Mass Effect Legendary Edition

Finally finished the first game with an almost complete run. The legendary edition is IMO fra superior to the original version. The combat is not as good as in 2 and 3 and I still dislike the mako, but the upgrades that they have made to the game does make the combat much more fun and 3 second loading times in the elevators is a massive upgrade. The inventory system is still bad though as I started to not care about weapons after a while and just sold everything after getting good gear on all my squad mates. There was a lot more copy-paste levels than I remember, but it has been well over 10 years since the last time I completed the first game.

The first games visuals look quite good in HDR, but the gap to mass effect 2 is still huge. Mass effect 2 looks so vibrant in HDR and blows away the original graphically. The character models seems to have received a lot more attention than the environments, but everything looks much better than it did in the original version of ME2 (did a playthrough early 2020). ME2 is by far the weakest of the mass effect games when it comes to character builds though. ME3 has the best balance there.
 
The copy-paste levels in ME1 are only slightly more acceptable because the idea of a pre-fab building being dropped in for colonization isn't too far fetched. Same for pre-programmed drilled subterranean installations. Made me think of DA2 however. At least the plot worlds had unique layouts and designs and were not recycling exploration mission props all the time
 
The first games visuals look quite good in HDR, but the gap to mass effect 2 is still huge. Mass effect 2 looks so vibrant in HDR and blows away the original graphically. The character models seems to have received a lot more attention than the environments, but everything looks much better than it did in the original version of ME2 (did a playthrough early 2020). ME2 is by far the weakest of the mass effect games when it comes to character builds though. ME3 has the best balance there.
My roommate has a 4K HDR TV, I might have to hook up my PC to it to try HDR mode. 2 in my opinion looks the best of the series. It doesn't have the largest environments (that title goes to 1 and 3) but it does have the best lighting and shadow quality (mostly dynamic as opposed to static in 1 and 3) in LE. For those of you like me that are unhappy with the dreadful quality static lighting in 1 and 3 it is being worked on.

The ALOT team is overhauling the static lighting and textures of all 3 games. I've been following them on discord, right now they're trying to figure out which format the static lights use exactly so that they appear correct.

EDIT: they've figured it out. High resolution static lighting in Mass Effect 2 looks even better. The difference is somewhat subtle, but there.
 
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My roommate has a 4K HDR TV, I might have to hook up my PC to it to try HDR mode. 2 in my opinion looks the best of the series. It doesn't have the largest environments (that title goes to 1 and 3) but it does have the best lighting and shadow quality (mostly dynamic as opposed to static in 1 and 3) in LE. For those of you like me that are unhappy with the dreadful quality static lighting in 1 and 3 it is being worked on.

The ALOT team is overhauling the static lighting and textures of all 3 games. I've been following them on discord, right now they're trying to figure out which format the static lights use exactly so that they appear correct.
The static lighting is a lot different in HDR mode compared to HDR off in both ME 2 and ME 1 in LE. It pops a lot more and is more vibrant. Not sure if it is made for HDR and there is only one mode or if they use different lighting. E.g. everything looks a bit gray and one note without HDR while with HDR the bright spots are brighter, shadwos are darker and the environments look more vibrant.

Do keep in mind that a low end HDR TV will not be anywhere near a mid range TV or good monitor with HDR, but you will still get some effect of the HDR. HDR also works best in a fairly dark room. Even my TV, which is capable of more than 1600 nits peak and around 770 nits constant full screen brightness benefits a lot from having a completely dark room. I do play PC games on a samsung G7 32" monitor, which is brightness limited to 600 nits and should be in line with a midrange TV (basically around 2020 models samsung QLED 7 series). SDR on my monitor is fairly close to calibrated (a bit limited in options in the monitor menus for full calibration), but don't have the tools to calibrate the HDR. HDR in games can be a bit hit or miss on PC, but it is very well implemented in the ME Legendary Edition.
 
The static lighting is a lot different in HDR mode compared to HDR off in both ME 2 and ME 1 in LE. It pops a lot more and is more vibrant. Not sure if it is made for HDR and there is only one mode or if they use different lighting. E.g. everything looks a bit gray and one note without HDR while with HDR the bright spots are brighter, shadwos are darker and the environments look more vibrant.

Do keep in mind that a low end HDR TV will not be anywhere near a mid range TV or good monitor with HDR, but you will still get some effect of the HDR. HDR also works best in a fairly dark room. Even my TV, which is capable of more than 1600 nits peak and around 770 nits constant full screen brightness benefits a lot from having a completely dark room. I do play PC games on a samsung G7 32" monitor, which is brightness limited to 600 nits and should be in line with a midrange TV (basically around 2020 models samsung QLED 7 series). SDR on my monitor is fairly close to calibrated (a bit limited in options in the monitor menus for full calibration), but don't have the tools to calibrate the HDR. HDR in games can be a bit hit or miss on PC, but it is very well implemented in the ME Legendary Edition.
It's definitely a cheaper, off brand HDR TV, but still HDR capable. I'll give it a try tonight when the roommate goes to bed and see how things hold up
 
It's definitely a cheaper, off brand HDR TV, but still HDR capable. I'll give it a try tonight when the roommate goes to bed and see how things hold up
If it's a 4K HDR TV with FALD, do not trust the in game HDR calibration for brightness as the FALD will leads you to set it way too high which would results in a very dark picture. Instead, look up the model on rtings.com and use the "Peak 25% Window" Brightness value and set it as HDR brightness. If you can't find the info, then try turning off the FALD /Backlight before you do the calibration.
 
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If it's a 4K HDR TV with FALD, do not trust the in game HDR calibration for brightness as the FALD will leads you to set it way too high which would results in a very dark picture. Instead, look up the model on rtings.com and use the "Peak 25% Window" Brightness value and set it as HDR brightness. If you can't find the info, then try turning off the FALD /Backlight before you do the calibration.
This is not true. If you do this you'll end up with a washed out picture because the game will be artificially limiting the dynamic range if you change options based on that. You should be setting the brightness for games that have this setting based on what you see with your own eyes, not by a fixed number.
 
This is not true. If you do this you'll end up with a washed out picture because the game will be artificially limiting the dynamic range if you change options based on that. You should be setting the brightness for games that have this setting based on what you see with your own eyes, not by a fixed number.

The HDR calibration is suppose to set the highest native cd/m2 of the TV and no TV have over 2000 cd/m2 native currently. It's been confirm by many user of highend FALD HDR TVs. My Q90T ended up at over 5000 on bright setting with the in game calibration because the FALD kept compensating for the small bright window. The end result was that it was really dark in game. I looked up the 25% cd/m2 on rtings and put it at 1400 and then everything looks fine again. Same thing happened on my Vizio M437 G0 with in game calibration setting it to over 1200 where it's native is just 417cd/m2. Calibration did work correctly on my Predator CG437K and Aorus FV43U as both came out right on the dot at ~1000.

This is on the Q90T set to 1400

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This is on the Aorus at 1050

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And this is on the CG437K at 1000

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The HDR calibration is suppose to set the highest native cd/m2 of the TV and no TV have over 2000 cd/m2 native currently. It's been confirm by many user of highend FALD HDR TVs. My Q90T ended up at over 5000 on bright setting with the in game calibration because the FALD kept compensating for the small bright window. The end result was that it was really dark in game. I looked up the 25% cd/m2 on rtings and put it at 1400 and then everything looks fine again. Same thing happened on my Vizio M437 G0 with in game calibration setting it to over 1200 where it's native is just 417cd/m2. Calibration did work correctly on my Predator CG437K and Aorus FV43U as both came out right on the dot at ~1000.
Sounds like you have powersaving or other "enhancement" features on. They mess up the gamma and brightness curves. If the TV is in movie mode with enhancements turned off then the calibration should be correct. Calibration of brightness was correct on my G7 monitor (600) and games that I've calibrated on my QN95A have also been correct (typically end up at 1600-1650 nits), but I do the calibration of brightness with most enhancements off.
 
Sounds like you have powersaving or other "enhancement" features on. They mess up the gamma and brightness curves. If the TV is in movie mode with enhancements turned off then the calibration should be correct. Calibration of brightness was correct on my G7 monitor (600) and games that I've calibrated on my QN95A have also been correct (typically end up at 1600-1650 nits), but I do the calibration of brightness with most enhancements off.

What mode were you using when you did the calibration on the QN95A? ~1600 sound about tight as rtings rate the QN95A at around 1600 peak at 25%. I was just using Standard mode with everything at default as I just did the 2160 firmware update and calibration ended up at over 5000. But it happens also on the Vizio but I can't check it anymore as I loaned it out to a friend.
 
What mode were you using when you did the calibration on the QN95A? ~1600 sound about tight as rtings rate the QN95A at around 1600 peak at 25%. I was just using Standard mode with everything at default as I just did the 2160 firmware update and calibration ended up at over 5000. But it happens also on the Vizio but I can't check it anymore as I loaned it out to a friend.
I run movie mode, colors warm2, dynamic contrast off, AI mode off, color auto, power savings off and local dimming at standard as those should give the most accurate picture. The three settings that would throw off a brightness calibration are power savings, AI mode and dynamic contrast as they all mess up the brightness curve. HDR is meant to be absolute, until the TV must do tone mapping (brightness exceeds TVs capability) if the TV is set up for accurate picture. The three settings I mentioned interfere with that. In standard picture mode, which has a lot of image "enhancements" on by default. With those enhancements the TV can go way higher when it comes to nits, but the picture looks bad IMO. Afaik they renamed and changed a lot of settings for the QN series, compared to older samsungs, so they will most likely not have the same naming. Local dimming can also affect the brightness as it changes the gamma curve. Standard local dimming was the correct mode for SDR as REC.709 gives 2.4, while setting local dimming to high in SDR gave a gamma somewhere around 1.6. Decided to have it on standard for HDR as well, but don't have the tools to check if it is correct gamma for HDR.

Keep in mind that rtings have never tested the QN95A as it has a slightly better panel than the QN90A and 4 120hz ports, however I do believe brightness capabilities should be similar.
 
I'm part way through ME3 and even though I've played through all three several times, I've run into a couple sequences I hadn't seen before like a conclusion to the Conrad Verner saga, lol. I wondered if it had been added to the Legendary Edition, but nope, I just hadn't triggered it before somehow. I don't think I'd bought all the DLC for all three games before either, though I had played through some of it in previous runs. It is a bummer they couldn't remaster some of the ME1 DLC since they lost the source code.
 
I'm part way through ME3 and even though I've played through all three several times, I've run into a couple sequences I hadn't seen before like a conclusion to the Conrad Verner saga, lol. I wondered if it had been added to the Legendary Edition, but nope, I just hadn't triggered it before somehow. I don't think I'd bought all the DLC for all three games before either, though I had played through some of it in previous runs. It is a bummer they couldn't remaster some of the ME1 DLC since they lost the source code.
Pinnacle Station wasn't all that great, to be honest. The only good thing about it was the ability to get random powerful equipment for a small fee as a reward, and it could be used as much as you want. If you find yourself swimming in credits at the end game this is a good place to use them. Otherwise you do get a lot of XP for all the scenarios.
 
Pinnacle Station wasn't all that great, to be honest. The only good thing about it was the ability to get random powerful equipment for a small fee as a reward, and it could be used as much as you want. If you find yourself swimming in credits at the end game this is a good place to use them. Otherwise you do get a lot of XP for all the scenarios.
Which is significant. If you want some of the most powerful equipment in the game and you want to fully equip all of your characters, Pinnacle Station was the only way to do it.
If you're not a crazy min/maxer, you probably don't care. But half the fun for me in ME1 was getting to the end and being super OP (with never overheating weapons and essentially the ability to constantly use Adept powers with no cooldowns).

However to your point it's probably really only for people really into the ME series. As it's basically a giant time and money sink.
 
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Which is significant. If you want some of the most powerful equipment in the game and you want to fully equip all of your characters, Pinnacle Station was the only way to do it.
If you're not a crazy min/maxer, you probably don't care. But half the fun for me in ME1 was getting to the end and being super OP (with never overheating weapons and essentially the ability to constantly use Adept powers with no cooldowns).

However to your point it's probably really only for people really into the ME series. As it's basically a giant time and money sink.
I had no problem getting my entire squad into Colossus armor and level X spectre weapons,
by Ilos. hit up the NRO with each level up and reload the save until you get a decent purchase list. save X57 until the end as well.

Cash was a never an issue in ME1, which is why they nerfed it so hard for ME2.
 
The .torrent file for the Improved Static Lighting pack for Mass Effect Legendary Edition is up on Discord. It's a 52GB download all together.

EDIT: The lightmaps are too bright in ME1 and 3, so there's still some work to do...
 
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You’ve all made tons of choices in Mass Effect Legendary Edition...how do yours match up against other commanders?

https://twitter.com/masseffect/status/1420036454042857472
Some.of the commentary about this is pretty damn sad. Is it really surprising at this point most people choose a Virmire or Rannoch outcome that is the most beneficial story wise? There is no benefit other than the novelty of it to choose anything else in those situations.
 
Some.of the commentary about this is pretty damn sad. Is it really surprising at this point most people choose a Virmire or Rannoch outcome that is the most beneficial story wise? There is no benefit other than the novelty of it to choose anything else in those situations.
Doesn't look all that different compared to the similar infographic they did after the original release of Mass Effect 3. Fact is most people are still just playing the default Shepard, though there is some more class diversity apparent than originally. We also have to understand that each game includes an option to automatically advance conversations now in the LE.
 
The HDR calibration is suppose to set the highest native cd/m2 of the TV and no TV have over 2000 cd/m2 native currently. It's been confirm by many user of highend FALD HDR TVs. My Q90T ended up at over 5000 on bright setting with the in game calibration because the FALD kept compensating for the small bright window. The end result was that it was really dark in game. I looked up the 25% cd/m2 on rtings and put it at 1400 and then everything looks fine again. Same thing happened on my Vizio M437 G0 with in game calibration setting it to over 1200 where it's native is just 417cd/m2. Calibration did work correctly on my Predator CG437K and Aorus FV43U as both came out right on the dot at ~1000.

This is on the Q90T set to 1400

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This is on the Aorus at 1050

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And this is on the CG437K at 1000

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It worked perfectly for me on the ACER Predator CG437K as well.
 
EA CEO says LE sales were well above expectations. So, can we get the MP now? I think I said it already, but I'd prefer it be released as a standalone with all the content released for both ME3 and MEA in one package instead of trying to add it into the LE package. Would be an instant buy for me.

https://www.ign.com/articles/mass-effect-legendary-edition
 
ME:A multiplayer with the ME:3 maps/enemies/gameplay would be amazing! I really likes ME:3's multi, but it was a bit clunky and weird, but it was still satisfying as hell, especially as the enemy could get serious at some levels.
 
I think I said it already, but I'd prefer it be released as a standalone with all the content released for both ME3 and MEA in one package instead of trying to add it into the LE package. Would be an instant buy for me.
Yeah, that wouldn't work for so many reasons.
 
Yeah, even pulling all the ME:3 assets to ME:A would be a huge effort. Even if there is a tool to do most of it, there will be a ton of cleanup before you can even start the balance / QA flows.
 
The static lighting is a lot different in HDR mode compared to HDR off in both ME 2 and ME 1 in LE. It pops a lot more and is more vibrant. Not sure if it is made for HDR and there is only one mode or if they use different lighting. E.g. everything looks a bit gray and one note without HDR while with HDR the bright spots are brighter, shadwos are darker and the environments look more vibrant.

Do keep in mind that a low end HDR TV will not be anywhere near a mid range TV or good monitor with HDR, but you will still get some effect of the HDR. HDR also works best in a fairly dark room. Even my TV, which is capable of more than 1600 nits peak and around 770 nits constant full screen brightness benefits a lot from having a completely dark room. I do play PC games on a samsung G7 32" monitor, which is brightness limited to 600 nits and should be in line with a midrange TV (basically around 2020 models samsung QLED 7 series). SDR on my monitor is fairly close to calibrated (a bit limited in options in the monitor menus for full calibration), but don't have the tools to calibrate the HDR. HDR in games can be a bit hit or miss on PC, but it is very well implemented in the ME Legendary Edition.
I've noticed this. It's not quite like taking off some sunglasses inside, but it's still a noticeable difference.
Yeah, even pulling all the ME:3 assets to ME:A would be a huge effort. Even if there is a tool to do most of it, there will be a ton of cleanup before you can even start the balance / QA flows.
So I take it that's why BW went with a 64-bit slightly newer build of UE3.x, to streamline the porting process of assets and to newer consoles...
 
Yeah, even pulling all the ME:3 assets to ME:A would be a huge effort. Even if there is a tool to do most of it, there will be a ton of cleanup before you can even start the balance / QA flows.
You wouldn't integrate them together. You'd have them both run independently of one another like the LE does.
 
Why do you think it wouldn't work?
For one thing, you have two totally different engines. That's the first issue. Secondly, the assets, maps, etc. from Mass Effect 3 are much lower quality than the assets in Mass Effect Andromeda. It would look like shit. There is a mod that allows you to import Mass Effect Andromeda armors into Mass Effect 2 and 3. When you do that you can see the stark contrast in both art style, polycount, etc. Even if they faithfully recreated all of the ME3 assets in Andromeda's multiplayer, it still wouldn't work from a gameplay perspective. The maps and enemies in ME3 are balanced for that game. In Andromeda, you have jetpacks and additional movement controls ME3 lacks. The difference in design would be readily apparent when playing it. AI would potentially need to be built from scratch, etc.
 
Currently 39.59 at Humble for another 5hrs. Looking forward to trying this out.
It's been enjoyable, if not a bit jarring playing them straight through. Also far more illuminating on each chapters strength and weaknesses. Nothing beats ME1 for the exploration, character development of ME2 is unrivaled and every N7 mission on ME3 reminds me of how fun the MP was and how disappointing it is to not be included.
 
For one thing, you have two totally different engines. That's the first issue. Secondly, the assets, maps, etc. from Mass Effect 3 are much lower quality than the assets in Mass Effect Andromeda. It would look like shit. There is a mod that allows you to import Mass Effect Andromeda armors into Mass Effect 2 and 3. When you do that you can see the stark contrast in both art style, polycount, etc. Even if they faithfully recreated all of the ME3 assets in Andromeda's multiplayer, it still wouldn't work from a gameplay perspective. The maps and enemies in ME3 are balanced for that game. In Andromeda, you have jetpacks and additional movement controls ME3 lacks. The difference in design would be readily apparent when playing it. AI would potentially need to be built from scratch, etc.
As I said earlier, it would be separate from each other like the games in the LE. I wouldn't expect ME3 and Andromeda to be integrated into one system and work together.
 
As I said earlier, it would be separate from each other like the games in the LE. I wouldn't expect ME3 and Andromeda to be integrated into one system and work together.
Between the maps, textures and models, I can't imagine standalone it would be compact. When all the assets already exist due to the single player campaign, re-cycling them for MP usage isn't making it significantly larger. Your structure is all there .. going standalone would require rebuilding a lot of the framework.

I suspect given the success of LE, we may see it as an add-on for the LE install, but without the Galactic Readiness add-in. Which I suspect would make the majority happy. Possibly add the Armax Arena maps as well.
 
It would be neat, but they would have to basically run it as side stories, ala ME3 MP. All the whole continuing to side step the elephant in the room that is, where is the lead of the franchise?
 
It would be neat, but they would have to basically run it as side stories, ala ME3 MP. All the whole continuing to side step the elephant in the room that is, where is the lead of the franchise?
The problem with Mass Effect as a TV show is that it would take an absurd amount of money to do justice to the material. The scale and scope of the trilogy would be an expensive undertaking to realize on the small screen. Obviously, a lot of the side quest stuff would get cut for time or pacing. The other issue comes down to narrative decisions. What worked well in a game may not translate to the screen very well. Finally, given the personal sense of ownership people have over their version of the character, the fan base may be overly critical. Even choosing a gender for Shepard alone would be problematic. Some 84% of Shepards were male initially. Then again, the FemShep crowd is among the most rabidly obsessed with the series.

It's easier to do something like this with the Witcher as Geralt fits a certain basic description regardless of what the player does with the character. The gender is set and you can't change it. Stories set in the Mass Effect universe could work, but they'd really have to steer clear of the game's main narrative, which has its own set of challenges.
 
Stories set in the Mass Effect universe could work, but they'd really have to steer clear of the game's main narrative, which has its own set of challenges.
They could do something similar to the andromeda sequel but to a different place and then they have basically free reign story wise as long as the follow the IP.
 
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