Mass Effect 3

[Simond]

Don't fel the need to hurry back on our account.

What, you don't want to hear about how SheparNO CARRIER

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, let me clarify. It's not just "Oh, a Mass Effect MMO. What a good idea" but more the ending(s) seem tailored deliberately for an MMO with an intro with voiceover going on about how it has been X years since Shepard...wait this is going to be impossible to share without HUGE SPOILERS.

Yeah, I don't think you get me.  I've been predicting a Mass Effect MMO for a long time.  I've already said that SWTOR was a warm-up so they had a studio with experience releasing one.

I'm not surprised by them leaving open the possibility at all.

[Paelos]

If SWTOR was a warm-up, I think they pulled a hammy.

[Miasma]

Can't imagine they'll do a Mass Effect mmo, EA won't invest that type of money over again, especially since it would just gut swtor.

[Lantyssa]

Maybe not right away.  Target it for seven, eight years out?  Sure.

[Surlyboi]

Maybe not even that long.

[LK]

They could be working on it right now. Industry tries to be secretive like that.

[Rokal]

SWTOR is your Mass Effect MMO. It's the framework Bioware would have used for a Mass Effect MMO, just with a different sci-fi setting. Releasing another super-expensive story-driven sci-fi MMO to compete with your existing super-expensive story-driven sci-fi MMO makes even less sense than MMO sequels like AC2. It's going to be especially unlikely given that SWTOR is on course to not meet EA's expectations.

[Velorath]

SWTOR is your Mass Effect MMO.

If you completely ignore the fact that ME games have shooter-based mechanics.  I wouldn't want to see a Mass Effect MMO that just plays like a typical MMO.

[tmp]

Forum Effect continues.

On Wednesday we made the first of a series of changes to the BioWare Social Network by updating our site rules & code of conduct. We appreciate those of you who agreed to the new rules and are here helping us make the BioWare Social Network a better place for BioWare fans and staff. The next step in improving the BSN will take place this weekend.

We will be creating a Game Owners Forum for people who own Mass Effect 3 to discuss the game.  This new forum and many of the existing Mass Effect 3 forums will require users to have registered their game in order to be able to create or reply to a thread post.

(it's similar to "for registered users only" forum section made for DA2, but it appears they're taking it some further this time)

[Ingmar]

Forums where you had to have the game registered in order to post go back to at least NWN there, I remember having to dig out my code and register to post years ago.

[TripleDES]

I spoiled myself with the ending.

And holy shit...

 

Christ, I don't even know what to say...

Thanks for ruining everything, Bioware. I mean, holy shit, why do you even set up a decent background over the first two games, and then just shit all over it?! And then finish the whole trilogy with this idiotic pseudo-philosophical drivel of a worse level than the Matrix movies, in this especially cheesy way?

Mild ending spoiler...


And everyone keeps saying, there's way less dialog choices in the game. What's that the fuck about?

[Ingmar]

Time for a spoiler thread I think.

[TripleDES]

I'm just ranting. The "ending" spoiler posted there doesn't give away any main story details, it's just some eye rolling thing.

Hold onto your chair, if you decide reading it. The rolleye inertia might tip you over.

[Simond]

It's going to be interesting to watch the reaction of the fanbase over the next week or so.

[Merusk]

Wow.. really? Hah.

[TripleDES]

And here we go, XBox and PS3 version up on warez sites already. If there was a god, he'd unlock my preload already.

[Surlyboi]

Meh, I preordered the PS3 N7 edition accidentally instead of the 360. And now the 360 version is sold out everywhere. Bleh.

Maybe I'll just keep the PS3 version for the hardware and trade the game itself for the 360.

[Rokal]

If you completely ignore the fact that ME games have shooter-based mechanics.  I wouldn't want to see a Mass Effect MMO that just plays like a typical MMO.

I didn't want to see a Star Wars MMO that played just like a typical MMO either.  

The shooter mechanics make a big difference to players, but not necessarily to EA as a business. I seriously doubt they want to invest another huge sum of money in another sci-fi MMO that still competes directly with SWTOR, regardless of gameplay mechanics.

Last we heard about Titan, it was rumored that it might be in a sci-fi MMO with shooter mechanics. If that's true, Blizzard will beat Bioware to market with the concept simply due to the development time MMOs require. At that point the investment makes even less sense for EA.

[Nebu]

To be honest, I don't really think the shooter mechanics in ME3 are all that great either.  If they made an ME3 MMO with the current shooter mechanics it would be a double fail.  It's the story that drives the ME3 game, not the mechanics.  I think we're seeing that story is great for single player games, but not so much geared toward a massive multiplayer environment.

[jakonovski]

If anything, there's going to be a ME online shooter, in the CoD vein.

[Fabricated]

I spoiled myself with the ending.

And holy shit...

Yeah, I just did that a couple of hours ago and I'm honest-to-god debating if I want to buy the game now. What a fucking horrid ending.

[Velorath]

To be honest, I don't really think the shooter mechanics in ME3 are all that great either.  If they made an ME3 MMO with the current shooter mechanics it would be a double fail.  It's the story that drives the ME3 game, not the mechanics.  I think we're seeing that story is great for single player games, but not so much geared toward a massive multiplayer environment.

And yet a lot of people seem to like ME3's multiplayer which has fuck-all for a story and is completely about the gameplay.  I wouldn't be surprised to see something more like a cross between Phantasy Star Online and Battlefield Heroes than a traditional MMO.  Use the Citadel as a hub world where players can get quests and socialize.  Do unlocks the same way ME3 does with a cash shop for cosmetic stuff or to unlock a specific race or weapon without having to do it randomly.

[Nebu]

And yet a lot of people seem to like ME3's multiplayer which has fuck-all for a story and is completely about the gameplay. 

A lot of people like Farmville and angry birds too and I don't understand that either. 

I played the ME3 multiplayer with friends the other evening.  The combat was clunky, the space bar mechanic was annoying, and the AI was kind of spastic.  Still, I can see the appeal.  Games are always more fun when you share them with friends.  The addition of levels and credits are probably a part of the appeal.  If you grind long enough, you get to feel overpowered.  Not so fun for the level 1 that just joined your team with a pea-shooter though. 
 

[Fordel]

MassEffects shooter mechanics are 'shooter-enough'. Which is all what most people want.

[Velorath]

And yet a lot of people seem to like ME3's multiplayer which has fuck-all for a story and is completely about the gameplay. 

A lot of people like Farmville and angry birds too and I don't understand that either. 

I played the ME3 multiplayer with friends the other evening.  The combat was clunky, the space bar mechanic was annoying, and the AI was kind of spastic.  Still, I can see the appeal.  Games are always more fun when you share them with friends.  The addition of levels and credits are probably a part of the appeal.  If you grind long enough, you get to feel overpowered.  Not so fun for the level 1 that just joined your team with a pea-shooter though. 
 

I'd take a lv. 1 with pea shooter who's a team player any day over a lv. 20 that decides he's going to lone-wolf it on the other side of the map to get more kills.  The spacebar thing is about the only issue I have with the mechanics, and Bioware has done a pretty good job improving the mechanics with each game.

[jakonovski]

So people are saying that there's a 400 page thread on BSN, of people raging over the ending. I'm not going to risk getting spoiled myself, but 

[Surlyboi]

Haven't played the PC version, so I don't know about the space bar thing, that said, the lone wolves will get your ass killed pretty quick in latter silver waves and pretty much all the golds.

As for the horrid ending, meh. If it happens, it happens. It's about the ride to that shitty ending.

[Rokal]

The spacebar thing is about the only issue I have with the mechanics, and Bioware has done a pretty good job improving the mechanics with each game.

The way melee attacks work is pretty terrible too. At least on the PC, I often found myself missing enemies or punching through them (doing 0 damage). All the CC attacks that knock enemies down or into the air also disable you from using melee attacks on those enemies. You can just avoid melee for most classes, but the Krogan Soldier is built around their shitty melee system.

[tmp]

So people are saying that there's a 400 page thread on BSN, of people raging over the ending. I'm not going to risk getting spoiled myself, but 

I took a cautious peek and yeah, looks there's a thread like that there -- 469 pages in five days and counting

[Miasma]

I haven't looked at spoilers but is the ending considered bad because it's stupid and poorly written or bad in the sense that the reapers win or is it not really an ending, finishing with

THE END...?

[kildorn]

I'm going out on a limb and saying that bad writing or Iron Maiden Reaper aside, a lot of the rage will just be from people not thinking that's how THEIR shep would have ended the reaper threat.

[Merusk]

Heh, no.

Without spoiling, I will say that if the reports are correct, don't worry about doing side missions.  It won't change anything.

[Velorath]

Instead of trying to talk around spoilers for the end of the game, can we just not talk about it at all until some point after the game has been released?

[Ratman_tf]

To be honest, I don't really think the shooter mechanics in ME3 are all that great either.

Me neither. I'd much rather ME2 had gone more RPGish than FPSish. Without the franchise and story, ME2 is a pretty bland shooter.