Mass Effect 3

You lot tried it? Combat seems nicely tuned up, and the skill-system more expanded from 2. Writing is still pretty generic but it'll get the job done. Gama ratio was totally fucked for me though, so fucked up that in the scene where you talk to the kid in the vent, my femshep was completely black (like fucking shadow black).

weird, I didn't have noticeable gamma issues....

You play the coop? It's pretty dope. It's like GoW Horde on steroids.

It's shorter (only 10 waves) but it has missions you have to accomplish within time limits during some waves. Demo only has Cerberus as an enemy faction, but it looks like there will be Geth, Blue Suns, Blood Pack, & collectors/reapers as other enemy types to fight on the maps to add more variety.

You earn XP to level up your character, which every race and class is levels separately (human male & female also tracked separate). You unlock new guns, gun mods and race options through these mystery boxes you buy with credits earned from completing the aforementioned mid wave missions. They also come loaded with 1 time use items that give you an ammo power for a match, let you revive yourself, fire off a high damage rocket, heal, or reload ammo (without having to run to an ammo box).

Phantoms are the most annoying enemy by far... fuckin ninjas with barriers, cloak, dodge like bitches, and they can run up behind you (cloaked FFS!) and assassinate you with no chance for revive with their effin sword...

Anyways, I played the coop for 2-3 hours last night and loved it. I figured I'd like it and it'd be fun, but it's better than I expected.

I tried it, it was so-so. I imagine it's better if you're not playing with randoms though.

Haven't touched mp. The singleplayer is...hard to decide from a demo.

Tried out the co-op, and frankly, it's impressive. AI shows competence, as I see a lot of leapfrogging and flanking from them (coincidence?) They seem to derp when they're flanked, though.

the actual combat system is definitely a notch up. Doesn't feel sluggish, hitboxes aren't wonked out, my only complaint is the shotgun as it feels pretty weak. Oh, vanguard is OP. Charge and blow everything up except the mechs and combat engies...

Charge + Nova spam is fuckin fun as shit. Me and Jon have been having fun tag teaming Atlas'es just chain smashing the shit out of them, even on Silver.

Gold is INSANE which is good for extended challenge and something to do when you max your characters... or even a reason TO max your characters. You don't want a random group of nubs with rank 14's on gold... oh no, you want 4x lvl 20's with a good spread of abilities and everyone knowing how to play their role.

Shotgun is actually pretty good, dunno wtf ur smokin. Claymore just obliterates shit and works amazingly well on a melee Krogan.

I was a little apprehensive (though still hopeful) of ME3's MP, but they pulled it off well. Far better then the horde mode from GoW3. The mix of classes and abilities, the random missions at waves 3, 6, and 10, and in full release, what looks to be a fair # of levels (on the galaxy map the 2 provided levels are almost right next to each other, there will easily be at least 8-10 MP maps, if not more. Here's to hoping for 16+ ) as well as multiple enemy types to keep it from getting too repetitive.

Overall shockingly good.

The co-op is ridiculous, I've spent a good day or two on it.

Yah, I'm player level 72 or something ridiculous lol

Can't believe how fast some people hit 120 O.o

If they in any way detracted from the SP, or even fucking integrated into the SP (which they were talking about a while back), I rage like a motherfucker. All the shit with 'Story Mode' is bad enough.

why do you give 2 shit's about story mode?

All it is is basically a "god mode" of sorts removing any challenge from the game. You don't need it, don't use it.

Personally if I sucked at games I wouldn't "play them for the story" but w/e some people do and that's who its for. Doesn't affect ur game at all so the fuck it matter?

As for the MP, I'm right now cause it IS tied into the SP.

Your MP Progress affects the Galaxy Battle on the whole in your SP game.

You don't NEED to play MP to get the perfect ending, but... well... it'll help

MuWaHaHaHaHa

cry bitch, ur tears are so sweet

I like a good story. Metro and the Half Life series stands out to me very well.

No doubt.... some games have pretty good stories I find quite entertaining...

that said, if ALL I wanted was story.....

I wouldn't seek my stories via the video game medium.

And if I did, it wouldn't involve a lot of repetitive, albeit inanely easy, gameplay I didn't enjoy.

Makes no sense, but then again, a lot of what people like doesn't make any fuckin sense to me and I'm sure there's a market for what looks like relatively minimal extra work on their part.

I'm guessing that market are sci-fi nerds who suck at games but would otherwise prolly play them

It's because of Hepler and her fucking dislike of games in general, yet she's a senior writer for Bioware. They really have gone to shit a a company. If you can't see the ramifications of having a gameplay skip button, then you're a fool.

RoninHo'in wrote:

I'm guessing that market are sci-fi nerds who suck at games but would otherwise prolly play them

nope... Women.

Alyss wrote:

It's because of Hepler and her fucking dislike of games in general, yet she's a senior writer for Bioware. They really have gone to shit a a company. If you can't see the ramifications of having a gameplay skip button, then you're a fool.

Hamburger Helper general.

Alyss wrote:

It's because of Hepler and her fucking dislike of games in general, yet she's a senior writer for Bioware. They really have gone to shit a a company. If you can't see the ramifications of having a gameplay skip button, then you're a fool.

writers have shit to do with gameplay....

as does other people skipping said gameplay.

Honestly I don't understand the hate

as for hepler... she doesn't work on ME's story... she did DA's, which admittedly was pretty weak, but...

shes a game writer... You aren't going to find a single fucking George R.R. Martin among them. They are video game writers cause they FAILED at becoming a better actual novel writer that they aspired too.

Whether or not they have any experience with gaming is basically irrelevant... they write the story, they don't design gameplay

I expect ignorance of this magnitude from your avg reddit junky, but I always pinned you as a bit more astute than that

RoninHo'in wrote:

No doubt.... some games have pretty good stories I find quite entertaining...

that said, if ALL I wanted was story.....

I wouldn't seek my stories via the video game medium.

And if I did, it wouldn't involve a lot of repetitive, albeit inanely easy, gameplay I didn't enjoy.

Makes no sense, but then again, a lot of what people like doesn't make any fuckin sense to me and I'm sure there's a market for what looks like relatively minimal extra work on their part.

Good points, but I find things like Halo, CoD, Killing Floor, and CS:S keeps me quite content on fragfests. Terraria, Dwarfs!?, Elder Scrolls series, and League of Legends fills my casual side.

RoninHo'in wrote:

reddit

Dohohoho

An no, full retard. Gameplay is meant to complement story and vice versa. Seeing them as separate is the first step to failure, and wanting to actually implement them as separate things is even worse. Obviously, Hepler isn't the root cause of the rot going on at Bioware, but her comments and attitude are indicative of a wider problem. I was hoping that Mass Effect 3 was going to be a fusion of the good things from 1 and the good things from 2, but everything we've seen so far doesn't show that to be the case.

And what have you seen that shows otherwise?

I see vast improvements in gameplay personally, as well as character progression and customization... both of which are, for me, the quintessential characteristics for a good game.

The story itself seems to be at least as good as the previous 2 entries, which as I've said before is better then you'll find in most video games if still naturally inferior to dedicated story telling mediums.

It's good enough where I could actually see someone incapable of playing games to be interested in enjoying... maybe... I dunno, cause I've never had the problem of not being able to play a game so I can only hypothesize how they might think or feel lmao Hell, it's better than most the movies coming out of hollywood these days FFS.

It just seems like some kind of elitism that you don't want people who can't play the game to enjoy the story. They ARE seperate elements. Game programmers are notoriously bad writers/story tellers. Writers couldn't write a "Hello World" webpage. Neither employee has shit to do with the others domain. Only the project managers... producers & directors marry them into a single product.

And for the love of god... the only thing "Story Mode" is is basically using some god mode cheat that used to be standard fare on games back in the 90's... that is literally all it is. It dumbs down the AI so they won't kill you, and skews damage in your favor to make battles quicker and require less healing/downtime... that's it. They didn't change game design to accommodate for them, they just removed the challenge so someone with no skill could play through the game and also skip on all the research/etc required to level yourself/team up.

Just like Arcade mode doesn't change anything, all they did was set default conversation options for people who really don't care or want to shape the world, just play through shooting shit with (albeit long) after mission cutscenes

RoninHo'in wrote:

And for the love of god... the only thing "Story Mode" is is basically using some god mode cheat that used to be standard fare on games back in the 90's... that is literally all it is. It dumbs down the AI so they won't kill you, and skews damage in your favor to make battles quicker and require less healing/downtime... that's it. They didn't change game design to accommodate for them, they just removed the challenge so someone with no skill could play through the game and also skip on all the research/etc required to level yourself/team up.

Play through Mass Effect 2 on Insanity as a Vanguard then say that.

Get one charge slightly mistimed? Praetorian just one shotted you.

Team-mates out of position? Insta-headshot

Krogan charging and no ammo? Dead

Can't find ammo? Dead

Miss one melee attack in close quarters? Dead


The list goes on. And no, story and gameplay are not separate. If I play a game with no story, I don't enjoy it. MGS4 got a lot of flak because it focussed on story more than gameplay, and things like Bulletstorm were seen as a "buy it, play once" because it had no story. Games like KOTOR are so popular because they strike the balance, the gameplay was good, the story was solid and they complemented each other. As for the quality of the story, that's where the gameplay comes in. The story itself may be paper thin, but the fact you are playing the main character helps immerse yourself in the universe. If I'm reading a Discworld novel, as funny and well told as it is, it always seems like I'm being told the story by someone else, whereas in a game I'm actively part of the story, my choices have consequences and that immersion is what makes it better than most novels, at least for me.

CptnShotgun wrote:

RoninHo'in wrote:

And for the love of god... the only thing "Story Mode" is is basically using some god mode cheat that used to be standard fare on games back in the 90's... that is literally all it is. It dumbs down the AI so they won't kill you, and skews damage in your favor to make battles quicker and require less healing/downtime... that's it. They didn't change game design to accommodate for them, they just removed the challenge so someone with no skill could play through the game and also skip on all the research/etc required to level yourself/team up.

Play through Mass Effect 2 on Insanity as a Vanguard then say that.

Get one charge slightly mistimed? Praetorian just one shotted you.

Team-mates out of position? Insta-headshot

Krogan charging and no ammo? Dead

Can't find ammo? Dead

Miss one melee attack in close quarters? Dead


The list goes on. And no, story and gameplay are not separate. If I play a game with no story, I don't enjoy it. MGS4 got a lot of flak because it focussed on story more than gameplay, and things like Bulletstorm were seen as a "buy it, play once" because it had no story. Games like KOTOR are so popular because they strike the balance, the gameplay was good, the story was solid and they complemented each other. As for the quality of the story, that's where the gameplay comes in. The story itself may be paper thin, but the fact you are playing the main character helps immerse yourself in the universe. If I'm reading a Discworld novel, as funny and well told as it is, it always seems like I'm being told the story by someone else, whereas in a game I'm actively part of the story, my choices have consequences and that immersion is what makes it better than most novels, at least for me.

/facepalm

jesus christ you guys don't ever understand a goddamn thing I say so I'm just gonna stop bothering

Shit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Bad animations, bad graphics, adding bullshit new characters (the Prothean, Vega the walking man fridge, EDI in physical form), day 1 DLC, the omniblade, god awful trailers (children dying EVERYWHERE) - these are all indicative of the end product being shit.

And yeah, fuck you - if you can't play through the game, you shouldn't get the story. I'm all for the wider audience being brought into gaming, but not if it means that already existing franchises get watered down and turned to shit.

Alyss wrote:

Shit like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Bad animations, bad graphics, adding bullshit new characters (the Prothean, Vega the walking man fridge, EDI in physical form), day 1 DLC, the omniblade, god awful trailers (children dying EVERYWHERE) - these are all indicative of the end product being shit.

And yeah, fuck you - if you can't play through the game, you shouldn't get the story. I'm all for the wider audience being brought into gaming, but not if it means that already existing franchises get watered down and turned to shit.

Oh dear God, what the fuck have they done? Fuck you Hepler, FUCK YOU!

seriously?

you're a fucking retard.

so someone puts the game on easy mode and then proceeds to use melee to quickly power their way through...

who gives a flying fuck?

You think you can do that in normal RPG mode? of fucking course not you hair brained nitwit

and who cares if andersan has the worst run animation.... It's not like their run animations have ever been particularly all that good, and they fucked up 1 character you see run for literally 2 minutes of a 40+ hour game... dear god no

for fuck sake

cry moar