Mass Effect 3

[UnSub]

Let's see it live.

[tmp]

Looks the advert campaing/streak of bad luck continues for BioWare

Hey Everyone!

We are still investigating, but it appears that some internal story files have been leaked. Even though the information in those files is out of date and does not reflect the final story experience, we urge fans not to read them if they want to experience the purest form of the story in Mass Effect 3.

"hey guys, there is pr0n on the intrewebs. We urge you not to seek it, and avert your virgin eyes if you encounter it"

[UnSub]

"Psst, kid, wanna come over here? I got some hot BioWare story action for ya..."

[Ingmar]

Pre-emptive plea: please, please, please do not post any of that stuff in this thread. Even under a spoiler tag. Please?

[rk47]

Shepard is a Grey Warden, and the Spectres comes in Dragon form.

[eldaec]

Bobby isn't dead. Mass Effect 2 was all a dream.

[Tannhauser]

Garrus is Shepard's father.

[cironian]

[Ratman_tf]

Man, wouldn't it be a hoot if the Reapers won, and the cycle began again?

[rk47]

That already happens when you stayed till the timer runs down to 0 in the Arrival DLC. 

[tmp]

Garrus is Shepard's father.

"A popular console game tricks unsuspecting players into incest with aliens."

[UnSub]

Shepherd is arrested and treated for his xenophilia. He settles down with a nice, plain human woman called Margaret.

[ajax34i]

Shepard convinces the Reapers to leave everyone alone (through expert use of the convo wheel) via an epic array of separate-yet-related conversations.  Reapers just up and leave, logically and emotionally defeated, at the end.

Alternately, Shepard reprograms the Reapers with a virus (through expert use of various hacking and lockpicking minigames), turning them into the guardians of the galaxy.

Or, the entirety of the action happens on Earth, with Shepard using the Mako to drive around over the surface of the planet and shoot down Reaper ships one by one.

[NiX]

Pre-emptive plea: please, please, please do not post any of that stuff in this thread. Even under a spoiler tag. Please?

Don't worry. I won't spoil the fan-fiction level of writing for you.

[lamaros]

Shepard convinces the Reapers to leave everyone alone (through expert use of the convo wheel) via an epic array of separate-yet-related conversations.  Reapers just up and leave, logically and emotionally defeated, at the end.

Alternately, Shepard reprograms the Reapers with a virus (through expert use of various hacking and lockpicking minigames), turning them into the guardians of the galaxy.

Or, the entirety of the action happens on Earth, with Shepard using the Mako to drive around over the surface of the planet and shoot down Reaper ships one by one.

Story, RPG and action modes, hey?

[Reg]

Oh that vehicle game would be amazing. I can just see myself driving the mako right up one side of a skyscraper and down the other while pursuing the reapers.

[Ratman_tf]

That already happens when you stayed till the timer runs down to 0 in the Arrival DLC. 

Yeah, but  that's a kind of easter egg for a DLC mission.

I mean, Reapers win, credits roll. That's how it goes, kiddos.

[tmp]

Don't worry. I won't spoil the fan-fiction level of writing for you.

That's hardly a spoiler; it could be one if the series didn't stay faithful to its blue lesbian roots.

[Velorath]

Looks the advert campaing/streak of bad luck continues for BioWare

Hey Everyone!

We are still investigating, but it appears that some internal story files have been leaked. Even though the information in those files is out of date and does not reflect the final story experience, we urge fans not to read them if they want to experience the purest form of the story in Mass Effect 3.

"hey guys, there is pr0n on the intrewebs. We urge you not to seek it, and avert your virgin eyes if you encounter it"

Essentially reminding me why I hate a lot of the people involved with NeoGaf...

So the story behind this (and some of the information at the end of the previous page) is that MS put up some sort of dashboard update beta, which mistakenly included a ME3 beta download.  This was noticed by a Gaf poster who made a thread, which got other peoples' attention, some of whom also ended up downloading the ME3 beta and datamining it for all kinds of spoilers and game information, which were then posted in the thread on Gaf. 

This is all understandable, and I don't blame people for taking advantage of a huge fuckup on MS's part.  Where the problem comes in, is that MS hit NeoGaf with a C&D asking them to take down the thread (which they did).  Posters on Gaf made a thread mistakenly blaming EA/Bioware for the C&D.  Gaffers have a pretty big hate-on for Bioware, so the thread got a lot of posts, and threads starting popping up on pretty much every other major website.  It wasn't until after a couple hours of this that NeoGaf's owner (who goes by Evilore on Gaf), who had previously posted a number of passive-aggressive comments that anybody reading would have assumed where directed at Bioware (having been the subject of the thread title, and everybody elses' posts) decided to mention 24 pages into the thread that, btw the Bioware had nothing to do with the C&D and it was MS all along.  There was no apology for the confusion, or for taking so long to release a critical detail that a massive thread on the site he owns was getting wrong.  Subsequent complaints from the handful of posters that actually seemed upset that he let the wrong party take the blame at first were met with the response:

We're still going on about how I wasn't expedient enough about the source of the notice?

I wasn't planning on discussing the specifics, just explaining a few things about my position regarding protecting the site and so forth. Since it continued to blow up harder and harder, and I got contacted by various news organizations asking for statements, I decided to loosen up a bit and clarify the remaining info here about what was going on (since I had already talked in some detail anyway), and then talk to news outlets about it.

Quote:
Evilore explained the situation but left this specific part out and let the news settle on the internet for almost 3 hours

Almost THREE HOURS? So you're saying TWO HOURS?! I think we should lynch him.

A couple of the people who complained (in a completely reasonable fashion) were also banned, some posters still found ways to blame Bioware or somehow come up with reasons to boycott the game over this, and many fully support the way Evilore handled the situation and don't see how people can find fault with it.

[rk47]

OH NOES BIOWARE.

I got the files. Hum de dum....this is sweet....I don't have to play the game now. :)

[UnSub]

Does Shepherd finally get a laser sword?

[cironian]

Does Shepherd finally get a laser sword?

Didn't one of the trailers already show him using some energy wristblade thing? Close enough.

[tmp]

Didn't one of the trailers already show him using some energy wristblade thing? Close enough.

Yeah, a holographic blade from the omni tool or something like that. It seemed pretty clumsy on the reviews they showed, though -- there's a couple seconds of windup before use, and it seems to do less damage than just shooting the guy in the same time would. Also, it stabs rather than slices and as such a number of times it'd plain miss the target standing right next to Shepard. Hopefully they''ll tweak it for the final game.

[Tebonas]

Maybe its supposed to be this way to show people that attacking people with a melee weapon when you have ranged energy weapons at your disposal is kind of dumb. Star Wars notwithstanding.

[tmp]

I think it's supposed to be a bullet point on the Gears of War Lite feature list they're chasing. Just implemented with the usual prowess.

[Margalis]

A few years ago Bioware was a darling of NeoGaf. It's true that these days a lot of Gaf has a "hate-on" for Bioware but that's not entirely without reason.

That said it is a little scummy to conveniently fail to correct the misinformation that MS sent the C&D rather than Bioware.

[rk47]

All publicity is good publicity. No matter how much these meat-heads say they will boycott ME3, they know they'll buy it on release day or pirate it.
It can't fail. Dragon Age II delivered sub-par storyline with barely updated graphic engine, yet people still lapped it up. EA will continue to churn it out, pretty soon, ME will make the leap to Battlefield with DICE at its helm. Rage on, Bio-fans. It's progress. The disintegration of RPG genre...

[caladein]

Don't hate on dialogue wheel time.

[Velorath]

All publicity is good publicity. No matter how much these meat-heads say they will boycott ME3, they know they'll buy it on release day or pirate it.
It can't fail. Dragon Age II delivered sub-par storyline with barely updated graphic engine, yet people still lapped it up. EA will continue to churn it out, pretty soon, ME will make the leap to Battlefield with DICE at its helm. Rage on, Bio-fans. It's progress. The disintegration of RPG genre...

Maybe it's because MMO's have sorta cheapened the feeling of leveling up and getting loot, or maybe it's my feeling that there are more sophisticated ways to create RPG experiences on computers and consoles these days than just heavily borrowing mechanics from P&P RPG's (complex mathematical systems designed to set up rules and bounds to define the world and characters, something that's already inherent in making a video game), but I'm not really upset about "the disintegration of the RPG genre".  I think Mass Effect, Fallout 3/New Vegas, Vampire: Bloodlines, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution all strike a good mix between action and RPG, and I'd much prefer to play more of those kinds of games than stuff like Dragon Age or anything else trying to recapture the glory days of CRPG's.

[rk47]

Yeah I definitely agree with you there, the Battlefield Unlocks is akin to level up model I can get behind. Aside from Armor unlocks, additional weapons and options per class, my reaction skill is still the same, a head shot is always deadly, regardless if I'm level 1 or 20.  If this is what it means by Action Mode in Mass Effect 3, count me in.

[Tebonas]

Which is a problem if your reaction skill is shitty.

Fallout 3/New Vegas had optional turn based combat, the combat in Mass Effect, Bloodlines and Deus Ex was so easy you being a spaz was no issue.

[rk47]

You called VATS in Fallout turn based combat?  Can't be serious man. It was an 'I Win' button if anything.

[Tebonas]

Sadly, that is what passes for Turn based these days. If you like you can group it with the "so easy you being a spaz was no issue" column.

Except for Nightstalkers, fucking Nightstalkers.

[rk47]

Funny thing is, I liked Fallout 3 overall package more than Borderlands. OK maybe I haven't got the driving parts, but I really am not enjoying myself much in Borderlands compared to the first time I exited Vault 101. It was so dull just looting shot gun ammos and money from boxes over and over that I regretted buying the whole GOTY for $7.50

[Tebonas]

As did I. I think I clocked over 250 hours in both Fallouts, while I finished Borderlands once and never looked back.

Lining up Headshots in VATS-Mode and seeing three heads explode in Slow Motion was certainly part of its charm. So I am not hating on VATS, I am hating the fact that turn- and squad-based RPG combat is on a hastry retreat because RPG developers want to broaden their base by including FPS gamers. What you usually get is a mediocre dumbed down RPG and a mediocre shooter with too much talky stuff mixed into one.