Mass Effect 3

[Crazed Rabbit]

It's coming.



Demo on the 14th: http://www.masseffect.com/about/demo/

So the good is that it's Mass Effect 3.

Combat looks improved, and this should be a great end to the trilogy.

It's got co-op multiplayer, which may be good.

The bad is that you have to buy it via Origin.

The iffy is the new 'action, story, and RPG modes'; http://saveandquitgaming.com/xbox-36...eplayer-modes/

Hopefully that means they kept any dumbing down to the action mode. And that the action itself wasn't dumbed down anymore. Hopefully.

Worse than iffy is their choice for voice actors for the new characters: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/...ebrity-talent/

And the new characters themselves: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/James_Vega

I mean, do we really need Jersey Shore IN SPACE?

But anyways, it's still Mass Effect 3 and there's little that could deter me from buying it.

CR

[Monk]

The more i see that female shepard trailer, the more I think something is terribly wrong with the textures on her face. It almost looks like a ps2 era texture. Something is very wrong with it. Maybe its me.

Worse than iffy is their choice for voice actors for the new characters: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/...ebrity-talent/

And the new characters themselves: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/James_Vega

I mean, do we really need Jersey Shore IN SPACE?

I'm not really worried about that. A much more incompetent branch of bioware than the ME team managed to write SWTOR, and that had some really good storylines in it. Way better than an MMO deserved to have and was the sole reason i stuck with it for as long as I did.

I liked every aspect of ME2 even the absolutely stupid 180 degree shift in tone that was the final boss fight. Mass Effect is an oddity for me, its the one series thats going in gaming that I just can't be objective with. ME2 fixed or removed everything I hated about the first game, and ME3 looks like its just improving on that. I dig the universe and the overall story, even if when you boil it down, its just a generic sci-fi trope of "Everyone come together to fight the ancient evil." I want to see what they do with that, even though I think i have a pretty good guess how they are going to end this with the hints they've been dropping.

I will play it day one. It will either confirm Mass Effect as my favorite gaming franchise since the original Metroid games, or utterly crush my heart in a flurry of cliches and half-thought storylines.. Either way. It will be one heck of a ride.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Who am I kidding. I'll love it no matter what. Such a dumb fanboy when it comes to ME.

[Kekvit Irae]

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I just finished a ME 1+2 femshep (nearly full paragon, about half renegade) in anticipation. Even if it's bad I'll see it through. Hopefully I can just never bring the crappy characters anywhere (sorry, Kaiden and Jacob). If not, well, they're ablative armor for Shepard. :3

[rajpoot]

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

Thing is the Dragon Age team had a switch in team leads mid series.
Plus they never hid the fact that they were taking the series into a different direction (what they did hide was that they'd been smoking something dreadful while they decided that direction).

ME3 team is still led by Casey Hudson, and I don't think anything apart from the shooting mechanics would be changed much. The story itself might turn out to be a little cliche (it's a well beaten genre after all), but with all the old characters from ME and ME2 coming back and the ever-excellent voice work, I'm sure the game won't disappoint.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

Yes, because it's the same exact people working on all of them, right?

[CountArach]

Worse than iffy is their choice for voice actors for the new characters: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/...ebrity-talent/

I'm going to trust BioWare. They have a history of hiring amazing voice acros (Claudia Black as Morrigan for instance) and I don't doubt that whoever they hire will meet their own expectaitons.

As for the game, I have not been this excited by a new release for quite some time. I'm replaying as Paragon FemShep to prepare myself.

[Monk]

Finished the demo. Interesting.

They chose the opening of the game (essentially the tutorial) and a later mission to showcase. Most of it was quite actiony and very little dialogue options were available. If i had to guess I'd say they did that on purpose. Don't want to spoil people with your demo any more than you have to - but still its always nice to see how expansive your talking options are, which we sadly didn't get a feel for.

The ME games have always had a slow start. 3 does not. Action starts relatively quickly and is interesting from the start. Your backstory/import options are talked about in between firefights and during the brief pause in the fighting of the tutorial.

Combat feels tighter and very kinetic. Movement as well is highly improved over ME2, its much easier to move around and not feel like you weigh 400 lbs. I was skeptical about playing ME3 multiplayer at all, but I can for once see why they chose to develop it. Feels like enough of an improvement to really make co-op worthwhile and not a chore to slug through.

Grenades are back! That alone is cause for celebration. Glorious, tasty frag grenades. How i missed you.

Health system has combined the systems from ME1 and ME2. Your life is broken up into bars, your life will regenerate one its own but only to fill up the bar that you currently reside in. So if you're down to 2 out of 5, you can only regenerate to fill the second bar. You have to use medigel to recover lost bars of life. Feels like a compromise between people who liked the ME2 system and those who liked the ME1 system. Can't complain but I would rather they went all or nothing in one direction rather than hit a middle ground.

Heavy melee system feels like its not gonna be used much if only because the gunplay feels much better. Stabby time isnt as fun as shooty time.

Some of the abilities were bugged. When i died the bugs disappeared and the abilities worked fine. Strange.

This demo is a horrible tease. Lots of action, lets me customize a character but doesnt let me import and doesn't show off its dialogue options to any great extent. Still, its fun which i suppose was the point, and it got me curious about the full game. Will have to check out the multiplayer after the 17th when they let everyone in.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

They let you import your ME2 character into the demo?

[Monk]

They let you import your ME2 character into the demo?

lets me customize a character but doesnt let me import

Full character customization is in the demo but there's no import, just as i said. Though i heard face codes work if you've got one from the ME2 customizer.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I like the new implementation of the biotic powers when you deploy them. Skeptical about the skill progression. I don't like how one using biotic power means they all have to recharge. (Was that in ME2? Haven't played biotic in that yet).

Allies seem to use biotic powers well. I liked the shooting combat.

Graphics are nice, though still low res in places. Runs well on my 2008 computer.

CR

[Crazed Rabbit]

So I have to grind with my human adept until I get really lucky and can play the character I want? When did this become good game design?

CR

[Mailman653]

This one thinks that the Hanar should be made playable in MP, may the Enklinders grant this one's wish.

[Crazed Rabbit]

I'm Crazed_Rabbit762 on Origin.

CR

[Monk]

I'm HardLuckRabbit, same as my steam.

[Chaotix]

Just got the demo, loving the multiplayer.

I'm Chaotix2732 on Origin if anyone wants to play.

[Graphic]

I've played the co-op multiplayer in the demo more than I care to admit. Of all the "horde mode" style game modes I've tried, its easily the best to me so far. Maybe the goals aren't very interesting, but the incredibly satisfying combat makes up for it.

One thing that bugs me though...probably 15 Veteran packs unlocked so far, and no Krogan!

It took me forever to notice that weapon weight effects recharge time. But once I did I've started making incredibly overpowered characters (like a soldier with a 1 second recharge concussive shot). BTW Asari adept is clearly superior. The stasis bubble is incredible, especially if you have the semi auto sniper with the heavy barrel to go with it. Freeze a group of enemies and get 4 headshots in 2 seconds.

[Kekvit Irae]

The stasis bubble is incredible, especially if you have the semi auto sniper with the heavy barrel to go with it. Freeze a group of enemies and get 4 headshots in 2 seconds.

Wait until you get the Carnifex pistol with scope. Then you will truly understand how OP your character is.

[Beskar]

Currently got Demo and experiencing multiplayer. The Xbox live name is the same as my forum one if you want to add me for a couple.

[Crazed Rabbit]

A preemptive reminder to everyone to PUT SPOILERS IN SPOILER TAGS.

Thanks,
CR

[Beskar]

I am so tempted to make up "Spoilers" and post them to get people frustrated, then knowing my luck, I end up actually being correct and do spoil the game for people, myself included.

[Monk]

Had some time alone with ME3 so i'm gonna dump thoughts here.

What I like:

Combat. As tight as it was in the demo and just as fun, the expanded arsenal is a welcome touch too, and i'm surprised by how hard ME3 can be. In the last ME games there was always a point where i could turn a corner and make the game my own. In the first, it was my biotic jugglers who could bounce entire rooms at once. In ME2 it was somewhere after Horizon that your leveling just got too strong for collectors to handle. Here? Nah. Good balance all around, both weapon and enemy scaling. What I HATE though is no heavy weapons. I am really missing my arc projector <3

N7 missions that dont suck: You know, the strict side missions from the game that used to scream "filler" content? Well they rock in this ME3. Bioware put some real effort into making them feel like apart of the game instead of just hastily hammered on to grind resources with. I feel like i'm doing something worthwhile when I do them.

Co-Op: My love for it has been displayed elsewhere. Copy/paste Combat section here.

The Story: Its been good thus far with no "are you serious? -_-" moments yet. Bioware has taken the Metal Gear Solid 4 approach to ME3. No there's no huge conspiracy involving dumb psudo-espionage (at least not yet i don't think) i mean that every single person you've met seems to have shown up for 3. Anyone you've helped or hindered is back to either return the favor or make your life a bit harder. Including some old friends who might not be so friendly anymore...

NO MORE MINI GAMES TO UNLOCK DOORS. FINALLY. GOD. Hacking and bypass minigames are gone. I hope Bioware never gets it in their head to make them for other games. Ever. Again.

War Assets system. Its pretty cool! Building an army isnt as simple as just doing one companion mission and being done with it. Doing a race mission unlocks their path, and you go down it doing extra missions as well. The more you do, the more effort that race will put in toward the final goal. Unfortunately this creates a bit of a problem i'll mention later.


What I don't like:

Conversations and companion management. Stupid stupid stupid. dialogue paths have definitely been simplified when you're out in the world and you can't talk to companions whenever you want. No more random investigating whenever you wanna hear a story. You long indepth conversations only at certain points. There's a number of them, but I still don't like it. No sir.

Too much. Too fast. Slow down. I'm getting bombarded with so many things, words, ideas, objectives and needs from the people i'm picking up that I'm not sure which is more important. I have NO idea what has time limits, what will happen if x instead of y, and no idea what the consequences might be. Some of this comes from it being a new game, but some is sloppy conveyance on Bioware's part. Which leads me to my next point.

What the heck happened the the Journal? It was always basic. But it at least told me where to go on a certain quest. Sometimes you won't get that and you'll get stuck running around like "where do I goooo, what do I doo!?"

War Readiness system. Lets get this out of the way now, if you want the best ending you need to play Multiplayer. There's really no way around it and bioware lied to you. War readiness is the multiplayer tie in with the single player game. The more MP you play, the more your readiness rises. The higher your readiness the better your amassed armies can fight the reapers. It seems account bound to your origin so you only need to grind it up once - but make no mistake it IS a grind. You trade planetary scanning from ME2 with Co-op in ME3. An improvement, but it still screws you over a bit.

Plot oversights:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Why is Udina on the council? Why does no one say anything about this and its expected I know whats going on? No one ever explains this. Ever. I put Anderson on the council. The logical conclusion is that Anderson resigned to head up Reaper defense but its such a shock to see. No one ever comes out and explains it. Its jarring.

Even with the bad I played this game for 5 hours yesterday. Its a Mass Effect game alright and thus far I really like it. But I can see why people got upset with Bioware. The game is certainly more shooty and actiony rather than RPG(y?).

[Beskar]

I have been told for spoilerish reasons that if you do not, you get really bad endings. Apparently, there are major plot hooks in the first two games which decides many factors. So if you got saved files or even just going to do one of those "I picked these options edited" save files, I suggest you use them. It really meant to penalise those who are starting anew (like me, since I got xbox version)

[Monk]

I have been told for spoilerish reasons that if you do not, you get really bad endings.

If you mean the war readiness, yeah. It was mentioned in a PC Gamer article that if you dont play MP and go into the epilogue at 50% readiness (default) your ending is incredibly bleak. Bioware has commented that its possible to ignore MP... but due to the readiness penalty if you do you'll need to 100% SP content to get the same result.

Tracking my readiness progress i'm at 71% galactic readiness after about 5 or 6 co-op wins.

Apparently, there are major plot hooks in the first two games which decides many factors. So if you got saved files or even just going to do one of those "I picked these options edited" save files, I suggest you use them. It really meant to penalise those who are starting anew (like me, since I got xbox version)

From some of the spoilers I have seen, they have been disappointing though. It really shoved a lot of "cannon" ME1 into the game, making ME2 feeling like some random interlude.

I can attest to that. There's a lot of callbacks to the previous games but they take two different flavors.

(no spoilers but discussing how the game mechanics are laid out. Some people might not want the minor surprise ruined.)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

ME1: You get into a situation where something you did from ME1 has seriously impacted what is about to go down. In some cases that means living with harsh consequences. I'm fairly certain I am gonna regret a few of my choices from the first game before this day is done..

ME2: One of your former team members contacts you and you solve a problem. It's usually personal, and usually something done within 30-45 minutes (ie a typical side-quest fluff). Sometimes they don't want anything and just want to talk, resulting in a good 10-15 min of dialogue. Unlike the ME1 callbacks, they dont seem to mean a whole lot and are just there for spice. Still welcome though.

I'll say that cameos in ME3 are handled much better than they were in ME2.

[Crazed Rabbit]

So, if one has not bought ME3 yet, would this expansion make it worthwhile? I held off originally because of everything I heard about the terrible ending.

CR

[Kekvit Irae]

So, if one has not bought ME3 yet, would this expansion make it worthwhile? I held off originally because of everything I heard about the terrible ending.

CR

You should buy ME3. It's actually a really good game with a surprisingly-good multiplayer and a good storyline. Just be sure to turn the game off during the final stretch and make up your own ending.

[Hooahguy]

The only thing that is holding me back from ME3 is the fact that I lost all my ME 1&2 savegames. For me its like Building the walls and the interior of a house, and then have it knocked down. And then being asked to build the roof.

[seireikhaan]

So, if one has not bought ME3 yet, would this expansion make it worthwhile? I held off originally because of everything I heard about the terrible ending.

CR

I'd say it is, but you could probably hold out for a sale or something. The gameplay, imo, is the best of the series by a small landslide. The main downside, imo, is the on-the-rails plot. Like, even more than 2's was. The ending is what it is. If you feel strongly that it's about the journey, not the destination, it's definitely solid.

[rajpoot]

All right I finally managed to download and played the EC for myself, and aside from a few weird moments, it's a fitting end....at least after the original ending.
Closure...kind of. I'll probably write a little story for myself, about how it really ends afterwards. The star child is certainly more bearable now. It appears he started all of this by screwing over his original creators, ala I, Robot. Makes it easier to choose destroy. As far as EDI and Geth are concerned, I think there's wiggle room there, just as there is for Shepard with high EMS.

All in all, it could've been so much better had they simply gone with the Dark Energy thing, as it was supposed to be originally, but now I guess, this will do.

I was going to uninstall the game, till I heard about the Leviathan.


Why didn't Harbinger shoot the Normandy?

[thefluffyone93]

Top Comment on Youtube regarding the Refusal Ending

"Bioware's response to everyone wanting a "shoot the god child" ending.
Damn..now that's some professional trolling."

Couldn't agree more.