ME1LE after more than 90 hours

Hi,

After a complete run of Mass Effect 1 this is what I got.

Short background. Since MELE is released by EA I choose Origin version to avoid any cross over platforms and by experience I notices that Origin app is better optimized than steam in terms of resource management. Second thing to be mentioned, I play this game on a laptop which barely gets to minimal requirement in terms of CPU/GPU. Therefore I keep a strict policy of 30FPS cap for all games in order to avoid overheating problems. Third thing, all the games I play are under post process effect in order to increase a bit the graphic quality. Last mention, where is possible I play the game in borderless window as I use to do a lot of ALT+TAB and also let Windows do the magic by keeping the desktop running on intel video card while the game is set to use dedicated one.

I did all this mentions because they have big impact in terms of performances and stability.

Give caesar what belongs to caesar.

There is no more a Mass Effect Trilogy. It's one game spread in 3 chapters. ME1LE looks amazing but that's not all, it feels amazing too. This is not a fresh coat of paint, it's a full refurbished product.

Aside of high definition textures and increased polycount of 3d models there are lots of side effects and overall creates the best set up that Mass Effect ever had. I'm talking here about lots of tweaked animation, better use of lights and shadows, reflective surfaces, more elements added to landscape.

Sheppard and crew have a lot of idle and dialogue animations well set and looks more natural and alive. Simple example: spare a few seconds when you choose the dialogue line ( https://i.ibb.co/NSwDJh6/1a.jpg ) and notice the finger movement. That denote a lot of consideration regarding the background animations. Lots of effort to make the game look and feel better (yeah, BW, I did notice that).

Huge amount of work on details and details are everywhere. See the optical sensor's of this geth (it was already dead when I shoot him) https://i.ibb.co/Tw0Cznq/b4.jpg. Someone took his time to make it look that good. Same goes for this AA turret which you never get anywhere close to it yet the details are there https://i.ibb.co/zPtqmjG/b5.jpg . Battle scourge, before https://i.ibb.co/sF0LBmf/b2.jpg and after https://i.ibb.co/B25bTwS/b3.jpg and not the last thing, tiled and mirrored textures which are noticed only on close inspection (tiled wall https://i.ibb.co/hd74y00/b1.jpg and mirrored map on armor https://i.ibb.co/wKYQJLg/c1.jpg )

Excellent job on using normal map and ambient occlusion in combination with ambient and spot lights.

“Just remember red means bad” - Combat tweak and rebalance.

Nice job on making tactical approach more needed. What it might look like your companions shooting walls and boxes it's in fact cover fire and allows Sheppard to * the situation and choose tactic. Missiles, and canon projectiles are deadly. Same goes for sniper shots. So if you see a red laser pointing at you or a red flame projectile approaching run away or take cover. Failing to do that will result in loading most recent save. A special care was for snipers which can be interrupted while aiming with suppress or direct fire. The combat more is interesting, harder, more realistic but never feel like punishing players. Nice use of biotic abilities (enemies); krogan can use biotic powers and they do that a lot. As a side note, never charge into a battleground without assessing the situation or you're up for a loading screen. Much appreciated. After all this game was never meant to be played as CS.

Stability and performances.

This game just made it in top of my “most stable games” list. Despite of ALT TAB-ing a lot never had problems resuming the game nor performances loss. After 2 playthrough I only encountered a framedrop after dealing with dr Saleon (on both runs). Other than that, stable framerate no matter how much biotic powers were used (my squad use them all the time) or the battle/exploration locations. Focus stuck happened 3 times during first run and twice on second which for an overall of 95 hours it's quite amazing. From time to time (less than 10 occurs) I've notice a message popping out which I can only guess it was about loading (happen so fast I can't see what it says).

All considered that my machine barely meets the minimum required it's amazing how well optimized this game is.

Overall experience just placed this game in the position of best I ever played. (position held until now by a different action/rpg game released in 2001)

That being said, BIOWARE you have my gratitude for this remastered version.

p.s. Thank to Origin for fixing the achievements problems (2 days ago). Now it's really nothing I can complain about.