Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sirus]

I try not to unconditionally hate things. I don't always succeed, but it helps keep me on the Paragon path.

My best hope might be to wait until ME3 is massively discounted on Steam. Hopefully more of the money would go to Bioware rather than EA, but even if it didn't EA wouldn't earn as much money as if I bought it pre-release. The only hard part will be avoiding the massive amount of hype and spoiling that will ensue.

[Kilroy the Grand]

I try not to unconditionally hate things. I don't always succeed, but it helps keep me on the Paragon path.

My best hope might be to wait until ME3 is massively discounted on Steam.

BWAHAHAHAHA! Haven't you heard? It's not going to be on steam at all, it's going to be on ORIGIN instead! Aren't EA just the biggest dicks?

[Sirus]

Check the previous page. We've already covered this terrible thing 

[Xotes]

So, for the past five days, I have being playing the crap outta the multiplayer.

It's really, really, really good, is what I'm saying. I got lucky enough to get the Quarian Engineer as part of my starter pack, and I've almost got her (and the Human engie) to level twenty.

Silver difficulty is ridiculous sometimes, with pairs of Atlases bearing down on your squad as a time. Still nothing compared to Gold's four Atlases at once, though. I could say all sorts of other things about the multiplayer besides that, but suffice to say it's basically Rainbow Six meets Jedi Academy, and it is glorious.

[Sirus]

Quarian Engineer

asdhgdhfkshgf they actually included Quarians in multiplayer?!

GODDAMMIT EA AND BIOWARE, I'M TRYING TO STAND ON PRINCIPLE HERE! WHY U MAKE GAME SO AWESOME?

[Xotes]

Yeppers! For the demo, there's the Asari Adept (and her Stasis ability is godlike from what I've seen of it), Krogan Soldier (HIS FLESH IS MADE OF STEEL when Fortified) Drell Vanguard (who flips around and melee's like he just got ripped from a kung-fu movie) Turian Sentinel (...not actually familiar with him really) Salarian Infiltrator (I STEAL YOUR SHIELDS AND MAKE THEM MY OWN) and Quarian Engineer (YOU WERE FROZEN TODAY). The other combinations, such as Turian Soldiers and Quarian Infiltrators, are stripped from the unlock system to be saved for the full game.

As it stands, you start multiplayer out with access to the Male Human Soldier, Engineer and Adept, and Female Human Vanguard, Infiltrator and Sentinel. You unlock new equipment, characters, and one-use consumables like Missile Launchers that destroy anything unlucky enough in its blast radius to not be on your side, or Medi-gel that you can use to revive yourself when downed. You get these unlocks by purchasing booster packs (ala Magic: The Gathering) from the in-game store with Credits you earn from playing multiplayer.

Now, if you think that sounds a bit skeevy, I don't blame you, but completing a match on just Bronze (The 'easy' setting, although it'll still slaughter you if you're stupid) you make about 15,000 credits. A basic Recruit pack costs 5000 (although the loot it gives you isn't usually that good.)  A Veteran's pack costs 20,000, and guarantees you an Uncommon drop and consumables in packs of three. Beating a match on Silver is tough, but nets you around 25,000 to 30,000 credits if you complete the mission. So you get new stuff pretty much once a game if you can complete an entire round with your team... if you're lucky enough to get a competent one, anyway. It's a bit of a crapshoot.

The drop system is pretty ingenious, I'll give 'em that.

[Sirus]

The first time I heard that ME3 would have multiplayer, Quarians were not included in the list of races and that made me sad. And yeah, the method of unlocks doesn't sound so bad, as long as you earn points with every match and not just the ones you win.

Is any combination possible? Could I have, for example, a Krogan Infiltrator or a Salarian Vanguard?

[Xotes]

You earn Credits during side missions in multiplayer (which is Co-Op only, I should add). Every few waves, Mission Control patches in to inform you of missions you have to complete under a time-limit, and failing to do so loses the match. There's only three types of missions, those being killing a quartet of marked enemies, going from point to point and disabling indoctrination devices/establishing comm-links/whatever explanation Command gives, and holding a data upload center long enough to get some important info sent to command, where the more members of your team are in the upload area the faster it uploads.

In addition to that, you get boatloads of experience from slaughtering your enemies. Experience is doled out based on how much damage you do to an enemy, so if you drop a guy's shields and his health all the way to the last bar, and then a buddy takes him out, you get a majority of the experience while your teammate only gets a little. Even if your team fails and gets slaughtered, you keep all the cash and experience you earned up until everyone died.

Sadly the Race/Class combos are preset, and Human Male and Female variants take up the first two slots of each class out of four slots per class. While I'm on downsides, Matchmaking is more than a bit iffy at the moment. I've heard horror stories of connection issues, getting dropped from a game on the final wave and losing out on all the experience and dosh you've earned in that mission, and various other things. Still, for the most part it's worked well enough for me, so it's not all bad all the time.

[Chattox]

Am I the only one who thinks the biotic powers sound like dubstep wubs? Specifically Shockwave.

*use shockwave* WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB

[SeaBee]

It's so hard to prevent myself from playing the demo. The multiplayer actually sounds great (I was afraid it would be terrible), seems like everyone likes it. I want a quarian engineer chick. "Nothing is faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" Hope they buffed up the drones a bit. And a krogan ... head-butting everything sounds like joy.

But I must resist. I don't want to spoil any of the story. I'm one of the (few, probably) people that loved ME1 and ME2, and cannot wait to see how everything works out in ME3.

The only downside is Origin. Which, to be fair, is a pretty big downside.

[Chattox]

It's so hard to prevent myself from playing the demo. The multiplayer actually sounds great (I was afraid it would be terrible), seems like everyone likes it. I want a quarian engineer chick. "Nothing is faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" Hope they buffed up the drones a bit. And a krogan ... head-butting everything sounds like joy.

But I must resist. I don't want to spoil any of the story. I'm one of the (few, probably) people that loved ME1 and ME2, and cannot wait to see how everything works out in ME3.

The only downside is Origin. Which, to be fair, is a pretty big downside.

I, too, loved the first two ME games. I don't see what everyone hated about them. Also, you can play multiplayer without spoiling any of the story, it's pretty much a horde mode.

[SP2]

I need to reply the first two to get the saves I actually want rather than my "wing it" saves. Goddamn it, only a couple of weeks to go.

[Rakonas]

It's so hard to prevent myself from playing the demo. The multiplayer actually sounds great (I was afraid it would be terrible), seems like everyone likes it. I want a quarian engineer chick. "Nothing is faster than Chiktikka vas Paus!" Hope they buffed up the drones a bit. And a krogan ... head-butting everything sounds like joy.

But I must resist. I don't want to spoil any of the story. I'm one of the (few, probably) people that loved ME1 and ME2, and cannot wait to see how everything works out in ME3.

The only downside is Origin. Which, to be fair, is a pretty big downside.

I, too, loved the first two ME games. I don't see what everyone hated about them. Also, you can play multiplayer without spoiling any of the story, it's pretty much a horde mode.

I also loved ME 1 and 2, and look forward to 3, but I don't want to play the demo because lolOrigin.

[Kaitol]

ME1 was a promising RPG with shooter elements, but then all the shooter fans bitched about all the RPG elements, inventory and running around. So instead of polishing the game up, fixing the real issues, they...

Made ME2 into a shooter with extremely minor RPG elements, and "streamlined" the game into an endless procession of corridors and pointless recruitment missions. How long do I get to fight the Big Bad.. an hour? Why the fuck is the rest of the game centered around my poorly characterized and developed team, half of whom I BADLY WANT TO JUST DIE IN A FIRE? Why the fuck do my level ups not matter at all since I have like 5 skills, all of which will be nearly maxed, making characters of the same class identical aside from one guy maybe having a tiny area of effect and the other doing a bit more single damage? And why the hell is every other camera angle one of Miranda's Ass? Inventory? You have no inventory, you just add a handful of dongles to your armor, and pick from 3ish guns. Which can usually be boiled down into the accurate gun, the fast firing gun, and the middle of the road gun.

And now we have ME3, which is written by different people then the original, the female cast have all gotten breast implants between games, it says AMMO above your ammo counter (just admit they are not thermal clips you fanboys, its fucking ammo.) And the story and characters are contrived and poorly written. And every class feels pretty similar to every other. Its another boring shooter, just in space, with space sex. Congrats shooter fans, you've gotten your wish, 70% of all games are now shooters and/or games so simplistic a 5 year old could breeze through them. And where are my increased RPG elements? Oh, I have one more skill to put levelups into? Nice to know you're blatant liars as well as tools.

Alas Mass Effect, you had some promise. Its just a pity you've been whored out to the lowest common denominater like a $10 hooker.

And you want to know the funniest part? All shooter fans were given a lovely game, and they completely ignored it. Bulletstorm was a lovingly crafted over the top romp of shooting goodness and FUN. And none of them even tried it. It boggles the mind, that they will shovel mouthful after mouthful of sewage down their gaming gullets and call it ambrosia, but turn up their nose when presented with a big, juicy, t-bone steak with all the fixings.

Before I go, I'd just like to clarify, I'm not averse to shooting games. As a matter of fact, I enjoy GOOD shooter games myself. I'm averse to every game being a shooter game. Mass Effect was a promising RPG in a market with not very many of those left, and now its just another shooter. A poorly done shooter.

[Darkmere]

Mass Effect was a knockoff of Knights of the Old Republic. The inventory system was mostly ineffectual, because the weapons weren't different. You picked the gun with highest stats (after playthrough one this was even worse. Get money, buy Spectre guns, done). You even get force push with biotics! No classes had any signature skills, there wasn't much difference between an adept and vanguard at high levels because barrier was the most effective for both, almost outstripping the soldier's Immunity, which was all they had.

I don't know where poorly developed squadmates in 2 comes from, as learning about your team via their missions is 80% of the game. Garrus in 1: hunt down a scientist that escaped from the Citadel. Garrus in 2: comes to terms with his failure as a team leader, the death of all those under his command, being a washout as a C-Sec/Specter, possibly Shepard's feelings for him. He was in both, so let's take a secondary squaddie for single-game development. Kaiden: all of his issues revolve around biotic training and history. He has no major developments apart from possibly Shepard's romantic intentions and a few headaches. Jack: begins as a wretched prisoner who comes from a life of abuse and neglect. As the story progresses, she seems to find something worth fighting for, to the point of in the last mission, calling Shepard "Commander" and develops some purpose in life. She actually, you know.... develops.

I'd even say the RP possiblities for Shepard are expanded in 2, as on a few occasions there's multiple options for paragon/renegade variance, instead of blue text/red text/neutral. If you want to play a hardass who also genuinely cares for his team, there are additional options to support that. The extent of this in 1 was mostly limited to blue (egalitarian, tolerant) or red (pragmatic, racist). The only nod to this that I recall from multiple plays of 1 was, dialogue changed depending on your paragon/renegade status and whether the council survived.

Regarding lots of empty hallways... plot missions aside, all of ME1 was 2 or 3 buildings with the crates moved around. Or that one ship design... with the crates moved around. Or that cave, with rocks/crates moved around. Oh, 2 also had a fight composition besides "lots of soldiers" or "lots of geth."

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed 1, but it wasn't some rich bastion of RPG's. No matter what, you're a soldier, and you're the hero. You shoot things. Sometimes you talk, but that's between shooting things. 2 just gave up cumbersome, largely irrelevant inventory management in favor of a more detailed tactical system, and made class/squad choice more meaningful with greater focus on individual powers and using your squad correctly. It's two different approaches, one garnered more positive feedback, so they stuck with it.