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Mass Effect Launch Date Announced

Posted by Zonk on from the finally-thank-you dept.

Joystiq has the word that the epic space RPG from Bioware, Mass Effect, now has a ship date attached to it. The date? November 20th. "The preview videos have been yummy, the conversation system looks amazing, even our time with the game was nice -- now if we could only get a straight answer on those weird frame-rate hiccups we keep seeing. We hope that'll all be cleaned up by November when we'll be partaking in turkey and then sitting our tryptophan overdosed selves down for hours of Mass Effect. Who would watch football after dinner when there's a galaxy to save?"

46 comments

  1. ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Pojut · · Score: 1

    I have been eagerly awaiting Mass Effect since it was first announced...looks like Bioware is gonna do it again (hopefully, the will do a "Baldurs Gate" type of success again, as opposed to a "KOTOR 2" mistake)

    --
    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by RamblinLonghorn · · Score: 1

      Obsidian made KOTOR 2, and it wasn't all that bad. It just couldn't live up to KOTOR.

    2. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by BobTheLawyer · · Score: 4, Informative

      Obsidian made KOTOR 2 - Bioware provided some technical assistance but can't really be blamed for what went wrong...

    3. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by CogDissident · · Score: 1

      KOTOR 2 wasn't a mistake. They just never finished it. The game itself wasn't actually bad. Besides, its not like they actually finished halo 2 or Overlord either, if a game is popular enough, it can get away with being unfinished crap at the end.

    4. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Pojut · · Score: 1

      Bah, I keep forgetting that Bioware didn't make Kotor 2....and I agree with those above me, it was a great game, just wasn't finished (as was already said)

      Unregardless (yes it's a word) Mass Effect looks to be amazing...been the game I have been waiting for to spring for an HDTV, so I'm excited for more than just the game itself:-)

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    5. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Skidge · · Score: 1

      I just finished KOTOR 2, right on the heels of completing KOTOR. (Ok, I was a bit late to the party). I actually enjoyed KOTOR 2 more than the original, but I think that was in part due to the improved UI. They fixed just about all of the little things that bugged the heck out of me and starting KOTOR 2 the day after KOTOR 1 made the UI fixes very important.

      I also found the story in 2 more engrossing than 1. My only complaint was that the last world was a bit simple and ending the game with a big expository speech was kind of weak. The rest of the game, IMO, was more enjoyable to play than the first KOTOR.

    6. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Your.Master · · Score: 1

      Unregardless (yes it's a word) Am I being wooshed here?
    7. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Rayzed · · Score: 1

      Unregardless = Moving from a state of regardlessness to regardfulness?

    8. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Bloodoflethe · · Score: 1

      Unregardless (yes it's a word)
      Not even M-W, which is a linguistic whore of a dictionary has that word. What dictionary admits unregardless to the English language? As much as I dislike the word 'irregardless' I will acknowledge it as an old colloquialism. Even if it were a word, it should mean the opposite of 'without regard.' This means that you used the word to link that sentence to the previous sentence, rather than indicating a change in subject. I would probably have said 'Either way, Mass Effect looks to be amazing!
      --
      "Little is much when little you need."
    9. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Pojut · · Score: 1

      The way I see it, the day that the word "bling" became an entry in the dictionary, anything goes.

      --
      Living With a Nerd
    10. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by darkrowan · · Score: 1

      It was also made, as others have pointed out, by Obsidian and not by Bioware. THAT was the mistake.

      --
      AccountKiller
    11. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Devir · · Score: 1

      I can agree with you. I very much enjoyed KotOR 2 as well. It was just as enjoyable as the first. The story was very interesting and meaningful.

      It was pretty complete in my mind up to the last planet. Where the story line leading up to and into the planet became very rushed. There were tons of mention of the planet, some disaster happened there that a team member was responsable for, but never devled into. All of the sudden we needed be there and do stuff. Then the game ended after a fight.

      Thankfully the PC port had tons of the unfinished content left on the disk hat a team of hardcore fans are working on completing. I would love to finally play KotOR 2 in it's full as the designers meant it to be played but ran out of time. I'm on a "Powered by Starbucks" ramble.

    12. Re:ooohhhhh yeahhh..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For anyone else as clueless as I, KOTOR is a Star Wars themed game called "Knights of the Old Republic."

  2. Yummy? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The videos have been "yummy". Is this guy four years-old, or is Alexander a girl's name?

  3. I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

    Who would watch football after dinner when there's a galaxy to save?

    Uh, me. Packers are taking on the Cowboys.

    Packers are gonna win the superbowl this year!

    1. Re:I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

      er... Lions. Thanksgiving day classic. Off by a week :P

    2. Re:I'll be watching ... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 1

      As much as I, having grown up in the Packers' back yard, support them, I can't honestly see them winning the super bowl this year. Then again, I don't know what the team is like at the moment, I'm just basing it off what I've seen in the past, and a general pessimism.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    3. Re:I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

      Excellent defense, probably one of the best in the league (according to NFL commentators, not just me). Good passing game, although the run is a little weak. As long as Favre can hold his own without needing a wheelchair, the old man :P we should be ok. Packers went 8-8 last year, missed the playoffs by a tiebreaker to NYG, and the season before went a shitty 4-12. Things are ramping up quick and I think we will do a lot better this year.

      Aaron Rogers, backup quarterback, has been looking pretty impressive in the preseason. Most people seem to agree Favre will exit after this season. I think Rogers is ready to step up and take over.

      (I grew up hour and a half from GB, now live in Alabama ... but I'm gonna go see them take on the Titans in a few hours ... cheesehead and wife in tow)

    4. Re:I'll be watching ... by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Uh, me. Packers are taking on the Cowboys.

      Packers are gonna win the superbowl this year!

      As a non Us citizen all I heard was

      "Uh, me. blah blah blah.

      blah blah blah this year!"

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    5. Re:I'll be watching ... by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 1

      Packers are gonna win the superbowl this year! Shortly after the win, Microsoft will open the source for Windows, and the RIAA will agree that filesharing constitutes fair use.
    6. Re:I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

      And Madden will say Brett Favre 10,000 times, until he can no longer breathe and passes out.

    7. Re:I'll be watching ... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but Packers fans are not human. I think the OP was referring strictly to human activity.

    8. Re:I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

      You must be a viking fan?

    9. Re:I'll be watching ... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

      Nah. I haven't really been a fan of any team since they became high paid clubs for thugs. You might as well ask me which organized crime family is my favorite.

    10. Re:I'll be watching ... by gangien · · Score: 1

      Packers are gonna win the superbowl this year!

      No way, Seahawks all the way!

    11. Re:I'll be watching ... by everphilski · · Score: 1

      Did you **Watch** preseason game #2? :)

      now granted, preseason doesn't mean much, but still :P

  4. X-Box only by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 1

    I've never even considered buying one...until now.

    --
    "I only speak the truth"
    Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
    1. Re:X-Box only by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Wait 6 mo for the PC version.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    2. Re:X-Box only by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haha, is this viral marketing at its best or what :-)

    3. Re:X-Box only by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 1

      Is that just a clever quip or have you actually read something to that effect?

      --
      "I only speak the truth"
      Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
    4. Re:X-Box only by king-manic · · Score: 1

      Bioware has a tradition of making Xbox games that come out on the PC later. I don't recall a single Xbox game of theirs that didn't come out on PC.

      --
      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
    5. Re:X-Box only by I'll+Provide+The+War · · Score: 1

      Unlikely. KOTOR was a third party game published by LA. Mass Effect is being published by Microsoft. This title will probably follow the path of other MS published titles and not show up on Windows for a minimum of 12 months.

    6. Re:X-Box only by LarsWestergren · · Score: 1

      As usual they publicly deny that there is ever in the works for another platform but the XBox/XBox360, probably part of their deal with Microsoft.

      However, both Kotor and Jade Empire eventually came to PC. One of the editors at Gamespy or Gamespot (forgot which) in a Mass Effect preview mentioned something about "If we could only get them to commit to a PC release date". To me that sounds that it WILL come, they just don't know when. Don't know if that's wishful thinking though, or if the editor had inside information they "accidentally" let slip.

      --

      Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die

  5. If I were you... by fistfullast33l · · Score: 1, Troll

    I'd buy a couple just in case.

    1. Re:If I were you... by DeepCerulean · · Score: 1

      Meh...mine died for the first time last month. It was two weeks from the time I got off the phone w/ tech support to the time I was playing again. They sent a replacement (refurbished, I imagine) to significantly cut down on the turn around time. I was impressed since the CSR told me it would be more than a month.

    2. Re:If I were you... by EveryNickIsTaken · · Score: 1

      Which would still be cheaper than buying a PS3, Sony Fanboy.

    3. Re:If I were you... by Devir · · Score: 0, Troll

      The time you save not needing to replace a burned out PS3 every month more than beats the cost difference of an Xbox 360.

      Once MS fixes that tiny overheating issue i'll buy a 360. For now i'll enjoy Suduko on my PS3.

    4. Re:If I were you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bwa ha ha. I find it funny to watch the 360 fanboys troll anyone who points out their console's flaws.

      That's funny.

    5. Re:If I were you... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I find it funny to watch the 360 fanboys troll anyone who points out their console's flaws.
      I find it funny to watch the PS3 fanboys troll anyone who points out their console's flaws.
      I find it funny to watch the Wii fanboys troll anyone who points out their console's flaws.

      They're all equally true. And you're obviously covered by at least one of them.

    6. Re:If I were you... by dintech · · Score: 1

      For now i'll enjoy Suduko on my PS3.

      Ah, finally the coveted killer app for the cell processor.`

  6. PC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wake me up when it's out for PC.

  7. Lemme just say... by Quiet_Desperation · · Score: 1

    I hate Microsoft OSes and Office apps, and pretty much everything about them.

    I am a total Mac head.

    But I loves me my XBox 360.

    That must say something good about the thing. Yes? Maybe? Or not? Never mind. (kicks pebble)

  8. Trivial? by qzak · · Score: 1

    A. Why are there so many articles lately about really trivial things like a game being "almost done" or a release date announced? The best discussion here is about the Packers. B. GO PACK GO!!!!!! (long-displaced Appleton native)

  9. Troll? by Devir · · Score: 1

    The overheating red light of a dead 360 is a fact. It happens, alot. It's a waste of time to ship it out and wait for a replacement.

    I own a PS3, I play Suduko on it alot. It may not be some triple A game, nor the most spectacular game on the face of the planet, but I enjoy it and it's on the PS3.

    It's also a fact there is pretty much NOTHING exciting for games out on the PS3 currently. The Darkness, and Oblivion are possibly the best 2. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is a rehash (damn good looking one) of an Xbox game that I beat many times over.

    Oh, the game other than Suduko that gets most play on the PS3... Persona 3, yeah a PS2 game.

    I was far from trolling, I was stating facts, and my honest plans to bide time till the 360 design flaws are hashed out.

  10. I am alone here? by popo · · Score: 1

    This seems to be a somewhat contrarian opinion, but as a major fan of BioWare's earlier works -- I thought KOTOR and KOTOR2 were both incredibly weak games. Neither game had anywhere near the depth or complexity I had become used to in previous titles (And BioWare does "complexity" better than most -- at least they used to...) I'd love to see a serious open-ended space RPG. But I'm just not sure that Mass Effect will be anywhere close to being one. I thought KOTOR was far, far too easy and really didn't have much in the way of exploration or options. I hope I'm pleasantly surprised. (Of course, I will be buying it because I'm a sucker for just about anything RPG. But the trend of late, is to dumb down games for the console crowd. Just look at Morrowind vs. it's prettier, stupider cousin Oblivion).

    I just hope the serious gaming companies (BioWare is one I respect) continue to respect depth over eye-candy.

    --
    ------ The best brain training is now totally free : )