As if it wasn't already self evident, the lion's share of the work has clearly been on ME1. Whereas all the ME2 & 3 shots just look like they've had the textures upscales, the ME1 stuff looks like it's been rebuilt from the ground up and had additions on top of what's already there. Just look at Ash in the thumbnail: they've clearly made slightly different choices in how her helmet is painted; The dark grey section of the helmet's chin-guard is broken up by a lighter section at the ends, the light grey channels flanking the central pink stripe appear to have been whited out, and the ribbing of the undersuit around the neck and collar appears to have been rebuilt from scratch to appear a lot less chaotic. I also noted there actually some very clear additions to the scene with Saren on Virmire: trees and some kind of awning in the background. That may have just been done to help better fill the frame of that one notable cutscene, but other footage released of that level suggests the scenery additions are across the whole level, and presumably the entire game! All that said, the latter two games have clearly had *some* custom attention. While Liara looks almost identical, Zaeed on the other hand looks like some of his textures weren't upscales so much as remade (the dirt textures are the giveaway.) Which makes sense. AI has trouble coping where there's a lot of noise, not quite being able to distinguish from what needs filtering out and what is actually supposed to be there. Supposedly there's been some chatter about easter eggs planted in the first game in particular. I'm guessing it's just going to be cute stuff buried in the codex or planet descriptions. Though I suppose it's also possible we'll get things like random female Turian NPCs in the first two games, maybe have the slightly altered beacon vision (featuring Prothean husks/collectors) seen in ME2 used in ME1 too, and perhaps actual Prothean corpses on Ilos.
ME2 seems to also have some lighting and shadow fixes. In various parts of the original release of the game (on characters), the shadows and lighting looked atrocious. But yes, majority of the work was done on ME1 and ME2 and 3 seem to have gotten more texture upscaling and some retouching overall. They did want to bring a bit more RPG elements into ME2 and 3 if I'm not mistaken, but not sure.
Hmm, it feels like they removed some of the atmospheric lighting in certain scenes. I much prefer the lighting in the original version of Ashley's scene for instance. Maybe it will look better in motion, but it appears so flat now. Uniform lighting is not always possible in the real world. The fight scene between Saren also looks rather flat and much duller. Also not a big fan of Femshep's supermodel look.
Honestly, now that we know this isn't just a lazy upscale & reissue, the UI and menu changes throughout the trilogy may be the thing I'm most curious about. For instance; I'd like to see the ME3 workbench interface backported into ME2 to replace that rather dull and awkward list setup. It's not just that scene; they've altered the lighting design or the whole level by switching the position of the sun so that it's behind Soverign when it left off, instead of at Shepards back at the drop point. Still, I rather think the thing that really makes the difference is that shot of Ashley is the addition of DOF. And yeah, I've never been sold on the execution of the default Shepard. Honestly, I would have rather they had gone out and cast a face model that matched the concept art people voted for rather than try and construct it from scratch. As improved as it is, you can still tell there's something out of place about it when compared to the default maleShep. Indeed I was so dissatisfied I went and did this instead. Spoiler: my attempt at default femshep Like I said before though, the reason I'm actually excited about this is the larger implication that the faces will be consistent between games. As you can see, even using the same facecode between all three games (yes, you can reverse engineer facecodes for ME1 if you know how) they only barely resemble one another. I imagine she'll be among the custom presets, because that that's all she ever really was.
^I think I read somewhere that they were keeping the original look in there. I wonder if they'll fix the Conrad Verner flags bug, or leave it in as a "people expect this to happen" situation (otherwise, they'll have to fix the ME3 assignment too!)
Yeah, I couldn't pinpoint why it felt off, but I believe you're right. The original game was all about recreating a 70's style sci-fi atmosphere complete with film grain, and the new lighting removes much of the feeling, grit and artistic vision. This is what I feel is wrong with a lot of remasters. They think they're cleaning things up, but they often go too far and change integral parts from the original visions. What I see in that new Ashley scene is a glossy looking expressionless model just staring straight ahead. The original on the left conveys surprise and wonder at what they're seeing, and they aren't looking straight at the camera like the one on the right. I never really got the complaints about the faces not looking right in the sequel. The game even explained that it was a visual reconstruction based on the data they had received and wasn't meant to look perfect, given what happens to Shep between the two games.
Oh man, that looks amazing! Memories are coming back - me packing up my laptop to the hospital to play ME2 when i had my tonsils removed, playing ME1 completely through on XBox at a friends place, getting sad at certain story elements throughout the series and going hell yeah in ME3 when the full fleet assembles to fight the Reapers. How Hollywood is not able to turn this at least into a trilogy is an eternal shame - they are quick to throw around hundreds of millions on crap young adult franchises when this one is a sure hit if properly funded and written/produced ( there may lie the catch). Anyway, i'll soon get to enjoy this awesome epic again and can take full advantage of the upgraded graphics with my new PC.
If they were to do a ME movie, I'd actually rather get a completely original story set in the ME universe rather than a direct adaptation of the games. The games are cinematic enough that direct adaptations just feel unnecessary.
Pretty much. It's the same reason why it's never wise to try and remake a good movie; the bar is already set so high it's just setting itself up for failure. Also, Mass Effect as a narrative wasn't designed for a two hour, three act structure. You'd have to cut whole swaths of the story out, alter some characters beyond recognition and get only the most superficial, surface level sense of the larger world building. I remember having this discussion on the old defunct Bioware Social Forums back in the day and I concluded that at the absolute minimum you're looking at combining Ash & Kaiden into one character, probably the same for Tali & Liara, reducing Wrex and Garrus to glorified extras (if not cutting them entirely), loosing most of the act one Citadel, all of Feros & Novaria and just have Virmire take up the entire second act before a quick trip to Iilos before Citadel finale. It'd be barely recognisable and have next to no room for character and story. All action, all plot, no depth. It's be even more drastic for ME2, and ME3 would just be ridiculously unwieldy.
I realise this is only tangentially relevant to the topic, but it didn't seem worth started a new thread just to say Bioware are unsurprisingly abandoning it's overhaul of Anthem so they can focus on developing the new Mass Effect & Dragon Age titles. I feel a little bit bad for anyone that stuck with the game this long, but honestly the writing's been on the wall for this one for quite some time. Never played it myself as the clearly staged "vertical slice gameplay" demo way back when completely put me off for a number of reasons, and nothing I've heard about it since has made me curious enough to actually part with money for it.
Honestly I'm kind of amazed it took them this long to pull the plug. Prior to this announcement, I figured that if they had already invested this much time and resources into the overhaul that it'd definitely be finished. Cutting their losses this late in the process must mean they didn't get the update anywhere near where it needed to be to make the live service viable. On the plus side this (and Jedi: Fallen Order) seems to have finally gotten the message through to EA that well crafted singleplayer experiences are still very much in demand and live service isn't the be-all and end-all for modern videogames. Word is that Bioware have now been "allowed" to remove the previously mandated live service aspects from DA4 (and presumably ME5.) The only time that worked with these games was ME3, because 1) it actually complimented the SP experience rather neatly and 2) it got consistent support and significant updates for the first entire year of release (and as a result, it still reasonably active 8 years later!) Inquisition's multiplayer went along similar lines, but less so on both counts. There was some post launch support, but ultimately not enough variety in terms of characters and and without that vital replayablility, it pretty much died on the vine. And of course there was Andromeda that tried to replicate ME3MP's success (and could have done it, given the improved combat gameplay mechanics) but when they pulled the plug on further support, it again died on the vine. But that's MEA all over!
A lot more specifics on what's been changed, or rather "calibrated" has been released. Mostly just elaborating on what's already been announced, but there's also some new screenshots (including of the revamped CC) and a new comparison video with some actual in-game footage via IGN (posted below.) I like that the DLC packs are being more organically integrated into the body of the games. I certainly won't miss the tirade of "hey you got some stuff!" emails at the start of a playthough. Enemy AI in ME1 still looks a bit janky, but still way better than it was. They're clearly taking some of the lessons learned from the Nomad and applying them to the Mako (including the speed boost!) though still no word yet on the Hammerhead. I like that the Thresher Maw vs. Mako fights actually have some mechanics to them now so you're not just blinding driving around in circles, hoping not to be one-shotted when it pops back up. Looks like the casualwear options have gotten some attention too (fingers crossed for the N7 leather jacket for femshep!)
ETA: Is it weird that while I'm most looking forward to playing a remastered ME1, the thing I find I'm wondering about the most is how the story based DLC will be handled in ME2 & especially ME3? Both The Shadow Broker and Omega DLCs were (greatly) expanded versions of missions that were scooped out of the main game before launch and the interface between the "vanilla" missions and DLC wasn't exactly smooth. For example, with Shadow Broker, you could just go up to Liara and start the DLC, skipp that while side quest where you're tracking down the mole. And the Omega DLC meant that you got two nearly identical emails from Aria that both basically said "come meet me on the Citadel", while I'm sure meant that some newer players went and liberated Omega WAY sooner than they probably should have in story terms. I wonder if they'll change it so for example the Shadow Broker intel email from TIM only drops AFTER you've helped Liara with her little side mission, or at least spoken to her once and left Nos Astra. For Omega, I think it'd be best if it doesn't unlock until again, you've 1) done the citadel sidequest with all the merc groups, and 2) gotten to the second act of the game (post coup attempt.) Similarly I feel like the Citadel DLC should wait until you've done the whole Rannoch campaign. Makes the idea that the ship needs an overhaul and the crew needs shore leave a little bit more credible. Leviathan feels a but tricky since you could just blow through the whole thing right from the off. I wonder if they could introduce a similar "mission on hold" mechanic to Andromeda where the next section of an ongoing thread won't progress until you reach a certain point? That way Leviathan is spread over the course of the entire game. Fingers crossed for cardboard!