Mass Effect Legendary Edition Graphics Comparison Shows a Significant Step Forward

Why do alot of the comparisons look better on the original. The legendary version shots look washed out and less detailed apart from a few screen shots were the facial detail looked marginally better. This is not a significant upgrade to me more of an up res.

@Max2574 After the Shepard article, I'm convinced some of you need glasses and/or a new monitor/phone.

You can like the old graphics style better, but there's no doubt whatsoever that the Legendary Edition is far more advanced in terms of lighting, texture — everything that isn't down to taste.

(As it should be — the trilogy's almost a decade old after all.)

I think I have texture/lightning blindness cos it just doesn’t register with me at all. Maybe this is what happens when you were brought up on Game & Watch and the ZX Spectrum. 😅

“I’m Commander Shepard, and this makes me Mass Erect”

@ShogunRok I jumped to one random spot in the video, didn't watch anything else, and the old version looked better.

Maybe the non-face parts are better in the new version, hard to tell since the lighting is different, but the face clearly looks better in the old version. The new version looks like someone messed up photoshopping it, the old version looks more realistic.

I can feel some nostalgia creeping in when looking at the old graphics, but the Legendary Edition's look is so much better.

Looks pretty meh, in some cases textures.seem to look worse

New looks plasticy, even the video thumbnail shows more grit on the armor in the old version, new has fewer unintended hard angles though.

Might have considered it if they put in a purple shaded ending or something but nicer graphics isn't a good enough draw.

@Milktastrophe - That's mostly an artistic difference, not a technical one, and one that's easily avoided by simply taking advantage of the fact you can customise your Shepard's face (which is what was done with that shot of the original). A better comparison would probably be at 3:28, which shows the default Shepard face in both versions (or at least, the closest FemShep had to a default face back then).

Going on the website and taking advantage of the comparison screenshots and video show a clear upgrade from the original, so this video isn't strictly needed, but even here, some of the comparisons are pretty clear; Take the comparison at 1:38 with Shepard overlooking the ledge at the Citadel. Here the background in the original is pretty blurry and seems stretched out (likely due to lower resolution), whereas in the remaster you see a lot more detail, and the textures don't look anywhere near as stretched by comparison. The shot at 2:41 with Saren holding Shepard also seems to have additional foliage/buildings? (not sure if it just wasn't there in the original, or in a different spot); nonetheless, it looks noticeably better.
To be fair, a lot of the Mass Effect 3 comparisons aren't that big, and in one comparison (7:14-7:24) they seem to have removed the debris(?) which seems a bit odd, but so far overall, the remasters, especially the first two games, look definitively better than the originals.

Maybe it's me but I'm not sure what the point is to compare these PC versions. We r interested in the PS versions after all. (Or maybe should be on another site)

@ShogunRok Recently had eye test mate 20/20 vision confirmed lol. Genuinely can't see much of a difference. Maybe I just prefer the old style. To me it looks washed out like the contrast is blasted up and loses its color. To say there is a significant update is far fetched imo its a simple up res they have not touched the textures, on one pic it looks slightly better as its 4k obviously. Its similar to the Dark souls remaster in terms of effort when really I would of loved it to be like the Demon Souls remake. But hey will still be picking it up just disappointed it wasn't more but we all have different options lol.

@JapaneseSonic Haha it's cool and oi I am 24. Nothing wrong with a bit of a banter. I think he is wrong, but who knows maybe he has played some magic build i have yet to see lol.

@ShogunRok Maybe in a months time when I get my S21 it will look better lol. 😝😝

@ShogunRok I have no interest in Mass Effect, but the original has much better lighting and more realistic facial features. The remastered characters look cartoonish... I also recall you prefer the replacement Peter Parker, so I'm not convinced that your perspective is on target to start with.

Great. Now let's see some of the combat of ME1

@JapaneseSonic Beware of the Emoji my friend, they are dangerous in the wrong hands lol. Emoji with care 😁😉😁

so can't wait been putting off a play thru!

To be honest I'm struggling with this too. I suspect the pc version looked tons better than the 360 version I played but many of these are not the upgrade level you might expect.

@ShogunRok Amen to that. A clear upgrade overall. Old character / facial models will always look a little funny or out of place on modern hardware. I like what I'm seeing, and can't wait to play these again!

Not seeing this great improvement being mentioned in the article. I will buy this game regardless as it looks fine but it's hardly mind blowing stuff is it! Don't see how all of us can be wrong or need glasses as the Pushsquare worker patronisingly told us!

A game looking better for me isn't a reason to replay. Better playability would be though, as would new content or when my memory goes and can't remember what happened when I played before.

The characters supposed to look like Barbie Dolls? Old version characters look human, new version shots look awful IMHO

Worth a watch just for that beautiful CIC music

The new faces look a bit cartoony to me, ah well still mega psyched for this.

Umm, no. The only thing that has been improved is the texture resolution, and nothing more. There is nothing significant about this crap.

@ShogunRok you clearly don't actually know anything about realtime rendering if you believe that. Nor does anyone else who is trying to tell you the difference is genuinely significant, for that matter. The lighting is essentially the same, with maybe some color tweaking here and there. There is clearly no shadow resolution upgrades, and there is no SSAO, which is just pathetic. It. Is. Factually. Not. That. Different. Looking. Period.

The lighting and faces look worse, and I’m not a fan of the per object Depth of field blur. Textures are obviously upgraded but, overall, I wouldn’t say it’s a significant improvement.

@ShogunRok I think the majority in that article and this don't necessarily think that the old looks better, just that the new doesnt look as good as all the gaming journalists are making out ,so I think its them that may need a visit to the opticians.

I never played mass effect, but after trying dragon age inquisition, which for me was somehow disappointing, I’m affraid to try another rpg by them. For reference I have all major RPGs released on PS4 and dragon age is the one I like the least xD

@ShogunRok but I think the new one looks better and I'm overdue an eye test... my glasses aren't quite up to snuff anymore. Theory disproved? 😂

I don't really have a horse in this race tbh. Personally I'm looking forward to this. Wanted to play ME for years and it's all on gamepass (recently treated myself to a Series S as a Gamepass box) but waiting for this to drop on PS5 to take advantage of the tweaked gameplay in the original and play on my main console. That seems way more important, considering how many people say the gameplay in ME1 is clunky compared to the other two.

Though I'll wait for your lot's review.

i'm playing through ME2 at the moment on the xbox Series S and I can't really complain about performance and graphics tbh. So far there's not been anything that makes me go "well that could definitely do with an update, bar maybe the loading screens which still take a bit of time on the Series S, but obviously faster than on PS3/360 etc.

I might still buy this though on the PS5 and go through them again

I know there's not much change but I don't care.

I'm gonna play the best trilogy from 2 gens ago again. For the fourth time. Yeeeees!

Some people want to put others down and make it all snobby about they can’t see light or textures. Fact is - they look different - one isn’t clearly better. This isn’t a massively improved game. As hard as it is to take all these fancy tricks gaming use - sometimes it’s what the whole package looks like and in several examples the original looks better.

Clearly you've all been indoctrinated by the Reapers.

apart from character models and faces (some of them not 'improved' for the better imo), i'm struggling to see significant differences never mind 'steps forward'. this looks like small levels of improvement, better-AA smoothing out a few rough edges etc, that would be pretty much guaranteed with hardware way more powerful than 2007-11 even with minimal effort.

It's a remastered game, not a remake. So the differences are only going to go so far. However, you can tell that some of the character textures have been redone, not just upscaled. I think the differences are very clear, and favor the new version in every case. But that's like, just my opinion, man.
Going to buy the game. Going to play the game(s). Going to love the game(s). Again.

More detailed and sharper textures,looks great.Still tough to notice on huge high res phone but on huge tv its easy to see.Altough both new Shepards faces are a bit weird haha

There are five differences between these two images. See if you can spot them!

Some of you people are on crack. The remaster looks substantially better. I did notice that they have used fog in some scenes and improved the focus in others. Maybe people are seeing the fog and the blurred bokeh like focusing and thinking the older looks better?

Nah... they're on crack

I'm not sure what all of you are expecting from the Unreal 3 engine. To me, the improvements look great. ApostateMage, you are so right about the music. A tear almost came to my eye for no reason I can understand as I watched that video, and I suspect the music played a big part. What a soundtrack. What a SERIES! I can't wait for this to hit stores. I'll set an alarm to get there when they open. Commander freaking Shepard reporting for duty!

They've evened out the lighting, getting rid of the highs and lows, leading to a more natural light effect. However, this is sci-fi. We don't need natural lighting. Lighting in the originals looks more stylised and interesting. The new lighting has ruined the new look for me and many of the original shots look better, especially the ones with human faces in.

Still not convinced new fem Shep looks good. It's more uncanny valley than the original.

@Batty5 Are you a nihilist, dude?

@Milktastrophe dude, gamespot copied me on their comparison article:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/mass-effect-legendary-edition-remaster-vs-me1-me2-and-me3-screenshot-comparison/1100-6487316/

No multiplayer so I'm out 👎