383 replies to this topic

[dammitmattt]

Happy Valentine's Day! The demo is out today. Multiplayer is available later this week. It sounds like there are a lot of smart improvements to the game systems that put it somewhere between the complexity of the first two games. The combat looks bigger and better than ever. The Insanity difficulty seems more fair now that you don't have to strip off shields and barriers of off every damn enemy. There are numerous achievements that you can unlock in EITHER single player or multiplayer, which is smart.

I can't wait, and I look forward to trying out the demo as soon as Valentine's Day is over.

[Indifference]

I played through it yesterday and I can't wait for 3/6. I forgot about the kinect stuff at first then I noticed the mic icons next to almost everything, so I game them a shout(not really). It worked surprisingly well. I look forward to hearing Kirbutashi's impressions of the Kinect functionality.
Overall it seemed like a more refined ME2 with better shooting. That's all I am expecting in addition to more hours of resource mining.

[gokieks]

Started replaying ME2 last night. Had bought all the (good) DLC but hadn't gone back to play through it, now doing so in preparation of ME3. And god, I forgot how annoying the spacebar-to-skip-dialogue-leading-to-accidental-conversation-choices thing was. Especially after playing SWTOR, where you can just press Esc to cancel a conversation if you pick the wrong option.

[Kirbutashi]

This is the reason I replayed ME2 last month!

I'm not a fan of how they changed the Sentinel. With tech armor no longer functioning as a secondary shield, I don't see the benefit in putting one point into anything that would improve its offensive capabilities over its defensive bonuses. I'd like to try out the other classes. And not being able to change your loadout to see how your cooldowns are effected is rough. 23 seconds between abilities is no good

[RareMonkey]

I don't want to touch the game (or see it really) until it comes out, will be playing day one though.

[Kirbutashi]

I'll definitely give the multiplayer portion of the demo a spin with the free gold that'll be going on. I forget when that's live for non-BF3 people, though.

[RareMonkey]

I'll definitely give the multiplayer portion of the demo a spin with the free gold that'll be going on. I forget when that's live for non-BF3 people, though.

This I might do. I am OK with doing multiplayer, doesn't give any story away.

[DistantStorm]

I don't want to touch the game (or see it really) until it comes out, will be playing day one though.

This.

Also giving ME2 another go around, partially to refresh myself w/ the characters,but mostly to play through all the significant DLC I'd downloaded, but never got to. Just finished up the Kasumi stuff the other night; really looking forward to getting to the Shadow Broker content.

Man, it's gonna get awkward when my FemShep meets up w/ Liara again in 3. How can she be mad, though? She wasn't around! and embarking on suicide missions tends to enhance the need for companionship, and there was Kelly Chambers, always so understanding...

Edited by DistantStorm, 14 February 2012 - 12:09 PM.

[Indifference]

This.

Also giving ME2 another go around, partially to refresh myself w/ the characters,but mostly to play through all the significant DLC I'd downloaded, but never got to. Just finished up the Kasumi stuff the other night; really looking forward to getting to the Shadow Broker content.

Man, it's gonna get awkward when my FemShep meets up w/ Liara again in 3. How can she be mad, though? She wasn't around! and embarking on suicide missions tends to enhance the need for companionship, and there was Kelly Chambers, always so understanding...

I need to go back and play some ME2 DLC as well. Now that I think about it I need to play some DLC for Alan Wake and like 50 other games. Thanks for the reminder.....jerk!

[KnightAttack]

This is the reason I replayed ME2 last month!

I'm not a fan of how they changed the Sentinel. With tech armor no longer functioning as a secondary shield, I don't see the benefit in putting one point into anything that would improve its offensive capabilities over its defensive bonuses. I'd like to try out the other classes. And not being able to change your loadout to see how your cooldowns are effected is rough. 23 seconds between abilities is no good

I recently finished up another play of ME2 as well. I'm excited to see what's going on, but after this demo, I'm going on a 100% blackout on all things Mass Effect. I don't want to hear or see any more about the game until I'm playing it on March 6th.

[Kirbutashi]

If you aren't familiar with the Arrival DLC, I suggest leaving that until after you've done the suicide mission.

[probune]

I heard that dlc was terrible so I never bought it

[gamer812]

The Insanity difficulty seems more fair now that you don't have to strip off shields and barriers of off every damn enemy.

Thank god.

As for the Arrival DLC in regards to Mass Effect 3,

Spoiler

Kind of disappointing that Bioware skips the trial Shepard had to attend. They made it out to be a big deal in the DLC, then *poof* Bioware doesn't give a shit. It makes me question how they'll approach the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC.

[KnightAttack]

I heard that dlc was terrible so I never bought it

Me too. Is it worth the money?

[Kirbutashi]

Its not as good as the others, but I still enjoy it. It has a great survival bit and is a pretty important story beat to lead into ME3.

[KnightAttack]

Well, that demo was......interesting.

Instead of answering the questions should have just done this dance then said "Screw you all" and walked out.


Would've been much more satisfying then this demo.

March 6th can't come soon enough. I'm also really interested to see a little more what's up since some of the choices in the demo were obviously different then the ones I made.

[famousmortimer]

Not surprisingly the demo made me angry. They 'upgraded' the player models in a way that they move completely unnaturally and they have serious derp face. Also as far as I can tell the story is about the earth getting the complete shit kicked out of it as you run off to go play mass effect (aka go form a team). Again? Really? Fuck you.

I'm still gonna buy it... and i notoriously don't like demos (even amalur i was only lukewarm on and now i loveeeeeee that game). So hopefully the final product resonates with me more.

[KnightAttack]

Not surprisingly the demo made me angry. They 'upgraded' the player models in a way that they move completely unnaturally and they have serious derp face. Also as far as I can tell the story is about the earth getting the complete shit kicked out of it as you run off to go play mass effect (aka go form a team). Again? Really? Fuck you.

I'm still gonna buy it... and i notoriously don't like demos (even amalur i was only lukewarm on and now i loveeeeeee that game). So hopefully the final product resonates with me more.

out of curiosity, what did you play it on?

I thought I was seeing during the initial scene in the PS3 version a some bad slowdowns in FPS, but then smoothed out as the demo went on.

The part that really confused me was the 2nd half of the demo with the attackers. I get that they may be pissed at Shepard, but he's trying to save Humanity. I also found it hilarious that inside the walking tank the dude was wearing a full suit of armor.

[SickBoy]

I'm not going to bother with the demo, but I really don't want to have to travel the universe to form another crack team for universe-saving. Don't get me wrong, I will... just wish they'd find a way to change up the formula. I can only hope that the little ventures to other parts of the galaxy are exceptionally brief. (At least those related to recruitment)

Edited by SickBoy, 14 February 2012 - 11:44 PM.

[famousmortimer]

out of curiosity, what did you play it on?

I thought I was seeing during the initial scene in the PS3 version a some bad slowdowns in FPS, but then smoothed out as the demo went on.

The part that really confused me was the 2nd half of the demo with the attackers. I get that they may be pissed at Shepard, but he's trying to save Humanity. I also found it hilarious that inside the walking tank the dude was wearing a full suit of armor.

I played it on the 360 earlier today. I'll be playing the full version on the ps3 though.


On the 360 the environment looked good, though there was some screen tearing... and the FPS definitely was not locked. The player models though - what the fuck?

[Kirbutashi]

The game isn't about forming another crack team. Its about getting all of the races to make good and help you defeat the reapers. So, you'll most likely be solving all of the overarching plots like the genophage, quarians and the geth, or batarians intense hatred of humans. Renegade Shepard will probably be almost entirely composed of "Who cares about your problem? There are Reapers!" followed by a Reaper attack on his location.

Models have always looked off in Mass Effect. Certain lighting conditions can make characters look like horrible apes. Shepard's stagger around in the Normandy in ME2 made it look like her neck was broken.

[Wenny]

Renegade Shepard will probably be almost entirely composed of "Who cares about your problem? There are Reapers!" followed by a Reaper attack on his location.

Correction: her location.

[Kirbutashi]

Female Shepard is a Paragon most of the time. Male Shepard is a big jerk that punches more than just reporters.

[Wenny]

Female Shepard is a Paragon most of the time. Male Shepard is a big jerk that punches more than just reporters.

There is only one Shepard and she is a girl.

[Kirbutashi]

I will not allow you to deny Evil Obama Shepard as he punches his way across the galaxy.

[Wenny]

You can play with your wanna-be Shepard barbie dolls all you want.

[Kirbutashi]

Don't you mean Ken dolls?

[Wenny]

Don't you mean Ken dolls?

Ken was pretty fabulous in Toy Story 3.

[KnightAttack]

The game isn't about forming another crack team. Its about getting all of the races to make good and help you defeat the reapers. So, you'll most likely be solving all of the overarching plots like the genophage, quarians and the geth, or batarians intense hatred of humans. Renegade Shepard will probably be almost entirely composed of "Who cares about your problem? There are Reapers!" followed by a Reaper attack on his location.

Models have always looked off in Mass Effect. Certain lighting conditions can make characters look like horrible apes. Shepard's stagger around in the Normandy in ME2 made it look like her neck was broken.

First off: Thank Goodness. I wondered if that was only me. Shepard always seemed to be looking down and to the right when he was running around in the Normandy. I just assumed maybe he was drunk all the time.

It'll be interesting to see how everything is handled, especially with how your choices from the first games come into play.



However playing this demo kinda made me want to replay Mass Effect 2 and kill everybody but like 3 people and then see how it plays out.


Also, I got an email telling me I got exclusive access to the demo for being a BF3 player....which I am not (although I played in the Beta, so I'm thinking that's where that's coming from), so I guess I'll check that out at some point today.

Edited by KnightAttack, 15 February 2012 - 09:42 AM.

[mik]

Hard to know what to think without any context, but it seems pretty neat to me. I'm still on board and believe it's going to be a nice conclusion to the series.

[PlayerOneStewy]

Demo seemed crap. Playing on "story" mode brought the difficulty down to laughable levels, so there was no sense of danger at all in the two scenarios for me.

Also, femShep walks like a dude fresh from a prostate exam.

Spoiler

And I hope her universe-spanning diplomacy trip takes about 15 minutes, because it looks like that's about how much time the earth has left when she leaves.

[Kirbutashi]

Well, then, I guess that's what Story Mode does. Sounds really boring! But works as advertised I guess. Setting up useful scenarios for your powers is what makes combat fun for me in the series.

Thing you have to know about Mass Effect, Greg, is that humanity is the MOST IMPORTANT AND DIVERSE RACE OF ANY ORGANIC BEING IN THE GALAXY. So, Earth will probably persevere just fine while I punch reporters and talk Conrad Verner into doing more stupid shit. Truthfully, though, I am curious as to how they'll handle that. Limiting the amount of time you can dick around in an RPG as big as Mass Effect is no good, but you need some sort of tension...

[dammitmattt]

The demo doesn't really show anything other than a slightly better-looking and playing ME2 so I'm not sure how some of the negative opinions were formed in people who liked the second game. The faces aren't perfect but they are still better than just about any other game faces outside of Uncharted and LA Noire. Plus the camera work has gotten pretty damn fancy.

The two things I took out of the demo were that the shooting feels better and the lighting looked a little weird, particularly in the Earth section. Otherwise, it didn't do anything to help or hurt my feelings. I'm still ridiculously pumped and I'm sure it will be a great game. Even with Freddie fucking Prinze Jr. on board as a guy who's twice his size.

[Kirbutashi]

I can totally get behind the intro being less effective than ME2's. Aliens have shown up to destroy Earth! But don't worry, because it turns out Earth is a ghost town save for a child and the Alliance! Phew.
Definitely not as impactful as coming out onto the bridge of the SR1 to see the roof blasted off.

[SickBoy]

The game isn't about forming another crack team. Its about getting all of the races to make good and help you defeat the reapers. So, you'll most likely be solving all of the overarching plots like the genophage, quarians and the geth, or batarians intense hatred of humans. Renegade Shepard will probably be almost entirely composed of "Who cares about your problem? There are Reapers!" followed by a Reaper attack on his location.

If that's the case, that's probably cool. I enjoy the general structure of the games and it's obvious why it works, but they needed to take a different approach to push you around the galaxy this time around.

Anyhow, not touching the demo, but looking forward to getting my hands on the game.

[Kirbutashi]

If I understand it correctly, your squad will be much more fluid in ME3 with the game forcing in cameos here and there. That makes sense if they're claiming that there will be way more squad banter, which was sorely missing from ME2. That's pretty much how the Shadow Broker DLC was set up.

[dammitmattt]

I have no clue how the story goes and I haven't read any spoilers, but it would make more sense to me in a game like this to start with a premise where Earth is essentially lost (save for a few pockets of resistance). Therefore, the plot could still be about the different races teaming up to defeat the enemy but you wouldn't have the artificial time limit of Earth's impending doom in the back of your mind as you are looking for lost cats, romancing aliens, and mining materials. If Earth is already doomed, it becomes more about survival and finding a new place to call home. That search for a new home and the rebuilding of that home can even be an Actraiser/Soul Blazer/Dark Cloud-style (optional) game mechanic. I know it's not "saving Earth," but I think it would make for a better game.

[Indy aka Rex]

Does anyone know if they've announced a sale on the ME2 add-ons? I'm getting this, but I don't want to play it until I've had a proper run-through of ME2.

[Kirbutashi]

I don't think they've ever done a sale on any ME2 DLC.

[dammitmattt]

I don't think they've ever done a sale on any ME2 DLC.

It's definitely been on sale before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it goes on sale again leading up to the launch.