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These cutscenes are significantly louder than the rest of the game, so I have to turn down my speakers every time I go through a mass relay. Is there any way to skip these scenes?

According to this link it was possible in Mass Effect 1 by editing a configuration file. However, that file doesn't seem to exist for Mass Effect 3.

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Just saying you want to skip the scene that makes the whole series possible? – One-One Aug 5 '12 at 17:18
@desaivv and maybe we should also be required to visit the mess, the toilet and sleep for 8 hours after every mission. – kotekzot Aug 5 '12 at 18:44
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@kotekzot that was not the question and never implied by me. – One-One Aug 5 '12 at 19:03
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@desaivv no, it was a parallel that I made to what you said. The act of eating makes human life (and, by extension, the story of ME) possible, but it is nevertheless omitted, because it would be as boring to watch as a mass relay jump. – kotekzot Aug 5 '12 at 19:06
Not possible at all on the X360, and I agree the volume on that scene's much louder. – deutschZuid Aug 6 '12 at 0:37

4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote

I noticed this too, it was very frustrating when I was pulling an all-nighter to finish the game! I'm sure there are more detailed options on the PC, but on the Xbox 360 version if you go to audio settings and turn off "high dynamic range" (or something similar) these scenes become much quieter. I think this option is on by default. It's geared towards high-end audio systems but it's not much use on tinny built-in monitor speakers like mine. Hope this helps!

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Thanks for the answer, but this should really be a comment - I'm not really interested in turning down the volume, I want to skip the scenes entirely – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Aug 8 '12 at 15:52
Well, given you said you wanted to skip them to avoid the loud sound an alternative way aroudn the loud sound (making it quieter) seems reasonable. And I foudn the high dynamic range option good to turn off. It made it easier to hear background conversations and such like too. – Chris Aug 16 '12 at 15:43
up vote 1 down vote

Sorry you can't skip the Mass Relay cutscenes and i know that because i have tried and i agree the sound is much lounder than in Mass Effect 1 and 2.

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up vote 2 down vote

Unfortunately you cant, Mass effect uses that time to load the next set of graphics. I have mine on an ssd drive which should load that in next to no time, but because its been ported from console they haven't bothered to allow that cut scene to be skipped i guess.

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How does playing it from an SSD prove anything? Even if it loads in the background in 1/10th of a second, it still needs to play the entire cutscene. If the cutscene were skipped, you'd only have to wait 1/10th of a second - so having an SSD is just more of a reason to want to skip the cutscene! – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Aug 14 '12 at 2:44
@BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft Yep thats what im saying, even though that is the case, because they ported it from the console games so they didn't provide an option to skip those cut scenes. – Ben Aug 14 '12 at 5:12
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What does porting from a console have to do with skipping cutscenes? Lots of console games allow you to skip cutscenes and get to the action the moment the load has finished... – Chris Aug 16 '12 at 15:41
@Chris Yes they do, but not many console games let you skip cut scenes that are vital for their loading of the next game area. In this case the scenes that we are talking about are used for that. Because they ported directly from a console without much editing (this also explains the poor graphics options) they haven't allowed for the skipping of this particular scene. I am not getting what is so difficult to grasp about this concept. – Ben Aug 16 '12 at 22:55
@Ben: Its that you are using some poor base assumptions. I will concede that consoles may contribute to poorer UI experiences on PC and that the one graphic fits all on console versions may mean less work goes into using top end features on PCs but your statement "not many console games let you skip cut scenes that are vital for their loading" does not work. There is no reason not to do it on the Xbox (you have conceded that games do) so the reason to do it must be because it is just easier not to program in something to skip it and that logic will apply to both platforms. – Chris Aug 17 '12 at 7:54
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up vote 3 down vote

It's possible, provided you are happy with skipping all of them. Simply go to your game folder + BIOGame/Movies and then rename or delete GLO_01_Relay.bik to something else. That will mean none of the mass effect relay movies will play at all.

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