[General Battuta]

"Let's get rid of the infinite ammo we technobabbled into the first game by technobabbling limited ammo as a better alternative!" "Yeah, all right, sounds like a great idea!" - Bioware writing staff.

Even in fairly late iterations of ME2, they had a best-of-both-worlds system in game: when you used up all your heatsinks, your gun would go back to an ME1 overheat model. But they pulled it because it didn't feel right.

[Klaustrophobia]

"Let's get rid of the infinite ammo we technobabbled into the first game by technobabbling limited ammo as a better alternative!" "Yeah, all right, sounds like a great idea!" - Bioware writing staff.

Even in fairly late iterations of ME2, they had a best-of-both-worlds system in game: when you used up all your heatsinks, your gun would go back to an ME1 overheat model. But they pulled it because it didn't feel right.

well, at least it's good to know they weren't dumb enough to not think of this at all, and it came down to gameplay choice.  what i thought would have made sense would be to have the normal behavior mostly like ME1 with the cooldown, but you have a couple extra heatsinks you can swap out if you can't wait for the cooldown.

dragon, yeah, it CAN be rather forcefully handwaved and technobabbled.  my view is that it really shouldn't be when we already had the better by comparison ME1.  and technobabble aside, ME1's was WAY better gameplay.

[Aesaar]

magically pumping all the heat into a little block and sealing it away there indefinitely.  the same flawed concept that popped up back in the 'stealth in space' thread we had not too long ago with "storing" the ship's heat in internal "reservoirs."

Except that it's not storing the heat in thermal clips indefinitely.  It's putting heat in there, and then getting rid of the whole block, leaving it to cool on its own.  They might have had it cool down over time, but ME1's still makes less sense, seeing as how the weapons had no coolant to replenish, they weren't air cooled (because they work fine in a vacuum), and they don't have big radiator panels anywhere on them.  How were they cooled? Magic heat sinks. 

It is possible to tweak Coalesced.ini so the weapons work like they do in ME1, but I find I want to reload most of the time anyway.

ME1's was WAY better gameplay.

I completely disagree.   Quit saying that as though it was a statement of fact.  It is not.

[General Battuta]

Yeah I went back recently and ME1 is borderline unplayable.

[Scotty]

Honestly I think my biggest problem with ME1 when I try to go back to it isn't the overheating.  It's the "Pay skillpoints for the ability to actually shoot well" part of the skill advancement.  Turning it into a decent fusion of FPS and RPG was a great decision for ME2, compared to ME1's RPG but with a few shooter bits.

[Madrox]

ME 2 was for me, the apex of the story.

[Hades]

Not to mention the absolutely FUBARed class balance where adepts were literally the best thing ever

[MP-Ryan]

ME3 built on ME2's gameplay and improved it, making powers more versatile and generally making a fun combat experience into a great one, especially with the variety introduced in enemies and maps and the ekimination of heavy weapons except as weapons of opportunity.  It is unfortunate that it also had the most annoying story components.

ME1's combat system is awful.  The story and depth is great, but the gameplay in combat is repetitive, boring, and frustrating beyond measure in some places.  And it had the usual RPG problem that Shepard was weak in the first part, making it difficult, and godlike as the game wore on, making it easy and boring.

Rebuild ME's story with ME3's gameplay and I am so there.

[Aesaar]

ME3's great gameplay is why the multiplayer is enjoyable.

[General Battuta]

The encumbrance system was the best way I've ever seen to balance 'casters' and 'fighters' while still allowing a ton of flexibility.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Gotta agree with what's been said before: ME1 had a rather frakked up balance. Playing on the highest difficulty setting wasn't really challenging, it was annoying:
-->Fighting the geth - no problem, I've been able to tear through them like butter with virtually any class without any trouble.
-->Fighting backwater mercenaries, pirates and other humanoids - they are running frelling everywhere like assholes, actually denting my shields and health and being walking running tanks.

ME2's gameplay, while it had its flaws, was much more fun to me than ME1's.
Still haven't had the chance to try out ME3 :s

[Madrox]

Gotta agree with what's been said before: ME1 had a rather frakked up balance. Playing on the highest difficulty setting wasn't really challenging, it was annoying:
-->Fighting the geth - no problem, I've been able to tear through them like butter with virtually any class without any trouble.
-->Fighting backwater mercenaries, pirates and other humanoids - they are running frelling everywhere like assholes, actually denting my shields and health and being walking running tanks.

ME2's gameplay, while it had its flaws, was much more fun to me than ME1's.
Still haven't had the chance to try out ME3 :s

Gameplay-wise, ME3 is the best game of the series...
sotry-wise tough...

[newman]

Frankly, I don't get why people grieve so much for ME1 combat and skill tree. Both were horrible. ME2 at least made combat more fun, and since they didn't go after a meaningfully complex skill tree, the simplified it so it isn't a bloated bunch of generic progress bars (or at least, a smaller one) like it was in ME1. We can talk about how great Deus Ex 1 did this and all, but between ME1 and ME2, I find the gameplay in 2 more fun. It's not really dumbing down when the first one was dumb too I'd take dumb and fun over dumb and needlessly convoluted any day of the week.
As for reloads, sure it's not "realistic" that you have super high tech infinite ammo guns on ME1, then suddenly need to eject thermal clips in 2. But realism took second place to game dynamics, and reloading does add a nice dimension to firefights, realistic or not (frankly, looking for realism in Mass Effect is a bit like looking for common sense in a Michael Bay movie..)

[MP-Ryan]

The encumbrance system was the best way I've ever seen to balance 'casters' and 'fighters' while still allowing a ton of flexibility.

Well, not so great in multi.  Without class restriction, it means any weapon light enough for casters automatically gets nerfed into oblivion because it's way overpowered on dedicated combat classes.

Encumbrance plus class bonuses for certain weapons would be better in multi, but too late now.