Mass Effect 3

[Dachs]

Also one thing that still bugs me since ME2, is the ammo system. It isn't that big of a problem, but it doesn't seem right how little heat the thermal clips can take before having to be ejected.

What, you mean in a lore sense? Meh. It's not that different from uncontrolled hipfiring in the previous game - without the modifications like Frictionless Materials X that broke the laws of thermodynamics.

Besides, it was never clear how ME1 guns cooled themselves off anyway. I just chalked it up to "they didn't think this stupid idea through" and moved on.

 

[Maniacal]

Now that I've played through it again, there are a couple of issues. Anderson's run animation seems kind of off, and I really hope this is just the demo but the graphical details are all over the place. It ranges from (good enough) detailed characters to sprites in the background and everything in between. It kind of clashes when you have a bunch of low-res rubble textures scattered all over slightly not as low res terrain textures. Also while it is nice that Ashley isn't such a plain Jane anymore I think they may have gotten carried away with the makeover. Also Male shep needs more and better hair style choices, half of his just look really lame and out of place for him EDIT: Femshep needs more styles too.

I strongly suspect the demo is a condensed and reduced version of what the actual levels are in the full game too, which is okay.

The space bar is also used for too many functions, this issue was present in Red Orchestra 2 with its cover mechanic as well and it is annoying when you want to take cover but do something else instead and vice versa.

I think that is all that bothers me so far, dialogue has a few cheesy moments that is pretty par to the course for ME. I look forward to the full game.

EDIT: Spoiler:

Spoiler :

I've seen a lot of complaints about the kid scenes being shoe horned in, and I can't really disagree with that entirely, but considering they don't really show much else about the millions of people dying off screen (whom I don't really care much about when it is barely implied and a video game) it kind of made me feel a little sad. Although it could have been better done it could have been worse, too.

 

[Martin Alvito]

One of the problems in the single-player segment of the demo is cooldown. During the escape from Earth, your cooldown is fine regardless of class, because you're only carrying a Predator and an Avenger. On Sur'Kesh, the second area (you only play about half the level if that, and it's just the combat part), you're loaded out with a Mattock, an Eviscerator, a Tempest, and a Predator, at least two of which are almost always superfluous. So even a Soldier has an annoyingly high cooldown.

The Engineer still doesn't suffer from this problem. The Combat Drone is pretty much an auto-win for all engagements short of a boss. I hope that we see more mechanics like the pod integrity so that we can't just easy button most combats by spamming the Drone from distance and exploiting the AI.

Maybe it's just rust, but the degree of difficulty seemed considerably greater this time around - which is a good thing.

 

[shortguy]

I agree on the difficulty. I won't say I found it hard, quite--I never died or failed on normal (I'll try it harder soon)--but my ME2 skills (admittedly rusty) didn't translate as well as I thought they would, particularly from a battlefield management perspective.

 

[Dachs]

The Engineer still doesn't suffer from this problem. The Combat Drone is pretty much an auto-win for all engagements short of a boss. I hope that we see more mechanics like the pod integrity so that we can't just easy button most combats by spamming the Drone from distance and exploiting the AI.

What'd you do, put all your points into the Combat Drone and give it rockets?

Incidentally, any of you guys play on PC? What are your Origin usernames? Mine's AWACS_EagleEye.

 

[Maniacal]

Probably Maniacal_Eskimo, although I never use Origin's overlay since I can just use the Steam one instead.

 

[Martin Alvito]

What'd you do, put all your points into the Combat Drone and give it rockets?

No need. You die in ME2 when the enemy advances on you and breaks your cover. Used properly, the Combat Drone prevents that from happening. You can sit back in cover from a distance, spam the Drone and Incinerate and let your allies do the shooting. Even fights like the infamous platforms engagement in the derelict are a sleepwalk on Insanity.

One possible design remedy is to create forward objectives like the pod that you have to defend. The Drone is still helpful in that it can draw fire and reduce the speed at which the objective is destroyed, but you're still forced to move forward and engage any AI the Drone fails to attract.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Didn't like the demo that much. My biggest problem is that it's in the style of the Dragon Age 2 demo: disconnected bits and a focus on combat. I'd rather have the early portion of the game withou any large gaps. Also, it doesn't let me save and doesn't autosave. I completed the earth part and quit, and now I'll have to repeat it.
Now that's about the demo.
The game itself seems to be great and my only complaint is that after the jump from ME to ME2, this one seems to be too much like ME 2. I had expected more changes.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

I haven't even finished the first game yet.

 

[Dachs]

No need. You die in ME2 when the enemy advances on you and breaks your cover. Used properly, the Combat Drone prevents that from happening. You can sit back in cover from a distance, spam the Drone and Incinerate and let your allies do the shooting. Even fights like the infamous platforms engagement in the derelict are a sleepwalk on Insanity.

One possible design remedy is to create forward objectives like the pod that you have to defend. The Drone is still helpful in that it can draw fire and reduce the speed at which the objective is destroyed, but you're still forced to move forward and engage any AI the Drone fails to attract.

You seem to be getting a lot more utility out of the drone in that sense than I am - or maybe Cerberus doesn't care so much on multiplayer.

The game itself seems to be great and my only complaint is that after the jump from ME to ME2, this one seems to be too much like ME 2. I had expected more changes.

You wanted bad voice acting, horrible combat, a stupid inventory system, idiotic side quests, pop-in graphics, and a plot that only made sense when viewed from the perspective of the genre?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

No, I just expected there'd be more tweaks. Maybe there are, but it's not apparent from the demo.

 

[Arakhor]

You wanted ... a plot that only made sense when viewed from the perspective of the genre?

What's particularly bad about that one?

 

[BobDole]

Didn't like the demo that much. My biggest problem is that it's in the style of the Dragon Age 2 demo: disconnected bits and a focus on combat. I'd rather have the early portion of the game withou any large gaps. Also, it doesn't let me save and doesn't autosave. I completed the earth part and quit, and now I'll have to repeat it.
Now that's about the demo.
The game itself seems to be great and my only complaint is that after the jump from ME to ME2, this one seems to be too much like ME 2. I had expected more changes.

I don't think anyone really liked the demo's single-player portion, including myself. I think they changed plenty though for ME3 compared to ME2, whether it's more changes to the cover system, weapon mods, bigger talent trees (wish they were a little bigger still, but oh well), a different weapon system (fewer restrictions than ME2), different enemies, and whatever else you can come up with. It's not as big of a shift as ME to ME2, but let's face it, that wasn't gonna happen, nor was it necessary. So many changes were needed to bring combat up to par for ME -> ME2. Mass Effect was still entertaining as hell and had some good RPG systems, but inventory management was horrible, no body part-specific damage (headshots didn't even matter), not everyone liked the Mako (although I did), powers were incredibly spammable, game became ridiculously easy once you got stuff like Colossus X Armor, Spectre VII/X Weapons with really good mods, etc. ME2 got a lot more right in terms of combat than ME did.
I also gotta say that the multiplayer is surprisingly entertaining. It was something I didn't want and didn't think was necessary since Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 had plenty of replayability just from single player (at least for me, since I've beaten both 6 times) but it's actually pretty entertaining.

 

[Oruc]

You wanted bad voice acting, horrible combat, a stupid inventory system, idiotic side quests, pop-in graphics, and a plot that only made sense when viewed from the perspective of the genre?

If he wanted those he would want it more like ME2

 

[Maniacal]

This image sums up exactly what I was thinking when watching the latest trailer.

 

[FriendlyFire]

This image sums up exactly what I was thinking when watching the latest trailer.

LOL

Maybe I shouldnt have gone on all those side missions and completed the main quest quicker ....

Stay Calm: wait for Shepard to complete all those sidequests, he'll get here eventually!

 

[mechaerik]

LOL

Maybe I shouldnt have gone on all those side missions and completed the main quest quicker ....

Stay Calm: wait for Shepard to complete all those sidequests, he'll get here eventually!

<glances at own avatar>

 

[Maniacal]

So apparently there is Day 1 DLC that, if you bought the normal version, costs you an extra $10 on top of the $60 you've already paid. It isn't included with new copies like Zaeed was, it was clearly cut from the game already, and it is a new companion/character who is kind of a major spoiler to reveal who and what it is. $10 is already too much for one freaking character anyway, regardless of importance.

Yeah okay good job EA, I really want to pay $70 for the complete game. I hate DLC.

 

[Oruc]

So apparently there is Day 1 DLC that, if you bought the normal version, costs you an extra $10 on top of the $60 you've already paid. It isn't included with new copies like Zaeed was, it was clearly cut from the game already, and it is a new companion/character who is kind of a major spoiler to reveal who and what it is. $10 is already too much for one freaking character anyway, regardless of importance.

Yeah okay good job EA, I really want to pay $70 for the complete game instead of spending the same amount on enough food to feed me for most of March. I hate DLC.

Day 1 DLC is becoming industry standard, even Crusader Kings 2 had day 1 DLC (I'm not supporting it though)

 

[Maniacal]

There's a difference when it is simplistic and inexpensive DLC like CKII's (a bunch of portraits and heraldry) and a major and lore important character for $10 which has no reason not to be cut out for the normal edition (deluxe/collector's edition get it for free, in addition to whatever they already get, and Bioware/EA only confirmed/announced it because it got leaked). This is nothing more than a blatant cash grab.

On the plus side the youtube video of some of the sound files grabbed from the DLC leak on xbox LIVE are hilariously bad so maybe it will be a terrible character on top of that.