Mass effect

[Sy]

What I personally find more engaging about the entire game world (Not just Shepard's team) is on places like Illium, you have your area, your view of areas you can't even reach, the sounds of the city far off, cars going past and then as you walk around "No! You don't understand, I lost it somewhere near the transport terminal!" or "They're going to see a ton of immediate business!" "Immediate CHARITY business." and then on top of that, you have the news reports! The busy trade area comes across exactly as it should be, busy.

I personally think BioWare are brilliant at making scenes like that feel more real, It's attention to detail. One of the reasons BioWare is one of my favourite companies.

i agree.

actually, i can't think of ANY sci-fi movie or game that comes across as so incredibly plausible, believable and i dare say even realistic as the Mass Effect games.

even the whole technology, thing like shields, portals, weapons and all that stuff is explained really well in the codex. the idea of creating e-zero and it's effect really makes A LOT of that stuff actually realistic (ofc, if something like that e-zero would exist).

Absolutely love the Mass Effect universe, would have pref'd to see that as an MMO, but hey Bioware have SWTOR to contend with, ME3 soon tho =]

i'd love to see that too!

but the Mass Effect fan base is still tiny compared to that of Star Wars, so it's obvious why they took the later.
also, i think the "world" of Mass Effect would need a bit more attention, more games/movies/ect, to be used in an mmo that actually feels like it's in the ME-universe.

[Doriath]

I don't want to count. xD If I did I would then have to measure the amount of time spent on the game.

Yeah lol,i figure about 15-22 hours per ME1 play through and 20-30 for each ME2.So...damn...

[Sy]

There is a movie and an anime in production I think, I may be confusing that with the Dragon Age anime but there is definitely a Mass Effect movie planned.

haven't heard of an anime, but looking forward to the movie, yeah

As for an MMO, I don't really know if that would work. Sure you have your locations, races and classes all set up but I can't think of what the actual gameplay would be. Unless they made every sort of mission phased, but then you wouldn't be able to see anybody on places like Illium as there are a lot of things that take place there and people would be separated due to phases

well, i guess the gameplay as in fighting would be similar to me2/3. that is, real time 1st or 3rd person shooter with different armor, stat, abilities, ect (kind of what Thor will probably be, as far as the rumors go). of course with much bigger focus on items, classes and more different abilities.

as for the locations, that's why i think we'd need more games and movies and the like first, to show us much more of the planets and races and the like, before an mmo would really feel like it's Mass Effect. though i don't know why you think missions would need to be phased? there would be quest hubs, quests, open world locations (for the killing and farming and questing!^^) and maybe a few instances.

[Deleted]

Hahahaha, just saw the "Squad Leader" trailer for ME3.
Was confused as hell when the view suddenly went from Shepard to seeing companions take cover "wait, do you have to watch them do stuff now?" until the camera went all over showing explosions and crap, then... walking backwards just shooting some robot. If you can just do that on insanity I'll be pissed

WTB just gameplay trailers (no story!!) without camera flying around trying to fit in the most BOOMS! ^^

[Deleted]

That trailer was scary.. That better not have been Liara's death.

No way would they show that in a "gameplay" (lolexplosions) trailer

TBH I don't see how ME3 could possibly have enough content etc for it to fully do justice as the final instalment unless it's RIDICULOUSLY big and the main story gets pushed to the side a bit.
There's so many side missions and other stuff that there's been in-game hints that the story will continue for, I don't see how any side missions would get priority over stopping the reapers :s

[Brandoh]

no way would they show that in a "gameplay" (lolexplosions) trailer

tbh i don't see how me3 could possibly have enough content etc for it to fully do justice as the final instalment unless it's ridiculously big and the main story gets pushed to the side a bit.
There's so many side missions and other stuff that there's been in-game hints that the story will continue for, i don't see how any side missions would get priority over stopping the reapers :s

stfu bioware is the best and mass efffect 3 will be the best game everrrr

*fanboi rage*

[Kaelwryn]

There's multiple endings so it's pretty much automatically going to have a good replay value, not sure Shepard would value side missions though.. Especially since it's about saving Earth.

Its more than just saving Earth. Its about saving the freakin galaxy. Honestly I think a lot of the side missions will be about helping each races home planet repel the Reapers or something like that. Basically making sure that everyone is able to withstand the invasion long enough for Shepard to go in and kick the Reapers' ass.

[Muya]

After playing ME1 for the 4th time....I am reminded why I hate ME2 so much.

The controls and shields are completely inferior to ME1 and it's annoying to not be able to see anything when someone barely grazes your arm with a shot after your shields go down due to the massive screen wide effects.

I honestly don't know if I can force myself to go through another play through....

[Brandoh]

After playing ME1 for the 4th time....I am reminded why I hate ME2 so much.

The controls and shields are completely inferior to ME1 and it's annoying to not be able to see anything when someone barely grazes your arm with a shot after your shields go down due to the massive screen wide effects.

I honestly don't know if I can force myself to go through another play through....

mass effect 2 gameplay is far superior to mass effect 1, hands down

[bloodwulf]

I love both of the games, i am slightly more biased toward ME2...everything about the game was just epic, and the Illusive Man is a very good character and just added to the enjoyment of the game.

[Muya]

mass effect 2 gameplay is far superior to mass effect 1, hands down

Not to both me and my 2 friends that play it. The only thing we agree on is that the squad system is superior to ME1, along with the ammunition changes...but nothing else. (At least for the one friends I talk to every night, he prefers the Mako to the scanner system, I'm the opposite)

ME1 controls are so much better it isn't even funny. I'm talking about on a computer system vs controller console. There isn't even an option for changing everything back to the way I want it to be for ME1.

ME2 was streamlined to be little more than a glorified FPS. Again, something my 2 friends and I agree on. Nothing against the character development and doing side missions, but that was the game for me. I forced myself to play it the first time to get through to the end and see what it brought.

And I'm rather dreading doing it again. The shield and power system irritates me due to how bad it is. Putting everything on a shared cooldown was one of the worst things they could've done. You have no control in ME2. It reminds me of the olden days of playing CS back at 1.5.

I'm hoping that ME3 is going to be better than 2 in that it'll bring it back in line with 1, but I'm not holding my breath.

Edit - My friends likens ME2 to a combination of Half-Life and CS.

[Kellorkleft]

Am I the only one who thinks for a Bioware story, Mass Effect 1's was subpar?

[Muya]

Subpar in what sense? Like the typical space drama 'omg save the galaxy' kind of deal or just as a storyline in general that tried too hard and had things going in too many directions at once?

[Deleted]

Supbar in the sense of the endless amount of sidequests that in my opinion, had very little weight story-telling wise. I played mass effect 2 before number 1 and after a few of those sidequests, I gave up and rushed the mainplot, which was a lot better.
The collecters may not have been such an epic story as a reaper and a rogue spectre trying to take over the citadel, but mass effect 2's story was in my opinion, at least equal in execution. It was brought very well. And the fact that most of the sidequests had more story to them than a simple kill this entire bunker really helped as well.

So yeh, I'm really looking forward to mass effect 3. The lack of epicness will not be an issue, reapers and all. If they manage to keep mass effect 3's combat style smooth and slick like number 2, combined with the costumisation of nr 1, I will squeel in delight.

[Muya]

Like I said in another post in this thread, the main thing with ME1 vs ME2 in plot style is that in ME1 you still have numerous different obligations to different organizations. You're still expected to do things for both the Alliance, the Counsel and for the 'sake of humanity' BS.

I didn't mind almost all of the sidequests. Some of them actually linked with some of the topics you talked with your crew about. Like the whole L2 hostage situation with Kaiden. And Wrex's background with his family and the wars that the krogans participated in. The quests tie in nicely with those topics. But I do agree that the sheer number of them does get to you. (And the quests on colonies like Feros and Noveria where you stop some nefarious plot and get things rolling again with the locals)

ME2 you work for Cerberus only for 1 thing: stop the collectors. That's a hell of a lot more simple than the plot for ME1. Most of the side quests still have nothing to do with the main quests, but there's fun little touches with them like getting better provisions for your chef or getting Dr. Chakwas her bottle of sherry - or was it brandy? - back. The loyalty missions were cool. No arguments there.

I would actually prefer a hybrid of both 1 and 2 systems for combat(biggest point: NO SHARED POWER LOCKOUT) and a story telling style of 2 with the weapons/armor of 1.

Edit - The actual list of things I'd like:
ME1 armor/weapon customization with ME2 ammunition/heat clips
ME1 power ability usage with ME2 ability to put squad powers on a hotkey bar
ME1 quick weapon swaps(F1-F4) with ME2 squad movement hotkeys
....That's all I can think of for now. My brains fried from today. Probably going to sleep soon.

[Deleted]

While the shared power lockout can be an annoyance, I only have to play my biotic on ME1 to see why they did it...
With my biotic + liara both lifting, singularity'ing, throwing and using warp to weaken them NOTHING stays on its feet, ever.

In ME2 though the biggest problem imo is biotic abilities doing crapall until their shields/barriers/armour is removed combined with the shared lockout.
On the harder difficulties there's just no point in putting points in anything except Warp/bonus squad power as by the time you get their defences down they get interrupted by shots too.

[Muya]

But in ME1, you also have a much larger skill pool to pull from. A sentinal/vanguard has numerous skills that can be used and in conjunction with each other, they are a powerful combination. But with the streamlining of the squad trees into only have, at max, 3 active/offensive biotic/tech skills (unless a full engineer or adept) you lose a lot of that potency. Putting them all on a shared cooldown (including your shield boost and Unity) is a bit extreme.

For pete's sake, selecting a new ammo type activates the cooldown, even if it is 1.5 seconds. I mean....really?

I used my biotics more as a way to make sure things stayed away from me and controlling an enemy or 2 I wasn't working on. The tech abilities are the ones I used more than anything. I could understand those being a shared cooldown, but not everything at once.

And like you said, anything but Warp and Incinerate is useless. Throw and Lift both do nothing but temporarily stun an enemy/take it out of the fight for 6 seconds. 6 seconds on these advanced levels (I'm doing hardcore right now because I want to get a sense of what Insane will be like first before wanting to facedesk by taking it on without warning) is nothing.

[Deleted]

In ME2 it feels like you need to co-ordinate with your squad alot more to me. Being able to only use 1 ability at a time, while annoying in heavy-combat scenarios, means you really have to choose what you do.

Putting your unique class cool-down separate to the rest would be nice but really isn't needed.

Biotics are supposed to be used as a sort of CC, but with EVERY enemy having some sort of defence past level 5 or so on insanity it's really a pain having to use your power to remove the immunity, then have them on cool-down for when they're removed(did my first insanity play on my biotic... totally different from ME1). 6 seconds of an enemy being incapacitated is a lifesaver, especially against the collector assassins etc.

Useful tip for some of the harder bits of the game, make sure you headshot the Ymir mechs, the huge nuke-blast will kill any enemies in a huge area.

If you really want to try unbalanced combat try Dragonage 2 on nightmare without patching it, so many bugs and with rogues literally 1-shotting pretty much anyone it makes you scream ^^ (latest patches have helped a bit, but nightmare is now just a snooze except rogues )

[Brandoh]

So i wanna replay my original ME1 import on insanity ..... what class and squad?? thinking sentinel with Thane + Grunt.....

[Deleted]

Many people favour Miranda as she gives a squad health bonus

And squad damage, and has warp/overload to remove armour/barriers and shields. <3