BioWare Breaks Down Mass Effect 3 Game Modes

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Sep 8, 2011
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This really doesn't remove anything from the game. It just adds a couple of option presets that you don't even have to use. It's for people who want to use them. And it's a lot better than dumbing the game down for everyone. More developers should do this.
 

BreakfastMan

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Jul 22, 2010
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Fappy said:
For anyone who is defending Bioware on their decision to include "Action Mode" and attacking those who oppose it: Most of these people are probably concerned what this may mean for Bioware's future games. There have been many scary warning signs as of late and this is one of them.
How exactly? They are not removing the RPG elements. If anything, they are adding more of them (from 2 anyway). They just added an option to the options menu to have the game automatically select the dialog options for you, like auto-level up (which has existed in games for years, and I have not yet heard people whine about that). Not really a big deal as I see it.
 

Still Life

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Sucal said:
Still Life said:
Sucal said:
Allow me to make a more mass effect example

You don't decide what is canon Hudson?

Everyone who made Anderson join the council would like to have a word with you.
Not really, because you can make the choice at the beginning of ME2.
Yes really. http://www.newsarama.com/games/10-must-know-facts-mass-effect-novels-comics-mass-effect-3-110707-1.html

Canon by word of Drew Karpyshyn, who does most of the writing.
I meant at the end of Mass Effect and the beginning of Mass Effect 2, where Anderson can indeed become Counselor as per player choice. The writers have had to take some concessions with the narrative in order ensure that they can write cohesively for the final game.

This I don't mind so much, as Anderson's departure from the council can be explained logically given the nature of his character, as opposed to the plothole in DA2 as I understand it. I also prefer that Bioware deliver a cohesive and engaging narrative instead of trying to pull together a clusterfuck.

Selvec said:
Roleplaying mode for me.
Indeed.
 

Zhukov

The Laughing Arsehole
Dec 29, 2009
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VladG said:
Well, the problem is creating these modes takes time (and I think it's safe to assume the game really was delayed for these "modes") and money, resources that were presumably diverted from the actual "core" game since any project will have a finite amount of resources.

It's true, the extra sales might bring in a greater investment so that, realistically, nothing was actually detracted from the game, but who can say if that's really the case?

And before anyone says that a AAA game shouldn't suffer from budget problems, I'd like to point out Deus Ex Human Revolution, the ending on that game was so horribly cut short and rushed I expect they had to choose between a proper ending and keeping the fucking lights on.

[emphasis added]
Silliness.

'Story mode' just lowers the difficulty of the combat. 'Action mode' just auto-chooses dialogue options for you.

That is not a resource intensive process.
 

sifffffff

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Oct 28, 2011
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Zhukov said:
Silliness.

'Story mode' just lowers the difficulty of the combat. 'Action mode' just auto-chooses dialogue options for you.

That is not a resource intensive process.
I was just going to say the same thing. From a programming standpoint I can't imagine this took very much work. To make the combat easier for story mode all they'd have to do is change the value of a few variables.

It's a funny thing about fans and haters of Bioware's most recent work. There really isn't much middle ground. It's always either "this isn't a big deal" or "Bioware killed my family then they made me cook and eat them."

So since making these three modes probably didn't take much time to develop I can only assume the real problem some of you have with it is that you find it insulting to have options for playing the game differently than how you feel the game should be played.
 

DSK-

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After reading this, I have only one thing to say:

*looks at hand all teary eyed* "Strong DSK....strong DSK....breathe!"
 

TheTinyMan

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May 6, 2010
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TL;DR: Fanboy gush-rant follows.

Sounds like a great idea to me - if someone doesn't enjoy an aspect of the game, add an option to skip it. Almost no development time is lost to this, and it adds a great deal of value to a number of players. My ex-wife loved watching me play through Mass Effect 1 and 2, and wanted to play herself, but couldn't handle the action-y controls - she just never plays games that expect you to control the camera quickly in real-time. She loved the story segments, though. It's good to think that there'll be a mode for her.

Myself? Give me hard mode, and let me make my dialogue options.

Also, I'm gonna commit a heresy here: I think the Mass Effect team has been evolving the franchise superbly. The removal of the terrible inventory system from the first game, removing inconsequential decisions ("do I want this power to do 100 damage or 102 damage?"), adding hacking mini-games that actually make sense to me as a computer programmer (remember the mini-game with the blocks of text? That's a totally relevant skill in my daily life.) and removing the "just throw money at it" mini-games, time-sensitive dialogue actions...and now I've liked everything I've heard about ME3. Class-specific "heavy melee" attacks? Multiplayer that is its own mode but ties into the main game? (well, we'll see if they fuck that one up, but I have confidence.) And now, the option to reduce the parts of the game a given player doesn't like, almost certainly (and I guess I'm being optimstic here) without affecting the core experience of those of us who like the whole game?

Proud to be a rabid Bioware fanboy since I first saw a demo of Baldur's Gate 1. ^.^

Edit: Now if they can just learn about a dialog-choosing menu from Deus Ex: Human Revolution they'd be the perfect company. OOH HEY SQUEENIX BIOWARE MERGER! :p
 

4RM3D

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Bioware CEO: We already dumbed the game down to appeal to a great as possible player base. But we are still unhappy. Isn't there a way to make the game playable for everyone, including children at the age of 1 and elderly people who never played a game in their who lives?

Bioware Dev: Well yes, we just strip the 'game element' out of the game and make it an interactive movie.

Bioware CEO: Excellent, now the game can appeal to everyone sell even more copies.

Well, fuck you Bioware. You have been blacklisted! I won't buy anymore of your games. First you pull a 'Dragon Age 2' and now this!? I don't care if Mass Effect 3 is the epic conclusion. No, as of today you guys do not exist for me anymore.
 

Trelmayas

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Dec 8, 2009
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Half the people commenting here need to read the original post. From the OP:

"All these settings do is that they set some of the options on the option screen before you've played it and know what those options mean. Once you get in and start playing, you can change things,"

It just changes the default options to one of three presets. This took 2 seconds a programmers time. All you super leet uber-players can set difficulty to insanity squad power usage to manual and robot monkeys to maximum just like me. This is simply a way newer players don't have to dive into the options menu if they don't want to.

In fact, odds are we'll actually get more customization options now, since they don't have to worry as much about scaring away the less hardcore. So everyone just chill.
 

Meight08

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Feb 16, 2011
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4RM3D said:
Bioware CEO: We already dumbed the game down to appeal to a great as possible player base. But we are still unhappy. Isn't there a way to make the game playable for everyone, including children at the age of 1 and elderly people who never played a game in their who lives?

Bioware Dev: Well yes, we just strip the 'game element' out of the game and make it an interactive movie.

Bioware CEO: Excellent, now the game can appeal to everyone sell even more copies.

Well, fuck you Bioware. You have been blacklisted! I won't buy anymore of your games. First you pull a 'Dragon Age 2' and now this!? I don't care if Mass Effect 3 is the epic conclusion. No, as of today you guys do not exist for me anymore.
dude how did they dumb the game down?
they just give you an option
some people don't like dialogue options so make it possible to skip them i dont understand them but they can get boring or monotonous.
some people found the combat of mass effect boring so you can disable it to focus on the good stuff i.e the story.
or just play it rpg mode.
and thats not all every mode has its own difficulty settings.
rpg mode normal will be mass effect 2 veteran level difficulty.
and even then you can change it around again.
its just like auto level in most rpg's a simple feature you can use if you dont feel like choosing the best stats and letting the computer decide it.

and about the dumbing down... how?
all they are doing is making a few handholds people can use to get into the game.
and now for the rpg elements.
they are returning better than ever the shooting and movement better than ever.
there are even going to be more weapons and weapon mods.

mass effect is not about rpg elements its about two things.
third person combat with rpg ELEMENTS YOU CAN SCREAM ALL YOU WANT THEY ARE JUST RPG ELEMENTS!
and dialogue options with a sprawling space epic as its story.
now if you dont feel like using one of them like on a third playthrough using auto dialogue options
you can disable one of them .
that is not dumbing down it is a feature.

game depth should be like a swimming pool.
you have the deep end and the shallow end
you start in the shallow and if you really dont want to
you start in the deep.
there is alot of middle ground and you always have a choice what you want to do.
the perfect balance between accessibility and depth.
tired of a long day of work?
use action mode and enjoy some combat.
just want the next chunk of story
go story mode and enjoy a good story.

in a mad stroke of genius it sounds like the perfect balance between accesibility and depth

it is not being dumbed down it is being made deeper but at the same time making it possible for both shooter AND rpg fans to enjoy it and not only the hybrid.

so please before you go shout nonsense like that please think if it will impact your gaming experience
is it being made more accesible yes.
is it being made deeper than ever before yes.
is that a good thing. yes but not if your an elitist prick.
 

Still Life

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4RM3D said:
Bioware CEO: We already dumbed the game down to appeal to a great as possible player base. But we are still unhappy. Isn't there a way to make the game playable for everyone, including children at the age of 1 and elderly people who never played a game in their who lives?

Bioware Dev: Well yes, we just strip the 'game element' out of the game and make it an interactive movie.

Bioware CEO: Excellent, now the game can appeal to everyone sell even more copies.

Well, fuck you Bioware. You have been blacklisted! I won't buy anymore of your games. First you pull a 'Dragon Age 2' and now this!? I don't care if Mass Effect 3 is the epic conclusion. No, as of today you guys do not exist for me anymore.
Epic-ill-informed-overreaction!!

Congratulations!
 

Fappy

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BreakfastMan said:
Fappy said:
For anyone who is defending Bioware on their decision to include "Action Mode" and attacking those who oppose it: Most of these people are probably concerned what this may mean for Bioware's future games. There have been many scary warning signs as of late and this is one of them.
How exactly? They are not removing the RPG elements. If anything, they are adding more of them (from 2 anyway). They just added an option to the options menu to have the game automatically select the dialog options for you, like auto-level up (which has existed in games for years, and I have not yet heard people whine about that). Not really a big deal as I see it.
Some people are just reading a bit too far into it. I myself am just a bit miffed considering some other comments Bioware has made recently. I don't have many doubts about ME3 and I know this being included won't influence my experience, but I can't help but wonder if Bioware is going to start broadening their audience too far to the point of alienating their fanbase. Its a stretch I admit, but it has happened plenty of times in this industry before.
 

4RM3D

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rolfwesselius said:
First of all, why are you writing every sentence on a new line (among other things)? I looks like a poem. It looks weird and doesn't make it better to read or anything. But whatever. Onward to the discussion.

We are not talking about switching the difficult setting from hard to easy. We are talking about changing game modes completely. And for what? We already have Mass Effect 1 and 2. And now Bioware suddenly feels the urge to draw more players in; to change the concept of the game. First they went nuts from Dragon Age 1 to Dragon Age 2. Now they are doing the same thing to Mass Effect 3. If it was a totally new game in a different franchise I wouldn't be as annoyed.

There are always going to be people who don't like the core mechanics of the game. If you don't like shooters, then don't play shooter games. But Bioware is taking it to far with this.

To quote Fappy:

fappy said:
...but I can't help but wonder if Bioware is going to start broadening their audience too far to the point of alienating their fanbase...
Lets delve a bit further into things...

rolfwesselius said:
there is alot of middle ground and you always have a choice what you want to do.
the perfect balance between accessibility and depth.
Yes, that is nice. No, Mass Effect 3 is not the above. It is not incorporated into the game. It is just switching different modes. This is just lazy design to try to get more people to buy the game.

rolfwesselius said:
tired of a long day of work?
I am going to stop you right there. If you are tired, go play Angry Birds or Bejeweled. Certain games need a certain amount of investment. Some are very easy getting into and some are more difficult and require more concentration. If you are tired, you are not going to play an intensive game. That doesn't mean such a game should be butchered down, so that you can always play it. No, just no.
 

OniaPL

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No canon in Bioware games? So was Leliana a ghost or just resurrected by the Maker in dragon Age 2? >.>
 

sifffffff

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4RM3D said:
Bioware CEO: We already dumbed the game down to appeal to a great as possible player base. But we are still unhappy. Isn't there a way to make the game playable for everyone, including children at the age of 1 and elderly people who never played a game in their who lives?

Bioware Dev: Well yes, we just strip the 'game element' out of the game and make it an interactive movie.

Bioware CEO: Excellent, now the game can appeal to everyone sell even more copies.

Well, fuck you Bioware. You have been blacklisted! I won't buy anymore of your games. First you pull a 'Dragon Age 2' and now this!? I don't care if Mass Effect 3 is the epic conclusion. No, as of today you guys do not exist for me anymore.
I must have missed the part where they make you play the "interactive movie" From the article I read it seems like the player gets to choose to use one of these settings, they're not forced.

OniaPL said:
No canon in Bioware games? So was Leliana a ghost or just resurrected by the Maker in dragon Age 2? >.>
It's like you guys don't read ANY of the other responses before flying off the handle. Casey Hudson has nothing to do with Dragon Age. When he says there isn't canon in their games he's referring to the Mass Effect games. Cue that one dude who says that there is canon because in a book Anderson isn't the councilor even though throughout my main Mass Effect 2 file he is on the council.
 

4RM3D

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aftohsix said:
I must have missed the part where they make you play the "interactive movie" From the article I read it seems like the player gets to choose to use one of these settings, they're not forced.
I know Bioware is not forcing you. I stated everything on principle (most of it, at least). The interactive movie is just one aspect of a bigger whole.
 

Neonit

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seems cool and all (in fact i think its a great idea)
but that DOES mean that they put less time into developing game. instead of making options, they could make, for example better story. it doesnt mean that said story will be bad, but that putting more development time could make it better. or bug fixing. you can always use more bug fixing......
 

sumanoskae

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This isn't inherently problematic, but it strikes me as pointless.

If what you want is to play an action game with an engaging story in which you don't participate, Mass Effect isn't ideal, because it's story revolves around player interaction. You'd be better off playing a vanilla action game that was designed to be played that way.

If what you want is to play an interactive story, then the action sequences will just annoy you by taking you out of the narrative. You'd have more fun with something like Heavy Rain, maybe even a JRPG.

It seems like Bioware are trying to make Mass Effect appeal to people who don't like Mass Effect, that seems fruitless. Doing so would require the alienation of the existing fanbase, they'd just trade one audience for another.

I'll play it, but I don't expect to enjoy it as much as Biowares previous titles(With the exception of Dragon Age II)
 

D0WNT0WN

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mad825 said:
So "action mode" is just another word for Modern Warfare mode?
It was a shame Bioware cant even make a shooter properly, the combat in Mass Effect 2 was so vanilla it was boring.

I will gladly be skipping this one.