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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: General Battuta on December 11, 2010, 11:15:16 pm

Title: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 11, 2010, 11:15:16 pm
In spite of its faults, Mass Effect 2 was one of my favorite games of ever.

I'm not totally sold on this new one yet. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363) It's pretty clear what the metaplot will be. Need to wait to see more.

Christina Norman has stated she wants to move the gameplay back towards a little more RPG-rich style.

Bring back aaaaaall ME2 squadmates.  :mad:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 11, 2010, 11:24:37 pm
I would like to see Wrex come back as a squad mate, along with some new faces too. and I've love to see more Republic Commando implementation for squad-based combat, where they can revive you when you're down, etc and 3 squad mates instead of two.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on December 11, 2010, 11:29:37 pm
I'm not totally sold on this new one yet. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363) It's pretty clear what the metaplot will be. Need to wait to see more.

Wah wah wah Battuta wants more originality. :P Screw that! It's in the execution, and I really doubt Bioware will proceed to **** this up after the last two games.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 11, 2010, 11:32:47 pm
****, that's awesome. :D

Bring back aaaaaall ME2 squadmates.  :mad:
:yes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 11, 2010, 11:42:04 pm
I'm not totally sold on this new one yet. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363) It's pretty clear what the metaplot will be. Need to wait to see more.

Wah wah wah Battuta wants more originality. :P Screw that! It's in the execution, and I really doubt Bioware will proceed to **** this up after the last two games.

I don't care about originality, I just want it to steer away from cliched suck like some of the Mass Effect 2 story elements. Why they didn't stick with the draft script for the whole purpose of the Collector abductions is beyond me (and beyond the ex-Bioware writer I talked to too; he was the guy who wrote Thane, Legion and EDI, as well as the original explanations for what the Collectors were doing.)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 11, 2010, 11:44:52 pm
WANT. NAO.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on December 11, 2010, 11:53:57 pm
I'm not totally sold on this new one yet. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363) It's pretty clear what the metaplot will be. Need to wait to see more.

Wah wah wah Battuta wants more originality. :P Screw that! It's in the execution, and I really doubt Bioware will proceed to **** this up after the last two games.

I don't care about originality, I just want it to steer away from cliched suck like some of the Mass Effect 2 story elements. Why they didn't stick with the draft script for the whole purpose of the Collector abductions is beyond me (and beyond the ex-Bioware writer I talked to too; he was the guy who wrote Thane, Legion and EDI, as well as the original explanations for what the Collectors were doing.)


Was that the one were they where mind-ripping their captives for the Reaver-Wiki? 
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on December 11, 2010, 11:59:42 pm
I don't care about originality, I just want it to steer away from cliched suck like some of the Mass Effect 2 story elements. Why they didn't stick with the draft script for the whole purpose of the Collector abductions is beyond me (and beyond the ex-Bioware writer I talked to too; he was the guy who wrote Thane, Legion and EDI, as well as the original explanations for what the Collectors were doing.)

And those of us who aren't compulsively seeking to trash things as cliched thought that it was a rather good way to build the Reapers up as true cthuloid monstrosities rather than Sovereign merely talking at us about it. (Like we're going to take the word of an enemy that they are ultimate badass incomprehensible death machines, for real guis! He means it! Show don't tell and other cliches.) The Human Reaper was, certainly, a failed art execution of the premise, but it demonstrably proved that the Reapers fall into the eldritch abomination category of being and deserved to be treated as such, instead of Berserker-esque rogue machines lacking in any form of menace.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 12:14:46 am
The whole concept they ended up using was fatally flawed because it rendered the Reapers into dependent, lamely Borg-esque things, merely human, instead of the Lovecraftian monstrosities they were supposed to be.

I wrote to one of Bioware's lead writers the minute I got done with the game and gave him an earful. Got a nice letter back, was a productive exchange. Nerfing the Reapers like that was the wrong thing to do, and I hope they take steps to make them true threats again instead of just lame.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on December 12, 2010, 12:22:55 am
The whole concept they ended up using was fatally flawed because it rendered the Reapers into dependent, lamely Borg-esque things, merely human, instead of the Lovecraftian monstrosities they were supposed to be.

I wrote to one of Bioware's lead writers the minute I got done with the game and gave him an earful. Got a nice letter back, was a productive exchange. Nerfing the Reapers like that was the wrong thing to do, and I hope they take steps to make them true threats again instead of just lame.

So basically your stance is that a combination enemy cannot be more than the sum of its parts...actually that it is less than the sum of its parts, and only as frightening as a single individual that has gone into it. If each individual Reaper is essentially the sum total of a civilization, these are the equivalent of a Culture Mind or similar entity. And if you think that sort of thing makes for a lame and unthreatening enemy...

At this point I have to assume you're being contradictory for the sake of it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 12:32:35 am
None of those points are connected to what I said, since my critique of the final draft has nothing to do with the 'combination enemy' (er?) trope.

In fact the original draft did a much better job of establishing those points without introducing any of the weaknesses that brought down the final.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on December 12, 2010, 01:27:07 am
So, am I the only one betting that the game won't start out with Earth under siege, but slip that in about half way through the game?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Turambar on December 12, 2010, 01:30:50 am
I'm guessing there's going to be stuff to do, but you'll have to choose to leave stuff un-done and rush to save earth or take your time while humans get turned into goo
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on December 12, 2010, 01:33:36 am
None of those points are connected to what I said, since my critique of the final draft has nothing to do with the 'combination enemy' (er?) trope.

Then you've completely failed to explain yourself in any meaningful way, since you were saying

Quote
rendered the Reapers into dependent, lamely Borg-esque things, merely human, instead of the Lovecraftian monstrosities they were supposed to be.

And I'm saying

If each individual Reaper is essentially the sum total of a civilization, these are the equivalent of a Culture Mind or similar entity.

Which is in direct response to your commentary that the Reapers are "merely human lamely Borg-esque" things. Since a Culture Mind is about as far from "merely human lamely Borg-esque" as you can get without proceeding to sodomize physical laws for the pure fun of it.

And actually the Borg have been known to do that, but maybe you've been watching too much Voyager and you've forgotten what they're like. :P

So what, then, is your real objection?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on December 12, 2010, 01:56:53 am
Seven million in a week? Jesus, the Reapers are under-performing big time.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 12, 2010, 02:10:11 am
Hm, all I want is Tali, and that they simply "forget" what they did with that awful stupid terminator monster made out of human goo.

The idea with the goo wasn't so bad at all, it makes quite sense since sovereign said "each one of us is a nation", but they created their same shape for Aeons, but no, the humans are worth a new form. I wonder if anyone at bioware thought about, how that thing would look flying ? A giant superman flying trough space ? What a' crap.

The game would have been perfect IMO if there would have been a simple reaper embryo, but the ending somehow destroyed the entire feeling of the cool story in the end. I hope the responsible designer got fired  :mad2:

Oh, and I want Legion too, pretty cool character
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on December 12, 2010, 02:30:53 am
*idly wonders if he's the only gamer in the Western world who hasn't played Mass Effect*
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 12, 2010, 02:32:49 am
*idly wonders if he's the only gamer in the Western world who hasn't played Mass Effect*
You don't play anything, do you? :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on December 12, 2010, 02:55:31 am
*idly wonders if he's the only gamer in the Western world who hasn't played Mass Effect*
Even I have played Mass Effect. So yeah, you probably are unique.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on December 12, 2010, 03:00:31 am
*idly wonders if he's the only gamer in the Western world who hasn't played Mass Effect*
You don't play anything, do you? :P
Well I haven't really played much made in the past five or so years, because I haven't the system (or the consoles, for that matter) to do so until recently.  And even putting that aside, I'm not much of an RPG person. :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 12, 2010, 03:01:35 am
Mass Effect (and ME2 even more-so) are more of a TPS rather than an RPG.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on December 12, 2010, 03:24:23 am
Yeah, but it still has the whole endless-side-quests and exponential-option-trees that many RPGs, or at least the computer variant, seem to have.  I tend to prefer my games to be linear in nature, so I don't feel like I'm forced to replay them twenty times in order to see everything there is to see.  (Having a bit of OCD doesn't help matters.)  But maybe I will give it a shot someday, since I've heard nothing but high praise about the franchise as a whole.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 12, 2010, 03:28:40 am
Well, I think both Mass Effect Games were certainly one of the best games in the last decade. Extremly good characters, good Story, awesome atmosphere, nice graphics, good action and dialogues and very great designed locations (main plot at least).  Of course, that's a matter of taste, I'm quite a RPG fan.

A shame that there seems to be no modding access. The always same buildings in the sidequest sucked especially in ME1
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on December 12, 2010, 04:26:33 am
The whole concept they ended up using was fatally flawed because it rendered the Reapers into dependent, lamely Borg-esque things, merely human, instead of the Lovecraftian monstrosities they were supposed to be.

I agree.

In ME 1, the reapers were mysterious, ancient, cold, and menacing. It seemed liek they had no weakness.

In ME2, they are dependant on the human "slurpie", and explaining that as some sort of civilization memory is the biggest slap to science I've ever seen. What? Racial memory contained in human juice? WTF????
The reaper baby, the harvesting - those were HORRIBLE decisions. HORRIBLE.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: QuantumDelta on December 12, 2010, 06:01:57 am
Hmm?
Each reaper being 'the strongest race' of each era isn't too bad of an idea, the model was a bit tragic, but RASENGOKU! ..erm, anyway.

If they had used a typical reaper it probably would have gone down better.
Anything loses is 'power' as it's explained, all enemies become humbled when you understand them, by words or weapons.

I still don't mind the concept of each reaper being the sum of the galatically dominant specie, delivery could have been a bit better though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Demitri on December 12, 2010, 06:25:12 am
I'm not much of an RPG person.
Neither am i in all honesty but the ME games are def worth a go.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Satellight on December 12, 2010, 06:56:53 am
I just hope they will release some kind of collector with ALL the 3 games and ALL the DLC together in ONE box. A nice box, if possible.

[consumer mode] I'm ready to spend money for this [/consumer mode]  ;7
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on December 12, 2010, 08:24:54 am
This trailer did nothing for me. Need more information, I guess.

I kind of agree with NGTM-1R that it's all in the execution, at least where this series is concerned, but the execution in ME2 was awful. I don't find the Reapers intimidating. That's kind of a problem.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 08:28:35 am
I agree.

In ME 1, the reapers were mysterious, ancient, cold, and menacing. It seemed liek they had no weakness.

In ME2, they are dependant on the human "slurpie", and explaining that as some sort of civilization memory is the biggest slap to science I've ever seen. What? Racial memory contained in human juice? WTF????
The reaper baby, the harvesting - those were HORRIBLE decisions. HORRIBLE.


It was supposedly genetic material they harvested, not some sort of genetic memory. Incidentally it could have been better if they had used the abductees as source of some psyche building process, leaving the abductees as, I dunno, some sort of empty husks that maybe could have made some appearances throughout the game, foreshadowing what the Collectors were doing to them - ridding them of their higher cognitive processes, leaving them for the Collectors to use as cannon fodder.

Why, imagine if the game had had enemies like that, that would've been pretty smart.

Other than that, I agree that the... thing at the end was a letdown. :blah:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on December 12, 2010, 08:42:24 am
I was facepalming and laughing at the "my god... a human reaper..."
There are flaws but the games are absolutely great. But how to kill a totally overwhelming army of killer-ships? (points at Independence days windows based virus...)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 12, 2010, 08:46:16 am
Also, there is a minor sidethingie that would interest me...

What is the dark energy ? Who creates, and controls it. Why have the Geth manipulated the star where we rescued Tali ? Somehow, I have the feeling that this could become a part in ME3
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 08:59:20 am
Dark matter would be more likely culprit for Haestrom's accelerated decay, although there is speculation that dark matter (more specifically dark matter annihilation (http://www.physorg.com/news176457990.html)) could make stars look younger than they are, not older.

After all, Tali is not a cosmologist, she's an engineer. She solves practical problems, like how is she gonna stop some mean mother hubbard from tearing Shepard a structurally superfluous new behind.

She could easily have mixed the terms dark energy and dark matter. Because, you know, saying "dark energy this" and "dark energy that" is just the short route into explaining anything... it just becomes cheap phlebotinum.

Real dark energy is the element of universe responsible for generating a repulsive force throughout the universe, which causes the accelerating expansion (assuming the observations so far have been accurately interpreted).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 12, 2010, 09:06:44 am
Hm, never heard of the dark energy in our science, only the term dark matter is known to me. But I was more referring to the part, where Tali said, that the Haelstroms Star Lifecycle has been accelerated. It's growing to a red star, way sooner than it was supposed to be. But you are right, in first place she is a engineer, not an astrophysican. Stil I liked her, and I want to see her face too (and she is now my girlfriend after all :) )
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 09:16:55 am
None of those points are connected to what I said, since my critique of the final draft has nothing to do with the 'combination enemy' (er?) trope.

Then you've completely failed to explain yourself in any meaningful way, since you were saying

Quote
rendered the Reapers into dependent, lamely Borg-esque things, merely human, instead of the Lovecraftian monstrosities they were supposed to be.

And I'm saying

If each individual Reaper is essentially the sum total of a civilization, these are the equivalent of a Culture Mind or similar entity.

Which is in direct response to your commentary that the Reapers are "merely human lamely Borg-esque" things. Since a Culture Mind is about as far from "merely human lamely Borg-esque" as you can get without proceeding to sodomize physical laws for the pure fun of it.

And actually the Borg have been known to do that, but maybe you've been watching too much Voyager and you've forgotten what they're like. :P

So what, then, is your real objection?

I think I'm not making clear exactly what was wrong with the ending. The fact that the individual Reaper is essentially the sum total of a civilization has nothing to do with the fact that they were rendered dependent and weak. We have known that each Reaper is a nation since Mass Effect 1, and we learned it again speaking to Legion well before the suicide mission. That is not at issue.

The real issue comes out of the same conflict that drove so many of the problems in Mass Effect 2: clashes between the art department, who want soft SF, and the writers, who want it hard. The soft SF crap won here, which is why the excellent original draft of the purpose of the Collector experiments (which jived nicely with the notion that the Reapers are each a nation, free from all weakness) was discarded in favor of the final draft, which rendered the Reapers most definitely full of weakness, unable to control their own reproduction. It was sad to hear poor EDI struggling through all that handwaving when it was clearly introduced to justify the human form of the final boss.

This doesn't mean the Reapers are ruined forever; like you said, it's all in the execution. There are interpretations of the Mass Effect 2 ending that still allow them to remain cool, and hopefully the fan outcry will lead them to take those interpretations.

Seven million in a week? Jesus, the Reapers are under-performing big time.

I know. That has me worried. Hopefully the Reapers are intentionally not killing people.

So anxious.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 09:19:36 am
...clashes between the art department, who want soft SF, and the writers, who want it hard. The soft SF crap won here,
Oh, what the hell? That sounds like a f@cking school, not a dev team!

Argh, silliness beyond my expectations.

EDIT: For grammar.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on December 12, 2010, 09:22:19 am
they should just retcon the end of ME2..IT NEVER HAPPENED!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 09:25:59 am
they should just retcon the end of ME2..IT NEVER HAPPENED!

In my head I pretend they used the original draft. They can still say it's what the Reaper experiments were really about; it's an available interpretation of the human-gooing, even if it's a bit more of a stretch than the original draft was.

...clashes between the art department, who want soft SF, and the writers, who want it hard. The soft SF crap won here,
Oh, what the hell? That sounds like a f@cking school, not a dev team!

Argh, silliness beyond my expectations.

It's also the reason the warship fights happen in visual range (though they justified it nicely in Mass Effect 1, with the relay assault...maybe) and why Mass Effect 2 got its reloading mechanic, which I loved; the art department insisted the player needed the tactile feedback of reloading a gun.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 09:27:48 am
Oh, that's alright then.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 09:49:45 am
Here's my quick and dirty flawless redraft of the ME2 ending, swapping in the original draft. Ransom, gimme your take on this.

Shepherd and her team reach the core of the Collector base, where they find a Reaper embryo that looks like the thing on the left:

(http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100522072723/masseffect/images/7/7d/Wcb6ug.png)

It is floating free instead of being supported by four crappy little red glowing pipes. There are lots of big ol' cables like creepy umbilicals connected to its hull.

EDI explains that it has a fully functioning mass effect core, and that overcharging that core will destroy the entire base. (This removes the need to have a base-destroying reactor in a floor panel on a random hexagonal platform.) However, she will need direct access to the immature Reaper's systems to trigger the overload.

Shepherd is freaked out by this, but ultimately convinced. The final boss battle involves no giant Terminator making Transformer noises and playing peek-a-boo; instead your team jumps onto the Reaper's hull and moves around it, fighting Harbinger and getting EDI a hard link. There is actually a Praetorian to fight.

In a moment of horror, EDI explains that she has found all the missing colonists. They are alive inside the Reaper. Shepherd demands to get them out, but EDI explains it is only their minds, stored inside the Reaper - tens of thousands of colonists, transferred not by some bull**** 'raw genetic material' pipe that gives the Reapers their 'essence', but by the destructive dissection of their minds. But they are, EDI senses, no longer quite human... (Bear in mind this could be what's happening in ME2 already, it just wasn't revealed.)

The Illusive Man makes his call. He wants the Reaper intact. One of your squadmates suggests it'd be a crime to kill all these colonists. Another says they are already dead; whatever the Reapers have done to them, it'd be a mercy to end their suffering.

Shepherd makes her choice: overload the Reaper's mass effect core, destroying it and the base, or set it to emit a radiation pulse, killing all the Collectors but leaving the Reaper and its posthuman cargo intact.

Voila. All the horror of the ME2 ending retained - you can still have people disintegrating juicily in pods, because we could say their brain matter is used for part of the Reaper design, just as human brain matter is used in the Scions or Praetorians. And none of the crap!

nuuu ransom read the thread and LEFT

he HATES it
And Jeff Vader hates double-posting. *****.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 12, 2010, 09:57:31 am
IMO if the left scetch, the real reaper larve would have been taken, I would have absolutly nothing to complain with the entire game. I even liked the reloading part of the weapons, it makes (forces) you to sometimes switch weapons, so that's really adding something.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 10:05:45 am
Interesting stuff, but it seems a bit 'hard-core' in contrast to the rest of the story. But TBH, I didn't even have such an issue with the ending anyway. :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 10:08:31 am
Interesting stuff, but it seems a bit 'hard-core' in contrast to the rest of the story. But TBH, I didn't even have such an issue with the ending anyway. :P

Hard decisions in a Mass Effect game? Horror regarding the Reapers? Noooooo!

Mass Effect 2's ending wasn't a botch. If they go with the correct interpretation (mine, of course) of what the Reapers were actually doing on that station, it's cool. If the 'liquid humans' thing turns out to be a way of brain uploading, cool. But if it's just about boiling species down to organic metal that turn into robo-monsters with forms the Reapers themselves do not design or control because something about the process is involuntary and it transfers the mystical spirit essence of what makes the most badass species a true race of badasses, bluuuuuuuuuurgh

I can't write the ME2 ending off as bad, but the fact that it left ambiguity which encompassed stories which were really bad is enough to draw my horror and alarm.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 10:16:57 am
That's not exactly what I was getting at. I did like having to 'make the right choice' team-wise, though, in ME2's finale - having the whole team work together doing different things at the same time to work towards the mission you've been fighting the whole game, and have your leadership decisions have an impact, and have those loyalty quests validated. As it stands now, your take doesn't really have a lot of that.

EDIT: Just read your edit. Hmm, I agree with that, but I've never been bothered majorly about this sort of stuff, and I'm not about to start. :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 10:18:46 am
That's not exactly what I was getting at. I did like having to 'make the right choice' team-wise, though, in ME2's finale - having the whole team work together doing different things at the same time to work towards the mission you've been fighting the whole game, and have your leadership decisions have an impact, and have those loyalty quests validated. As it stands now, your take doesn't really have a lot of that.

What? Yes it does. All the choices in the Suicide Mission happen before the scene I rewrote, which contains zero choices at all except the one about whether to destroy or save the Collector base.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 10:20:35 am
Oh, I get you. In response, I WANT MOAR TEAM DECISIONS, YO
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 10:23:00 am
Oh, I get you. In response, I WANT MOAR TEAM DECISIONS, YO

me2ilovethem
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on December 12, 2010, 10:39:20 am
battuta i have made a discovery! apparently you don't count as reading the thread when you are replying to it!

My favourite part is the choice. It's a hell of a lot more interesting than deciding what to do with some random data thing.

Really my only remaining concern would be the climactic battle. ME1's had weight because you were facing off against a character that had affected you personally - a Praetorian still doesn't fill that gap, but I guess that's a problem with ME2's plot as a whole. At least it'd be a more dynamic fight than the giant Terminator.

I really like the idea of clambering over a half-formed Reaper for the finale. And the new explanation for the abducted colonists is creepy. Doesn't it still make the Reapers dependent on organic life, though? I assume they're not just storing minds because they like the taste. I don't know anything about the original draft, mind you.

Either way, the suggestion that each Reaper contains the repurposed minds of dead civilisations - oh man. You're telling me they ditched that explanation for what we got?

:(

edit: oh also I never really liked the way EDI turned out to be a total skeleton key. It's too easy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on December 12, 2010, 10:40:57 am
Let me just quote a certain character that some of us hate to love and love to hate.
Quote
I can see the ending.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 10:47:02 am
Really my only remaining concern would be the climactic battle. ME1's had weight because you were facing off against a character that had affected you personally - a Praetorian still doesn't fill that gap, but I guess that's a problem with ME2's plot as a whole. At least it'd be a more dynamic fight than the giant Terminator.

Yeah, and I miss the ability to persuade the boss to death.

Quote
I really like the idea of clambering over a half-formed Reaper for the finale. And the new explanation for the abducted colonists is creepy. Doesn't it still make the Reapers dependent on organic life, though? I assume they're not just storing minds because they like the taste. I don't know anything about the original draft, mind you.

Dependent on organic life in the way an All-Star team is dependent on regular teams: they nom up the best to make new kickass Reapers for their squad of civilization-embodying space squidbots. I'm cool with that kind of dependency. They're just winnowing out the talent.

Quote
Either way, the suggestion that each Reaper contains the repurposed minds of dead civilisations - oh man. You're telling me they ditched that explanation for what we got?

:(

I'm hoping they still reveal that as the truth in ME3, and just for some reason felt it couldn't be delivered in ME2. Because yeah, it's that good. It's like each Reaper is a singularity, the end state of a civilization's development. (Though I assume each species becomes multiple Reapers.)

Also I'm wondering if they're gonna reveal that the Reapers are omg just symptoms of a bigger problem, like whatever's eating Haestrom's star. ****ing photino birds.

Quote
edit: oh also I never really liked the way EDI turned out to be a total skeleton key. It's too easy.

Yeah. Unfortunately her magic AI skills feel narratively necessary for stuff like moving those silly hex platforms about.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Polpolion on December 12, 2010, 11:00:30 am
I just hope they have better excuses for combat than "oh by the way this guy hired a battalion of mercenaries to do stuff for him."
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 11:28:52 am
Also I'm wondering if they're gonna reveal that the Reapers are omg just symptoms of a bigger problem, like whatever's eating Haestrom's star. ****ing photino birds.

Due to unforeseen financial problems, they end up never releasing Mass Effect 3. Instead, we just get vague statements like "Shivans Reapers are just a symptom of a bigger problem"

wheeee
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kolgena on December 12, 2010, 01:26:11 pm
I never knew that was the original ending to ME2. The released one feels CAPCOMy. Big stage boss/robot, shoot the glowing orbs, dodge predictable boss patterns. And that's just from a gameplay perspective. The draft felt darker and aimed towards a more mature audience.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 01:43:30 pm
I never knew that was the original ending to ME2. The released one feels CAPCOMy. Big stage boss/robot, shoot the glowing orbs, dodge predictable boss patterns. And that's just from a gameplay perspective. The draft felt darker and aimed towards a more mature audience.

It's not the draft, per se, it's the draft fleshed out a bit with my loving caress. But the core concept is what was in the original draft, yeah.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on December 12, 2010, 04:47:22 pm
In spite of its faults, Mass Effect 2 was one of my favorite games of ever.

I'm not totally sold on this new one yet. (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363) It's pretty clear what the metaplot will be. Need to wait to see more.

Christina Norman has stated she wants to move the gameplay back towards a little more RPG-rich style.

Bring back aaaaaall ME2 squadmates.  :mad:

I have thoughts, based purely on the trailer and some things that were based on forum posts from some Devs a while back. But, mostly, this is an analysis of the trailer and the depressing things I think it represents in terms of quality of writing. I apologise for what you have to wade through to get the salient points, but I don't have time to reduce it at the moment, and the discussion is currently ongoing, too.

Code: [Select]
Devidose: OH****REAPERS
Ravenholme: RUN AWAY!
Devidose: but they have the planet!
Ravenholme: Ummm... fly away? There was a remarkable lack of Reapers holding the orbital highground
Ravenholme: WHICH MAKES NO SENSE
Devidose: If the viewport is anything to go by at least
Ravenholme: And it had a good orbital view of one hemisphere
Devidose: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWHXxmUgMGw&feature=fvw
Devidose: I got a possibly ME1 vibe from it
Ravenholme: What we have here is sacrificing the logical for the dramatic
Devidose: HELP US! FEROS UNDER ATTACK! *turns away for greater good*
Ravenholme: Despite the fact it would have been more dramatic to have the Normandy II bailing out of orbit with a reaper on it's ass
Devidose: That would be epicbeyond beloief
Ravenholme: And would've made more sense
Ravenholme: Also, I dislike how they've reduced the Reapers from coldly-logical genocidal crusading machines into moostachio-twirling 2nd rate robot villains driven by a revenge which will be there ultimate downfall
Ravenholme: "Let's not move through the galaxy in an orderly fashion, taking the citadel and shutting down the mass relay system as we did last time, no, let us go after the homeworld of the man who's thwarted our plans twice before, instead of doing the logical and most destructive thing against which he would be no defence! Yay, verily, for attacking Earth first for revenge makes the most sense this side of the universe."
Ravenholme: And before you say I don't know they haven't, I know they haven't, because Shepard is actually capable of rallying allies to take the fight to the Reapers who have clearly made the little sol system one of their first stops
Ravenholme: If the Mass Relays had been iced, he couldn't
Ravenholme: (UNLESS they use the Reaper IFF to circumvent the Reaper-Relay Lock, which would be an awesome chekovs gun)
Devidose: Wasnt going to ssay anything :P was busy nomming a bacon toast sammich
Devidose: mmm
Ravenholme: (But doesn't help his allies_
Ravenholme: And :P
Ravenholme: And, the death toll mentioned in the trailer is utterly pitiful
Ravenholme: Why are we scared of the Reapers if in a week they do less damage than a nuclear missile equipped trident submarine could do in 30 minutes
Devidose: Tbh, given Shep has shown he can interface with Prothean tech, the Reapers know the humans are advanced by a bit
Devidose: woo, 9 mil
Devidose: so... london?
Ravenholme: Mass Relays =/= Prothean
Devidose: beacon
Devidose: he's used 2 of them
Ravenholme: If they just laid the smack down on the MR system, they wouldn't need to worry
Ravenholme: And hell, they beat the Protheans
Ravenholme: They don't need to worry
Ravenholme: Yeah, but if they locked down the MRs and did what they did last time, humanity couldn't fight back because every system would be isolated and could be used at their discretion
Ravenholme: For reproduction and resourcing
Ravenholme: And the rest could be left to die on the vine
Ravenholme: Or smashed to dust with relativistic kill vehicles
Ravenholme: Preferably accelerated meteors
Ravenholme: But yeah, unless bioware pull some amazing **** out of their hats, this is gonna be a cringeworthy plot
Ravenholme: Unless, basically, they address my points in a logical way and revise some stuff, or come out and say that trailer was purely for dramatic effect and does not reflect the actual plot in it's totality, and in fact, just encompasses Reapers on Earth
Ravenholme: Essentially, I want the guy who wrote ME1 back
Ravenholme: The dude who wrote ME2 is a comic book writer and it shows
Ravenholme: And I believe he's the ME3 writer
Ravenholme: Mind if I bring Useful Dave into this convo? Me and him were picking the trailer apart earlier :p
Devidose: Sure sorry, Claire called
Your chat with Devidose is now a multi-user chat.
Devidose has been invited to chat.
[EPS]Useful Dave has been invited to chat.
[EPS]Useful Dave entered chat.
Devidose: ME2 trailer, the one with Grunt and Thane, would you consider that to reflect the gameplay?
Ravenholme: It reflected the plot, though
Ravenholme: I wasn't referring to gameplay, merely the plot
Devidose: Likewise with the ME1? As Feros wasnt really attacked and we didnt say no in that way
Devidose: Well yeah, but the plot could be Reapers wasting planets
Ravenholme: The ME2 trailer was actually fairly consistent
Devidose: It's not as if they have much to worry about
Ravenholme: And, nah, the main plot seems to be the attack on Earth
[EPS]Useful Dave: Game changes tend tohappen in production, as for the ME1 trailer
Devidose: Even if you bring Rachni, Geth, Alliance, Council, Krogan, sure you have a giant army... to fight space C'thulu
Devidose: in space
Devidose: with spaceship
Ravenholme: Basically, I think the inclusion of MP is resulting in a Halo 2/3 dip in storyline quality
Devidose: So focusing more on mp than sp?
Ravenholme: Or detracting from the time devoted to SP
Ravenholme: Especially since the time to this sequel is only what... 2 years-ish?
Ravenholme: I'm tempted to script up, roughly, how I would've done that announcement trailer
[EPS]Useful Dave: Unless they were pulling a Lotor
[EPS]Useful Dave: Doing it in time with ME2
Ravenholme: Like Valve was with the Episodes, yet we still haven't seen Ep3? :P
[EPS]Useful Dave: Bioware might be more effective? :P
Ravenholme: Bound to be, they've got studios
Ravenholme: all over
Devidose: it fell down the back of the sofa
Ravenholme: Since EA bought them out
Ravenholme: Gabe ate it, he thought it was a pizza
[EPS]Useful Dave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTnrD3Oeb5U&feature=related
[EPS]Useful Dave: But, E3 was supposed to haz snow?
Ravenholme: Dave objected to the idea that the attack was an instant surprise with clearly no time for the UNC to warn the forces of Earth/Sol what they were facing, and I responded with this
Ravenholme: Ravenholme: Well, the insta-attack on Earth kinda makes sense if they locked down the Mass Relays a la previous attacks, and finally buggered in to kick the **** out of Earth
Ravenholme: If it was isolated, and the home fleet was isolated elsewhere trying to defend another system when the lockdown went out, the Reapers could blitz in on overwhelming force
Devidose: I doubt the 5th Fleet could do much to several reapers anyway
Ravenholme: Yeah
Ravenholme: Slow 'em down is about all
Devidose: Took the entire lot to just take out Sovereign, and that was because his avatar died when he was still connected
Devidose: Harbinger at least DC'd before the base gets nuked
[EPS]Useful Dave: That might depend if they have Turian WTFBEWM guns
[EPS]Useful Dave: Which should damage the Reaper abit more at least
Ravenholme: Man has a point
Devidose: Maybe, depends
Ravenholme: But I somehow doubt they will, it's one thing for a shadowy mutli-billionaire to finance the addition to one ship, and another for a government to justify it to a taxpaying public that doesn't really believe in the Reaper attacks/doesn't know about them
Ravenholme: Remember the official line on Sovereign is that he was an ancient flagship vessel found by the Geth under Saren
Devidose: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that moment with the Council
Ravenholme: Well, the way I'd do it, there would be no Council
Devidose: Hoping there is a Thanix Cannon option for the reply
Ravenholme: Actually, I'm going to write up my dream script for the announcement trailer
[EPS]Useful Dave: Only 11 months after the battle, the turians produced the Thanix, their own miniaturized version of Sovereign's gun. The Thanix can fire reliably every five seconds, rivaling a cruiser's firepower but mountable on a fighter or frigate.
[EPS]Useful Dave: So it's not really some super secret thing at least by ME2
Devidose: Depends how much the Turians have put it into production
Devidose: While the ME2 cost was relatively low, I'm wondering if all the prices there for things were not just partia payments, with Cerby helping fund the rest, as pretty much everything you research still helps out Cerby in the end, so it's worth the additional cash, given Shep cost, what, 2 billion?
Ravenholme: *The Citadel drifts before the camera, angled slightly so that the sun is in the centre background, illuminating the (widow?) nebula. The city arms are charred and glowing wrecks, torn off near the base of the 'petals', the drifting segments torn into thousands of fractions which light up with the occasional secondary explosion. In the foreground, the wreckage of the citadel fleet and an unidentified human fleet are visible, and as the camera pans, the destiny ascension/CF flagship flashes by, torn in two and ravaged with rents and explosion damage, leaking atmosphere and bodies as secondaries ravage it's torn corpse*

Narrator: They came out of nowhere.....

*A cloud of nebula fog pans by, allowing us a view of Harbinger crouched on the Citadel Presidium tower, clearly interfacing with the Mass Relay control, and the ranks of waiting Reapers, by no means the totality of their fleet, dispatching the last few defenders, soundless explosions the last testament of their useless defiance*
Devidose: The Citadel has a sun?
Devidose: Yes, Widow
[EPS]Useful Dave: It's in a system
Ravenholme: There was always a sun in the cutscenes involving it in ME1
Ravenholme: Distant
Ravenholme: But there
Ravenholme: Hence why the nebula looked so light
Devidose: Fair enough
Ravenholme: That's all I have so far
Ravenholme: Narrator: Within days they arrived at the Citadel, and hours later they had taken it, and...

*Harbinger suddenly launches himself away from the Presidium tower, moving to join up with the Reaper fleet which begins to advance on the Mass Relay, leaving behind a small rearguard force*

Narrator: They trapped us, we had no where to run, the Relay system denied to us, and they came..

*Cut to the Relay in the Sol system, the 5th fleet taking defensive positions around it, and suddenly, mass simultaneous transit of Reapers, with Harbinger in the second wave, the vanguard already beginning to obliterate the frail human fleet through sheer numbers and overwhelming force*
Ravenholme: And you get the idea, the Reapers moving into Earth orbit, then the sorta events of the actual debut trailer, and then, the Normandy II fleeing a pursuing duo of Reapers and exiting through the Pluto Mass Relay due to it's Reaper IFF (Chekov's gun, anyone?)
[EPS]Useful Dave: And likely with the event of Reapers hunting' em down coming in at one point
Ravenholme: Da
[EPS]Useful Dave: They should be able to track the IFF at least

Oh, and Batts, regarding your interpretation of the Reaper genesis events, I think it's six of your theory, and half a dozen of the purely genes + rendered organic material + metal and stuff = reproducto-paste. (As in, what it actually is officially. Like, the Human reaper would have had some of the characteristics that made the humans badass, but the rest was all down to it being based on the genes. Maybe all of it was, the official post/discussion I remember reading wasn't exactly clear)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on December 12, 2010, 05:23:40 pm
Regarding the death toll in the trailer, are we assuming that's the whole planet's death toll?  Couldn't it just be London's?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on December 12, 2010, 05:29:03 pm
Regarding the death toll in the trailer, are we assuming that's the whole planet's death toll?  Couldn't it just be London's?

Again, that is still pitiful for Reapers, since the Greater London area population should be somewhat larger than that in the future, and given the amount of Reapers in the area. (Also, the city looked depressingly contemporary as well, compared to the gleaming spires in the planetary descriptions in ME1/2)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 05:32:25 pm
Yeah, I'm worried.  :(

ohwell. Hope endures. Maybe the Reapers are still abductinating people.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on December 12, 2010, 05:34:13 pm
Yeah, I'm worried.  :(

ohwell. Hope endures. Maybe the Reapers are still abductinating people.

So the giant Terminator can walk on earth and sheperd has to climb it like in Shadow of the Colossus - yeah :nervous:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on December 12, 2010, 05:36:18 pm
Yeah, I'm worried.  :(

ohwell. Hope endures. Maybe the Reapers are still abductinating people.

Yeah, I'm hoping because the writing for the previous two was good (One was better in terms of overall plot and event pacing, two managed to make it's plot seem a lot more epic [despite the somewhat grander scale of ME1's plot] and have better [in some regards, and worse in other] character interactions etc) that this trailer will be purely for dramatic effect and not actually reflect too much on the plot beyond Reapers being on Earth.

It's still a CE pre-order, if only for the completion of a saga I've followed anxiously since Day One.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 05:48:38 pm
So the giant Terminator can walk on earth and sheperd has to climb it like in Shadow of the Colossus - yeah :nervous:


Humanoid Reaper,
will become Shepard's mecha.
Better than Mako.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on December 12, 2010, 05:52:56 pm
I loved the Mako,
Mourned it's loss in the sequel.
I hope it returns.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 12, 2010, 05:53:59 pm
The Hammerhead was a fair bit more fun, I think, even if it had that stupid scanner display thing that made it feel like a plastic toy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 12, 2010, 05:57:41 pm
I absolutely hated the Hammerhead segments, because combat was boring. You had to sit back and lob missiles at anything because it was frail as **** and even a few geth troopers would make quick work out of you.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 05:58:35 pm
I loved the Mako,
Mourned it's loss in the sequel.
I hope it returns.

What made it so bad,
was improbable terrain -
not Mako itself...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on December 12, 2010, 06:00:41 pm
With that I concur.
Such tiny, yet steep mountains
Were ever a pain.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: QuantumDelta on December 12, 2010, 06:09:13 pm
But that little mako,
Could easily conquer,
Those impossible mountains.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 06:26:25 pm
But that little mako,
Could easily conquer,
Those impossible mountains.


Part of the problem,
Mako's performance was:
No vehicle can
ascend a slope steeper than
forty-five degrees angle.

(branching out to tanka.)


(provided that the coefficient of static friction between the surface and the wheels is less than or equal to one)

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on December 12, 2010, 06:30:28 pm
This thread
has become
really weird
you sick ****s

Quote
Regarding the death toll in the trailer, are we assuming that's the whole planet's death toll?  Couldn't it just be London's?

It could
but then
that would
imply
that greater london
has its own defenses
which are not integrated
with any other defenses anywhere ever
which would be a little odd
unless future earth is reenacting the period of warring greek city states
which would be a little awesome
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CP5670 on December 12, 2010, 06:33:56 pm
The Mako was okay. The problem wasn't the Mako itself, but all the repetitive missions you had to use it in.

The Hammerhead is way more fun to just move around in. It handles like the hovertanks in Battlezone, and I haven't seen any other game in the meantime that recreates that feel.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 12, 2010, 06:36:08 pm
That's true about the general movements in the Hammerhead, though it really needs to be toughened up with a health bar (or something more noticeable than some smoke plumes coming from it) to tell you the health. :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on December 12, 2010, 06:43:55 pm
You two
Suck
Terrible not-Haikus
Are mandatory
Goat****ers
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 12, 2010, 06:47:40 pm
Quote from: mxlm
arglebargle, glop-glyg

Haiku is a poem;
middle line has seven bars,
first and last but five.

Tanka is much alike,
it has five lines in total.
First three like Haiku,
but the rest is different;
seven syllables per line.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on December 12, 2010, 07:16:19 pm
That's why
I called it
Not-Haiku
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 12, 2010, 07:32:45 pm
nerds
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 12, 2010, 09:28:59 pm
nerds
:yes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on December 12, 2010, 10:34:01 pm
The Reapers look smaller in the trailer.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on December 13, 2010, 02:14:18 am
There is only one way to fight the Reapers...


John Connor...and He-Man...and Voltron..and the Power Rangers..and Mechagodzilla...and Gandalf the White...and SDF-1...and Chuck Norris!(tm)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on December 13, 2010, 04:13:04 am
There is only one way to fight the Reapers...


John Connor...and He-Man...and Voltron..and the Power Rangers..and Mechagodzilla...and Gandalf the White...and SDF-1...and Chuck Norris!(tm)

Nope. The Doc (of BTTF fame) takes Shepard back in time to nuke the race that created/sublimed into the Reapers
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on December 13, 2010, 05:17:15 am
Meh, Chuck Norris can do it alone. You know, that guns carry HIM to be more tougher  :lol:

I liked the mako, even if the controls were a little to sensible and I hated to climb mountains in that thing. Mostly I liked it's weapons.

The Hammerhead also wasn't that bad, but totally unbalanced. Way too strong weapon and too weak hull. But the moving was OK. As stated, it really reminded on the battlezone games, that was fun :) Stronger Hammerhead with Mako-Gun, that would it be for me :)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on December 13, 2010, 07:51:46 am
John Connor...and He-Man...and Voltron..and the Power Rangers..and Mechagodzilla...and Gandalf the White...and SDF-1...and Chuck Norris!(tm)

Here we go! :D (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBK31tC5QM)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on December 13, 2010, 01:15:19 pm
Meh, Chuck Norris can do it alone. You know, that guns carry HIM to be more tougher  :lol:

I liked the mako, even if the controls were a little to sensible and I hated to climb mountains in that thing. Mostly I liked it's weapons.

The Hammerhead also wasn't that bad, but totally unbalanced. Way too strong weapon and too weak hull. But the moving was OK. As stated, it really reminded on the battlezone games, that was fun :) Stronger Hammerhead with Mako-Gun, that would it be for me :)
You can't have a hovering tank with a massive railgun on top and call it the Hammerhead.  Games Workshop would throw a hissy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on December 13, 2010, 03:51:44 pm
We'll i liked the trailer, narrator sound a bit like sean bean also its good to see a trailer for an invasion that dosen't use america(no offense) but good old london.

Anyway i love the mass effect series, i only hope they keep the following.

Legion - pure awesome

Garrus - again awesome and hes my female characters romance.

Wrex - well enough said there.

Epic spacebattle.

I would love to see female's of the other species like krogan, turians, etc and visit there homeworlds, i am a bit sick of humanity always being the center of attention.

Also more customization of armor and weapons, also more hair styles!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 13, 2010, 03:58:21 pm
Female aliens, Legion and Garrus are all basically mandatory for me. And yeah, good space battle that works like the fiction describes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 13, 2010, 04:09:32 pm
Man why not Wrex, Battuta?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 13, 2010, 04:23:07 pm
Because I'm 100% certain he'll be in there if he isn't dead in your save. Same with Tali. I don't think either of them will be party members, though; they'll be faction leaders.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 13, 2010, 04:26:48 pm
Because I'm 100% certain he'll be in there if he isn't dead in your save. Same with Tali. I don't think either of them will be party members, though; they'll be faction leaders.
Wait, do you mean Liara? I don't remember a mention of Tali becoming a faction leader of any kind
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 13, 2010, 04:33:35 pm
Because I'm 100% certain he'll be in there if he isn't dead in your save. Same with Tali. I don't think either of them will be party members, though; they'll be faction leaders.
Wait, do you mean Liara? I don't remember a mention of Tali becoming a faction leader of any kind

They're obviously setting it up. There's a vacancy on the Admiralty Board and helping out with getting a new Admiral will definitely be something important in ME3.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on December 13, 2010, 05:27:12 pm
I want a Rachni Warrior squid squad member.

From the existing cast, I'd most like Legion, Tali, Liara and of course Garrus to stay on the team in ME3.

It would be cool if Shepard's decision at the end of ME2 made a big difference; if the Collector base was destroyed, you would be in the Alliance; if it was preserved, you would stay on Cerberus or would be given the option to stay with Cerberus. I don't expect the Illusive Man to keep Shepard on the paylist if the Collector base was destroyed, but on the other hand such a massive divergence would mean practically two different games...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CP5670 on December 13, 2010, 05:32:57 pm
I would like to see a longer main quest in general. The previous games had very short main quests and lots of content in the side quests, particularly ME2.

As for the companions, Legion and Garrus were my favorites too. I actually wouldn't mind seeing fewer companions than ME2 though, with each one more fleshed out as in ME1. ME2 almost had too many of them and most of the game revolved around them and their quests instead of the main mission. Shepard seems to bring on board practically anyone he meets. :p I rarely ever used half of them except in their own quests.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 13, 2010, 05:44:46 pm
Wait, more fleshed out as in ME1? The ME1 characters were skeletal, particularly Tali and Garrus.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CP5670 on December 13, 2010, 08:17:38 pm
I'm just referring to the amount of dialogue you got with each character. There was a lot more with the ME1 characters from what I remember. In ME2 you only got two or three "rounds" of dialogue with most of them, beyond which they had nothing to say.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on December 13, 2010, 09:12:34 pm
That mainly seemed to be the case with the romancable characters. A lot of dialogue got cut off if you weren't a compatible sex.

That said I'd never say no to more companion dialogue.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 13, 2010, 09:13:29 pm
Me neither. It's so worth the extra effort. Mordin was the gold standard in ME2, I think.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on December 13, 2010, 09:32:06 pm
Wouldn't mind helping out Gianna Parasini with another law enforcement gig.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kolgena on December 13, 2010, 10:31:20 pm
Me neither. It's so worth the extra effort. Mordin was the gold standard in ME2, I think.

Mordin made the game. Hands down.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on December 13, 2010, 10:41:48 pm
His Gilbert and Sullivan routine was gold.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on December 13, 2010, 11:14:51 pm
CONFIRMED ENDING!

Spoiler:
No shepherd, you are the reapers!

Then shepherd was a reaper.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on December 14, 2010, 01:31:02 am
Let's see.....


Thane - he be dead
Miranda - don't care about her that much..aside from Dat Ass
Legion - don't care about him (and since the player had the option to not turn him on, I don't see a massive role for him)
Tali - meh.
Garrus - he's cool
Wrex - he's more entertaining than Grunt
Grunt - dont' care about him
Moradin - he's cool
Subject Zero - couldn't care less if I tried
Jacob - meh
Kally Chambers - I want her back. Who's gonna take care of my "fish"?
Ashely - she's OK. Sure, brign her back, why not?
Liara - couldn't care less about her
Samara - same


REQUIRIED:
- slamming the turian Councilors head against the window and yelling "DISMISS THIS!"
- epic space battle..with human DN's. I wanna see what they look like!
- no terminator reapers!

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 14, 2010, 03:10:47 am
His Gilbert and Sullivan routine was gold.
Made so much funnier after actually seeing Pirates of Penzance prior to playing. :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on December 14, 2010, 04:09:40 am
Jack must make a comeback.  Yeah it's Moe, but good Moe.
Garrus, the Undying, will of course be back.
Mordin can come back, but he's kinda old for his people isn't he?
Tali, I would like to see Tali come back as an Admiral, that would be cool.
Liara should make a short appearance with a child from Shep.  Leading to an awkward conversation with Jack.
Thane should make an appearance from his deathbed with some philosophy for us.
The rest I don't really care about.

A spacebattle would be cool.
Fewer cliche's, the story is kind of a homage to sci-fi, but the Bad Guys being the Old Good Guys is boring, overdone and silly.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Titan on December 14, 2010, 08:58:51 am
Just finished watching the trailer with a friend.

"We're gonna need a bigger gun"  :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on December 14, 2010, 10:17:28 am
For some reasons I've always wanted to see a character voiced by Morgan Freeman in Mass Effect.

I have absolutely no idea why.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on December 14, 2010, 12:03:45 pm
He's Morgan Freeman.  You need more of a reason than that?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kolgena on December 14, 2010, 02:03:14 pm
Jack must make a comeback.  Yeah it's Moe, but good Moe.

wat
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on December 14, 2010, 05:46:13 pm
Subject Zero's name is Jack.  At least that's the one she gives you.  She's a Broken (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenBird) Badass (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneManArmy) that is by far the most attractive potential love interest for Shep in ME2.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 14, 2010, 05:50:01 pm
that was my feeling the first time through as well, so imagine my surprise when all the great sexual tension with my femshep never got to go anywhere

can't believe they cut the same-sex romance options for her and miranda  :(

also wanted my manshep to be able to romance garrus  :(
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 14, 2010, 07:56:40 pm
She's a Broken (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenBird) Badass (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneManArmy) that is by far the most attractive potential love interest for Shep in ME2.
lolwut.

I wouldn't touch Jack with a five foot pole.

Unless there was some renegade option that would allow me to have casual sex with her...but even then, it's only casual! Those tats and the bald head totally don't do it for me, dude. Miranda's a little *****y, but she's alright when she opens up, and Yeoman Chambers is just hawt. Though if the game would let me romance Tali, I would. :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on December 14, 2010, 07:57:32 pm
You can romance Tali, though you get no face
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 14, 2010, 08:11:07 pm
She's a Broken (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenBird) Badass (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneManArmy) that is by far the most attractive potential love interest for Shep in ME2.
lolwut.

I wouldn't touch Jack with a five foot pole.

Unless there was some renegade option that would allow me to have casual sex with her...but even then, it's only casual!

There was you, took it!

Quote
Those tats and the bald head totally don't do it for me, dude. Miranda's a little *****y, but she's alright when she opens up, and Yeoman Chambers is just hawt. Though if the game would let me romance Tali, I would. :P

You can romance Tali.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on December 14, 2010, 08:28:07 pm
Yeah, but I can't have sex with Miranda and Tali. :( Had to make the hard call.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Topgun on December 14, 2010, 09:16:39 pm
Ive never played mass effect and I must ask, can you chose to not romance anyone?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 14, 2010, 09:46:53 pm
Ive never played mass effect and I must ask, can you chose to not romance anyone?

Of course.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kolgena on December 14, 2010, 10:07:46 pm
Subject Zero's name is Jack.  At least that's the one she gives you.  She's a Broken (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenBird) Badass (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/OneManArmy) that is by far the most attractive potential love interest for Shep in ME2.

Thanks. This has completely convinced me that Jack is a moeblob.

 :confused:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CP5670 on December 14, 2010, 10:17:04 pm
Jack was easily the most irritating teammate in ME2. I ended up saving everyone at the end, but I kind of wish she had died. :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 14, 2010, 10:19:23 pm
itt we make definitive statements about characters

Relationships with well-written characters will vary between people as thoroughly as relationships between real people do.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on December 14, 2010, 11:37:24 pm
Ive never played mass effect and I must ask, can you chose to not romance anyone?

Of course.

Yeah the only action I for my primary ME2 play through was a peck on the cheek by Parasini for helping her nail an Asari.  That said it's a tad troublesome that convos with the opposite sex generally veered towards romance.  I remember having Tali start talking about enviro suit interfacing out of the blue and pretty much hustling to the elevator with "Um have fun with Ken, Gabby and the Mass Effect Core, I think Kelly mentioned I had some spam to clean out my inbox"  :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on December 15, 2010, 01:39:47 am
Jack must make a comeback.  Yeah it's Moe, but good Moe.

Jack and MOE used in the same sentance???? WhaaaaaaaaaaaaaAT?  :wtf:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on December 15, 2010, 02:58:51 am
Am I misunderstanding the meaning of Moe?

After a bit of research, it appears I did... :blah:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on December 15, 2010, 03:12:54 am
:lol:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on December 15, 2010, 06:33:48 am
Answers.com (http://www.answers.com/topic/moe-slang) ;)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Turambar on December 15, 2010, 04:15:20 pm
Jack reminds me of iamzack too much, i can never do relationships with her.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kolgena on December 15, 2010, 09:21:59 pm
You mean iamjack?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: iamzack on December 15, 2010, 11:20:03 pm
jerk :<
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mort on December 16, 2010, 05:13:11 am
I want Mordin, Legion and Thane back. Everyone else can burn
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on December 16, 2010, 05:30:15 am
I hope Kasumi makes some kind of return.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Nemesis6 on December 16, 2010, 09:23:18 am
Woo! Go collectors! C TO THE O TO THE L TO... the...


I dun goofed, didn't I?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on December 17, 2010, 04:40:01 pm
Hopefully, ME2 goes on sale on Steam in their upcoming holiday sale so I can play it soon... right after I finish Morrowind.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on December 17, 2010, 09:20:39 pm
Hopefully, ME2 goes on sale on Steam in their upcoming holiday sale so I can play it soon... right after I finish Morrowind.

It's only $20!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on December 17, 2010, 09:28:52 pm
Hopefully, ME2 goes on sale on Steam in their upcoming holiday sale so I can play it soon... right after I finish Morrowind.

It's only $20!

Yeah, but it might be down to $5 between Christmas and New Years'.  I'm nothing if not shrewd about a good deal.  The Steam Holiday sales are when I pick up my gaming list for the next year or so (last year's purchases included games still in my backlog like Morrowind, STALKER, and Company of Heroes; I finished Fallout 3 and its DLCs this fall).

I'm also hoping Dragon Age goes on sale too, along with a few other titles (Fallout: New Vegas, Assassin's Creed, BioShock 2).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on March 29, 2011, 08:46:54 pm
:bump:

So, Arrival (the last DLC pack) has been released. Short review: It's good, but not as good as Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker were.

Here's hoping we get a ME2 Ultimate Edition soon.....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on March 29, 2011, 08:48:47 pm
For those of us who just got Red Dead and haven't been paying a bit of attention because we're idiots, what's this one about?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on March 29, 2011, 08:53:00 pm
It's about bridging ME2 and 3.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on March 30, 2011, 03:23:04 am
Here's hoping we get a ME2 Ultimate Edition soon.....

This. Or atleast an all in one DLC pack.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on April 12, 2011, 03:19:38 pm
Ok no one seems to have posted anything about ME3, so i will post some stuff,  best bit of news is that GARRUS is back as a squad member, provided he survived ME2. Liara is also back as a squadie.  Legion is returning YAY!!!! not yet comfirmed if he is a squad member or a guest star, same with Wrex. Sorry its a long post. All this is sourced from Game Informer.  Also Bioware confirmed that there wont be very many spoilers for the storyline, to qoute them "you won't know the story until you play it"

First Details
Quote
As promised, the first Mass Effect 3 details have arrived in US retailer mag Game Informer.  According to the mag, BioWare's third and final sci-fi instalment kicks off with Shepard on Earth, facing trial for the events that occurred during the recently released Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2.  In the middle of the trial, the Reapers invade, and it all kicks off. Mass Effect 3's prologue involves Shepard's escape to the Normandy, and subsequent mission to yet again gather allies to battle the Reaper troops.

Confirmed squadmates from the GI article include Liara, Ashley/Kaiden, Garrus (if he's alive) and a man called James Sanders, who we're not familiar with. Wrex, Mordin, Legion, and Anderson will also appear in the game (if they're alive), but aren't confirmed as squadmates.  Mass Effect 3's set to include numerous endings, BioWare's confirmed, and just like the last game who you have in your squad and which allies you recruit will have a drastic effect on which ending you get.  The Illusive Man also plays a prominent role in the third game, and Cerberus is out to kill Shepard for reasons unknown, says GI.  In the gameplay department, RPG elements are being beefed up for the third game, says BioWare, offering players more freedom with character skills. Skill trees are said to be larger, and powers will evolve several times instead of just once, offering players even more freedom.

Weapons are similar to those in Mass Effect 2, except mods make a return, allowing you to swap out different parts such as barrels, scopes, and so on, which effect both the weapon's combat performance and appearance.  All classes can wield all weapons unhindered now, but will have limited slots to carry them. For example, only the Soldier can carry all weapons at once.  Finally, for those who've missed out on the series so far (shame on you) GI says Mass Effect 3 will feature a "previously on Mass Effect" comic to make decisions from scratch.  Good stuff. EA says to expect Mass Effect 3 this year. We'll hopefully have more for you soon.

Gamefeel fullscale war
Quote
BioWare's described in detail the feelings it plans to evoke with Mass Effect's final episode, which it says will - at the beginning at least - feel "hopeless", "ugly" and like a "full-scale war".

Speaking in the US Game Informer reveal (hit the link for all the Mass Effect 3 details), executive producer Casey Hudson said the third game will continue the dark tone of Mass Effect 2. "Yeah [the tone continues]. I don't want to say it's hopelessness, but it's that sense of, given the scale of what you're fighting, how can you possibly win? It's going to take so much coordination and so much force," he said. "Whereas Mass Effect 2 was sort of stylishly dark - cool and slick, this is much more of a full-scale war feel. You don't really have the luxuries, and you don't have the sense that you can for sure win. "Deep down, you know that it's going to get ugly and there are things that are going to be lost, even if you win." Hudson told GI that BioWare's intention is to make the beginning of Mass Effect 3's story "hopeless", but later "you start finding a reason to believe".

"If I tell you that reason to believe right now, then the story up front doesn't make sense when you play, because you're waiting for X to happen. That's thing we don't want to reveal." In the same interview Hudson teased the possibility of an MMO based in the sci-fi universe and detailed a tweaked combat system.

[ Source: Game Informer ]

New Game +
Quote
Mass Effect 3's release still lies in the too-distant future, but that hasn't stopped BioWare talking up what players will be able to do once the main game is finished.

Mass Effect aficionados will remember the first game allowed players to replay the main story campaign in a New Game+ mode once the story was completed, whereas the second Mass Effect simply dropped Shepard and the crew back into the world and allowed you to finish up side-missions and play DLC.

According to executive producer Casey Hudson, Mass Effect 3 will use a mixture of both of these, allowing players to both replay the campaign with extra powers and tie up loose ends. "It's probably going to be a combination of both," Hudson told US retail mag Game Informer. "We're going to have a version of the post-game state that you can go back to and finish more stuff, but then we'll have stuff you can loop back around and do in new game+. It's a hybrid of the two", he explained.

In the same interview Hudson teased the possibility of an MMO based in the sci-fi universe and detailed a tweaked combat system.

Combat tactics
Quote
BioWare has provided a little information on the combat mechanics in Mass Effect 3, including similarities to previous series entries as well as tweaks and new additions.  Speaking to Game Informer as part of its cover feature, Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson said critical and fan responses to the redesigned system used in Mass Effect 2 indicated that the studio had found its sweet spot.  "If you look at the way Mass Effect 2 was received by fans and critics - given the huge, sweeping changes we made - I think there's reason to believe that the formula we arrived at was right. Now, I think there are tweaks we can make to that."

The GI article goes on to say that many of the improvements to the mechanics are subtle and will likely only be noticed by players with a deep familiarity with the ME2 system, although there are some new additions too.  According to the feature, the game has 'enhanced cover mechanics' that allow Shepard to remain safe and manoeuvre himself around the battlefield. Peeking round corners has also been tweaked, and Shepard can now execute a roll intended to make getting over lower objects easier. Locales are more dynamic in Mass Effect 3, with ladders providing access to different parts of an area.

Elsewhere in the article, Hudson discusses enemy AI, which he says is much more "aggressive". "They have very specific roles on the battlefield, and those roles - like chess pieces - work together a lot better because they have unique tactics", he explained. He pointed out that switching from number-based combat to a more traditional shooter gameplay style placed Mass Effect 2 in a competitive genre, but is confident Mass Effect 3 can hold its own." We realised that because we have shooter combat, we inevitably will be compared with the best shooters in the world. So we have to get to that level... Now, with Mass Effect 3, we're able to complete that evolution with improvements across the board." Hudson also teased the possibility of an MMO based in the sci-fi universe


Savegames from ME1 and ME2
Quote
Casey Hudson, BioWare's executive producer for the Mass Effect franchise, says the third game in the series will feature a number of "incredible moments".

"... This is what we've been looking forward to the whole trilogy," he told Game Informer. "If you think about the IP that we've built, really every one of the arcs we've got going are leading towards this long list of incredible moments, and that's really what Mass Effect is made out of."  Hudson also confirmed that a number of decisions made in the first game will have consequences in the third one, and went on to tease the possibility of an MMO based in the sci-fi universe.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 12, 2011, 03:59:33 pm
So do Niftu Cal and Conrad Verner team up, depending on them not having perished in ME2?   

(http://badspot.us/img/Mass-Effect-2-Boss-Rush.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on April 13, 2011, 04:20:21 am
That's pretty good! :lol:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 13, 2011, 10:44:49 am
Starbug, that's good intel ;).

And yeah I agree that the Terminator idea was the biggest stain in a game that will be in my memories as the best game the last decade was able to produce. I just hope they just "forget about it", and don't try to explain it in some convoluted-solution-that-is-worse-than-the-original-stain. The beggining of the plot sounds good too. 911 and Pearl Harbor, etc., but the "7 million a week" killing average will need a damned good explainin'.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 13, 2011, 12:10:00 pm
It better not just be 7 million a week. The Reapers wouldn't be doing their jobs if that was the case.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 13, 2011, 12:15:15 pm
Could be just the population of London or the UK they've killed off?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 13, 2011, 12:15:50 pm
It better not just be 7 million a week. The Reapers wouldn't be doing their jobs if that was the case.

It's in the trailah


Could be just the population of London or the UK they've killed off?

They are probably trying to snipe Shepard.

EDIT: sorry, the trailer says there are "other cities" which are being attacked too.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 13, 2011, 12:18:33 pm
It's in the trailah

Sorry. I make an effort not to watch trailers or read too much in to upcoming games I'm excited about. No spoilers and all that. It's weird, I know, but it hasn't backfired yet.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 13, 2011, 12:22:30 pm
Could be just the population of London or the UK they've killed off?

Better be.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on April 13, 2011, 12:23:50 pm
Could be just the population of London or the UK they've killed off?


Yes. They said something about 'similar reports from other cities'.  The 7 million is JUST london.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 13, 2011, 12:46:27 pm
The worst to convince to fight the reapers will be the Batarians... for obvious reasons. Perhaps they will be the reapers' dirty hands this time, since the protheans and the geth are "defeated" in previous games...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 13, 2011, 12:49:24 pm
It better not just be 7 million a week. The Reapers wouldn't be doing their jobs if that was the case.

It's in the trailah


Could be just the population of London or the UK they've killed off?

They are probably trying to snipe Shepard.

EDIT: sorry, the trailer says there are "other cities" which are being attacked too.

I just watched it again and he doesn't specifically stipulate that his death toll figures where global, in fact he only mentions "other cities" after he did the facts and figures spiel.  In any case we know Reapers like to use organics for a number of reasons besides target practice.

(http://badspot.us/img/Mass-Effect-2-Pod-Acquaintances.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 13, 2011, 12:50:42 pm
The worst to convince to fight the reapers will be the Batarians... for obvious reasons. Perhaps they will be the reapers' dirty hands this time, since the protheans and the geth are "defeated" in previous games...

I suppose it's possible, but the Batarians aren't stupid, they just hate humanity (and Shepard even moreso, post Arrival.) I'm sure there will be some kinda reckoning with them, but out and out submitting to the Reapers? That would kind of a cop-out, and more than a little idiotic. IMO, anyway.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 13, 2011, 01:16:31 pm
The worst to convince to fight the reapers will be the Batarians... for obvious reasons. Perhaps they will be the reapers' dirty hands this time, since the protheans and the geth are "defeated" in previous games...

I suppose it's possible, but the Batarians aren't stupid, they just hate humanity (and Shepard even moreso, post Arrival.) I'm sure there will be some kinda reckoning with them, but out and out submitting to the Reapers? That would kind of a cop-out, and more than a little idiotic. IMO, anyway.

Yes I agree. And since the reapers arrived, one could say that their ability to mindrape everyone just exponentially increased. So we could have not one slave race, but several, perhaps all of them were partially mindraped and turned into slaves. So you will fight humans, salarians, etc.,etc.


Some basic guesses:

Miranda will be torn between her faith upon Cerberus and Shepard.
Kaidan / Ashley is still torn between Alliance and Shepard.

There will be blood between those three ;).

Thane will die in the first third of the game. And it will be sad. Perhaps Shepard arrives too late (optional?) and only gets to see the funeral. His son will be there, at peace with his father.

Tali and Legion get their act together at some point in the game. Between the second and third thirds of the game. Both their fleets will be essential.

T'Soni will be more efficient than the whole Council at gathering intel resources to the war.

Illusive Man will go too far, but he won't be Saren-like. I hope. I pray.

Rachni queen will be of some (minor) help, if your shepard didn't kill her.
The geth will be more powerful if you chose to brainwash them.

Mordin will have a hard choice, to release the cure for the genophage or not. This depends upon the nature of the war. If the war is to be fought for decades, then this decision is important.


Someone of value will die before the end. I'm betting on Garrus. Very emotional, Shepard gets furious, won't let it be in vain, bla bla bla.

More thoughts?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 13, 2011, 01:28:12 pm
Blow up the Sol system to eliminate the majority of the Reaper fleet :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 13, 2011, 01:34:15 pm
Blow up the Sol system to eliminate the majority of the Reaper fleet :D

I could see a Batarian trying to do just that :lol:

But I don't think the whole reaper fleet will be in sol.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 13, 2011, 01:35:36 pm
I know the implication is that Humanity is first and foremost on the Reaper's list for "reproduction," but I really hope they aren't invading Sol anywhere near exclusively. There are supposed to be more than enough of the things to wage total war on the entirety of Council Space, with reserves left over for the Terminus Systems. If they don't end up utilizing that force properly I will be severely disappointed in Bioware.

Inevitably they'll just bunch up and follow Shepard around though. :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on April 14, 2011, 09:09:20 am
Tali and Legion get their act together at some point in the game. Between the second and third thirds of the game. Both their fleets will be essential.


I think not.
The player can give Legion to Cerberus, remember. So the Geth will harldy be essential.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 14, 2011, 09:11:36 am
Nah, they wrote a thing in Shadow Broker to show Legion reactivating and escaping if you gave him to Cerberus. And since he's in ME3 he'll probably be important. Geth will definitely play a big role.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Belisarius on April 14, 2011, 09:45:20 am
Nah, they wrote a thing in Shadow Broker to show Legion reactivating and escaping if you gave him to Cerberus. And since he's in ME3 he'll probably be important. Geth will definitely play a big role.

I'm not following the development of ME3 carefully, I know, due to time issues, but where is said that Legion or any other char will be in ME3?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 14, 2011, 09:54:58 am
Starbug's big post on the last page with interview info
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on April 14, 2011, 10:28:44 am
Tali and Legion get their act together at some point in the game. Between the second and third thirds of the game. Both their fleets will be essential.


I think not.
The player can give Legion to Cerberus, remember. So the Geth will harldy be essential.

As with many things essential in the Mass Effect series, you have a choice whether or not to keep it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 14, 2011, 01:46:41 pm
Paragons will likely have the entirety of the Geth and Rachni Fleets available to them in ME3. I would say the Flotilla too, but I dunno how well a bunch of broken down space gypsie freighters would work in a war with Multiple Mech-Cthulhus. 

Renegades will be looking a bit more desperate, save for the
Spoiler:
Collector Base.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on April 14, 2011, 08:13:46 pm
morally polarised playthroughs are boring
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 15, 2011, 06:37:50 am
The flotilla is mentioned as the largest fleet in the galaxy. Ignore it at your peril.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on April 15, 2011, 07:01:11 am
The quarian fleet should be both huge and well armed. There are two major factors that would diminish it's effectivness though. The first is most of the ships in the fleet are very old, only kept flying by the miracle working quarian engineers adept at getting a ship to work well past it's intended design duration. That's all well and good when the ship just has to fly and maintain life support, but I doubt such a vessel would be able to take much fire in a full blown battle.
The second is the fact that the Quarians literally have their entire civilization on those ships, and they can't very well risk the entire fleet in a huge battle with those kinds of stakes. Even if they somehow find a way around their immune systems issues and manage to colonize a planet I still doubt they'd be willing or able to commit their entire fleet to a battle against the reapers.
So, numerous and well armed, sure. But a deciding factor in a battle against reapers? Probably not, though having them on your side will likely help to some extent, even if you only get like 20-30% of the entire Quarian fleet to help out.
I would guess that they'll probably balance things out between paragon and renegade choices so you can win either way; paragons would probably have more alien support with the Destiny Ascension, Quarian, Rachni, possibly Turian and/or Salarian fleets more willing to help out. Maybe even Krogans, depending on your choices. Renegades would probably have access to less alien support but a more powerful human fleet using stolen alien technologies and advances scavenged from the
Spoiler:
Collector base
.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on April 15, 2011, 08:16:53 am
Paragons will likely have the entirety of the Geth and Rachni Fleets available to them in ME3. I would say the Flotilla too, but I dunno how well a bunch of broken down space gypsie freighters would work in a war with Multiple Mech-Cthulhus. 

Renegades will be looking a bit more desperate, save for the
Spoiler:
Collector Base.

I would not b eso sure about hte Rachni. The conversation you have by that girl in Mass Effect 2 that was related to the Rachni said something about that the reasons they got annihilated in the first place, is that they went mad for some reason, which might be related to the reapers. In other words, they might be suspect to indoctrination
And might be again.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 15, 2011, 09:19:56 am
The second is the fact that the Quarians literally have their entire civilization on those ships, and they can't very well risk the entire fleet in a huge battle with those kinds of stakes. Even if they somehow find a way around their immune systems issues and manage to colonize a planet I still doubt they'd be willing or able to commit their entire fleet to a battle against the reapers.

Ok. Sure. Why not commit only "20-30%" of yourself? I mean, it's not as if your entire species is being threatened of total extinction or whatever /sarc
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 15, 2011, 09:22:43 am
As it stands, the Quarians are the ones most able to survive the Reaper invasion. They could just set course for the nearest Oort cloud and start hibernating.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 15, 2011, 09:24:43 am
The "most able" does not mean "really able to avoid extinction". Just means they are the species with the best chance of surviving if they hide. Like 1%.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 15, 2011, 09:35:44 am
The "most able" does not mean "really able to avoid extinction". Just means they are the species with the best chance of surviving if they hide. Like 1%.

(http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/3661/1292814-reapers_super.png)

Heh you still expect logical decision making?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 15, 2011, 09:40:15 am
Nope. I do expect to see that guy killing Reaper-mook-of-the-week with a hearty "DISMISSED!" though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 15, 2011, 09:43:23 am
Here's what I want the Mass Effect 3 opening to be.

Shepherd is on trial on Earth. That Turian guy is there because whatever. He's all WHY DID YOU BLOW UP THE ALPHA RELAY and Shepherd is like REAPERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS

And he sighs and he's like 'Shepherd, there ARE NO'

and a giant Reaper claw crashes down through the roof and CRUSHES HIM

There is a shocked silence. Shepherd makes air quotes and mouths "reapers"
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 15, 2011, 09:45:36 am
(http://nerfnow.com/comic/image/435)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 15, 2011, 10:38:42 am
(http://nerfnow.com/comic/image/435)

Funny ;). I also like to play with the female sheppard, and no it's not for "datass", but for her voice. Damn. What a sexy strong voice!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: X3N0-Life-Form on April 15, 2011, 10:52:02 am
Funny ;). I also like to play with the female sheppard, and no it's not for "datass", but for her voice. Damn. What a sexy strong voice!

JenniferHale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JenniferHale) says hi
me fix url for u. --Vader
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 15, 2011, 01:51:16 pm
I know the Flotilla is enormous, but I don't recall ever having read that it was anywhere near a potent military force. Most of its ships are old, many are decrepit, and the Quarians themselves aren't exactly the best soldiers in the galaxy.

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 15, 2011, 02:05:02 pm
I know the Flotilla is enormous, but I don't recall ever having read that it was anywhere near a potent military force. Most of its ships are old, many are decrepit, and the Quarians themselves aren't exactly the best soldiers in the galaxy.

Not to mention it was a fleet that had its ass handed to it by the Geth when it was still brand new :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 15, 2011, 09:55:48 pm
Finally finished ME2 and all its DLC, and I want MOOOOOOOORE.  Damn, Vanguard'ing kicks ass even more than it did before.  Charge is awesome, even on Hardcore.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Beskargam on April 15, 2011, 11:11:05 pm
Finally finished ME2 and all its DLC, and I want MOOOOOOOORE.  Damn, Vanguard'ing kicks ass even more than it did before.  Charge is awesome, even on Hardcore.

glass bowling ball. how did u beat the side mission w/ the 4 yvir mechs or w/e? the bigs ones who are destroying crates
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on April 16, 2011, 02:22:52 am
Finally finished ME2 and all its DLC, and I want MOOOOOOOORE.  Damn, Vanguard'ing kicks ass even more than it did before.  Charge is awesome, even on Hardcore.

glass bowling ball. how did u beat the side mission w/ the 4 yvir mechs or w/e? the bigs ones who are destroying crates

There are 3...

And that mission is *bliep* horrible. But I beat it by hardcore (Also with vangaurd) by luring two Yvir mechs toward me, and headshot one, where the other would be taken down by the reactor meltdown of the first one (it kills him instantly :D) and then use all my heavy weapon ammo on the last remaining bot.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 16, 2011, 01:09:59 pm
Finally finished ME2 and all its DLC, and I want MOOOOOOOORE.  Damn, Vanguard'ing kicks ass even more than it did before.  Charge is awesome, even on Hardcore.

glass bowling ball. how did u beat the side mission w/ the 4 yvir mechs or w/e? the bigs ones who are destroying crates

I did it early on without the Cain, but the missile launcher fires around corners... so if you stay at your start location and launch missiles at them, they come at you one at a time.  Dropped the first one entirely with missiles and the second got lured so we took it out with guns (Miranda and Garrus strip shields easily, and warp + inferno ammo drop armor)... after that, pull keeps it constantly staggered enough to allow your teammates to kill it.  The third one just walks toward you once you shoot at it so it's fairly easy to kill.

In the end, I couldn't be bothered to keep replaying it to perfection, so I think I lost 3 crates.  Regardless, I was swimming in credits with all the DLC anyway so no big loss.

The toughest mission for my Vanguard in the game was actually trying to get the Last Stand Achievement in The Arrival DLC.  All the enemies are shielded, so even my level 30 vanguard had some difficulty, but I was dying when the YMIR showed up.  Eventually, I swapped out the Particle Beam for the Cain... and Heavy Reave took care of the rest.  That, and charge-balling around the room earlier on with my shotgun (Eviscerator, since I chose Assault Rifles instead of the Claymore on the Collector Ship).

Needless to say, looking forward to ME3 now =)  I've carried this character through from ME1 with a Liara romance and pretty heavily weighted to Paragon.  Once the third one is release, maybe I'll do another complete 3-game playthrough with a FemShep weighted to Renegade.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 16, 2011, 03:48:46 pm
So I went and played through my FemShep Vanguard twice in Mass Effect since the first play through didn't seem to take when I tryied to use it ME2.  On the plus side it was fun starting out at 50 with my gear load out from the first round.  So wrapped it up for the second time in a row, cranked up the Bose and let Faunts rock it out, slapped in ME2 and again not showing up as a valid import...

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...

I think I'll run my male Soldier Shepard through the last mission just to see if Import picks up at all since it worked the last time.  If so then I guess I will resign myself to doing the FemShep Vanguard from scratch.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on April 17, 2011, 11:42:35 am
So I went and played through my FemShep Vanguard twice in Mass Effect since the first play through didn't seem to take when I tryied to use it ME2.  On the plus side it was fun starting out at 50 with my gear load out from the first round.  So wrapped it up for the second time in a row, cranked up the Bose and let Faunts rock it out, slapped in ME2 and again not showing up as a valid import...

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...

I think I'll run my male Soldier Shepard through the last mission just to see if Import picks up at all since it worked the last time.  If so then I guess I will resign myself to doing the FemShep Vanguard from scratch.
Err, not sure if it's the same issue I had. I just didn't get anything except my first Shepard to show up in ME2, so I went and copied the Char_-----.MassEffectSave files from \Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Save to \Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\ME1 . Has worked so far.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Crazy_Ivan80 on April 18, 2011, 03:03:10 am
Funny ;). I also like to play with the female sheppard, and no it's not for "datass", but for her voice. Damn. What a sexy strong voice!

JenniferHale (http://"http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JenniferHale") says hi

ah, Ground Control's Sarah Parker. neat
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on April 19, 2011, 04:15:28 am
Err, not sure if it's the same issue I had. I just didn't get anything except my first Shepard to show up in ME2, so I went and copied the Char_-----.MassEffectSave files from \Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect\Save to \Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 2\Save\ME1 . Has worked so far.

I don't think Slayer is playing on the PC, though. This is probably another issue of console gaming being all simpler and superior :P Seriously though, never had an issue importing a character on the PC. Not sure what's wrong there but it really is weird.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on April 20, 2011, 11:52:48 am
New Mass Effect details have emerged via a Spanish games magazine.

According to the ladies and gents over on the BioWare forums, the unnamed mag reveals new details on the game including plans for dynamic enemy damage, Shepard SWAT moves and possibly even space combat.

Here are your bullet points:

    * The reason that Cerberus is now against Shepard is explained at the beginning of the game.
    * Cerberus' troops include mecha, assault units and ninja-style shock troops.
    * Reapers come in different sizes ranging from 500-600 meters of the smaller ships to 2km for Herald.
    * New skills for Shepard: He can dive in search of cover ala Max Payne, roll, perform a SWAT turn and strike the enemy with greater variety of melee attacks. The mag specifically mentions a new class, "Heavy Melee" that takes advantage of these capabilities.
    * New skills: Engineer can build turrets.
    * Customize weapons with sights etc - there are five variants in each section.
    * More items to "loot."
    * Space Battles? Perhaps, but unconfirmed.
    * Locations include New York, London, a moon of the Krogan world, a Salarian world and Mars, among others.
    * Enemies can suffer dynamic damage. The Cerberus mecha, for example, require that you shoot a weak point - the glass cockpit - in order to destroy them. In other enemies you can cut off their arms and break various pieces of their armour.
    * Fighting is more dynamic, forcing you to move more frequently. Game speed is said to be 15% faster.
    * Exploration: You won't drive vehicles seen in previous games. The main gameplay is designed without them and will continue so. This does not mean that there are no vehicles in the game.

[source Bioware Forums]

I am hoping the spacebattles bit is true!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 20, 2011, 12:44:31 pm
That all sounds great. And I had figured (and hoped) that they were moving towards some sort of space battle minigame, or at the very least some kind of setpiece, what with the added Normandy controls in 2.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 20, 2011, 12:56:03 pm
Game Informer ME3 Hub (http://www.gameinformer.com/p/masseffect3.aspx)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 20, 2011, 01:18:19 pm
The new "Heavy Melee" class has me confused.  Why not just add some additional melee moves to Soldier, some biotic-assisted melee to Vanguard, and leave it at that?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 20, 2011, 01:35:04 pm
The new "Heavy Melee" class has me confused.  Why not just add some additional melee moves to Soldier, some biotic-assisted melee to Vanguard, and leave it at that?

It is somewhat perplexing, since Charge utilizes a lot of melee combat anyway.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 20, 2011, 01:39:16 pm
I always thought a Gravity Hammer would be a hilariously awesome weapon for a Vanguard
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 20, 2011, 01:52:53 pm
I always thought a Gravity Hammer would be a hilariously awesome weapon for a Vanguard

I thought Slam would make a more appropriate default power than Shockwave for that very reason.  But I think Shockwave is overrated anyway (I prefer Pull Field, because of the faster cooldown).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on April 20, 2011, 05:22:39 pm
WTF? Cerberus as the enemy????
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 20, 2011, 05:51:54 pm
WTF? Cerberus as the enemy????

You DID play Mass Effect 1, didn't you?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on April 20, 2011, 06:19:12 pm
I'm fairly sure you can play through ME1 without actually blowing up their research facility on Virmire or whatever it was on. I did on my first playthrough anyway.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on April 20, 2011, 10:28:03 pm
weren't they purely side plot in the first game?  other than a couple of terminals on feros, which would be possible, however unlikely, to not read, you could playthrough without even hearing the name unless i'm forgetting something.

but then who plays through without trying to do everything anyway?  other than dilmah :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 20, 2011, 10:58:35 pm
Spoiler:
After you find Admiral Kahoku's Marines and defeat the Thresher Maw, he finds out Cerberus was behind it and sends you to take out some of their illegal experiments.  You find his corpse in the Cerberus base after they got to him.  There's also a side-quest from a terminal in Noveria which leads to a Cerberus hideout, with a man who escaped from Cerberus custody and has been hunting down the scientists who experimented on him.
Cerberus wasn't that insignificant in ME1.  They weren't a significant plot point, but they weren't non-existent.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on April 20, 2011, 11:24:20 pm
but then who plays through without trying to do everything anyway?  other than dilmah :P
Hey, man, the universe was in trouble. :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on April 21, 2011, 03:06:47 am
First Screen shots have been released, albiet there are only 2. Source Game Informer.

(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_252663.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_252662.jpg)

I am guessing they are Cerberus, according to game informer those shots are on the salarian homeworld.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 21, 2011, 03:13:34 am
Oh thank god they brought back the Revenant.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on April 21, 2011, 04:12:56 am
Looks like the STG upgraded.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on April 21, 2011, 05:21:00 am
I am hoping, praying that we will see female turians, Krogans and Salarians!! esp Salarians since you visit their homeworld!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on April 21, 2011, 11:13:43 am
More info from CVG

Quote
BioWare says Mass Effect 3 contains a lot the 'magic' that makes the series special. Oh, and "epic moments" as well.

Speaking in the latest PSM3 magazine, which includes loads of Mass Effect 3 information, exec producer Casey Hudson discussed how he's gone about approaching the third and final game in the trilogy.

"There are certain things you want to do when making a game that are part of the 'magic' of the experience. Those things aren't necessarily the big things - they're often little moments," he said.

"There's a lot of this in Mass Effect 3. The whole game is filled with really epic moments, but I think the story will really start to hit home when players start realising things about Shepard's personal life, through sacrifice on a galactic scale."

Yesterday loads of new gameplay details emerged for the third game, including word on Shepard's new SWAT moves and destructible enemy armour.

Hudson told PSM3 BioWare already knows how the series will end - and it's going to be "spectacular".

"We know how we want it to end and we've already established what makes the series special," he said.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 21, 2011, 04:14:10 pm
First scenes on the tribunal will be used as a way to get players up to speed with the facts and choices made in previous games. Shepard will be judged and at the same time we will (re)view his/her choices and get to see the reactions of the crowd. There's potential for humour and drama, and we will obviously be given choices on how to respond to grave accusations (with sarcasm? with wit?etc).

Cerberus being an enemy, one wonders why that will be the case. Surely the reapers should focus even the Illusive Man's attention. So the best conclusion I can arrive is that the illusive man doesn't see the "solution" to the reaper's problem the same way that we will be inclined to. What crossed my mind had a sense of balance, but it still doesn't fit a hundred percent.

The idea was simple, that if you give out the collector's base to IM, he will have little to be offended at you, but he may well be driven towards a path of becoming just like a reaper. Keep in mind that IM wants the best course for "humanity", and we should not forget harbinger's rant "we are your salvation through destruction". Both reapers and IM seem somewhat obsessed over the future of mankind. Alternatively, we could have IM being brainwashed by the reapers. I don't like this alternative because IM isn't that careless. The only possible explanation would be desperation.

If however you pick the paragon choice of nuking the collector's base, you really piss him off. At this point, whatever the plans that Cerberus has to get more reaper technology, IM will want to keep shepard out of the way.

The likely scenario here may well be that Cerberus and Shepard aren't really "enemies" to the core, but rather very "aggressive" competitors. They are competing for the same tools to get against the reapers. One could see a game dynamic in here. In choosing a certain mission over another, you are effectively picking a certain "technology" or "something else" to fight against the reapers, while giving IM the chance to get other things. In this race, your choices will have big consequences in the "end battle", who gets the upper hand (if at all) between you and IM over the reapers.

We can think of this like a mini second world war, where both america and russia were not only fighting to win the war, but also to define the post war.

Lastly, perhaps the paragon ending won't be to kill the reapers at all, but to convince them that what they are doing is a huge mistake. Idk, written well it could work.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 21, 2011, 04:16:30 pm
Paragon ending should be to surrender to the Reapers so they can help upload organic civilizations into perfect, immortal superiority. I will be angry if we can't.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on April 21, 2011, 08:46:08 pm
Lastly, perhaps the paragon ending won't be to kill the reapers at all, but to convince them that what they are doing is a huge mistake. Idk, written well it could work.
I'll do it one better, he/she doesn't convince all of them, so there's a reaper civil war.  Which would be a perfect lead in for ME4.(You know there will be one, not matter what they say.)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 21, 2011, 08:54:45 pm
...just as long as it isn't a prequel about shepard's father or midichlorians or wtv, I'm fine with it ;).

Personally speaking, I think it would be awesome to see the Geth's dyson sphere completed.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 22, 2011, 01:29:26 pm
Interesting Dev Doc on creating Garrus (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/22/mass-effect-3-creating-garrus.aspx) nothing big but it did show his ME3 look.  Since I've been playing a bunch of Mass Effect I just noticed how much Turians like to use Human sayings, to varying degrees of success. 
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 28, 2011, 10:29:18 am
Holy **** this new stuff coming out sounds epic.

Quote
Guys, I just bought the 61st issue of the swedish video-gaming magazine LEVEL today, and they had ME3 as their main article.
http://loading.se/images/magazines/79/level_61_cover_small.jpg

(the upper text says, "Exclusive visit to Bioware" and the lower says, "10 pages about the big finale")
(for the record, this cover image came from LOADING.se, a site run by the staff of LEVEL)

I thought I'd transcript the most interesting stuff for you (unfortunately it is impossible for me to scan the images, so I'll have to describe them until someone else can put them up - and not here, anyway):

Basically the writer of the article actually got to meet the team face-to-face in Edmonton and saw (and heard) some very interesting stuff. Most of the initial info is just stuff *we've* already heard. They have the good old picture of Ashley, with a caption that clearly states that Shepard has split with Cerberus and that this means s/he has a chance to get back with Ashley/Kaidan and maybe reignite the romance from ME1. Nothing overtly new.

The picture of Shepard with an armored Kaidan to Shepard's right (the reader's left) and Liara on the opposite side is also in the article. The caption states that every single squaddie who survived ME2 will be back. It does not say if they're going to be playable or even permanent squaddies (aside from the Fantastic 4 that we already know of).

The article also have the picture of the refurbished SR2's interior. The caption says that parts of the Cerberus crew will actually leave the ship, and that it will feel quite empty early in the game.

Casey Hudson goes on about the fact that Shepard won't play the role of a general, but that s/he will affect the outcome of the war through inspiring other through his/her actions. Casey also says one of the main inspirations for Shepard was Jimmy Doolittle, a WW2 fighter pilot who epically owned a lot of his enemies and became a big inspiration for other soldiers, and that they're playing that kind of angle with Shep in ME3.

The pictures of the rachni husk and the batarian husk is also in. The rachni is erroneously described as a "collector" in the picture caption.

In a text segment the article writer lets us know that Derek Watts, the art director, accidentally spoiled him with a plot twist of "Luke I am your father"-calibre. Fortunately the article writer decided to keep it for himself. Fun stuff to look forward to, in other words.

Another text segment describes... and boy, this is a big one for turian-lovers such as myself... that Palaven has been rendered completely inoperable as a military stronghold, and that the turians of Palaven (either militarily or as a whole) have been forced to evacuate to a nearby moon that apparently is very barren, to really accentuate the turians status as hardened survivors.

On the other page is a concept picture of the moon in question, with Palaven's dark side in the distance. Fires can clearly be seen on the planet's surface in the dark. Just below it is another picture which I can only assume is Palaven itself. Next to these two is a larger picture of a number of reapers attacking what seems to be a moon for some big, terrestrial planet with cloud formations. It may be Palaven again, i'm not sure.

The third picture has a caption in which the writer states that BioWare has some sort of plan on how to fight (in-game) the Reapers on their own scale, but that they want to keep it a secret other than that it will be "grand".
On the same page is a long description of the reinforcement of RPG-elements, in which Casey states that while they will satisfy the RPG-demand that most fans felt was lacking in ME2, that does not mean they will trim down on the shooter elements. He also says we will have more stuff to buy in the shops, and more stuff to do in the various menus.

There's a picture of Illium and a caption that states we will get to revisit the planet. Below that picture is a smaller picture of the North American continent burning (the ENTIRE continent, for emphasis), meaning the Reaper invasion ISN'T just restricted to Europe like I originally thought.

In the next segment, the article writer is introduced to Corey Gaspur, one of the game designers. Gaspur goes into detail on the new enemies, trying to emphasize their desire to create a greater variety of enemies, especially what he calls "reaper-zombies". Apparently these reaper zombies can have some of their body parts blown off. He also uses the batarian husk as an example of how different areas on the body can affect combat. For example, shooting the hand-cannon will disable his range attack, shooting his claw will prevent him from meleeing you, or you can just ignore both and go for the kill by shooting the more durable torso. This system is apparently going to be applied to more than just this type of enemy.

Casey explains that they are really going for a greater enemy variety, and that they will have cannibalizing husks, Cerberus mechs that can be blown apart in two pieces and new types of husks which will, and i quote, "be to the old [husk]version what 28 days later was to the Night of the Living Dead".

In the next segment they describe the salarian homeworld as a very damp and tropical place, comparing their architecture to the hanging gardens of Babylon. The article writer gets to play a combat sequence in an area by a waterfall, fighting Cerberus soldiers. The gameplay is positively compared to Gears of War, with emphasis on more fluid and faster combat. Casey reiterates that they are trying to make the game more difficult by making the enemies smarter and more tactical. "Normal is the new Veteran."

Next on they meet Parrish Ley, the lead cinematic director. This part isn't very interesting, they just talk about how they are improving the cinematic feel and so forth. Parrish shows the Tresher vs Reaper segment to the article writer, and they indicate that the krogan convoy in which Shepard is situated is supposed to distract the reaper so that turian ships can get clear shots at it.

On the next page is a picture of Anderson in a blue cap, with an ear-phone-thingy dressed in light combat armor with an assault rifle in hand. The caption suggests that he will have a much more combat-oriented role, but it does not say if he will be a squadmember in any capacity. My educated guess is that he will be a temporary squaddie.

The rest of the article is just a couple of quotes that describes BioWares feel of its grand scope, and how excited they are to finish the big project they started 10 years ago, and how well they feel the trilogy-concept have been implemented, emphasizing that the series is the first to have player decisions carry over for three games.

Well like I said in the beginning of the post I can't scan the images, so you'll have to take my (weak) word for it until someone can actually confirm it.

If this has already been posted, just shoot me. I did an extensive research and came up with nothing, so here it is.

EDIT: One thing I forgot to mention: they say that the factions of the galaxy are on the verge of civil war and  is that we might possibly have to choose between them in ME3, such as the quarians and geth, citing Kaidan and Ashley as an example but on a galactic scale. Gulp.

yesssss turian ships, yessss earth on fire, yessss loads of weapon mods with sound effects done by DICE

goty erryear
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Shivan Hunter on April 28, 2011, 10:37:43 am
I just read this post

and I

JIZZED

IN

MY PANTS
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 28, 2011, 10:38:04 am
Shaweeet
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:07:34 pm
It's like empire multiplied ten times for its scope.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 12:12:29 pm
Hahaahah Shepard  as Doolittle Sounds badass.

And of course THANK GOD this sounds like everything we wanted.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:23:21 pm
Hahaahah Shepard  as Doolittle Sounds badass

It eerily reminds me of Pearl Harbor (2001? **** I'm old!), so that part was bittersweet...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 12:33:21 pm
It eerily reminds me of Pearl Harbor (2001? **** I'm old!), so that part was bittersweet...

You don't know me, so I'll forgive you this time, but please please PLEASE never remind me of that Transgression against Humanity :nono:

Joking aside, I am a tad disappointed that all the Council militaries aren't simply handing Shepard the reigns and letting him take care of it.   
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:35:04 pm
I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that Shepard is being judged by the alliance and perhaps the council for... ahhhh.... genocide? ;)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 12:37:58 pm
Mass Murder? Yes. Genocide? Not by a long shot. Even if you killed the Rachni, that ship has sailed.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 28, 2011, 12:38:28 pm
He's talking about the events of the Arrival DLC (which sucked)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 28, 2011, 12:39:39 pm
It sucked hard. But yeah, Mass Murder? War Crime? Definitely.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 12:39:49 pm
I'm aware. That wasn't Genocide, there are plenty more Batarians out there.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on April 28, 2011, 12:40:41 pm
The only thing important to me, is that the terminator reaper thing is done/canceled. It seems that some Dev has been confirmed that :) Regarding Arrival sucking, I will see for myself this evening :)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:45:34 pm
Well it starts off badly when you figure out that the principal figure is a woman with no sex appeal at all, and that the whole DLC is exactly as sexy as she is.

There is one good moment in that DLC, though, a sort of mini-game, if you will, and I won't tell anything more about it :).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 28, 2011, 12:46:09 pm
Well it starts off badly when you figure out that the principal figure is a woman with no sex appeal at all

Yeah that's the best way to determine the value of a female character
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:51:47 pm
First impression counts. The problem isn't that she isn't sexy. The problem is that the whole DLC is as sexy as she is. And you can't help but connect them both. It's like her uninteresting face symbolizes the whole DLC.

Saeed, for instance, doesn't seem sexy (as far as I can tell), but he sure does look interesting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on April 28, 2011, 12:52:46 pm
I don't have Arrival or the money to spend on ME2 DLC, so can someone tell me what happens in it that is so horrible?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 12:54:39 pm
I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know who didn't hate Arrival. Sure, nowhere near as good as Shadowbroker or Overlord, but I felt it did a nice job building up some more dread for Harbinger, plus the obvious plot twist for Shepard. Whats more, I'm never gonna say no to more things to do in ME2, even if the whole thing with the Artifact was groan-inducingly easy to predict.

EDIT For Sparda

Spoiler:
Shepard blows up a Mass Relay to stop a surprise Reaper assault,  Which just so happens to be in a populated Batarian system, which kills them all, since Relays apparently go off like Supernovas.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 12:55:23 pm
I don't have Arrival or the money to spend on ME2 DLC, so can someone tell me what happens in it that is so horrible?

Spoiler:
Shepard gets to destroy a mass relay to prevent the full blown Reaper invasion to the galaxy, with an asteroid collision, and this explosion wipes out the entire system which is populated by Batarians. 300k of them. They aren't happy about it.

PS: I didn't "hate" arrival.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on April 28, 2011, 12:59:38 pm
Well, I don't care if she is sexy, I'm in Relationship with Tali, and I wont change that  :D I more interested in the story. Regarding Overlord and Broker, both where very cool, especially the ending of Overlord. Poor David.

I was actually pretty dissapointed from Kasumi. Interesting Character and Location, but I found it very short actually.  I also hope for more interaction with Legion in ME3 , it was too short. It was very interesting, getting to know a new side of the Geth.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 01:03:47 pm
Go talk to it after the suicide mission. He's got interesting things to talk about.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 28, 2011, 01:04:44 pm
No, Arrival isn't _that_ bad.

However, it undercuts several gameplay/game design decisions that are found everywhere in ME2 and in the DLCs.

One, it's a solo mission, with a very, VERY flimsy justification. During ME2, you recruit several people who are, supposedly, excellent at being stealthy. Krios, Kasumi, Legion, Tali, all of them are people I would like to take along for something that requires stealth.

Two, you can see the plot twist coming from a mile away.

Three, at a crucial point in the plot, the game takes the decision away from you. For a few seconds, Shepard makes decisions for you instead of you making decisions through Shepard. I found this to be quite jarring.

In addition, there's another decision point where the decision has no impact at all on the game progression.

All in all, it's far too linear an affair for a game such as ME2. It delivers the eyecandy, and the story being told isn't that bad, but the actual implementation of the story in terms of gameplay and delivery is sub-par.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on April 28, 2011, 01:10:14 pm
Quote
Go talk to it after the suicide mission. He's got interesting things to talk about.

Which one ? :)

You mean the final one in the galactic core collector base ? Technically, I always finished the game then, because I made every mission before it, even the small encounters
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 01:17:46 pm
No, Arrival isn't _that_ bad.

All good points. Yeah, Bioware dropped the ball with storytelling, which is my main problem with it. I actually don't mind being railroaded into the main decision though, mainly because it was interesting enough that I was willing to let it slide and see where Bioware takes it in 3. I can see why others would be annoyed with it, however.

And yes, Starman, you can converse with Legion post Suicide Mission. I strongly suggest doing so, he has, by far, some of the best dialog.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 28, 2011, 01:34:04 pm
Well, the thing is, Arrival wasn't developed by the main ME team, so you can't really make assumptions about ME3's quality based on it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 01:40:13 pm
Really? Did not know that. Actually also kinda makes me feel a bit better, despite being okay with it for the most part.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 28, 2011, 03:30:21 pm
I'm pretty sure I'm the only person I know who didn't hate Arrival. Sure, nowhere near as good as Shadowbroker or Overlord, but I felt it did a nice job building up some more dread for Harbinger, plus the obvious plot twist for Shepard. Whats more, I'm never gonna say no to more things to do in ME2, even if the whole thing with the Artifact was groan-inducingly easy to predict.

You're not alone; I didn't think it was the strongest of the ME2 DLC (that was Shadow Broker), but it wasn't that bad either.  It introduced some newish ideas, like playing completely solo against enemies (which was tough on higher difficulty, particularly without shield-sapping powers), it advanced the plot somewhat (albeit linearly, but what did we expect), and provided some entertaining battle sequences.  It was more like one of the planetary sidequests (which were much less entertaining in ME2 than ME1, even with the removal of the horrible vehicle sections) than a mission-pack of the type that Shadow Broker was.  Would have been nice if it was the quality of the precursor, but I didn't finish it feeling like BioWare/EA had fleeced me like I have with other games' DLC (Borderlands Zombie Dr. Zed comes to mind).

Regarding ME2 overall, though, I somewhat regret finishing all the sidequests before doing the Suicide Mission... in retrospect, I would have liked to utilize Legion more.

Can't wait for ME3 though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on April 28, 2011, 05:53:13 pm
Quote
Go talk to it after the suicide mission. He's got interesting things to talk about.

Which one ? :)

You mean the final one in the galactic core collector base ? Technically, I always finished the game then, because I made every mission before it, even the small encounters

can't you load the game even so? If you can, just talk to it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 28, 2011, 06:54:46 pm
I personally wished their was the option to play Shepard as a shambling, PTSD ridden train wreck that goes up to their cabin and spends most nights rolled up in a ball.  Endlessly rocking back and forth in the shower under the mind fraking of the Beacons/Cypher in ME, the experience of actually being murdered and the combined weight of all the death, carnage of they must ednure every day plus the promise of utter annihilation by the Reapers. 

On my third Vanguard Femshep play through, hopefully third time is the charm and it will import, otherwise I'm sad panda.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 28, 2011, 11:52:29 pm
StarSlayer, are you on PC or 360? If on the console, I have a friend who had the same problem and fixed it. I'll ask him about it later.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 29, 2011, 07:15:43 am
StarSlayer, are you on PC or 360? If on the console, I have a friend who had the same problem and fixed it. I'll ask him about it later.

That would be awesome.  My first ME playthrough imported properly but the two subsequent ones show up as invalid in the ME2 importer.  If you got a possible solution I'm all ears.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on April 29, 2011, 07:52:21 am
By the way, are they EVER going to release an all in one DLC pack?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on April 29, 2011, 08:09:56 am
By the way, are they EVER going to release an all in one DLC pack?

You better hope not if it means losing the ability to buy each DLC separately. All in one DLC pack would include those bs DLCs like "alternate appearance packs" that look ridiculous and don't contribute anything to the gameplay. It's far better to be able not to spend money on that crap and just get the DLCs that offer new story and characters. Though it's probably too much to hope that people won't buy those alternate appearance packs, profits from them will be low, and bioware will learn that they can't sell crap.
A DLC pack that would include all the free ones, plus Shadow Broker, Kasumi, Overlord and Arrival would be practical though. There's just plenty of bs and I'd rather they not force people to spend money on them by making them a part of a pack.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 29, 2011, 12:50:57 pm
That would be awesome.  My first ME playthrough imported properly but the two subsequent ones show up as invalid in the ME2 importer.  If you got a possible solution I'm all ears.

Alright he just sent me a long-ass text about it. So first off - you say they appear as Invalid? As in they appear in the importer but aren't highlighted green? If so, then they have imported, its just that the importer only excepts input from the D-pad, so you have to use that to scroll. Thats apparently the problem he had, so it was less 'he fixed it' and more 'he got smart and used the other input method.' Sorry about that.

Now if your other end saves simply aren't appearing, but they do save properly to the Hard Drive, then have you changed your gamer tag recently? It will only read saves from you gamer tag, and will also only read special end of game autosaves, so you may need to go back in and rebeat Saren really quick or some such, assuming you have a save available.

I also checked around a bit, and there are a few people whose saves wouldn't appear until they reformatted their HD too, so you could try that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 29, 2011, 12:57:56 pm
That would be awesome.  My first ME playthrough imported properly but the two subsequent ones show up as invalid in the ME2 importer.  If you got a possible solution I'm all ears.

Alright he just sent me a long-ass text about it. So first off - you say they appear as Invalid? As in they appear in the importer but aren't highlighted green? If so, then they have imported, its just that the importer only excepts input from the D-pad, so you have to use that to scroll. Thats apparently the problem he had, so it was less 'he fixed it' and more 'he got smart and used the other input method.' Sorry about that.

/me inserts palm in face, palm exits out back of head. 

I'll try it when I get back home but yes the above showing up but not in green was the issue I was having.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 29, 2011, 01:02:05 pm
That would be awesome.  My first ME playthrough imported properly but the two subsequent ones show up as invalid in the ME2 importer.  If you got a possible solution I'm all ears.

Alright he just sent me a long-ass text about it. So first off - you say they appear as Invalid? As in they appear in the importer but aren't highlighted green? If so, then they have imported, its just that the importer only excepts input from the D-pad, so you have to use that to scroll. Thats apparently the problem he had, so it was less 'he fixed it' and more 'he got smart and used the other input method.' Sorry about that.

/me inserts palm in face, palm exits out back of head. 

I'll try it when I get back home but yes the above showing up but not in green was the issue I was having.

Glad I could help out. Enjoy your new (old) character. :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 29, 2011, 01:18:14 pm
By the way, are they EVER going to release an all in one DLC pack?

You better hope not if it means losing the ability to buy each DLC separately. All in one DLC pack would include those bs DLCs like "alternate appearance packs" that look ridiculous and don't contribute anything to the gameplay. It's far better to be able not to spend money on that crap and just get the DLCs that offer new story and characters. Though it's probably too much to hope that people won't buy those alternate appearance packs, profits from them will be low, and bioware will learn that they can't sell crap.
A DLC pack that would include all the free ones, plus Shadow Broker, Kasumi, Overlord and Arrival would be practical though. There's just plenty of bs and I'd rather they not force people to spend money on them by making them a part of a pack.

Well, I think what is going to happen is that they'll release a ME2 Ultimate Edition similar to the DA:O Ultimate Edition sometime in the Summer.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 29, 2011, 02:45:17 pm
By the way, are they EVER going to release an all in one DLC pack?

You better hope not if it means losing the ability to buy each DLC separately. All in one DLC pack would include those bs DLCs like "alternate appearance packs" that look ridiculous and don't contribute anything to the gameplay. It's far better to be able not to spend money on that crap and just get the DLCs that offer new story and characters. Though it's probably too much to hope that people won't buy those alternate appearance packs, profits from them will be low, and bioware will learn that they can't sell crap.
A DLC pack that would include all the free ones, plus Shadow Broker, Kasumi, Overlord and Arrival would be practical though. There's just plenty of bs and I'd rather they not force people to spend money on them by making them a part of a pack.

Well, I think what is going to happen is that they'll release a ME2 Ultimate Edition similar to the DA:O Ultimate Edition sometime in the Summer.

IIRC the PS3 version came with all the DLCs included
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on April 29, 2011, 08:43:04 pm
so what were the free DLCs?  i didn't see any on the website, and as near as i can tell the cerberus network thing didn't actually get me anything extra.  was it something that might have installed quietly and was something like those alternate appearance packs?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on April 29, 2011, 08:54:04 pm
IIRC the PS3 version came with all the DLCs included

Except for Arrival.

Still, I believe (or rather, hope) that they'll release an Ultimate Edition for the other platforms as well.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on April 29, 2011, 09:24:57 pm
so what were the free DLCs?  i didn't see any on the website, and as near as i can tell the cerberus network thing didn't actually get me anything extra.  was it something that might have installed quietly and was something like those alternate appearance packs?

Zaeed was free, the Normandy Crash Site was free, iirc there was other stuff.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 29, 2011, 09:58:47 pm
Firewalker was the last free thing, IIRC.

On that note, after the Hammerhead, who misses the Mako?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on April 29, 2011, 11:37:10 pm
Success!!!!


(http://i52.tinypic.com/11vlmit.jpg)

It was the damn D-pad, which led me to screaming DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! at my television like a raving rabbid over how import challenged I had been.  In a way it was good since it forced my to play my girl through twice so she was a Level 59 for import.  PsychoLandlord I am much obliged to you and your friend. 

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 29, 2011, 11:43:10 pm
Aw, you should've stuck it out till 60. Kinda fun being overpowered up until Illium. And you're very welcome.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on April 30, 2011, 01:22:28 pm
On that note, after the Hammerhead, who misses the Mako?

Hi. I wouldn't mind the Hammerhead so much if it didn't explode when sneezed on.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 30, 2011, 01:26:46 pm
Thats exactly my problem. The Mako could be a pain to drive, but at least it was built like a goddamn IFV. First time I took the Hammerhead into combat I tried to tank shock some Geth infantry and got killed by small arms fire in a second flat. I was dumbfounded.

Plus, it lacks a coaxial machine gun for precision work. That saddened me greatly.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 30, 2011, 01:47:21 pm
Aw, you should've stuck it out till 60. Kinda fun being overpowered up until Illium. And you're very welcome.

Play it on Hardcore or Insane.  Overpowered until Illium, my ass :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on April 30, 2011, 01:49:18 pm
Thats exactly my problem. The Mako could be a pain to drive, but at least it was built like a goddamn IFV. First time I took the Hammerhead into combat I tried to tank shock some Geth infantry and got killed by small arms fire in a second flat. I was dumbfounded.

Plus, it lacks a coaxial machine gun for precision work. That saddened me greatly.

Meh.  Park out of range below elevation, use boost to pop up to spot enemies, unload seeking missiles, wash, rinse, repeat.  I never got killed in it, though there was some need to drop back behind cover when engaging the pop-up auto-turrets.

The only thing I liked less about the Hammerhead sequences was the lack of a save function while you were in it, even out of combat.  I in no way missed the Mako.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 30, 2011, 01:56:20 pm
Sure, once you realize its meant to operate as a fast Skirmisher, you do fine in it. But it's listed as an IFV in the Codex entry, so I drove it like an IFV. And paper thin armor and a lack of dedicated anti-infantry weaponry does not an IFV make.

Now, if they had just called it an LAV it wouldn't be complaining. (Though I would still miss the Mako. I had a soft spot for it.)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Wanderer on April 30, 2011, 02:20:40 pm
Bah... Decided for once to have some fun in the ME2 by tossing enemies around and chose Adept as the class. Then decided soon after that it would be so cool to get the Geth Pulse Rifle... So off i went and switched difficulty to hardcore. With freaking adept. And then managed to get the damn gun. And found out it was worthless PoS. Yay... And then went on and finished the game on hardcore with adept just fer the kicks.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 30, 2011, 02:23:00 pm
Bah... Decided for once to have some fun in the ME2 by tossing enemies around and chose Adept as the class. Then decided soon after that it would be so cool to get the Geth Pulse Rifle... So off i went and switched difficulty to hardcore. With freaking adept. And then managed to get the damn gun. And found out it was worthless PoS. Yay... And then went on and finished the game on hardcore with adept just fer the kicks.

Now, lets be fair to the Pulse Rifle. It's accurate as all hell, and up until the Mattock became available it was the best AR you could give your squadmates, IMO.

Beyond that, I wasn't too taken with it, though. And once the Mattock showed up it was rendered moot.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on April 30, 2011, 03:17:51 pm
Mako = fun. AT least for me.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on April 30, 2011, 04:50:14 pm
Mako = fun. AT least for me.

Glad someone else liked it. I actually enjoyed the groundside component of the first game. Hell of a lot better than probing.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on April 30, 2011, 05:08:41 pm
Meh.  Park out of range below elevation, use boost to pop up to spot enemies, unload seeking missiles, wash, rinse, repeat.  I never got killed in it, though there was some need to drop back behind cover when engaging the pop-up auto-turrets.

The only thing I liked less about the Hammerhead sequences was the lack of a save function while you were in it, even out of combat.  I in no way missed the Mako.
Exactly why I hated the Hammerhead, because I thought it was boring how you to sit back and hold down the trigger button, it got old for me fast, which is why I preferred the Mako.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 01, 2011, 12:17:18 pm
Meh.  Park out of range below elevation, use boost to pop up to spot enemies, unload seeking missiles, wash, rinse, repeat.  I never got killed in it, though there was some need to drop back behind cover when engaging the pop-up auto-turrets.

While this sounds reasonable, it's still an armored vehicle that can be definitively killed by small arms and weapons that are not anti-vehicle in nature. This is, simply put, unacceptable.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 04, 2011, 05:21:49 am
New Screen shots!

(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253184.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253182.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253183.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253181.jpg)

NEW form of Husk there, looking pretty pissed off!
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253179.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253178.jpg)
(http://cdn.medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_253177.jpg)

Quote
BioWare has released a small batch of screenshots from Mass Effect 3 - the third, and what is believed to be the final, chapter in Commander Shepard's story.

The screens include a few of the Game Informer shots that can also be currently be found in dodgy scan form online. They provide a good look at the Cerberus soldiers, which seem to be on the hunt for Shepard after the events of the previous Mass Effect.  Also pictured is Liara, who can be seen fighting Cerberus forces alongside the good Commander and Captain Anderson, who looks like he's enjoying an afternoon of staring out of a large window.  BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk has said the studio is "already been thinking about" the future of the Mass Effect series.

That screenshot with ther cerberus soldier with the baton, makes me wonder if we might get a better form of Melee combat in the game, which i think would be awesome to have some proper melee. Also those screenshots look awesome i really want to get my hands on the game!!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 04, 2011, 05:23:09 am
DAYUM.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 04, 2011, 12:42:56 pm
Force Batons and Krogan  Husks. Goddammit.

Needs to be December.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on May 04, 2011, 12:48:08 pm
Krogan? Face on that fatty husk is most definitely that of a batarian.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 04, 2011, 12:52:18 pm
Krogan? Face on that fatty husk is most definitely that of a batarian.

Indeed, they've said that there are husks from various species, and even those that amalgamate species. So it might be a batarian + human + turian.

Turning people into goo? Okay. I can handle that.

But combining humans with batarians? They've gone TOO FAR
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 04, 2011, 12:57:35 pm
Yeah, I can see Batarian in the face, but it was big enough for me to think Krogan.

First I've heard of amalgamated husks though. I've seen the pic of the Rachni Husk, so this should lead to some interesting combinations.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on May 04, 2011, 02:37:36 pm
Mass Effect 3 delayed to Q1 2012 (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-04-mass-effect-3-delayed-until-q1-2012)

:(

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Turambar on May 04, 2011, 02:55:54 pm
Best news i've heard
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 04, 2011, 02:56:37 pm
Actually I'm really happy about that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on May 04, 2011, 02:57:39 pm
I know, it's not like it's exactly bad news, I'd just have loved to get my hands on it sooner.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 04, 2011, 03:16:01 pm
The idea they're trying to incorporate more melee into this annoys me. I have a gun, dammit, let's not 40k it up by thinking melee combat is still a viable method of fighting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 04, 2011, 03:50:48 pm
Thats good news to me too.

As for melee, I don't think it would work well in ME2's combat system. You go down way too quick for melee to be any kind of viable unless you're playing a vanguard.
Now, if they made you as tough as you were in ME1 (like the damn Hardsuits are allegedly supposed to be), I could see it being more viable. I'd still stick to guns though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 04, 2011, 04:46:55 pm
Sad that its being delayed but also happy as it gives them more time to make it better and epic. As for the melee, to my knowledge that has been confirmed, its something i would like to see, as i thought the melee moves for Sheppard were rather bad. I think Melee would work and it is already in there, standard husks are melee hostiles. Also Melee i think would work with Krogan.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on May 04, 2011, 04:55:40 pm
If the delay means less chance of them Dragon Age 2-ing it, I'm a happy camper. That release date was always a tad suspect, tbh. I'd rather they take their time and do it right.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on May 04, 2011, 09:33:41 pm
Quote
When asked about the delay, EA boss John Riccitiello said, "Essentially, step by step, [BioWare is] adjusting some of the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 that can put this into a genre equivalent of shooter-meets-RPG, and essentially address a far larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 did and Mass Effect 2 began to approach."

Well, I liked 2 a lot more than 1. On the other hand, this sort of talk makes me...nervous.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 04, 2011, 09:42:28 pm
Maybe the whole game will be main quests, no side quests.  :blah:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 04, 2011, 10:08:28 pm
Maybe the whole game will be main quests, no side quests.  :blah:

Please don't scare me like this.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: CP5670 on May 04, 2011, 11:15:30 pm
Quote
Maybe the whole game will be main quests, no side quests.  :blah:

I don't like this talk about a "larger market opportunity" either, but I would actually like more emphasis on the main quest. ME2 was far too focused on the side quests and the main quest often felt insignificant.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 04, 2011, 11:19:36 pm
Quote
Maybe the whole game will be main quests, no side quests.  :blah:

I don't like this talk about a "larger market opportunity" either, but I would actually like more emphasis on the main quest. ME2 was far too focused on the side quests and the main quest often felt insignificant.

I would (almost) agree with this except I honestly felt the focus on the interesting-minus-one characters was the game's strongest point. The main plot was absolutely weak, but I didn't consider the character stuff 'side quests', exactly.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 05, 2011, 04:57:03 am
But the 'Appeal to wider audiences' is basically what EVERYONE says. It makes investors go happy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on May 05, 2011, 05:51:35 am
Bioware has a history of ruining good games by trying to make them be two things at once, specifically arcade action games and rpg games at once. What they always seem to end up with when they try it is a game that's mediocre at both. I really don't like these comments coming from them. I also see no point in changing the gameplay mechanics too much on part 3 of a trilogy. You already got a massive fan base that basically just wants more of the same, possibly upgraded a bit. But it sounds like they're going to try and re-invent the wheel again. Some people never learn. On the other hand Mass Effect is developed by a separate team than stuff like Dragon Age 2 so there's still hope they don't ruin it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: JCDNWarrior on May 05, 2011, 05:54:54 am
Awesome screenshots indeed, Mass Effect really keeps evolving and improving (There are a few gripes with ME2 but nothing major). Looks great, and makes me look forward even more.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 05, 2011, 06:32:22 am
Bioware has a history of ruining good games by trying to make them be two things at once, specifically arcade action games and rpg games at once. What they always seem to end up with when they try it is a game that's mediocre at both. I really don't like these comments coming from them. I also see no point in changing the gameplay mechanics too much on part 3 of a trilogy. You already got a massive fan base that basically just wants more of the same, possibly upgraded a bit. But it sounds like they're going to try and re-invent the wheel again. Some people never learn. On the other hand Mass Effect is developed by a separate team than stuff like Dragon Age 2 so there's still hope they don't ruin it.

Wait, wait? A history? that would indicate that they have done it often before. With which cases?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on May 05, 2011, 06:37:16 am
The only one that comes to my mind would be Jade Empire. Which would have been a mediocre game, if it didn't have the awesome Bioware writing and some of the most stunning XBox-1-era graphics.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 05, 2011, 07:18:07 am
But wait.

Appealing to a larger audience can be done simply by making a better game. Because better games sell better (because more people buy them = Wider audience). It does not say anything about what direction they are going in.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 05, 2011, 07:39:42 am
There where a slew of articles and interviews about ME3 on the Game Informer site.  I got the impression from them that ME3 is mechanically going to be basically a refined ME2 with some of the RPG elements rolled back in.  Its based of the PS3 ME2 engine after all, so I'm going to log the EA talk as "give the investors' stiffies" bull**** for now.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on May 05, 2011, 07:51:01 am
Jade Empire and Dragon Age 2 spring to mind. Both are examples of them trying to make a RPG appeal to the arcade FPS crowd. No, there aren't hundreds of examples but DA2 is pretty recent history so that does give me some cause for concern. In general, when a developer starts throwing around terms like "streamlining" and "wider appeal", I get nervous. Meh I'll just hope it'll be similar to ME2 with some tweaks.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 05, 2011, 08:19:21 am
Jade Empire and Dragon Age 2 spring to mind. Both are examples of them trying to make a RPG appeal to the arcade FPS crowd. No, there aren't hundreds of examples but DA2 is pretty recent history so that does give me some cause for concern. In general, when a developer starts throwing around terms like "streamlining" and "wider appeal", I get nervous. Meh I'll just hope it'll be similar to ME2 with some tweaks.

Heh. I get the feeling that htey ALWAYS say wider appeal. It sells well to the investors. Like saying 'better education' to voters, without going into how one aims to achieve that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on May 05, 2011, 11:37:15 am
Bioware has a history of ruining good games by trying to make them be two things at once, specifically arcade action games and rpg games at once. What they always seem to end up with when they try it is a game that's mediocre at both. I really don't like these comments coming from them. I also see no point in changing the gameplay mechanics too much on part 3 of a trilogy. You already got a massive fan base that basically just wants more of the same, possibly upgraded a bit. But it sounds like they're going to try and re-invent the wheel again. Some people never learn. On the other hand Mass Effect is developed by a separate team than stuff like Dragon Age 2 so there's still hope they don't ruin it.

It's less a question of Bioware changing things up as it is EA changing things up.  C&C4 anyone?  Last game in the series and they screw it up royally.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 05, 2011, 01:10:03 pm
That's why it was the last hehehe
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Crazy_Ivan80 on May 05, 2011, 01:42:12 pm
But wait.

Appealing to a larger audience can be done simply by making a better game. Because better games sell better (because more people buy them = Wider audience).

that hypothesis has been disproven many times before. including by our own Freespace.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 05, 2011, 03:38:58 pm
Friend of mine found something interesting.

http://biowarestore.com/mass-effect-accessories/ssv-normandy-ship-replica (http://biowarestore.com/mass-effect-accessories/ssv-normandy-ship-replica)

The reason I point this out is because that appears to be the SR2 in Alliance colors. May very well be a confirmation of what ship we'll have in 3.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on May 05, 2011, 08:36:09 pm
Oh God Steam is having a Mass Effect sale and the first game is only $5 but I don't really like/play RPGs what should I doooooooo
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 05, 2011, 08:50:09 pm
Oh God Steam is having a Mass Effect sale and the first game is only $5 but I don't really like/play RPGs what should I doooooooo

Just give it a shot, it's not really like a traditional RPG anyway.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on May 05, 2011, 08:51:24 pm
Well, this'll be two $5-and-under games this week.  Damn you Steam!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on May 06, 2011, 01:28:17 am
but I don't really like/play RPGs what should I doooooooo

Screw your head on straight and start liking RPGs like a normal person.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on May 06, 2011, 01:52:32 am
Things are usually way too over-complicated for something I want to do in my leisure time, and most of them that involve turn-based systems suck by default.  And I'm not generally a fan of branching stories, since it means you don't get to see everything the game has to offer without replaying it multiple times.

...and yet I just bought Mass Effect.  This should be fun.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 06, 2011, 07:04:01 am
Mass Effect isn't turn-based.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 06, 2011, 08:51:05 am
It does not really branch either.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 06, 2011, 08:53:30 am
New ****, gonna spoiler it because THERE ARE WHAT YOU WOULD CONSIDER ACTUAL SPOILERS AWOOGA WOOGA WOOGA ALL HANDS OFF DECK

They're not THAT huge but they concern the motives of Cerberus and TIM.

Spoiler:
PC Gamer UK posted:

    -Tali is confirmed squadmate
    "Garrus, Liara, Kaidan, Ashley and (newly confirmed) Tali are all full
    time members of your team if they survived the previous games."


    -Wrex?
    "I asked point blank about Wrex and got as close to a 'no' as I think Bioware will come at this early stage: exceutive producer Casey Hudson simply re-emphasised that such characters canplay a role and fight alongside you without necessarily being permanent squad members."


    -No new LIs in ME3

    -Biotics are more potent in combat
    "Biotics can use their Pull ability to rip a shield out of someone's hands" (I dont get this)

    -Multi Layered combat areas
    "The games combat spaces have graduated from the often-familiar open areas dotted with low walls. They're now multi layed encouraging you to seek high ground for a better vantage point...[the rest is about Cerberus rocket boot dudes using this to their advantage]

    -class Specific Melee attacks
    Engineer: Omni-tool fire lash attack
    Adept: Melee (biotic) attack that knocks everyone near them away and stuns

    -Powers Evolve more than once
    "In ME3 this is just the start. A Vanguard player can customise their devastating Charge move first to slam people harder, then do more damage, then to reduce the cooldown.

    -Powers combine
    Example given with Soldier: "Soldier still has an arcing attack called Concussive Shot, but it now behaves differently depending on the ammo ugrade he/she is using. Cryo ammo lets you use that same trajectory to deliver a blast of ice that canfreeze every enemy in the area."


    -Story is more like ME1 than ME2

    -Places being visited (at least what the Magazine reports):
    [...]mission takes you to the Salarian homeworld, the Quarian homeworld, the Asari homeworld, and the human homeworld - Earth. You'll even go to Mars [...]

    -Every major character you have met will play a role in the last game

    -Why is Cerberus after Shepard? They are working with the Reapers
    "If your wondering why we were fighting Cerberus, having worked closely with this shadowy organisation in Mass Effect 2, the answer just raises further questions. They are wokring with the Reapers"

    -Reaperized enemies include Asari, Krogan, Rachni
    "In Mass Effect 3 we'll fight the Reapers other experiments, with other species.
    One is a hideously bloated pregnant Asari, her gums stripped away and a robot skeleton showing through her rotting flesh"

    "The Reapers take on the Rachni, who were already viscious insect monsters,are covered with bulging savs of lesser creatures. Rather than hitting their weak spot for massive damage, you want to avoid it like the plague: bursting any of these sacs before the creature is dead wit will unleash a swarm of horrible mini-rachni that crawl all over your body"

    "The Reaperised Krogan wears heavy armor plates that can shear off with enough focused fire. Once you do the creature changes its behaviour to be more defensive clutching its lurid blue intestines to its stomach as its lumbers towards you"

    Casey Hudson summarizing ME3 (This is an article quote):
    "Casey sums up Mass Effect 3 as being about victory through sacrifice, the scale of that sacrifice has been increasing with each new chapter" [Rest is authors speculation about saving(or not saving) Wrex and Rachni consequences]
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 06, 2011, 09:37:36 am
I so feared that the cerberus thing was going to be the case...

It seems lazy stuff though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 06, 2011, 09:49:06 am
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect/Mass-Effect-News-and-Announcements/2-new-screenshots-and-new-release-date-information-7294706-1.html

Quote
Today we have confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012. The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations.”  said Casey Hudson, Executive Producer Mass Effect series.

two new screenshots in the gallery, the first with the trio Kaidan, Shepard and T'Soni, the second with an amazing ship (?) hovering over a city in flames... I'd venture it's a cerberus ship... designed by one of Calatrava's descendants :p.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 06, 2011, 10:49:08 am
I just want more lesbians ^_^



And some sort of blackshark missile pistol.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mongoose on May 06, 2011, 02:37:32 pm
Mass Effect isn't turn-based.
Yeah, I know; that was just a general comment about many examples of the genre.  Truth be told, I've played a few games outside my usual comfort zone in the past and wound up enjoying them simply based on their high quality (Chrono Trigger comes to mind), so I'm sure I'll get more than my money's worth out of this too.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 06, 2011, 02:47:13 pm
Mass Effect isn't turn-based.
Yeah, I know; that was just a general comment about many examples of the genre.  Truth be told, I've played a few games outside my usual comfort zone in the past and wound up enjoying them simply based on their high quality (Chrono Trigger comes to mind), so I'm sure I'll get more than my money's worth out of this too.

If you pick soldier and set your compadres to auto use powers you can pretty much play it as a third person shooter.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on May 06, 2011, 02:53:34 pm
Soldier Shepard, Wrex, and Garrus with a First Aid Interface/ Medical Exoskeleton.  Chances are you won't need much medi-gel, and you'll have plenty of dakka in your team, with enough biotics and tech to get by.  Soldier Shepard can really health tank, although any class with the Electronics skill can tank as well thanks to the shield buffs Electronics gives.  Tali especially can really shield tank thanks to the boosts from her class talent.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 06, 2011, 03:33:26 pm
I smell plot copouts. Except for the Illusive Man's eyes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 06, 2011, 04:07:49 pm
I remain cautiously optimistic, despite this stupid (though thoroughly telegraphed)  revelation.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 11, 2011, 09:58:34 am
Uuuuugh I shouldn't be letting myself get hyped but

(crosspost from SA crossposting from BioWare Cesspit Forums)

Quote
"Right now we're in the middle of production" says Mass Effect 3's Executive Producer Casey Hudson. "We're not really at the point where we can show you a ten minute cross-section of what the final game is going to look
like.  But what we can do is show you  is all the stuff that's gonna form Mass Effect 3"

In the order the magazine goes through:

SQUADMATES:
" 'Twelve was a big number in Mass Effect 2 - almost too big", Hudson concedes.  "We're focused on a smaller squad with deeper relationships and more interesting interplay in Mass Effect 3' he explains.  "We're not going to have twelve again but we are going to do more with the characters on  your squad including Liara, and Kaidan or Ashley. And we're bringing everyone back - every main character is in Mass Effect 3 somewhere' "

"Zaeed is in, plus Thane, Mordin and the rest, all knocking about somewhere in the galaxy, doing something
appropriate for their character and with the same lavish redesigns given to every core character in the game."

Garrus is back along with Jack:
"She's matured," admits Art Director Derek Watts, "maybe she's softened up a bit.  You can only stay punk rock for so long, you know.  Even Johnny Rotten eventually goes, 'I've got to do something different'.  She'd get tired of walking around completely naked and she'd probably grow her hair out, but she's still Jack and still kinda punk - shaved at the sides with a ponytail at the back"

ON CHARACTER RE-DESIGN:
"We have to update the look," Watts continues, referring to Jack, Ashley and Kaidan's refesigns "And the people who redesign the characters are the same people who did the original characters; and they know best how these things are supposed to mature.  Stuff changes. Garrus' armour is going to change.  Even Shepard has changed quite a bit.  His armour has changed a lot since the first Mass Effect"


NORMANDY SR2
"Formerly a Cerberus vessel, Shepard's return to the Alliance has seen the ship repainted with the Alliance colour scheme and several new sections of the shop reopened up to exploration"

"The Normandy drops yellow, white, and black in favour of red, white and blue following its Alliance refit."
"...the SR2 will be filled with Alliance engineers dissecting the advanced Cerberus technology"

CERBERUS
"Regardless of how you finished ME2, Cerberus are now your enemy and are throwing their black and yellow-clad commandos at Shepard for reasons he'll discover later in the game when, as Bioware confirm then Illusive Man
returns"

"You were begrudgingly working for Cerberus in ME2" Explains Casey Hudson, "but they've gone a bit further and Shepard has returned to the Alliance so Cerberus troops are a major threat"

"Cerberus heavy troopers wear enormous armour, Assassins use the same Biotics as Shepard and Phantoms use blades."


WEAPONS (Customization and Sounds)
"Every weapoin is modular and can be customised with up to five modifcations; scopes increase a rifle's zoom factor, new barrels increase accuracy or damage.  Sling your gun on a workbench and it can be customised for a job at hand. Guns sound better too..." [Goes on to say that they swapped notes from DICE on gun sounds and how environments affect the sounds and how every weapon "fires with a hard-edged crack"]


SHEPARD IS MORE AGILE
"As Shepard you're more agile than ever before" Hudson continues. "You're falling, climbing, jumping, rolling between cover, SWAT turning, you can melee and grab enemies over cover objects... there's a new heavy melee
attack for every class.  You just feel way more mobile..."


COMBAT
"Cerberus Troopers can do everything that Shepard can do now" says Designer Corey Gaspur. "So your fighting a force that's a lot more punishing"

"We wanted to make it so that when the player's fighting in the moment they feel like they have more options than aiming shooting and using powers says Lead Gameplay Designer Christina Norman.  "We really want to make
mobility a factor that plays into combat.  You'll always ask yourself, 'am I in the right position on the battlefield? Where are my enemies? How am I going to get from point A to point B?' Players should never be walking tino these safe places with great cover and stay there for the whole fight.  It's about how you're going to move through the
battlefield as the enemies through the battefield move through the battlefield and how they're reacting to one another and to you"

Example with husks
"The new combat system makes for a bloodier and more violent game, as Casey Hudson explains: "The husks are faster and more aggressive versions of the ones you've seen before, but whether they're robots or they're organic you can shoot parts off and they will all have multiple stages of damage"

AI Enemies now work as a unit each with unique roles
"Some will provide covering fire for snipers, some will deploy smoke tohide advancing comrades, others will coordinate subordinate units, and one will stomp around consuming its fallen friends to fuel itself"

NOTE: The examples provided ^above^ are not exclusive too each other...the "one will stomp around consuming its fallen friends to fuel itself" is likely the Reaper Cannibal we have been hearing about..

RPG! (not the weapon)
"We've taken a lot of feedback from the Mass Effect community," says Hudson. "more than anything, people want us to deepen the RPG aspect of the experience.  Now, that isn't necessarily something traditional; about stats and loot; we see it as being more about exploration and making a good character-driven story with intelligent decision-making in how you progress."

"I think specifically we wanted to do more with the sense of progression.  We had that sense in ME2, but only in a few areasregarding your armour choices, your weapon choices and the things you find.  That activity chain was too simple and it didn't allow you to make choices that could customise your experience.  You could choose different weapons and stuff like that but you couldn't invest in the weapons like you can in ME3.  You can see how modifications change different atributes, and start making choices about your value and which ones you would rather seel and which ones you thjink are rare.  That whole activity coain was a button we weren't really pushing in ME2 and something we're trying to hit throughout ME3"

LOCATIONS (we obviously know more than article mentions)
-"Turian homeworld Palaven and theQuarian homeworld Rannoch are early new destinations."
-Returning to Tuchanka
-Mining base on the edge of a Martian crater
-BUT "it's Earth cities which form the game's showpiece locations"                                                                 
  "The Seatle/Vancouver megacity on the west coast of North America is a truly gigantic space which Shepard will    visit before and after the Reapers take it apart."

"If you Google Map Vancouver the layout is pretty much the exact same as our map" says Level Artist Don Arceta. "Geographically it's very true to the real world"

[magazine goes on about the "new found focus on realism and utility giving spaces a history and a reason for being"]

"You play a game like Gears or War and they just have sandbags everywhere, and we really don't want to do that. We really want to get away from arbitrary things placed just for the people workingthere, and we're just trying to really make sense of these spaces"
"We try to design the arhitecture first before we blow it up" says Arceta.  "Like, really thinking about how did they actually design this building, and does it function well?"

BIG LEVELS:
"These spaces large enough to accommodate a six hundred foot Reaper bossfight, and a fifty foot Cerberus Atlas mech Shepard himself pilots later in the game."

"Overand over Bioware's team mention the scale of ME3 - every fight every enemy and every space is bigger than anything you've ever seen rendered in Mass Effect - or by the Unreal Engine - before"

LEVEL VARIETY

-More varied and unpredictable:
"You could always tell when a fight was coming" says Hudson about ME2 "You would walk iunto a room filled with low cover and before we could get dramatic about it you already knew a fight was coming.  So now we're
building environments that don't have crates and sandbags and that kind of cover; we have environments that have natural opportunities to take cover.  And it helps that Shepard can climb and fall and SWAT turn and leaps across gaps and stuff like that.  It allows you to look around your environment and solve problems in that space and makes combat less predictable"

"I think Lair of the Shadow Broker is a good look at how we design levels now" says Hudson [...] "It's all about sudden shifts in the action. There's a section on Earth where you're running a narrow walkway and there's a war going on all around you and a ship is in the distance. Suddenly its nuclear core blows up and its suchs a shockwave that it knocks you off the walkway and you end up sliding down the glass face of a knocked over high-rise and then you kind of roll and catch yourself and all that happens in a moment of gameplay.  You have control thoughout and that's when you'll realise annything could happen at any time"

ENEMIES
"We definitely want you to feel that the enemies you're fighting are more complex, that they have multiple behaviors and that they're reacting to whats going on" says Lead Gameplay Designer, Christina Norman. "With ME2 we made each enemy as anindividual. Now we look at enemies as a force, with each of them having rols and capabilities.  Its giving our level designers and combat designers a lot more opportunity to create really interesting combat, not with heavy scripting, but by combining these pieces that work together in really new and interesting ways"


Asari and Rachni Husks...
"The Husks in the first and second game were humans that had been converted by Reaper technology" Hudson explains. " Now you're gonna see all the different races in the galaxy converted by that technology - the Asari, the Rachni - all mashed together by the Reapers"


IMPORTS
They have a big spreadsheet...                                                                                                                   

"Whether you killed or saved Wrex...the Rachni Queen decision...the council..." ]"If you have the opportunity to
import a saved game then there is a lot of texture to the way that shapes your story.  Players have made a lot of choices along the way.  We have a big spreadsheet"


FOR NEW PLAYERS
Similar to what PS3 owners got for ME2...BUT:                                                                                               
"It might not be comic style, but we'll do something in the same style to recap the story", says Hudson. "It's essentially a really fancy save game generator

REWARD FOR LOYAL FANS?
"Absolutely," he says. "Definitely.  The challenge is to make the game better than ever before, to make it a great entry point for new players, and to make it the ending fans deserve.  It's about making sure it starts the way a
great story should start versus just being a continuation. And thats tough becaus there is no canon except for what the player has chosen. In the end, its their game".

don't want to want, but do want
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 11, 2011, 10:13:15 am
It's okay to want, Battuta. It's okay.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Turambar on May 11, 2011, 10:32:44 am
50 foot mechs give me a real murder boner
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on May 11, 2011, 11:24:16 am
Look I am not even going to read that. If they announced that ME3 was just going to be one 15-hour sequence of renegade events where Shepard punches reporters in the face I would still get it on release to find out how my imported saved game affects the reporter's look of surprise when Shepard-fist disingenuously asserts itself on her face
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 11, 2011, 11:35:33 am
Look I am not even going to read that. If they announced that ME3 was just going to be one 15-hour sequence of renegade events where Shepard punches reporters in the face I would still get it on release to find out how my imported saved game affects the reporter's look of surprise when Shepard-fist disingenuously asserts itself on her face

What are the implications for Conrad Verner
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 11, 2011, 11:47:30 am
Cerberus the enemy again, regardless of how you played?

Fail Bioware...fail.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 11, 2011, 12:03:08 pm
Cerberus the enemy again, regardless of how you played?

Fail Bioware...fail.

You know, they used to be your enemy before ME2, and then are your friend in ME2 for no apperent reason except that you are, apperently, Alpha 1.

I almost expected them to double cross me at some point.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on May 11, 2011, 12:07:12 pm
What are the implications for Conrad Verner

In the background you might see Conrad set up a rival gig where he slaps random people for no reason but one time you can punch a reporter so hard that she flies into Conrad's ramshackle organisation and explodes
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 11, 2011, 12:14:35 pm
In the background you might see Conrad set up a rival gig where he slaps random people for no reason but one time you can punch a reporter so hard that she flies into Conrad's ramshackle organisation and explodes

That elicited a rather loud guffaw from me, much to the annoyance of those in my presence. Thank you, Ransom.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 11, 2011, 12:33:02 pm
Conrad Verner, Niftu Cal and Rana Thanoptis form a quirky miniboss squad.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2011, 01:06:36 pm
I can't but help wonder what exactly is getting you folks all hyped up about? All those info bits posted in last several pages isn't really nothing but cheap hype in the "I promise you the moon" category. I'm pretty sure you could swap words around and hype up McDonals latest burger in similar manner.

I'm waiting for ME3 as much as the next guy, but seriously is it really this easy to hype you up?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 11, 2011, 01:19:15 pm
I can't but help wonder what exactly is getting you folks all hyped up about? All those info bits posted in last several pages isn't really nothing but cheap hype in the "I promise you the moon" category. I'm pretty sure you could swap words around and hype up McDonals latest burger in similar manner.

I'm waiting for ME3 as much as the next guy, but seriously is it really this easy to hype you up?

Try reading it again, maybe you'll spot the bits we're excited about!

ed: by which I mean if you don't think substantive corrections to the annoying things about ME2 aren't exciting, you're weird; if you don't think substantive new features that CLEARLY impact gameplay (like expanded player maneuverability and enemy types) are exciting, you're just being cynical for the sake of cynicism.

It's not like people here are ingenues, we know that all games inevitably come with faults, but there is a clear difference between this and the buildup to DA2.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on May 11, 2011, 01:26:43 pm
It's called marketing. With little modifications you could use same bits to describe Freespace 1. These info bits don't have any hard substance that would make me excited.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 11, 2011, 01:34:01 pm
It's called marketing. With little modifications you could use same bits to describe Freespace 1. These info bits don't have any hard substance that would make me excited.

Yes they do, they straight-up explicitly describe hard information on gameplay changes (for example: increased weapon customizability; end of 'waist high wall' syndrome signaling areas with combat) that directly address weaknesses Mass Effect 2 had.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on May 11, 2011, 03:21:35 pm
I can't but help wonder what exactly is getting you folks all hyped up about? All those info bits posted in last several pages isn't really nothing but cheap hype in the "I promise you the moon" category. I'm pretty sure you could swap words around and hype up McDonals latest burger in similar manner.

I'm waiting for ME3 as much as the next guy, but seriously is it really this easy to hype you up?

Try reading it again, maybe you'll spot the bits we're excited about!

ed: by which I mean if you don't think substantive corrections to the annoying things about ME2 aren't exciting, you're weird; if you don't think substantive new features that CLEARLY impact gameplay (like expanded player maneuverability and enemy types) are exciting, you're just being cynical for the sake of cynicism.

It's not like people here are ingenues, we know that all games inevitably come with faults, but there is a clear difference between this and the buildup to DA2.

i sorta have to agree with fury here.  there's a lot of buzz words and slick talking going on, but yeah there ARE some *seemingly* concrete bits in there.  i say it like that because i saw ME2 hype in the same way over ME1, and then i found it to be a quite inferior game.  yeah, yeah, i'm gonna get the "opinion" rage, but there were specific things "fixed" that turned out to be crap, like the mako by removing exploration altogether, or item spam by removing item collection altogether.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 11, 2011, 04:38:54 pm
Well the idea of husks from other species sounds good, makes sense as they wouldn't all be human. Also Melee combat will now play a part in combat, each team member will have a unique melee attack, Sheppard will have a standard melee and a "powerfull" one. I am in 2 minds about melee, while yes i did think the attacks in the previous games were dull and not very convincing, i think it should only play a very minor part.

Also about Cerberus being the enemy, that makes sense as well, as the 2 endings for ME2, even if you keep the base you technically still well, tell the illusive man to go shove it and this is bioware, their games normally always has the good ending as cannon.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 11, 2011, 05:01:18 pm
I'll buy it even in the Worst Case Scenario.

What is the WCS?

It's easily describable. It's when you find yourself in the last level, obviously inside the Boss Reaper itself, shredding miscellanious husks et al, and you realise that your mission is to hack into the mainframe and place a virus in it, overloading the shields of reapers. Then you see a cutscene, where the Alliance's top general, which happens to also be a goddamned good pilot, finds out that if they just target the red beam slug weapon of the reapers it blows up the entire ship. And then we find out that this chain of events unsurprisingly happened in the same calendar solar day of some old nation's independence aniversary...

I'd *still* buy it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 11, 2011, 06:26:24 pm
Well the idea of husks from other species sounds good, makes sense as they wouldn't all be human. Also Melee combat will now play a part in combat, each team member will have a unique melee attack, Sheppard will have a standard melee and a "powerfull" one. I am in 2 minds about melee, while yes i did think the attacks in the previous games were dull and not very convincing, i think it should only play a very minor part.

Speaking as a Vanguard if you're not murderin' tons of dudes up close in personal, then you're missing out on being the Fist of the North Star. 
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 11, 2011, 07:01:18 pm
Speaking as a Vanguard if you're not murderin' tons of dudes up close in personal, then you're missing out on being the Fist of the North Star.

I am now seeing images of Vanguard-Shep pointing at recently-charged but still standing targets and saying "You are already dead." Awesome.

But yeah, certain classes will definitely benefit from more melee options, but I really hope it doesn't become necessary period.  Theres no reason for my Soldier to close to that range for anything other than a Pistol Execution.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Delta_V on May 11, 2011, 07:34:16 pm
Yeah, and if my Infiltrator gets that close to something, there is a major problem.  :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 12, 2011, 04:10:54 am
You know, they used to be your enemy before ME2, and then are your friend in ME2 for no apperent reason except that you are, apperently, Alpha 1.

I almost expected them to double cross me at some point.

It feels cheap..and it turn the Illusive Man into a moron.
Real great of Bio to give us an ally that no matter what, you'll end up fighting, even when it makes zero sense.

But then again...EA...after DA2, I wouldn't be surprised if ME3 ended up being a Madden clone.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 12, 2011, 04:14:41 am
It's called marketing. With little modifications you could use same bits to describe Freespace 1. These info bits don't have any hard substance that would make me excited.

Yes they do, they straight-up explicitly describe hard information on gameplay changes (for example: increased weapon customizability; end of 'waist high wall' syndrome signaling areas with combat) that directly address weaknesses Mass Effect 2 had.

Alas, they don't really tell you what they will be replacing those "faults" wiht or how they will be implemented.
Their solution could end up beign 10 times worse....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 12, 2011, 08:07:34 am
It's called marketing. With little modifications you could use same bits to describe Freespace 1. These info bits don't have any hard substance that would make me excited.

Yes they do, they straight-up explicitly describe hard information on gameplay changes (for example: increased weapon customizability; end of 'waist high wall' syndrome signaling areas with combat) that directly address weaknesses Mass Effect 2 had.

Alas, they don't really tell you what they will be replacing those "faults" wiht or how they will be implemented.
Their solution could end up beign 10 times worse....

Yes they did. And yes it could totally end up being 10 times worse, but they told you what they're gonna do right there.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 12, 2011, 09:12:44 am
i wonder if there will be an option to have Sheppard die in this one, since its the final chapter of Sheppard, i wonder if she(in my case sheppard is a women) can do the ultimate sacrifice thing, saving everyone at the cost of her life, or a Heroic death for everyone? As i thought the party members deaths in ME2 were well dull and not moving. I think if they did put that option in they should go out in a blaze of Glory, that should move the player to tears! like the ending to Blackadder goes forth. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglUmgYGxLM one of the most powerfull bits of televison i have ever seen, the only bit of tv to make me cry, even today at 28 still cry at it.

As for some reason i prefer the endings where the main characters do the ultimate sacrifice, dunno why, same reason i think the alpha 1 death scene in Fs2 is just better.

PS i also hope that we see female Turians and Salarians since we are visiting their homeworlds!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 12, 2011, 09:26:14 am
PS i also hope that we see female Turians and Salarians since we are visiting their homeworlds!

There are no female Turians, it's why they are always hitting on other species.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 12, 2011, 09:28:06 am
Are you sure? Doesn't some of Garrus' dialogue in ME2 hint at him sleeping with some female Turian spec ops operator or something?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 12, 2011, 09:29:56 am
Are you sure? Doesn't some of Garrus' dialogue in ME2 hint at him sleeping with some female Turian spec ops operator or something?

He was joking.

They talked about why they've never done females, it was pretty silly but awesome: they couldn't figure out what they'd look like. 'Do we just put breasts and lipstick on them? What do we do?'

This coming right after a discussion about how Turians were modeled on birds. I facepalmed pretty hard. You've got to be a little thick not to see the answer sitting right there.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 12, 2011, 09:34:21 am
It supported the notion of there being female Turians.

Anyway, I think I've seen that interview. For some reason I always get reminded of that horrendous Vasudan pin-up whenever anyone mentions female Turians. :P

EDIT: OH WAIT. I just got what you meant. Fairo, carry on.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 12, 2011, 09:36:02 am
Larger and with less distinctive plumage?  :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 12, 2011, 09:38:11 am
Quote
They talked about why they've never done females, it was pretty silly but awesome: they couldn't figure out what they'd look like. 'Do we just put breasts and lipstick on them? What do we do?'

This coming right after a discussion about how Turians were modeled on birds. I facepalmed pretty hard. You've got to be a little thick not to see the answer sitting right there.

Have they already talked about this??
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 12, 2011, 09:39:32 am
Yeah man, pretty sure an interview about it is linked earlier in the thread.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 12, 2011, 09:41:55 am
Quote
They talked about why they've never done females, it was pretty silly but awesome: they couldn't figure out what they'd look like. 'Do we just put breasts and lipstick on them? What do we do?'

This coming right after a discussion about how Turians were modeled on birds. I facepalmed pretty hard. You've got to be a little thick not to see the answer sitting right there.

Have they already talked about this??

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/22/mass-effect-3-creating-garrus.aspx (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/22/mass-effect-3-creating-garrus.aspx)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 12, 2011, 10:09:51 am
ahh, not watched it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 13, 2011, 03:51:14 am
Yes they do, they straight-up explicitly describe hard information on gameplay changes (for example: increased weapon customizability; end of 'waist high wall' syndrome signaling areas with combat) that directly address weaknesses Mass Effect 2 had.

Alas, they don't really tell you what they will be replacing those "faults" wiht or how they will be implemented.
Their solution could end up beign 10 times worse....

Yes they did. And yes it could totally end up being 10 times worse, but they told you what they're gonna do right there.

PR talk.
"Increased weapon customizabiltiy" can mean a lot of things, especially depending on how it's done.
"End to chest-high walls" doesn't really tell me what they plan to do insted.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 13, 2011, 04:15:06 am
You need to keep up, man. Look back through the thread, they talked about their alternative to that. (I'd link it for you but I've got an indoor soccer game to go to, sorry!)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 13, 2011, 08:05:07 am
Yes they do, they straight-up explicitly describe hard information on gameplay changes (for example: increased weapon customizability; end of 'waist high wall' syndrome signaling areas with combat) that directly address weaknesses Mass Effect 2 had.

Alas, they don't really tell you what they will be replacing those "faults" wiht or how they will be implemented.
Their solution could end up beign 10 times worse....

Yes they did. And yes it could totally end up being 10 times worse, but they told you what they're gonna do right there.

PR talk.
"Increased weapon customizabiltiy" can mean a lot of things, especially depending on how it's done.

Sure, except they told you exactly what they'd be doing instead.

Quote
"End to chest-high walls" doesn't really tell me what they plan to do insted.

It doesn't, except that they tell you what they'll be doing instead.

Look, again, I'm not saying this game is gonna be amazing and flawless, I fully expect every system they implement to be frustrating and screwed up in some respect because this is Bioware. But at least be cynical for the right reasons instead of stupid reasons that suggest you haven't read anything that gets posted.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on May 13, 2011, 11:23:54 am
From my read of that, their weapon customization appears to borrow from KotOR2, which I happen to like as KotOR2 gave one a lot of ways to customize his weaponry.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 13, 2011, 05:24:01 pm
new preview in the new issue of the UK PC Gamer, most of it we already know, but they did reveal one new thing -

Spoiler:
Cereberus is now working for the reapers, much in the same way Saren was.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 13, 2011, 05:28:28 pm
Yeah it's the lamest ever.

There was a novel that was about how TIM managed to get someone possessed by the reapers and he took pains to avoid "infection", so to speak. He was so believable cautious in that novel, that I'm just aghast at how this is just being forgotten, nothing but for the ease of writing.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on May 14, 2011, 12:29:24 pm
Hold your horses there. You have nothing to go on but the pure fact that Cerberus gets indoctrinated, and you are already calling it lazy writing? Sure, it may not be the best resolution to the Cerberus arc on the surface, but wouldn't it be wiser to wait until you actually have played the relevant parts of ME3 before criticizing it as lazy?

I mean, for me, Reaper tech is kinda like the One Ring. It has been established that you can't be around it for some time before it tries to take you over; unless you are a truly exceptional human being (Like Shepard or TIM), you really can't be save. And well.... Depending on how you ended ME2, TIM may be in control of the Collector base, with gods knows how much Reaper badness inside. Can you really, honestly say that, with his given motivations, TIM wouldn't be susceptible to indoctrination just like Saren was? And even if you destroyed the base, who knows what else TIM has lying around?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 14, 2011, 05:48:52 pm
I'm not saying that it is impossible, nor am I saying that it won't be written with good lines.

I'm saying that it is lazy and lame. We've done Saren already. Why fight Saren 2.0?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 14, 2011, 09:11:24 pm
I'd much rather they actually be working independent of the Reapers to bring about post humanism via "Salvation through Destruction" then straight up Indoc.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 14, 2011, 09:37:46 pm
I'm actually holding out for some kind of Cerberus splintering, with TIM leading the non-indoctrinated remnants, or at the very least being dead. I don't mind Cerberus working with the Reapers so much, but I agree that it would be out of character for TIM.   
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mefustae on May 16, 2011, 04:33:35 am
Holy ****!

(http://www.lecourtierdelombre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Ashley_1_scan_Mass_Effect_3.jpg)

Ashley got sexy!!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on May 16, 2011, 04:59:42 am
Oooooooooooooooooooooooh, dayum.  :jaw:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kszyhu on May 16, 2011, 06:20:35 am
I just hope that it's her casual outfit, not an armor.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on May 16, 2011, 07:13:24 am
Oooooooooooooooooooooooh, dayum.  :jaw:

I suddenly feel all vindicated that all my ME1 sheps romanced her.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on May 16, 2011, 07:31:48 am
Lets hope her personality and voice actin matches that hot damn body ! as i found her personality abit annoying in ME1.

Also Mass effect 3 could have "love traingles"

Mass Effect 3 will have no new love interests, BioWare has confirmed, but it will play on romance in far more interesting ways.

Mass Effect exec producer Casey Hudson told PC Gamer that while no new love interests will be added, the old ones from Mass Effect 1 will be reintroduced. And when they cross paths with players' lady of choice from Mass Effect 2, things will get interesting.

"We don't really have new characters that are part of the romance stuff in the way that we did in Mass Effect 2, where we introduced a lot of characters," said Hudson. "So this is more about how you, if you're a new player, how you start these romances with the existing characters. If you've had relationships with previous characters, then it's your opportunity to resolve those.

"But we also have some interesting things happening, where you've got Ashley and Kaiden from the first game, you've got Liara, and there's sort of a love triangle there. And then we gave people a bunch of new characters," added Hudson.

"People said 'Well, I just want my Mass Effect 1 characters, and I'm not interested in any of these characters.' But then a lot of people had romances with those characters, and now the fun is bringing back some of those characters from Mass Effect 1 and putting them back in the mix, and looking at what you did in Mass Effect 2 and bringing some... interesting scenarios around those things," he said, describing some really incredible cross-game plot mechanics that we hope will become standard in video game trilogies.

Sounds like Sheppard's going to need some get-out-of-jail quotes, like "don't hate the player, hate the game" sort of thing.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 16, 2011, 08:44:44 am
Space Racist
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 16, 2011, 08:49:22 am
Ashleys boobies are just glued on :P


Anyway, Ashley and Miranda deserve to express their curiousity on ME3............. :nervous:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 16, 2011, 09:29:20 am
Yeah, I'd rather they didn't "mirandarize" Ash.  It definitely felt like they went a little overboard with making most of the female characters in ME2 bombshells.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on May 16, 2011, 09:41:04 am
Space Racist

sadtrombone.wav
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 16, 2011, 09:49:53 am
Space Racist

sadtrombone.wav

dekkerslineswillbewithyoubytheendoftheweek.ogg
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 16, 2011, 10:47:01 am
I suddenly regret romancing Tali at the risk of great personal consequences to her when this was apparently waiting all along.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on May 16, 2011, 10:51:29 am
I suddenly regret romancing Tali at the risk of great personal consequences to her when this was apparently waiting all along.

Multiple playthroughs. One of my Sheps romanced Tali, the other went with Ash. My female Shep ended up with Thane.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on May 16, 2011, 10:59:27 am
Hold your horses there. You have nothing to go on but the pure fact that Cerberus gets indoctrinated, and you are already calling it lazy writing? Sure, it may not be the best resolution to the Cerberus arc on the surface, but wouldn't it be wiser to wait until you actually have played the relevant parts of ME3 before criticizing it as lazy?

For that matter, the great trouble with them has always been that nobody really knows from whence the Illusive Man is getting his money or where he himself comes from. This is brought up multiple times in the game and subtly hinted at in other ways (the SR-2 from nowhere). One of the few things we DO know about TIM is actually quite worrisome: he is synthetically enhanced. The only other synthetically enhanced characters we encounter in the series are Shepard after Lazarus, Saren after Virmire, and...Husks.

Lazarus was cutting-edge technology, we see or hear of nothing else like it. The other two are explicitly Reaper-tech. TIM has had his synthetic eyeballs as long as Miranda has known him, perhaps as long as 20 years, at the least 10, long before Lazarus.

This doesn't sound good, y'know?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 16, 2011, 11:12:16 am
They might be omni-tool related  :nod:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 16, 2011, 12:37:53 pm
This doesn't sound good, y'know?

This actually raises a pretty good point. I remember reading on some board or another that in one of the godforsaken prequel novels, TIM came in contact with some Reaper tech during his days in the Alliance military, they don't show what occurred when he did so, then suddenly he drops off the radar and here comes Cerberus. Putting up this facade for so long would have been one hell of a gambit, though I guess thats par for the course with TIM, and whats more I don't know if Bioware considers those awful pieces of writing canon, but assuming they are your theory has been heavily hinted at.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 16, 2011, 01:46:00 pm
I know TIM is an acronym for The Elusive Man. But I will appreciate it if we could call him Tim as TEM doesn't sound right.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 16, 2011, 01:47:46 pm
I know TIM is an acronym for The Elusive Man. But I will appreciate it if we could call him Tim as TEM doesn't sound right.

Nah it's an acronym for The Illusive Man, Illusive as in Illusionary.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mefustae on May 17, 2011, 04:43:04 am
I know TIM is an acronym for The Elusive Man. But I will appreciate it if we could call him Tim as TEM doesn't sound right.

Nah it's an acronym for The Illusive Man, Illusive as in Illusionary.

Plus, he totally looks like a Tim. Y'know?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 17, 2011, 05:34:45 am
MEh...the whole things feel horribly wrong. Plot/story-wise...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 17, 2011, 08:58:42 am
hahaha look at that ****ing fat reaper

(http://i.imgur.com/erVt3.jpg)

i christen you the derp reaper
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on May 17, 2011, 10:40:22 am
Lvlshot that, mr. Scribbler, so that the rest of us may enjoy The Joke.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 17, 2011, 10:41:20 am
(http://blueplanet.hard-light.net/baww.jpg)

he is the hamburger of your ascension
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on May 17, 2011, 11:45:27 am
that's not just any reaper
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 17, 2011, 11:55:55 am
Oh come on, he has a glandular problem.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ghostavo on May 17, 2011, 12:12:59 pm
Or, most likely, it's because it's being seen from a different angle.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on May 17, 2011, 01:04:55 pm
I think it looks somewhat awesome :nervous:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on May 17, 2011, 02:02:11 pm
 :o Reapers = Sathanii with inbuilt ETAK.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 17, 2011, 04:45:00 pm
Why are they coming from a black hole background?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 17, 2011, 04:49:14 pm
Why are they coming from a black hole background?

Because the video was from the ME2 Arrival DLC and so was probably bashed together from ME2 assets.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on May 17, 2011, 07:04:02 pm
They all look like variatons on a flea.  I still don't see where the humaniform Reaper was gonna fit...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 17, 2011, 07:05:46 pm
They all look like variatons on a flea.  I still don't see where the humaniform Reaper was gonna fit...

Didn't I post that art of what it was going to grow up into?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on May 17, 2011, 09:28:08 pm
It's a very long thread, you may have a few weeks ago and i didn't notice it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 17, 2011, 10:30:04 pm
Long story short imagine the T800 is only the motherboard and the giant space Cephalopod is the entire machine.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 18, 2011, 03:34:00 am
How ME3 will end:
CLICKY (http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3936/me3norris.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 18, 2011, 05:36:34 am
How ME3 will end:
CLICKY (http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3936/me3norris.jpg)


Now that's an awesome ending!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on May 18, 2011, 02:03:00 pm
Didn't see this tidbit mentioned yet:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/video-games/controller-freak/bioware-outs-gay-male-relationship-in-mass-effect-3/article2023589/
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 18, 2011, 02:07:49 pm
Thank God about time. Hopefully they can write it well (unlikely because Bioware)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 18, 2011, 03:46:22 pm
About time they delivered, and the media ****storm should be utterly hilarious. :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 18, 2011, 04:08:28 pm
It better be clearly defined path that you can't accidentally stray into.  Its bad enough I need to seriously curtail my characters' convos with the opposite sex because it leads to unwanted advances.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kszyhu on May 18, 2011, 04:55:44 pm
As far as I remember, romance options in ME2 weren't too invasive, at least I haven't noticed them during short conversations with potential love interests. If situation will be similiar in ME3, I couldn't care less about who is romanceable, I won't use that opportunity anyway.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on May 18, 2011, 05:06:59 pm
As far as I remember, romance options in ME2 weren't too invasive, at least I haven't noticed them during short conversations with potential love interests. If situation will be similiar in ME3, I couldn't care less about who is romanceable, I won't use that opportunity anyway.

Jacob was the biggest offender, as far as I can recall.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on May 18, 2011, 05:09:46 pm
tali's was pretty obvious. 

i really wish they did away with the romance thing altogether.  it's rather forced. 
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on May 18, 2011, 05:20:48 pm
Jack on the other hand, seemed less like a romance and more like her letting someone, anyone, in after a very long time.  The final scene where there's just hugging, kidding and cuddling seems far more appropriate withing the context.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on May 18, 2011, 08:34:08 pm
Well I've been playing a lot of ME1 lately and it seemed like I couldn't have a conversation with Alenko without him hitting on my FemShep.  They pretty much railroaded you in the first Mass Effect which set me up to avoid really exploring the conversation trees with love interests I wasn't interested in with ME2.  Heck, on my first playthrough of ME2, my male Shep had to awkwardly flee engineering when Tali spontaneously sprung some suit interfacing pick up line on me. 

Props on Bioware for doing it i just hope they implement smartly so you're not fumbling through the convo wheel.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mefustae on May 19, 2011, 02:57:40 am
so you're not fumbling through the convo wheel.

What a perfect metaphor for how I act around women I'm interested in.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on May 19, 2011, 03:10:36 am
so you're not fumbling through the convo wheel.

What a perfect metaphor for how I act around women I'm interested in.
Dewd, use the "charm" option.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on May 19, 2011, 05:10:07 am
so you're not fumbling through the convo wheel.

What a perfect metaphor for how I act around women I'm interested in.

In my case it's more it's more like fumbling trough the convo wheel with random lines, while beign drunk and right after existing a rollercoaster ride.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on May 21, 2011, 05:24:48 pm
Ever since I played ME2, replaying ME1 is a pain in the ass.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on May 21, 2011, 06:21:58 pm
Except for the graphical differences, I actually kind of prefer ME1's style of play, even considering how boring the combat could become. It may have something to do with my hatred of the Thermal Clip system and my bizarre, unrequited love of the Mako though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on May 21, 2011, 06:43:14 pm
Dewd, use the "charm" option.


I TRY CHARM OPTION
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jM5CwOILEtM/TWKpVyPaPuI/AAAAAAAABbs/QGMXMBPcHkc/s800/Commander-Shepard-Trollface.jpg)
I   FAIL   IT
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on May 22, 2011, 03:35:23 pm
I'd looove to see that smile with a full renagade face.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 06, 2011, 04:20:33 pm
Bioware

Takes My (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-mass-effect/714870)

Monies Now (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-mass-effect/714872)

k thx bye
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 06, 2011, 04:23:25 pm
Ground-based Reapers? Joint operations with Fleets? Legion driving a tank that looks like a knockoff Wraith?

The Want is like a physical force around me.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 06, 2011, 05:12:33 pm
I can haz?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 06, 2011, 06:11:09 pm
"We need a plan to defeat them"

"We fight or we die, that's the plan!"

Can't wait :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 06, 2011, 06:11:47 pm
that's a stupid plan :colbert:

I dunno, this looked okay. I'm trying to stay wary so I can be impressed.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 06, 2011, 09:27:28 pm
that's a stupid plan :colbert:

I dunno, this looked okay. I'm trying to stay wary so I can be impressed.

I'm optimistic, I mean given the potential of the game they would seriously have to try hard to totally screw it up.

Sure it's possible for them to miss the mark at being the greatest game of all time, especially with the expectations that will be riding on it, but epically screw the pooch?  I'd be surprised.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 06, 2011, 09:30:05 pm
I agree, I just want to manage my expectations because inevitably a couple things go wrong and I don't want to be sperging about them for the next ten years like so many Internet denizens.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 06, 2011, 10:15:44 pm
Moar footage (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-mass-effect/714902?type=flv)
Moarer footage (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2011-mass-effect/714904)

My body is ready
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 06, 2011, 10:36:57 pm
...they're talking about reversing the genophage or I'm a dog. Also, they've confirmed we can get the stompy mech thing. \o/

Second video is apparently the opening of the game.

March 6, 2012, mark your calenders children.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 06, 2011, 10:50:08 pm
Aaahahaha so much of these trailers just makes me cringe (****, man, they had some pretty awesome hard SF **** in this series and now reapers are just gonna land on planets and kick up little plumes of dust with their dainty little lasers) but it's just so coool

ed: and we're giant superintelligent space machines but we can't track individual humans in close proximity and suppress them with all the superadvanced bull**** guns we should have

ed2: and we don't deploy the seeker swarms we're already demonstrated to have into everything everywhere

ed3: and we somehow don't have total air superiority and the ability to track signals and just blow the **** out of the sources

ed4: who's that weird woman on my normandy, she's taking up the usual radioactive dust berth

but it's still so coool
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 06, 2011, 11:12:57 pm
I think, at that point, it's an open question if the Reapers really care about Shepard anymore at all. We've passed the point at which one man might have much of an effect on their operations. They're landing on Earth, in force, and stopping them may not even be on the table since we have no idea how it'll be accomplished.

They may even want him to run away, as a psy-op tactic.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on June 06, 2011, 11:15:36 pm
We've passed the point at which one man might have much of an effect on their operations.

Clearly not.

Well, I dunno, they might go for a downer ending or a new status quo in which WE ARE ALL TEH B0NED, and that'd be a nice surprise. It'd also be a first for Bioware.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 06, 2011, 11:16:19 pm
I liked the part where the Reaper shot the frigate and it blew up with a giant kaboom (because it made no sense at all but was cool)

I think, at that point, it's an open question if the Reapers really care about Shepard anymore at all. We've passed the point at which one man might have much of an effect on their operations. They're landing on Earth, in force, and stopping them may not even be on the table since we have no idea how it'll be accomplished.

They may even want him to run away, as a psy-op tactic.

I dunno if you're gonna bother trying to kill him with your little cannibal dudes, you might as well just seeker swarm/laser/thanix the **** out of the area with one incremental fraction of a percent of your arsenal.

but it doesn't matter, this way is cool
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 06, 2011, 11:23:15 pm
Clearly not.

We're already talking reversing the genophage. That's a lot more than one man, and would take years to accomplish something meaningful. Earth would be boned by that point regardless.

Shepard may simply happen to be the man on the spot, rather than the only man who could have ever done it.

I liked the part where the Reaper shot the frigate and it blew up with a giant kaboom (because it made no sense at all but was cool)

It was a cruiser, like the ones we saw get whacked at the Citadel (right size, right hull shape), and it's now the Nagasaki because I said so and I like horrific puns.

I dunno if you're gonna bother trying to kill him with your little cannibal dudes, you might as well just seeker swarm/laser/thanix the **** out of the area with one incremental fraction of a percent of your arsenal.

Not clear they were there for Shepard. Might be just there in general. Might be doing the stormtrooper thing and making it look convincing. It's way early to criticize the plot.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on June 06, 2011, 11:28:29 pm
We're already talking reversing the genophage. That's a lot more than one man, and would take years to accomplish something meaningful. Earth would be boned by that point regardless.

Shepard may simply happen to be the man on the spot, rather than the only man who could have ever done it.

Oh, I think I misunderstood you. Nevermind.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 06, 2011, 11:46:25 pm
We're already talking reversing the genophage. That's a lot more than one man

Well there was that one dude who made some progress on curing it :V:

Quote
Not clear they were there for Shepard. Might be just there in general. Might be doing the stormtrooper thing and making it look convincing. It's way early to criticize the plot.

If you're going to kill people a stupid unreliable way when you have a much more reliable way that's silly, but it doesn't matter because I'm not criticizing the plot, I actually don't care. It's silly in a way that doesn't matter, like subluminal lasers in FreeSpace, it's just necessary.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:08:15 am
Are we reversing the Genophage or just saving a virile female? One seems like a knee jerk reaction that wont do to much good in any reasonable time frame, the other is being friendly to your neighborhood space frogs, seeing as how such females are a hot commodity and from the sounds of it the Reapers or Cerberus have been doing their damnedest to wipe said commodity out.

Unless I missed a line, I'm fairly certain its the latter.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: manwiththemachinegun on June 07, 2011, 12:45:37 am
Aaahahaha so much of these trailers just makes me cringe (****, man, they had some pretty awesome hard SF **** in this series and now reapers are just gonna land on planets and kick up little plumes of dust with their dainty little lasers) but it's just so coool

ed: and we're giant superintelligent space machines but we can't track individual humans in close proximity and suppress them with all the superadvanced bull**** guns we should have

ed2: and we don't deploy the seeker swarms we're already demonstrated to have into everything everywhere

ed3: and we somehow don't have total air superiority and the ability to track signals and just blow the **** out of the sources

ed4: who's that weird woman on my normandy, she's taking up the usual radioactive dust berth

but it's still so coool

You're making the assumption the Reapers are after total genocide like the Shivans. That's not the case. The Reapers *reap*. They're here to harvest organics, the genocide comes after all resistance has been crushed. If it was annihilation the Reapers were after, their war would havce ended a million years ago.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on June 07, 2011, 03:06:18 am
If it was utter annihilation they were after, judging by the age of the reaper corpse you get the IFF from, they're war would have been over 22+ million years ago.

That not withstanding, this has got my hype meter up.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Veers on June 07, 2011, 03:55:13 am
Except for the graphical differences, I actually kind of prefer ME1's style of play, even considering how boring the combat could become. It may have something to do with my hatred of the Thermal Clip system and my bizarre, unrequited love of the Mako though.

I still dont quite get it, how moving from a ME1 type weapon (no ammo or thermal clips needed.) to a ME2 type (no ammo, just thermal clips) was a good idea. The last discovery moved Human tech forward 200 years (I'm assuming more so away from bullet/clip loaded weapons to the common weapons in ME1), so now including thermal clip tech, we're going back down the tech tree again. Placing limits on field troops. (In most cases, heat in the ME1 weapons is contollable, and your troops dont need to carry additional equipment to keep the weapon functional)

Other than that lack of explanation for me, ME2 was great. But it didnt have enough customisation as ME1 did (for me anycase). The change in the Galaxy Map was good, but the mineral exploration gets really .... annoying after a while.

I would like to see Conrad Verner again though....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 06:43:20 am
Clint Mansell aint' an "addition" to the sound team. He's substituting Jack Wall and his team.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 06:47:05 am
Except for the graphical differences, I actually kind of prefer ME1's style of play, even considering how boring the combat could become. It may have something to do with my hatred of the Thermal Clip system and my bizarre, unrequited love of the Mako though.

I still dont quite get it, how moving from a ME1 type weapon (no ammo or thermal clips needed.) to a ME2 type (no ammo, just thermal clips) was a good idea. The last discovery moved Human tech forward 200 years (I'm assuming more so away from bullet/clip loaded weapons to the common weapons in ME1), so now including thermal clip tech, we're going back down the tech tree again. Placing limits on field troops. (In most cases, heat in the ME1 weapons is contollable, and your troops dont need to carry additional equipment to keep the weapon functional)

Rule of cool: overheating was just that ****ing bad. It's precisely when you are more adrenalined that you "forget" that you can't abuse your weapon, and then you're bust, I mean it's just bad. So the "thermal clips" are just a neat and conssitent technobabble for ME to become more fun.


Quote
Other than that lack of explanation for me, ME2 was great. But it didnt have enough customisation as ME1 did (for me anycase). The change in the Galaxy Map was good, but the mineral exploration gets really .... annoying after a while.

The mega customisation of ME1 is really annoyingly too big. Hundreds of items that you have to compare and decide which one to use, I mean what the hell, I want to spend my time playing a game, not deciding "how" I'm gonna play it. But I agree with you in the mining stuff. Quite fun, but gets old fast.

Quote
I would like to see Conrad Verner again though....

 :lol:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on June 07, 2011, 11:23:46 am
The mega customisation of ME1 is really annoyingly too big. Hundreds of items that you have to compare and decide which one to use, I mean what the hell, I want to spend my time playing a game, not deciding "how" I'm gonna play it. But I agree with you in the mining stuff. Quite fun, but gets old fast.

There's not that much to compare, really, but that's the bad thing. I mean there's really only a few models of everything with numbered versions, where a higher number presents a batter variant of the same thing. So if you liked Onyx V better than Guardian V, then that armor suits your playing style better and you'll likely just keep getting better variants of that. The problem was, in my book, the completely generic nature of all items in the game - just a few numbered series and that's pretty much it. You definitely didn't need or have to spend a lot of time analyzing the stuff just because the system was so oversimplified and generic. Compared to that, I actually prefer not having an inventory the way they did it in ME2.
Overall, I found ME2 to be the better game with a lot of streamlining and improvements, and a few steps back. The two most significant steps back, for me, were the new ammo system and the mining mini game they replaced the Mako with. In ME1 all weapons cooled down automatically and this was the mechanism forcing you to let go of the trigger every once in a while. In ME2 they tried to make the weapons seem more like today's guns so they wanted an ammo system. They couldn't reintroduce real ammo back after ME1's weapons as that would be a major technological step back and a plot hole, so they had those heat sinks that you have to eject to cool down the weapon. That's all well and good but it makes no sense that this is the only way of cooling down a gun - if you don't eject the heatsink your assault rifle will remain overheated until the end of the universe. That makes zero sense to me and while the action is fun, the weapons make no logical sense and feel like a technological step back compared to ME1.
The other step back was the mining thing. In ME1 everyone complained about the Mako sequences being boring. True, there was really precious little to do when exploring random planets with a Mako, and even if there was some side quest on a planet it was generic, short, and took place in a recycled building you saw 50 times before. Ok, so no wonder people found this boring; the way forward here is making more different sets for the quests to take place in, and write more interesting reasons to go planet hopping in a Mako. The basis of a very cool system was there; and while I understand that doing what I'd like to have seen would be a large amount of work, I find it was a shame to see the Mako replaced by a boring but thankfully short mining mini-game. It wasn't so much fixing a problem as trying to drive around it. I prefer option 1.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 11:40:59 am
Clint Mansell aint' an "addition" to the sound team. He's substituting Jack Wall and his team.

I'm probably the only person alive who's actually rather annoyed by that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 11:46:03 am
newman, the eternal overheating stuff was actually a feature in ME1 :lol: (seriously, that bug bugged me a lot!)

NG, no you are not the only person, though I'd classify myself more as "worried" than "annoyed". Jack Wall and his team were awesome, and it's hard to outdo them. Clint has the talent, so let's not be too pessimistic about it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 11:47:27 am
In early versions of Mass Effect 2 guns reverted to the old overheating system when you ran out of thermal clips.

Then they pulled it because testers didn't like it or something.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:11:25 pm
If they'd kept the system Batutta just mentioned I would have been so much happier, as it would make more sense from a fluff perspective like Veers mentioned, and it would have given off a greater ME1 vibe, though thats a personal desire on my part. But instead we got what I felt was a needlessly intrusive and limiting ammo system that made the least amount of sense possible. Had it been a battlefield upgrade to insta-flush an overheated weapon that you couldnt take the time to let cool down, much more sense would have been made.

On another note, Batutta I noticed you expressing annoyance about Reapers landing on Earth. IIRC Sovereign's ability to land on Eden Prime was brought up and explained in his Codex Entry, and Eden Prime had Earth-like gravity.

(Also, Omni-blade for weaponized Shepard Pawnch ftw.)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 12:15:15 pm
On another note, Batutta I noticed you expressing annoyance about Reapers landing on Earth. IIRC Sovereign's ability to land on Eden Prime was brought up and explained in his Codex Entry, and Eden Prime had Earth-like gravity.

Hold on a moment, Batts has a point. You see the area where Sovereign landed. It's really, really ****ed up, looks like an active volcano. Now maybe that's from taking off, but I'm not wholly convinced.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 12:19:30 pm
I dont' see any problem with reaper's landing, at all. In the end of ME, we see sovereign "grabbing" the citadel's tower. I don't see how the reapers couldn't do what they seem to be doing in ME3.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:20:13 pm
Hold on a moment, Batts has a point. You see the area where Sovereign landed. It's really, really ****ed up, looks like an active volcano. Now maybe that's from taking off, but I'm not wholly convinced.

I thought that had less to do with any reentry damage, and more to do with the excavation (it was right over the relic, right?), but I could very well be wrong. However in the trailer I don't recall seeing a landed space borne Reaper, just several in the process of landing. Maybe they will start ****ing up the ground when they get there.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 12:21:30 pm
Come on dudes, think about it. The problem is not that the Reapers can land. I have no problem with that ability.

The problem is that it's ****ing stupid.

I mean it doesn't matter, it's cool to have Reapers, like, knocking down buildings with their tentacles arms or whatever, but why bother?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 12:25:44 pm
Perhaps hovering that huge mass is tiring them up, so they ease it with a little electromagnetic technology called "touching the ground"?

Ah, we can all agree that it follows the rule of cool so there :lol: but it's also a lovecraftian homage as well, so it's cool squared.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 12:27:08 pm
Pretty sure you don't have to hover in orbit home slice

But it's rule of cool, I am cool with it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:31:34 pm
Actually, this time, I fail to see any stupidity.  Yeah, they should be using seekers or things like them to stasis everybody. Yeah, they should make damn sure to knock out fleets first. All that. But Landing on a world? How is that stupid? They have no other ways to deposit troops, they likely carry metric asstons of Husks they want to drop off, the little walking Reapers got to get down there somehow and I saw no hints at abilities of flight on those things. And the only reaper anybody has killed this cycle has killed was killed because he was a dumbass and decided to show his one weakness at  a critical moment (My one beef with Me1's story). I'm pretty sure that of all the stupid parts of the invasion, Reaper landings arent it. They want **** alive, they're gonna have to go down and get it. Same as any occupation.

Now that that rants out of the way, yes, Rule of Cool :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 12:35:30 pm
When you are a giant spaceship that is a nation free of all weakness and you are the harbinger of their ascension and ****, I feel like you want to be at the top of the gravity well, not the bottom. Just fly your dudes down there with some dropships. Reapers have dropships, *****es love dropships.

Unless it's some kind of 'take the cities hostage' thing.

Really I don't see anything they can do at the bottom of the gravity well they couldn't do at the top.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 12:37:04 pm
I don't remember reaper's dropships appearing anywhere in the ME universe.


EDIT: There's a good point for reapers being down. They are less prone for nuke attacks, since that would wipe out the megacities beneath them.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 12:38:37 pm
Really I don't see anything they can do at the bottom of the gravity well they couldn't do at the top.

Save on gas hauling the planetary population to a harvesting center for processing into new husk-type critters and/or new Reapers.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 12:38:58 pm
I don't remember reaper's dropships appearing anywhere in the ME universe.

Reapers have dropships. *****es love dropships.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 07, 2011, 12:39:40 pm
Pretty sure you don't have to hover in orbit home slice

But it's rule of cool, I am cool with it.

I assumed it had to do with their ability to indoc the populace.  Reapers are after all looking to to reap and enslave rather then annihilate.  Otherwise they could just orbitally bombard planets into glass.  I figure getting a bunch of them together dirt side allows them to start mass indocing the populace.

Plus if your a sentient nation/ship stepping on organics like insignificant bugs is probably a way too get your jollies off.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 12:40:11 pm
I don't remember reaper's dropships appearing anywhere in the ME universe.

Reapers have dropships. *****es love dropships.

I'm having a giant hole in my brain right now, since I don't recall one single reaper dropship, unless you are pulling my leg with some english semantical joke...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:40:35 pm
I hope they have Dropships. Dropships are handy. But Dropships can be shot down, Reapers cannot, and if you want to drop an asston of troops for an occupation, you use the safest method of getting them there. If we start seeing Reapers getting blown out of the sky on the way down, THEN I'll about face and call it stupid.

@Luis: He's quoting a meme, but he has a fair point. Reapers should damn well have some dropships lying around, but no Reaper exclusive Dropships have appeared yet in the story.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 12:43:16 pm
I'm having a giant hole in my brain right now, since I don't recall one single reaper dropship, unless you are pulling my leg with some english semantical joke...

Put it this way: they would be rather stupid not to.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 12:43:39 pm
Pretty sure you don't have to hover in orbit home slice

But it's rule of cool, I am cool with it.

I assumed it had to do with their ability to indoc the populace.  Reapers are after all looking to to reap and enslave rather then annihilate.  Otherwise they could just orbitally bombard planets into glass.  I figure getting a bunch of them together dirt side allows them to start mass indocing the populace.

Plus if your a sentient nation/ship stepping on organics like insignificant bugs is probably a way too get your jollies off.

I like this explanation a fair bit. But I would still not put all my Reaper bros on the ground, so I hope they don't do that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 07, 2011, 12:48:23 pm
I like this explanation a fair bit. But I would still not put all my Reaper bros on the ground, so I hope they don't do that.

Also this. If they dont at the very least have an orbital vanguard then I'll also call stupid on that. But the mass indoc thing is a good point, StarSlayer.

Don't the Reapers burn Palaven from orbit, now that I think about it? They obviously have no qualms about doing so if they don't want the populace, then.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 07, 2011, 12:59:32 pm
Pretty sure you don't have to hover in orbit home slice

But it's rule of cool, I am cool with it.

I assumed it had to do with their ability to indoc the populace.  Reapers are after all looking to to reap and enslave rather then annihilate.  Otherwise they could just orbitally bombard planets into glass.  I figure getting a bunch of them together dirt side allows them to start mass indocing the populace.

Plus if your a sentient nation/ship stepping on organics like insignificant bugs is probably a way too get your jollies off.

I like this explanation a fair bit. But I would still not put all my Reaper bros on the ground, so I hope they don't do that.

I assume they would still need to maintain sector dominance from any interloping relief forces so keeping a force in space seems logical.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 01:01:44 pm
Specially in the nodes, I mean in the Mass Relays.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 07, 2011, 02:06:46 pm
Specially in the nodes, I mean in the Mass Relays.

Actually thats an interesting point, since their usual plan would have been to seize the Citadel and thus gain control over the Mass Relay Network.  I assume without the Citadel they can't put the kibosh on inter system travel.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 02:20:03 pm
Destroy Earth's relay for ultimate renegade maneuver, wipe out Reapers, eat Carnifex.

EDIT: If they happen to forget that's possible I'm going to be vaguely pissed off.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 02:32:44 pm
Actually we could see Shepard trying to stop the Batarians of doing just that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 07, 2011, 02:33:54 pm
Destroy Earth's relay for ultimate renegade maneuver, wipe out Reapers, eat Carnifex.

EDIT: If they happen to forget that's possible I'm going to be vaguely pissed off.

I actually liked the idea of using the dark energy stuff to pop the Sol System while the majority of the Reaper fleet was tied up on Earth.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kosh on June 07, 2011, 02:34:45 pm
Destroy Earth's relay for ultimate renegade maneuver, wipe out Reapers, eat Carnifex.

EDIT: If they happen to forget that's possible I'm going to be vaguely pissed off.


Yes, we're going to use the GTD Bastion to suicide bomb the relay. :P


The Reapers would be incredibly stupid to leave it with anything less than half a fleets worth of their uber awesome selves for just this reason.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 02:37:28 pm
Also, there's the issue that it is incredibly hard to destroy mass relays. In arrival, it took a mighty asteroid to do it. How can you transport an asteroid of that size with the Reaper's fleet guarding the relay?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 02:38:41 pm
Also, there's the issue that it is incredibly hard to destroy mass relays. In arrival, it took a mighty asteroid to do it. How can you transport an asteroid of that size with the Reaper's fleet guarding the relay?

I'm not saying they'll do it, but I want somebody to at least mention the option.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 07, 2011, 02:40:24 pm
The yield of an asteroid hitting a mass relay should be a lot smaller than the yield of a good mass accelerator, yeah? c/d with physics please
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 07, 2011, 02:44:02 pm
I'm not saying that isn't the case, but if it was that simple, wouldn't they have done it that way instead in Arrival?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 07, 2011, 02:46:49 pm
The yield of an asteroid hitting a mass relay should be a lot smaller than the yield of a good mass accelerator, yeah? c/d with physics please

We know so little about the construction of the arrays and their behavior that appeals to simple yield are useless. This is space. The arrays don't appear to be entirely connected with solid bits. Blast effect for catastrophic, total destruction of them? Surrre.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on June 08, 2011, 10:08:27 am
newman, the eternal overheating stuff was actually a feature in ME1 :lol: (seriously, that bug bugged me a lot!)

NG, no you are not the only person, though I'd classify myself more as "worried" than "annoyed". Jack Wall and his team were awesome, and it's hard to outdo them. Clint has the talent, so let's not be too pessimistic about it.

I am quite sure that was just the effect of 'Sabotage' being applied to you. It should... eventually... go away.

But I always reloaded when it happened during my first playtrough. Can't recall it ever hapening again...

Pretty sure you don't have to hover in orbit home slice

But it's rule of cool, I am cool with it.

I assumed it had to do with their ability to indoc the populace.  Reapers are after all looking to to reap and enslave rather then annihilate.  Otherwise they could just orbitally bombard planets into glass.  I figure getting a bunch of them together dirt side allows them to start mass indocing the populace.

Plus if your a sentient nation/ship stepping on organics like insignificant bugs is probably a way too get your jollies off.

I like this explanation a fair bit. But I would still not put all my Reaper bros on the ground, so I hope they don't do that.

But you are a reasonably intelligent tactical commander. The reapers unjustified confidence in their own abilities affects everything they do. Bit like the clans from Battletech. Only Clan Wolf actually managed to atually achieve significant stuff because they actually took the time to know what they were up against.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on June 08, 2011, 10:20:42 am
But you are a reasonably intelligent tactical commander. The reapers unjustified confidence in their own abilities affects everything they do. Bit like the clans from Battletech. Only Clan Wolf actually managed to atually achieve significant stuff because they actually took the time to know what they were up against.

That explanation is actually kind of why this is a problem. 'No, they really are that stupid' just undermines their weight as an antagonist.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 08, 2011, 10:22:14 am
But you are a reasonably intelligent tactical commander. The reapers unjustified confidence in their own abilities affects everything they do. Bit like the clans from Battletech. Only Clan Wolf actually managed to atually achieve significant stuff because they actually took the time to know what they were up against.

This would be the most terrible, awful, stupid writing, for the reasons Ransom said.

Also because they are superintelligent machines with the intellects of entire species, they should be able to plot out a tactical situation like you can tie your shoes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on June 08, 2011, 10:51:48 am
The yield of an asteroid hitting a mass relay should be a lot smaller than the yield of a good mass accelerator, yeah? c/d with physics please


Kinetic energy isn't the same as momentum; if you compare two objects with same kinetic energy, the one with bigger mass will have more momentum. *

Of course, considering a mass relay can survive being physically knocked away by a supernova shockwave (Mu Relay), so it does present somewhat of a problem how the asteroid could possibly destroy the Alpha Relay.



* Physics in small font

Assuming non-relativistic speeds:

Ek = ½ m1 v12 = ½ m2 v22

m1 v12 = m2 v22


So, if we assume that mass one (projectile) is one ten billionth of mass two (asteroid), that gives us

m2 = m1 * 10^10

m1 v12 = 10^10 * m1 v22

v12 = 10^10 * v22

v1 = 10^5 * v2


Now if the asteroid's velocity is, let's say 200 m/s, the projectile's velocity would need to be 20000000 m/s, or 20,000 km/s which is about 6.7% of light speed in vacuum.

Now the two objects have the same kinetic energy (or approximately, relativistic effects will be minimal below 0.1c so it's sufficient accuracy).

If we now compare the momentums of the objects:

p1 = m1v1

p2 = m2v2


m2 = m1 * 10^10
v2
= v1 * 10^-5

p2 = m1 * 10^10 * v1 * 10^-5 = m1 v1 * 10^5[/font]

Follows:


p1 = m1v1

p2 = p1 * 10^5


...which means the asteroid with ten billion times the mass of the small projectile, at the velocity that gives them approximately same kinetic energy, has ten thousand times the momentum of the projectile.

Which means, in plaintext, that although both objects have same kinetic energy yield, it is ten thousand times easier to stop the projectile due to its much smaller momentum. QED
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 08, 2011, 12:13:22 pm
I don't think the Reapers behave like the clans, necessarily, but I'm sure they're confident enough of their own superiority to come off as aloof in regards to tactical matters. Now granted, if they don't keep an orbital vanguard of any type or camp the Relays of systems they happen to be invading, then thats just stupid. But in regards to the way they act in combat or their seeming willingness, from our perspective, to throw themselves into unnecessary danger, keep in mind that as far as we know, in the entire history if this happening, TWO Reapers have gone down. One was Sovereign, who went stupid at a critical moment, and the other got hit with what was likely a Death Star sized Mass Accelerator, something that I'm fairly confident no one is packing this cycle. I'd say Reaper confidence is justified.

We should also keep in mind that the Reapers kinda had their plan screwed up this time, and likely didn't have an "Uber Awesome Space Baddie" follow up gambit just in case the organics had slightly better defenses and foresight than they intended.  Still kinda lame, but IMO plausible.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 08, 2011, 12:16:59 pm
I am basically resigned to the fact that Bioware is not going to be able to write the Reapers in a believably unstoppable and intelligent fashion. So I'm just rooting for the Geth.

fake edit: and the Fat Reaper, who is our salvation through consumption
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 08, 2011, 12:22:25 pm
Instead of setting my expectations that high, I'm just holding out hope that they'll be smarter and scarier than most other video game antagonist Aliens/Robots. So far, they have been, and thats kept me happy. I suppose it's easier given that the hardest Sci-Fi that tried to deal with vast Alien intelligences I've ever seriously read was Hyperion.

And if Fat Reaper isn't landed on a futuristic McDonalds when we have our inevitable climactic showdown with his immense bulk, I will be disappoint.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 08, 2011, 12:30:29 pm
Harbinger is a stupid wannabe troll, obsessed with Sheppard.

Thus far, Sovereign was the best. "Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding"

Now that's a badass quote. Harbinger was just pathetic in his obsession:

Quote
“You will know pain, Shepard.”
“I know you feel this.”
“Neutralize Commander Shepard.”
“If I must tear you apart, Shepard, I will.”
“Impressive, Shepard.”
“Focus on Shepard.”
“Stop, Shepard.”
“You cannot stop us, Shepard.”
“Shepard, you could have been useful.”
“Shepard, your interference has ended.”
“Shepard, submit now.”
“Shepard, you cannot stop us.”
“You escaped us before, Shepard, not again.”
“You cannot stop us, Shepard.”
“You will regret your resistance, Shepard.”
“You cannot escape your destiny, Shepard.”
“You are arrogant, Shepard, you will learn.”
“Why do you resist us, Shepard?”
“You cannot kill me, Shepard.”
“Shepard, I always survive.”
“Flee while you can, Shepard.”

YEah, Harb, I know you love me, but won't you please SHUT UP!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on June 08, 2011, 12:58:43 pm

* Physics in small font

Assuming non-relativistic speeds:

Ek = ½ m1 v12 = ½ m2 v22

m1 v12 = m2 v22


So, if we assume that mass one (projectile) is one ten billionth of mass two (asteroid), that gives us

m2 = m1 * 10^10

m1 v12 = 10^10 * m1 v22

v12 = 10^10 * v22

v1 = 10^5 * v2


Now if the asteroid's velocity is, let's say 200 m/s, the projectile's velocity would need to be 20000000 m/s, or 20,000 km/s which is about 6.7% of light speed in vacuum.

Now the two objects have the same kinetic energy (or approximately, relativistic effects will be minimal below 0.1c so it's sufficient accuracy).

If we now compare the momentums of the objects:

p1 = m1v1

p2 = m2v2


m2 = m1 * 10^10
v2
= v1 * 10^-5

p2 = m1 * 10^10 * v1 * 10^-5 = m1 v1 * 10^5[/font]

Follows:


p1 = m1v1

p2 = p1 * 10^5


...which means the asteroid with ten billion times the mass of the small projectile, at the velocity that gives them approximately same kinetic energy, has ten thousand times the momentum of the projectile.

Which means, in plaintext, that although both objects have same kinetic energy yield, it is ten thousand times easier to stop the projectile due to its much smaller momentum. QED


Thank you Data, when you put it like that the game doesn't seem fun at all anymore :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 08, 2011, 12:59:52 pm
Basically everything a Reaper has ever said in Mass Effect has been dumb, cliched and unintimidating (but good for Youtube remixes in which Harbinger has sex with Jacob). Maybe they can be magically rehabilitated.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on June 08, 2011, 01:01:29 pm
Of course, considering a mass relay can survive being physically knocked away by a supernova shockwave (Mu Relay), so it does present somewhat of a problem how the asteroid could possibly destroy the Alpha Relay.

Wan't that rely really far from the star?
IIRC, the further away from the nove, the less damage...as the energy falls off with distance, given that the surface of the destructive sphere increases
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 08, 2011, 01:14:59 pm
Basically everything a Reaper has ever said in Mass Effect has been dumb, cliched and unintimidating (but good for Youtube remixes in which Harbinger has sex with Jacob). Maybe they can be magically rehabilitated.

Sovereign was good material. Not brilliant, but good.

EDIT: where the hell is that remix?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on June 08, 2011, 01:24:34 pm
EDIT: where the hell is that remix?

(http://i3.ytimg.com/vi/fZzvvf1Sp7g/default.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZzvvf1Sp7g)


Thank you Data, when you put it like that the game doesn't seem fun at all anymore :P

You need to read it with Mordin voice

Let me help you put a face to the words

(http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/078/a/b/Mordin_Solus_01_by_johntesh.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 08, 2011, 01:32:15 pm
Ow painful laughter. :lol:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on June 08, 2011, 03:17:12 pm
Yea that works Herra, thanks. Now maybe a Gilbert & Sullivan version?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on June 08, 2011, 10:15:58 pm
Also because they are superintelligent machines with the intellects of entire species, they should be able to plot out a tactical situation like you can tie your shoes.

But the intellect of an entire species would be average, right? All the idiots would counterbalance the geniuses.

Wait, that's not helping, is it?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 08, 2011, 10:42:01 pm
I am basically resigned to the fact that Bioware is not going to be able to write the Reapers in a believably unstoppable and intelligent fashion. So I'm just rooting for the Geth.

fake edit: and the Fat Reaper, who is our salvation through consumption

And so the Reapers awakened to begin the cycle anew only to find the most suitable organic life available for this culling to be Hutts, thus Reaper Desilijic Tiure was born...

"Ho Ho Ho Ho  This Shepard is my kind of scum: fearless and inventive."

Opps and now I just thought of my fem Shep is a Leia slave girl costume :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on June 09, 2011, 12:15:47 am
OK, I just had a chance to watch the new gameplay footage and all I have to say is this:  DO WANT.  I'm picturing how that mobility is going to play out for my vanguard, and I really like where this is going  :yes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on June 09, 2011, 03:14:58 am
I am basically resigned to the fact that Bioware is not going to be able to write the Reapers in a believably unstoppable and intelligent fashion. So I'm just rooting for the Geth.

The Zerg Rush worked for the Zerg... Mabye it will work for the reapers.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 09, 2011, 03:17:53 am
Kerrigan Shepherd?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on June 09, 2011, 05:07:24 am
S-H-E-P-A-R-D

Christ, why do people get it always wrong. :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 09, 2011, 05:09:09 am
Xepurd?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Locutus of Borg on June 09, 2011, 06:25:31 am
John Shepppard
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on June 09, 2011, 07:19:38 am
jon sheepheard
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on June 09, 2011, 07:38:53 am
(http://i4.ytimg.com/vi/oP-rkzJ6yZw/default.jpg) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-rkzJ6yZw)
Mass Effect 3 viral marketing from the past (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-rkzJ6yZw)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on June 09, 2011, 07:52:57 am
John Shepppard
(http://images.wikia.com/stargate/images/b/b0/John_Sheppard.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on June 09, 2011, 07:58:11 am
S-H-E-P-A-R-D

Christ, why do people get it always wrong. :p

I won't apologise for spelliong it as the career dictates :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kosh on June 09, 2011, 08:55:07 am
Quote
Also because they are superintelligent machines with the intellects of entire species, they should be able to plot out a tactical situation like you can tie your shoes.

That doesn't mean they are infallible, after all they missed Ilos completely and didn't foresee the keepers evolution. They've been running the same scenario hundreds of times, it was inevitable that sooner or later something would come up that would have the potential to screw them over.

(http://image.spreadshirt.net/image-server/image/composition/15243322/view/1/producttypecolor/4/type/png/width/190/height/190)


I am basically resigned to the fact that Bioware is not going to be able to write the Reapers in a believably unstoppable and intelligent fashion. So I'm just rooting for the Geth.

fake edit: and the Fat Reaper, who is our salvation through consumption


What would you have done instead? I suspect that it will actually be possible to screw up and lose, think losing everyone (including your character) in ME2 but multiply it by trillions to get a scale of the potential to **** up.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 09:06:28 am
Quote
Also because they are superintelligent machines with the intellects of entire species, they should be able to plot out a tactical situation like you can tie your shoes.

That doesn't mean they are infallible, after all they missed Ilos completely and didn't foresee the keepers evolution. They've been running the same scenario hundreds of times, it was inevitable that sooner or later something would come up that would have the potential to screw them over.

Yeah that whole Ilos/Keeper thing was ridiculously tenuous. I replayed ME1 recently and was laughing my ass off at that part. 'Oh, we, uh...we jammed the signal, and we messed with the Keepers...luckily the nigh-omnipotent post-singularity machine intelligences had just that one invasion plan with one enormous failure point...it was pretty chill. Let me introduce you to our tech wizard, Drew Karpyshyn.'

Quote
I am basically resigned to the fact that Bioware is not going to be able to write the Reapers in a believably unstoppable and intelligent fashion. So I'm just rooting for the Geth.

fake edit: and the Fat Reaper, who is our salvation through consumption


What would you have done instead?

I wouldn't have done anything yet because I don't know what Bioware is going to do yet (they probably don't either). It will probably involve Prothean MacGuffins though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 09, 2011, 09:19:45 am
If they were smart, it would involve a whole library of ancient civilizations mcguffins for us to get a sense of real deep time...

It isn't as dumb as the Matrix, but in parts it sure tries ;).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on June 09, 2011, 10:01:12 am
If they were smart, it would involve a whole library of ancient civilizations mcguffins for us to get a sense of real deep time...

It isn't as dumb as the Matrix, but in parts it sure tries ;).

You mentioned library, and that made me think. The idea of a sort of timeline, or library, for how long the reapers have been doing this would be intriguing to me. A brief history of the reapers? I know the "ooh ahh" mysterious aura turns people on, but sometimes it's nice to be able to discover something truly revealing. Stumbling upon something that adds mountains of data to the Codex, or finding some archive on a planet. It doesn't have to read like a history textbook or anything, maybe something like the log of a reaper who actually felt remorse (yeah, lame, I know).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 09, 2011, 10:41:48 am
Remorse would be fine, if accompanied by ennui and irony. But that would be too human.

No. What I would like to it to be was to know the first traces of the reaper "singularity" happening and what had happened to the species that created them, or that merged with them.

There's a kind of cult in Earth right now about how we will eventually upload our brains into a  machine and that will be part of the singularity. Perhaps a whole civilization uploaded itself into these machines we now call "the reapers". Perhaps they were trying to build "god" and instead created an eternal "hell". A story about hubris, again.

It sort of reminds me of Leto the second as well.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 10:43:14 am
No please don't ruin them with an origin story.

Reapers better be uploaded civilizations though, it's one of the better ideas the series ever had and if they **** it up it will suck.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 10:45:02 am
Yes, thank you for your opinions, Battuta. We all know that BioWare should have hired you :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 10:48:20 am
They probably should have!

Bioware is in the weird position of having really decent technical resources and some great worldbuilding, and then consistently telling pleasantly cliched peanut butter and jelly stories in said worlds. I am cool with this, I really enjoy Mass Effect, but it'd be interesting to see what Obsidian or whatever would do with the setting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 10:57:28 am
I personally just find it ridiculous to complain about stories of unreleased games. It's just incredibly silly, imho.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: dANGER boy on June 09, 2011, 11:03:38 am
Th
I personally just find it ridiculous to complain about stories of unreleased games. It's just incredibly silly, imho.
Thank you, that needed to be said.  Let's wait for the game to release, then comment on the quality/direction of the story.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 11:08:52 am
I find it ridiculous that people can't read posts. Try scrolling up to the part where we're discussing Mass Effect 1's story with a side of Mass Effect 2.

Literally nobody has complained about the story in Mass Effect 3 because nobody knows what it is.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 11:16:50 am
Okay, so, given that ME3 will probably be another enormous hit, what are your thoughts on continuing the Mass Effect franchise beyond ME3? How would a possible ME4 look like? What other stories can be told within Mass Effect?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 11:17:48 am
They will probably do an MMO (they have talked about this). This has a non-zero chance of making Mass Effect 3 ****ty by forcing them to allow all the ME3 endings to converge on the same status quo. Hopefully they won't do that and instead allow you to get wildly divergent outcomes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 11:18:57 am
Well, they can always declare a given ending non-canon (Like the really really bad ending of ME2)...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 11:19:43 am
That would be the better approach. Or they could set it 500 years later or whatever.

ed: Inevitably they will piss someone off though, like say in ME3 you get the Quarians to invade the Geth and somehow they win, then in the MMO the Geth are still a power and the Quarians have gone off to build a new World Tree in Kalimdor. Pissed off Talimancers erryday.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 09, 2011, 11:22:07 am
That is completely boring. Way funnier to guesstimate the direction of the script and then blame the writers for the stupidity of it! :lol:

EDIT: I was replying to Danger and E.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 09, 2011, 12:14:21 pm
First I've heard of an ME MMO. Not sure how I feel about that. But as for not pissing people off or declaring endings canon, it could totally be set a ridiculous amount of years later like Batutta said, or hell, set it pre-game around the Skyllian Blitz or something like that. They've created this whole awesome world with a rich history, any development team should be able to take that history and create a fun game in it without stepping on anyone's toes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 12:17:12 pm
You are underestimating the amount of nerdrage the internet is capable of, I think.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Halleck on June 09, 2011, 12:23:01 pm
As much as I am anticipating this game, I'm trying to avoid the press coverage. I feel like the less I know about it, the more I'll enjoy it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: PsychoLandlord on June 09, 2011, 12:23:58 pm
You are underestimating the amount of nerdrage the internet is capable of, I think.
The only Nerdrage I've had any experience with was justified, at least as far as something moronic like Nerdrage can be justified. The point is to avoid justification.

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 09, 2011, 12:28:22 pm
Let the nerdragers suffer from their heart attacks and enjoy the games yourself :)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on June 09, 2011, 01:04:56 pm
Hmmmm.... an MMO set during the Skyllian Blitz could actually be cool, relative to other MMOs.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on June 09, 2011, 02:17:01 pm
Okay, so, given that ME3 will probably be another enormous hit, what are your thoughts on continuing the Mass Effect franchise beyond ME3? How would a possible ME4 look like? What other stories can be told within Mass Effect?
The thing about it that you can't have another "Event" the scale of the Reapers in the ME universe.  They are THE Big Bads going back God knows how long.  Shep will find a way to defeat or at least mitigate them somehow, that's a given.  I could see them doing a smaller more self contained single game story.  Maybe get it back to proper RPG lengths of 40 or 50 hours for a playthrough.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 02:21:35 pm
Hmmmm.... an MMO set during the Skyllian Blitz could actually be cool, relative to other MMOs.

I feel like an MMO lasting less than a day would be somewhat restrictive
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on June 09, 2011, 02:36:26 pm
Hmmmm.... an MMO set during the Skyllian Blitz could actually be cool, relative to other MMOs.

I feel like an MMO lasting less than a day would be somewhat restrictive

Krogan Rebellion!

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on June 09, 2011, 02:39:30 pm
New event that takes place after the ME storyline and has lots of stuff going on!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on June 09, 2011, 02:39:43 pm
Also, meant to post this earlier
(http://www.gamingogre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RWCzH.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 02:40:31 pm
Also, meant to post this earlier
(http://www.gamingogre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RWCzH.jpg)

This is fake yo
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 09, 2011, 02:53:23 pm
I WANT TO BELIEVE, etc.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 02:55:18 pm
Confirmed fake aaaaaages ago (though Jennifer Hepler is the famous gigglesquee developer of the Dragon Age 2 debacle)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on June 09, 2011, 02:58:21 pm
Confirmed fake aaaaaages ago (though Jennifer Hepler is the famous gigglesquee developer of the Dragon Age 2 debacle)

Was she that women I saw advertising all the sex Dragon Age 2 would have?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 09, 2011, 03:05:31 pm
Wait I lied, it might've been Cheryl Chee via Jennifer Hepler or whatevs
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on June 09, 2011, 03:13:58 pm
What would the relevance of that piece of information be, Hades?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on June 09, 2011, 03:41:19 pm
What would the relevance of that piece of information be, Hades?
Everything, bro. It would determine life or death in a post apocalyptic vegetable farm
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on June 12, 2011, 04:51:09 am
A post ME3 game will not be action oriented and you won't play the role of Commander Shepard. The game's working title is "Citadel Law", in which the player will take the role of a young up-and-coming lawyer taking on the case of his life. The ultimate goals of the game will be to win this case and make partner in the law firm he works for.

Here's a synopsis for the trailer:
Breaking news: the famous commander Shepard, the man who defeated the Reapers and saved the galaxy as we know it,  has been dishonorably discharged from the Alliance military earlier today only hours after his public announcement that he's gay. The Alliance military spokesman had this to say on the topic:

"The commander's sexual orientation has nothing to do with our decision. Fact of the matter is, he has self-admittedly been a member of Cerberus, which is considered a terrorist organization by the Alliance. As you know, Cerberus has been responsible for unspeakable crimes against humanity and everyone affiliated with it will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, no matter how famous they might be".

We were unable to get a hold of the former Commander Shepard but his attorney announced a counter lawsuit against the Alliance military, commenting that "the Alliance knew about Shepard's ties with Cerberus for years and it didn't seem to bother them when he was busy saving them from the Reapers. After the Reaper invasion on Earth the election polls have been strongly in favor of the conservative right wing political option and I find it curious the Alliance finds it fit to have a problem with the Commander's Cerberus ties right in the middle of an election year. Their motives are clear and we will take them to Supreme Citadel Court if we have to."

But more importantly, what do you think? Email us your opinion at [email protected]. Best comment wins an N7 t-shirt!

Next: are humans involved with Asari bisexual? Our psychologists attempt to answer this constant source of controversy - after the break.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on June 12, 2011, 05:20:41 am
YYEAAAAAAAAAHHH (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWs5xdAIRQ)
(http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7862/citadelcsi800.png) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPWs5xdAIRQ)


...we won't be fooled again.


Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 16, 2011, 03:29:47 pm
New trailer in their home page

http://masseffect.bioware.com/

Kinda cheesy and off character some times almost "reads" like a fanpic .... dunno if I like it. Whaddayathink?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on June 16, 2011, 03:39:22 pm
Old, pretty bad, I blame EA marketing
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: BrotherBryon on June 16, 2011, 04:51:29 pm
Also, meant to post this earlier
(http://www.gamingogre.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/RWCzH.jpg)

Oh please don't let the right wing conservatives get a hold of this or they will try blaming homosexuality on video games too.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 16, 2011, 04:55:29 pm
Hey man that was taken down as false.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: BrotherBryon on June 16, 2011, 05:00:03 pm
Doesn't matter to those nut cases.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 16, 2011, 06:11:26 pm
http://twitter.com/#%21/CaseyDHudson/status/81417880754860032

Quote
RT “@DaBigDragon: @CaseyDHudson Oh, so there's actually 2 films being made for Mass Effect? One live action, one animated?” Correct.

Who's gonna play Shepard?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 16, 2011, 06:33:39 pm
I dunno if you guys remember, but before ME2 came out, Legion was framed as a unique antagonist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm6vMVVZlZo&feature=fvst

Well, now The Illusive Man is portrayed as the new antagonist too... but I don't think so. I actually think he's going to be a surprising character with the possibility of even belonging to the squad, if only during a sole mission. Perhaps he's cornered and Shepard will bump into him and will have to decide if he's going to rescue the guy or not, if he's gonna trust him or not.

He'll be "cornered" (unsure about details) by Cerberus themselves, who are indoctrinated and (perhaps) also trying to get TIM.

Final note. TIM's eyes are husk-like because he was almost turned into a husk. Probably some of you know this by now, but I'll bet most don't. So there's also a caveat lurking there.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 17, 2011, 05:29:54 pm
Quote
BioWare will give female Shepard her own trailer and place on Mass Effect 3′s box

Marketing director David Silverman says they’re putting the female Shepard, and the male one, on the box for the collector’s edition of the game. And they’re now working on a new trailer for the game that stars the female version of the hero. Silverman says they’re working on her appearance, but that it’s been influenced by input from the cult fanbase the female Shepard has inspired.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/06/16/bioware-will-give-female-shepard-her-own-trailer-and-place-on-mass-effect-3s-box/

Hurrah about f time!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on June 17, 2011, 05:42:36 pm
Final note. TIM's eyes are husk-like because he was almost turned into a husk. Probably some of you know this by now, but I'll bet most don't. So there's also a caveat lurking there.

[citation needed]
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 17, 2011, 05:48:01 pm
Final note. TIM's eyes are husk-like because he was almost turned into a husk. Probably some of you know this by now, but I'll bet most don't. So there's also a caveat lurking there.

[citation needed]

It's in the comics. I think Evolution. I read them both so there ;).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on June 17, 2011, 06:30:34 pm
Final note. TIM's eyes are husk-like because he was almost turned into a husk. Probably some of you know this by now, but I'll bet most don't. So there's also a caveat lurking there.

This really doesn't do your theory any favors.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on June 18, 2011, 07:47:07 am
That's why I called it a caveat.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ashrak on June 20, 2011, 07:46:52 am
wuuu ME3
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Shivan Hunter on July 23, 2011, 10:34:24 pm
Threadnecrobümp

Just looked on the Bioware site. There are some new videos, one of which ("Fall of Earth") contains some gameplay, and a release date: 03/06/12. I do hope that means March 6th and not June 3rd. Not sure whether the gameplay one has been discussed here or not but seeing no gameplay discussion in the last couple pages I might as well bring it up.

From the look of it, Shep now has access to a fairly powerful melee weapon which can be upgraded to freeze (or, probably, burn). The bit at the end of "Fall of Earth" makes it look a hell of a lot like the Halo energy blade thingie, which seems cheap but at least they ripped off a cool weapon.

Also looks like grenades are back WOOOOOOOO

There was (also in "Fall of Earth") this quote: "...the fate of the world- of every world- rests in his [Shep's] hands."

1. BLEH more dude!Shepard trailers
2. This along with "DECIDE HOW IT ENDS" basically confirms meaningfully multiple endings. Which is awesome. They may retcon them later or only call one "official", but as the Krogans say, "I will inflict upon retcons the greatest insult an enemy can suffer- to be ignored."

brb playing ME2 for the 20th time
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on July 25, 2011, 05:51:53 am
Basically, there was an E3 event a month ago, and now Comic Con. E3 was already discussed, but a list of links don't hurt anyone.

E3 videos show gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of8bi3lU-Os

Krogan princess gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdHWBBC3h3A&feature=related

Over earth's megacity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdHWBBC3h3A&feature=related

Kinect gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY7S3_08FPM

ME 3 gameplay trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCA78zsYKNk&feature=relmfu



@ ComicCon, some few interesting tid bits:

Mass Effect will have a movie done by Legendary studios which will probably cover ME1's story.

Female Shepard is gonna have a standard option, and right now there are 6 possibilities. The most voted one will be the standard one:

http://www.videogamer.com/xbox360/mass_effect_3/news/mass_effect_3s_female_shepard_open_to_fan_feedback.html

The six FemSheps:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150244340101645.322035.85811091644&type=1%20

FemShep 5 @ the lead (the blonde one), which makes me somewhat sad, seems like a Final Fantasy character.

More gameplay from Comic Con during an interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EEbGOlClLA
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on July 25, 2011, 06:04:47 am
Why none of the femsheps there is the default femshep is a bit baffling to me.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on July 25, 2011, 06:16:41 am
I was puzzled too until I read this (from the article Luis Dias linked):
Quote
Casey Hudson has confirmed in a Tweet that players will also be able to choose the iconic red-head Shepherd from Mass Effect 2 alongside the new fan-favourite.

I'm disappointed they left the decision to fans. That blonde one's unfortunate.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on July 25, 2011, 08:34:12 am
The first one looks like Winona Ryder.

EDIT>>
Why none of the femsheps there is the default femshep is a bit baffling to me.

Looking at the article this is an additional choice to the red head, they're still keeping the 'stock' Shep.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on July 25, 2011, 02:53:18 pm
I'm actually rather un-hyped.

Got a gut-feeling that the game will be disappointing. And my gut hasn't been wrong yet.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on July 25, 2011, 03:00:52 pm
We'll see we'll see. Always in motion is the future.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on July 25, 2011, 03:15:54 pm
Always static is prejudice.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 25, 2011, 08:22:32 pm
Particularly that prejudice.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on July 26, 2011, 01:30:53 am
Mmmmmm... prejudice...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on July 26, 2011, 05:31:25 am
To be more specific - don't like the Omni-blades, the way the story seems to be going (40% of enemies are Cerberus?' f**** that!) and I cna't really see any satisfactory conclusion to the story as a whole.

Reapars are sentient super-starships, capable of bombarding a planet back to stone-age from the edge of the system. Space is the ultimate high-ground, and Shep is a ground-pounder.
Victory without a McGuffin or DeusEx Machina is impossible.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on July 26, 2011, 05:47:02 am
Reapars are sentient super-starships, capable of bombarding a planet back to stone-age from the edge of the system. Space is the ultimate high-ground, and Shep is a ground-pounder.
Victory without a McGuffin or DeusEx Machina is impossible.
This implies that they are not, in fact, infallible.  Shep is a ground pounder because he is one man.  But as ME2 showed, one man, at the right place, at the right time can make a difference, perhaps enough difference to change the course of the 50+ million year wheel of history that the Reapers are on.  Perhaps all it would take a slight restructuring like was done with the Geth.  Perhaps all this misery is because of a math error, they rounded down instead of up.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on July 26, 2011, 06:22:41 am
It was said multiple times that the role of Shepard in the war was the combination of a "joiner up" of multiple different forces in the galaxy, and based upon the role of a certain captain that leaded the first bombing run against Japan just after Pearl Harbor.

This means they are scripting Shepard's role as a catalyst, not as the ultimate Chuck Norris who will be able to defeat all Reapers one at a time.

Unless they pull an independence day fiasco.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on July 26, 2011, 06:55:37 am
I think you're on the money there. Still, I suspect there's at least some badassery to be had, this IS Shepard we're talking about after all.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on July 26, 2011, 08:02:52 am
It was said multiple times that the role of Shepard in the war was the combination of a "joiner up" of multiple different forces in the galaxy, and based upon the role of a certain captain that leaded the first bombing run against Japan just after Pearl Harbor.

This means they are scripting Shepard's role as a catalyst, not as the ultimate Chuck Norris who will be able to defeat all Reapers one at a time.

Unless they pull an independence day fiasco.


Most probably outcome. The warships of other races aren't a match for the reapers. Ground forces are irrelevant in space-combat. He who controls space, controls the planet.

Shep finding out some critical weakness or some virus is the only way he can make any meaningfull contribution.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 26, 2011, 02:25:18 pm
This means they are scripting Shepard's role as a catalyst, not as the ultimate Chuck Norris who will be able to defeat all Reapers one at a time.

And because the Reapers aren't stupid he's going to have to Chuck Norris at least a little when they realize their danger.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on July 26, 2011, 09:13:47 pm
It was said multiple times that the role of Shepard in the war was the combination of a "joiner up" of multiple different forces in the galaxy, and based upon the role of a certain captain that leaded the first bombing run against Japan just after Pearl Harbor.

This means they are scripting Shepard's role as a catalyst, not as the ultimate Chuck Norris who will be able to defeat all Reapers one at a time.

Unless they pull an independence day fiasco.


Most probably outcome.

Unless you're on the writing staff and have access to everything we don't, stop talking out of your ass.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on July 26, 2011, 09:57:16 pm
There's also the chance of major ****storm, once everyone figures out that Shepard was rebuilt using reaper technology...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on July 27, 2011, 08:05:36 am
There's also the chance of major ****storm, once everyone figures out that Shepard was rebuilt using reaper technology...

I bet you that it gets brought up within the first five minutes, during Shepard's court martial for the events in Arrival. Which apparently did sod all, because if they arrive during Shep's court martial, he delayed them for all of half an hour (not literally, but an insignificant time period)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 27, 2011, 04:00:04 pm
There's also the chance of major ****storm, once everyone figures out that Shepard was rebuilt using reaper technology...

Hold up, hold up. What's your source for that?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on July 27, 2011, 08:09:45 pm
Indeed, while that would be an intriguing development, my sources haven't said ANYTHING about anything resembling a rumor of that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on July 28, 2011, 06:18:31 am
Indeed, while that would be an intriguing development, my sources haven't said ANYTHING about anything resembling a rumor of that.

I seem to recall it being mentioned by Miranda at some point, she mentions that some of the cybernetics used to rebuild shepard are derived from pieces of Sovereign or something.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on July 28, 2011, 06:29:57 am
HIS EYES. Honestly, I do remember reading that somewhere, and that it would be clear if you were a renegade. I think it might be... the manual? Dunno.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on July 28, 2011, 07:23:04 am
It was said multiple times that the role of Shepard in the war was the combination of a "joiner up" of multiple different forces in the galaxy, and based upon the role of a certain captain that leaded the first bombing run against Japan just after Pearl Harbor.

This means they are scripting Shepard's role as a catalyst, not as the ultimate Chuck Norris who will be able to defeat all Reapers one at a time.

Unless they pull an independence day fiasco.


Most probably outcome.

Unless you're on the writing staff and have access to everything we don't, stop talking out of your ass.

Reasonable prediction, based on EA's and Biowares past performance.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on July 28, 2011, 03:36:19 pm
Teh crazy douchbaggery on BSN is over 90000.

Oy...makes me want to avoid the game just for that.  ...  I feel dirty now.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on July 28, 2011, 08:15:21 pm
I seem to recall it being mentioned by Miranda at some point, she mentions that some of the cybernetics used to rebuild shepard are derived from pieces of Sovereign or something.

She called it cutting-edge technology, but there's nothing like that.

Reasonable prediction, based on EA's and Biowares past performance.

Get out.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 03, 2011, 06:07:03 am
There's also the chance of major ****storm, once everyone figures out that Shepard was rebuilt using reaper technology...

Hold up, hold up. What's your source for that?

To clarify the subsequent conversation, etc.: there is not, to this date, any official source for this possibility. I was speaking in a possible direction where the script of ME3 could go, pure speculation on my part.

As far as ME2 is concerned, only two "friendlies" have reaper technologies embebbed in them. The first is TIM himself, with his husk eyes, and the second is EDI, which was built using reaper tech (ME2: "it appears my design includes hardware recovered from the wreckage of sovereign") - perhaps that's what Ravenholme was remembering.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ashrak on August 11, 2011, 03:39:39 am
ME3 is not gonna end in victory, its gonna end SHEPARDS STORYLINE, ME3 is the start of the war, not the end....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 11, 2011, 05:34:47 am
And you heard that where?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: starbug on August 11, 2011, 06:09:06 am
The only things i have heard Bioware say that Mass Effect isn't the end of the mass effect universe, as their are talks of a MMO. To my knowledge they haven't stated that their will be no victory in ME3. If thats the case in that you can't win against the reapers and save earth, wheres the pay off for the player?

I think their will be a victory(ie save earth) but not wipe out the reaper threat, but it depends on the time period the game covers as well.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on August 11, 2011, 07:59:26 am
That's unlikely.

I remember BioWare saying that, but the universe they've created is robust enough that they don't need the Reapers to keep telling stories in it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2011, 08:45:32 am
*autosnip stupid stuff*
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Gloriano on August 11, 2011, 10:05:28 am
ME3 is not gonna end in victory, its gonna end SHEPARDS STORYLINE, ME3 is the start of the war, not the end....

Expect Bioware themselves said that Me3 finishes the reaper story line and the Shepard story line so it will end at victory or whatever since if there are diffrent endings it mighty end losing too
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on August 11, 2011, 10:45:06 am
I'm so hoping for a dark side ending. All hail to our new Reaper overlords!

Or even better:

Sephard hacking the Reapers and conquers the galaxy with his new pets, riding one of them while crushing the Turian homeworld :yes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on August 11, 2011, 10:59:25 am
I dunno about that, I did really like the idea of doing something brütally pragmatic to defeat them.  Such as using that dark energy stuff that was effecting Haestrom to basically quick nova the Sol system wiping out the majority of the Reaper fleet and leaving a portion manageable enough for the remaining Citadel forces to mop up.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2011, 11:06:51 am
iow, to outshivan the reapers.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 11, 2011, 01:58:52 pm
I'd call giving TIM the base a pragmatic thing. And saving the Rachnii queen. And helping the Geth. And practically doing ANYTHING that increases your chances, even if it has big risks involved.

Reapers are super-hardcore and the galaxy stands so little chance, that ANY plan is now viable. The Godzilla Treshold has been passed.

And yet  I fear all of that will amount to nothing in ME3....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on August 11, 2011, 02:14:01 pm
I'm afraid nothing short of a Deus Ex Machina of cosmic(almost wrote comic)  proportions would suffice to close this story out.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2011, 02:23:29 pm
It will involve excavations in mars due to archaelogic findings about prothean technologies.

I can almost see the first few hours of game. First london then usa megacity, then mars. They'll find something to get past the reapers through the mass relay. Perhaps another secret conduit. We'll get to see the citadel version ME3. Then it's rallying time. Shepard has to rally the turians, the asari and the salarians. Sounds not too hard. Harder will be to rally the krogan, the geth, the quarian, and hardest of all, the batarians.

You say it's about deus ex machina. Well, let's see if these writers are indeed talented or not!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 11, 2011, 02:59:25 pm
Well, let's see if these writers are indeed talented or not!

(http://images.wikia.com/masseffect/images/d/d1/Humanreaper.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 11, 2011, 03:10:39 pm
Art designers != writers.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 11, 2011, 03:18:39 pm
The Terminator wouldn't have been in the game unless somebody wrote a script that called for it.

I will say, however, that ME2's writers created very high-quality side-arcs for the companion characters. If they turn that talent to the main plot in ME3 instead of writing in an Asari-Reaper that shoots fanservice, we'll have a great game.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 11, 2011, 03:23:31 pm
...

The script probably something like "a newborn reaper with human features". If you look at the actual concept art, there were a number of designs for that thing. Whatever made them choose that particular design, it came only after the script was written, and thus after the writers had pretty much done the majority of the work they had to do.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2011, 03:25:47 pm
The larvae reaper was actually not so bad a script. The first concepts depicted a more "larvaesque" design, but was abandoned, perhaps because it resembled Half Life too much (pure speculation, notice).

What really screwed the whole experience was basically the facepalm-its-Shwarzenneger-up-there-for-godssake-wtf moment. And that you can blame more the artist than the writer.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 11, 2011, 03:39:03 pm
The Terminator wouldn't have been in the game unless somebody wrote a script that called for it.

Do I have to scan the friggin' artbook that came with my superspecialedition of the game here? They had a whole range of proposed looks for it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 11, 2011, 03:47:19 pm
I fall into the camp that thinks the whole Human-Reaper thing was a highly questionable storyline move at best even notwithstanding the artistic crash-and-burn that capped it off. However, maybe that's just because the hilaribad artistic execution is so deeply burned on my retina that I have difficulty extricating the parts of the finished product from one another and judging each on their own merits (which really, really, shouldn't be necessary).

Quote
Do I have to scan the friggin' artbook that came with my superspecialedition of the game here? They had a whole range of proposed looks for it.

And yet they chose the one that they did.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 11, 2011, 03:54:05 pm
And yet they chose the one that they did.

Which is hardly the writer's fault. You may construct an argument that he was, perhaps, consulted. But it's unlikely he had the ability to veto or even to argue very strongly.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 11, 2011, 04:00:25 pm
Point in case, the ones who made the choosing weren't the writers. Probably you can blame Casey Hudson on that one.

Yes, I know people have a lot of problems separating the plot from the wtf moment there, most people will tell us all about the "bad plot" of ME2, etc., but if you look closely, the plot isn't bad at all. It's a good set up for ME3, and it explores well what the reapers may want from organic lives in the galaxy. The idea of "ascension" through a very specific kind of "singularity", where mankind goes to something greater "through death" is a very compelling and rich plot idea.

Their problem was that they couldn't shock Shepard (or the players) in the larvae reaper without a very shocking visual cue. To show a complex cube without a human shape would be very cool, but it wouldn't be emotionally compelling, in the sense that we wouldn't connect with it as we should (since it would be "composed" with human "don't know what").

If it talked a little, perhaps uttering basic sentences.... Idk. The point is that the general plot was good. The implementation wasn't. And that's the only dark spot in an otherwise amazing game. So I don't fuss much about it (and I'm really a pain in the neck for anything that isn't excellent)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 11, 2011, 04:05:10 pm
And yet they chose the one that they did.

Which is hardly the writer's fault. You may construct an argument that he was, perhaps, consulted. But it's unlikely he had the ability to veto or even to argue very strongly.

You're right, it's not. I was wrong to lay the blame on the writer for that particular fustercluck.

Quote from: Luis Dias
It's a good set up for ME3
I wouldn't say that (or the opposite, for that matter) until I've actually played ME3. Which I plan on doing. Despite (what I perceive as) the storyline flaws of ME2, it still had good enough gameplay and characters to make me think the sequel will be worth my time.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ashrak on August 12, 2011, 04:45:40 am
And you heard that where?
Casey Hudson said so in an interview.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 05:36:17 am
He didn't say ME3 wasn't about the end of the war, as far as I can remember. He did say ME3 was a closure for Shepard.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 06:19:10 am
They are gonna put the creator of the Commander Shepard song in gamescon, apparently debuting a new song.

lol
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 12, 2011, 06:21:04 am
...

The script probably something like "a newborn reaper with human features". If you look at the actual concept art, there were a number of designs for that thing. Whatever made them choose that particular design, it came only after the script was written, and thus after the writers had pretty much done the majority of the work they had to do.


Liquified human goo.
Your points are now invalid.

the writes for Me2 suck donkey balls.
AGAIN with the organic horror alines and redicolous bio-science that makes no sense at all. SUPER-FAIL!


(http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0803/end-of-failure-demotivational-poster-1206004448.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 06:35:27 am
Liquified human goo.
Your points are now invalid.

How come? Shouting that things are stupid don't make them so. Just makes you noisy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 12, 2011, 06:53:10 am
Trashman, if you don't like Mass Effect, why don't you do us all a favour and stay out of this thread? I think that we are pretty aware of your preconceptions by now, unless you got something new to bring to the table (that is, something that we haven't discussed pages ago already), please refrain from posting.

And you heard that where?
Casey Hudson said so in an interview.

Would have been nice to have a link to that interview, you know.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on August 12, 2011, 10:44:31 am
the writes for Me2 suck donkey balls.
AGAIN with the organic horror alines and redicolous bio-science that makes no sense at all. SUPER-FAIL!
No matter anyone's opinion of them, at least the Bioware writers can write in coherent English.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on August 12, 2011, 11:22:19 am
the writes for Me2 suck donkey balls.
AGAIN with the organic horror alines and redicolous bio-science that makes no sense at all. SUPER-FAIL!
No matter anyone's opinion of them, at least the Bioware writers can write in coherent English.

Cheap shot when he's not a native english speaker.

However, I agree that liquified human goo being used to create a machine is ridiculous. Not in terms of if it had been rendered down into some kind of nano-assembler feedstock, no, but the fact that it somehow transferred the essence of the species to the newly-made Reaper.

That was particularly bad pulp sci-fi. Which ties into my problems with ME2 - great character arcs, godawful overarching plot. At least ME1 did a space opera epic well, ME2 was the bad "dark and edgy" sequel in terms of it's "main" plot.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 11:46:34 am
sigh...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 12, 2011, 11:47:47 am
See above re: Points already discussed a few pages ago.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 12, 2011, 02:12:55 pm
Summary of debate for those of you joining us:

"Human goo is terribad."

"No, what Bioware did with the Reapers in ME2 makes them scary."

"No, the Reapers were scary in ME1 and the human goo made them impossible to take seriously."

"No, the Reapers were Cylon wannabees in ME1. In ME2, Bioware brilliantly set up the Reapers for their role in ME3."

"My opinion trumps your opinion."

"My opinion trumps your opinion."

"Refer to what I said ten pages ago."

"Refer to what I said ten pages ago.

"NO U"

"NO U"
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 02:48:57 pm
Except no one said that the Reapers in ME2 were "scary". I mean whatever. You guys tried to paint ME2 plot as "ridiculous" because "terminator" and "goo". My reaction is, whatever. If you are so easily distracted by those kinds of irrelevant details, that's your loss, not mine.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on August 12, 2011, 02:59:00 pm
Okay, not "scary," merely "Cthulhoid monstrosities." I stand corrected.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 12, 2011, 03:23:55 pm
Liquified human goo.
Your points are now invalid.

How come? Shouting that things are stupid don't make them so. Just makes you noisy.

If you can explain to me how liquified humans somehow transfer the essence of a species...please, I'm all ears.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on August 12, 2011, 03:30:34 pm
You brought the claim, you substantiate it.  Tell us, in detail, if possible, how it's stupid beyond "I don't like it."
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: JCDNWarrior on August 12, 2011, 03:39:58 pm
I was never bothered by the terminator, really. I was too enraptured by all the events going on and trying to make the right choices to get my crew through it all.
I did have to smile to have it's weak points labeled as such. Seeing people get liquefied to goo was particularly gruesome, especially to think how it's been visually hinted and in dialog itself that they made a huge milkshake out of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians for their pet project. Hints at what some/all of those Reapers represent, and how much potential data on destroyed species is lost after you kill a Reaper. Wonder if you can collect data such as history, memory, technology from the DNA of another species though...seems like a decent plot point.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on August 12, 2011, 04:41:53 pm
Wonder if you can collect data such as history, memory, technology from the DNA of another species though...seems like a decent plot point.

About the best you could do, with a transcendent knowledge of biology, is look at the DNA of a species (term used loosely, it's unlikely that xenos would actually have DNA, but whatever their genetic carrier code is [assuming they have some]) and chart roughly what evolutionary forces were acting on them.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 12, 2011, 05:01:44 pm
Must I quote Arthur C Clarke?!?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 12, 2011, 05:47:07 pm
Must I quote Arthur C Clarke?!?

I'll do it if you want.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 13, 2011, 08:44:16 am
You brought the claim, you substantiate it.  Tell us, in detail, if possible, how it's stupid beyond "I don't like it."

Because memory is not stored in the DNA or in meleted goo.
Nothing makes sense.

Not the reapers, not their cores, not their practices.

If you're claiming the story and writing are excellent, maybe you'd want to substantiate that?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 13, 2011, 09:14:32 am
If I recall correctly no one in ME2 speaks about "DNA" as the thing being contained in the "goo".

Now to your assertion that "goo" can't contain "memory", it's kinda ironic since dna computers were found to work some years ago, let alone by super sentient billion years old species. But I'm sure that you will provide evidence for "goo" being unable to carry over "memory". A mathematical proof, no less, is what I'm expecting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 13, 2011, 09:22:19 am
What if the goo is actually a mass of nanomachines that store the macrostructure of whatever they've dissembled? In other words, a form of mind upload?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 13, 2011, 10:47:15 am
IOW, it could be massively effective at transmitting all kinds of information.

But hey, don't anyone stop us from saying "POOOP"
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on August 13, 2011, 12:55:32 pm
If you're claiming the story and writing are excellent, maybe you'd want to substantiate that?

Did I say that?  No, I was just trying to keep you from spouting unsupported bull****.

You brought the claim, you substantiate it.  Tell us, in detail, if possible, how it's stupid beyond "I don't like it."

Because memory is not stored in the DNA or in meleted goo.

It's not memories, unless I'm horribly mistaken on the subject.  Take a human, damn near any human, and put them in a location where it is at least possible to survive.  Now do it in a hundred thousand other locations with a million other humans.  How much you wanna bet that most of them will find similar ways to live (provided they do so)?  That's the essence of the human species.  Adaptability.  Diversity.  If it's present in all (or most) of the population, that points to it being some kind of genetic trait, no (forgive me if I mangled genetics just then)?  Even if not, why can't the Reapers just have used <insert technobabble here> to harvest that essense?

tl;dr I still haven't heard any good support to your claim beyond "It's stupid and I don't like it."
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 13, 2011, 03:20:23 pm
If I recall correctly no one in ME2 speaks about "DNA" as the thing being contained in the "goo".

Now to your assertion that "goo" can't contain "memory", it's kinda ironic since dna computers were found to work some years ago, let alone by super sentient billion years old species. But I'm sure that you will provide evidence for "goo" being unable to carry over "memory". A mathematical proof, no less, is what I'm expecting.

Human memory don't work that way. Go read up a bit on how human memory is stored and processed.

As to what you're expecting - I don't really care.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on August 13, 2011, 03:25:08 pm
Hey gaise, Assassin's Creed is stupid because memory doesn't work that way.  I now think that the entire franchise sucks because of one small facet that only has to do with the story at all as the catalyst of the plot and not the actually important part of the writing or gameplay.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 13, 2011, 03:25:43 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR558wTjOUU
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 13, 2011, 03:37:42 pm
If I recall correctly no one in ME2 speaks about "DNA" as the thing being contained in the "goo".

Now to your assertion that "goo" can't contain "memory", it's kinda ironic since dna computers were found to work some years ago, let alone by super sentient billion years old species. But I'm sure that you will provide evidence for "goo" being unable to carry over "memory". A mathematical proof, no less, is what I'm expecting.

Human memory don't work that way. Go read up a bit on how human memory is stored and processed.

Who even mentioned anything about human memory?

See, this is your problem, you assume too much. I'm sure you are about to teach a civilization millions of years old what they can or they can't retrieve from humans and what exact techniques they shouldn't use.

Because you're that awesome, right.

Quote
As to what you're expecting - I don't really care.

It would be the only way you went around to have a point.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 13, 2011, 03:38:47 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR558wTjOUU

Why yes, appealing to an authority that ... uhhh ... isn't really known all that well, that's a good argumenting strategy.

In other words, WE GET IT. You do not like ME2. Now **** off.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 13, 2011, 03:51:42 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR558wTjOUU

Oh my ****ing bazzillion gazzillion multiverses, is that smug mother****er so utterly boring.

Plinkett's style is definitely not for everyone.

Worse, I couldn't agree with him on almost anything. He was just arguing for the hell of it... not very compelling.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on August 14, 2011, 03:26:41 pm
Hey gaise, Assassin's Creed is stupid because memory doesn't work that way.  I now think that the entire franchise sucks because of one small facet that only has to do with the story at all as the catalyst of the plot and not the actually important part of the writing or gameplay.

But hey, Assassin's Creed was based entirely on that, so you take it as fantasy (And AC is clearly sci-fantasy) and move on. Mass Effect was being fairly decent sci-fi up until it threw in that ridiculous concept. And what I find ridiculous about it is the idea that DNA (And that the stuff wasn't really implied to be just the DNA, just goo'ed humans being turned into a metallic monster) can impart qualities to a machine that are actually meaningful for something that floats through space, fires lasers and genocides species as a sideline? Of course, Harbinger already was doing a great job of destroying any credibility of the Reapers as a serious villain. Gone is the sepulchral, menacing qualities of Sovereign, where Shepard and biological life were mere stains on the galaxy to be cleansed at it's leisure, and in is something that whines and threatens like an ex-partner whenever it communicates with Shepard, and that far more often than Sovereign did.

But, this argument is ridiculously circular, so let's say that I and quite a lot of people don't like how they changed (polluted in my own view) the Sci-fi/Space Opera feel of the Mass Effect universe in the second one through their attempts to make it 'darker and edgier', and that some people adore and defend that decision. To me, it smacks of the same decisions that amplified to make DA2 such an appaling misstep, but that's my opinion.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on August 14, 2011, 04:30:10 pm
'darker and edgier'
I see these 2 words and I lose my mind.  Darker and edgier is NEVER better unless you can pull it off.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on August 14, 2011, 06:14:09 pm
Darker and edgier is NEVER better unless you can pull it off.

Yeah, just like every other thing ever conceived.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 14, 2011, 06:26:23 pm
lol
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 14, 2011, 10:16:34 pm
that whines

Harbinger whines? What the **** are you on?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 15, 2011, 05:10:17 am
He just wants us all to really see how he really feels about ME2.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 15, 2011, 06:16:51 am
Hey gaise, Assassin's Creed is stupid because memory doesn't work that way.  I now think that the entire franchise sucks because of one small facet that only has to do with the story at all as the catalyst of the plot and not the actually important part of the writing or gameplay.

AC may have had good gameplay mechanics, but the story was bad...and downright stupid. :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 15, 2011, 06:19:14 am
that whines

Harbinger whines? What the **** are you on?

He is...taxing. Constantly yapping how Shep will "feel this" and how "perfect" they are...and constantly getting their avatars trashed, only to come back and talk again..and again..and again. AND AGAIN!
I wasn't even half the game in and I wanted to take a drill to my head just to shut the f***er up

Speaking of which, was there ever a mod that shuts him up?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 15, 2011, 06:38:26 am
I guess he was just right in a metagaming way. This hurts you doesn't it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 15, 2011, 07:51:57 am
<3 Soverign.
<3 Ashley.

<3 Ginger Ensign.

:p - Harbinger = :meh:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 15, 2011, 08:23:15 am
whos ginger ensign
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ghostavo on August 15, 2011, 09:49:27 am
He's refering to the annoying Yeoman Kelly Chambers.

On that note, I cannot see how anyone could possibly like Ashley as a character. Makes me wish I had saved Kaidan instead.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 15, 2011, 09:52:08 am
You are talking about a man with an utter hatred of Vasudans. Ashley is his soulmate :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 15, 2011, 10:33:44 am
You are talking about a man with an utter hatred of Vasudans. Ashley is his soulmate :P


And i would've gotten away with it too were it not for those meddling kids. :D
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on August 15, 2011, 01:57:47 pm
He's refering to the annoying Yeoman Kelly Chambers.

On that note, I cannot see how anyone could possibly like Ashley as a character. Makes me wish I had saved Kaidan instead.

I nuked her. I don't like religious racists. Kaidan is just as whiney in ME2 though, saving him is not much better.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on August 15, 2011, 02:13:11 pm
Quote
<3 Ashley.

High five!

Quote
I nuked her. I don't like religious racists.

She's not. She is not half as bad as the people who hated every german they saw 30 years after the war. She just does not want to depent on them. It's not racism, its more of an anti-EU stance.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 15, 2011, 02:25:04 pm
Yeah, she isn't so much racist as not really willing to go all "Aliens, YEAH!", or simply accept the council as a benevolent entity.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on August 15, 2011, 02:27:39 pm
Am I the only one who thought Ashley and Kaidan are the most boring characters in the two games to date, notwithstanding Shepard him[her]self?  :nod:

Seriously, I would have liked to leave both their asses on Virmire.  Instead, I kept Ashley, since she at least was easy on the eyes and didn't duplicate my Vanguard's abilities.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on August 15, 2011, 02:31:06 pm
It's a rule. The first two companions you get are the most boring, baseline individuals you can find.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 15, 2011, 02:53:27 pm
Ah!, well Miranda isn't boring.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on August 15, 2011, 02:55:31 pm
Prepare for a short essay about Virmire Incident...



Since I don't really give a toss about either Ashley or Kaidan, I approach the Virmire situation from a military perspective to make my decision.

1. To decide who to send with the STG to act as a liaison between Captain Kirrahe and Commander Shepard and possibly offer help in leading the Salarian Task Group team, the options are:
-an experienced Staff Lieutenant with training in leadership (he's a commissioned officer), tactics, biotics and technology
-a Gunnery Chief (Non-Commissioned Officer) recruited to the team from an otherwise destroyed unit originally stationed on Eden Prime

The Salarians don't need another soldier, they need someone to manage the co-operation between the STG diversion group and Shepard. Kaidan gets the job. Ashley doesn't have much to offer in this job compared to Kaidan.

Therefore, I will assume that Kaidan is the "right" choice to co-lead the STG team, and Ashley's position will be with the nuke.

2. This automatically means that Ashley will be delegated to the job of arming the McGyvered nuclear device.

3. After the nuke has been armed, STG and Kaidan call in for assistance. Shepard and his team responds, departing the bomb site to head for the AA-tower to aid the Salarians and Staff Lieutenant Alenko. The decision point appears as they are already a good way from the bomb site, after Shepard had already made a decision to go assist Kaidan and the remaining STG.

Now, technically at this point Shepard has arguably already made a mistake - leaving the bomb site with insufficient force projection to secure it. Unfortunately this puts the player into a position where they have to make the most out of a bad situation. The options are not actually to make a choice between Kaidan and Ashley; the options are as follows:

-ensure the successful detonation of the jury-rigged nuclear device, or
-risk the bomb site protection in Ashley's (dubiously) capable hands in favour of saving the STG team and Kaidan at the AA-tower.

The former is more mission-critical, while the latter can result in more lives saved.

Personally, I consider Shepard's split-second decision to head for AA-tower a tactical mistake, but after s/he has done it, one must consider the fact that second-guessing or indecisiveness on the battlefield is one thing that'll get you or your team killed more likely than anything else you could do (or not do). Typically, doing anything is better than doing nothing. Staying on the move is preferable to staying put, and after a decision has been made, it's usually best to follow it through rather than change your mind en route to return to earlier position.

Hence, I usually consider that Shepard made his or her decision when s/he left the bomb site for Ashley's protection, and therefore logically s/he should follow through with that decision, go to AA tower, and be done with the mission.

Also, because of shameless exploiting of game mechanics, the bomb will explode either way, so I usually go for the AA tower in order to save more lives (there is also a role playing element here; my character is typically a Paragon, so that would likely be the way my Shepard would think).

From this standpoint, it's clear that Ashley is the character that should get nuked as the "default" option.


This deductive process may or may not be influenced by the fact that I don't like Ashley's character even as much as I like Kaidan; at least he has Carth's voice to amuse me, while Ashley is like a living Bible Belt standing in the Cargo Bay (plus I don't have any use for her on any missions after Eden Prime, as typically my Shepard has enough combat prowess that I don't need a full soldier in my team - either my Shepard is a soldier and team is Shepard/Liara/Tali, or my Shepard is an infiltrator and team becomes Shepard/Garrus/Liara, which usually works pretty well.


It is a mystery to me why Shepard didn't secure the bomb site him/herself with the present team, and send the remaining ground team to the AA-tower. But that's one of the game mechanics that just have to be accepted, I guess - like the fact that Ashley won't fail to protect the bomb in any case so any risk about the mission being compromised is convenient nonexistent to gear the "decision" toward a character preference based choice.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on August 15, 2011, 03:14:53 pm
See I figured the technical expertise of Alenko was more important in jury rigging the bomb.  That and I don't particularly dislike people based on their faith :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 15, 2011, 05:56:55 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0n3NLgSsAg&feature=player_embedded

Rick Perry's campaign also enjoys mass effect... @1:50
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 16, 2011, 12:52:03 pm
New trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks-RI8MMGa8&feature=share

If you found that one small, here's a 60 second one from gamescon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SoGlDpzFuQ&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on August 16, 2011, 01:40:27 pm
See I figured the technical expertise of Alenko was more important in jury rigging the bomb.  That and I don't particularly dislike people based on their faith :P


Fair enough, although I figure Ashley's job is mostly just guarding the thing - the Salarians already took care of MacGyvering it into working order. :nod:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 16, 2011, 03:31:13 pm
He's refering to the annoying Yeoman Kelly Chambers.

On that note, I cannot see how anyone could possibly like Ashley as a character. Makes me wish I had saved Kaidan instead.

I nuked her. I don't like religious racists. Kaidan is just as whiney in ME2 though, saving him is not much better.

Wut?

Ashely is not racist. Not a speecist ofr that matter (I think that's the term you were looking or bub).

Do you even pay attention to what companions say?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on August 16, 2011, 03:44:19 pm
-ensure the successful detonation of the jury-rigged nuclear device, or
-risk the bomb site protection in Ashley's (dubiously) capable hands in favour of saving the STG team and Kaidan at the AA-tower.

The former is more mission-critical, while the latter can result in more lives saved.

If it's mission critical, then it makes more sense to ensure mission success.

Quote
Staying on the move is preferable to staying put, and after a decision has been made, it's usually best to follow it through rather than change your mind en route to return to earlier position.

Usually best does not equal always best.



Quote
This deductive process may or may not be influenced by the fact that I don't like Ashley's character even as much as I like Kaidan; at least he has Carth's voice to amuse me, while Ashley is like a living Bible Belt standing in the Cargo Bay


What's with all the religious hate?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: achtung on August 16, 2011, 03:55:27 pm
Ashley defence force EVERYWHERE.

I actually nuked her because she went with the STG team to the tower. I was going to be damned if someone died and the nuke didn't go off, so I made sure someone died for a reason. I protected the nuke.

Then I learned that ME doesn't let big mistakes happen. Oh well, it's a video game.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 16, 2011, 08:15:33 pm
Herra's logic is slightly off; Ash is a gunny, according to the ranking structure in the codex a platoon sergeant, and given that the Alliance appears to practice commissioning officers directly from civilian life still, probably more experienced and hence capable than many lieutenants.

As a platoon sergeant in a force that emphasizes individual initiative and combined arms, and as a garrison trooper in a force whose garrison doctrine is "go to ground, maneuver independently at the squad level to avoid getting smashed, and spot targets for the incoming relief fleet", it is facetious to suggest she lacks the skills to assist in coordinating between the teams. She would require them to fulfill the function you found her serving in.

Kaidan is arguably overqualified at his rank of Staff Lieutenant, and without knowing where that fits into the Alliance's command structure and what Kaidan's MVC/service experience are we really don't know what his skills are. It seems unlikely he's been a platoon commander considering the specialization of his skills as a biotic and his technical proficiencies; the fact he was chairing Normandy's helm with Joker in the beginning of the game almosts suggests he's fleet rather than Marine, so it could really go either way.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on August 17, 2011, 12:10:53 am
Ash has also been delebiretely kept a gunny by the senior staff due to her family being 'blacklisted'. Her rank does not match up with her capabilities in the field.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 17, 2011, 05:37:01 pm
Femshep vote round 2, since people loved femshep no 5 but many complained about hair color.

So 4 femshep 5s with four different hair colours: black, blonde, dirty blonde, redhead.

Go to facebook n see for yourself.

ShepRed is winning by a landslide, although not as preposterously as the femshep5 did last round.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on August 17, 2011, 10:51:22 pm
haha, they snuck in freckles on redshep without most people noticing. clever girl
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on August 18, 2011, 03:07:49 am
Jennifer Hale makes me twitch. Too mny hot characters have her voice. . . . . I love it. <3
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on August 18, 2011, 07:33:10 pm
Quote
<3 Ashley.

High five!

Quote
I nuked her. I don't like religious racists.

She's not. She is not half as bad as the people who hated every german they saw 30 years after the war. She just does not want to depent on them. It's not racism, its more of an anti-EU stance.

So much agree. It really irks me when people brush her off as a racist, religious fanatic (Because somehow her religion always ends up a factor in people's dislike for her, despite her being really level headed about it, probably one of the better written characters to be so) when she is anything but if you talk to her.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 18, 2011, 08:00:23 pm
People who say that Ashley is racist forgets the obvious fact that it is Shepard who actually entered cerberus rank. So it's kinda funny.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on August 18, 2011, 09:37:23 pm
She certainly came off as isolationist and blunt at the start of the game but between Shepard's counsel and experiences during the pursuit of Saren I think she was able work through her issues and expanded her world view quite a bit.   I was pleased as punch when I had to drag her away from stomping Charles Saracino's face with her combat boot towards the end of the game.  I didn't really mind that she was religious either.  My barometer for whether a person's faith is an issue is when it affects their logic and actions, I generally don't automatically slap imbecile zealot on them until they prove it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on August 19, 2011, 02:15:11 am
What one of you guys should do: Take Ashley and Wrex to Noveria.

Because usually, Ashley says that the Rachni should've been killed.

If she is down there, however, she says that genocide is probably not something you'd want to have on your hands.

It might only work if you go down with Wrex though.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 19, 2011, 07:24:05 am
Because usually, Ashley says that the Rachni should've been killed.

Which isn't an uncommon view on the subject, even among the Citadel Council, so even using that as evidence of anything is...suspect.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 19, 2011, 08:12:38 am
The council will burn you for genociding the Rachni and burn you for letting them live.

I guess what was important for them was to put Shepard in his own place.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on August 19, 2011, 08:14:20 am
The council will burn you for genociding the Rachni and burn you for letting them live.

The Turian, yes, but the Asari and Salarian are a bit more consistent.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on August 19, 2011, 11:28:11 am
Ah yes, you're right, the .... turian (that line still cracks me up :lol: )
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on August 19, 2011, 02:25:48 pm
Because usually, Ashley says that the Rachni should've been killed.

Which isn't an uncommon view on the subject, even among the Citadel Council, so even using that as evidence of anything is...suspect.

No, but the thing is that she DOES NOT when you take her and Wrex with you down to noveria. I only found this out after my last playtrough 0_o
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on September 07, 2011, 11:05:33 pm
Speaking of Jennifer Hale. . . she is awesome, I mean. . . come on! She voices as Bastila, in KOTOR!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mort on October 10, 2011, 08:57:11 am
Bioware seems to have forgotten that the formula for failure is trying to please everybody. Mass Effect 3 doesn't need multiplayer and its because of that that it most probably got delayed to the year I'm taking my A'levels. FUUUUUUUUUU
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: T-LoW on October 10, 2011, 11:28:51 am
Of course there has to be a multiplayer! How else should they get used to the Mass Effect MMO? :nono:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on October 11, 2011, 01:02:01 am
"Drop in" "Drop out' control of the squad mates could be fun 0_o.

Or it could be like Splinter Cell's co op, where the co op missions are used to fill up plot holes.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ransom on October 11, 2011, 09:15:46 am
From what I've heard it's co op missions distinct from the SP stuff. Objectives Shepard wasn't involved in and such. You play as custom characters.

Despite my misgivings about multiplayer in this series I admit I rather like the idea of playing as a Turian
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: StarSlayer on October 11, 2011, 09:39:47 am
From what I've heard it's co op missions distinct from the SP stuff. Objectives Shepard wasn't involved in and such. You play as custom characters.

Despite my misgivings about multiplayer in this series I admit I rather like the idea of playing as a Turian

(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5229/5651439330_b18fe1fde2.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on October 11, 2011, 10:17:44 am
If this doesn't affect SP, I'm fine with it. I don't see multi as such a great idea in a direct mass effect sequel. That being said I'd be surprised if they didn't announce a mass effect based mmo soonish. Everything has to get a mmo these days. More games I can save money on by not feeling the urge to buy or free-to-play-but-spend-a-fortune-on-upgrades them :)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MR_T3D on October 12, 2011, 03:18:08 pm
If this doesn't affect SP, I'm fine with it. I don't see multi as such a great idea in a direct mass effect sequel. That being said I'd be surprised if they didn't announce a mass effect based mmo soonish. Everything has to get a mmo these days. More games I can save money on by not feeling the urge to buy or free-to-play-but-spend-a-fortune-on-upgrades them :)
Apparently it does affect SP, being tied in with a "galactic readiness level" which determines your ending.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on October 12, 2011, 03:21:16 pm
But, crucially, it's just another way of getting that readiness level up; they've been pretty adamant that it's going to be strictly optional.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 12, 2011, 07:54:27 pm
I like the idea of Mass Effect multiplayer, Bioware has my trust that they will make it more exciting then Crysis 2 multi.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Locutus of Borg on October 12, 2011, 08:02:20 pm
But can you get a desirable percentage without it would be the major question.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 12, 2011, 08:11:55 pm
True, but this will be the testing ground for the MMO. Probably above 40% of the fans want that multi and another large group is most likely not liking it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on October 13, 2011, 09:18:49 pm
I like the idea of Mass Effect multiplayer, Bioware has my trust that they will make it more exciting then Crysis 2 multi.

That'd be pretty hard given that Crysis 2 had some of the best FPS multiplayer ever made (what up Timesplitters team)

But can you get a desirable percentage without it would be the major question.

Well I think when 'The_E' said 'strictly optional' he probably meant 'strictly optional' but maybe I'm confused please clarify tia  :confused:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on October 14, 2011, 01:28:20 am
Quote
That'd be pretty hard given that Crysis 2 had some of the best FPS multiplayer ever made (what up Timesplitters team)

Has it still by the way? I am looking to buy Crysis 2 in some point of the near future (between today and next summer) and I am curious if there are still a lot of players active.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on October 14, 2011, 09:18:19 am
But can you get a desirable percentage without it would be the major question.

Well, yes. That's why I said "strictly optional". Apparently, you can get the best ending through single-player badassery alone, but you can also get there by doing some multiplayer action.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on October 14, 2011, 09:55:03 am
Quote
That'd be pretty hard given that Crysis 2 had some of the best FPS multiplayer ever made (what up Timesplitters team)

Has it still by the way? I am looking to buy Crysis 2 in some point of the near future (between today and next summer) and I am curious if there are still a lot of players active.

No, the community is completely dead. Don't bother.

I had great times with it while it lasted, but it had awful, awful security and the first patch 'balanced' out a lot of the really fun tactics anyway. Au revoir, Crysis 2 multi, you burned so bright and fast.

I will play co-op with you aitchelpee do you want to play co-op with me
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on October 15, 2011, 08:13:21 pm
really?  dead already?  that's crazy.  i have crysis 2 but haven't messed in multi yet.  i was really hoping the multi would be good since single was something of a step back from 1.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 15, 2011, 10:52:33 pm
Hey, I play Crysis 2 multi as well. Just look for Firstdragon34. On the second hand, I play once a week. I'm not the greatest player, but I love the feeling that I'm 'with' people.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on October 15, 2011, 10:53:57 pm
Quote
That'd be pretty hard given that Crysis 2 had some of the best FPS multiplayer ever made (what up Timesplitters team)

Has it still by the way? I am looking to buy Crysis 2 in some point of the near future (between today and next summer) and I am curious if there are still a lot of players active.

No, the community is completely dead. Don't bother.

I had great times with it while it lasted, but it had awful, awful security and the first patch 'balanced' out a lot of the really fun tactics anyway. Au revoir, Crysis 2 multi, you burned so bright and fast.

I will play co-op with you aitchelpee do you want to play co-op with me

I will co-op with you, fo'sho. Need someone to do so with.

And sad to hear that Crysis 2 MP is dead, it was fun when it was alive.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 15, 2011, 11:01:37 pm
What is your name so I can find you and befriend you to my list of growing friends.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on October 16, 2011, 02:11:20 am
really?  dead already?  that's crazy.  i have crysis 2 but haven't messed in multi yet.  i was really hoping the multi would be good since single was something of a step back from 1.
In what way? In terms of maps, they were more linear, but I felt as if the story, general gameplay, and art style was far superior than that of Crysis 1.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on October 16, 2011, 12:03:53 pm
From what I've heard of it, its a bit closer to a certain game called 'Half Life 2', but still quite open.

Haven't played it yet, Haven't bought it yet. Really should, I know. It probably still blows everything released in Shooter Season 2011 out of the water.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on October 16, 2011, 12:51:14 pm
I whipped up a little mod to make the AI a bit harder, particularly the Ceph. If you want it do just let me know

The level design is weaker than the first one, and the ending isn't any stronger, but in just about every other respect it's the better game.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on October 16, 2011, 06:46:27 pm
I whipped up a little mod to make the AI a bit harder, particularly the Ceph. If you want it do just let me know

The level design is weaker than the first one, and the ending isn't any stronger, but in just about every other respect it's the better game.

Release please, I could use something to make my next playthrough more interesting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on October 16, 2011, 07:22:30 pm
This should probably be split.

really?  dead already?  that's crazy.  i have crysis 2 but haven't messed in multi yet.  i was really hoping the multi would be good since single was something of a step back from 1.
In what way? In terms of maps, they were more linear, but I felt as if the story, general gameplay, and art style was far superior than that of Crysis 1.

The game mechanics were hit and miss for me.  I'd rather have a health bar than have my screen blur out and turn red (a LITTLE of that at critical health would be alright).  The gun control felt wonky, especially when using scopes.  The ACOG was SOOOOOOO twitchy I stopped using it.  Shooting from the hip felt very poor with pistols and smg/rifles.  I generally liked the pushbutton stealth and armor suit modes, but HATED the "auto" strength mode.  I liked the 4 distinct suit modes better.  Stealth kill and silenced shots in stealth mode were a nice addition.  Removal of prone was NOT.  Binoculars were not as good, and the 'tac assessment' thing seemed pointless and highly forced.  I wanted my 2 primary guns and sidearm back.  I really liked the wide variety of weapons, but not the customization restrictions.  Pingers were irritating as ****.  I was quite impressed with the PC port, and crytek continues to prove their worth as developers.  I could still detect traces of consolitis, but it wasn't the pile of crap that's come to be expected of console ports, and it didn't really impact my enjoyment of the game.  I was expecting much worse.  The main thing that got me was the bright and glowy graphics and the soft focus.  I wasn't really bothered all that much by the more linear levels.  It maintained a pretty well acceptable level of free-roam and different options for the most part of the game, just not the epicly wide-open levels of Far Cry and Crysis 1.  To be honest though, even in those I end up taking similar routes, because you can add a lot more room to roam in, but there's only so much that makes sense in attacking an objective. 

I try not to judge too much on story since it is highly objective, but I have to say it barely felt like a continuation of Crysis.  The whole Hargrieve (sp?) puppet master thing came WAY out of left field, and the Ceph were the same aliens as 1 in name only.  The city atmosphere was strange to me.  I was given the impression that it was supposed to be a highly populated city under quarrantine and martial law (at least for the beginning stages) with all those radio reports and various other cues giving the impression of civilians in the mix of it all, but during gameplay it's completely deserted except for a few randomly placed quarrantine points and a couple of areas of infected civilians. 
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 16, 2011, 11:41:34 pm
Crysis has its flaws, yes, but I loved it because:

1. The story was better then your traditional shoots

2. The graphics were awesome, but use some work. (My character doesn't reflect!) :wtf:

3. The human AI and the Ceph could use some work as well.

Okay, on one I might be a little ignorant. Mass Effect doesn't fall into this category. :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Hades on October 16, 2011, 11:56:23 pm
I'd rather have a health bar than have my screen blur out and turn red (a LITTLE of that at critical health would be alright).
What. I'm pretty sure I had a health bar in my Crysis 2, dunno wtf you were playing.

Quote
The gun control felt wonky, especially when using scopes. The ACOG was SOOOOOOO twitchy I stopped using it.
I had no problem with it, it felt nice and smooth on my end.

Quote
Shooting from the hip felt very poor with pistols and smg/rifles.
Well yeah, of course it would. You sacrifice accuracy for being able to shoot on the move and such. I don't see the issue here.

Quote
I generally liked the pushbutton stealth and armor suit modes, but HATED the "auto" strength mode.  I liked the 4 distinct suit modes better.
I actually thought the powers were handled much better in Crysis 2, strength and speed mode always being on. It both made those modes more useful and micromanaging powers a lot less of an issue.

Quote
Binoculars were not as good, and the 'tac assessment' thing seemed pointless and highly forced.
I dunno, I found the binoculars far more useful in Crysis 2 because of the tac assessment thing, it allowed you to see what you're up against and plan accordingly, and you could easily just ignore it just the same.

Quote
I wanted my 2 primary guns and sidearm back.
I honestly can't disagree here.

Quote
I really liked the wide variety of weapons, but not the customization restrictions.
Are you kidding me? That's something that should have been done in Crysis 1 too, as it not only separates the guns further, and makes them more distinct, it make a hell of a lot more sense too.

Quote
Pingers were irritating as ****.
Um, yeah. It was basically a miniboss bro, of course it'll be irritating.

Quote
I was quite impressed with the PC port, and crytek continues to prove their worth as developers.  I could still detect traces of consolitis, but it wasn't the pile of crap that's come to be expected of console ports, and it didn't really impact my enjoyment of the game.  I was expecting much worse.
lol consolitis, really? I shouldn't need to go in depth on how silly such a claim about anything is.

Quote
The main thing that got me was the bright and glowy graphics and the soft focus.
In a positive or negative way? You're rather unclear here.

Quote
I try not to judge too much on story since it is highly objective, but I have to say it barely felt like a continuation of Crysis.  The whole Hargrieve (sp?) puppet master thing came WAY out of left field, and the Ceph were the same aliens as 1 in name only.  The city atmosphere was strange to me.  I was given the impression that it was supposed to be a highly populated city under quarrantine and martial law (at least for the beginning stages) with all those radio reports and various other cues giving the impression of civilians in the mix of it all, but during gameplay it's completely deserted except for a few randomly placed quarrantine points and a couple of areas of infected civilians.
It IS three years after the end of Crysis 1, so that'd be why it's quite different. About the city, of course it'd be like that, most people not under military protection or in quarrantine would have likely been killed off by the Ceph or the infection.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on October 17, 2011, 07:43:18 am
really?  dead already?  that's crazy.  i have crysis 2 but haven't messed in multi yet.  i was really hoping the multi would be good since single was something of a step back from 1.
In what way? In terms of maps, they were more linear, but I felt as if the story, general gameplay, and art style was far superior than that of Crysis 1.

What planet you from son?

The story was HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. And the continuity with C1 is nowhere to be seen. It's worse than Transformers 2 for f****s sake!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on October 17, 2011, 08:55:56 am
really?  dead already?  that's crazy.  i have crysis 2 but haven't messed in multi yet.  i was really hoping the multi would be good since single was something of a step back from 1.
In what way? In terms of maps, they were more linear, but I felt as if the story, general gameplay, and art style was far superior than that of Crysis 1.

What planet you from son?

The story was HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE. And the continuity with C1 is nowhere to be seen. It's worse than Transformers 2 for f****s sake!

There was zero continuity, it was basically a reboot

For better or worse though C2 did end up with a much better-written story on the dialogue level -- I'm not sure the plot was any better but it certainly wasn't any worse. (I'm not arguing with you about this though since we both know that's pointless)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Firstdragon34 on October 17, 2011, 01:46:58 pm
Now, we got that settled! Thanks to me.

On topic of Mass Effect 3.

What level is the Illusive Man on, in terms of his alliance with the Reapers? I think he'll try to use their technology to  make 'super humans' that are almost like Husks, or a superweapon that is based off their technology.

PS I have never played the games, but I have paid close attention to the facts on the wiki.  :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on October 17, 2011, 02:13:23 pm
Then you should play the games.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on October 17, 2011, 05:00:43 pm
I think Casey is just messing with the fans by saying that TIM is working "with" the reapers.

In fact, he will be doing nothing like that at all. His plans run counter to both the Reapers and Shepard. TIM wants humanity dominating the galaxy and perhaps he has found a way to defeat the reapers. TIM however will try to use this knowledge or technology to do so and guarantee humanity (read Cerberus) domination in the galaxy. Shepard is trying to get this knowledge / tech from cerberus so the whole council races can destroy the reapers like common sense dictates.

At least I hope so. I fought Saren in ME1, I don't want a Saren 2.0 in ME3.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: General Battuta on October 17, 2011, 05:31:32 pm
Expecting Bioware to have good stories is like expecting Obsidian to ship a bug-free game. Abandon all hope of a satisfying or surprising macroplot and just go in for the character moments and 80s action movie feel.

I mean **** Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games and I will not for a moment pretend that anything about its overall plot mattered in any way to the ME setting or did anything to advance the story. It was just a fun atmosphere and character piece.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mr. Vega on October 17, 2011, 06:22:10 pm
They were at least competent with KOTOR1.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on October 17, 2011, 10:22:00 pm
Expecting Bioware to have good stories is like expecting Obsidian to ship a bug-free game.
Dungeon Siege III

Of course, if you wanted it to be a proper Obsidian game and not a brawler/ARPG hybrid, well...
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on October 28, 2011, 01:24:33 am
According to Rock Paper Shotgun, the MP is quite basic, but very much fun (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/27/hands-on-mass-effect-3-galaxy-at-war).

Its apperently akin to "hordes" "Waves" and "Gauntlet". 4 men, women, and/or Asari have three powers, a gun, and a backup-gun, which they then shoot a lot of bad dudes with. Its apperently massive fun to co-ordinate and do combos, like in Mass Effect 2.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on October 28, 2011, 05:24:32 am
Expecting Bioware to have good stories is like expecting Obsidian to ship a bug-free game. Abandon all hope of a satisfying or surprising macroplot and just go in for the character moments and 80s action movie feel.

I mean **** Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games and I will not for a moment pretend that anything about its overall plot mattered in any way to the ME setting or did anything to advance the story. It was just a fun atmosphere and character piece.

In ME2 they were simply not that much interested in the story per se, but in what you refer as "fun atmosphere and character piece". ME3 is different, since the story here is the main focus... It will be riddled with plot holes and deus ex machinas, sure, but I do think it will be way better than ME2 in that regard.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on October 28, 2011, 10:41:20 am
Hey man, there was nothing that bad about ME2 to complain about. It was a good game. **** that ****ing terminator though. ****. Anyway, ****. If that ****'s fun, then what's the ****ing problem?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on October 28, 2011, 10:51:44 am
The whole collector story was not that well thought out. The writers themselves admit as such. I'm not complaining. There was a whole lot of interesting things going on at the meantime ;).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mikes on October 31, 2011, 07:21:24 am
Any news on whether they will insist on that Origin garbage like with BF3 and STOR?

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on November 03, 2011, 07:09:15 am
If you mean the spysoftware, yes, Mass Effect 3 will have it too. I cannot impress how much I'm being pissed about that. I always honored Bioware for creating great games, I can't say the same for EA which long term project seem to be ruining gaming companies. As much honest I'm usually am, I will certainly not install with full knowledge a spy program on my system.

I will buy the game (because I'm honest), but for playing I will use a pirated version with crack or whatever, to outrun this system. I hope some maniacs graps a gun and pays the management department of EA a visit.  :mad: :hopping:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on November 03, 2011, 07:35:19 am
I really don't give a rats ass about Origin as long as it adheres to laws and yes, I am aware that it breaches laws at least in Germany. I am more worried about how it affects performance of games and other applications when ran, because I've heard it does cause significant performance drop for whatever reason.

Still, it is likely EA will address both legal and performance issues by the time ME3 comes out. At which point I don't really care if I have to install it to play games published by EA. I don't have a problem with Steam, so I don't see why I would have to have a problem with Origin.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on November 03, 2011, 07:46:40 am
Not exactly sure how Origin is supposed to impact performance, really. Because as far as I can tell, it really doesn't.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Fury on November 03, 2011, 07:48:57 am
I've seen a few reports where people got significant fps improvement when they managed to launch their games without Origin. How true those reports are is another matter.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Starman01 on November 03, 2011, 08:44:16 am
I'm actually more concerned about the reports, that this software seems to spy everything out. Of course, it's hard to tell what is true, and what's just panic-making atm. But according to some reports, it seems to spy into a lot of  folders that doesn't had to do anything with the games. It search folders of handy users and software, adress data and what the hell else. I don't mind if companies try to protect their property, but spying on my privat data is not ok.

Despite, all this copy protection has been bull**** for all the years. No matter how big the companies are. EVERY SINGLE game has been cracked and ready for downloads latest 24 hours after release. So everyone one, who intends to pirate a game, will do it anyway. It's just the usual honest buyers, that are ****ed with such a crap. And it's not only with games, it's with everything.

Small example : DVD's. My Stargate DVD's and others have their usual legal warnings, advertising for "not to pirate" and so on. Quite a few screens, and at the end of the DVD it takes more than 5 minutes before I get the control for my remote back. And they are made so, that you cannot skip them, not even hit the stop button. Only shuting down the players cancel it. But if I would have pirated the crap via torrent, I wouldn't have to bother with that. So no wonder, that pirating get's even worse. But instead of aknowledging that, it get's worse years after years, and yes, I'm starting to get sick of it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on November 04, 2011, 05:29:46 pm
Quote
I'm actually more concerned about the reports, that this software seems to spy everything out. Of course, it's hard to tell what is true, and what's just panic-making atm. But according to some reports, it seems to spy into a lot of  folders that doesn't had to do anything with the games. It search folders of handy users and software, adress data and what the hell else. I don't mind if companies try to protect their property, but spying on my privat data is not ok.

It scans your program data folder for installed programs. It tries to see if you have other games that work with origin installed.
Its like steams 'add a non steam game to your steam list' thing. Or that Windows Uninstall Software thing.

Quite sure this was already handled on the BF3 thread as well.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on November 04, 2011, 08:38:33 pm
It scans your program data folder for installed programs. It tries to see if you have other games that work with origin installed.
Its like steams 'add a non steam game to your steam list' thing. Or that Windows Uninstall Software thing.
Whatever it's doing, on launch it locks up my computer for a good twenty seconds while it does whatever it does.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on November 05, 2011, 02:31:48 am
Quote
I'm actually more concerned about the reports, that this software seems to spy everything out. Of course, it's hard to tell what is true, and what's just panic-making atm. But according to some reports, it seems to spy into a lot of  folders that doesn't had to do anything with the games. It search folders of handy users and software, adress data and what the hell else. I don't mind if companies try to protect their property, but spying on my privat data is not ok.

It scans your program data folder for installed programs. It tries to see if you have other games that work with origin installed.
Its like steams 'add a non steam game to your steam list' thing. Or that Windows Uninstall Software thing.

Quite sure this was already handled on the BF3 thread as well.
Except Steam is optional and only scans at user request.  It doesn't take over.  This sounds like everything bad I thought Steam was before I started using it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on November 05, 2011, 02:45:01 am
Quote
I'm actually more concerned about the reports, that this software seems to spy everything out. Of course, it's hard to tell what is true, and what's just panic-making atm. But according to some reports, it seems to spy into a lot of  folders that doesn't had to do anything with the games. It search folders of handy users and software, adress data and what the hell else. I don't mind if companies try to protect their property, but spying on my privat data is not ok.

It scans your program data folder for installed programs. It tries to see if you have other games that work with origin installed.
Its like steams 'add a non steam game to your steam list' thing. Or that Windows Uninstall Software thing.

Quite sure this was already handled on the BF3 thread as well.
Except Steam is optional and only scans at user request.  It doesn't take over.  This sounds like everything bad I thought Steam was before I started using it.

What is so bad about looking for BF2142.exe - for example? Yeah - it is a bit strange that it does this automatically (but Steam is rather obscure about it too), but it is not as if the entire contents of your ProgramData folder and your registery are send off to EA.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mikes on November 05, 2011, 06:38:05 pm
Quote
I'm actually more concerned about the reports, that this software seems to spy everything out. Of course, it's hard to tell what is true, and what's just panic-making atm. But according to some reports, it seems to spy into a lot of  folders that doesn't had to do anything with the games. It search folders of handy users and software, adress data and what the hell else. I don't mind if companies try to protect their property, but spying on my privat data is not ok.

It scans your program data folder for installed programs. It tries to see if you have other games that work with origin installed.
Its like steams 'add a non steam game to your steam list' thing. Or that Windows Uninstall Software thing.

Quite sure this was already handled on the BF3 thread as well.
Except Steam is optional and only scans at user request.  It doesn't take over.  This sounds like everything bad I thought Steam was before I started using it.

What is so bad about looking for BF2142.exe - for example? Yeah - it is a bit strange that it does this automatically (but Steam is rather obscure about it too), but it is not as if the entire contents of your ProgramData folder and your registery are send off to EA.

... you sure about that? I mean...  people already reported it scanned cellphone sync folders and addressbooks and the original EULA (before German law smacked it down - in Germany) pretty much stated that they can scan whatever private information they want (and sell it to third parties)...   why would you assume anything is offlimits?

"Because EA only has our best interests in mind?" :p


Personally... I use my main computer for work as well. I do have data on it that I am required to keep safe. Origins EULA would have literally been in conflict with my work contract.
That EA propably couldn't/wouldn't use sensitive data on my computer and that EA propably wouldn't do anything with it and propably not even sell it to third parties really doesn't matter all that much compared to the fact that Origin can scan that data and most likely will scan that data and more importantly that with Origin I would knowingly install Spyware with an EULA that would have allowed EA to compromise any data on my PC, which most certainly would put me in violation of my work contract.

If I ever were to install Origin just because I can't imagine living anymore without having played "that one game" I may install it on a secondary PC or laptop dedicated to games alone, play the game and scrub the system clean after I finished the game. The buyer annoyance/deterrence factor of EA's latest DRM approach certainly is right up there with the worst that Starforce and Securom had to offer from my viewpoint. Different, yeah, but just as idiotic. (and ineffective vs. piracy as usual, but we all know by now that's not what DRM is for anyways...)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: mxlm on November 05, 2011, 08:55:28 pm
Quote
Posters also spotted these game options for the singleplayer campaign section of the beta:

"Action Mode: For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action mode will set automatic replies in conversation and a normal difficulty.

Story Mode: For those who want to emphasize story immersion and minimize combat pressure. Story mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a minimal combat difficulty.

RPG Mode: For those who want to explore both realms of story and combat. RPG mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a normal combat difficulty."

Maybe now the dudebro contingent will buy the game. I'm skeptical, somehow.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on November 06, 2011, 06:56:52 am
Quote
... you sure about that? I mean...  people already reported it scanned cellphone sync folders and addressbooks and the original EULA (before German law smacked it down - in Germany) pretty much stated that they can scan whatever private information they want (and sell it to third parties)...   why would you assume anything is offlimits?

If cellphone sync books and addressbooks are stored in a folder which can easily be accesed by Origin, they are probably located in a folder which can be accessed by anyone (I don't recall Origin needing Administrative rights). Also, again, Origin checks for the presence of a file, it does not open the file and read its actual contents (if it would actually do that, there would have been much more then just rumours).

Quote
Originally Posted by A clever bloke called Mitsuhiko on the reddit forums


Yay. Conspiracies. So let's see what Origin really does, shall we?
If you hook process monitor onto Origin you will not see Origin scanning anything, independently of how long you use it. So what triggered the OP's screenshot?
Origin on installation will try to find games installed on your harddrive and automatically register them within Origin. It does that in a couple of different ways:
It reads the windows games registry
It looks for games in Program Files
It looks for games in ProgramData (where, for unknown reason the OP's SMS and tax software are storing the data instead of the user profile where that data should go!)
it reads the xfire config if it finds one for games
If you look at the screenshot closely you will see that it does not actually read any files. Instead it looks for their existence and recursively walks the directory. It does not read any of your files, at least not judging from this screenshot or anything I have found on my machine.
Lastly if you monitor the network traffic that Origin causes you will see that it does not transmit anything of value to EA. So far I have not seen anything bug login credentials being submitted.
But it's always so much more fun to assume that software is inherently evil. You can hook a syscall monitor on any application and you will see that it operates all over the drive. That's not something unique to Origin. Steam will do the same if you click the "add non steam game" button.
//EDIT: something I forgot: I think people should not run any sysinternals tools without a basic understanding of what they do or at least not jump to conclusions..

there is also this link... (http://www.gamerlaw.co.uk/2011/08/ea-origins-eula-is-non-story.html)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dilmah G on November 06, 2011, 08:41:42 am
Quote
Posters also spotted these game options for the singleplayer campaign section of the beta:

"Action Mode: For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action mode will set automatic replies in conversation and a normal difficulty.

Story Mode: For those who want to emphasize story immersion and minimize combat pressure. Story mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a minimal combat difficulty.

RPG Mode: For those who want to explore both realms of story and combat. RPG mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a normal combat difficulty."

Maybe now the dudebro contingent will buy the game. I'm skeptical, somehow.
Had a friend who raged like mad about this. I don't see what the big deal is - it's an option, oh no! Bioware's trying to make more money! Who would've thought they'd do such a thing? It's not like they're trying to make a profit or anything. No, of course not.

Sorry, pent up angst out. :P Not directed at anyone in particular. (srs)

But anyway, yes. If it's an option I don't see what the big deal is. I don't think it necessarily means story elements are going to be 'dumbed down' or gameplay as a whole is going to be made piss, I simply don't think it's a requirement to have these modes in the game. Either way, we've all *****ed enough about how much we're going to love or not love the implications of the R-1000 Reapinator so I don't see how this could possibly be as much of a deal as people make it out to be RE: the story. We can all be a bit of a foolish lot of kids sometimes about these things.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on November 06, 2011, 01:26:53 pm
you're right that it SHOULDN'T affect the game if you choose rpg mode.  buuuuuuuuuuuut, you never can really tell.  kinda like how console ports in theory should be able to be properly designed and balanced for PC, but aren't.  it's not TOO much of a stretch to think of a developer ****ing something like this up horribly and neutering gameplay because they didn't spend the time to do it properly.

so i'd say there's no reason to rage YET :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on November 08, 2011, 05:07:46 am
TrashMans' so-called opinion on the leaked script can be found here (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=78944.0).
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on November 08, 2011, 08:44:10 am
"So-called"?

You faschist puppet of the state! Attica! Attica! Long live the king and queen of cheese!
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on November 09, 2011, 05:08:08 am
Ah, so the shenanigans reached here, and Trashman was already trying to ruin everyone's experience with full blown spoilers huh?

Repent you sinner and you still might be one of the lucky first being eaten by the almighty Hudsonian Cthuluh.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on November 09, 2011, 05:31:07 am
Oh, no, nothing was spoilered. Except Trashman's opinion on the script, which should come as no surprise.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on November 09, 2011, 08:31:37 am
Ah, so the shenanigans reached here, and Trashman was already trying to ruin everyone's experience with full blown spoilers huh?

Repent you sinner and you still might be one of the lucky first being eaten by the almighty Hudsonian Cthuluh.

Spoiler tags exist for a reaon..and hte big red glowign letters too.

Nobody is "spoiling" your experience, unless you want to spoil it yourself. Stop blaming others for your lack of self-control.


As to my opinion being spoilered...I don't even know how it is possible to spoil an opinion, so I can't make heads or tails fo your statement E.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on November 09, 2011, 01:24:42 pm
Luis inquires about Trashman talking about spoilers.

Trashman immediately acts like he's being blamed for something.

Yeah, typical day down in Gaming Discussion.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on November 09, 2011, 01:59:37 pm
Luis inquires about Trashman talking about spoilers.

Trashman immediately acts like he's being blamed for something.

Yeah, typical day down in Gaming Discussion.

To be fair, Luis did assume that he had unrestrainedly spoilered the place.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on November 09, 2011, 06:24:59 pm
Would you have put it past a known troll?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Ravenholme on November 10, 2011, 01:27:44 am
Would you have put it past a known troll?

Luis or Trashman? Because Luis can be fairly troll-like himself.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on November 10, 2011, 03:39:11 am
Would you have put it past a known troll?

Nice of you to finally admit. Half is forgiven.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Luis Dias on November 10, 2011, 05:15:04 am
Luis inquires about Trashman talking about spoilers.

Trashman immediately acts like he's being blamed for something.

Yeah, typical day down in Gaming Discussion.

To be fair, Luis did assume that he had unrestrainedly spoilered the place.

It wasn't a bad assumption, given that it was linked by E in the fashion it did. I guessed (probably wrongly) that it was splitted by E to avoid spoilers in this thread. However, my complaint was 100% in jest form, as it should have been obvious from the tone and the ending.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: qazwsx on January 14, 2012, 02:46:31 am
Hate to be the barer of bad news, but:
http://gamingbolt.com/origin-is-required-for-all-pc-editions-of-mass-effect-3
WELP.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 14, 2012, 03:03:31 am
(http://omglol.kerrolisaa.com/1/10441.gif)

Quote
Is constant Origin connection required or is it a single one off authentication when the game is first installed. Is there also a limit to the number of installations available?

Mass Effect 3 will require a one time, single authorization for the single player game. There is no limit to the number of installs. Playing Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer will require a constant connection.
I guess I could live with that.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: QuantumDelta on January 14, 2012, 06:00:33 am
Anyone actually give a crap?
It's 2012 for crying out loud we're all gonna be dead permanently plugged in anyway if we care about gaming :P
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 14, 2012, 06:04:21 am
I don't like the fact that I have to sign up to jesu cristo knows how many services and other crap in order to play some games. Especially since, apparently, I might get banned from said service(s) only because someone somewhere says "**** <my username>". I just want to buy games and play games, not get involved in some company-level dick-waving contests.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 14, 2012, 06:45:55 am
A single online activation is pretty normal these days, and that you have to be connected to the net in order to play online should be obvious.

As for Origin, well, it's meh. I dislike the fact that it's yet another content distribution network that is incompatible to the others, and that it's another client I have to run on my system, but as QD said, it's 2012. My Comp is certainly able to run it without it affecting gameplay, as should be any gaming computer.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on January 14, 2012, 04:50:23 pm
origin will NOT touch this computer.  steam wouldn't have either if there had been any indication on the ****ing box i bought at the store that it was going to install steam.  i appreciate that there are some people who like such systems for content delivery/friends and whathaveyou.  i do not, and i see no reason that i should be forced into it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: deathfun on January 14, 2012, 05:14:20 pm
Steam gave me free stuff. That's the jist of why I have it

I do notice that a lot of you fella's are getting this for PC though. You could always just reduce the amount of pain and suffering by buying it on console non?
Right, mods. Damn you all with your mods
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Klaustrophobia on January 14, 2012, 06:24:05 pm
i don't have a console.  and if i did, anything that can reasonably be played on PC instead (read, not a COMPLETELY **** port) would be.  the only reason for me to have a console would be console-specific games.  zelda, for example.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on January 14, 2012, 06:34:59 pm
**** you, EA.  **** you very much.

Since I buy virtually all my games in Steam sales (as I suspect do a ****load of other gamers, these days), I'll be waiting until EA comes to their senses, or I can buy a disc-copy in a bargain bin in a store.  Or if Origin has discount sales I may consider it, but knowing EA that ain't bloody likely.

The explanation of why Steam isn't being used sounds pretty thin.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 14, 2012, 06:43:29 pm
While they don't have as many special offers as Steam routinely has (mostly due to Origin having a faaaar inferior catalogue of games), they do occasionally pop up. ISTR them doing a series of special sales during Christmas, so it might be worth checking back periodically.

Also, I do suspect that ME3 will be on Steam by June or July; EA just wants to have it as an Origin exclusive for a time to get people into that service.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on January 14, 2012, 06:52:48 pm
The "restrictive terms" that EA seems to be referring to are the ones that require game DLC to be offered for sale on Steam as well as any other place the developer chooses.  As anyone who has other EA games will recall, they like to ensure they are the sole source for DLC (e.g ME2, DA:O, etc) so they control the price point through their ridiculous points system.

I've said it before, I'll say it again:  I <3 BioWare, especially since they hail from my location here in Canada, but this deal with EA they cut a few years ago is ****ing awful.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Dark RevenantX on January 15, 2012, 03:19:22 am
EA also fell 7.53% in stocks (holy ****) after this press release.  Maybe they'll reconsider?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Kszyhu on January 15, 2012, 04:46:08 am
I really doubt that it'll change anything. PC games sales aren't really that impressive compared to the numbers sold on the consoles, and Origin requirement should scare off only a small percentage of potential buyers.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 15, 2012, 05:39:21 am

I've said it before, I'll say it again:  I <3 BioWare, especially since they hail from my location here in Canada, but this deal with EA they cut a few years ago is ****ing awful.

Waht deal? EA owns their asses.
BioWare will suffer the same fate as Origins, bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MP-Ryan on January 15, 2012, 10:30:05 pm

I've said it before, I'll say it again:  I <3 BioWare, especially since they hail from my location here in Canada, but this deal with EA they cut a few years ago is ****ing awful.

Waht deal? EA owns their asses.
BioWare will suffer the same fate as Origins, bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood

The deal where EA bought ownership in BioWare.  It was negotiated at the time; BioWare should have turned the deal down flat, but I understand they wanted capital for further projects.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MR_T3D on January 16, 2012, 12:32:49 am
While they don't have as many special offers as Steam routinely has (mostly due to Origin having a faaaar inferior catalogue of games), they do occasionally pop up. ISTR them doing a series of special sales during Christmas, so it might be worth checking back periodically.

Also, I do suspect that ME3 will be on Steam by June or July; EA just wants to have it as an Origin exclusive for a time to get people into that service.

I don't think it will come to steam unless Origin is shut down.
between TOR, BF3, and ME3, I suspect EA will be happy enough with it, and with the fact that forcing origin gets them something like 30% more money per sale, so losing >10% of sales (IE "steam or no sale" people)

Personally, I don't mind origin, it's out of the way and fairly light client, gave me free mass effect 2, and hasn't told me to re-install like steam did last year for me.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 16, 2012, 01:05:31 am

I've said it before, I'll say it again:  I <3 BioWare, especially since they hail from my location here in Canada, but this deal with EA they cut a few years ago is ****ing awful.

Waht deal? EA owns their asses.
BioWare will suffer the same fate as Origins, bullfrog, Maxis and Westwood

The deal where EA bought ownership in BioWare.  It was negotiated at the time; BioWare should have turned the deal down flat, but I understand they wanted capital for further projects.


I was being sarcastic...as in a deal implies you're getting something out of it. And BioWare is getting shafted. Tehre's a reason Dragon age and ME1 were as good as they were - they were alsmost done before EA took over, so it didn't have time to ruin it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on January 16, 2012, 12:02:25 pm
Well, that's one game bare-bones platform for overpriced DLCs that I won't be buying and probably won't be playing either.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on January 16, 2012, 05:59:03 pm
Here's my feelings on Origin:

I trust Valve to not screw me over...much.
I expect EA to screw me over as much as they can get away with.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordMelvin on January 17, 2012, 12:17:36 am
Here's my feelings on Origin:

I trust Valve to not screw me over...much.
I expect EA to screw me over as much as they can get away with.

I am shocked, shocked to find that I agree with Liberator.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on January 17, 2012, 03:09:56 am
**** you, EA.  **** you very much.

Since I buy virtually all my games in Steam sales (as I suspect do a ****load of other gamers, these days), I'll be waiting until EA comes to their senses, or I can buy a disc-copy in a bargain bin in a store.  Or if Origin has discount sales I may consider it, but knowing EA that ain't bloody likely.

The explanation of why Steam isn't being used sounds pretty thin.

Concerning that Valve has not issued any explenation as of yet, and that EA still sells Valve games trough Origin, I assume that it are Valve's policies that are the blame here.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 17, 2012, 04:02:35 am
Dear Lord...they're turning EDI into a sexbot.....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: BritishShivans on January 17, 2012, 04:33:09 am
Source?  :confused:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 17, 2012, 07:09:32 am
some more leaks and one magazine interview..seriousy, they're giving her a robotic female human body....

Also, is some of the convo in the leaks is correct, then the game has becume super-anvilicious. No subtelty at all. and Cerberus is spaze natzi's

Also, a super-secreat weapon agaisnt the repaers pops up immediately after Shep leaves Earth. And it pops up on Mars.  :rolleyes:


Sheppard: We escaped, but Earth is under attack.
someone: Waht do we do now Sheppard? how to we defeat the reapers?
Sheppard: We wait for a deus ex macina!
DEM: You called? Get ya ass to Mars, there's a Prothean super-secreat weapons that for some reason we discovered EXACTLY now.
Cerberus: <Trollface> No you don't.  We wants it.
Shap: But why?
Cerberus: Becasue we evil! Now fight some hideously disfigured humans so we can show of our evil! Also, we gonna make Repers our puppets!
Liara: Cerberus is evil.
Ashely: They're like super-natzi's. Suepr evil.
Wrex: I hate em.
Morodin: You hate em too? Do you hate em Shepaprd? Because they are evil? Have we mentioned that b.t.w.?


*fly to tuchanka!*

Morodin: "I have the cure!"
Sheppard: "But didn't you say it would take years to develop?
Moroding: Shuddup, I R super-genius.

Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 17, 2012, 07:33:19 am
Did ME3 make you so angry that you forgot how to spell?

Also: Unsourced rumours "enhanced" by your additions are bad.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Colonol Dekker on January 17, 2012, 07:34:23 am
I support EDI and her physical liberties.


I also support trashmans spelling for effect.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 17, 2012, 07:50:14 am
Did ME3 make you so angry that you forgot how to spell?



(http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/6/62236/1256699-grammar_nazi_super.jpg)
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 17, 2012, 07:52:22 am
Hey, if you want your posts to sound as if a drunk person is raving about some perceived insult, go right ahead. Just don't expect anyone to actually take you seriously.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on January 17, 2012, 08:17:02 am
<snide insinuations and disingenious assertions>

Or it could be a game with excellent, enjoyable gameplay, and with a storyline that you can sort of go along with for the most part.

Like the two before it. :rolleyes:
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on January 17, 2012, 08:24:59 am
<snide insinuations and disingenious assertions>

Or it could be a game with excellent, enjoyable gameplay, and with a storyline that you can sort of go along with for the most part.

Like the two before it. :rolleyes:

Exactly. This is Mass Effect effect they're making here, not some literary masterpiece sci fi with deep philosophical implications in it turned into a game. It's supposed to be fun with a plot that works in that regard. That's exactly what they did with the previous 2, and is exactly what I expect out of the next one.
And I'm definitely not too.. eh.. "deep" to resent them putting Edi into a sexy female android body. If that's indeed what they did. It's the exact sort of thing that works and entertains in this setting.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 17, 2012, 10:56:27 am
<snide insinuations and disingenious assertions>

Or it could be a game with excellent, enjoyable gameplay, and with a storyline that you can sort of go along with for the most part.

Like the two before it. :rolleyes:

ME1 > ME2 > ME3 (as it now looks)


you can "sorta" go along "for the most part"...hehe.
If you are satisfied with mediocrity, more power to you. I always expect the media to go forward, not backward.

For me, gaping, easily fixable flaws are pretty much a sign of not caring and the "stupid masses will eat anything" mentality.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: SpardaSon21 on January 17, 2012, 12:10:44 pm
Edi in a sexy android body?  I for one welcome our new Cylon overlord, and shall gladly make Shepard look like Gaius Baltar.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on January 17, 2012, 12:57:51 pm
Well, now that we know what Mass Effect 3 will be like exactly, there's really no point in playing it. Someone tell Bioware they don't even have to release it now, Trashman's made them.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 17, 2012, 01:30:59 pm
Sarcasm doesn't help you ya know....

No matter what you say, no matter what you do - you can't change poor writing. You can certanly ignore it and pretend it isn't there tough.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on January 17, 2012, 07:14:08 pm
TrashMan, unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), your views on what constitutes "good writing" have summarily dismissed you from the group of people I solicit decent game reviews from.

I'll judge this one when it comes out, not whenever you feel like launching into a poorly spelled tirade over something you've unilaterally and irrevocably judged as poor before it even got out the gate.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on January 17, 2012, 07:32:34 pm
Am I really the only one who dislikes, on a certain level, the idea of EDI being anthropomorphized into a sexpot?  I rather liked that she was the voice of the Normandy.  Also, if this is true, how in the name of hell did they fit 4 quantum blue box computers, which are roughly the size of industrial refrigerators, into a human sized and shaped android, no matter how well endowed?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordPomposity on January 17, 2012, 08:33:04 pm
Am I really the only one who dislikes, on a certain level, the idea of EDI being anthropomorphized into a sexpot?  I rather liked that she was the voice of the Normandy.  Also, if this is true, how in the name of hell did they fit 4 quantum blue box computers, which are roughly the size of industrial refrigerators, into a human sized and shaped android, no matter how well endowed?
No, you're not. It's idiotic. Hilariously idiotic, in fact. God, this game sounds like it's in self-parody territory. I just might play it after all.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: BritishShivans on January 18, 2012, 12:33:28 am
I doubt those "rumors" are true anyway. It sounds like a parody. If it's serious I'm buying anyway because it as LordPomposity said, it's in self-parody territory.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on January 18, 2012, 01:12:15 am
Quote
Cerberus is spaze natzi's

Even though the little gameplay footage shows they are indoctrinated (Shepard says this specifically)? Nazi's kinda did it out of free will.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 18, 2012, 01:20:52 am
how in the name of hell did they fit 4 quantum blue box computers, which are roughly the size of industrial refrigerators, into a human sized and shaped android, no matter how well endowed?
Cloud computing?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: MatthTheGeek on January 18, 2012, 01:34:35 am
Quote
Cerberus is spaze natzi's

Even though the little gameplay footage shows they are indoctrinated (Shepard says this specifically)? Nazi's kinda did it out of free will.
Godwin's law.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on January 18, 2012, 01:35:18 am
Sarcasm doesn't help you ya know....

Yes it does.

No matter what you say, no matter what you do - you can't change poor writing.

But you can, apparently, judge it without ever really seeing it, only based on a few trailers, interview snippets that could be interpreted either way, and unconfirmed rumors. I'm not saying ME3's plot won't suck, but I for one won't know until I play it. Apparently you're way ahead of me and don't need to bother with such tiresome details as actually knowing something about the matter you're discussing before forming an apparently fixed opinion on the matter.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Herra Tohtori on January 18, 2012, 01:53:54 am
Nazi's kinda did it out of free will.


No, I'm pretty sure majority of them were indoctrinated, up to highest echelons.

People are very prone to that, you know. (http://www.prisonexp.org/) Perfectly normal people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) start behaving like complete monsters (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CompleteMonster) with very little urging and just a smidgen of authority.


And in many cases they don't even realize it until after the fact when someone else points out to them what exactly they were doing to their fellow human beings.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: NGTM-1R on January 18, 2012, 02:21:32 am
Also, if this is true, how in the name of hell did they fit 4 quantum blue box computers, which are roughly the size of industrial refrigerators,

Ingame experience from ME1/ME2 denies the truth of this. Remember the AI on the Citadel in ME1? And I'm pretty sure the ME2 description says they're much smaller.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 03:42:43 am
TrashMan, unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), your views on what constitutes "good writing" have summarily dismissed you from the group of people I solicit decent game reviews from.

I'll judge this one when it comes out, not whenever you feel like launching into a poorly spelled tirade over something you've unilaterally and irrevocably judged as poor before it even got out the gate.

If you truly consider the main plot of ME2 to be well-written, then you're beyond help.

You think I'm judging it too harshly? Prematurely? Yeah, I got the leaked script so I have a fine example of BioWare's writing in front of me. So as much as you'd like it to be baseless, it is not.

And I'm not askign you anything. I'm not demanding anything from you. So where do you get this silly idea that I demand you judge it like me?


Also, GAME review and WRITING are two rahter different things. ME3 can be a entertaining game and sstill have bad writing that most people wouldn't even care about.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 03:46:11 am
I doubt those "rumors" are true anyway. It sounds like a parody. If it's serious I'm buying anyway because it as LordPomposity said, it's in self-parody territory.

Some of them are confirmed now.

The 3 levels mentioned in the preview unfold exactly as they are in the script.


Quote
Even though the little gameplay footage shows they are indoctrinated (Shepard says this specifically)? Nazi's kinda did it out of free will.

Shepard thinks that. But there's more to it. Suffice to say that if they don't change anything from the script, you wont' be able to go 5 minutes trought the game without someone reminding you how evil Cerberus is.
Also, Cerberus is everywhere....
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: deathfun on January 18, 2012, 03:49:40 am
What's well written Trashman? I would like examples of things you have deemed well written
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 03:50:22 am
But you can, apparently, judge it without ever really seeing it, only based on a few trailers, interview snippets that could be interpreted either way, and unconfirmed rumors. I'm not saying ME3's plot won't suck, but I for one won't know until I play it. Apparently you're way ahead of me and don't need to bother with such tiresome details as actually knowing something about the matter you're discussing before forming an apparently fixed opinion on the matter.

How about a leaked script?
We're talking about 20 MB's worth of text here, there's so much of it I havn't read trough all of it. But what I see is dissapointing. Even if by some miracle it doesn't end up the finishing product (and all indication and previews and other leaks point out that nothing cahnged), it shows the direction they are heading for.

Again, I'm saying that what I read sucked. I'm forming an oppoinion based on something tangible.

Maybe the final game won't be as bad. I'm not holding my hopes up tough..
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 03:53:40 am
What's well written Trashman? I would like examples of things you have deemed well written

Something that doesn't have gaping plot holes, idiot balls and things thrown in purely for the bling factor.

My definition of bad writing is rather simple - if you can easily (something that even a kid can see) spot the above mentioned things, and can easily think of ways to fix them without hurting the plot - then the writers are downright lazy.


The ME2 opening is a excellent example of it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Liberator on January 18, 2012, 04:05:20 am
Also, Cerberus is everywhere....

TIM did say that Cerberus IS Humanity.  And what is good for Cerberus is good for Humanity.  So it's possible there's some low level, high strength Indoctrination going on here.  Or, it could be that TIM is pissed because you stole 6 billion credits from him in the form of your resurrection and the new and improved Normandy.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: deathfun on January 18, 2012, 04:40:51 am
What's well written Trashman? I would like examples of things you have deemed well written

Something that doesn't have gaping plot holes, idiot balls and things thrown in purely for the bling factor.

My definition of bad writing is rather simple - if you can easily (something that even a kid can see) spot the above mentioned things, and can easily think of ways to fix them without hurting the plot - then the writers are downright lazy.


The ME2 opening is a excellent example of it.

Those aren't examples of things that are well written, that's a baseline which you use to deem what is well written
So I ask again, what examples can you provide of well written stories?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 04:50:48 am
You mean for a  game or in general?

And maybe I should expand writing to include "designing a universe".
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on January 18, 2012, 05:25:24 am
I think the problem is expectations. I can read Asimov's foundation series, and I can read a Batman comic. I do not expect to find the same levels of depth and plot consistency in each of them. With the Batman comic, I won't exactly be overthinking every plot point - it's supposed to be quick fun and it pretty much does what it's designed to do. Ditto with Mass Effect, which is pretty much the Batman comic here. Spending any amount of time analyzing the plot in-depth is a complete waste of time, and I have way better things to do with mine.
And that's all assuming you're right about ME3's plot sucking, which I can't say I'm anywhere near being convinced about. I have no idea where you'd get a leaked script from and frankly, I don't care. No matter what you say here as "evidence" I have no real way of knowing it came from a legit source, so I might as well ignore this "evidence" completely. I still stand by the fact that you need to play the game before you go bash any of it's aspects. Especially the plot.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: deathfun on January 18, 2012, 06:12:40 am
You mean for a  game or in general?

And maybe I should expand writing to include "designing a universe".

For a game
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 09:26:28 am
I think the problem is expectations. I can read Asimov's foundation series, and I can read a Batman comic. I do not expect to find the same levels of depth and plot consistency in each of them. With the Batman comic, I won't exactly be overthinking every plot point - it's supposed to be quick fun and it pretty much does what it's designed to do. Ditto with Mass Effect, which is pretty much the Batman comic here. Spending any amount of time analyzing the plot in-depth is a complete waste of time, and I have way better things to do with mine.

Most Batman comics are more consistent then this....and it's nto overthinking. You don't have to analyize a plot in-depth to find gaping flaws.

Also, ME1 at least was presented in a more mature, serious and realisitc way - you're damn right I expect more of it.

By your logic, no form of media would ever advance. If everything is alwas "good enough" and you never expect or want more...why bother?
Congratultions... I can use your own argument to defend anything and everything, no matter how mady written.

Think of hte wrost pice of writign you ever saw in your life...then apply that argument to it..then come back to me.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: phatosealpha on January 18, 2012, 09:46:59 am
Wait, they aren't seriously putting EDI is a robot, right?  Right?
Cause you know, they made a pretty damned big deal in the first game of how much trouble AIs cause and how everyone hates the Quarians because they made the Geth, and they weren't even really AIs.

And now you're going to have Shephard show up, running around with a Geth and a full fledged AI in a robot?  And he's going to do this right in the middle of a full scale galactic invasion by AIs who want to exterminate everyone, just to ensure that everyone in the Galaxy has the dangers front and center in their minds?

Yeah, that's going to go over real well.


And let me guess, he's going to resurrect the Rachni despite that whole 'war against the galaxy' thing, cure the genophage and repopulate the Krogan species (again, despite that whole 'war against the galaxy' thing)?

.....and everybody's OK with that?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 18, 2012, 10:05:48 am
Well, seeing as Trashman hasn't been able to point to a credible news source reporting about the whole "EDI gets a body" thing, I doubt it's actually true. The only thing google finds when looking for those terms is a lot of fan speculation a la "Should/Can EDI get a body in ME3?", nothing more.

And besides, why would she want a new body when the Normandy is already so perfect?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: BritishShivans on January 18, 2012, 11:16:34 am
Trashman, can I has a email containing the leaked script? I really wanna see it.  ;7 If only so I can laugh at bad writing.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: newman on January 18, 2012, 12:29:06 pm
Think of hte wrost pice of writign you ever saw in your life...

Right here.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 12:37:53 pm
There's a whole discussion group in Bioware boards dedicated to discussing the leak. You can aks for a link or file there. I don't have it on me on this laptop.
You'd have to sift trough all the groups to find them - and there's a huge number of redicoous groups...

I did a quick scan, and there might be something here. I did see some groups dissapearing, so I don't know if you will find that group I mentioned.
http://social.bioware.com/group/6823/#discussions

There's also numbeous threads on BioWare forums containing snippets, screenshots and various other leaks.

You can always try googling or simply asking on the forums - plenty poeple have the leaks, but talking opnty about them can easily get one banned.
So you can only get them via e-mail or P.M.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 12:39:09 pm
Think of hte wrost pice of writign you ever saw in your life...

Right here.

cute... but what di you expect? Tolstoy? My writing is flawless and impeccalbe, you are a moron for questioning it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Shivan Hunter on January 18, 2012, 12:44:57 pm
cute... but what di you expect? Tolstoy? My writing is flawless and impeccalbe, you are a moron for questioning it.

this **** right here

Quote from: TrashMan
For me, gaping, easily fixable flaws are pretty much a sign of not caring and the "stupid masses will eat anything" mentality.

and this **** right here

Quote from: TrashMan
Nobody is "spoiling" your experience, unless you want to spoil it yourself. Stop blaming others for your lack of self-control.

and this **** way up here

is what got you banned from GD
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Grizzly on January 18, 2012, 01:06:58 pm
"is what you got banned from GD" is a line that should be kept to people capable of banning, IMO.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: LordMelvin on January 18, 2012, 01:14:28 pm
"is what you got banned from GD" is a line that should be kept to people capable of banning, IMO.

On threat of banning?
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: TrashMan on January 18, 2012, 01:20:12 pm
is what got you banned from GD

No, not really.

If you really consider the above grounds for banning, then go bann yourself and 99.9% of the internet while you're at it.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Scotty on January 18, 2012, 01:58:57 pm
Ad homs are pretty typical banning reasons, and saying what got him banned from GD is not an ad hom nor is it a call for mod action; it is a statement of fact.
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: Mikes on January 18, 2012, 02:06:16 pm
There seems to be some universal law that the moment a hugely successful games developer decides to make an MMO all their future games go down the crapper (See Starcraft 2 storyline durr), so a crappy ME3 story wouldn't surprise me in the least.

Still, it would make me sad a little :p
Title: Re: Mass Effect 3
Post by: The E on January 18, 2012, 02:16:18 pm
Thread closed.

Given that Trashman cannot stop spewing how much he hates hates HATES Bioware and EA in general, and Mass Effect in particular, no further Mass Effect threads will be allowed to live until ME3's demo is released (i.e., when most of us have the ability to actually evaluate real snippets of gameplay). Once the game is released, Trashman may be able to get some "I told you so"-style satisfaction; or he may just turn out to be wrong. Until then, this clusterflame is done and over.