Mass Effect 3

[Thanatos9t]

This is one of the things that has kicked up a stink, with the devs trying to reassure everyone that is just for the demo and the full game has plenty of dialogue with more choices. Guess we'll see in a few weeks.

Hopefully its not like the Dragon Age 2 demo and Biowares Dev's saying the game wasn't finished and then ended up releasing it with no changes.

[DarthParametric]

What the hell am I looking at?

I'd hit it. Hell, Miranda looked like she had facial hair in some convos in ME2 and I still went there - twice.

[ChAiNz.2da]

On an unrelated note, just spotted this over at The Escapist. I'm not usually a fan of Critical Miss, finding it's title far too apt a description usually, but this one is ME3 related and stars Tali, so ChAiNz and our other resident Talimancers should appreciate it at least. Plus its dig at Chobot elicited a chuckle from me

 

I lost it at "..afraid Shepard might go all 'disingenuous assertions! Blargh!' and punch her teeth out. "

 

Not sure what the hell BioWare was thinking adding Chobot in the game. I don't even know anyone who likes her normal "gig", much less want her stinking up the game from inside it...

[DarthParametric]

It's all part of their marketing to the masses strategy. Maybe we'll be surprised by some heretofore unseen acting chops, but I gather digital Chobot is no different to the real one - a simple bit of T&A being used to push a product.

[Taak Farst]

My earlier post was rather unexplained but it was posted from my phone and I was merely giving my hands on opinion.

 

I played the demo on the Xbox 360. The whole Role Play/Action/Story choice bothers me. This is where the whole 'Shooter V RPG' thing becomes more apparent because this choice is like asking 'Do you want to play Mass Effect 3, like you paid for, or would you rather play Call of Duty?' . I think this is ridiculous, even for BioWare/EA.

 

I went with Roleplay because I read it as 'Go story for faceroll gameplay, or go action for careless cutscenes'. I was shocked at what little dialogue there was to choose though, but I'm hoping that's 'cause I didn't pick story.

 

I'm also kinda worried that Paragon players are going to have a difficult time in this game, in terms of actually helping anything at all. If you are paragon

then you can't save the kid, nor can you persuade Anderson to join you.

I'm not sure if you can do the latter one if you are Renegade but the first example still stands.

 

And there is a TINY MINOR INSIGNIFICANT LITTLE THING I must say. There sure as hell better be a way to have your weapon holstered when out of combat. Especially in civilised areas. It will annoy me to no end if there isn't.

 

Gameplay was...well...too shootery. I know, I know, the whole trilogy's gameplay was a 3rd Person Shooter, but I don't know, certain things seem too shootery. Minor details only a total nerd could take notice of.

Such as gun SFX. To me, they just sound like normal bullets now. That, combined with the 'commentator' voice on Multiplayer that says things like 'Squad member down', make me feel like I'm playing Black Ops or something.

[Alkonium]

Also...

 

 

What the hell am I looking at?

 

(Rhetorical question )

 

Yeah, I'll stick with Tali.

[mimartin]

I played the demo on the Xbox 360. The whole Role Play/Action/Story choice bothers me. This is where the whole 'Shooter V RPG' thing becomes more apparent because this choice is like asking 'Do you want to play Mass Effect 3, like you paid for, or would you rather play Call of Duty?' . I think this is ridiculous, even for BioWare/EA.

Yeah, because choice is a bad thing. Do it the way I want or don't do it at all.

 

 

Also if you think DA2 demo and DA2 are one in the same, then you really didn't get the entire Varric telling a story part of DA2. Yes the demo was in the game, but no that wasn't just like the rest of the game.

[DarthParametric]

I was shocked at what little dialogue there was to choose though, but I'm hoping that's 'cause I didn't pick story.

No, the only difference between RPG and Story mode is that Story takes out all the "extraneous" gameplay mechanics (much as Shooter takes out all the story/RPG stuff). There is no difference in dialogue between the two. As Lynk stated above, Story is basically easy mode.

 

I'm not sure if you can do the latter one if you are Renegade but the first example still stands.

If you were expecting actual choices and consequences rather than just the illusion of choice, you might want to hold off on buying the full game....

 

There sure as hell better be a way to have your weapon holstered when out of combat. Especially in civilised areas. It will annoy me to no end if there isn't.

You're out of luck. They removed it because of the memory constraints of the consoles:

 

It's a runtime memory cost, not a disk space issue. You need those anims for the non-combat areas... so they're going to be on disk regardless.

 

In order to support exploration in the combat areas, you'd need to have all the anims loaded in memory... so that would be things like the 8-way walks, runs, incline anims, idles, idle twitches, male/female variant overrides, eye noise... etc.

 

All in all (iirc) it came out to around 2-4MB, which is relatively significant. Also, as you've guessed, yes - I'm referring to the main game (as well as the demo).

 

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9234315&lf=8

 

Gameplay was...well...too shootery. [...] make me feel like I'm playing Black Ops or something.

I believe Gears of Wars was probably what they were going after, but no doubt COD was a very large influence as well. It shouldn't be surprising at this point. They made their aspirations fairly plain in ME2. This is just the logical progression.

[Lynk Former]

Yeah, I'll stick with Tali.

Exactly.

 

 

I only found out in the last few months that you could call Tali (or another love interest, but for me it was Tali) up to your quarters to have a little snuggle session and have her hang out on your couch... blew my mind...

[Taak Farst]

Yeah, because choice is a bad thing. Do it the way I want or don't do it at all.

 

It's not like that, but it seems like a 'bad' sort of choice, if that is possible. Ignore what I said, because it doesn't seem to make sense.

 

You're out of luck. They removed it because of the memory constraints of the consoles[/Quote]

 

Ugh. At least the hub areas don't require that you constantly have guns out.

[mimartin]

It's not like that, but it seems like a 'bad' sort of choice, if that is possible. Ignore what I said, because it doesn't seem to make sense.

I get what you mean, like me you want a more traditional RPG. While I agree, I have friends that are also playing and love Mass Effect and they want less RPG. BioWare may be making a mistake going the route of trying to make everyone happy instead of sticking with one or the other, but I don't fault them for trying.

 

As to your spoilers

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

The opening sequence in both ME and ME2 were pretty much railroad jobs. I don't see how ME3 is any different. As to the kid, I think that is pretty much to tell the player that unlike in ME and ME2, Shepard is not going to be able to save everyone. I would have been more upset if they continued that illusion given the scope of the battle.

 

As to Anderson, why would you want him to come with you? He is a Admiral, if he is on the Normandy, then he is in charge not Shepard. I thought it was noble for him to stay. Yes, they did not give you the option, but in real life you don't have the option to make others do everything your way either and staying makes way more sense to the story than Shepard being Anderson's pawn the entire game. People would be really bitching about no choices then.

[DarthParametric]

Ugh. At least the hub areas don't require that you constantly have guns out.

My interpretation would be this is all the fault of the FemShep players. They bitched and moaned about the use of the male animations in ME2. While they got what they wanted - separate female animations - for ME3, it would seem the price everyone had to pay is the inability to holster weapons in combat zones. The master race need not have paid the price as well, what with a few extra meg of memory in their case being laughable, but of course expecting a superior version is too much to ask for. Not that this minor issue particularly bothers me personally. Not in the face of things like mandating the install of the Origin malware.

[mimartin]

My interpretation would be this is all the fault of the FemShep players.

I'm a femshep player and I never bitched and moaned about the animations. I bitched and moaned that Tali wouldn't give my femshep the time of day.

[Thanatos9t]

Also if you think DA2 demo and DA2 are one in the same, then you really didn't get the entire Varric telling a story part of DA2. Yes the demo was in the game, but no that wasn't just like the rest of the game.

 

I'm talking about the bugs and gameplay tweaks which the developer said they were going to fix before the game shipped when in fact it had pretty much already gone 'Gold' (ready to publish) before they had addressed the issues raised.

 

Also the demo was not just the exaggerated version of DA2, but included the real version of events after Cassandra called Varric's exaggerated bull and also a small part of Kirkwall via a time jump, involving Isabella.

[Lynk Former]

@ mim: Perhaps she will in ME3 :D

[Taak Farst]

@ mim: Perhaps she will in ME3 :D

 

IT SHALL BE GLORIOUS.

[mimartin]

Also the demo was not just the exaggerated version of DA2, but included the real version of events after Cassandra called Varric's exaggerated bull and also a small part of Kirkwall via a time jump, involving Isabella.

True, but the demo was not a fair representation of the entire game. I hated the demo. I even hated DA2 the game for the about 1/3 of the entire game. I gave up and planned on never looking back at DA2, but stoffe got me to try it again and I loved the last 2/3 of the game (well until the ending where the end boss made me wish for baby terminator again).

 

@ mim: Perhaps she will in ME3 :D

One can only hope.

[Totenkopf]

After trying each of the narrative styles, I'm gonna have to upgrade my machine before playing the actual game. The story version didn't seem to cause any noticeable lags in gameplay, but the settings for the other two were showing drag (both in the cutscenes and the play itself). Figure I'll need at least a new vid card.

[Ctrl Alt Del]

Well, I don't care if they about the about the Action bit - which IMO takes away a lot of the fun (never thought ME works solely as a TPS) - but I'll probably give it a try down the road. As long as the Role Play aspect is not affected, which I have my doubts, I really could care less.

 

After trying each of the narrative styles, I'm gonna have to upgrade my machine before playing the actual game. The story version didn't seem to cause any noticeable lags in gameplay, but the settings for the other two were showing drag (both in the cutscenes and the play itself). Figure I'll need at least a new vid card.

 

That's weird, considering nothing relevant is added on these other modes. Quite the contrary, actually.

[Totenkopf]

That's weird, considering nothing relevant is added on these other modes. Quite the contrary, actually.

 

Well, the story narrative is on the easiest settings, apparently. I guess the current specs on my PC are sufficient to allow it to play, but with some degradation. Funny thing is, the cutscenes for the story version seemed to flow best, but for the action setting it was a little choppy in places and a bit better for the RP option. May try both those versions again later, but setting the gameplay to same as story version to see if any difference whatsoever. My vid card is kinda old anyway and needs to be upgraded/replaced.

[Darth333]

My interpretation would be this is all the fault of the FemShep players. They bitched and moaned about the use of the male animations in ME2.

Uhh...Bioware did have separate animations for FemShep in ME 1 but the hip movements were utterly ridiculous. In ME 2 they went to other other extreme: wouldn't you complain to have female animations for MaleShep? I know I would...

 

It seems like a cheap excuse for not being able to holster a weapon...I'd never thought I'd complain about animations in a game but this is very annoying both from an RP and a general gameplay/camera point of view. They've added several other animations which we could have done without while not even noticing their absence (yay jump across gaps, rolls in every direction, multiple other animations during cutscenes, etc).

 

 

...and the demo does not bode well for rpg players: where did the dialog option went? (I tried only RPG and Story gameplay options). I hope I'm wrong but I fear that while trying to please everyone, multiplayer, solo, action and rpg fans, the game will not be truly satisfying to anyone. I know it's a demo but I only got a few dialog choices (even less than in the DA2 demo ) and I could choose between two extremes only.

[DarthParametric]

It seems like a cheap excuse

I never said it was a good or valid move, that's just my take on what their reasoning will be if pressed on it based on the quote from Brenon Holmes where he emphasises the doubling up of animations for FemShep. You are right in that the actual cause is all the stupid crap they added to ME3 like the stabby stabby, rolling and ladder climbing, but you don't think they'll admit to that do you?

 

where did the dialog option went?

I posted earlier that a dev directly addressed this issue when people complained about it on the official site. Supposedly this is not representative of the final game, with other conversations having more options. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

[Lynk Former]

IT SHALL BE GLORIOUS.

I kind of started a Femshep run on ME1 but was like "meh, don't care enough" to finish it... but if there's some Femshep + tali hawt lesbian action, I'm definitely going through the trilogy with Femshep just so I can have that happen.

 

@ D3: It's not just the Femshep walk/run animation that's horrid, the male shep and npc walk/run animation looks pretty strange to me too... in the ME3 demo I mean, I don't remember it being bad in previous games, but in the demo things did seem pretty off.

[Darth333]

@ D3: It's not just the Femshep walk/run animation that's horrid, the male shep and npc walk/run animation looks pretty strange to me too... in the ME3 demo I mean, I don't remember it being bad in previous games, but in the demo things did seem pretty off.

Thanks for confirming it was not just a vague impression I had...

 

but you don't think they'll admit to that do you?

* Paragon answer*: Of course, they will always tell us the "true truth"!

 

. Supposedly this is not representative of the final game, with other conversations having more options. I guess we'll see in a few weeks.

The DA2 demo versus the final version of the game isn't a very reassuring precedent...

[DarthParametric]

The DA2 demo versus the final version of the game isn't a very reassuring precedent...

mimartin would like to have a word with you, I suspect.