Mass effect 3 - Page 7

Didn't you guys just complain about it being released on Valentines day. Look at it this way. They assume Battlefield owners don't have girlfriends and were helping the rest of you out. You have two whole days to be romantic before you completely ignore your girl over the weekend.

Tonight I will make sweet, sweet love to this demo.

Flowers and dinner first.

Snuck in a few minutes. Seems like its the very beginning of the game.

First impression is that the facial animation just looks weird. Maybe LA noire just ruined me, but there's a real disconnect there.

Facial animation is just like ME2.

Default femshep looks very weird. Older one looks better, though on the customization screens, the old default is one of the presets.

There's this one tan preset that looks VERY good to me. I changed her complexion and eye/hair color, that was it. She looks great.

Femshep 4 Life.

Yeah it's prob just the same, it just doesnt sell it to me like it used to. They could do so much better. They seem like muppets to me now.

And yeah, the stock femshep does look weird in game. Really huge lips, big bug eyes...she's kind of a dog. My own femshep is way hotter.

Combat seems about the same as ME2, looks like the environmental scripting is much better though. So far seems like a by the books sequel, which ain't a bad thing at all.

So, the new default FemShep. How close to the "pre-rendered" fan voted FemShep now you have the chance to see it in demo?

My demo is still downloading.

link for those who did not queue it up this morning.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Pr...5d?nosplash=1#

wow!!!!! i've never played Mass Effect because I'm not into RPGs (yes, I avoid games like Skyrim because of the time sink). but the epic feel of ME3 with the sci-fi hook and the accessible action may be enough to draw me into an RPG.

I'm trying out the Mass Effect 3 demo and it's pretty awesome! combat is like Gears of War. Kinect controls are awesome!

Man, now I have to start shopping for ME1 and ME2!!!

but before I do that, I have to ask... would it be okay to start off with ME3 and then at some point in the future, go back and fill in the back story with ME1 and ME2? with the backlog of games I currently have, if I go in sequence, it'll take me forever to get to ME3. I know that what you do in ME1 and ME2 affect your character in ME3, but after answering the choose-your-own-adventure questions at the beginning of the ME3 demo, I think that's enough for me.

at least by going with ME3, I will at least finish that game in a decent amount of time. and then eventually go back to the others.

Well that is what they added those questions for, and it should be better then originally starting ME2 (before they had the generator you got the Renegade [or as I call it bad] ending to ME1.)

You will still miss out on little things and the relationships and ohhhh moments wont be the same for you since you will be playing prequels (when you finally play 1 and 2). I personally would play the other two first (in fact I recently replayed them to get ready for 3).

On the other hand ME1 was a little slow for people that don't like RPGs. The people I knew who thought 1 was too boring kind of liked ME2 better but the mining for resources still got on their nerves. Since you said you didn't like those types of games, it may be better to play 3 then to get sick of 1 and miss out on what I think is an excellent Scifi story. Of course I thought that from ME1 so.... dam I don't know do what you think is best.

Hmm. Well, I'd hardly call them RPGs at this point. ME3 and 2 are very similar. The shooting mechanics in ME1 arent as well developed. It's still action oriented but the combat just isn't as good.

If you're enjoying 3, you'll def love 2, they're basically the same game.

I liked the combat in ME1 better - at least how you could chain together powers and biotics. In ME2 you couldn't do that.

queued up the demo then a friend who played it already warned me that there are minor spoilers and they even have a later mission...

will probably avoid it and instead make sure I get through the ME2 DLC. I ended up buying it a while back when it was on sale and never played it yet.

Kind of underwhelmed at the coop. Seems like its nothing more than horde mode.

Face creation codes don't match ME2 :\\

I'm sure designs will be online soon though. Here's basically what I used in ME2 for my second playthrough, biotic femshep:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...dComplete2.jpg
(not my design, btw)

I went with the default male for my first playthrough.

Jon, that's very similar to my femshep's face. Probably the only really good lucking combo I've been able to put together.

Just finished two playthroughs of the demo.

Lowgn - don't worry at all about the demo. Give it a try. There are some spoilers I suppose but you'll probably read them at some point anyways. You could always bring up the guide button and exit to the dashboard while it's loading the 2nd mission. The first mission seems to be the first mission in the game.

General impressions:
I like that you can choose how you play and the game settings will be auto-adjusted accordingly. You can still change those settings, but it's nice to be able to do that. Hint for those who want to learn more about the squad leveling system - set to RPG. You get to assign ALL the points for the 2nd mission - which is pretty cool.

I like the leveling system - it provides much more depth than ME2's, but isn't anywhere near ME1's. It seems like a nice compromise between the two.

The faces are... ok. Mass Effect isn't all about facial expressions IMO. Though it seems a little too dark. Like the guy rendering shadows got a little carried away.

Movement is so freakin' clunky! Maybe I'm just used to BF3 movement, but there were many times I ended up rolling when I just wanted to sprint forward. There were also times I missed my target - like trying to open a container, for example.

No jets? (inside joke)

WTF is up with Ashley's hair? Ugh! Ruined.

The few voice options you can choose have ZERO impact on the story - at least in these two missions. That really sucks and feels like a huge step back. Granted, they never had much impact in 1 or 2, but at least in those, your choices got longer responses. In some instances, the person you were talking to reacted the exact same regardless of your choice. Why even bother making a choice then?

The "heavy melee" thing gets old fast. Though listening to femshep grunt like she's trying to pass a major BM is funny at first. The animations differ based on class, but there's nothing that special about it. It was fun playing as an Infiltrator, cloaking, then ripping them apart. But it just feels too easy.

All in all, I'm still keeping my CE preorder. The music felt just like old times. The game felt more polished than the previous two.

Spoiler for those who finished the first mission

I designed a femshep roughly similar to the one I posted, that I could finish in a few minutes, and noticed the shading looked much better in the cutscenes starting the second mission than in the beginning of the demo.

I existed the demo a little into the second mission, don't want any more spoilers. I need to get the Shadow Broker content.

I didn't even recognize Ashley until Shepard called her out. Overall I'm psyched for the game, but the faces really are disappointing to me. It's come so far in other games since 2007, but it looks just like it did in ME1. Its just not good enough for a story driven game anymore. They can do better. Maybe LA Noire level faces is asking too much, but even games like Enslaved and AC:Revelations really just blow it away. It should be able to at least stand toe to toe with AC, but its not even close. Its not really about graphics - facial expressions tell a story and draw you in, make you feel with the characters. There are even points where they're showing silent close ups like you're supposed to feel what shepard is thinking but all you see is a deadpan expression and lifeless eyes.

Seems like they built up a neat meta game for the coop, but the actual gameplay is just a lazy horde mode. The combat is still solid though, the dialog seems up to par, so I'm sure it'll meet expectations. But nothing in that demo exceeded them.


I was thinking the exact same thing. Just hovering there like its nothing. Really bizarre.

Not sure what spoilers you get past the beginning of the 2nd mission. It kinda gives you an idea about what's going on right away - especially if you read the briefing screen between the two missions.

Shadow Broker was good DLC, but I don't know if it was worth it at full price. Won't really know if there was a payoff until ME3 hits. There's no shadowbroker references in the demo that I noticed though.

I'm more interested in the Arrival DLC - since regardless of your choices in the DLC, the end of the DLC is the same, I am wondering if it actually causes a slight change in how ME3 starts out. My guess is no but it would be really rewarding if yes...

bd, I do agree about the faces, but I don't think they're ME1 level. Definitely ME2 - ME2.3 or something perhaps.

The faces should be a little better, but I'm not really disappointed in that. Unlike Enslaved or AC, they have to be able to accommodate that they give the player customization of their character's face - and it would be really weird to have LA Noire level NPCs with a non-photo real lead character.

Just checked - I did get Shadow Broker one of the times it was on sale, I'll have to play it this weekend!

Yeah, that's obviously a limitation. I'd give the customization up in a heartbeat though.

Also...extra brownie points to ME3 for high dynamic range audio (by default even). Sounds great, LFE is ridiculous. Glad they're not making it sound crappy to accommodate TV speakers.

Yes, it is quite nice, but my wife turned it down on me a few times so I couldn't really test it out

Played co-op for a couple hours last night with Revel and we had a ball. I think we only managed to get to wave 5 since it was just the two of us but it was still rather fun. Its basically horde mode from Gears. I can see myself playing this quite a bit with my friends. There's some nice unlocks and I've heard there's a tie-in to the single player game as well (resources?).

I thought co-op wasn't unlocked till Friday? Or am I thinking of a different mode?

Multiplayer is co-op. You have battlefield 3 so its open for you. Everyone else gets it Friday.

Well I know what I'm doing with my wife tonight!

I wanted to play the multiplayer, but I did not pick up Battlefield 3 so I have to wait until the 17th. I played the single player, but I was not really interested in story spoilers so I muted the sound through most of it, and waited for it prompted me to play.

I have to say the combat felt good. There is still some awkwardness in the controls, but that could be my forgetting how the controls work from ME2. The Kinect controls are awesome. I used to play the game by pausing for the most part, but with Kinect I was able to more easily use my powers and my team mates powers with just a voice.

I wish there was an option in the demo to just play the second part with the Krogan female so I could play with the Kinect controls some more.

Yeah I treat the ME games like a big movie I've been looking forward too -- I watch the teaser trailer once or twice then refuse to read anything until the game comes out. So will probably avoid this thread until I beat the game anyway

100% understand!

I just hope there's no BF3 DLC that comes out in the next 2 months otherwise I'd be really annoyed!!

Skyrim has already been put on the backburner for BF3, and unfortunately will have to be for ME3 also. Too many great games not enough time.