playstation Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Mass Effect Interactive Comic Book Announced Ahead of the launch of the Mass Effect 2 demo on the UK PlayStation Network later today, Electronic Arts has announced a brand new interactive comic based on the videogame series. Mass Effect Genesis has been developed as a collaboration between from Dark Horse Comics and BioWare, as is set to arrive over the holiday period on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Mass Effect Genesis will be available through the Cerberus Network, an in-game online interface that allows gamers who purchase the game new to receive free content. Designed to aid PlayStation 3 gamers taking their first steps into the franchise, or those Xbox 360 and PC gamers eager for yet more action, the interactive comic will help give players a high level overview of the events of the original Mass Effect, giving them the option to make critical choices that will affect their storyline in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, launching simultaneously on all three platforms for the first time in the franchise’s history in Holiday 2011. The Mass Effect 2 demo is set to hit the PlayStation Network later today, with the game to launch in January 2011. Electronic Theatre will keep you updated with all the latest details on the Mass Effect franchise. source so it will be available to xbox and pc owners too that too for free ...awesome... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winny29 Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Should one have played ME1 to enjoy this game. I am saying this because... Along the way, you’ll also bump into a lot of familiar faces, which brings me to an important piece of advice. If you haven’t played the first game, I would recommend playing it before you start with Mass Effect 2. It’s possible to start with a new character from scratch, but the game is meant to be played as a part of an overarching narrative. The game assumes that you already know about the universe, its rules and returning characters. It’s one of the few sequels that are very closely bound to their predecessors, so if possible, play the first Mass Effect if you’re planning on playing this one. This is Tyler's review of ME2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulovski Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Yes - playing ME1 will really enhance the experience. The universe of ME is very rich and a lot of background is lost unless you play through it - and no amount of comic book browsing will help there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landmarktiger Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Do what i will do - watch ME1 on youtube and get all the info for ME universe on the mass effect wikis and other sites out there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winny29 Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Do what i will do - watch ME1 on youtube and get all the info for ME universe on the mass effect wikis and other sites out there Yeah, that's the next best thing you can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ΨΨ babloos ΨΨ Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 its like someone said watching lord of rings: the two towers without watching Fellowship of the Ring Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harinder1827 Posted December 22, 2010 Report Share Posted December 22, 2010 Demo is now live on the US Store.... I'm downloading..... I still can't believe I'll be playing a Mass Effect game on my PS3......... BTW, the store got a huge update this week...... Dead Space 2 and LBP2 demos aswell........ thnks for the update , will download the demos asap as i have a 2 mb unlimited speed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Eurogamer comparison video I have to say that the character lighting on PS3 version looks weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karooo Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 It runs exceptionally well on the PS3 for an unreal engine game and yeah the lighting does look wierd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 There's an interesting comment posted by a visitor on the LensofTruth comparison about the different lighting and shadowing techniques used for the X360 and PS3 versions. Edit: the comment is posted on the Digital Foundry comparison video page The PS3 version still isn't as good as the 360 version and the main reason why is the lack of real global illumination. On the PS3 version, a lot of the intense colored lighting and proper shadowing in the 360 version has been replace with a lower lit generic light on the PS3, which makes everything look out of place at times. Also on the PS3 version, they slapped on a ton of generic black blocks to create shadows that don't come from a light source, where as the 360 version of the shadows are created BECAUSE of a light source. It looks artistic than technical, so it's up to the individual to like it or not. You can also see they use the black blocks to *hide* some of the deficiencies in the PS3 version. On the PS3, you can tell overall lighting is done on a much smaller scale, where a few lights are placed around the character models. In the 360 version, each character is lit up by the ENVIRONMENT and not just simple last-gen light sources. Overall they look pretty close, but you can definitely see that the 360 version has more natural lighting because of the "environment" where as the PS3 version clearly lacks this. Going by this, it looks as if the PS3 ME2 is running with dynamic lighting features turned off (or scaled down). As you all know, UE3 is scalable so even lower end machines can run it. On a technical level, the 360 wins, no debate can be had on this as it's doing everything properly (lights/shadows are dynamic). On the PS3 version, some of the shadows/lights are exaggerated, most are static and NOT generated by the environment, but it may look more artsy because of their false placement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praveer Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 LMAO !! What Bullshit. First of all the game doesn't uses Global Illumination of ANY form on ANY platform. And its bat sh*t crazy that he's talking about 'real global illumination' when there's not a single game out there which uses real time Global illumination (Crysis 2 will be the first game). The PS3 version's shadows use a slightly higher resolution shadow map with nvidia's 2x2 PCF filtering to smooth out the edges while 360 version shadows simply uses a jittered/sparse sample as the console lacks hardware PCF filtering, this is why the shadows are spread out and have a messy/noisey 'penumbra' look in 360 version, its a favored choice for 360 games cause its decent enough to hide the jagged edges cause by low resolution shadows maps especially in a third person game where the camera is far away from the shadows most of the time. The lighting positions have changed and this is why you don't see some of the lights illuminating the faces in the PS3 version in comparison, they are not missing instead their placement has been changed. And the biggest reason why the lighting is superior in PS3 version is because of this config value "MaxCharacterLightingPasses" set to a value similar to higher value (Its 0 or 1 in 360 version). In short there are more character lights in PS3 version. The guy is basically spitting out random stuff and throwing in few technical terms in order to make it look authentic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 ^^ Thanks The guy is basically spitting out random stuff and throwing in few technical terms in order to make it look authentic. So he's Karoo. BTW: Gears 3 is supposed to have global illumination too, correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
landmarktiger Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 ^ are you a game engine programmer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
praveer Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 BTW: Gears 3 is supposed to have global illumination too, correct? Yes, but it'll be baked into textures instead of real time GI....Epic calls it Lightmass, I donno how different it is from the solution ND used in UC1/2. In any case you can test this out in the latest Unreal UDK if you have it downloaded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'Pranay Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 ^ are you a game engine programmer? wanted to ask the same to praveer ie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteWolf Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 (Crysis 2 will be the first game). Real time G.I on consoles ? ..you think Consoles can handle G.I in real time?...Even Gears 3 uses pre-calculated G.I effects are you a game engine programmer? he is source of all tech knowledge is Beyond 3d forums.. You shud join it too... .Personally i hate them for revealing AW's native resolution ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarbonCore Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 Man it feels so weird playing Mass Effect on PS3, its like playing DMC4 with 360 pad, something feels constantly wrong. And I remember being blown away by the insanely good looking fire and explosion effects in the intro, didn't happen this time. It was just so-so. Maybe its because of the UC3 demo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhiteWolf Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 MASS EFFECT 2 PS3 VS 360 Look closely PS3 version has more jaggies than 360..just check first screenshot of both...Click on the pic source :- http://www.play-mag.co.uk/features/mass-effect-2-ps3-vs-xbox-360-screenshot-comparison/ Hmm PS3 version don't look that good or different from 360 version....both look identical imo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarketTantrik Posted December 23, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 ^^ You shouldn't be hotlinking those images. Either post the link to the source article and leave it at that or upload the images to an image hosting website and then post them here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karooo Posted December 23, 2010 Report Share Posted December 23, 2010 So he's Karoo. Where did that come from Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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