Microsoft ayant décidés qu'ils savaient mieux que nous et la majorité de la presse mondiale de ce qu'il était le mieux de faire pour parler de Mass Effect, à savoir nous limiter à 4 vidéos d'une minute chacune maximum et 10 images, nous n'avons pas vraiment d'autre choix que de vous demander d'attendre jusqu'à vendredi pour en découvrir nos habituelles vidéos, et nous en sommes les premiers désolés.
Oui nous sommes au courant que certains sites n'ont pas eu les même restrictions que nous, mais c'est maintenant une habitude.
MAJ: On vous propose quand même de lire cette interview qui nous a été envoyée comme habituellement par XCN.
GamerSyde - Will
you start working on Mass Effect 2 right after this, or will you develop
other games between the trilogy parts?
We’re not quite ready to discuss
our plans for the sequels, but we are working on Xbox Live content that
will be available between each of the main games, allowing players to
continue their Mass Effect experience even after they’ve completed
the game. We will reveal more plans for the series at a later
date.
The option of handling
things exactly the way you want was the key to success in your previous
games, Star Wars: KOTOR and Jade Empire. In the past you said that you
wanted to take this even further in Mass Effect. How do you plan to
do that? How do you plan to match your own previous successes?
The Mass Effect team designed the
game to provide the player as much freedom as possible. There are a
vast number of plots to follow, stories to uncover and planets or exotic
locations to discover. Mass Effect allows players to make dialog
choices and get different weapons, powers or abilities to master…
It goes on and on. Basically the Mass Effect team has filled the game
with as much player choice as possible and we feel that the more choices
we offer, the more players will enjoy the game.
Besides the main
genre of Mass Effect being a Role Playing Game, the other big part of
the game exists out of being a shooter.
Has it been difficult to balance both aspects?
It was challenging to balance both
elements but the hard work has paid off, and the result is what we believe
is the best BioWare game we’ve made thus far. It was a fine balance
of making the combat engaging and challenging without alienating hardcore
RPGers. We also focused on keeping the story and dialog vibrant
so as not to turn off the hardcore shooter fans. In the end, the team
has taken the very best from both worlds and combined them to create
BioWare’s best game to date.
Characters play
a big role in RPG's, as you have proved with KOTOR and Jade Empire too.
What is the process of designing the characters and then figuring out
how they will relate to each other?
Fortunately, we have a very talented
and experienced Lead Writer named Drew Karpyshyn and Preston Watamaniuk
as Lead Designer who both worked on KotOR. With Mass Effect, they’ve
really created some of our most memorable characters to date. The team
comes up with ideas for cool and interesting characters and then works
out how they would fit into the overall story of the game. Some characters
stay the same, some are changed, and some are discarded in favour of
better concepts. The most important things to keep in mind are how will
a specific character fit into the overall story of the game and how
will they be memorable. The team has done an exceptional job in both
regards.
The HK-47 droid
in KOTOR was applauded by many and is one of gaming's greatest characters;
will Mass Effect introduce us to a similar character that we can love
or hate?
There are many characters in Mass Effect
that we think the fans are really going to enjoy. One of the team’s
favourites is Urdnot Wrex, who is a Krogan bounty hunter. The krogan
are an extremely tough reptilian race and are very aggressive beings
who like to express their anger through hostility. Wrex has some great
one liners throughout the game and he wields a mean shotgun.
Can you tell us
a little about the character creation process, we know you can edit
the face shape, eyes, skin tone and hair, but how in depth will it be?
It is the most in-depth character customization
of any game that BioWare has made to date. There are potentially millions
of different facial combinations that can be created, from obvious details
like skin tone and hair style, down to the smallest of details like
how far apart the eyes are set or how narrow the lips are. The team
worked very hard to allow the player to truly make the Commander Shepard
they wanted to play.
With the KOTOR games
you had a huge recognizable licence to fall back on, do you think it's
going to be hard selling Mass Effect, which is a new IP to the masses
of casual gamers?
We had a great time making KotOR, but
we think that we have done an excellent job creating the Mass Effect
universe. While we have a tremendous respect for the Star Wars franchise,
working on our own IP (Intellectual Property) has allowed us the freedom
to create our own universe, with unique places to explore and creative
characters. The team has come up with an excellent third party tactical
combat system and wrapped it with what we feel is the best story that
BioWare has made to date. The combination of the real time combat and
the deep, rich story and characters has made Mass Effect the best game
we’ve made so far. We’re confident the fans will agree.
Has it been challenging
developing for the Xbox 360?
Mass Effect is the first game that
BioWare has made for the Xbox 360, so there was a natural initial learning
curve at the start of the project. The tools and programming teams at
BioWare are some pretty smart people and the good folks at Microsoft
have been very helpful and supportive, so things went along very smoothly
for our first effort.
Kotor can be considered
the father of Mass Effect. How much of Kotor's soul is in the game?
Mass Effect contains much of the
same spirit that Knights of the Old Republic does. They are both full
of richly created stories and characters, they both have emotional and
powerful moments in the games and they are both incredibly fun to play.
The one area of Mass Effect that is noticeably different is the strong
cinematic presentation and the new tactical third party combat, which
employs a new “Power Wheel” and “Combat Wheel” interface, allowing
a greater degree of control over your fights.
In Kotor one very
important thing was the character's alignment (light side or black side).
Does Mass Effect feature this system? And eventually does it evolve
this system?
Mass Effect does have an alignment
system, but it’s much more sophisticated than the light side vs. dark
side system of KotOR. In Mass Effect, you’ll be faced with a lot of
morally challenging decisions with many “shades of grey.” For Mass
Effect we created the Paragon/Renegade system. Unlike KotOR which was
almost like a seesaw where one big dark side decision could balance
out two minor light side choices, the paragon and renegade system keeps
track of both positive and negative choices made. Based on the choices
made, the player will have different dialog options or different plot-lines
will become available. This system will eventually even affect the
different endings to the game.
We know that the
player will be able to edit character appearance details, but will your
character change appearance through the game (i.e. new clothing, equipment,
facial changes etc)?
There are many different sets of
armour and different types of weapons, each with subtle differences
that can be found, looted or purchased as you play through Mass Effect.
Within the class
selection, which class do you enjoy to play the most, and why? How many
different classes and ability sets are there in Mass Effect?
There are 6 classes to choose from
in Mass Effect. They are:
- The soldier who specializes
in all forms of weapons and armour
- The engineer who uses technical
abilities and the omni tool to disrupt opponent’s shields or reprogram
enemy robots to work on your side
- The adept who wields biotic
powers that can raise an opponent into the air and slam them down or
create a singularity effect in midair that whirls enemies and objects
around like a tornado of destruction
- The infiltrator who combines
the omni tool’s technical powers and the sniper rifle skill to be
a stealth specialist
- The vanguard who blends
biotic powers and shotgun skills with devastating effect
- The sentinel who combines
the omni tool and biotic powers to be a healer and killer all at once.
Which one is better? That would
be up to the tastes of the individual player.
How many quests
on average are on a single "story based" planet, and will
those quests require you to explore other planets or are most of them
self contained on that one planet?
It really differs from planet to
planet. There will be some that only have one or two; there will be
some with a dozen or more. Some of the plots will be contained on one
planet; some will require you to visit multiple planets or locations
in order to complete them.
Now that you have
an engine how long would it be before we can expect the sequels given
the absolute MASSIVE amounts of art in this game? Annually, Bi-annually?
The team is already working on
Xbox Live downloadable content that should be ready in the near future.
We are very committed to the series but we haven’t yet announced the
timing of any future releases in the series.
Will there be any
grinding in the game (forced levelling up to beat specific enemies),
or will the game scale in difficulty based on the players level?
There really isn’t any “grinding”
in Mass Effect. The difficulty scales up to the level of the player
perfectly. We do have adjustable difficulties in the options screen
for those players who want things to be harder or easier, but the game
instinctively keeps things challenging and fun as you play.
How many different
races will be in the game?
Quite a lot. There are some races
that play larger roles than others, such as humans, quarians, turians,
asari and krogans, but you will see many others like the hanar, the
volus, the elcor and more. And, of course, you will be frequently encountering
the geth. They play a pretty important role in Mass Effect.
How many planets
will it be possible to explore?
There are tons of planets within
Mass Effect, and literally hundreds of locations to explore. Some planets
you will visit will be lifeless husks, or inhospitable to the point
of being deadly to set foot on. Others, you will scan with your ship
to recover rare minerals or exotic gasses. And still others, will allow
you to land and explore on foot or in the MAKO.
How many vehicles
will be playable?
You get to explore the galaxy in
the Normandy, which is a specialized stealth and reconnaissance craft
that will get you into and out of some pretty tricky places. And while
you are exploring on some planets you will be able to drive around in
the MAKO, which is a cross between a futuristic all terrain vehicle
and a tank.
Will we be able
to freely visit planets already visited in the past? If yes, the enemies
that we'll encounter will be levelled to our skills (like Oblivion)?
You can return to any planet you
have visited (unless there is a good story reason for not doing so),
but usually once you have defeated the enemies on the planet, they will
stay away in the future. You will not be able to return to planets just
to fight easy enemies over and over to rack up experience points.
BioWare prefers to keep things moving with cool stories and plots to
engage the players.
Will there be Easter
Eggs and other secrets to find on the planets? Could you give us an
idea of anything cool we might accidentally run across?
We don’t want to ruin any surprises,
but there are all sorts of cool things to encounter or unearth while
you play through Mass effect. There are hidden plots or stories that
can only be discovered by exploring the galaxy. There is also a sort
of minigame where you have to scan planets or discover hidden asteroids
in space or sites. As part of this minigame you need to scan planets
for rare metals, gasses and lost objects to collect experience and cash
rewards. Not to mention encountering hidden enemies or rare species,
such as space monkeys.
How much will the
choices made in creating our character will affect the story progression?
The background you choose for your
Commander Shepard will affect dialogue choices and how other characters
react to you throughout the game. Characters you meet will actually
make references to your specific origin and psychological profile.
It’s fun to replay the game with a different background just to see
how unique each play-through can be.
When playing KOTOR,
all we had was access to a tiny part of each planet, like a small village
or a temple, not the whole thing. How is Mass Effect
going to improve upon this?
The planets you can explore in
Mass Effect are much larger than in KotOR. How much more, well let’s
just say that we thought they were so large that we gave you a vehicle
to get around on them. That is part of the reason that the player has
the all terrain combat vehicle, the MAKO (the other being that sometimes
you will need a tank to combat enemies).
Will Mass Effect
have various 'flavours' of ending depending on decisions made throughout
the game?
We don’t want to give away story-type
spoilers, but I can say there is more than one way to finish the game.
What will happen
when you die in game? Do you have to just start from your last save
point or it is somehow explained (for example cloning)?
If Commander Shepard dies in the
game, or I should say WHEN Commander Shepard dies in the game, you have
to load a saved game to continue. There are many auto-save points in
the game to help players who forget to make saves on their own.
What influences
did you draw on when designing the multitude of planets
and star systems in Mass Effect?
It was a combination of classic
works of Science Fiction from movies, books and art as well as real
world astronomy. You will see some examples of “real” astronomy
in the game, such as the Horse-Head Nebula, but much of it comes from
the creative imaginations of the art team.
Mass Effect will
take on a more action orientated take on the RPG formula. This is both
bold and interesting. Aren't you afraid it will put classic RPG fans
off?
Even though Mass Effect does feature
a new system of real time, tactical third person party combat, it is
still offers a deep and rich role playing experience at its core, probably
the best we have ever made at BioWare. We know some people may be a
little leery of the new combat, but it is a system that people can learn
quickly and will soon realize that it is a lot of fun. When you combine
a an engaging combat system with a quality story and the compelling
dialog in Mass Effect, it’s hard not to be confident that those who
purchase Mass Effect are going to really enjoy themselves.
Tous les commentaires (72)
(désolé d'avance de ne pas être au courant et vivement vendredi)
C'est bizarre cette attitude vis a vis de gamersyde, une idée? le concept 10 premieres minutes qui passe pas pour les editeurs?
enfin, pas bien grave... On en sait deja pas mal sur celui la, et le jeu sort tres tres bientot maintenant
C'est bizarre cette attitude vis a vis de gamersyde, une idée? le concept 10 premieres minutes qui passe pas pour les editeurs?
enfin, pas bien grave... On en sait deja pas mal sur celui la, et le jeu sort tres tres bientot maintenant
On peut en parler oui, c'est un excellent et magnifique jeu mais franchement j'ai pas envie de me prendre la tête à pondre quelques paragraphes.
les adjectifs "excellent et magnifique" suffisent je pense à convaincre!
Après le coup d'Halo 3 (qu'on a eu la veille de la sortie officielle, sachant que les magasins l'avait reçu une semane avant), ça commence à devenir un peu lourd...
Mais a la place de ca ils vont s'attirer les "foudres" de vous specialiste forcement frustrer,c'est completement idiot.
Edit : et je suis possesseur d'une 360 mais il faut dire ce qui est vrai ...
J'attendais les premières vidéos de la VF pour me décider de le prendre en import ou non... Ben heu... elle est bien la VF ? :)
(à moins que vous soyez sur la VO)
Que ce soit les pubs...mal faites et quasi inexistante, le positionnement tarifaire du hard, du soft et du live, la communication générale TOUT EST A REVOIR !!!
MS pourrait dominer le marché à l'aise mais au lieu de ca ils s'embourbent....
Les concurents sont à ce niveaux là bien meilleurs.
De ce coté là les premiers servie son toujours les "officiels"
Ca à toujours été comme ca je vois pas pourquoi ca changerai.
Le jeu sort Vendredi, donc patience sérieux, mais maintenant c'est la mode de tout savoir avant même la sortie du jeu.
Perso, je trouve que cette restrictions est bonne, vue que Masse Effect est un jeu très scénarisé au moins pas de spoiler d'aucune sorte.
Je précise que bien entendu, je ne parle pas de Gamersyde qui ne met jamais de vidéo ultra "spoileuse" mais c'est le cas d'autres sites et que après, il y a toujours des petits malins qui crache des joli spoiler de ouf sur les forums...
bref rien ne sert de courir les gars...
Surtout que MS nous a aussi fourni une liste de choses à ne pas révéler sur l'histoire...
Mais bon, je pense que tous ici, qui attendent Mass Effect, n'auraient pas du tout regarder les vidéos... enfin moi en tout cas c'est ce que j'aurai fait... donc je sais pas si cela pose vraiment un gros préjudice.
C'est pas comme si c'etait des vidéos de Ace Combat 6 ou autres, car Mass Effect est un jeu méga scénarisé et qui ce déguste.
Donc oué, autant pas en faire.
Quand au positionnement du reste, je vois pas trop le problème, mais on commence à avoir l'habitude de vous vouloir gueuler pour rien :D