In July, several gaming outlets reported on a demo of BioWare and Microsoft’s epic sci-fi role-playing-game “Mass Effect” that left onlookers stunned.
It was an interactive story sequence featuring a major supporting character and the game’s hero. IGN wrote:
Wrex is a Krogan, a powerful race on the verge of extinction. A few hours after joining up with your party, Wrex and our hero, Commander Shepard, have a disagreement. The potential results of this conflict left everyone in the room stunned. If we ever had doubt about Mass Effect, it was wiped away at E3.
To illustrate a piece I just did for MTV News.com about how BioWare gave such scenes their cinematic punch — which basically involves the Canadian studio’s clever decision to hire some of the world’s best machinima-makers — Microsoft is allowing me to be the first to air that scene.
Watched it once? Good. Now read on to sea how BioWare lead cinematic director Ken Thain explain his thinking behind the scene’s key shots.Notes on the Wrex scene from BioWare’s Ken Thain:In the first dialog with Captain Kirrahe we began building tension for the upcoming confrontation by having Wrex step into the conversation when the Krogans are mentioned. We brought the tension to a head with an extreme side-angle shot of Wrex facing off with Captain Kirrahe. The shot is unlike any other in the dialog; its composition really screams conflict.After Wrex storms off, we focused on the digital acting by holding a single shot while the squad discusses how to diffuse the situation. By switching the player’s focus to the relationship of the characters, we allow some of the tension to fade away so we can start ramping it up again with the next conversation. For the confrontation with Wrex, we wanted to slowly build the tension to the extreme over the duration of the conversation. Shepard initiates the dialog from a distance as Wrex is staring angrily into the distance. As the conversation heats up, the actors move closer, and low angle cameras visually represent the struggle for dominance. Just when the two can’t get any closer, they pull weapons on each other, sending the tension through the roof. The player is now dramatically engaged and has a tough choice to make. Wrex is a very strong and useful party member, but he has a shotgun in your face. What would you do?For more “Mass Effect,” check out our earlier coverage.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:06 pm
November 24th can’t come soon enough for me. This is the exactly sort of quality that I was hoping they’d put into Mass Effect’s dialogue sequences. While I’m sure that every interaction doesn’t have this sort of Sidney Lumet quality dedication to angle and distance of shot, it’s good to know that they’re spending the time on the conversations that matter. KotOR’s top-of-my-list spot has been challenged once already this year, by Bioshock, will Mass Effect see it unseated once and for all?
September 27th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
[...] gaming blog Multiplayer just posted an exclusive and very awesome video of the upcoming contender for game of the year Mass [...]
September 28th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I know I can’t be the first to bring this up, but is there no way to make these videos accessible to people outside the US. Gamers exist in out countries too
September 28th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
[...] world gush about Mass Effect. It was this piece of in game footage that made everyone believers. Stephen Totilo from MTV’s ‘Multiplayer’ blog gives us the good word on what makes this so [...]
September 28th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
While I haven’t had the chance to checkout Mass Effect first hand, I have hope Bioware gets their form of story telling a little more grounded than its been in the last few titles out of that studio.
What am I speaking of? Good question.
It seems Bioware sometimes miss the mark on the pace of a conversation reflecting the pace of the setting. For example, take the start of KotR. You wake up, with no idea who or where you are, and find out that the ship you’re on is under heavy attack. You leave your quarters and run into someone you can speak to. A list of dialog options come up and this crew member you’re speaking to has a bag full of information for you - which is great. However, the ship is under ATTACK and everyone on board runs the risk of being KILLED at this time. Why would some random crew member want to give me such info in such a moment of panic?
Another example, Jade Empire. Your village is under attack and your tribes people (what ever they are) are being wiped out. In order to combat the bad guys, you need to arm yourself. You’re told to head over to the weapons shop and get your weapon for action-awesomeness. The whole pace up to this point was fantastic… then the weapon smith wants to give me this deep dialog about where the weapon is from, the history of it, etc. “Hey, OUR village is under attack and I need to kick some ass RIGHT NOW. I’ll come learn about this weapon later,” but that’s not an option in the dialog tree.
I can go on and on about moments in Bioware games where dialog pace just didn’t match the pace of the setting but what does it all matter? If the formula for your game sells millions, it obviously works.
September 29th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
The graphics on this game sucks. Really bad.
Waiting for Uncharted to show some decent next gen graphics.
September 29th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
WTF, Real Snake?
How can you say this game’s graphic suck? Do you have eyes? This game has the best graphics of any game other than Gears of War, IMO.
Certainly the best graphics of any RPG ever created. That’s right, Mass Effect is an RPG, Uncharted is not, don’t even try to compare the two games.
I have no doubt in my mind this game will beat Uncharted 10 times over in reviews and game of the year awards. Uncharted is crap compared to a game of this size(both length and quality).
Mass Effect, game of the year! No, seriously.
September 29th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
The 360 graphics are stagnated. Orange Box uses 92% of the console’s power, and is just incredibly f—in terrible. No way they can make more than gears of war on it. A 2006 game that’s just 100% of the console.
Shame on you Microsoft
Cell is the future in gaming history
September 29th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Real snake stop crying about that, go buy a 360 and stick you ps3 up in your ASS!
September 29th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Cry is free!
September 30th, 2007 at 1:57 am
It’s too bad Real Snake bought a PS3 “and” became a fanboy, he could have just bought both systems and been happy, but no, fanboyism had to corrupt him.
Mass Effect WILL rock, but because he bought a PS3, he’ll never admit it. I’ll just laugh at him as the reviews for this game rocket, no one should ever align themselves with a single console, it just shows they’re ignorance.
Oh well, I’ll have the game of the year in my hands(Mass Effect, duh) while Real Snake gets to sit in the corner and make empty insults at it. All because of blind fanboyism.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
whatever happened to playing a game because it is fun? or maybe because the story is worth seeing? both of you sound like sony and microsoft advertisers. remember that sony is the kind of company that edits wikipedia articles that are critical of them (not that microsoft wouldnt love to). Real Snake probably *IS* from sony!
who cares about brand loyalty, just play good games, have fun and just chill. i’ll never understand why people take things so seriously. its a GAME for god’s sake! its meant to be played! this is supposed to be a place to discuss the game, not whose console has more hypothetical bandwidth. go take it to a forum and flame about it there.
October 12th, 2007 at 6:35 am
The game is A nuclear bomb, run owners of ps3 RUN!
October 15th, 2007 at 2:11 am
I Own all 3 systems ,I have never seen anything like this ! I went out and prepurchased my copy The very same day .
December 30th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
The graphics are ok i guess… models are a bit wooden for my taste, and the concepts are terrible… the dialogue is poorly written, the voice actors are bad… how is this cinematic? Look at this and then watch a HL2 cut scene… this is poor…
January 4th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
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