Mass Effect 2 to be less bare than original

News Portal · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 12:39 am

Mass Effect 2 has a heck of a lot to live up to, but also to improve on. One of the most common criticisms of the original game was a complaint about the arguably dull interiors - lots of long, empty corridors and repetitive furnishings.

The sequel looks set to address that complaint, with early screens and previews indicating a marked improvement - and the recent announcement of BioWare's adaption of the latest Umbra technology.

Read full article by Brenna Hillier

frosty-theaussie · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 12:48 am

They've been given the technology and "free reign", but that still doesn't mean they'll actually bother. No number of additional polygons will make Subject Zero sufficiently edgy for Bioware. Maybe they can get her to sing some Marilyn Manson.

Bronze_D · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 12:51 am

but logically you wouldn't announce such thing then if you won't bother to use it since such announcement naturally carries with it the obvious expectation from the audience who heard it and the natural backlash that will come with it if the expectation is not met.

surely their PR have the brain to simply NOT announce such thing otherwise considering the risk involved.

frosty-theaussie · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 12:56 am

Bronze_D wrote:

but logically you wouldn't announce such thing then if you won't bother to use it since such announcement naturally carries with it the obvious expectation from the audience who heard it and the natural backlash that will come with it if the expectation is not met.

surely their PR have the brain to simply NOT announce such thing otherwise considering the risk involved.

What risk? All that has been announced is that they are licensing Umbra's occulsion culling tech.

XRogerMellieX · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 1:14 am

lol at frosty's subject zero comment.

The interiors in the original were bland, and speaking purely as a front-end user I would expect them to have improved the visuals simply because it's a sequel. Popular franchises like this have to up the ante to keep shifting mountains of units.

Erratum · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 1:52 am

Yeah, I know I read Umbra wrong, but it was what popped into my mind when I read it :roll:

EDIT: Fail, photobucket sucks... :2gunsfiring_v1:

Mr_Cyberpunk · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 8:06 am

Quote:

For the techy types, Umbra is a "GPU based, visibility optimization solution", which for the rest of us, means reduced pre-processing and faster load times, but more importantly, increased polygon budgets.

so basically a fancy word for Occlusion Culling?...

this isn't anything new though, plenty of game developers and engines using OC Middleware..

realOne · **Posted:** 4 Nov 09, 9:06 pm

There's a lot to improve on more so like the numerous empty planets on the side quest missions. All in all ME2 is looking like it will live up to the hype, not too long before we should see some pre-view reviews and only less than 2 months until its out.

Mass Effect 2 to be less bare than original

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