Mass Effect 3

[Margalis]

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.

You know this how exactly?

The game isn't out and there are no legitimate metrics at all. I fully expect ME3 multiplayer to winnow and die within weeks, just like most second-tier console multiplayer communities do.

How many concurrent users will be playing it on XBL 2 months from now? Throw out a number.

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

Most people seem fine with that in the context of a single-player game. In a dedicated multiplayer game or mode? Not so much. Good enough for a largely single-player RPG is very different from good enough for an online multiplayer centric game.

[Simond]

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...?

Yes.




 

[Nightblade]

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...?

Yes.




 

Ok, Im going to stop looking at this thread now.

[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.

You know this how exactly?

The game isn't out and there are no legitimate metrics at all. I fully expect ME3 multiplayer to winnow and die within weeks, just like most second-tier console multiplayer communities do.

How many concurrent users will be playing it on XBL 2 months from now? Throw out a number.

I'm not throwing any numbers out there for the longevity of the multiplayer.  Having followed the game pretty closely on boards, back when multiplayer was first announced some people hated the idea, and some were at least open to giving it a try, but very very few were actually looking forward to it.  After the demo came out I've read a lot more positive reactions than negative, and a lot of the positive reactions were from skeptics.  Speaking for myself, I was open to it but thought it would be something I'd play a few times just to see how it worked and ended up sinking a lot of time into it.  You can also see peoples' overall levels in the game (adding up the levels of all their characters) and get a general idea for how much they've been playing, and there seemed to be a lot of people who sunk a lot of time into it.

But as I said, I'm not making any predictions as to longevity.  I was saying that if they want to make an online focused Mass Effect game (which I'm not convinced would be an MMO in the traditional sense), that the combat system they have would be more viable than if they were to just replace the mechanics with more or less typical DIKU gameplay.  I think fans of the series at this point would rather see an online ME game that's shooter-based rather than just SWTOR with a ME skin.

[Sjofn]

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

Yep. I mean, I thought the Reaper Baby Thing was fucking stupid as hell, but I still enjoyed ME2 an awful lot.

[tmp]

That is actually a good frame of reference for an estimate. Don't want to get too spoiled, but those of you in the know... ME3 ending(s) -- Reaper Baby level of stupid? Less? More?

[Ingmar]

Right this is where I exit the thread, it is already too spoilery for me.

[rk47]

Female Shep gives birth to Krogan babies totally did it for me. 

[UnSub]

Female Shep gives birth to Krogan babies totally did it for me. 

Having Male Shep also having the option of getting pregnant to the Krogan was a nice touch too, and it was a very tasteful cut scene showing the "impregnation" as well.

Slightly more seriously, if the ending is as bad as everyone indicates, I almost feel I should get ME3 on day one just to take part in the glorious bitching... but I've still got four unplayed games on my shelf and Skyrim is a while from being completed.

[Lakov_Sanite]

I spoiled myself on the ending an it's not BAD, it's just a really disappointing easy way out sort of ending.

[Ironwood]

I'm fairly sure they're just fucking with you at this stage.

[Engels]

Technically speaking, Diablo had a 'horrid ending'. Yet that ending was wtf awesome.

Since 2/3rds of ME3 players probably consider the Wheel of Time a work of literary genius, I'm gonna hold off on my hand wringing.

[Ironwood]

Um, No, that ending was also shit considering that it never made any fucking sense to me at the time.



Retarded.

[kaid]

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.

I think they could open up the hitbox window for melee a bit as I do wind up sometimes viciously punching to the left or right of my target and missing them. That said melee is 100% better in me3 so far than in me2 and with my krogran soldier I have a hilarious amount of fun krogan slapping hordes of people laughing as I do it. Some of the power attacks are much easier to land than others. The asarai one has a big cone infront of it. The krogan slap dash thing is easy to just miss with but satisfying when you land it.

The all in one a button/space bar thing is a bit annoying but its one of those things you get used to. The worst part of the all in one button is trying to revive somebody who died near cover. I spend more time teabagging them by accident than I do reviving.

[Rasix]

When has a bad plot/ending/narrative actually gotten in the way of an otherwise good RPG?  I'm struggling to find an example.  

edit: And WoW doesn't count.  Picking on Metzen is too easy.

[tmp]

Well, people seem to complain about KotOR 2's breakdown into lack of coherent ending and how it fucked the overall impression of the game up for them rather often. Coming up with more examples may be hard because i can't immediately think of too many RPGs that'd fail said part, to begin with.

[Jeff Kelly]

Mass Effect never had great writing in the first place so I'm not really surprised that the third installment continues on the same track.

Mind you I've probably played both ME 1 and 2 more times than is good for me and I have preordered the third one (even though I've played the demo and it's a yawnfest)

Yet the nickname for the Mass Effect series with my friends has always been "plot holes and bad romance in space".

It's like a decent B-Movie it's great when you're in the right frame of mind but don't make the mistake of looking too closely or you'll see the boom of the microphone hanging into the picture, the extra who's waving at the camera or a car parked in the background.

You could basically do a similar thing to tvtropes just for mass effect.

The romance plots and dialogue could be cut and pasted from a twilight novel, the protagonists in the ME Universe suffer from "to stupid to actually survive" syndrome (Council, more like Retardfest), the morality choices range from "nicer than even Jesus could be", to "too much Douchebag even for 'Jersey Shore'" and there is not a single game mechanic that works 100% and is really well thought out. Mass Effect at times feels like something a ten-year-old would make when he's really into a comic or movie.

Oh and you're being railroaded the entire game.

It's basically the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie or a well made pulp novel. Fun at times but doesn't really hold up well when you really think about it.

I bet ME 3 goes something like this:

You'll spend most of the game rallying the galactic civilizations against the reaper threat, you'll be looking for something to stop them then BOOM deus ex machina ending that doesn't make any sense at all (involving a naked Tali or Liara and baby reapers) and roll the credits.

This is set to a chorus of a million rabid gamers complaining about the stupid game while they buy all of the DLC on launch day.

[Lantyssa]

I was thinking "a little harsh, but I can see where you're coming from".  I stopped caring about your points though when I read "Naked Tali".

[kildorn]

Mass Effect is a pulp action movie with some actually decent characters. And if anything, I'm waiting for them to try their hardest to not Jesus Allegory away the ending of ME3. Because Shepard is totally SpaceJesus with a gun.

I mean, basically the only way for this game to end is for Shepard to be mortally wounded by Garrus, and enshrined in a golden life support system on earth.

[tmp]

Mass Effect 30k could be pretty neat.

[Ingmar]

I return briefly to give you social media pre-release teaser nonsense:

http://twitter.com/#!/AllianceNewsNet

[kildorn]

Also, for PC gamers who are impatient, it's past midnight in Hong Kong, so you can VPN or Proxy trick your way past the activation now.

[Tebonas]

So Hong Kong gets activated today but Europe has to wait until Thursday? Fuck you, EA.

[kildorn]

Staggered releases are stupid. If you're euro and ordered a digital version, proxy hack your way through.

[Jeff Kelly]

I was thinking "a little harsh, but I can see where you're coming from".  I stopped caring about your points though when I read "Naked Tali".

Yeah, Bioware will not and has not ever made the number of possible virtual sex partners a part of their ad campaign for a game...

It will be structured like ME1 and 2 which means at least one possible relationship with an inappropriately young crew member (Shepard apparently has a thing for teenagers or at least people who would be considered teenagers by their own), a rapport with the crew that borders on sexual harrassment, lots and lots of awkward dialogue and at least one sex scene before Act 3 of the game.

And it's not like the question of who Shepard can have sex with in ME 3 isn't a topic of furious (and often creepy) debate on the interwebs.

[Ratman_tf]

Um, No, that ending was also shit considering that it never made any fucking sense to me at the time.



Retarded.

Are we using spoilers for the original Diablo?  

I was fine with it. The hero had no choice. The deeeemon powar corrupts people. Easy to understand. And they didn't have some goddamn overwrought dialogue to 'explain' it all, like D2. Just BAM! Done!

BTW can someone spoilerize me for ME3s ending? I've googled, but I get old speculation and crap.

[Sky]

I return briefly to give you social media pre-release teaser nonsense:

http://twitter.com/#!/AllianceNewsNet

Cool story idea.

Great marketing idea.

Dammit.

[tmp]

Those of you who have the PC version of the game -- is it possible to get rid of the Origin client after you download/install ME3, or does it have to sit there? Or what about the other digital distributors, for that matter?

[cironian]

Are we using spoilers for the original Diablo?  

I was fine with it. The hero had no choice. The deeeemon powar corrupts people. Easy to understand. And they didn't have some goddamn overwrought dialogue to 'explain' it all, like D2. Just BAM! Done!

Well, in D2 we could lug around one of the soul crystals without any harm. So I think that what happened at the end of D1 was the hero finding that his inventory was full when he wanted to pick it up. But the crystal was flagged as equipment, so he did the smart thing and put it in his head slot because something like that has to have mad stats.

[Jeff Kelly]

It's even more ridiculous than that. In some parts of the EU release is on the 8th, in some it's the 9th, in some it's the 12th.

The 360 version still has no original language track, if you buy a localized version. They don't even sell multi-language DLC on XBox live so in order for an import version to work you need to set up a VPN to get to the british or US Xbox live store to buy the english version DLC from there (It was the same with ME 1 and 2), because the german DLC doesn't work with the ENG version of the game for example.

You can't even import a save game created by a localized version into any other langage version of the game.

There a different pre-order bonuses depending on retailer and country of sale (the UK preorder bonus is different from the DE one) and the collectors edition (if you're into that kind of thing) isn't even available in all of Europe but only in selected countries or worse only for selected platforms (I know of at least one example where the PS3 CE version is officially available but the 360 is not)

Why they don't just release the same versions everywhere at once I never understood in the first place.

[kildorn]

Those of you who have the PC version of the game -- is it possible to get rid of the Origin client after you download/install ME3, or does it have to sit there? Or what about the other digital distributors, for that matter?

It runs via Origin, even if you buy it via someone else. Origin must be running (like steam) to run the game. It's pretty harmless, honestly. As much as I bitch about it's functionality as a storefront and an authentication platform and it's issues with password complexity rules, it's not really that mean as a background process.

It also appears to fix Bioware's inability to make DLC not a pain in the ass to use. All your authorized DLC should be auto installed as long as your EA account is the one you use on the BSN. No more downloading 80 fucking exes and running them.

[Polysorbate80]

Are we using spoilers for the original Diablo?  

I was fine with it. The hero had no choice. The deeeemon powar corrupts people. Easy to understand. And they didn't have some goddamn overwrought dialogue to 'explain' it all, like D2. Just BAM! Done!

Well, in D2 we could lug around one of the soul crystals without any harm. So I think that what happened at the end of D1 was the hero finding that his inventory was full when he wanted to pick it up. But the crystal was flagged as equipment, so he did the smart thing and put it in his head slot because something like that has to have mad stats.

Too bad he wasn't high enough level to equip a hat 

[jakonovski]

So my ME3 just totally fired up using a HK or whatever proxy, cos it's out there already.

[Miasma]

Someone link/tell how to do this.

[jakonovski]

I sent a PM.