um ,what the hell is wrong with this game?

I know I successfully started it when I got my new 9800gtx to put all the settings on max but I've been trying to start it over the last day or so to play it and it just keeps crashing to the desktop before starting.

Some quick google searching shows it's a common problem, apparently the game doesnt like new drivr installation and updating of settings. WTF? surely that cant be true?

anyone else experience this? 

Can't help, I had no problems here. 

http://www.zak2.org/zak2/cms/front_content.php?idart=36&idcat=12

i love how everyone looks pretty normal, until you get down to the engine programmers :( 

did you patch it at all? or just play straight out of the box? 

that's the price you have to pay for intelligence, the big frontal lobes deform your head. 

I never saw or played the xbox version of this game so its been a real treat so far! :)

Just utter WOW basicly, im about 12 hours into the game and its just fantastic. It is very hard to spot any console origins so I guess it must be a very good port to the pc.

What you notice straight away is the excellent animation of every single character, and the fantastic facial/lip synching that goes on, it really does sell the illusion of reality. Next you notice the incredible depth and quality of the storytelling and dialogue, every single conversation is fully recorded audio with great voice actors, I can only guess at the amount of voice work contained in this game, it must take up over half of the dvd!

The graphics in general are fantastic also, I love the film effect that gets applied to everything, it adds so much detail to things. The only console throwback I can see is from the texture resolution which is fairly low in most areas, but the architecture and special effects more than make up for it, it looks beautiful :)

There is a ton of dialogue in this game, I would say its about 50/50 combat/roleplay at the moment, so if talking isn't your thing you may not like it, but the dialogue is so well written and interesting to take in that I really don't mind it at all. You can also sway the dialogue with your reputation and skill points, so for example you can bully a character if you have high skills in that area.

The combat is good but its definitely a worse off part of the game, its a fairly simple point and shoot affair and your squadmates special abilities dont really seem to do that much. I think I prefered the combat system from one of Biowares earlier games Knights of the old republic, it felt a lot more tactical and involving there.

Ok, gonna carry on playing now... addicted... 

I'd like to buy it, but can't get it online anywhere in France it seems, and I don't want to get it in French... =\ 

Yeah, that should be the first new game I test out with my 9800 GTX. Hopefully I'll be able to run it decently on my system, as the video card is the only thing on it that's younger than 3 years of age.

I also heard Assassin's Creed was bloody good. Might give that a spin too. 

OMG Fanboi'd 

a) the music gets really braindamaging after 30 minutes of the same very short pattern

click 'turn off the music' at the main menu?

b) NO FUCKING SAVE OPTION. How long does it take to conquer the whole universe? 1-2 hours?

A half hour? Do you want to save your game in Solitaire too? 

Not Solitaire. Maybe Hearts when I have possession of the Bitch and want to spring it on some one and not get caught with it in my hand. It would be edifying to always win in that situation, 

Yes, I saw that when I tried the game again. No idea why I cannot turn it off ingame. Anyways, the ingame sounds are way too silent anyways. If one has other music playing one cannot hear them.

The save option is not needed indeed. The game started so very slowly that I estimated a much long gameplay. Once I had my big swarms the rest was like 2 minutes. Very disappointing. :(

Nice little game anyways. 

the action curve isn't terribly flat. if you start out near other colors' home asteroids you'll be fighting for your life constantly, but if you start out with no neighbors you can gleefully take over half the world and have unstoppable blobs of hundreds by the time you meet anyone else.

That aspect could use some work. That said, I still fire this up and play it when I'm waiting for an import/compile/upload/etc at work. 

The combat is good but its definitely a worse off part of the game

So basically it's a nice interactive movie, apart from the interactive bits?

Thanks, you just saved me some money, I was vaguely tempted to pick this up, but if the actual gameplay (i.e. the only important thing) is pants then I'll skip it. 

Multiplayer could be nice, the ai just doesn't cut it yeah. 

"Thanks, you just saved me some money, I was vaguely tempted to pick this up, but if the actual gameplay (i.e. the only important thing) is pants then I'll skip it."

It's an RPG. 3/4s of the experience is the world immersion. 

I think "interactive movie" is perhaps taking things a bit too far.

There are lots of non combat gameplay situations also, lots of puzzles and detective work to be done etc.

While the combat isn't quite up to the quality of the rest of the game, it is by no means bad, I think it just suffers from trying to be a shooter when it really isn't.

For me personally I can overlook it, as on the whole this is the best rpg I have ever played (since knights of the old republic, heh) with a very compelling sci-fi world to explore.

Shambler : yeah I guess fanboi' is semi-correct here, as far as im concerned Bioware can do no wrong :) Lets just hope they dont go tits up after be swallowed by EA... :( 

do you remember Borsato? He and another guy made it together. 

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Coolio_Niato/music-in-motion 

http://www.kongregate.com/games/jmtb02/elephant-rave 

I suppose it should be said that RPGs for the most part just mean to me "stacks of dialogue and shit to skip".

Look, I try to like it, and I want to enjoy it, but damn, even if it's all well voice acted, these sort of games (especially with branching dialogue/choices) just end up driving me up the wall. I mean I'm sorry Fred Noblespank, but I just don't give two shits who stole your horse, find it yourself! Just fuck off and let me play!

I guess I'm just not in the target demographic... 

Thanks for elaborating on that point, Daz, I'm now at least vaguely interested again. :D 

I know how you feel frib, the only "RPG" I've ever got into was diablo/2, for obvious reasons :)

althoughI do have both of the KoTORs lying around 

that if you dont want to speak to people, you can be obscenely rude to them and end up telling them to fuck off, basicly ;)

...which is amusing 

but I just don't give two shits who stole your horse, find it yourself! Just fuck off

yeah you can do exactly that, thats why the game is a good real rpg unlike the sissy jrpg stuff