Mass Effect 3 - Discussion Thread

Ethan_Hunt said:
What's there to be sad about? Wasn't ME2's graphics good enough?
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ME2's GFX were good for 2010.

ME3's GFX might not be good 'nuff for 2012. (If the screenshot's are correct, BTW i am only complaining cause I'll buy the game :p )
 
Did you know fun fact:

Female Commander Shepard's voice is done by Jennifer Hale, who had recently voiced Trishka Novak in Bulletstorm. WOW! 2 completely bad-ass characters. :D
 
E3 Special​

Spoiler Alert: This article contains some story spoilers for Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and previously released downloadable content.





Mass Effect 3 -- The Galaxy's Fate is in Your Hands

​

The Reapers have come to Earth. This is how Mass Effect 3 begins. The first two titles in the series were building towards an epic war with the ancient arbiters of doom and that war has finally come. Good thing the galaxy has you, Commander Shepard, professional Reaper killer.

Mass Effect 2 focused on gathering the best mercenaries in the galaxy for a suicide mission against the Collectors. Mass Effect 3 is a survival mission. You must rally the various races from around the galaxy to your cause to reclaim Earth and save every form of life from extinction. Fail, and everyone and everything dies. No pressure.

It won't be easy. This is full blown galactic war and to many, the battle appears hopeless. How can any army possibly defeat the Reapers? Forget about earning the trust of individual allies -- you must unite warring factions to one purpose. Returning to Earth with anything less than a galactic armada would mean failure. In Mass Effect 2, you helped Jack deal with her past and tracked down Samara's daughter for a family reunion. Here, the stakes are higher and the importance of each mission is going to be greater.

One example of these unifying missions comes about halfway through Mass Effect 3. Shepard and crew have journeyed to the Salarian homeworld, Sur'Kesh, to rescue a Krogan princess. Yes, she's crazy hot. The princess in question is the key to uniting a divided Krogan homeworld. Mordin Solus is assisting (it is his home planet after all), and naturally the Krogan clan leader Wrex Urdnot has quite an interest in the princess.

But wait, is that team even possible in your version of Mass Effect 3? This is where the branching paths of the first two games begin to really affect the final battle against the Reapers. What if you killed Wrex in the first game? What if Mordin died at the end of Mass Effect 2? What if you gave thumbs up to the Genophage? It's unclear how these choices affect the missions -- maybe losing Mordin just means another character is there in his place -- but in some cases the differences should be significant.

Mass Effect 3 Executive Producer Casey Hudson says that "all things contribute to the war effort." Meaning every major decision from the first two games has an impact. The relationships you've built, and those you need to build going forward, matter.

With the Krogans, you might have murdered one of their own. You might have further doomed their species to extinction. Now you must ask them to help you save the galaxy. Awkward. But there are other decisions that should have an impact. Did you kill or spare the Rachni Queen in Mass Effect 1? When Sovereign attacked the Citadel did you sacrifice or save the Council? At the end of Mass Effect 2, did you destroy the Collectors' experiments or save them for (then ally, now enemy) Cerberus? Thinking about all of the decisions made in the first two games and if/how they impact Mass Effect 3 illustrates the scope of the trilogy. This is something we've never seen before.

The separation between someone who played Renegade versus Paragon in the previous games makes the large scale of Mass Effect 3 all the more interesting. Renegade isn't the traditional "evil" you see in games with morality. Often times, it's about self-reliance. Many of those decisions show a Renegade Shepard as being direct, uncompromising, and perhaps trying to prove that humans don't need help from anyone else to survive in the galaxy. For some species, that brash mentality can earn respect. For most, it likely shows that humans are under-developed savages who should be destroyed by the Reapers. I've got to imagine a few things my no-nonsense Queenie Shepard did are going to come back to bite her in the ass.

If you didn't play any of the downloadable content, Mass Effect 3 assumes the events happened. You get a little more out of things if you played Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival. But either way, Liara is the new Shadow Broker (think queen of all mercenaries) and Shepard has been arrested and is on trial on Earth at the start of ME3.

Mass Effect 3 might be about big-scale battles and the fate of all worlds, but there's still time for love. There's an epic battle for Shepard's heart, after all. If you were suave in Mass Effect 1 and 2, then you have two love interests, both vying for you as worlds are about to end. This love triangle will be resolved by the end of Mass Effect 3, so look forward to walking off into the sunset with Liara. I mean, seriously, who else would you want to be with -- Kaidan?

Regardless of how your love life turns out, the Reapers need to be taken down. With a galactic armada at your disposal, that should be doable. All you have to do is convince the galaxy humanity's worth saving.

IGN
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Mass Effect 3 - From Cover to Combat​

Sure, Mass Effect games have always looked like shooters, but they've never really played like them. Yeah, you pointed and shot at things, but the less tangible particulars of combat have always eluded BioWare's sci-fi epic. Gunplay in Mass Effect was a clunky exercise in behind-the-scenes dice rolls, RPG-style. Mass Effect 2's battles weren't the chore they often were in the original, but they weren't what anyone paid the price of admission for. The cover mechanic was limited in comparison to dedicated third person action games, and guns lacked any sort of oomph.

My playtime with Mass Effect 3 was set on the Salarian homeworld of Sur'Kesh. Ostensibly, my job was to escort a Krogan princess offworld. But in practice, my main job was kicking Cerberus ass across a science station, and Shepard was more equipped than ever to get the job done.

A host of seemingly small additions have changed the way Mass Effect 3 plays. Basic character movement is more responsive for starters, more animated. Guiding Shepard around is less of a struggle than it's ever been. Aiming also felt snappier, and guns have the punch now that they've always lacked.

These changes alter the way you can move around combat zones in Mass Effect 3. Previously, firefights in Mass Effect were mostly static affairs. You'd find a good sized bit of cover and fire away, or throw abilities at your enemies hoping they'd never really get in close enough to make Mass Effect or Mass Effect 2's unwieldy combat controls a liability. If you were a Vanguard, you might risk your life to use your powerful charge move, but it was an awkward maneuver that missed as often as it hit. But Mass Effect 3's revised movement and aiming make Shepard viable at variable ranges in a way he never was before.

Moving and shooting, a previously suicidal maneuver that most players outgrew within a few hours of Mass Effect 2, isn't just an option now - it's a good choice. Cover is still important; it's also been revamped from the last game, easier now to traverse and use dynamically rather than finding a point to set up at and pray that enemies don't close the gap. But BioWare wants you to mix it up in close - something made obvious by the revised melee system.

The awkward melee shoves and slaps of past Mass Effects are gone. Formidable melee punches and attacks specific to each class have taken their place. The Soldier Shepard I used delivered some solid, fast punches that knocked enemies back without causing me to double over like I had shattered every bone in my hand. But the real new addition to close quarters combat is the instant melee kill - hold down the B or Circle button and Shepard will wind back to deliver a killing blow unique to his class, in this case a tech-blade in my Soldier's wrist armor. Shaped similarly to the energy-based armor used by Sentinel classes in Mass Effect, it cut down enemies in one hit. Other classes have their own heavy melee attacks - Adepts have blades of psionic energy that they use to cut down their enemies in close, for example.

Then there are the grenades. Mass Effect 3 sees a series debut for actual, round, conventional grenades. This adds yet another combat option to the game that changes the way Shepard can engage with enemies, and adds a new tactical wrinkle to flanking and other maneuvers.

All of these things combine to provide a shooting experience that, honestly, feels a bit surreal in a Mass Effect game. As I made my way to the Krogan princess on the other end of a science platform with my teammates Liara and Garrus, there was a point in the demo where Cerberus operatives stormed the opposite end of the corridor. The platform had the standard smattering of cover objects between us and the Cerberus forces, but there was also a passage to the right that flanked to the other side. Ordering Liara and Garrus to use their abilities as a diverson, I stuck to cover and ran to the corridor. I made my way to the end and blind-tossed a pair of grenades into the other side of the room.

As the explosions rocked the Cerberus personnel, I swung around the cover and quickly popped a pair of enemies with my assault rifle. Then I dashed forward, sprung over a bit of cover, and took out another Cerberus agent with a pair of quick melee strikes, then ducked back into cover and made my way around to the remaining enemy's rear, cutting him down with Shepard's tech blade.

It all felt like a different game, like a different series even. Where Mass Effect 2 felt like a slightly tighter Mass Effect combat-wise, Mass Effect 3 is in an entirely different space. The familiar elements that need to be there are intact - powers and talents are still in the same menu wheel structure, and weapon types remain unchanged. You're not going to select an assault rifle and be shocked by its looks. But you will be taken aback by how well it works. I was. And now the wait to play Mass Effect 3 until 2012 is that much harder.

IGN
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So, who is NOT excited about this game now? :p
 
^That should not be an issue imo. For Mass Effect 2, they released Mass Effect Genesis which was a short interactive comic which explained the story to you and gave you the option to make important choices from Mass Effect 1. I guess they will have a similar thing for Mass Effect 3.
 
Bluffmaster said:
^That should not be an issue imo. For Mass Effect 2, they released Mass Effect Genesis which was a short interactive comic which explained the story to you and gave you the option to make important choices from Mass Effect 1. I guess they will have a similar thing for Mass Effect 3.
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That also recently released for the PC also (it first came out with Me2 on the PS3).
 
Bluffmaster said:
^That should not be an issue imo. For Mass Effect 2, they released Mass Effect Genesis which was a short interactive comic which explained the story to you and gave you the option to make important choices from Mass Effect 1. I guess they will have a similar thing for Mass Effect 3.
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Cool!!... It'll be nice to have a quick recap too.
 
A quick video recap in the 3rd game wouldn't hurt either. Just like Dead Space 2 did a quick over-view of it's previous game's events. :)
 
Aman27deep said:
quick recap won't work for people not carrying over their ME2 save game?
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The Genesis was only supposed to work for people not having their ME save game. So I guess it should work the same way for ME 3 too. It was released for PS3 because PS3 didn't have Mass Effect 1 but was later released for PC as well. So for gamers who do not want to play Mass Effect and straightaway jump into ME 2 but still want to make all the important choices from the first game, the genesis is a must have.



This is Mass Effect Genesis DLC (Mass Effect 1 Spoilers) :


Although the experience is nowhere comparable to actually playing the first game but I would still recommend this for anyone who wants to start ME2 without playing the original or if in some rare case one has lost his save data from Mass Effect.
 
jojothedragon said:
:S
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343.jpg


Bluffmaster said:
The Genesis was only supposed to work for people not having their ME save game. So I guess it should work the same way for ME 3 too. It was released for PS3 because PS3 didn't have Mass Effect 1 but was later released for PC as well. So for gamers who do not want to play Mass Effect and straightaway jump into ME 2 but still want to make all the important choices from the first game, the genesis is a must have.
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Makes sense.
 
James Vega



2ppefex.jpg


Doesn't look anything like in the trailer. :S

Oh and btw bioware has confirmed that every recruitable character from both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 can be recruited in Mass Effect 3 as well given they have not died in the game. Isn't that great news? Now I hope I can 5 time Liara, Ashley, Miranda, Tali and jack all at once. Yippiee kay yay :D
 
Part 3 will be the final installment of Shepard's saga.

Bioware's CEO Dr. Ray Mazuka told PC Gamer, "Mass Effect 3 is simultaneously a couple of different things: a thrilling and epic conclusion to the trilogy as we promised our fans we'd provide for Commander Shepard, but it's also a brand new beginning – it's an entry point for new fans and it's also a brand new beginning."

Similarly, producer Michael Gamble said, "After this, Commander Shepard's story is complete."

When pressed, "Even if there are more games in the Mass Effect universe, he/she definitely won't be in them?" He laconically replied, "Correct."
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So we will have more Mass Effect games, just no more Shepherd.

Mass Effect 3: The End of Shepard - Xbox 360 News at IGN
 
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