[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Abominator]

In preparation for ME3 I started a new ME1 character and leveled him to level 60 in a perfect run through with all paragon choices on insanity, then imported him to ME2 and did another perfect run through on insanity including all paragon decisions aswell as the entire crew surviving the suicide mission.

I always loved ME1, I loved the level cap aswell as the weapon and armor customization. Always preferred ME1 over ME2, however after running through ME2 again and listening to all the dialogue I think ME2 is now my favourite. The fast paced combat and amazing dialogue just makes an amazing game. ME3 is going to perfection because it combines the strengths of both ME1 and ME2 without the weaknesses of either. With even faster combat, lvl 60 level cap and weapon/armor customization as well as even better dialogue ME3 is going to win GOTY or be a serious contender and probably one of my favourite games of all time.

[Deleted]

ME3 is going to perfection because it combines the strengths of both ME1 and ME2 without the weaknesses of either. With even faster combat, lvl 60 level cap and weapon/armor customization as well as even better dialogue ME3 is going to win GOTY or be a serious contender and probably one of my favourite games of all time

I'm pretty excited about it too, and I hope when BioWare said the combat is harder in ME3 (they said normal in ME3 plays like veteran in ME2) they really meant it. This, and having my imported Shepard start at the level I finished her on ME2 (30) seem like solid decisions. Now I hope that the whole of the Insanity playthrough plays like horizon in ME2 and I'll be busy for weeks.

[Abominator]

I'm pretty excited about it too, and I hope when BioWare said the combat is harder in ME3 (they said normal in ME3 plays like veteran in ME2) they really meant it. This, and having my imported Shepard start at the level I finished her on ME2 (30) seem like solid decisions. Now I hope that the whole of the Insanity playthrough plays like horizon in ME2 and I'll be busy for weeks.

Yes I forgot to mention the increase of difficulty. In ME1 insanity was far too easy, with the best gear in the game I would literally sprint through the game hip firing and never losing my shield or barrier without even taking cover. In ME2 insanity can be quite a challenge in some situations, you have to make split-second tactical decisions constantly throught the game. Tactics are utterly vital in most situations and that is a refreshing level of difficulty. It took me 30 hours to do a single runthrough on Insanity doing all side mission in ME2, if ME3 is even more difficult I bet it will take atleast 50 hours to complete a run through on Insanity and given the level cap it will probably take 2-3 runs to reach the level cap. I can't wait.

[Zeek Daniels]

I usually dont like shooters but i love borderlands and Mass effect. And i usually dont do multiplayer but i am loving the multiplayer demo for ME3.

[namelessone]

The dialogue is bland and contrived. The whole story of a scared little boy hiding in a vent from monsters and then having his ship blown up feels forced.

This. I don't know what was that scene supposed to do, but in only made me cringe and sigh. Bioware used to have much better writing in their games.

[Dezerte]

I was pleasantly surprised that the MP was so fun! Was a bit worried about MP but the ME3 combat is really fun & addictive.

[Deleted]

This. I don't know what was that scene supposed to do, but in only made me cringe and sigh. Bioware used to have much better writing in their games.

It was meant as a standard shock scene. Every game has them now and again. Just look at CoD. Shock scenes are standard for every game since CoD4. I didn't feel as if it was forced though; I saw it coming a mile off, but knowing past games' reluctance with killing children I was mildly impressed they took the step. Writing in games is never spectacular either, you can never get the story out of a game that you can get out of a book. That said, I think Mass Effect is a very good example of a gaming story line.

[Leonard McCoy]

This. I don't know what was that scene supposed to do, but in only made me cringe and sigh. Bioware used to have much better writing in their games.

I actually really liked that scene. It's meant to ground the player a bit to see theirs a real cost associated with this invasion.

[Valeron]

Yeah, I liked that scene as well.

The whole intro had a War of the Worlds theme to it, I liked it.

[reohh]

I played the demo last on the PS3, am I the only one that hated it? The cutscenes seemed like they were skipping every other frame, the controls felt quirky, and my fps while playing was horrible, like 20-30 if i had to take a guess. Anyone else having similar problems on the PS3?

[Deleted]

Is anyone else playing ME1 to ME2 all over again to have a complete Mass Effect experience?

I just started a renegade engineer fem Shep who is a douche to everyone!

yea i rebought both me1 and 2 for the xbox and did a full playtrough on insanity every convo/quest i could find and iam now ready for me3 with that awesome save

[Raphtheone]

Do console and PC players play together in MP? Since I've only been paired with people who suck major donkey balls. Not even a single bronze medal on headshots by anyone, on any map, in any session I've played. My only conclusion is, I play with console players, since even the average PC player should with some luck score five headshots on a map? Even a decent console player would manage a headshot every... 2-3 minutes?

[Restos3]

I actually switched to Paragon now (new run) just because I never did. Not as fun as renegade responses, but I'm more interested in the different twists. (Way different!)

[Valnoressa]

I played the demo last on the PS3, am I the only one that hated it? The cutscenes seemed like they were skipping every other frame, the controls felt quirky, and my fps while playing was horrible, like 20-30 if i had to take a guess. Anyone else having similar problems on the PS3?

Sounds likes it's a typical PS3 problem with some games. If you can I'd suggest playing it on pc or at least Xbox.

[Raphtheone]

https://twitter.com/#!/masseffect/st...06103521595392

High-Res textures to be included in the game. I like.

[HoursSH]

So I see everyone replaying their games and going all paragon to get the "best possible save". Has it been said anywhere that certain decisions or more paragon will increase your chances in the end?
Because all I have seen is they said that some decisions will have an effect in the game, ex; they said that if you saved the rachni queen someone would contact you in the game, I dont remember seeing anything specifically saying that it will help you in the end, or at all for that matter.

If they did say something along those lines, can you link it, i would like to see what I may or may not have done in my games.

[Pancaspe]

Timing of this game seems odd, so close to TOR launch.

[OrcsRLame]

So I see everyone replaying their games and going all paragon to get the "best possible save". Has it been said anywhere that certain decisions or more paragon will increase your chances in the end?
Because all I have seen is they said that some decisions will have an effect in the game, ex; they said that if you saved the rachni queen someone would contact you in the game, I dont remember seeing anything specifically saying that it will help you in the end, or at all for that matter.

If they did say something along those lines, can you link it, i would like to see what I may or may not have done in my games.

I'm assuming Paragon and Renegade are equal. A "perfect" save simply refers to doing all possible assignments/missions, carrying out all character conversations, getting the best resolution for your respective alignment in all situations, and ending the game at max level.

---------- Post added 2012-02-18 at 04:22 AM ----------

Timing of this game seems odd, so close to TOR launch.

Uh, what? TOR has been out for like 2 months. Mass Effect is also a multiplatform single player, (mostly) non-subscription based game. It does not compete with TOR in any way. Also they're from the same company. No, there's really nothing odd about the timing at all.

[omglazor]

So now that ME3 Demo Multiplayer has been unlocked and I sunk a solid 12 hours into it and leveled up a lvl 19 Vanguard (my primary in all ME games prior) and a few level 6s, I have to go back and revisit my statements regarding controls from my first post in this thread.

All-in-one context control buttons are terrible on PC and should never be conceived of. They are sloppy. They break PC conventions. ... and they plain suck. The character is sometimes too sticky, sometimes not sticky enough. If you try to sprint sideways by pressing D or A plus sprint button (which I rebound to Shift as a Sprint button should be), you do a roll instead. If you try to sprint too close to a wall or around a corner, you will stick to it. If you quickly come out of a sprint to interact with something (revive teammate, use an item) that is near some vertical surface (box, table, wall, planter), you will stick to said surface. If you try to do a quick lunge forward, you will do a roll.

Here is a 100% easy fix for these shenanigans: E for use, Shift for sprint, Space for Jump/Roll/Jump over cover (you know, general jumping actions); and since this is a PC, one could easily rebind those three. There, I fixed it for ya, BioWare. Porting a game to a different platform is not just an issue of getting the code to compile, it is also adopting the game to the vision and feel of said platform. It seems to me BioWare does not follow said ideology.

A side annoyance: Graphics options - why do I only have a choice of On or Off for AA? That is just silly. The 'On' version of AA in-game is freaking terrible, it must be 2x at most. The only way to get to AF at all that I have found (have not spent a lot of time figuring it out), was by going directly to "\Origin\Games\Mass Effect 3 Demo\Binaries\MassEffect3DemoConfig.exe". Why is AF not in the Options in-game? In the same vein, there are in general very few graphical options in-game. Oh, and they are under Extras -> Options. Who designed their Main Menu? A College Freshman with some experience in gaming could have come up with something better.

I do have to say, I am having fun with Vanguard class charging and blowing things up. Aside for pathing glitches with charge which remind me of warriors in WoW, it is pretty fluid. A little shallow as I mostly find myself just spamming charge -> nova -> pistol whip anyone alive even on Silver difficulty.
I can foresee it getting old the moment you get all the abilities you want.

@EA: No non-Origin version. Holding own titles hostage to get people to use their platform. Lovely. I have a massive collection in Steam, which also includes ME1 and 2, and I would certainly prefer to have ME3 under Steam. It's pretty shitty to try and get people to use your Software Distribution platform by not offering your titles in any other way.

---------- Post added 2012-02-18 at 06:35 AM ----------

It was meant as a standard shock scene. Every game has them now and again. Just look at CoD. Shock scenes are standard for every game since CoD4. I didn't feel as if it was forced though; I saw it coming a mile off, but knowing past games' reluctance with killing children I was mildly impressed they took the step. Writing in games is never spectacular either, you can never get the story out of a game that you can get out of a book. That said, I think Mass Effect is a very good example of a gaming story line.

I felt it was forced. Like a slap to the face while yelling: HERE! THERE ARE CHILDREN DYING! YOU SHOULD CARE! IT IS SO SAD!
Subtlety is key to emotions. Slapping me in the face with it just gives off a vibe of desperation and 'trying too hard'. This part felt like something extra, something that did not belong, an after-thought.

I actually really liked that scene. It's meant to ground the player a bit to see theirs a real cost associated with this invasion.

I am pretty sure that was very obvious from the get go. Reapers appear out of nowhere, laugh the human fleet off and start demolishing everything on Earth. If that is not a real cost to the invasion - seeing Earth and humanity being destroyed, I do not think adding a child (or any single person) dying is useful. It really was not necessary.

Here is a better way of conveying 'death and destruction': make some of those dang buildings and structures fall down! What are they made out of?! The Reapers keep blasting lasers all around them and onto highways and that loading dock you prominently see, but nothing crumbles! Not a single metal container shifts an inch.

[Zerioc]

All-in-one context control buttons are terrible on PC and should never be conceived of. They are sloppy. They break PC conventions. ... and they plain suck. The character is sometimes too sticky, sometimes not sticky enough. If you try to sprint sideways by pressing D or A plus sprint button (which I rebound to Shift as a Sprint button should be), you do a roll instead. If you try to sprint too close to a wall or around a corner, you will stick to it. If you quickly come out of a sprint to interact with something (revive teammate, use an item) that is near some vertical surface (box, table, wall, planter), you will stick to said surface. If you try to do a quick lunge forward, you will do a roll.

Here is a 100% easy fix for these shenanigans: E for use, Shift for sprint, Space for Jump/Roll/Jump over cover (you know, general jumping actions); and since this is a PC, one could easily rebind those three. There, I fixed it for ya, BioWare. Porting a game to a different platform is not just an issue of getting the code to compile, it is also adopting the game to the vision and feel of said platform. It seems to me BioWare does not follow said ideology.

Completely agree with this. I hope they listen and patch it in to split up the spacebar's usage ( personally would go W for use, shift for sprint, and ctrl for cover/roll, but I'm wierd like that. ) since it would, I imagine, be an easy fix. Although I know nothing of code, it could be harder than I think. Still should get patched though.

A side annoyance: Graphics options - why do I only have a choice of On or Off for AA? That is just silly. The 'On' version of AA in-game is freaking terrible, it must be 2x at most. The only way to get to AF at all that I have found (have not spent a lot of time figuring it out), was by going directly to "\Origin\Games\Mass Effect 3 Demo\Binaries\MassEffect3DemoConfig.exe". Why is AF not in the Options in-game? In the same vein, there are in general very few graphical options in-game. Oh, and they are under Extras -> Options. Who designed their Main Menu? A College Freshman with some experience in gaming could have come up with something better.

To be fair, this is not entirely BioWare's fault. The Xbox has a 2GB size limit for demos, and the PC uses the same demo iirc. I'm hoping the options are better in live. May or may not be the case though. We'll see. Again, if they aren't in live it should be a priority fix for PC users.

@EA: No non-Origin version. Holding own titles hostage to get people to use their platform. Lovely. I have a massive collection in Steam, which also includes ME1 and 2, and I would certainly prefer to have ME3 under Steam. It's pretty shitty to try and get people to use your Software Distribution platform by not offering your titles in any other way.

Steam does the same thing. Don't act like they don't. You cannot play most, if not all, valve games outside steam. Same with Skyrim, and New vegas. I'm sure there's others but that's all I'm aware of. All the Origin hate seems so wierd, considering it's so much like Steam... but ohwell. That's not relevant to this thread.

[e]: Anyways, why I was posting here, has anyone figured out a way to respec in the multiplayer demo? Haven't read thread, going back to do so now. Ignore this if it's already been mentioned. Just wanted to reply before I started reading :<

[e2]: Seem you can't respec in the demo, but will be able to in live. Cool.