Mass Effect 3

[Gorth]

Start of old thread

End of old thread

 

Dog gone it Bioware, you did it again. One thing is that my ship looks like a condemned building on the inside and the nicely lit rooms have been "dimmed" to gloomy levels. But why do you hate fish? My damn fish tank is empty again

 

If it weren't for the gosh darn awful bad journal...and the terrible endings....and that ME2 would have been last decade as well as most other great games such as the original ME...I'd put it for game of the decade (thus far). AS it is, with that terrible journal and the way the endings go...it is merely really good.

... and too long intro sequence with only partial skippable cutscenes.

 

Anyway, before I get lost in a sea of rambling on - is there any scope at all for modding in this instalment or is it all pretty much locked down like its predecessors?

When you find a mod, does it become available to all guns of a type or is there a limit, say you need 3 scopes for 3 pistols etc.?

[Gorgon]

The file format is heavily protected. Wouldn't want people to create content that would compete with their plan to suck as much profit out of their creation as humanly possible.

[Nepenthe]

Dog gone it Bioware, you did it again. One thing is that my ship looks like a condemned building on the inside and the nicely lit rooms have been "dimmed" to gloomy levels. But why do you hate fish? My damn fish tank is empty again

 

you can get them back. And I mean get back your old fish, not buy them again.

 

When you find a mod, does it become available to all guns of a type or is there a limit, say you need 3 scopes for 3 pistols etc.?

Just need to get them once, I missed out on a lot of higher level mods, among other things.

[Calax]

If it weren't for the gosh darn awful bad journal...and the terrible endings....and that ME2 would have been last decade as well as most other great games such as the original ME...I'd put it for game of the decade (thus far). AS it is, with that terrible journal and the way the endings go...it is merely really good.

 

PS: Anyone who finished...do you get that KotOR 2 jive from the ending...as in a similar feel of great game...but you might prefer that it had a ending or different type of ending?

Now that I think about it... it's less Kotor 2 and more Deus Ex Human Revolution.

[Humanoid]

Heh, I did word that a bit ambiguously - but I meant mod and scope outside the context of gameplay - and Gorgon's answer is pretty much what I expected the answer to be.

 

 

At any rate, the vibe I get from the discussions here and elsewhere is that if I consider ME1 and 2 as brief, entertaining romps with guns and a bit extra (which I do) then ME3 can hardly be seen to be delivering any less, and usually delivers more. If I try to view the predecessors as the dawn of some new epic paradigm in world design (which I don't) then ME3 may feel like a cheap cop-out.

[HoonDing]

Best parts of the game are the moments with your (old) crew members and the main story missions.

 

"Radiant" fetch quests are tedious; I went back to the Citadel after a main mission and after visiting all areas suddenly I had fifteen of them. Galaxy travel and scanning is boring, and since I'm skipping MP I'm forced to grind every war asset I can find. Main side missions feel like they all take place on multiplayer maps.

 

Combat is more involving with enemies being more active and trying to flush you out of cover, still unless you leave your biotic at the ship you can kill everything in seconds with either singularity or stasis (with really low cooldowns). Combat is even more broken than ME1, but at least less tedious than ME2's basic cover shooting.

 

My biggest gripe is the "one button to rule them all" control design, I died a couple of times because I rolled when I wanted to take cover, and took cover when I wanted to roll.

[Humanoid]

I don't follow whether these War Assets affect gameplay or narrative throughout the game at all or if they're basically just the variable in a giant switch statement at the end of the game that determines which ending movie to play. i.e. Does coming into various key plot points "unprepared" actually have an adverse effect on the next segment of the game?

 

 

It seems precious little incentive to me if the whole much-talked-about mechanic was simply a substitute for a quick youtube search.

[Lexx]

The combat isn't scalled to your level, is it? I started a second playthrough and importet my ME3 character, which is now level 54+, has a lot weapons and armor and stuff and I am rolling over every enemy now. Got my Mattock up to level 10 and with armor piercing ammo, I am blasting through everything. The Mattock isn't even the best assault rifle- I am only using it, because it has the best look.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Lexx

[HoonDing]

BioWare should be commended for at least trying with the C&C. The entire Tuchanka mission was masterful.

 

It also seems if ME2 crew members didn't survive the suicide mission, there's a nice amount of content you miss out on. Even if they're probably replaced by boring placeholder NPCs.

Edited March 11, 2012 by virumor

[Calax]

Although, if you have Mordin I don't think you get this conversation

 

[Nepenthe]

BioWare should be commended for at least trying with the C&C. The entire Tuchanka mission was masterful.

I think that mission arc carried me through a lot of less inspired parts of the game, possibly the best thing I've ever seen in a game, amywhere.

 

I'm also glad to notice that some of you picked up on the fact that this decade is still kind of new.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Nepenthe

[Raithe]

And I have to say I enjoyed finding out that Conrad Verner is actually useful.. and they threw in some nice conversation on the whole "sorry I kept saying you put a gun in my face when you didn't..." or the "so ..what is a thermal clip " "uh.that sounds like going back to ammo" "what happened to the original heat sink built into guns?" conversation line..

 

A couple of odd glitches niggle away, "cutscenes" that show Shepard and co holding one type of assault rifle, while clearly wearing others on their backs. Then some "cutscenes" that get it right.. doesn't seem much ryhme nor reason to the way it goes.

 

And just got that email news from ANN about the Quarian Marines being honored by Turians..

 

Alas, the heroic death of Kal'Reegar.

 

The news report almost brought a tear to the eye

[Lexx]

I thought the default assault rifle is only shown if the characters are going to fire their weapons in the scene. I'll guessed that this is because some weapons don't do burst mode like the default rifle is doing. I. e. the Mattock, as example, doesn't have burst mode at all.

[Nepenthe]

A couple of odd glitches niggle away, "cutscenes" that show Shepard and co holding one type of assault rifle, while clearly wearing others on their backs. Then some "cutscenes" that get it right.. doesn't seem much ryhme nor reason to the way it goes.

I was disappointed by that issue being still around (after they managed to do class-specific cutscenes in DA2), but it's just the old ME2 issue recurring. (In me1 you'd be using the weapons you carried, even if they were of a type that you couldn't use properly).

 

Edit: Interesting point Lexx, I hadn't considered it.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Nepenthe

[Tale]

No, they still had it randomly. I've seen the Particle Beam being used with a cutscene that fires. Which is awkward to see it firing bullets.

[Malcador]

Hey, at least it's better than the invisible weapons you'd wield in TOR, heh. So far, only 5 hours or so in, having a good time. Space bar is a bit wonky in combat, at least for me, not a big fan of "one button for everything" .

[Nepenthe]

Hey, at least it's better than the invisible weapons you'd wield in TOR, heh. So far, only 5 hours or so in, having a good time. Space bar is a bit wonky in combat, at least for me, not a big fan of "one button for everything" .

I'm not sure what's been up with the PC versions of ME2 and 3. They are clear console ports but they've just randomly chosen to remove pad support from them (not so random though, apparently the games-for-windows-xbox-pad-license thing is a percentage of the profit). On a personal level I consider this obstinate refusal to give players options (which they did partially do away with, since the helmet toggle is in) to be Bios biggest design philosophy issue in comparison to, say, Eidos Montreal.

[HoonDing]

The only glitch that bothered me so far was Balak being alive even though my Renegade had killed him. Then again, at least it meant some extra war assets.

Edited March 11, 2012 by virumor

[greylord]

I don't follow whether these War Assets affect gameplay or narrative throughout the game at all or if they're basically just the variable in a giant switch statement at the end of the game that determines which ending movie to play. i.e. Does coming into various key plot points "unprepared" actually have an adverse effect on the next segment of the game?

 

 

It seems precious little incentive to me if the whole much-talked-about mechanic was simply a substitute for a quick youtube search.

 

 

 

I always had quite an amount, so the only change for me I think was between my SP and MP playthroughs, whether it was on PC or PS3, and choices from the previous games. One had some more to it then the other...but same three choices.

 

I hear though that if you have less then a certain amount, some of those 3 choices won't be available...that less of your forces will survive at parts, and you will see varying scenes at the end either showing more or less devastation to Earth or other locations.

 

 

 

 

Hey, at least it's better than the invisible weapons you'd wield in TOR, heh. So far, only 5 hours or so in, having a good time. Space bar is a bit wonky in combat, at least for me, not a big fan of "one button for everything" .

I'm not sure what's been up with the PC versions of ME2 and 3. They are clear console ports but they've just randomly chosen to remove pad support from them (not so random though, apparently the games-for-windows-xbox-pad-license thing is a percentage of the profit). On a personal level I consider this obstinate refusal to give players options (which they did partially do away with, since the helmet toggle is in) to be Bios biggest design philosophy issue in comparison to, say, Eidos Montreal.

 

Not as big a deal for me. I couldn't get ME1 or ME2 to work with my normal gamepads anyways. I downloaded a program instead which let me correspond keys on the keyboard to my gamepad and played both games that way via the PC...or I just used the keyboard, depending on my mood (program had to be started everytime I played to use the gamepad and sometimes just didn't start up the program).

Edited March 11, 2012 by greylord

[Nepenthe]

I'm not sure what's been up with the PC versions of ME2 and 3. They are clear console ports but they've just randomly chosen to remove pad support from them (not so random though, apparently the games-for-windows-xbox-pad-license thing is a percentage of the profit). On a personal level I consider this obstinate refusal to give players options (which they did partially do away with, since the helmet toggle is in) to be Bios biggest design philosophy issue in comparison to, say, Eidos Montreal.

 

Not as big a deal for me. I couldn't get ME1 or ME2 to work with my normal gamepads anyways. I downloaded a program instead which let me correspond keys on the keyboard to my gamepad and played both games that way via the PC...or I just used the keyboard, depending on my mood (program had to be started everytime I played to use the gamepad and sometimes just didn't start up the program).

Yeah, I just consider it a nice extra bit of customer service, maintaining that option for PC versions. I do all my gaming from the sofa these days*, so I don't want to balance a keyboard on my lap and a mouse on the armrest if I don't have to.

 

*I spend way too much time hunched in front of a computer to do it on my free time any longer. Too bad, since, say, BG1-2 are unplayable on my setup.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Nepenthe

[Janmanden]

Space bar is a bit wonky in combat, at least for me, not a big fan of "one button for everything" .

 

It's a bit 'funny' that you've got one key to do a lot of things with, when you still got four keys to do one thing.. The ASWD is basically just going forward in four different directions, but neither sidestepping (strafing) nor going backwards.. Funny being painfully clunky and annoying.

[Majek]

Goddmn DCs in MP. It's like they want to force you to buy their Bio point ( or cheat ) instead of supporting normal play. It could be so much more fun if i didn't get a DC 5!!! seconds before the mission ends in the LZ. It happens every day i play MP. grrrrrrrrr

 

Yeah combat needs more polishing. It has so much potential but they just can't perfect it. :/

[Morgoth]

Anybody wondered what kind of singleplayer DLC we can expect for this? Probably nothing too exciting, though maybe saving the Volus homeworld would be cool. I really like those inflated space hamsters, they're cute with all that greedy attitude and mechanical breathing.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Morgoth

[Lexx]

Pretty sure there will be something about Omega.

[Pop]

FYI the "optimal ending" EWA number is 4000, not 5000. Still a high bar with the no multi / no iOS rate of 50%