Mass Effect 3

[Minaku]

I saw no one had started the topic yet so I took the initiative!

I downloaded and played the demo last night. When I got dropped into a full combat situation it was like, "Welcome home! It's Mass Effect." The new heavy melee attacks are incredibly satisfying and, as a Vanguard, are an essential part of my arsenal. Things have been simplified a bit on the interface side and spacebar now provides more functions than it used to - now it's the key you press to interact with people and with objects, as well as slide into cover. Sadly the demo did not allow me to position my squadmates where I wanted, but for the most part they weren't stupid (okay one of them took a rocket to the face, that was no good) and it was lovely to have them around.

Story-wise, the stakes have been raised and the demo lets you see a bunch of characters from ME1 and ME2. I got schoolkid excited to see every one of them.

I can't wait for the multiplayer option to open up on the 17th. I am already trawling my friends list for teammates.

[Merentha]

Vanguards are pretty much awesome in MP. Charge -> Nova if there is more than one target there -> shotgun, Charge somewhere new Pretty much the best thing ever.

[Jon AS]

"Minor" flaw early in the demo: you only get picked up by the Normandy after you run out of ammo. If you play an Adept there's nor reason to ever use a gun during that whole sequence. Heh.

[The Mance]

So in doing one last play through of ME 1 & 2 before ME 3's release I encountered a bit of a hitch. After coming back from Jack's loyalty mission i was unable to settle the standoff between Jack and Miranda without losing one or the others loyalty.

I'm guessing this is a paragon/renegade issue as those speech options weren't available on the dialogue wheel during the confrontation, though i don't think I've played this run through any differently than any other time and I've never had this problem before.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it resolvable? Does it matter? I've always had everyone's loyalty going into the suicide mission so i don't know what to expect re: squad survival/mission completion with a disloyal squad member.

[Fez]

So in doing one last play through of ME 1 & 2 before ME 3's release I encountered a bit of a hitch. After coming back from Jack's loyalty mission i was unable to settle the standoff between Jack and Miranda without losing one or the others loyalty.

I'm guessing this is a paragon/renegade issue as those speech options weren't available on the dialogue wheel during the confrontation, though i don't think I've played this run through any differently than any other time and I've never had this problem before.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it resolvable? Does it matter? I've always had everyone's loyalty going into the suicide mission so i don't know what to expect re: squad survival/mission completion with a disloyal squad member.

This happened to me in my final ME2 playthrough with Tali & Legion. In their case it was supposed to be solvable but I never had a high enough score to pass the speech check before the suicide mission; dunno about Miranda and Jack.

Its not a big deal though for the mission, just don't give the disloyal one any special tasks, don't take them with you to fight the final boss, and make sure Grunt, Garrus, and Zaeed are holding the line.

[Weak With The Dawn]

"Minor" flaw early in the demo: you only get picked up by the Normandy after you run out of ammo. If you play an Adept there's nor reason to ever use a gun during that whole sequence. Heh.

There's also the part where the Husks are scaling the walls and Anderson tells you to shoot them down. If you keep hitting them before Anderson can shoot he doesn't run out of ammo and won't drop down the ladder.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is it resolvable? Does it matter? I've always had everyone's loyalty going into the suicide mission so i don't know what to expect re: squad survival/mission completion with a disloyal squad member.

I've had a full squad survive the mission with as few as 4 people loyal.

This flow chart someone made from the bioware forums can come in handy.

[The Mance]

In their case it was supposed to be solvable but I never had a high enough score to pass the speech check before the suicide mission; dunno about Miranda and Jack.

So you think if I up my paragon score I'll be able to regain their loyalty? Because right now they won't even talk to me :(

[Fez]

So you think if I up my paragon score I'll be able to regain their loyalty? Because right now they won't even talk to me :(

I think so. I was a Renegade and it was Tali's loyalty I lost. And yeah she didn't want to talk to me either but there was always a grayed out Renegade option that I never seemed to have a high enough score to reach. It disappeared after the suicide mission though and she had the same response post-mission that she usually does so if your disloyal member makes it through the mission I think its gravy again.

[The Mance]

Hmm. Well I've only got a couple of missions left with para/rene choices in them so hopefully that will be enough. Though i think I'll proceed with my loyal Jack save since I prefer her over Samara for the biotic bubble in the SM and never use for Miranda for anything.

I'm still a little worried though since i haven't picked up Legion yet and apparently I may have to choose between him and Tali as well.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Hmm. Well I've only got a couple of missions left with para/rene choices in them so hopefully that will be enough. Though i think I'll proceed with my loyal Jack save since I prefer her over Samara for the biotic bubble in the SM and never use for Miranda for anything.

I'm still a little worried though since i haven't picked up Legion yet and apparently I may have to choose between him and Tali as well.

The longer you wait to get those missions done, the higher the para/renegade % needed to solve the conflict will be. Tali/Legion has a lower cap for paragons, Jack/Miranda is lower for renegade.

In any of my saves where I couldn't settle the dispute, I could never regain loyalty before the suicide mission, even with maxed points. I'm not sure what the criteria for that is.

[Nathanael]

Only played through the demo once so far as an adept, but one thing that was odd to me - in the opening section, your powers have a pretty short cooldown which makes it easy to chain singularity-warp, but the second mission which occurs later in the game, the cooldowns have jumped up to the 12-20 second range rather than the manageable 2-6, it that seems insanely long. I wonder what the issue is, if it's a gameplay thing after you leave the intro mission, or maybe it's a result of the type of armor you are wearing or even the number of guns you are carrying - it was interesting to go from the ME2 limited types of weapon (which worked I thought) back to the "you can use anything."

[Fez]

Only played through the demo once so far as an adept, but one thing that was odd to me - in the opening section, your powers have a pretty short cooldown which makes it easy to chain singularity-warp, but the second mission which occurs later in the game, the cooldowns have jumped up to the 12-20 second range rather than the manageable 2-6, it that seems insanely long. I wonder what the issue is, if it's a gameplay thing after you leave the intro mission, or maybe it's a result of the type of armor you are wearing or even the number of guns you are carrying - it was interesting to go from the ME2 limited types of weapon (which worked I thought) back to the "you can use anything."

There's a new system that is based on the combined weight of your guns. You can have as many or as few guns as you want, but it will have a major impact on your cooldowns. There was an interview with someone at Bioware who said that among playtesters, vanguards with only a light shotgun were very popular. On the other hand soldiers can load up with a ton of powerful weapons and never worry about their cooldowns since their all unnecessary when you have that much dakka.

[Nathanael]

Ah, good to know my intuition was right on that one. It's actually a pretty well designed system. Being as it's Bioware, I'm slightly surprised lol.

[Ouroboros]

I'm still annoyed about the new team members being pretty much Kaiden and Ashley 2.0. Can we get new characters that aren't generic American Marines?

[Jon AS]

I'm still annoyed about the new team members being pretty much Kaiden and Ashley 2.0. Can we get new characters that aren't generic American Marines?

There's only one new character who fits that description: James Vega. And his job is to be the new guy who needs explanations about how things work in the galaxy to serve as a sort of exposition crutch to new players.

[Verboten]

I'm still annoyed about the new team members being pretty much Kaiden and Ashley 2.0. Can we get new characters that aren't generic American Marines?

For a moment I thought you were talking about Ashley and I was going to yell at you about her being Brazilian. Are you talking about the female journalist who tags along?

[DirePenguin]

Is this one more in line with ME1 or ME2? Loved ME1 so much and hated the second one :s

[Ouroboros]

For a moment I thought you were talking about Ashley and I was going to yell at you about her being Brazilian. Are you talking about the female journalist who tags along?

Yeah, the one played by Jessica Chobot. For some reason I was under the impression she was a recruitable character, and she looked like she was dressed in the alliance fatigues so I thought she was another marine. My mistake.

There's only one new character who fits that description: James Vega. And his job is to be the new guy who needs explanations about how things work in the galaxy to serve as a sort of exposition crutch to new players.

That's no excuse for casting Freddie Prinze Jnr in anything, or for making him so deliberately generic. What's the point of introducing a naive new guy in the third instalment of a trilogy anyway? That's like adding some new guy to Return of the Jedi or The Return of the King for exposition purposes, by this point it really shouldn't be necessary.

[Jon AS]

That's no excuse for casting Freddie Prinze Jnr in anything

Wait, he's the guy from that awful Wing Commander movie? Damn.

What's the point of introducing a naive new guy in the third instalment of a trilogy anyway?

As I said: exposition. If you're stupid enough to play ME3 without having played the first two, his dialogue is supposed to help you get your bearings without the long established characters (including Shepard) having to ask questions that they really should know the answers to.

[Minaku]

Is this one more in line with ME1 or ME2? Loved ME1 so much and hated the second one :s

Story-wise and style-wise, it feels like ME1. Combat-wise, it feels like an upgraded ME2. I am really digging this combo.