joacqin's Mass Effect experience

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So, due to the spur of the moment I ordered both ME and ME2 when I ordered Civ5. Today ME 1&2 arrived but no Civ so I thought I would finally give these games a shot as I have read and heard so much good about them. Installed ME and so far so good but I am experiencing massive slow downs quite often. The game flows fine and then it just stops for a second or five and it can be during cinematics, conversations or combat doesn't matter. I have a rig that should be able to run it no problem whatsoever. I went in search for a patch but couldnt find any so I guess it is discontinued and my EA value game version of the game has all patches that are needed.

Having trouble enjoying the game (I am in hte very beginning and on hte first mission) due to these "stops". The sound keeps going but not the graphics.

 

Do you use an ATI card? I know other people experienced similar issues due to ATI drivers.

 

I do use an ATI card and I guess if it is such an old game there is no point in updating drivers or anything? I lowered the resolution a bit and it did not remove the "lag" but it seems to have made it rarer.

 

I absolutely love Mass Effect.

 

Lag seems to be better but now it crashed, what is it with singleplayer games and crashing? More fanboyism now but I have been playing blizzard games intensively for years now and can count the amount of crashes I have had on my fingers and toes.

 

Sorry you're having a bad time joacqin. I can honestly say that I only crashed one time during my play through of ME1+ME2. I use an nvidia card though.
You try updating all your drivers just to be safe?

 

@joacqin
Perhaps it is your soundcard?

 

I don't remember any crashes in ME1...but my memory sucks so it may have crashed once or twice. In ME2, I had a few crashes. They usually happen right after a good battle, so I'd have to go back and do it over again.

 

I have only gotten a few crashes nothing bad but the slow downs continues. It is actually not that bad as it feels like mini loading screens and we are used to them but it puzzles me. I am now trying to explore the galaxy, couldnt really understand the quest journal (I could understand it but it tells me to go to places I do not know where they are) so instead of flying around everywhere looking for a specific planet I know methodically do one system at a time. You seem to get a lot of experience, my soldier has maxed out everything that feels important and I do not think I am close to the ending but maybe I am.

How do I know what weapons the NPCs prefer, what I mean is can I see that without checking what they use in combat? Want to know what good weapons to give to what character.

 

As for what's the best weapon - since you can develop your NPC's skills accordingly ... you can determine what they will prefer. I developed Wrex shotgun ability, ergo he 'preferred' shotguns in battle. What's then the best respective shotgun is also up to you - you can compare models in the inventory screen and then fine tune what you chose with weapon and ammo mods.

In combat you can choose and change the weapons your char and the NPCs use over the HUD. There you can also select their special attacks (like overload, throw, warp and the like).

As for bugs, more later.

 

Um, I am playing on easy and letting the NPCs level on their own. I am basically just playing through ME1 for the story to get to 2 as I was adviced that I would appreciate 2 much more if I played the inferior 1.

 

Ah, you can change automatic level up in the options, and you can always restart

If you check your NPCs stats you see what weapon they specialise in.

Besides, ME1 isn't that bad. It's just not as good as ME2.

 

Well, I enjoy it but there is WAY too much Mako driving involved. Way way way too much.

 

Tru dat.

I used to hate driving that infernal thing.

 

Oh yes, indeed. For that you get that infernal Hammerhead in ME2, if you buy the DLC.

 

The freezes are getting to me, starting to interrupt with combat now as well. A friend said it had something to do with ME not being able to handle multiple cores and that there was a fix but I can't find it.

 

Interesting. On Vista 64bit ME crashed so often with me that I started to call it Crash Effect, but I liked it nevertheless. It is still somewhat unstable on Windows 7 64 bit but largely playable. As a side note, it ran nearly flawless on XP, so I doubt the issue is about multi cores per se. Even with XP my crashes have always been hard graphic freezes. Personally I believe it is about GPU drivers and 64bit operating systems.

Anyway, there you are, some links on that issue.

I post them here so I can revisit them myself later. Maybe something interesting is in them after all

 

I use XP and I think I have only had 2-3 crashes in total but I get freezes and lately hte sound has started to act funny as well. The voice acting has disapeared on several occasions. However I am pretty sure I will be able to finish it and I hope that ME2 will be smoother.

Finished the first one and I must say the main quest was extremely short (all side quests seemed identical and so boring that I refused to do any more after a while), the game play was repetetive in the extreme and I suffered freeze lag throughout the game but the story still made it playable. I hope ME2 will be more enjoyable.

 

Enjoying ME2 it is a huge improvement over 1 but I still miss some npcs and the level system seems to be quite a bit more restricted than in 1. The combat is much more fun and of course, no freeze lag which is super awesome.

Do not like how the game forces you to align so closely to Cerberus though, if they do not screw me over in one way or another before the end of the game I will be quite surprised and impressed.

Also wonder if I will find other armours and stuff? I think I have gotten a decent bit into the game but the amount of gear I have found is disapointing for a RPG.

 

Found a bit more gear and I must say that I am enjoying this game a lot. Am a bit afraid to continue on the main quest as things might end quickly if I do. Should I continue exploring and doing random quests before I try to find the stuff to get through the Omega Relay? Done all the loyalty quests.