Last week BioWare demoed a short 15-minute sampler of Mass Effect 2 at gamescom, and the overall impact of the game is hugely positive, with a far more confident and impressive implementation of the Unreal Engine 3 technology in place. The litany of technical issues found in the Xbox 360 version of the original game is expansive. For instance, the game had clear texture-streaming issues whereby gameplay would slow down or even freeze when the DVD drive was unable to keep up with the demand for new data - an issue that an NXE hard disk install would only marginally improve. There was also the sense that original Mass Effect was somewhat too ambitious for the Unreal Engine 3 technology that powered it, with some serious frame-rate issues both in the cinematics and during gameplay. "The nice thing about it, and why we've really been able to advance it so much is that we had the existing game, so we knew where we needed to fix it," BioWare's Heather Rabatich told me at gamescom. "The guys on the dev team made a list of everything they wanted to improve and they just sort of checked it off: the elevator loads, the texture pop-in... you can see the advances in the visuals." Indeed you can. It was the Xbox 360 version that was on display at the convention, and in both the role-playing and shooting sections there was very little discernible evidence of any kind of texture streaming problems. Resolution was definitely locked at 720p, and while just about all the LCDs in use at gamescom were very badly calibrated (with ultra-harsh contrast making analysis difficult) it does appear that Mass Effect 2 features 2x MSAA anti-aliasing too. Over and above that, the game is v-synced, which can impact frame-rate at times, but this only seemed to be noticeable during the cinematics, and even then, it was still a big improvement over the first game. The boost to performance during gameplay is also especially impressive bearing in mind that BioWare is intent on giving these sections more of an action bias, with a definite emphasis on making it a credible shooter. More bling and more bangs usually entails a bigger load on the engine, but once again, ME2 acquits itself very well indeed. As for the elevator loading sections... yes, they're still there, but they're clearly quicker than they were in the first game, with a computer-style series of vector images displaying your ascent (and presumably, descent), helping to make the wait more bearable. The overall sensation - certainly in the demo we were shown - is that the whole process is a lot less painful this time around. http://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry
LOL no unreal engine 3 game has lighting as good as this 2004 unreal engine 3 techdemo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m7T5ay_8DI What a joke doom3 engine>unreal engine 3
That's good to know, but have they improved the characters, roleplaying and sidequest design? They haven't mentioned anything about those at all, and they're the only things I particularly care about - the original game was technically fine, imo.
Woah, seriously? Have you played Gears of War or Mass Effect? The Unreal 3 engine is spectacular. Especially it's dynamically changing details at different distances. Remember Oblivion's approach to this? There were large grids that were either fully loaded, or horribly barren. The Unreal 3 engine micromanages details as the draw distances increase. This not only provides much better visuals all around (especially up close), but it also gives unlimited draw distances...
That was a rather large issue with the first Mass Effect. This is great news to hear.LTomlinson21
Yeah, the texture pop-in was annoying on the 360 version. I kept thinking, why don't they just keep the screen black for one extra second after loading everything? That would've fixed the problem. But I'm glad that 360 owners can get the great experience without the distractions this time around. And I thoroughly enjoyed it on the 360, despite the occasional texture pop-in.
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