Mass Effect 3

[Whoo]

ME3 is coming out this Tuesday in NA and on Friday in Europe. Here's the launch trailer:

Anyone else here getting it? I've had a copy reserved since June and I'm really looking forward to playing it.

[kristus]

Heard people were looking to boycott it because of some BS day one DLC shenanigans by Bioware and EA.

[Whoo]

Yeah there's some bullshit $10 day-one DLC that involves a character that might be crucial to the game's lore. I feel bad for the people that are getting the standard version (and pissed at EA/BioWare for doing this.)

[Sharessa]

As much as Bioware annoys me these days, I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt. I haven't played ME2 yet, either. I'll probably get ME3 when the GOTY edition is on sale or something.

[BouncyTEM]

Whoo said:

Yeah there's some bullshit $10 day-one DLC that involves a character that might be crucial to the game's lore. I feel bad for the people that are getting the standard version (and pissed at EA/BioWare for doing this.)

Okay, this really needs to be cleared up for good. I keep seeing it left and right.

The character will still *be* in the game regardless of DLC. The DLC just allows the character to be a *party member* that you can pick to actively do stuff with you. The crucial plot stuff will be there regardless. It's not as extreme as people are making it out to be.

Still a dick move to do day 1 dlc like this, though.

[exl]

I'm halfway through Mass Effect 2. Looking forward to next week!

[Technician]

kristus said:

Heard people were looking to boycott it because of some BS day one DLC shenanigans by Bioware and EA.

I found the Jennifer "Hamburger" Helper incident more of a put-off of Bioware than anything else. DLC is almost a standard we have to accept at this point.

Look it up, LOLs were had.

[Liam]

kristus said:

Heard people were looking to boycott it because of some BS day one DLC shenanigans by Bioware and EA.

this has been standard fare since the EA merger, see shale in DAO and zaeed in mass 2. it's always been totally lame but i dont know why the bioware fanbase would suddenly be up in arms.

anyway, mass 2 (with the exception of a small few inspired moments) sucked a whole burlap sack of dicks and mass 3 is most likely going to suck at least a small handbag's worth. it's kind of a tired point to make but EA really has killed bioware, at least the bioware that made BG, KOTOR, mass 1, and DAO. not just through embarrassing marketing and DLC nickel-and-diming, but through putting a studio known for 3-4 year dev cycles on a yearly release schedule. and i doubt that the major changes in design direction seen in their recent titles was a totally internal decision.

at least the romance novel / dating sim / team edward aspect of their old niche- the red-headed stepchildren of the old BG community- is still there and pleased as punch, oh yes.

[Whoo]

Bouncy said:

Okay, this really needs to be cleared up for good. I keep seeing it left and right.

The character will still *be* in the game regardless of DLC. The DLC just allows the character to be a *party member* that you can pick to actively do stuff with you. The crucial plot stuff will be there regardless. It's not as extreme as people are making it out to be.

Still a dick move to do day 1 dlc like this, though.

Oh, well I don't know how the gaming community misinterpreted it that badly then.

exl said:

I'm halfway through Mass Effect 2. Looking forward to next week!

I liked ME2, but I honestly thought it felt a tad rushed. Still hasn't faltered my excitement for ME3 though.

Liam said:

anyway, mass 2 (with the exception of a small few inspired moments) sucked a whole burlap sack of dicks and mass 3 is most likely going to suck at least a small handbag's worth. it's kind of a tired point to make but EA really has killed bioware, at least the bioware that made BG, KOTOR, mass 1, and DAO. not just through embarrassing marketing and DLC nickel-and-diming, but through putting a studio known for 3-4 year dev cycles on a yearly release schedule. and i doubt that the major changes in design direction seen in their recent titles was a totally internal decision.

ME2 to me just felt like a way to rush the series to the finale. I loved the ending (minus the really unoriginal boss), and a few of the loyalty missions really stuck out in terms of depth and quality.

I do have to agree with you on your comment about EA, though. As much as I liked the combat in the demo I'd much rather have the heavy RPG system back and I still think EA had something to do with the disposal of it.

Liam said:

at least the romance novel / dating sim / team edward aspect of their old niche- the red-headed stepchildren of the old BG community- is still there and pleased as punch, oh yes.

I first tried the romance subplots in ME2. While they add depth to the characters, the majority of them are really cliched and cheesy.

[Bucket]

I'll play this when they bundle the whole trilogy on the PS3. So, they better get cracking on those ME1 publishing rights.

[DoomUK]

Looking forward to it immensely. I might not get it on release day but it's an obligatory purchase for me all the same. I fucking love my Mass Effect.

Liam said:

anyway, mass 2 (with the exception of a small few inspired moments) sucked a whole burlap sack of dicks

Care to elaborate, son?

I thought it improved on ME1 in almost every aspect.

[DooM_RO]

I enjoyed the hell out of ME1 and 2 and have spent 40 hours just on the ME3 multiplayer, finishing the gold challenge was VERY rewarding.I can't wait for my Collector's Edition!

[Liam]

DoomUK said:
Care to elaborate, son?

I thought it improved on ME1 in almost every aspect.

sure. mass 2 is a cover shooter, with full regen in cover, that offers no credible threat to force you from cover. even on "insanity" difficulty it's for babies. the party-joinable NPCs are comic book caricatures with no reason to exist save that The Illusive Man read the script in advance. weapon mods, armor mods, grenades, inventory system in general, gone. entire "reaper" main plotline went full retard. harbinger. boss fights with glowy red weak spots. the citadel is now two stories of merch kiosks. "you've got mail" where mass 1 dialogue choices were supposed to have an impact. shall i go on?

[DooM_RO]

Liam said:

sure. mass 2 is a cover shooter, with full regen in cover, that offers no credible threat to force you from cover. even on "insanity" difficulty it's for babies. the party-joinable NPCs are comic book caricatures with no reason to exist save that The Illusive Man read the script in advance. weapon mods, armor mods, grenades, inventory system in general, gone. entire "reaper" main plotline went full retard. harbinger. boss fights with glowy red weak spots. the citadel is now two stories of merch kiosks. "you've got mail" where mass 1 dialogue choices were supposed to have an impact. shall i go on?

The combat in ME3 has been SIGNIFICANTLY improved.Your health is segmented in multiple bars and only one will regenerate, to fully heal yourself, you have to use medigel, not to mention that enemies are much more diverse and much more dangerous and smart.Also, the weapon mods are even better than in ME1 because you can actually see them and each upgrade looks different.The multiplayer is also very fun and also very difficult. Team play is paramount and beating a single map on gold is quite an achievement.Don't believe me?Just try the demo.If you guys wanna play some matches add me Cyberdemon_1542

I'm not really sure about the story since I've not played the game yet , but I'm sure BioWare won't dissapoint.

[Khorus]

I played through ME 1 a couple of years back and had a good enough time. Wasn't able to get very far in a second playthrough, though, as going over the exact same content even as renegade felt very pointless with little room to do anything differently. I put about 6 hours into ME 2 but hated the hell out of it. It was all combat - cutscene - combat - cutscene. It plays like a movie, and any choice feels pointless. At least DX: HR had a better understanding of flow and more fluid, open level design.

I have no interest in ME 3 as it looks to be just as jarring as 2.

[DoomUK]

Liam said:

shall i go on?

Nope, you're entitled to your opinions and preferences I guess.







Bastard.

[WreakingHavoc]

stupid ass advertising plant

[Belial]

Ignoring it, like I ignored ME2.

[caco_killer]

Liam said:

anyway, mass 2 (with the exception of a small few inspired moments) sucked a whole burlap sack of dicks and mass 3 is most likely going to suck at least a small handbag's worth. it's kind of a tired point to make but EA really has killed bioware, at least the bioware that made BG, KOTOR, mass 1, and DAO. not just through embarrassing marketing and DLC nickel-and-diming, but through putting a studio known for 3-4 year dev cycles on a yearly release schedule. and i doubt that the major changes in design direction seen in their recent titles was a totally internal decision.

What are you talking about? Only Dragon Age 2 had a short development time.

[Avoozl]

I bought ME2 after seeing it in a game store for only $23 5 days ago and it only took me 3-4 days to finish, however I'm not so sure I should get ME3 straight away or just wait until it goes down in price like I did with ME2, I hate how they go about with all the free dlc on certain special editions as a seperate download rather than adding it on the disc of the special edition in the first place because there are people living in like say rural areas who play the "internet activation required" games don't have a good enough internet connection to do more than just activate the games and maybe sometimes be able to download a patch at at least a 10-50mb size max, I never managed to play the first because I figured the style of play to be similar to games like kotor and dragon age origins with the whole point and click at the enemy to autofire by itself so I avoided the mass effect series, well the low price of the second got me buying it and was suprised that it wasn't the same style of play to those other games after all and after finishing it I started to regret not getting the first, I don't know what to expect with the third but I heard it is at least the same length to play as the second but it won't get any mod tools and minor things were taken out like the player controlled holstering of weapons action bind due to ps3 memory limits.

[Nomad]

I liked ME2. There was a lot of stuff I missed from ME1, but I don't think it really killed the game as much as everyone claims. Definitely gonna get ME3, but am going to wait for a Steam sale.

[exl]

Nomad said:

Definitely gonna get ME3, but am going to wait for a Steam sale.

It's Origin only. Do they even have sales?

[Liam]

DooM_RO said:

The combat in ME3 has been SIGNIFICANTLY improved...

I'm not really sure about the story since I've not played the game yet, but I'm sure BioWare won't dissapoint.

i don't get why being able to see the weapon mods makes them better, but thanks for the heads up otherwise. and i may just try the demo as i get my first real day off in months soon. as for the story, bioware have kind of been disappointing in that aspect since dragon age awakenings, i'm not as hardline about that though.

caco_killer said:

What are you talking about? Only Dragon Age 2 had a short development time.

you are correct, i must have been blinded by nerd rage. it's been longer since mass 2's release than i remember.

[Nomad]

exl said:

It's Origin only. Do they even have sales?

Whaaaaaaat? Fuck that then. Steam'll probably get it eventually, though.

[Whoo]

Nomad said:

Whaaaaaaat? Fuck that then. Steam'll probably get it eventually, though.

Nope. EA doesn't like the way Steam handles DLC and game updates so all of their future games will be Origin exclusive.

[Technician]

Good old EA...

[Nomad]

I'm sure Origin is an OK platform and all, but it's not wise to alienate an entire audience of would be consumers over such a trivial thing. I've no interest in having 39235074587 distribution platforms on my PC, especially when Steam is good enough. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually they relinquish distribution rights to some of their games after a couple years at least.

[Avoozl]

Origin seems to be more forgiving to slower internet connections as it doesn't force you to update the platform and games before enabling offline mode.

[Enjay]

I can't imagine a company like Game taking a moral stance on the DLC thing so this is probably just due to financial problems as the story indicates:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17210489

[Whoo]

Nomad said:

I'm sure Origin is an OK platform and all, but it's not wise to alienate an entire audience of would be consumers over such a trivial thing. I've no interest in having 39235074587 distribution platforms on my PC, especially when Steam is good enough. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually they relinquish distribution rights to some of their games after a couple years at least.

Yeah the BioWare community was pretty mad when they finally announced ME3 was going to use Origin. Good news however is that you only need to use Origin once to activate the game; after that you can play SP without running it.

Enjay said:

I can't imagine a company like Game taking a moral stance on the DLC thing so this is probably just due to financial problems as the story indicates:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/17210489

Every article I've read says about the same thing: GAME couldn't afford to pay EA what they were asking to distribute copies.

In other news this guy uploaded the ME3 soundtrack (which is available now for Origin pre-orders), and I have to say the tracks are pretty amazing.