Mass Effect 3. Now with free DLC!

myp · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 17:41

Much lolage in this thread. It's like the Dark Souls one but in reverse.

Bamba · **Joined:** 25th Jul, 2010 **Posts:** 11128

myp wrote:

Much lolage in this thread. It's like the Dark Souls one but in reverse.

In what respect?

Dimrill · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 17:53

Thread's not proper.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 18:12

I downloaded the demo last night but played Skyrim instead.

I will probably get this game as I like the first two.

NervousPete · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 18:20

I really enjoyed Mass Effect 2, and I thought the combat was better than the first too. I really didn't like the stupid gun upgrade system in the first one, where you had ten billion different weapons all almost exactly the same and with only fractionally different names. And I actually enjoyed the plot in ME2, even the ending. It was a suitably creepy leadup to what was endearingly rather a clumsy Hammer Horror monster. And Mordin the Gilbert & Sullivan spouting scientist is great, as is, yes, Wrex and Garrus. Thane can get to fuck with his irritating fast-cutting memory recall thing, though.

But yes! ME3! Ooh, I'm excited. Especially since it'll run on mine at recommended settings - thanks programmer people! FemShep fun ahoy! (Mine looks like Bea from The Wire.)

Trooper · **Joined:** 4th Mar, 2010 **Posts:** 22277

Apparently you can opt to play this one of three ways in the settings.

Story mode, easy combat, all dialogue options
RPG mode, normal combat, all dialogue options
Shooty mode, normal combat, predetermined cutscenes.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 18:26

NervousPete wrote:

But yes! ME3! Ooh, I'm excited. Especially since it'll run on mine at recommended settings

It will run on all our 360's Pete.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 19:24

My view: I liked the second one much more than the first.

The combat was greatly improved. Although it still had that thing of spending much of the time in combat hiding behind walls waiting for a bar to refill before I could continue. (But that's an issue in most modern combat games - with from my view, only the Halo and Gears series really getting the recharging health thing entirely correct.)

It was also a bit less samey than the first. Although I felt I'd seen all that combat had to offer quite a bit before the end.

It didn't have the shit vehicle thing, either. Which was good.

Although I did find certain elements of the plot to feel quite contrived.

WTB · **Joined:** 27th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 14497

I liked the vehicle thing!

metalangel · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 23:18

While I enjoyed the first one and felt it suitably epic, the EA stench hadn't set in yet. From what I've read, it infested ME2. Tons of features taken out in the name of 'streamlining', the actual story dribbled out over the course of a year in DLC, fuck off.

Luckily, ME1 felt suitably self-contained that I can happily not play the sequels and feel satisfied that Aurora Shephard had a proper adventure.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 23:41

I never bought any DLC for ME2 and it never felt lacking anywhere.

metalangel · **Posted:** Wed Feb 15, 2012 23:47

Not even in how the sequel failed to resolve much of your relationship (if you'd pursued it) with Liara?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:06

No. I was more of a Laser Lass than a Lettuce Licker.

Bamba · **Joined:** 25th Jul, 2010 **Posts:** 11128

Played the demo last night* and it was alright. The story starts off strong, if very abruptly, but I can see it making a good excuse to roam the galaxy doing missions which is all it needs to be for. Combat still isn't as tight as it could I feel and there were a few ocassions when I couldn't get into cover when I wanted to or when I'd jump a barrier rather than sticking to it. I'm sure I'll get used to it's foibles though during a proper playthrough as I did last time. I'd forgotten how good the weapons actually felt in ME though, each gun sounds and feels like you're seriously fucking someone's shit up and it's all very satisfying stuff; as is the melee attack which is pretty useful, if a bit difficult to line yourself up for in the heat of battle. I'm hoping they've done something better this time with the Paragon/Renegade system as last time there was no point doing anything but either always picking Paragon responses or always picking Renegade ones, which slightly undermined the actual role-playing aspect of it. Oh, and as someone mentioned earlier you do get the option right at the start to play the game one of three ways: story (easy combat but full conversational options); roleplaying (normal combat and full conversational options) or action (normal combat and no conversational options, everything plays out as pre-determined cutscenes). Although I'll play it in the normal way I think this is a cool idea to make it as accessible as possible to any type of player. I wonder how it works in the action version though, do you just always gets the best possible outcome you could get? And do you still get to choose which sidequests to do, or is your entire path pre-determined?

Wow, that's a pure wall o'text there. It's just random thoughts though and not really worth breaking up to be honest.

*Which is strange in itself as I'm a silver member, have EA maybe paid MS a whack of cash to vault that usual barrier? That's an interesting precedent to set.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32619

This sounds interesting.

Quote:

Anyway, we were talking about Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer, and why it does not suck, and why it feels like an actual game and not like the multiplayer cyst which sometimes grows on long-running franchises. I wanted to know how it all feeds back into the single player, and I could have used Google, but I prefer to learn things from people when I can. I thought you might be curious about these connections as well, so asked him if I could post his response.

His response follows.

Quote:

As you know, Mass Effect 3 is all about the galactic war with the Reapers. We have designed a system to give players a status update on the state of their personal war as they progress through the game and accumulate war assets so they can take the fight back to the Reapers. The more you succeed in the game, the more war assets you earn and the more prepared you are to enter the final stages of the game.

An addition to this system is the Galaxy at War, which shows the player who controls which territories on the Galaxy Map and gives players an opportunity to enhance the total military strength of the galaxy by participating in optional things like Multiplayer, the iPhone app and the iPad game. You can get best possible outcome in the game by just playing single player if you want, as long as you are willing to do a lot of the side missions and content. However, maybe you only want to do a critical path run of the single player. Well, by playing multiplayer you also increase your galactic readiness rating can affect the final outcome. Using the iPhone Datapad app and the iPad Infiltrator game will also tie into Galaxy at War and update this final rating.

As a result, you can play the game how you want and not be negatively punished if you don’t want to play multiplayer or don’t own any iOS devices. You can do a little bit of all the four pieces and be able to get the best possible outcome. Or you can play a ton of multiplayer and just the critical single player stuff. Or just single player and all the side missions. We designed the system to give players choices, but also tie all the products together in a meaningful way beyond ‘unlock a new gun in single player.’ Galaxy at War is a really fun, interesting meta-game that is part of Mass Effect 3 and we think players will love it when they get the final game.

"He", there, is Manveer Heir, one of the game's designers.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

I have downloaded the demo.

I have skipped through 15-20 cut scenes and it's not even started yet.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

It looks the biz. Sweet.

I'm a space marine. I am following my commander who is endlessly nattering away and fucking me off quite badly. My attempts to execute him are wasted and he doesn't seem to notice. He's too busy asking me to crouch down.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

I have selected generic backstory C. I'm an army brat and sole survivor having seen my friends killed in combat. I'm clearly late twenties/early thirties and battle hardened.

Sarge is telling me to pick up ammo and reload.... *sigh*

The enemies are painfully dull with little character despite the backdrop being a sexy full scale invasion of the world. Outside there is a stupidly awesome fight going on. Inside I'm murdering blue zombies that disappear with little effort.

Don't let them touch you says Sarge, despite me having already wiped them out single handily seconds earlier without there being any fear that one might even turn to face me let alone attack me.

metalangel · **Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 19:29

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=309

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

HE WON'T SHUT THE FUCK UP.

Thankfully he's pissed off and will hopefully be squashed by a giant metal squid. I eye the menu which ominously has the word SQUAD centre stage. I fear more endless army banter.

The boy in the vent bit the dust as well and there was no remorse on my characters face. This is pleasing as he couldn't have given a shit either.

The cover system is nice and snapping to cover is pleasingly easy with no mistake or confusion. Seems fine to me. The over the shoulder view is a smudge too close but I'm just nit picking. It's alright. He must have the most hilarious chicken run though.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

Demo finished and I can safely say, it's not for me. Bland generic man and beast alike. Combat is ok but bland even with little perks thrown in. The script is dreadful as can be expected. It just didn't sell it well enough to me despite looking like it might be reasonably epic. Shame.

MrPSB · **Posted:** Fri Feb 24, 2012 22:16

I enjoyed the first and second ones very much and will be getting hold of the third at some point although not right away probably because I'm balls deep in Xenoblade which is AMAZEBALLS.

I am somewhat confused how long has passed and what has happened since the end of ME2 though, based on the demo. Maybe it's all done as FLAHSBACKS depending on what you did in ME2.

Satsuma · **Joined:** 20th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 14362

MrPSB wrote:

probably because I'm balls deep in Xenoblade which is AMAZEBALLS.

Why hasn't this got its own thread? I gotta start seriously looking for this before it disappears with the wii.

MrPSB · **Posted:** Sun Feb 26, 2012 13:29

I was unsure because people kept saying the combat was like FF12 which was the one thing in ff12 I got really fed up with to the extent i abandoned it, so despite the good reviews held off. Had 20 quid of amazon vouchers which knocked it down to 3 quid so I took the plunge. Would have been happy if I'd just paid the 23 quid for it.

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

Over the weekend, I remembered I actually bought the Shadow Broker and Arrival DLCs, but never actually played them.. Bonus! Both are actually pretty good. Shadow Broker is slightly better, but Arrival is the one that bridges to ME3 and explains why you're no longer in the military at the start of 3.

Speaking of which, I enjoyed the ME3 demo too, and I can't wait to slot 'my' Shephard in there.

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

metalangel wrote:

Not even in how the sequel failed to resolve much of your relationship (if you'd pursued it) with Liara?

To be honest, no. I think that the game works perfectly well without the Shadow Broker DLC.

Liara is pretty cold when you meet her, she hasn't seen you for two years, and the last she knew you were very dead indeed. Plus she's been doing her own thing... It comes off as an awkward meeting, and its made pretty clear that Liara's changed, but Shep hasn't.

I wouldn't say the DLC even improves the relationship.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 14:16

That cretin Whitehead gave it 10/10, so it must be cack.

Why have I just preordered it then?

Zardoz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 14:28

Because they haven't made Dark Souls 2 yet.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 18:25

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

This sounds interesting.

Quote:

Anyway, we were talking about Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer, and why it does not suck, and why it feels like an actual game and not like the multiplayer cyst which sometimes grows on long-running franchises. I wanted to know how it all feeds back into the single player, and I could have used Google, but I prefer to learn things from people when I can. I thought you might be curious about these connections as well, so asked him if I could post his response.

His response follows.

Quote:

As you know, Mass Effect 3 is all about the galactic war with the Reapers. We have designed a system to give players a status update on the state of their personal war as they progress through the game and accumulate war assets so they can take the fight back to the Reapers. The more you succeed in the game, the more war assets you earn and the more prepared you are to enter the final stages of the game.

An addition to this system is the Galaxy at War, which shows the player who controls which territories on the Galaxy Map and gives players an opportunity to enhance the total military strength of the galaxy by participating in optional things like Multiplayer, the iPhone app and the iPad game. You can get best possible outcome in the game by just playing single player if you want, as long as you are willing to do a lot of the side missions and content. However, maybe you only want to do a critical path run of the single player. Well, by playing multiplayer you also increase your galactic readiness rating can affect the final outcome. Using the iPhone Datapad app and the iPad Infiltrator game will also tie into Galaxy at War and update this final rating.

As a result, you can play the game how you want and not be negatively punished if you don’t want to play multiplayer or don’t own any iOS devices. You can do a little bit of all the four pieces and be able to get the best possible outcome. Or you can play a ton of multiplayer and just the critical single player stuff. Or just single player and all the side missions. We designed the system to give players choices, but also tie all the products together in a meaningful way beyond ‘unlock a new gun in single player.’ Galaxy at War is a really fun, interesting meta-game that is part of Mass Effect 3 and we think players will love it when they get the final game.

"He", there, is Manveer Heir, one of the game's designers.

It sounds incredibly shit

I knew that Cretin Whitehead couldn't be correct.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 18:32

That's... less than encouraging.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 18:40

Dimrill wrote:

That's... less than encouraging.

If it's to be believed, either endless planet scanning of even more dullness than ME2 or grindy MP where they try and ship you plenty of DLC to make it less grindy.

Well, if you're interested in MP, there will be a Dave around, I suppose.

Unless it's shit, in which case I may rely on youtube.

Pundabaya · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 5016

Fuck the multiplayer, if everyone dies, then so be it. SO BE IT.

myp · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 20:15

I still need to finish ME1.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Wed Mar 07, 2012 15:24

I actually can't afford this new. A rarity for me.

metalangel · **Posted:** Wed Mar 07, 2012 16:00

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03 ... review-pc/

Interesting. While he loves the story, he wishes he'd chosen "story" mode as there's still far too much combat, and it's far too boring (all bullet sponge enemies) even in RPG mode.

That Vagina Helper woman may have been right, options to skip are needed, though perhaps if you think people want to skip you need to ask first if your game stops being fun too quickly.

Not that interested by ME3. Still haven't played ME2, both because it's EA and because there's still no GOTY with all the cut content (sorry, "DLC") included for 360.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Thu Mar 08, 2012 19:27

It's here...

Attachment:

mooseeffect3.jpg

So far, a distinct lack of Rutting, tactical or otherwise.

Indeed, a distinct lack of mooses.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Thu Mar 08, 2012 20:57

Mmm, so far it's basically been combat (Of which much time has been spent hiding waiting for bars to increase). I'm just willing this section to end as I'm getting a bit bored.

metalangel · **Posted:** Thu Mar 08, 2012 21:06

What mode are you playing in, Dave? RPS guy recommended Story and to not use pistols or sniper rifles as the whole game is about shooting bullet sponge enemies and neither of those fire fast enough.

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Thu Mar 08, 2012 21:36

metalangel wrote:

What mode are you playing in, Dave? RPS guy recommended Story and to not use pistols or sniper rifles as the whole game is about shooting bullet sponge enemies and neither of those fire fast enough.

If I've had that option, I didn't see it.

metalangel · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 0:11

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... /9513640/1

:DD

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 0:19

metalangel wrote:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9513640/1

:DD

Are you chuckling about the fact that English seems to be represented by a canadian flag or the contents of the post?
I just stuck with the default male face, and so unsurprisingly have no issues.

devilman · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 0:31

Mr Dave wrote:

metalangel wrote:

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9513640/1

:DD

Are you chuckling about the fact that English seems to be represented by a canadian flag or the contents of the post?
I just stuck with the default male face, and so unsurprisingly have no issues.

I'm amazed that the discussion on it stretches to 140 pages.

Dimrill · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 0:34

devilman wrote:

I'm amazed that the discussion on it stretches to 140 pages.

To be fair, 99.9% of it is along the lines of:

NOWAI!
WAI!
LOLZ!
FAIL!
LOLZ!
NOWAI!
NYAN!
LOLZ!
WAI!

metalangel · **Posted:** Sat Mar 10, 2012 0:49

I'm chuckling because (I'm not going to quote that 'betrayal' thing) one of the very first things you do, before you're even actually playing the game, is completely broken. Something you think they'd have tested. Something that's very important to fans of the game.

Have you seen our launch DLC yet?

TheCookie197 · **Joined:** 23rd Sep, 2010 **Posts:** 729

Finished.

myp · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2012 18:47

So much discussion about the game since it came out - it must have been awesome.

myp · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2012 18:48

Cookie197 wrote:

Finished.

Did you miss anything?

Mr Dave · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2012 18:51

myp wrote:

So much discussion about the game since it came out - it must have been awesome.

I'm not exactly gripped by it (as can be told that I only played it for a few hours before changing to another game I'd bought.

I may wait until there's someone I want to play the MP with, as I can't be bothered doing the planet scanning shite.

TheCookie197 · **Joined:** 23rd Sep, 2010 **Posts:** 729

myp wrote:

Cookie197 wrote:

Finished.

Did you miss anything?

I didn't do all the side quests, I went with paragon. When i play through again, I will go through and make sure i do everything (and go with Renegade) Including all side quests, And as many achievements as i can.

metalangel · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2012 18:54

Be Excellent To Each Other

Mass Effect 3. Now with free DLC!
Are we sure it's an EA game?

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

Mass Effect 3. Now with free DLC! Are we sure it's an EA game?

Who is online

Mass Effect 3. Now with free DLC!
Are we sure it's an EA game?