Mass Effect Series Catch-All

Is there a good guide to uprezzing ME1?

Rykin wrote:

Resource scanning sucked though.

I liked the planet scanning. I found it relaxing, almost therapeutic. It was a calm visual and auditory break from the talking heads, and the explosive combat (of which I also approved). I missed it from the follow-up game(s).

Strangely, I had no recollection of these mini-games for hacking or bypassing. I looked them up and it's a foggy recollection at best. Huh.

Rykin wrote:

Resource scanning sucked though.

I am morally obligated to post this:

Rykin wrote:

I must be the only person in the world who didn't hate the ME2 mini games.

You and me both, buddy... You and me both...

I quite liked the sudoku-esque puzzles in Andromeda.

How do they fair on the love to loathe scale?

RnRClown wrote:
Rykin wrote:

Resource scanning sucked though.

I liked the planet scanning. I found it relaxing, almost therapeutic. It was a calm visual and auditory break from the talking heads, and the explosive combat (of which I also approved). I missed it from the follow-up game(s).

Strangely, I had no recollection of these mini-games for hacking or bypassing. I looked them up and it's a foggy recollection at best. Huh.

I also like scanning. I would put on a podcast and just dedicate the entire play session to resource scanning. On my only subsequent run through the game, I just used a save game editor to give myself all the resources I needed.

Still no Trilogy Remaster..,

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Still no Trilogy Remaster..,

Maybe we will get some new at E3.... oh wait.

Truthfully I don't think E3 week will be that different for people who don't normally attend with the physical show canceled. I figure most publishers and platform holders will do stuff digitally.

jrralls wrote:

Is there a good guide to uprezzing ME1?

If you look at the ME3 ALOT mod page, it is pretty self explanatory. Download the ME3 ALOT app (it lets you mod 1, 2, and 3), and set the filter switches in settings to show you the ME1 mod list. Then use the UI to download whichever mods you want. Copy the downloads somewhere convenient on a different drive than ALOT if you want to keep them. You don't need to extract them, just drag & drop onto the ALOT window. The app is easy to use, just don't forget to go into the settings and do a backup before you start, in case something goes wrong.

Like something went wrong for me. At the end of Eden Prime, I got these insane lighting problems where a light would bloom and then quickly fill the whole screen with white. So... I've removed the "Improved Lighting" mod. Hopefully that'll solve the problem.

The ALOT app doesn't do anything mysterious, just moves files around, extracts archives and repacks textures with modded ones. It also adjusts some settings in the ME configuration. Doesn't do anything to the executable, AFAIK. And there's always your backup if something goes wrong. ALOT has a one-click restore in the settings page after you back up. Just don't move your backup directory (like I did), or you'll have to reinstall (like I did).

Eleima wrote:
Rykin wrote:

I must be the only person in the world who didn't hate the ME2 mini games.

You and me both, buddy... You and me both... :)

I liked them a lot too. A patch came out after release that sped up scanning.

Good advice, BadKen. I was wondering the same thing as jrralls. With all is time at home, I was thinking it might finally be time for me to go back to Mass Effect...

Quick update on ALOT and the original Mass Effect:

The problem I was having was not with the improved light maps that come with the mod. It was caused by me incorrectly using NvidiaProfileInspector to force anti-aliasing in the game. I had used the wrong compatibility flags, so that when the driver tried to do transparency anti-aliasing, it lost its mind. When that happened, a big white blob of light with fuzzy edges appeared in the middle of the screen, extending nearly to the edges.

Since I fixed that, it's been smooth sailing.

It looks pretty impressive with high res textures and proper anti-aliasing.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/Hq8ryZt/vlcsnap-2020-04-01-00h41m04s403.png)

ALOT + anti-aliasing:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/k8xrgcb/me-ALOT.png)

Vanilla:
IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/8c0SvMj/me-vanilla-closeup.png)

Russian street art:

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/5yqmwb1jjzw41.jpg)

Quarians are the masters of social distancing.

Rat Boy wrote:

Quarians are the masters of social distancing.

I hate that a decade from now if I see a joke like this in a quote I’ll know exactly what it’s referring to.

Quarians just used the whole weak immune system/over active allergies/missing symbiotic immune helpers thing as a way to justify their species wide latex fetish

The way that article just states that a remaster is coming, without any backing quotes from the EA presentation, or even anonymous sources, just makes me pretty skeptical. I hope it's true, but at the same time it's just an odd way of stating it in a news article.

Yeah I don't know if the report is reputable at all, but it was too juicy not to share

HYPE.

Yeah, I know I'll be disappointed.

Oh, and that HD remaster of an EA game is the Mass Effect Trilogy.

Any remake of the ME trilogy that doesn't solve the problems of ME1 will not be on my purchase list.

On behalf of Higgledy Inc I'd just like to say, 'Squeeeeeeeee!'

LarryC wrote:

Any remake of the ME trilogy that doesn't solve the problems of ME1 will not be on my purchase list.

Yeah, I mean, they have to solve the problem of ME1 being better than the other two, for sure, if they're going to release them all in a packaged HD upgrade. The shortcomings of 2 and especially 3 would just be glaring when they're all next to each other.

ME1 certainly is the best in the trilogy at being a janky, cobbled-together, barely-functional, poorly-paced mess that is nonetheless worth it to power through for the story.

LarryC wrote:

Any remake of the ME trilogy that doesn't solve the problems of ME1 will not be on my purchase list.

hbi2k wrote:

ME1 certainly is the best in the trilogy at being a janky, cobbled-together, barely-functional, poorly-paced mess that is nonetheless worth it to power through for the story.

Yup. Great story, bad game. I have tried to replay it multiple times over the past few years, but I can never make it more than a couple hours in. It would take a full on remake to fix that mess.

Though truthfully, I'm not sure I'd even be interested in simple remasters of 2 or 3 unless they were reeeeeally pretty. I went all the way through ME3 again earlier this year to play through the Citadel and Leviathan DLCs. It holds up just fine.

I played ME1 through five times. I would agree that there is plenty of scope for remastering.

I haven’t played them since they were on 360 so I’m jonesing for a play through of the series.

Pleaseletitberealpleasepleaseplease.

I like watching people fight over the good/better/best Mass Effect game. All the nuance and cumulative experience comes down to picking just one of three choices.

Kinda like Mass Effect itself.

I guess that means Andromeda is Refuse?