Mass Effect 3

[NullZero]

VgSDxrJDD6g

Even though it's a teaser lasting only 1:10, if ME3 is anything like ME2, it's going to be a no-brainer buy. Looks like the raepers are back in full force - no idea how Shepherd is going to stop such power, so should be interesting.

Looks to be released in the "Holiday 2011". I simply cannot wait.

[Cortexian]

BRB going to Bioware Edmonton to check out latest build. No seriously, I made friends with a guy that works at Bioware Edmonton at the last Fragapalooza. I will try to find out as much info I can from him, and leak it to you guys if I get anything. And I will seriously try and arrange a tour of Bioware Edmonton, maybe I'll get a glimpse of some ME3 stuff while I'm there...

iirc Bioware Edmonton only consulted and contracted a few things for the Mass Effect games though, the rest was done at Bioware Montreal(?).

[Cagerrin]

Not really looking forward to it. After ME2's story being as thoroughly bad as it was(souring my hopes for future ME games unless they fire Mac Walters), and ME3 seemingly being centered around the dullest place in the ME universe(there're a ton of alien planets in the galaxy, Earth is boring and I don't care about it,Reapers can eat it, shit it out, and have a swim meet in the excrement pool), it simply doesn't look all that interesting. And it doesn't bode well that they tried to pull a "grey is realistic we're so gritty" bait and switch with the trailer.

[TeeKup]

Buying it...Day one...minute one. Buying it.

Also, if Legion doesn't return, someone's going to have a bomb in their mailbox.

[Higuy]

Not really looking forward to it. After ME2's story being as thoroughly bad as it was(souring my hopes for future ME games unless they fire Mac Walters), and ME3 seemingly being centered around the dullest place in the ME universe(there're a ton of alien planets in the galaxy, Earth is boring and I don't care about it,Reapers can eat it, shit it out, and have a swim meet in the excrement pool), it simply doesn't look all that interesting. And it doesn't bode well that they tried to pull a "grey is realistic we're so gritty" bait and switch with the trailer.

In both Mass Effect games you've had to assemble a team from various worlds. I doubt that the main center will really just be Earth. Remember, the Reapers are there to destroy everything, not just Earth.

Also, I really enjoyed the second game. The story was well written and the gameplay was an improvement from the first imo.

[Cortexian]

Not really looking forward to it. After ME2's story being as thoroughly bad as it was(souring my hopes for future ME games unless they fire Mac Walters), and ME3 seemingly being centered around the dullest place in the ME universe(there're a ton of alien planets in the galaxy, Earth is boring and I don't care about it,Reapers can eat it, shit it out, and have a swim meet in the excrement pool), it simply doesn't look all that interesting. And it doesn't bode well that they tried to pull a "grey is realistic we're so gritty" bait and switch with the trailer.
So because the trailer was on Earth, you're just gonna dismiss all the narration talking about coordinated attacks on other planets? Good idea mate.

[343guiltymc]

I was under impression that being able to visit Earth was one of the most things Fans have been wanting the clamoring for since ME1. That and unmasking Tali.

[DarkHalo003]

Reminds me of the Halo 2 trailer tbqh.

[Sever]

And we all remember how that turned out: "Defend Earth"; heh, we left Earth after two missions.

[Rook]

Got ME1 and still trying find motivation to play it. Dragon Age now oh baby.

[ejburke]

They went to Earth way too soon in Halo. ME is doing it at the right time, while still giving the player access to dozens of other planets.

I can't wait. I'm playing through parts of 2 again, just because of that trailer.

Don't get too attached to past characters, though. If they could die in a previous game (pretty much everyone), you can bet that their role will be limited, even if they are alive in your game.

[Warsaw]

Will buy. Going to get the Limited Edition this time. The only things I want them to do for ME3 are bring back a real inventory and stop making the guns go "pew pew!"

Fake E: I'd be willing to bet that the Collector Station was used as a staging point by the Reapers if you left it intact, or something to that effect.

[Phobias]

Got ME1 and still trying find motivation to play it. Dragon Age now oh baby.


Same problem for me, I've played about an hour of ME1 but can never be bothered playing past the "defuse these bombs" part before saving and playing AI war.

[Pooky]

Not really looking forward to it. After ME2's story being as thoroughly bad as it was(souring my hopes for future ME games unless they fire Mac Walters), and ME3 seemingly being centered around the dullest place in the ME universe(there're a ton of alien planets in the galaxy, Earth is boring and I don't care about it,Reapers can eat it, shit it out, and have a swim meet in the excrement pool), it simply doesn't look all that interesting. And it doesn't bode well that they tried to pull a "grey is realistic we're so gritty" bait and switch with the trailer.

The fuck is wrong with you?

Seriously though, this has got to be a no brainer if you're even slightly interested in any aspect of gaming. I can't imagine how they're going to top ME2, but I'm ready to have my mind blown.

[TeeKup]

The only thing wrong with ME2 was mining. Seriously though the game was amazing. Project Overlord probably gave me the most powerful gaming experience to date.

[Arteen]

ME2's central story was lacking, none of your squadmates interacted with each other (which was also a problem in ME1), and the galaxy felt so much bigger in Me1 due to the uncharted planets, but in nearly every other respect, such as combat and conversations, ME2 was much better. Hopefully ME3 will be even better.

As for this trailer, it's underwhelming. A reaper descending on London? That's terrifying. Four reapers descending on London? Either that's laughably overkill, or the reapers aren't nearly as menacing as they appeared to be. A figured that just a lone Reaper descending on Earth would be a nightmarish prospect. Also, I get that they're still trying to harvest humans, but after a week, there's almost no structural damage to the city? That's not particularly menacing either.

[ejburke]

The ME2 galaxy felt bigger than ME1's to me. My brain collapsed the memory of each individual uncharted world into a handful of archetypes. For every 4-5 planets, I remember them as being 1 planet. Oh wait, did I say archetype? It would be more accurate to say color palette. I remember planets in ME1 by their fucking color.

The only thing I'm really worried about with ME3 is their ground vehicle solution. The Mako and Hammerhead were both bad, but for different reasons. I hope the ME3 vehicle isn't another stab in the dark and they can actually build off of the mistakes and (few) successes of the predecessor vehicles.

[Higuy]

The Mako wasn't horrible, it just needed better physics on how it drove around.

[Warsaw]

It also wouldn't have hurt the Mako's too badly if they made it handle differently depending on that world's gravity. That can't be hard to implement at all, especially in Unreal.

[ejburke]

The area where the vehicles are complete disasters is combat. I kind of liked the car sequence in Lair of the Shadow Broker. No gun there, just a fare meter.

[Pooky]

ME2's central story was lacking, none of your squadmates interacted with each other (which was also a problem in ME1), and the galaxy felt so much bigger in Me1 due to the uncharted planets, but in nearly every other respect, such as combat and conversations, ME2 was much better. Hopefully ME3 will be even better.

As for this trailer, it's underwhelming. A reaper descending on London? That's terrifying. Four reapers descending on London? Either that's laughably overkill, or the reapers aren't nearly as menacing as they appeared to be. A figured that just a lone Reaper descending on Earth would be a nightmarish prospect. Also, I get that they're still trying to harvest humans, but after a week, there's almost no structural damage to the city? That's not particularly menacing either.

The central story wasn't lacking, it was just straightforward. Bad guys here, we must kill them. The central story isn't the main focus of ME2 like it was in ME1. Instead they chose to focus more on the little things, and it really paid off. The characters and universe felt much better developed in ME2. I do wish party members would interact like they did in KoTOR, but given that you can have 10 to 12 people maximum in your party, the space requirements for all that dialogue would start to get a bit ridiculous.

[Warsaw]

However, the lack of choice when customizing your character in ME2 was a bummer. No, I don't want to wear fucking N7 armour for the entire game...yes, I do want colours. Ugh.

[Pooky]

I actually didn't mind using N7 armor for the whole game, it felt more in character with something a former Alliance SpecOps soldier would actually wear. I never really liked the whole armor system in ME1 because it took away from the distinctive appearance of your party members when they were all wearing the same armor for stats sake.

[ejburke]

I feel bad for the guys who made the non-N7 armor. Not because they look bad, but because no one ever wears them due to the fact that you can't toggle off the helmets. The DLC Kestrel armor was broken down and integrated into the N7 stuff and that's all my characters ever wear.

The ME1 story had several advantages over the ME2 story. It had a better villain (Saren vs Harbie), better plot twists (Sovereign = Reaper and Citadel = mass relay vs Collectors = Protheans and Zygote Human Reaper), and a more gratifying ending where you saved everyone's asses and get your dick sucked by the leaders of the galaxy. The last hour of ME1 was so bad-ass that it masked many of the story's deficiencies.

From the time you are able to leave the Citadel until Virmire, there is essentially no story. You might as well be looking for star charts on Noveria, Feros, and Therum. I much preferred the way ME2's narrative was doled out in regular intervals. And even though it's marred by the Reapinator, I still think the Suicide Mission is the best thing BioWare has ever done. You just don't get your dick sucked when it's over and it feels like nobody knows or cares what you just did, which is a bummer.

[Cagerrin]

The ME1 story had several advantages over the ME2 story. It had a better villain (Saren vs Harbie), better plot twists (Sovereign = Reaper and Citadel = mass relay vs Collectors = Protheans and Zygote Human Reaper), and a more gratifying ending where you saved everyone's asses and get your dick sucked by the leaders of the galaxy. The last hour of ME1 was so bad-ass that it masked many of the story's deficiencies.
I dunno. Villian-wise, I certainly hated TIM more than Saren, because Saren didn't seem to be acting like something of an asshole just for the hell of it. Not sure if that makes TIM a better villain, but eh...

As "Bioware-plot" as ME1's story was, I think ME2 is a good example of why Bioware keeps writing the same story, because they don't appear to be very good at writing anything else in a sufficiently good manner. ME1's got probably my second-favourite ending of any game, whereas ME2 spoils it with "let's make a giant Terminator". I would've been fine with it if it was the fetus-design from the concepts, or a proper-looking Reaper without the mind(which would've made me maybe think twice about not keeping the base). Harbinger itself would've been a better boss-fight.

(also, ME2's armour system automatically loses for not having Gladiator armour)

[ejburke]

Illusive Man is more of a Devil-like figure. He's not the antagonist. H'e's more like a moral compass that always points south.

My big hope for this game is that BioWare can make it without feeling like they were held hostage by the fanbase. There are so many expectations and demands out there of which only a handful are actually feasible ideas.

[Higuy]

A certainly have to agree, Saren was a much better villain in the first game, mostly becuase he was the head honcho of the Geth and the "villain" part centered around him ( And he became really developed becuase of that), while in the second game, the entire villain part was centered around the Collectors and Harbinger (Yet he wasn't really confronted personally in the game).

[Futzy]

Fuck boss fights. They're so terrible.

[Warsaw]

^ I actually agree with that, seriously. Just because the President of the United States gets assassinated doesn't mean that the US collapses.

@response to my last statement: I didn't just use the armour based on stats. I also chose what I thought looked good on each character. For instance, I always used Light armour on Shepherd because it looked better.

[Cortexian]

In ME1 I always used console commands to give all my human characters Spectre armour (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Hahne-Kedar_Shadow_Works), the rest of the characters just got whatever was best for them stats wise. Mostly because the entire first game was always me + Ashley + <insert what I think will be good for the mission here>.

[Warsaw]

I had whoever I needed the achievements for in my party. After that was done, I usually had Wrex + Tali.

[Arteen]

The central story wasn't lacking, it was just straightforward. Bad guys here, we must kill them. The central story isn't the main focus of ME2 like it was in ME1.
Which is why it is lacking. The story could probably go from ME1 straight to ME3 and not feel like anything was missing.


I do wish party members would interact like they did in KoTOR, but given that you can have 10 to 12 people maximum in your party, the space requirements for all that dialogue would start to get a bit ridiculous.
I think having so many party members is a mistake, but even KotOR II, with a rushed development time, a party size of nine, and two alternate party members based on player gender/alignment, had more compelling party interaction than either ME. Hopefully characters won't feel so interchangeable in ME3.

[ejburke]

Sheperd is fully voiced for both sexes, so that's a significant overhead. Also, in terms of possible combinations of characters, 9 has 36 and 12 has 66. I hope they split the difference between 6 and 12 and give us 9 in ME3. 12 was clearly too many.

I'm playing some ME1, trying to get a Renegade run for import. It's pretty painful. So much running back and forth and taking elevators. Lousy combat. The characters kind of blow -- they really improved both Garrus and Tali in ME2. Tali in particular acted like a member of the Scooby gang in ME1. Trying to fight in the Mako is worse than I remember. I didn't think that was possible.

This game was defined by some of the shit that went down on Virmire and the final hour. There really isn't anything else going on in the other 30 hours. Also, Pinnacle Station is the worst DLC I've ever paid for. At least it was on sale.

[Pooky]

Which is why it is lacking. The story could probably go from ME1 straight to ME3 and not feel like anything was missing.


I think having so many party members is a mistake, but even KotOR II, with a rushed development time, a party size of nine, and two alternate party members based on player gender/alignment, had more compelling party interaction than either ME. Hopefully characters won't feel so interchangeable in ME3.

Ugh, you're missing the point. The central story was not the focus of ME2, and without the considerable fleshing out of background and characters provided in ME2, I think the ME3 we're coming up on would be way less interesting. The central story may not be the most significant part, but all the little side stories on the way carry considerable weight.


I'm playing some ME1, trying to get a Renegade run for import. It's pretty painful. So much running back and forth and taking elevators. Lousy combat. The characters kind of blow -- they really improved both Garrus and Tali in ME2. Tali in particular acted like a member of the Scooby gang in ME1. Trying to fight in the Mako is worse than I remember. I didn't think that was possible.

Garrus didn't change too much, but they definitely improved Tali's character quite a bit. Liara too. I couldn't stand Liara in ME1, or Ashley for that matter, so I didn't end up doing any romance quests on my main file.

[ejburke]

I haven't picked her up yet, because I'm trying to torment her. But yeah, Liara has come a long way.

Garrus was more his own man in ME2. For someone who was so jaded and distrustful in ME1, he sure let Sheperd lead him around by the nose. I just thought his attitude toward Sheperd was more realistic in ME2.

[Pooky]

For someone who was so jaded and distrustful in ME1, he sure let Sheperd lead him around by the nose.

That's just a characteristic of all Bioware games. Hell, they even made it part of the plot in The Sith Lords.

[Warsaw]

^When a developer starts having characteristics in their games apart from just simply making good games, then that means they've gone into cookie cutter mode.

[Higuy]

Beat Mass Effect 1 again a few hours ago, did alot of the side quests in it...

I played as female Shepard this time around and enjoyed her character more then the regular male shepard. Voice acting was better imo. Also Virmire is the best god damn mission in that entire game. (Besides driving the Mako...) Also, Noveria. This is what made me stop playing the game for a few weeks the first time I played it, but after playing it again I can't really seem to find out what made me come back and attempt to beat that level. It sucks, period.

Also like I said I did alot of the side things this time, Wrex's family armor, Garuss hunting down the organ dude, etc. Also had Romance with Kaiden since I was femshep this time around.

Overall my second play through of the first game was alot better then my first. I also actually used the guns and armor I got which made it alot less of a bitch to play. Guess i'll be starting Mass Effect 2 sometime this week...


I haven't picked her up yet, because I'm trying to torment her. But yeah, Liara has come a long way.

Garrus was more his own man in ME2. For someone who was so jaded and distrustful in ME1, he sure let Sheperd lead him around by the nose. I just thought his attitude toward Sheperd was more realistic in ME2.

I personally have to agree with that, my first time playing ME1 Garuss was one guy I actually used alot so I got to know how he talked and acted in the first game. When I played ME2 for the first time, I was impressed with how much he changed.

[Arteen]

Ugh, you're missing the point. The central story was not the focus of ME2
Which made the central story of ME2 weak. There was nothing stopping Bioware from having a strong central story and strong character quests.

[Pooky]

Which made the central story of ME2 weak. There was nothing stopping Bioware from having a strong central story and strong character quests.

The whole point of the suicide mission is that it gives you an excuse to go around helping your allies with random side quests. The loyalty missions ARE the central story. If there was a whole intrigue plot like there was in ME1, it would have distracted and taken away from the loyalty missions which were the focus of the game.

[Hotrod]

I'm still playing through Mass Effect 1 :S The reason I stopped playing for a long time was, you guessed it, Noveria. Like fuck, the fact that there are no autosaves there really pisses me off. I would die and it would bring me back to 45 minutes ago (I'm the kind of guy that forgets to save a lot :S)

But my brother is making me play it again and now that I'm past Noveria I remember why I love this game :)

[Bodzilla]

after virmire ME1 gets good

ME2 is jus good from start to finish.

i loved it.

[cheezdue]

I've only touched Mass Effect 2. Reason is ME has a bad combat system.

[Con]

ME1 did take some getting used to, and I like how the combat system has changed in ME2. It plays more like an ordinary shooter and you don't have to keep pausing to issue orders. That really broke the action sometimes. I do miss the inventory though, and I hope it comes back in ME3.

[Pooky]

Eh, I liked the inventory system in KotOR, not a big fan of the one in ME1. Thing is, in KotOR every single item you found had a unique description and backstory, and some of them were pretty interesting. Not as easy to get excited over the assault rifles Lancer 1, Lancer 2, Lancer 3, Lancer 4, Lancer 5, etc.

[Warsaw]

They could fix that, though. I want choice. I also want to be able to use all ammo types no matter what class I am, and have to decide which gun gets which ammo type sine I can only carry so many.

[Higuy]

I enjoyed not having ammo quite frankly in ME2, didn't have to worry about getting any, just had to worry about protecting myself if the gun overcharged. I actually liked some parts of ME1's system better then the 2nd.

Also not sure if anyone heard, but Mass Effect the movie is confirmed.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/129/index/2717410/1

[Ifafudafi]

Basically all you'd have to do is discard the numeral variants of each weapon, keep the named variants, and just have stats level up with your character. Same with gun mods. Interface-wise, just stack identical parts on top of each other (i.e. duplicate weps would have a X2 symbol in the bottom right corner of the selectable icon or something). Personally I'd keep ammo variants as powers but reintroduce the gun mods (recoil reduction is obvious, heat sink could be translated to larger clip size, etc.).

Don't know about you guys, but I also thought that ME2's skill progression system was painfully limited compared to ME1; while a few of those categories could be combined I like the subtle improvement and progression over time that ME1 had as opposed to 2's next-tier super-jump. The evolution of powers at max rank is sweet though, but it needs to be something besides increased power vs. increased radius.

Really what I'm predicting is a happy medium between 1 and 2, on multiple ends. A large part of 1 was the sense of wonder and discovery at all this cool future tech and shit, while 2 focused on all the negative aspects of this future (the best contrasts are the focus on the soft, comforting blue motif in 1 vs. the harsher orange in 2 and the Citadel vs. Omega). 1 was considerably more light-hearted whereas 2 was very srs business. 1 was focused around exploration where 2 was focused around shootan' dudes. In 3, I'm expecting the best elements of both tied together; a somewhat lighter tone underscored with the massive alien threat coming, a quasi-return to explorable planets (maybe with a vehicle that doesn't control like ass), some depth added back into the RPG progression, and that fucking planet scanning bullcrap gone, forever.

Oh and the movie:


Created 7 months ago

[Higuy]

Oh wow, didn't notice that haha. Some friend of mine had linked me to it and told me it was recent...

[Cortexian]

Didn't know about the movie, cool!

[ejburke]

Video game movies never get the budget they would need. The ME movie will either never come out or be a disgrace. Same problem Halo had.

The reason for having ammo is easy to understand if you look at the sniper rifle. They handled like a fucking nightmare in ME1, because if they were any good, they would trump the other weapons. By having ammo, they can limit that resource and bring the weapon in-line with the others. They aren't forced to make the weapon a piece of shit just for the sake of balance.

[Higuy]

Not sure if anyone's seen or notice, but the latest Game Informer has been all about Mass Effect 3.

Link to scans:
http://gamingeverything.com/?p=3178&pid=1127

Haven't seen a whole lot of other information, but theres a decent amount there.

Thoughts?

[Hotrod]

Damn, I love everything I read there. This game is gonna be awesome!

[JackalStomper]

Thoughts:

The very first image I see is of a dead man.
These are all guns from Mass Effect 2
They're going to change the Normandy without blowing it up! :neckbeard:
Ohh hi Earth.
You can play as Garrus?
Ashley is a Miranda wannabe now wtf.
You're going to be fighting Immortals that have been indoctrinated by reapers? (http://i.imgur.com/GRf35.jpg)

Harbinger has a crush on Shepard :v:

[TeeKup]

No, Ashley no longer looks like an angry uptight cunt. She's loosened up but not nearly to the extent of the Whore as I refer to Miranda. REALLY looking forward to ME3 was pleased with the entire read.

[Higuy]

No, Ashley no longer looks like an angry uptight cunt. She's loosened up but not nearly to the extent of the Whore as I refer to Miranda. REALLY looking forward to ME3 was pleased with the entire read.
Yep, I hated Ashley in ME1 (why I killed her off too in both of my play throughs!!)... and now I regret it :(

[Kornman00]

Needs moar KOTOR

KOTOR needs lezz MMO

ME2 was very meh for me, so for ME3 I'll just wait until it's dirt cheap like I did for ME2.

[Hotrod]

You can play as Garrus?

They probably mean that he's going to be in your squad.



You're going to be fighting Immortals that have been indoctrinated by reapers? (http://i.imgur.com/GRf35.jpg)

Looks like a Rachni turned into a husk.

[Warsaw]

Can we have real armour options back please, BioWare? And don't fucking nickel-and-dime us for DLC again. If you are going to do that, then make it a P4F-model game, you fuckers.

Kelly better be a paramour option, because apart from Tali she's the only likable romance character.

[Hotrod]

I loves Mass Effect 2's armour system compared to Mass Effect 1. I didn't get any DLC but I was still happy with the choices I had. It wouldn't hurt to have a bit more though I guess, but nothing even close to the amount in Mass Effect 1.

[Rook]

Yeah I don't give a shit about the armor system just make the skills system nice and the story amazing and it'll be ggpz.

[Kornman00]

good game pizza?

[TeeKup]

The article had a lot of pictures showing husk forms of the different species, the Krogan husks looked particularly....disturbing.

It also showed what appeared to be a human infused with reaper plates/technology. Not necessarily a husk but more of an assassin that retains high cognitive abilities. Like Saren I guess but it looked more sophisticated.

The article also stated that there's going to be high customization in weapons, armor, and the skill system is going to see something in the way of skill evolution instead of ME2's level up 3 times and pick 1 of 2 OP forms.

[Bodzilla]

ya'll hate Miranda??

Nigga Plz dat Bitch b tight :X

[Warsaw]

Her face looks funny and bothers the hell out of me.

The level design also better not be infuriating. And when I upgrade my shields, they damn well better actually be more effective. In ME2, no matter how many times you upgrade your shield, a single Collector will rip through it in the blink of an eye.

[Cortexian]

Miranda's face is hot as he'll IMO. Actually, everything about her is IMO.

I really hope for a lot of armour cosmetic options, but not as many actual stat variations as the first game. I wouldnt complain if it was all like the first game, just have a more organized inventory system.

[Bodzilla]

i think the stats was implemented very poorly in teh first game.

+1's are great... but if you wanna implement a loot system, there kinda has to be looting or it's just tedious as fuck.
my personal opinion.

[Kornman00]

The article had a lot of pictures showing husk forms of the different species, the Krogan husks looked particularly....disturbing.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. After I encountered the "husks" (only ever played ME2), I had to step back and question if I was actually playing some kind of cheesy Halo rip off set in the RPG genre.

The level design also better not be infuriating. And when I upgrade my shields, they damn well better actually be more effective. In ME2, no matter how many times you upgrade your shield, a single Collector will rip through it in the blink of an eye.
Fuck level design for a minute, the level geometry better not be FUCKED. Fucking asshats at Bioware need to either put a jump button or learn to fucking use the Unreal engine (especially with some of their load times, holy hell). I've been getting stuck in invisible geometry since KOTOR. At least give me some kind of workaround that doesn't require me to revert to save. Bastards.

Yeah, Collectors slice through your shields like a knife through warm butter :/

Miranda's face is hot as he'll IMO.
Hot as he'll eh, buddy :-3?

[Ifafudafi]

Miranda is
-ugly
-weird
-deformed
-way too fucking pale
-bitchy
-ughhh

If you didn't go Tali/Garrus or stay with your ME1 fling you're officially into plastic anime vampire sex dolls, sorry

Also minor minor minor bit of info: Game Informer had an interview about how they made Legion's voice (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/15/mass-effect-creating-the-voice-of-legion.aspx) (which is pretty cool) but there's also a monitor with ME3's pause menu in the background

(got these screens from /v/, don't kill me)

Here's what it looks like it's saying:
http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/897/dddmx.jpg

(Also what's that green shit on the right)

A couple of different angles:
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/7465/efaz.jpg

http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/5949/fffnt.jpg

[Warsaw]

Middle left looks like it says "Journal" as well...wat. BioWare also said in the latest GI that they are removing the planet scanning.

@Korn: I've never gotten stuck in either Mass Effect, ever. The level design is poorly devised, which is exacerbated when you try and fight the Collectors on Hardcore and Insanity. You have shit for cover, made even more useless by the temperamental cover control system and the fact that Harbringer advances on your position constantly. That would be dandy if Harbinger's shield and armour weren't tough as goddamn nails. Also, why can't BioWare implement some kind of load-on-the-fly system? Actually, why can nobody but Bungie seem to do that? It makes the game so much less tedious.

[Kornman00]

Why? Because they use Unreal.

And I've gotten stuck in ME2 alone, to the point where I had to revert to save, three times. One where I somehow walked into some rocks which then wouldn't let me move in any direction. Another time I used the Charge power and ended up standing on some guys head (I did the charge while walking down an incline), who I then killed and then was stuck in the fucking air. Then another time I was playing the side mission with some robot where you have to refill his battery every time he does some shit. I was following him side by side and (I forget how, it may have been a result from the action he did, like blasting a wall open) I ended up stuck and floating UP into the air. I remember encountering likewise problems in KOTOR at least twice. This is what happens when you remove Z control from the player (or whichever axle they consider up and down).

[Warsaw]

Unreal is incapable of having a load-on-the-fly system worked into it even when developers have access to its source?

I've gotten stuck in KotOR a few times, but it has yet to happen in Mass Effect.

[ejburke]

I never touched Vanguard, but it doesn't surprise me to hear that Charge can get you occasionally stuck. ME1 had this horrible bug during the Matriarch Benezia fight, where her commandos would knock you down with Biotics, and if your teammates did enough damage to trigger the next wave of the fight before you had a chance to get up, you'd be stuck on the ground permanently.

Aside from that, I can't really recall being stuck. Then again, I save frequently, so if I was, I probably just reloaded and thought nothing of it.

And the aiming isn't that great. I would recommend playing Soldier and spamming adrenaline rush (bullet time + damage bonus + damage resistance) to make it less infuriating. I'm content to play the game over and over as that one class.

[JackalStomper]

Unreal has a level streaming and seamless travel system already in place. Bioware has used them in the past. But unlike say in Gears of War where the levels are loaded during actual gameplay, Bioware decided that they would stick the player into an elevator for the whole load process. This someone defeats the point of having the seamless travel system at all and it's why they reverted to load screens in ME2.

Also you're complaining about load times? Yeah I had that problem too while using Windows 7's video drivers for my card. 5+ minute load times, then I installed the drivers that came with my card and nearly all load times are < 15 seconds... Of course if you're playing on console it's your own damn fault for using an inferior platform.

[Hotrod]

Load times really aren't that long on the 360. Maybe 5-10 seconds? I don't see what people are complaining about.

[Warsaw]

Or some of us have computers that can't play the game...

I have 2+ minute load times on BioShock when it works. How well do you think Mass Effect is going to fare? Mass Effect runs terribly on PC from what I can gather. I would rather BioWare stream the level during gameplay than shove me into a load screen every ten minutes. That's not the huge issue though, it's having to sit there for an entire thirty to forty-five after every time I die...and it happens a lot on Insanity when playing the Collector Ship or the Base for the aforementioned reasons. That is not long enough to get up and do something and not short enough to be ignorable.

E: Hotrod, they are much longer than that. Only the Normandy deck load times are that short.

[Hotrod]

E: Hotrod, they are much longer than that. Only the Normandy deck load times are that short.
For me, that's about how long they are. This is coming from somebody who was playing Mass Effect 2 just a few hours ago. Just for reference, I installed both discs on my hard drive, and I'm using a 250Gb Slim, so it might make a difference.

[Kornman00]

Unreal is incapable of having a load-on-the-fly system worked into it even when developers have access to its source?
It's a third party (licensed) engine. Developers license the engine so they don't have to spend their time writing nitty gritty code. Instead, they want to spend that time developing gameplay systems. A developer (or actually the publisher in some cases) will throw down money for the engine and if there is something else that needs to be 'touched up', they will then have to figure "is it in the budget?". Data access (ie, I\O) is a huge layer in program development. IIRC, Unreal's systems have to know when to load themselves and their data (since almost everything is all dynamically loaded, not spewed to a platform optimized, memory cache, a la Blam). Where as with Bungie, their engine's tag system handles all data access (except runtime game data, eg, game variants) so the main menu doesn't have to go "hey, are my bitmaps and strings loaded? no? well here's ~7 secs, take it and load 'em".

More info (http://gamesauce.org/news/2010/08/22/ten-years-of-keeping-people-working-mat-noguchi/).

Load times really aren't that long on the 360. Maybe 5-10 seconds? I don't see what people are complaining about.
When I'm having to suffer those 5-10 seconds for every fucking level I travel to on the ship (which the characters are all spread out across and you have to have fucking chatty cathy talks with), it starts to add up. It's not so much the load time as it is how often it occurs. 1 + 1 = 2.

[Warsaw]

For me, that's about how long they are. This is coming from somebody who was playing Mass Effect 2 just a few hours ago. Just for reference, I installed both discs on my hard drive, and I'm using a 250Gb Slim, so it might make a difference.

I've been playing it all week and just finished my first Insanity run through last night. Halo 3 Xbox 360 with 20GB hard drive. 8.3GB left. Load times were long. It's your installation that is shortening it.

[Hotrod]

I've been playing it all week and just finished my first Insanity run through last night. Halo 3 Xbox 360 with 20GB hard drive. 8.3GB left. Load times were long. It's your installation that is shortening it.
Yeah, that's what I figured it was. I admit, before I installed it, the load times were really really long...

[Kornman00]

Yeah, I don't have the space on my main Xbox HDD to install games. DLC (to various games, including Xbox1 games) consumes 90% of my 20GB.

[Warsaw]

I've been meaning to buy Mass Effect on PC so that I only have to buy one version of ME3, but since this computer can't run it very well I've been holding off. No sense in dropping $40 on two games I can't play.

[ejburke]

I jumped on the 360 S immediately. The extra space, less noise, and no hint of failures have been fucking fantastic. At this point, I would sooner use my old 360 to beat myself to death with than play a game on.

Just get an S. Install everything you own on it. And live happily ever after. Old 360's are still worth decent money in trade -- I sent my Halo 3 edition to Amazon for $106 just last week.

[Kornman00]

Not upgrading my box (sadly) until my current one dies or I have extra income that can readily be wasted (my tax return went to halomods.com and other hosting charges, along with my traveling expenses for this year).

[Pooky]

The console hate is thick enough to cut with a chainsaw.

We're all gamers here, don't people have anything better to do than rage at others for gaming on a different platform?

[Warsaw]

I'm not hating on the 360, just recognizing its limitations. I would sooner buy a Playstation 3 than buy another Xbox 360. I already have two Xbox 360s (Elite with 250GB in the basement, but that's the family box), so I would be retarded to buy a third. My Halo 3 Edition only died once, with an E74. They fixed it, and sent it back to me. No problems since.

No, if I spend money, it will be on three things:
-New computer
-New monitor/TV with at least 1080p
-Speakers

[Cortexian]

Hot as he'll eh, buddy :-3?
iPhone auto correction lol.

[Cortexian]

Also, threads merged.

[Higuy]

Not sure what your all complaining about load times and glitches, I've never encountered any really. I played ME1 and ME2 on the Xbox, and the loading was about 12 seconds long most the time, which really isn't terrible. The only part I got stuck in either of the games was when you fight Benezia, the battle was designed into utter shit and I had to fight her multiple times.

[sevlag]

hamburger helper is in charge of writing the dialogue for ME3 so expect such deep lines like "I'm Hungry" and "I want to be a reaper"

bioware is going to fuck this up

[Kornman00]

Not sure what your all complaining about load times and glitches, I've never encountered any really. I played ME1 and ME2 on the Xbox, and the loading was about 12 seconds long most the time, which really isn't terrible.
Once again, it's not just the load times, but how often you have to encounter them (ie, it's not just "x", it's "x*y"). It is an RPG after all, so 25% of your time is spent talking to people. Since your crew is spread out b/w so many ship levels, that 12 seconds now becomes minutes total you spend entering/exiting loading zones, just to hear a couple characters say "I'm kinda busy not being busy" or "No, I will not have sex with you!". Plus, the way that doors open almost seems like they take like two seconds before they actually open, so they can load what's ever behind the curtain, so I don't see why they can't do that for an entire ship or elsewhere (looking at you, planet hopin', just give me an option at the solar system view to fucking dock).

Settle for nothing now, settle for nothing later (or even later, since we're at ME3 now).

[Warsaw]

Not sure what your all complaining about load times and glitches, I've never encountered any really. I played ME1 and ME2 on the Xbox, and the loading was about 12 seconds long most the time, which really isn't terrible. The only part I got stuck in either of the games was when you fight Benezia, the battle was designed into utter shit and I had to fight her multiple times.

Beat it first go on my first play-through. Beat it in the second go on my latest play-through on Hardcore. Not seeing the problem with that battle.

[Hotrod]

hamburger helper is in charge of writing the dialogue for ME3 so expect such deep lines like "I'm Hungry" and "I want to be a reaper"

bioware is going to fuck this up
What?

[ejburke]

Beat it first go on my first play-through. Beat it in the second go on my latest play-through on Hardcore. Not seeing the problem with that battle.I mentioned earlier what the problem was. It's bugged and has nothing to do with difficulty. If you get knocked down by a biotic push from an Asari commando, you are in danger of being stuck on the ground, requiring a reload. If you're still on the ground when one of the cut scenes where Benezia calls for backup plays, you are screwed. It's happened to me at least 3 times.

[Warsaw]

Well, getting pushed down is almost an inevitability. Still, never encountered the issue before though I don't doubt that it's there. Maybe it's because I don't really use my squad at all in ME1.

[ejburke]

As long as you get up before the cut scene triggers, you're good to go. I can't remember if it happened to me on my first time through. But it definitely happens on new game+ playthroughs when your squad has good enough gear to kill all the commandos while you are flailing helplessly on the floor.

I'm pretty sure this bug is repeatable and consistent. At least on the Xbox version. Whenever I play it now, I keep moving and run to the far side of the room. Haven't been knocked down over there yet.

[Higuy]

Another thing I had a problem with in the first game (not in the second though, and on xbox) was that after I reached Noveria, the automatic save option stopped working. Had to it myself, forgot multiple times, and I hated the game for that until I got use to it.

[Warsaw]

Typical BioWare glitchiness.

I don't honestly see why BioWare is so hyped. They are great at telling stories, but they suck at actually making them and they are not so great at actual game mechanics or level design.

[Higuy]

I don't honestly see why BioWare is so hyped. They are great at telling stories, but they suck at actually making them and they are not so great at actual game mechanics or level design.

TBH, the second game was much better than the first in terms of gameplay and mechanics (IMO). The first seemed more of like a test as if they could "make the game possible". The second is more fleshed out and the encounters vary alot more in terms of design.

[Warsaw]

But the story in the second is even more forced and machined than the first and the enemy encounters are often rigged to frustrate. I like a challenging fight, but endless hordes of enemies are not challenging, only patience-trying. I also like a refined cover mechanic. The first game's killed me a lot less than the second's.

ME2 was a win some, lose some proposition compared to ME1.

[Left6]

Probably not going to even try this one, last one failed so much I traded it in within a week.

[Pooky]

I don't see the problems people have with ME2's combat system. I enjoyed every second of combat in ME2, even those horrible flamethrower douches didn't bother me that much.

(Maybe you all just suck :U)

[Hotrod]

Probably not going to even try this one, last one failed so much I traded it in within a week.
Err...what? This doesn't make any sense to me :S


I don't see the problems people have with ME2's combat system. I enjoyed every second of combat in ME2, even those horrible flamethrower douches didn't bother me that much.

(Maybe you all just suck :U)
Pretty much this. I can't remember one time Mass Effect 2's combat (among other things) ever became frustrating to me, even while playing in Hardcore.

[Sever]

The only parts that ever bothered me (finally beat my insanity play-through) were the parts that were supposed to. . Fucking Praetorians. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the core story missions. I usually play as a sniper-intensive Infiltrator, but the Warp/Singularity/Throw/Nemesis/Warp Ammo combo was basically built for the suicide mission. I rolled with Miranda and Thane the whole way through, and the final fight was just so damn epic. Also, the Mattock is by far the best weapon ever.

[Warsaw]

I rolled Adept for my Insanity playthrough. The only way to survive is to cast Warp like a maniac. That isn't fun, that's tedious. And on the Collector Ship, I'm pretty sure BioWare intended for us to use all that cover for cover, however it's impossible to do so with the two Scions there and Harbringer breathing down your neck. The Praetorians were a cake-walk, beat them all in a single try.

It wasn't god-awful, but there are elements that are rage-worthy. I think it was made worse by having to wait so long to load after dying.

[TeeKup]

Adept for insanity doesn't seem like a wise choice, I'm rolling Soldier seeing as how Soldier steamrolled all the other difficulties.

[Warsaw]

It wasn't a wise choice. But I had never played Adept before; my main profile is an Infiltrator and my secondary is a Soldier.

[Sever]

It worked great for me...
The thing is, I always brought Miri and Thane, gave them both their physics-based biotic ability and unstable warp (less damage per hit, but also less cool-down time, so after crunching the numbers, it came out dealing slightly more damage over time), and just trashed everyone's protection so damn rapidly. At one point in the final battle, I was able to get Harbinger down to 1/4 total health before he finished his possession animations. The thing about playing as Adept on Insanity is you don't want to build your squad how you would for any other class. Warp x3 is the way to go, since it can handily deal with any type of protection but shields. I used Energy Drain as my Bonus Power for most of the game, but since there's not a single enemy with shields after you commence the final sequence, Warp Ammo is the way to go.

[Warsaw]

Warp is actually fine for Shields, it just doesn't yield the same explosive result that it does against Barriers. My solution was have Thane and either Grunt or Zaeed. Thane's sniper rifle really deals the damage out while Zaeed and Grunt can keep the enemy suppressed with assault rifle fire while I work my Warp magic. The latter two also can hack at armour with Inferno Grenade and Inferno Ammo, respectively.

[Sever]

Just so you know, Warp is also equally effective against armor. Here (http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Warp#Mass_Effect_2)'s the stats on it.

[Warsaw]

I know. Believe me, I know. xD
The only way to get through armour quickly was to use Warp Ammo with a pistol or spam Warp. Everything involved spamming Warp, Shockwave was the only other somewhat useful power. I don't understand why it does fuck all to shields and barriers, though. Damn the Scions and their uber-Shockwave perks. But that is why Harbringer is such a bitch to bring down on Insanity when playing Adept.

[sevlag]

for those who don't know:

they have MOST of the DA2 staff working on ME3

how do you now feel about the quality of the work?

[Higuy]

for those who don't know:

they have MOST of the DA2 staff working on ME3

how do you now feel about the quality of the work?
Was DA2 any good? I haven't played either of the Dragon Age games.

[Rook]

for those who don't know:

they have MOST of the DA2 staff working on ME3

how do you now feel about the quality of the work?

http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee480/PersonalPixie/Gifs/Boy%20Gifs/tumblr_li3wvnDa8G1qb84lwo1_400.gif

[Warsaw]

^
That.

ME3 better not be an endless repeat of the same corridors like DA2. We had that problem already with ME1. The story also better be cohesive.

[TeeKup]

I heard DA2 was...mediocre (to put it lightly).

[Ifafudafi]

Development for DA:O started in ~'04; it was a massive labor of love for old-school CRPGs. It released in late '09.
Development for DA2 started in ~mid '09; it was a filler pseudosequel which, probably due to ME3, was not allotted a fraction of the time and energy put into the original. It was rushed out the door by early '11 so they could put the team back on ME3 as quickly as possible.

The development gap between ME games seems to be 2 years; the original came out late '07, the sequel was supposed to come out late '09 but got pushed back until January, and ME3 is slated to come out late this year, so we should (theoretically) see the same jump we had from ME1 to ME2. Also note that unlike DA2, Bioware (and EA, for that matter) are putting forth full effort and committment toward making this game excellent.

(I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it also got delayed to make room for BF3)

[Bodzilla]

ME1's combat made me want to scream.

Me2's was wykd syk.
i think you guys need to go back and replay ME1 to remember how clunky, horrible and annoying parts of it where.... such as an enemy on the ground close to you.... better prod him with my toe repeatedly... doing 0 damage....


>_>

[TeeKup]

Each weapon type is going to have it own unique melee attack now.

[Warsaw]

ME1's combat made me want to scream.

Me2's was wykd syk.
i think you guys need to go back and replay ME1 to remember how clunky, horrible and annoying parts of it where.... such as an enemy on the ground close to you.... better prod him with my toe repeatedly... doing 0 damage....


>_>

I played them both in series on Insanity one after the other. I was far and away less frustrated with the first game than I was with the second game. I don't know why you were getting so close to the enemy, but closing in like that was never a good idea in Mass Effect 1 or 2. The guns behaved just fine, the cover didn't kill me, and the enemy had no bullshit cheap tactics to use against you that you didn't also have access to. I also had no problem with the overheat mechanic.

[RedBaron]

I miss my frisbee sticky grenades

[Pooky]

You guys obviously never played Soldier with maxed out assault training and dual combat exoskeleton. The melee attacks are fucking ridiculous, capable of knocking down virtually any enemy in a single hit (even armatures in some cases) and sending weaker ones flying across the map.

Combine that with Immunity and you've basically got a raging bulldozer of a PC.

In my case, I always give my party members (Garrus and Wrex) double Scram Rail X with High Explosive rounds X, so that all the enemies in a room will spend most of the fight writhing around on the floor.

[Warsaw]

I didn't even need team mates. I was just fast and precise with my shots and a well-timed use of biotics or tech power let me drop bad guys long before I had to worry about punching them.

I also thought soldier was boring and too easy, so I didn't play it often. Vanguard was the most fun class in ME1, I thought.

[Pooky]

I didn't 'worry' about punching enemies as Soldier, I did it deliberately. Just charged out into the open and started smacking fools. It's really pretty fun. I'm not into ME1's combat anyway, so Soldier being too easy didn't concern me much (it definitely is though).

[Warsaw]

Yeah, I guess I just have too much logic involved when I play games and not enough "for the hell of it." Probably why RTS games are my forte.

[Kornman00]

Probably why RTS games are my forte.
Please tell me you are a fan of Halo Wars and also hope they make a sequel :ohdear:

[Cortexian]

Maybe if they made it for PC.

[Warsaw]

Please tell me you are a fan of Halo Wars and also hope they make a sequel :ohdear:

I've never played Halo Wars. I've always felt that RTS games belong on PC, so I've only ever played PC RTS games.

Favourites in order:

1.) Battlezone
2.) Dawn of War I and its expansions
3.) Battlezone II :haw:
4.) Empire Earth II
5.) Command & Conquer 3 before any patches came out...the patches ruined the game.

I want to get Napoleon/Empire: Total War.

Unlike most, I enjoy the logistics part of the genre. In my book, streamlined != better. Fuck Supreme Commander 2, fuck C&C4, and fuck Dawn of War II.

[Kornman00]

I've never played Halo Wars. I've always felt that RTS games belong on PC, so I've only ever played PC RTS games.
Not to drag this topic any further off topic, but I think you would like it

You could trade in Reach for it or something :ohdear:. Really, Ensemble did a fantastic jerb bringing an RTS title to the console.

[Cortexian]

I've played it all on 360, I entered it with no expectations as it was the first RTS I played on console. It works on console, but it'd be so much better on PC.

[Kornman00]

Oh, no doubt about that. If only they would at least hire outside studios to port their games again...but I guess they learned not to do that after Gearbox went and became successful! Better to stick to in-house studios that you can just throw out after you've fucked them.

[Hotrod]

Yeah, and then they'll have ports like Halo 2 Vista which become so successful!

No...wait...

[Kornman00]

That port's debatable success wasn't the fault of HG, but I digress.