Mass Effect 3

[Bastard Walder]

The Earth part of the demo was, pardon my language, complete shit.

The opening sequence was TERRIBLE. I was glad the kid died, I was worried for a second when he climbed into the rescue-ship that he would be in more scenes. The second part was still cheesy, but I liked it a lot more.

[MultiClassGeek]

I don't think the beta has it. Not without modding to get a respec card from a pack.

I'm assuming that, in the live game, once you Promote them, you start from scratch, but that's disabled in the demo too.

Are there actually Re-Spec cards in the packs? It's the sort of thing I'd expect to find, but I'm on the PS3 version, and haven't ripped the code apart.

[Weak With The Dawn]

From what I've see on on the Bioware forums there are. I've only seen any mod resources for PC users. So, I can't confirm from experience, but it seems pretty accepted that they exist. Personally I think I'd rather pay creds then hope for a respec card in a pack (though I think I've got enough experience with the demo to set my favorite classes up right).

Speaking of which, how exactly do you use an engineer?

Adept, Infiltrator, Soldier, Sentinel, Vanguard, I've got most of those down with the available races and skill sets, but between my human and quarian engineer I'm back to bronze and even then not doing so hot :-/

[MultiClassGeek]

Speaking of which, how exactly do you use an engineer?

Adept, Infiltrator, Soldier, Sentinel, Vanguard, I've got most of those down with the available races and skill sets, but between my human and quarian engineer I'm back to bronze and even then not doing so hot :-/

1) Deploy drone/turret/whatever

2) Spam your tech powers

3) Lather, rinse, repeat

[Tyrellius]

Havent seen a respec card in any packs and I'm N rank 80something.

[Weak With The Dawn]

You wouldn't...unless you modded, as said above.

1) Deploy drone/turret/whatever

2) Spam your tech powers

3) Lather, rinse, repeat

That's what I do, it just doesn't seem very effective. Maybe I'm getting grouped with too many Vanguards.

[Merentha]

Havent seen a respec card in any packs and I'm N rank 80something.

Yeah, full version only for those.

Engineers: Ignore the Quarian engi, that drone is worthless. Overload is amazing, especially when you get it to chain. Strips both barriers and shields, and its still useful on assault troopers, especially with the neural shock upgrade. Gives you crowd control options that rival Asari Adepts. Remember, everyone gets the same experience, so being a support class is still useful.

[MultiClassGeek]

That's what I do, it just doesn't seem very effective. Maybe I'm getting grouped with too many Vanguards.

Engineers: Ignore the Quarian engi, that drone is worthless.

Turrets, on the other hand, are amazing. Amazingly annoying when deployed by enemies,,,,

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/02/27/turrets/

[Sivin]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116057-Legal-Hurdles-Foil-Mass-Effect-3-Space-Edition-Lottery-UPDATED

Interesting little story, at least to me.

[GameMage]

The Earth part of the demo was, pardon my language, complete shit.

The opening sequence was TERRIBLE. I was glad the kid died, I was worried for a second when he climbed into the rescue-ship that he would be in more scenes. The second part was still cheesy, but I liked it a lot more.

It was mostly the dialogue that was bothersome. I didn't mind them talking about the back story since they need to let new players understand what's going on (although the 3rd game is a terrible place to start if you ask me) but the drama was so cliche. We didn't need to see a kid die to become emotionally invested, and the kid was all too generic and stock to begin with. We didn't know him and we don't care. (Although, I'm willing to bet a puppy would be more effective to some people). Also what in the hell did they do to Ashley? Guess she figured if the world's going to end, she might as well die "pretty". Femshep's VO was hammy, the game points out the obvious with text like "Follow Anderson" and what they did with the difficulty system cracks me up. They took the exact same system from ME2 and switched Casual with Narrative, Normal with Casual and so on. The soundtrack is surprisingly not bad, given Clint Mansell's name is attached to it, and they finally got rid of the pointless neutral dialogue option that does little to nothing. I'm not sure if my game bugged out, but did anyone else notice that no one behind a cloud of dust/smoke gets hit but your shots, even if they're directly behind it? I really hope the demo doesn't reflect the quality of the rest of the game. It's not terrible or anything, just underwhelming.

[Weak With The Dawn]

It was mostly the dialogue that was bothersome. I didn't mind them talking about the back story since they need to let new players understand what's going on (although the 3rd game is a terrible place to start if you ask me) but the drama was so cliche. We didn't need to see a kid die to become emotionally invested, and the kid was all too generic and stock to begin with. We didn't know him and we don't care. (Although, I'm willing to bet a puppy would be more effective to some people). Also what in the hell did they do to Ashley? Guess she figured if the world's going to end, she might as well die "pretty". Femshep's VO was hammy, the game points out the obvious with text like "Follow Anderson" and what they did with the difficulty system cracks me up. They took the exact same system from ME2 and switched Casual with Narrative, Normal with Casual and so on. The soundtrack is surprisingly not bad, given Clint Mansell's name is attached to it, and they finally got rid of the pointless neutral dialogue option that does little to nothing. I'm not sure if my game bugged out, but did anyone else notice that no one behind a cloud of dust/smoke gets hit but your shots, even if they're directly behind it? I really hope the demo doesn't reflect the quality of the rest of the game. It's not terrible or anything, just underwhelming.

Re: smoke bombs. You can't target anyone in them but they are supposed to take damage. Otherwise you could never take an atlas down at long range.

I'm actually surprised that Malesheps Voice Actor sounds better this time, considering Jennifer Hale has been the better actor in ME1 & 2. Neither of them are as good as Andersons though. He actually sounded like he was lifting heavy objects.

From what the owners of the space edition have said, the missions from the demo aren't too different in the game, but the rest of it is on par with most peoples expectations.

[Fez]

I'm actually surprised that Malesheps Voice Actor sounds better this time, considering Jennifer Hale has been the better actor in ME1 & 2. Neither of them are as good as Andersons though. He actually sounded like he was lifting heavy objects.

He is also the voice of Mordin this time around and sounds almost identical to whoever was doing it in ME2. Mark Meer definitely stepped up his game this time around, though I still prefer Jennifer Hale. But what else did you expect regarding Anderson? We're talking about a man that once fought Roddy Piper for 5 minutes because John Carpenter wanted a gag scene.

[Nathanael]

I actually really liked the opening sequence. The stuff with the kid was a good, self-contained bit of storytelling, kind of like a short film before the movie. The visuals are pretty good too, if not as mindblowingly "this is what is awesome about a space setting" as the opening sequence of Mass Effect 2.

And yeah, messing around with the Quarian engineer, I was quite disappointed that the Quarian turret was so weak compared to the ones the Engineers lug around. Being stuck with Cryo Blast also sucks pretty hard. But I have been experimenting with some of the other classes, and the Salarian Infiltrator is incredible. I actually play him as a caster type like an Engineer rather than the Sniper style, sticking with a pistol and doing most of my damage through cloaked Energy Drains and Proximity Mines. The Phalanx finishes off whatever is left.

[Merentha]

Salarian infiltrator as a sneaky shanky shotgunner is also a blast.

And my personal favorite intro? You're in prison/holding/whatever when/before the Reapers show up, and your squadmates bust you out. Would be so much better than "OH NO A KID IN THE VENTS!" who...was really just uncanny valley, hamfisted, and completely unnecessary. I was glad when his transport blew up because it meant we wouldn't see him again. Pretty much anything would have been better, to be honest. Or something that wasn't:

Shepard: The Reapers are coming!

Alliance: The Reapers are coming?

Shepard: Yeah, really coming

Alliance: That's nice, first we have to tell you why you're a LOOSE CANNON and that you can't be trusted. Also, what do we do?

Shepard: The Reapers are coming, so you have to fight them.

Hackett: Oops, the Reapers are somehow RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW

Shepard: Yeah, don't we have, like, the entire 5th Fleet guarding the Charon relay? And isn't Luna some kind of orbiting weapons platform/military base? What happened with that?

I mean, an opening sequence of "seriously, we're going to be boned here, but lets give it a shot anyhow" would be a lot better than "Ohai. Reaping now". Watching the 5th Fleet get wrecked, watching moon base get wrecked, and all the while you're talking with people, explaining what you know about the Reapers and Collectors, and meeting old squadmates, over the course of a few ingame days, would be a lot more tense than anything else. Have Shepard organize defenses, plan evacuations, and then despite all that have it be overrun? Better. Could even make choices that will eventually impact your game when you do return to Earth. Prioritizing military evac, prioritizing food or weapon stockpiles, so on. Each game has a tutorial/beginning mission before you get your ship (so far) and making it more involved than "run here, Normandy arrives!" would be nice. A

[Weak With The Dawn]

I mean, an opening sequence of "seriously, we're going to be boned here, but lets give it a shot anyhow" would be a lot better than "Ohai. Reaping now". Watching the 5th Fleet get wrecked, watching moon base get wrecked, and all the while you're talking with people, explaining what you know about the Reapers and Collectors, and meeting old squadmates, over the course of a few ingame days, would be a lot more tense than anything else. Have Shepard organize defenses, plan evacuations, and then despite all that have it be overrun? Better. Could even make choices that will eventually impact your game when you do return to Earth. Prioritizing military evac, prioritizing food or weapon stockpiles, so on. Each game has a tutorial/beginning mission before you get your ship (so far) and making it more involved than "run here, Normandy arrives!" would be nice. A

What about all that is different from what this game is? The 5th fleet and Luna base are organized because of reports from the rest of the galaxy, you do go out and organize defenses and meet old squad mates. It's just not restricted to the opening of the game. It is the game.

[Merentha]

What about all that is different from what this game is? The 5th fleet and Luna base are organized because of reports from the rest of the galaxy, you do go out and organize defenses and meet old squad mates. It's just not restricted to the opening of the game. It is the game.

I meant on Earth itself. And Luna Base is destroyed/rendered useless in the first few minutes of the demo. Hell, having Shepard yelling that they aren't coming through the Charon relay but are going through realspace and having them ignore her might have been better, at least then there's some explanation for why Earth itself is caught so completely unprepared. You really don't notice a giant invasion fleet until its literally landing on your planet? We have better detection systems now!

[Weak With The Dawn]

I meant on Earth itself. And Luna Base is destroyed/rendered useless in the first few minutes of the demo. Hell, having Shepard yelling that they aren't coming through the Charon relay but are going through realspace and having them ignore her might have been better, at least then there's some explanation for why Earth itself is caught so completely unprepared. You really don't notice a giant invasion fleet until its literally landing on your planet? We have better detection systems now!

It's a bit far fetched, but the Cerberus Daily News network on the ME2 main page has started up again with reports of comm buoys blacking out. If the reapers are cutting off communications it makes more sense. In the opening of the Demo Hackett and Anderson talk about how something huge is headed there way, presumably they mean Earth, so it sounds like they were prepared, but the Reapers moved faster then they expected.

:dunno: That's all I got.

[Cuellar]

I seriously can't wait to put my foot in a reaper's ass (well somewhere up there). I think sometimes you have to just go with the story (while playing), otherwise you can nitpick everything to death and ruin the experience for yourself. After you're done, that is the time to bitch and moan about how it could have been better.

Every game has good and bad parts to it, including the story.

[mor2]

It was mostly the dialogue that was bothersome. I didn't mind them talking about the back story since they need to let new players understand what's going on (although the 3rd game is a terrible place to start if you ask me) but the drama was so cliche. We didn't need to see a kid die to become emotionally invested, and the kid was all too generic and stock to begin with. We didn't know him and we don't care. (Although, I'm willing to bet a puppy would be more effective to some people).

We all hate cheap tricks of eliciting emotional response, but the puppy gets me every time ;)

Meaningless and pointless to you, yes. But then that gameplay type is not meant for you.

It is, however, perfectly doable within this game or any RPG. You don't need to do anything about "making every dialogue option have no or little appreciable effect on the game".

Like, I get it, you won't use that option. I never will either. But putting that option into the game does not require you in any way to change the nature of an RPG. I could put that kind of option into fucking Baldur's Gate 2.

Theoretically you got a point, all they done is create an option for people who dont like all that dialogue, choices and RPG stuff(that defined the first games) to skip them and enjoy what they like i.e. the shooting. Practically, this is just code name for we changed our target audience, but we want to maximise our sales records. Judging from history this RPG will be just less deep and intricate, more like any number of the countless FPS we see today.

[Weak With The Dawn]

Theoretically you got a point, all they done is create an option for people who dont like all that dialogue, choices and RPG stuff(that defined the first games) to skip them and enjoy what they like i.e. the shooting. Practically, this is just code name for we changed our target audience, but we want to maximise our sales records. Judging from history this RPG will be just less deep and intricate, more like any number of the countless FPS we see today.

I'd be more obliged to agree with you if they did not also implement a mode that is the exact opposite of what you're talking about.

They created a mode that is action centric. A mode that is just like the last 2 games, and a mode that is based on story with ridiculously easy fights.

And again, it's already receiving praise for making better personal connections and story telling then either of the last two.