Grunt.
The Thriller replied to Kris:
I think it's fair to say that the name is 'alien' in that it is foreign to us and that the planet's name is still a name. What was said is still technically correct, just not in it's original meaning.
A Codex entry in the first Mass Effect mentioned that the krogan nuked their homeworld during a world war, prior to first contact with another race, and that Tuchanka was still in the throes of a nuclear winter. I'd say Sheen's character just has a rather wry sense of humour.
maachubo said:
I think the title for this post should have been:
Mass Effect 2, Twice the Mass, with Double Effect.
Sythlia said:
While the first game kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth, I can't help to feel a little excited when watching this trailer.
I don't look forward to Thresher Maws which means pingponging around the planet in the Super Mako. I don't look forward to that again. That's for damn sure.
Dacshiggy replied to Sythlia:
I concur. I can't put my finger on what it was about the first one, but it just didn't hook me and about 10 hours in I gave up. I just couldn't give a damn about any of the characters or quests. Maybe I'll dust it off and give it another go before this comes out.
Illustro Cado replied to Dacshiggy:
Mass Effect was the first game I ever played that I would have enjoyed more had I not had to -play- it. Every time I had to shoot my way through a new horde of enemies I was sitting there, thinking to myself, "COME ON! Get to the next dialog tree already!"
It looks like the sequel will remedy that.
Leonilla said:
Wow. That looks beautiful. I just hope they fixed the MASSIVE pacing problems. All through the game, they try to create this air of urgency, but then the side quests encourage you to hop from planet to planet like an ADHD five year old on a sugar high.
Paul replied to Leonilla:
They could've fixed that if they'd made it take a similar tack as Star Control II, but there's no real point at which you can say "Okay, you've got thirty minutes to get your shit together and win, or everyone is going to die."
Which is one thing I liked about Star Control II. "What happened to the Ur-Quan? Why is the Kohr-Ah circle moving? Oh shit, they're killing everyone in the galaxy. Time to get a move on!"
Juice said:
Not sure why you guys are crapping all over the best game on the 360 but whatever. I about crapped my pants when I saw this yesterday. Jan. 26th can't come soon enough.
Leonilla replied to Juice:
My criticisms are meant with love. Mass Effect was a great game and I had a blast playing it, but it did have a few flaws. All I hope is that the second game will be even more awesome than the first.
Sythlia replied to Juice:
For me, it was unreasonably high expectations due to what I saw in previous trailers. It was my own fault for getting hyped to such a level. I was very hungry for a new BioWare game at the time, so I believed space + collar grabbin' action + interesting dialogue would be a sure win. At first, it was when I first started playing. It was likely after the combing through a handful of the planetary excursions that I realized that they settled more for quantity than quality. The second playthrough was more enjoyable when cutting out the excess and focusing purely on the storyline which still felt a bit shortchanged in the end. If I hadn't read the first Mass Effect novel, Saren wouldn't have had nearly as much impact. I believe the time used to crate a bunch of empty worlds could've been utilized better by making only a few planets accessible but with much more to do and connected to the story to a degree, alas KOTOR.
I want to like Mass Effect 2, but I'm not going to buy a ticket for the hype train. With Dragon Age satisfying the lengthy dialogue and story-building I love, I might be able to be more objective this time. It'll be interesting to see what the sequel will do. January can't get here fast enough. :)
Coches said:
This was one of the best game for the 360 and it should have been for all platforms. I am not a lover of ANY particular system. I like them all. I would love for everyone to have the opportunity to play this game.
However it is true. When you are not on the main quest you feel like the bitch of the universe, something that the good doctors at Bioware have promise to fix in this installment. Those side quest where for shit.
That aside, this game looks to kick all kinds of ass, cause in an RPG what counts is story, and Bioware's pedigree just can't be beaten. Their whole portfolio is nothing but one great RPG after another.
Like I said earlier what saddens me is that some folks get excluded because of platform and I just think that's TOTAL crap. Common EA stop with the taking of Microsoft's money and share this great IP. You did it with Dragon Age.
Great Site by the way.
Trace said:
I can't imagine it's good for President Bartlet's eyes, having his desk set up DIRECTLY FACING A SUN. Although maybe that's the foreground lighting necessary for his HP face-recognition software to work properly.
WHassinger said:
Remember that it's not the first time Sheen's done this kind of thing. He played the Soul Hunter in "Babylon 5: The River of Souls". Hell, he wasn't even a human in that one. And he's done some other SF stuff in his time, too.
EVula said:
I wonder if the elevators will be any faster...
Because of all the criticism, they removed the elevators and replaced them with old-fashioned loading screens. I'd prefer the elevators. The the game has to load sometime, and there's not much they can do to make that interesting, but at least the elevators maintained the illusion of a real world.
EVula said:
Also, did anyone else find the 1/26/09 date at the end... confusing?
RobP said:
Thank you, Rob, for posting this. Mass Effect may just be my favorite game of all time. Yes, most of the side quests didn't add up to much and they distracted from the main storyline more than I would have liked, but that story... Wow.
And this trailer, and several of the others I've seen, just looks more awesome badassery is waiting in the wings. I quite like Dragon Age, but it's nowhere near as good as Mass Effect. But that's basically the same as saying A Bug's Life isn't as good as Finding Nemo.
My only problem with the ads or expanded universe stuff (like the novel) is the company's insistence on putting THEIR Shepherd on everything. I get it, but he ain't MY Shepherd.
DoctorSmashy said:
It's similar to Oblivion in space in some aspects....
Mass Effect 2 looks hawt.
Manwards said:
I'm very excited for this. It's the first game I've pre-ordered in years. I'm currently playing through the first Mass Effect again, a couple of years after I first completed it, and I'm loving it even more this time around.
The missions can certainly get repetitive (although most of them ARE optional), and the combat can be really frustrating at times, but once you've recruited the rest of your team and gone up a few levels, there turns out to be a really tactical edge to it. Later in the game, I've had some really satisfying battles.
The interactive conversations are even better, with layers of subtlety beyond the seemingly obvious "good/bad/neutral" choices. My favourite missions in the game just involve dialogue, like the one where you're interviewed by a news channel, or the one where you have to convince a suicidal escaped slave not to shoot herself. Same goes for the moral choices: some of them, particularly the one in the downloadable "Bring Down The Sky" mission, are genuinely difficult ethical questions, with no right or wrong answer. The fact that you can choose, for example, which of the major characters in your party die still blows my mind.
The story, though, is the best thing about it. The universe is obviously inspired by the sci-fi mainstays, Star Trek and Star Wars and all that, but - and this may be controversial - I think a lot of its ideas actually work better. The titular "mass effect" plot device deftly explains every single sci-fi element, from space travel to force fields to telepathy. The various alien races seem much more like aliens, in both physiology and psychology, than the exaggerated humans that make up Star Trek. Humans aren't the apex of all life in the galaxy, a race setting a perfect example for everyone else. They're rash upstarts who are disliked and mistrusted by the rest of the galaxy. You can read about the intricacies of the various societies' politics and histories. The krogan (not Krogan, because we're human, not Human) come from Tuchanka, and not the planet Krogan (because we didn't come from the planet Human). The list goes on.
The sequel looks to have even more choice in your character development and far more solid action mechanics, while still staying true to the decision-based RPG formula that BioWare have honed over the years. That it will read your saved data from the first game and continue from that point, keeping your custom character and all of their decisions intact (even down to who is alive and who is dead) is something I've been wanting to see ever since the similar Deus Ex, over a decade ago.
Sorry for the long spiel, but it's a very impressive series, and one I'd recommend to every sci-fi fan. Never mind the impressive (but essentially mindless) action trailers like the one above. It's one of the best and most developed universes in gaming history.
joeyjuviyani said:
The action role-playing has been taken to the next level by Mass Effect 2. Developed by BioWare Edmonton this is really an eiting game to play. Similar to the Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 2 will not need online authentication. A basic disk check is the only thing required. The graphics are supercool. For videos you may visit at:
http://www.techarena.in/video/26374-mass-effect-2-vanguard-class-trailer.htm
