I'm a recent convert to Mass Effect fandom, I bought 1 and 2 over the steam Christmas sale and beat 2 and the Shadow Broker DLC just a few days ago. Even in this short amount of time I've developed a fair amount of apprehension about the direction of the 3rd game.

Mass Effect 3's gameplay is going to be divided into 3 different "modes" and I have to ask why we need...
"Gears of war clone mode" aka "Action" where dialog trees and non-combat related decisions are stripped out/automated.
"Story" the exact opposite of what I just described apparently.
"RPG" the standard ME1 and ME2 style of gameplay.
With freaking tacked on multiplayer of all things on top of that?
Did they have time to develop what really makes Mass Effect so great, i.e. engrossing story, art, characters, and acting/animation?
I hope so but not sure I should hold my breath.

Considering this, *shudder* Dragon Age 2 and the fact that on PC the game will require EA's Origin, I'm wondering what the good perverts here think? Anyone planning on picking this one up on launch day? I think I'm going to wait and see what the general consensus is, I need to upgrade my PC anyway so might wait a couple months. But if it is good I do believe I'll pick it up. EA's spyware be damned, if the conclusion is worth reaching I must finish the story lol. And I'll just take this as a lesson never to get hooked on another EA franchise again.

EDIT: The most recently submitted Asari pr0nz for your clicking and possibly typing troubles
post #190014

"Shepard: What kind of hotel is this?"
"Liara: Azure. It's a luxury resort with an... exotic edge. Azure is slang for a part of the Asari body in some parts of Illium."
"Shepard: Where?"
"Liara: Mainly the lower reaches, near the bottom."
"Shepard: I meant where on the Asari body."
"Liara: So did I."

Ratty said:
Even in this short amount of time I've developed a fair amount of apprehension about the direction of the 3rd game.

I don't get it. So you bought the games on sale, and didn't really like them, yet somehow you feel ME3 is so important that you need to post about it here. :/

You can relax. Nobody's going to force you to buy ME3. And it's not like you'll be ostracized for missing out on whatever cultural references appear as a result of ME3. As a cultural troglodyte, myself, I can assure you that life is very much possible without knowing about half the $#@! people are talking about. In fact, sometimes I'd argue life's better that way.

ikdind said:
I don't get it. So you bought the games on sale, and didn't really like them, yet somehow you feel ME3 is so important that you need to post about it here. :/

Lol no. I love the first 2 games. Even if I don't play the 3rd one I see multiple playthroughs of 1 and 2 in my future, and I hardly ever replay games. But I'm scared EA will have forced Bioware into making the 3rd and final chapter suck by trying to "mainstream" it. Or just by diverting all of the best resources and writers away from it into the pit of SWTOR. And was wondering what others here thought.

Oh. Myself, I'm more worried that EA will pollute the Bioware brand by naming every studio from here on after Bioware. They've already started with Bioware Austin, Bioware Montreal, Bioware Ireland, and renaming Mythic to Bioware Mythic and EA2D to Bioware San Francisco.

Because the best way to capitalize on a brand is to slap it on everything until consumers get tired of inconsistent $#!@ from half a dozen independent groups!

Edit: Also, SWTOR is being done by Bioware Austin. I've assumed ME1 and ME2 were done in Bioware Edmonton, and that ME3 would as well, but it's hard to say what with how many different studios share their name.

I was going to try it, but I decided that i'd be too busy with the Devil May Cry HD Collection.

Eh, we'll see.

I'm not keeping track of it before release. I'm just going to listen to what people say after launch, try it out at a friend's house then decide whether or not I want it.

I played 1 and 2, and the series is no longer fun to me, so no.

I've started ME on the PC.. and despite the Origin crap.. I'll be finishing ME on the PC. Good series; ME1 was still the better then ME2 - I wonder how ME3 will fare.

I will get it because I have enjoyed every game Bioware has produced since Baldur's Gate* and I don't plan to stop enjoying them now.

*except that one Sonic game and the Command and Conquer thing, I never bought those

I didn't like where 2 went. Not interested in 3 already, Orgin guaranteed I won't buy it.

Gonna get that game. I survived in the end so...import! (I also made SURE to keep my lover (Garrus) alive)

certanly considering getting it, there are quite a few replays I need to do and I simply adore the series.

Comrade_Kitsune said:
certanly considering getting it, there are quite a few replays I need to do and I simply adore the series.

post #121243

In her voice.

KloH0und said:
Eh, we'll see.

I'm not keeping track of it before release. I'm just going to listen to what people say after launch, try it out at a friend's house then decide whether or not I want it.

If you've not played the first 2 you probably shouldn't bother. It's the conclusion to a trilogy after all. If what the devs say is true at least 1000 variables (including which of your squadmates are still alive and how many allied forces you've rallied to your cause) from your playthrough of ME1 and ME2 will affect your game in 3 when you import your savefile. So the default settings there couldn't possibly be as fulfilling or, if you were a dick in ME1 / ME2, frustrating.

Vivaldi-DeExcalibre said:
Gonna get that game. I survived in the end so...import! (I also made SURE to keep my lover (Garrus) alive)

I heard he could be rather frustrating to romance. I wonder how many times they'll get him to say Calibrations this go around.

Ratty said:
If you've not played the first 2 you probably shouldn't bother. It's the conclusion to a trilogy after all. If what the devs say is true at least 1000 variables (including which of your squadmates are still alive and how many allied forces you've rallied to your cause) from your playthrough of ME1 and ME2 will affect your game in 3 when you import your savefile. So the default settings there couldn't possibly be as fulfilling or, if you were a dick in ME1 / ME2, frustrating.

I did play the previous two and liked both of them. To be honest I liked the second one slightly more than the first, but they were both fun.

But I play on the PC and I have yet to get a good look at Origin yet. That's my main worry.

As for what I've done in the games, with my main character I've spared the bug queen (forgot the race's proper name), spared Wrex, saved the council and recommended Anderson to it. In the second game I converted the Geth instead of destroying them, finished all of the loyalty missions, all of the crew survived the Omega Relay, and I destroyed the Reaper station instead of capturing it. Probably a whole lot of stuff I forgot, too. Oh, and I didn't get romantic with anyone in either game (tried Garrus, stopped halfway through because I couldn't take the cheese).

Anyone else think "giant T-800" when they saw the final boss?

You want to put a spoiler warning on that KloH0und for people who've not played them?

Use this
Some spoiler text
Hides a section of text until hovered over with the cursor.

Ugh, fine.

Spoiler: Jesus dies.

null0010 said:
Spoiler: Jesus dies.

Pfft no way that's canon. The whole series jumped the shark anyway when they retconned Jesus into being literally the same entity as yet somehow distinct from his own dad. How is someone supposed to be 100% divine and 100% human anyway? "Holy Trinity" my ass.

I just got ME1. Like, not thirty minutes ago did I click the 'Purchase' button on Steam. There's already a 3 coming out?!

ExplosiveBlaziken said:
I just got ME1. Like, not thirty minutes ago did I click the 'Purchase' button on Steam. There's already a 3 coming out?!

Well ME1 came out in like 2007 (ME2 was January 2010), it's great though! Enjoy! I just bought 1 and 2 over the Christmas sale and am itching for the conclusion, even bought the first tie-in book and comic series though I've not got to read them yet.

As some of our Equestrian neighbors might put it, welcome to the herd.
post #147697

Yeah, actually ME1 is pretty damn fun but I don't know if my computer can handle ME2. Is it that graphically different from ME1?

Also I giggled like a little schoolgirl when I heard the "Shepard. Wrex." thing for the first time. I'm understanding memes now yay!

I personally am going to be skipping ME3... at least at launch. ME1 was awesome, ME2 was bad. I've played worse, but I came in with such high expectations that I couldn't stick with it. ME3 could fix things, but I'm not confident it will. I'd rather know for sure before I sign up to the ME3 boat.

The single biggest thing ME3 could do to bring me back on board would be to bring back heat sinks and weapon overheating, instead of ammo. At least give me the option.

31h253 said:
I personally am going to be skipping ME3... at least at launch. ME1 was awesome, ME2 was bad. I've played worse, but I came in with such high expectations that I couldn't stick with it. ME3 could fix things, but I'm not confident it will. I'd rather know for sure before I sign up to the ME3 boat.

The single biggest thing ME3 could do to bring me back on board would be to bring back heat sinks and weapon overheating, instead of ammo. At least give me the option.

Huh, I thought ME2 was even better than ME1. I loved both of them, but ME2 just like, grabbed my attention and wouldn't let go. I think I played through that game 3 times...

I'm really really looking forward to ME3.

31h253 said:
The single biggest thing ME3 could do to bring me back on board would be to bring back heat sinks and weapon overheating, instead of ammo. At least give me the option.

ME2 did feature heat sinks and weapon overheating. There was no ammunition. Only heatsinks.

null0010 said:
ME2 did feature heat sinks and weapon overheating. There was no ammunition. Only heatsinks.

In principle. In practice guns worked just like weapons in any other TPS/FPS.

I do like how the general concept behind overheating system in the first game set it apart from other shooters, but its actual implementation left me unimpressed.

I can understand why they fell back to the "finite ammo, static reload speed:" it's familiar and it works. But it would be much more interesting if they stuck with the ME1 system and refined it.

I think it's probably better that they moved to an ammo system, it forces adaptive playstyles and conserving shots, rather than the ability to literally discharge bullets forever from a single gun. I've heard some people (mostly Infiltrator players) complain about not being able to use ALL their heatsinks in one specific gun, so hopefully ME3 will address that in some fashion.

ExplosiveBlaziken said:
Yeah, actually ME1 is pretty damn fun but I don't know if my computer can handle ME2. Is it that graphically different from ME1?

Also I giggled like a little schoolgirl when I heard the "Shepard. Wrex." thing for the first time. I'm understanding memes now yay!

I was able to run them both on my old underpowered POS. Though ME2 is more intensive than 1 they use the same engine, as will I understand ME3. They need to so you can transfer your end-game savefile (and thus all your decisions) from ME1 on to ME2 and then finally 3. Unfortunately one of the ways ME2 feels more console port-y is that your options on resolution/texture/lighting/shading quality are much much more limited.

So what I'm saying is if it can run ME1 it can probably run ME2, but you could look at the minimum specs if you want to make sure.

Ratty said:
As some of our Equestrian neighbors might put it, welcome to the herd.
post #147697

NO ONE SAYS THAT >(

Aurali said:
NO ONE SAYS THAT >(

Really? I could have sworn I saw it in the comments of some of the first pony images I viewed on this site. But I will bow to your wisdom Pegasister (you guys say that right?) you'd know about these things at least 20% better than I.
Keelah Se'lai

....
I guess my only question now is
post #151191
Do you brushy?

Not to necro too badly but since there seem to be a fair amount of Mass Effect fans here just thought I'd add the note that the latest officially licensed Mass Effect novel "Deception" came out recently. And it's apparent sharp drop in quality from previously approved works may reflect a greater shift in overall quality control for the IP.

"Deception" is by William Dietz who in the past earned ire by getting the mythology and characterization of Halo all wrong, but was inexplicably still hired to write the new ME book anyway.
Previous Mass Effect novels were all penned by Drew Karpyshyn, one of the head writers on ME1 and ME2.
The reviews for "Deception" are in and... it's not looking very good. The book currently has one and a half stars on Amazon.

Take this as a sign of quality control at EA/Bioware or just of all the good writers being too busy (hopefully) working on Mass Effect 3 and adjust your expectations as you will.

_______________

PS - Some further comments on "Deception" from Amazon users

"J. K. Wiltshire says:
This is so terrible, I felt no remorse burning my copy the very day I got it. Shame on you, Dietz. You've spurned us all with this horrible book."

"Debbie Kelsey says:
This was truly awful. Not only was it offensive on multiple points -- one of the main characters is written as straight when he was GAY in the previous books, and the main character is written as "growing out" out of her autism" -- but it's so blatantly non-canon that I can't believe this was EVER given the go ahead. Seriously, truly disappointing."

"DeathBySmiley says:
Sadly decided to return this. I cannot in good conscience allow my money to encourage this kind of writing in my favorite fictional universe since Star Wars."

http://zenjestr.tumblr.com/post/16659843118/wow-there-are-so-many-goddamn-lore-inconsistencies

Novels are fairly disconnected from games when it comes to development. I wouldn't use the quality of the books as a tool to judge the quality of the game.

I enjoyed ME1, and despite ME2 being a big step down in certain regards I ejoyed that one a lot as well, so I was planning on buying ME3 too.

Unfortunately, Bioware (or rather, their owner EA) decided it would be a good idea to make ME3 an Origin exclusive game, which means I will not be playing it.

It's too bad, but I don't think I'll be missing much anyway.