Mass Effect 3

[glimmerman]

I think i played ME2 about 3 times in total so yeah... I liked it

[Unframed]

Originally Posted by Shreaver

What remains to be seen is if the same people bitching about ME2 are the ones that bitched about ME1. At least I'm not one of those people.

The main thing I didn't like was how I couldn't explore planets anymore.

Same. If they brought in a decent inventory and planetary exploration I'd be laughin'. That surveying in ME2 was utter shit.

[kini_mini]

Originally Posted by Unframed

That surveying in ME2 was utter shit.

I never want to survey another planet again. However, I remember the developers acknowledging that the mineral minigame was stupid and saying that it wouldn't be in ME3 (presentation to Joystiq and others IIRC).

I thought the story of ME2 was great, it was a very interesting world to explore. The combat was nothing special though.

[Philll]

So skip side planets you reckon? I did try it once but only got an hour or so in before being distracted with the next shiny thing that came across.

[Unframed]

Other planets should be a haven for experience, side-quests and randomly generated battles. Nothing more.

[lithos]

Originally Posted by Shreaver

What remains to be seen is if the same people bitching about ME2 are the ones that bitched about ME1. At least I'm not one of those people.

I like a good action RPG to have all the things I like in RPGs (story, characters, locations, lots of loot/items, exploration,) but without the clunky combat systems of traditional RPGs, which are there mostly as fan service to the dice-chuckers.

ME1 had a good mix of that. A nice mix of weapons, ammo and armour, wide open locations or at least big closed-in ones (ie, without a loading screen every twenty yards,) a lot of interesting characters, and a nice plot to tie it all together. ME2 had the story and the characters, but after sitting through all those cutscenes and conversations, there wasn't enough meat. The areas were significantly smaller, too - it has the classic symptom of IWS where areas you visited in the first game are bigger than in the second.

The inventory, yes, needed to be fixed in the first game. It would've been a simple fix - just do what Firefox did, and steal some tabs from Opera (zing!) "Pistols," "Assault Rifles," "Grenades." Simple. Instead, they "fixed" it in the second the same way you can fix an ingrown toenail by amputating the leg. Deleted the whole inventory. Which meant that there was no way to manage a plethora of weapons and 'nades, so how to handle that...?

Simple. Just have about five weapons in the whole game, and in case you're worried about players not being able find weapons they like, make the upgrades indistinguishable from the current ones. I could never figure out if the weapons you picked up during ME2 missions were used immediately by your character or if you had to equip them back at the Normandy, because they all felt the bloody same (except for the heavy weapons.)

(I think your char used them immediately. I'm still not 100%, though.)

Yes, there was a shitload of story and character development, but there wasn't enough game in it. It pains me to see people cheer on the devolution of games into mere movies, albeit ones where you can pick what line the actor's going to say next.

The main thing I didn't like was how I couldn't explore planets anymore.

Again, everyone bitched about it, and Bioware clumsily fixed it like they fixed the inventory. "Launching probe. Probe away. Launching probe. Probe away." (Whose idea was it to have to hold down the right-mouse button to scan, anyway? I broke my faithful MX700 doing that.) Tear-arsing around in the Mako was infinitely more fun. Replacing exploration with grind? What the hell?

And it adds a sense of scale and size that ME2 lacked. Being a tiny speck trundling around a giant, barren rock really gave across a sense of awe about just what you were in the universe, and how bloody big it is. The cramped corridors and canyons of ME2 really didn't do that for me.

[Shreaver]

Originally Posted by lithos

I like a good action RPG to have all the things I like in RPGs (story, characters, locations, lots of loot/items, exploration,) but without the clunky combat systems of traditional RPGs, which are there mostly as fan service to the dice-chuckers.

ME1 had a good mix of that. A nice mix of weapons, ammo and armour, wide open locations or at least big closed-in ones (ie, without a loading screen every twenty yards,) a lot of interesting characters, and a nice plot to tie it all together. ME2 had the story and the characters, but after sitting through all those cutscenes and conversations, there wasn't enough meat. The areas were significantly smaller, too - it has the classic symptom of IWS where areas you visited in the first game are bigger than in the second.

The inventory, yes, needed to be fixed in the first game. It would've been a simple fix - just do what Firefox did, and steal some tabs from Opera (zing!) "Pistols," "Assault Rifles," "Grenades." Simple. Instead, they "fixed" it in the second the same way you can fix an ingrown toenail by amputating the leg. Deleted the whole inventory. Which meant that there was no way to manage a plethora of weapons and 'nades, so how to handle that...?

Simple. Just have about five weapons in the whole game, and in case you're worried about players not being able find weapons they like, make the upgrades indistinguishable from the current ones. I could never figure out if the weapons you picked up during ME2 missions were used immediately by your character or if you had to equip them back at the Normandy, because they all felt the bloody same (except for the heavy weapons.)

(I think your char used them immediately. I'm still not 100%, though.)

Yes, there was a shitload of story and character development, but there wasn't enough game in it. It pains me to see people cheer on the devolution of games into mere movies, albeit ones where you can pick what line the actor's going to say next.



Again, everyone bitched about it, and Bioware clumsily fixed it like they fixed the inventory. "Launching probe. Probe away. Launching probe. Probe away." (Whose idea was it to have to hold down the right-mouse button to scan, anyway? I broke my faithful MX700 doing that.) Tear-arsing around in the Mako was infinitely more fun. Replacing exploration with grind? What the hell?

And it adds a sense of scale and size that ME2 lacked. Being a tiny speck trundling around a giant, barren rock really gave across a sense of awe about just what you were in the universe, and how bloody big it is. The cramped corridors and canyons of ME2 really didn't do that for me.

Eh, I'll admit being a fan of dice-chucking. Also, scanning planets was RSI inducing.

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

Originally Posted by kini_mini

I never want to survey another planet again. However, I remember the developers acknowledging that the mineral minigame was stupid and saying that it wouldn't be in ME3 (presentation to Joystiq and others IIRC).

I thought the story of ME2 was great, it was a very interesting world to explore. The combat was nothing special though.

you don't have to you know!

[Fortigurn]

I really enjoyed fooling around in the Mako. Haven't played ME2, but will miss that.

What really annoyed me was that way Shepherd is supposedly an ace marine who's so red hot he's chosen to be a Specter, and then the next thing you know he's given the world's cheapest and nastiest weapons, has to buy better ones, and when he gets to use them you find out he can't hit the side of a barn when he's standing straight in front of it, and he has to spent the entire game getting better at all the skills he supposedly excels in.

[knightfall88]

Is it coming out on PS3 and 360 at the same time?

And no inventory was fail and adding multiplayer is fail too.

[kini_mini]

Originally Posted by ni9ht_5ta1k3r

you don't have to you know!

Yeah, but the first time around I wanted to build every conceivable upgrade so I surveyed one hell of a lot of planets even taking into account the imported character bonus.

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

he has to spent the entire game getting better at all the skills he supposedly excels in.

I remember being struck by this circa 2000 when Diablo 2 came out, and my fearsome barbarian warrior ventured out of the rogue encampment armed only with a wooden club. I've come to accept it as a RPG convention now, though I agree it seems ridiculous.

While I'm at it, the heatsink ammo explanation for the revised weapon mechanics in ME2 was pretty damn lame.

[ni9ht_5ta1k3r]

Originally Posted by knightfall88

Is it coming out on PS3 and 360 at the same time?

And no inventory was fail and adding multiplayer is fail too.

Will probably be PC 360 first then PS3.

[lithos]

Originally Posted by Fortigurn

What really annoyed me was that way Shepherd is supposedly an ace marine who's so red hot he's chosen to be a Specter, and then the next thing you know he's given the world's cheapest and nastiest weapons, has to buy better ones, and when he gets to use them you find out he can't hit the side of a barn when he's standing straight in front of it, and he has to spent the entire game getting better at all the skills he supposedly excels in.

Ah, gaming clichés.

My favourite in general is how you're playing the biggest, baddest, most highly-skilled, highly-trained, elitest of the elite Special Forces trooper...who takes about twenty seconds to reload his weapon, like it's the first time he's used it in his life.

Oh, and there's a bigger plothole in the second game. Much bigger. You could shoot a planet through it.

[Unframed]

Originally Posted by knightfall88

Is it coming out on PS3 and 360 at the same time?

And no inventory was fail and adding multiplayer is fail too.

Isn't the multiplayer "cod-esque" mass effect supposed to be a spin-off and not ME3?

[Dodoman]

I can picture MP now... Everyone hiding around and using stasis and other biotic powers to slow/stop/lift you and then shotgun you to death. Oh my what fun