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Mass Effect 3 Debut Trailer - Holiday 2011 - 360/PS3/PC

VindicatorZ said:
Reading that Cerberus daily news gave me an idea for a cool mission in ME3. You could explore planets and find civilizations that are not aware of interstellar travel or aliens (like us) You can choose to go down there and scare the shit out of them or leave them alone. It'd be like violating the prime directive in Star Trek. They could make this an awesome story moment.
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That could be quite nice. Maybe add the option to investigate undercover and have Shepard wear the same cloths as the natives etc.
 
Here's a new interview. There's not much in the way of new details, but I think it's the closest to details we've gotten so far.

If nothing else, it seems planet scanning is out.

GameRant said:
[This is an ME2 question, but leads into the rest] Game Rant: When you addressed design concerns going from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 2, how did you start? What influenced the changes?

Christina Norman: A couple of major factors. First of all, we always had a vision for the game. The vision evolves, it never stays exactly the same but from the very start, there was the vision of the game. We knew at the point when Mass Effect 1 came out that there were certain aspects of the original vision of Mass Effect that we had not addressed. In addition, we looked at feedback from both reviewers and fans and we were lucky. If people had been all over of the map and everyone said something different then it wouldn’t have been useful.

There were a lot of themes that emerged that seemed really consistent and resulted in kind of like a critical, hardcore gamer feedback and there were also people who would just say things like, “I find this game confusing,” “I try to play it and my gun isn’t hitting anybody and I don’t know what’s going on,” and other sort of things. So there were certain aspects of the gameplay that were making the game inaccessable to players.

The way I like to put that is, Mass Effect has always looked like a shooter, but Mass Effect 1 didn’t really play like one. It could play like a shooter, if you were a smart gamer and you understood what we were doing and you did all the RPG stuff in just the right way, you could have a pretty good shooter experience.

We wanted to make sure every gamer who have already played a shooter could have a good experience in Mass Effect 2 and look at the RPG stuff as not being the barrier to entry, like you don’t get to play a shooter if you don’t do this RPG stuff and make it more like “You can play it like a shooter, but if you want to be really awesome, if you want to just destroy everything, you really have to engage that RPG stuff.” And that becomes sort of a competitive edge to a gamer when you engage those RPG mechanics.

Game Rant: Will players who opted to stay romantically involved with Liara or Ashley Williams from ME1 be rewarded for staying loyal?

Christina Norman: I can’t talk about any of the specific decisions or what they actually do. But what I can say is that decisions through all of the Mass Effect games, including the DLC, will matter for Mass Effect 3. And it’s not just like decisions that carried over from ME1 to ME2 will matter in ME3, they’ll be decisions in ME1 that did not visibly impact ME2 that will have an impact in ME3. What we looked at is the total story, everything that happened in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 is real and matters, we let the writers draw on that as much as they want to customize the experience and to be pretty much without limits.

Game Rant: Since the design differences between 1 and 2 were so prevalent, are you taking an approach to the third game of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it?”

Christina Norman: Sure. This is the metaphor you can think of it in. I can tell you the overall arcing design for 1, 2, and 3. With ME1, we wanted to build Mass Effect and we did our best to do that and we succeeded in a lot of areas, but we didn’t reach where we wanted to do in some areas. Mass Effect 2 was like, “OK, now we have time to take what we did and fully sort of realize the vision we had for Mass Effect.” And we’ve done that, but now what we can do is add another layer on top of that in terms of “now that we have something that we think really represents the Mass Effect experience, let’s build on that.”

There really is infinite possibilities now that we have that really, really solid Mass Effect 2 core. What you’ll probably not see in Mass Effect 3 is a lot of major, complete reinventions, because we don’t have those things where we’ll shift it and all that. That is not actually what we wanted to do. There will still be things that are in ME2 that won’t be in ME3 and that’s just because we’re looking at the overall play experience of “does this make sense to have in both games?” Sometimes there’s something and we’ll say “this is great for one game, but we don’t want to do it again in another game, because once was enough.” And instead we want to put in something new to replace it.

Game Rant: Like planet scanning?

Christina Norman: I can’t comment on anything specifically, but there will be elements that are in ME2 that are not in ME3.
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Source: http://gamerant.com/mass-effect-3-interview-bioware-christina-norman-gdc-trung-71733/
 
My favorite part of that article:

Game Rant said:
Players of Mass Effect 1 may have noticed that very important decisions had a direct impact on the experience of Mass Effect 2, like choosing to save the Council or kill the Rachni queen.
Click to expand...

Really?
 
Patryn said:
Really?
Click to expand...

At least the Rachni Queen doesn't send an e-mail. :P



lol @ the council decision.

*Save Council*

"You're crazy, just take your Spectre status back and buzz off."

*Abandon Council*

"You're crazy, just take your Spectre status back and buzz off."
 
They could not have picked worse examples of stuff transferring over.

And there is no way there were 700 plot points transferred over unless they mean each possible consequence of each action. Even then that number seems ridiculous.
 
Patryn said:
My favorite part of that article:



Really?
Click to expand...
The only "big" thing about the Rachni queen is the
asari who sends a message from her saying all is well

Also, I wish those fucking interviewers would just ask the one immortal question. "When can we expect to see more media?"
 
sam27368 said:
The only "big" thing about the Rachni queen is the
asari who sends a messagr from her saying all is well
Click to expand...
That took like thousands of man hours and the worlds most creative video gaming designers to come up with!

Seriously though, the much vaunted "omg decisions carried over!" is the most overrated shite in video game history.

Here's hoping ME3 steps back from the shooterification that ME2 brought to the series.
 
elrechazao said:
That took like thousands of man hours and the worlds most creative video gaming designers to come up with!

Seriously though, the much vaunted "omg decisions carried over!" is the most overrated shite in video game history.

Here's hoping ME3 steps back from the shooterification that ME2 brought to the series.
Click to expand...
By the sounds of the interview I doubt they're gonna touch the combat system. Shame really
 
VindicatorZ said:
Reading that Cerberus daily news gave me an idea for a cool mission in ME3. You could explore planets and find civilizations that are not aware of interstellar travel or aliens (like us) You can choose to go down there and scare the shit out of them or leave them alone. It'd be like violating the prime directive in Star Trek. They could make this an awesome story moment.
Click to expand...
Reapers wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. So presumably give or take a few hundred years here and there almost all species are pretty close to each other on the technological curve.

Edit: Werent the Krogan post industrial when they got "uplifted"?
 
I just hope to dear god Bioware goes away from the indications of what DA2 and ME2 has shown. Right now I'll just be satisfied with more atmosphere and ambient music and less pompous action themes in a DLC-ridden, Steam-discriminating dudebro shooter. Everything else (carry-over decisions, plot holes, bangable crew members, etc.) doesn't scare me as much as the aforementioned problems Bioware has shown since EA took over.

Oh, and do not under any circumstances let Mike Laidlaw into the offices of the ME3 team.
 
elrechazao said:
That took like thousands of man hours and the worlds most creative video gaming designers to come up with!

Seriously though, the much vaunted "omg decisions carried over!" is the most overrated shite in video game history.

Here's hoping ME3 steps back from the shooterification that ME2 brought to the series.
Click to expand...
I seriously doubt ME3 will have decisions from ME1 carry over (that aren't the big five present in the ME comic for the PS3) which don't end up as an e-mail or throw away dialogue.
 
Lostconfused said:
Reapers wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy. So presumably give or take a few hundred years here and there almost all species are pretty close to each other on the technological curve.
Click to expand...

This makes very little sense as you don't know when life will appear/destroy itself/panspermia might start a late blooming species etc.

the idea of visiting less developed species could be interesting...
 
Christina Norman said:
There will still be things that are in ME2 that won’t be in ME3 and that’s just because we’re looking at the overall play experience of “does this make sense to have in both games?” Sometimes there’s something and we’ll say “this is great for one game, but we don’t want to do it again in another game, because once was enough.” And instead we want to put in something new to replace it.
Click to expand...

I'm hoping that this is referring to either the mining system or the debriefing screens after every mission.

Mining is pretty self explanatory, few people liked it and even after the patch that sped it up, it was still pretty slow. However, I'm pretty sure Casey Hudson once said that planet mining would be returning so unless plans have changed, it's probably still there.

As for the Illusive Man's debriefing screens, there was little need for them in Mass Effect 2 and I found them quite jarring with regards to the overall game experience. While I think there will be some interaction with the Illusive man, I don't think we'll be taking orders from him anymore in Mass Effect 3 and with shit hitting the fan, I would hope we wouldn't need a replacement to take over his debriefing duties. In fact, I'd be happy if Bioware brought back the ship scenes from Mass Effect where you briefly discuss with your team what just happened and what to do next, followed by a short call to the council or whoever you are taking orders from in ME3.

Ah fuck it, I bet both will be back. :(

Gui_PT said:
So how will he get a new ship if he stopped working for Martin Sheen? Maybe the council payed for the repairs? He IS still a Spectre
Click to expand...

Doesn't Mordin joke that
those in the Salarian STGs don't have to buy their own weapons like Spectres do? If the council is too cheap to provide free weapons to their "protectors of galactic peace", I can't see them paying for ship repairs. I'm sure the Alliance would bankroll it as they need Shepard, but the council as a collective wouldn't.
 
Atilac said:
Has anyone floated the theory that Miranda's father is Udina?
Click to expand...

KOJIMAMGS.jpg
 
Grakl said:
Lime seems a bit more right in this respect.
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Yep. All we honestly need is for Saren to magically resurrect in ME3, apologize to Shepard for all the shit he pulled in ME1, and then die right by his grave.
 
jackdoe said:
Yep. All we honestly need is for Saren to magically resurrect in ME3, apologize to Shepard for all the shit he pulled in ME1, and then die right by his grave.
Click to expand...
Fuck that, The Lazarus Project brings Saren back as a recruitable companion. Then you can roll around with Robocop and Wrex the dinosaur!!!
 
universalmind said:
Yeah, but... it actually isn't.

The whole ME1 fanboy thing is fine when we're talking about the story, but for combat? Yuck.
Click to expand...

ME1 definitely has its moments - the weapons have way more oomph. The ammo + weapon upgrade options are much better, and things like 2 explosive ammo stacked + damage increase from a weapon upgrade on a shotgun to literally blow enemies across the room isn't something that is in ME2. You really can't do crazy shit in 2 like you could in 1.

ME2 is probably still overall better. The skills themselves feel better and seem to affect the battlefield more (with the exception of biotics). Way more weapons. Cover is done better. Much faster paced combat. Also, doesn't get repetitive throughout the game.

Both, honestly, are pretty good. If ME3 got the feel and ammo+weapon upgrades of the first plus everything else from the second, I'd be happy.
 
Remember everybody, Mass Effect is combat/shooting game! Ignore the shallow, stereotypical character arcs and the lack of a substantial plot and the utter disregard for carrying story-threads forward (*cough*Rachni, Citadel*cough*), because it's all about the shooting!
 
ThusZarathustra said:
Remember everybody, Mass Effect is combat/shooting game! Ignore the shallow, stereotypical character arcs and the lack of a substantial plot and the utter disregard for carrying story-threads forward (*cough*Rachni, Citadel*cough*), because it's all about the shooting!
Click to expand...

I'm tired of your snide insinuations
*snicker*
. Your masking link is irrelevant - just because we are talking about one aspect of a video game doesn't mean we are ignoring the rest.
 
ThusZarathustra said:
Remember everybody, Mass Effect is combat/shooting game! Ignore the shallow, stereotypical character arcs and the lack of a substantial plot and the utter disregard for carrying story-threads forward (*cough*Rachni, Citadel*cough*), because it's all about the shooting!
Click to expand...
I don't recall Ashley or Kaiden having a character arc.
 
Grakl said:
I'm tired of your snide insinuations
*snicker*
. Your masking link is irrelevant - just because we are talking about one aspect of a video game doesn't mean we are ignoring the rest.
Click to expand...

You just keep right on telling yourself that, man.

BANG! BANG!


jackdoe said:
I don't recall Ashley or Kaiden having a character arc.
Click to expand...

Kaiden, no. Ashley, yes. And it sucked, too. But it was, to me anyway, much more interesting and realistic than anything ME2 offered up (it was a shitty allegory for racism, and the only place ME2 bests that thematic subtext is Mordin).

Besides, the world-building and thematic focus made up for that in the first game.

The first game was about the universe and the feeling of inhabiting it. Mass Effect 2 was about spinning wheels with characters with family issues.

EDIT: Actually, Legion and the Geth/Quarians interaction had some good thematic subtext too (nature of sentience!).
 
ThusZarathustra said:
You just keep right on telling yourself that, man.

BANG! BANG!
Click to expand...

Wait, so you'd rather not have a discussion with people who talk about the gameplay? All of a sudden I'm simply unable to analyze the story and characters in the games?

lol
 
Grakl said:
Wait, so you'd rather not have a discussion with people who talk about the gameplay? All of a sudden I'm simply unable to analyze the story and characters in the games?

lol
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong, in purely objective terms the comabt in 2 is better. But that doesn't make the game as a whole better when the focus of the franchise is not the combat. Besides, gameplay is much more than just combat.

Edited for stupidity.
 
ThusZarathustra said:
Kaiden, no. Ashley, yes. And it sucked, too. But it was, to me anyway, much more interesting and realistic than anything ME2 offered up (it was a shitty allegory for racism, and the only place ME2 bests that thematic subtext is Mordin).
Click to expand...
Really? I could swear Ashley was still a racist by the end of ME1. Engineer Presley had more character development than Ashley (and it was done through text in ME2). Also, I found Garrus' character arc in ME1 to mean jack shit in the long run, since it only changed a few lines of dialogue in ME2.
 
ThusZarathustra said:
Don't get me wrong, in purely objective terms the comabt in 2 is better. But that doesn't make the game as a whole better when the focus of the franchise is not the combat. Besides, gameplay is much more than just combat.

Edited for stupidity.
Click to expand...

I... never said that combat is purely the only thing that makes the game. What?

Anyways, combat can probably make the scripted sessions in the game where it defines how the situation feels - such as when you break Jack out of prison. If it sucked the section would suck. I never said that only combat is gameplay - either way it is something important.
 
Grakl said:
ME1 definitely has its moments - the weapons have way more oomph. The ammo + weapon upgrade options are much better, and things like 2 explosive ammo stacked + damage increase from a weapon upgrade on a shotgun to literally blow enemies across the room isn't something that is in ME2. You really can't do crazy shit in 2 like you could in 1.

ME2 is probably still overall better. The skills themselves feel better and seem to affect the battlefield more (with the exception of biotics). Way more weapons. Cover is done better. Much faster paced combat. Also, doesn't get repetitive throughout the game.

Both, honestly, are pretty good. If ME3 got the feel and ammo+weapon upgrades of the first plus everything else from the second, I'd be happy.
Click to expand...

You forget how the management and combination of powers played a much greater role in ME1, due to the fact that it was individual cooldowns, and not a global one.

My Engineer was a master of quickly disabling all the enemies on the battlefield through the use of multiple skills.
 
Grakl said:
I... never said that combat is purely the only thing that makes the game. What?
Click to expand...

SIGH

I didn't say that you said that combat was the only thing that makes the game. I said that no matter how you want to parse the combat systems of both games, it makes rather little difference in the long run. Combat is a very small thing (to me at least) and discussing it in a a vacuum is (again, to me) kinda stupid and missing the point.
 
ThusZarathustra said:
SIGH

I didn't say that you said that combat was the only thing that makes the game. I said that no matter how you want to parse the combat systems of both games, it makes rather little difference in the long run. Combat is a very small thing (to me at least) and discussing it in a a vacuum is (again, to me) kinda stupid
Click to expand...

Does the short run not matter? Side quests are practically defined by the combat in both Mass Effects - the side stories aren't really much. And the little sections you have between major plot points are defined by combat as well. And then, most probably, the major plot point against a boss or something still needs good combat.

I don't see why talking about combat in a vacuum is a bad thing - if I understand you correctly, it is essentially separate from the story. So why not? Either way, I'm still saying it does affect little elements in the story where it matters.

Patryn said:
You forget how the management and combination of powers played a much greater role in ME1, due to the fact that it was individual cooldowns, and not a global one.

My Engineer was a master of quickly disabling all the enemies on the battlefield through the use of multiple skills.
Click to expand...

This is true. I played an Engineer in the first and second and didn't find ME2 to be as rewarding in that aspect. I also played an infiltrator and found it to be better in ME2, though, simply because of how the skills were handled. Cool downs do influence the way the game plays quite a bit.
 
Grakl said:
ME1 definitely has its moments - the weapons have way more oomph. The ammo + weapon upgrade options are much better, and things like 2 explosive ammo stacked + damage increase from a weapon upgrade on a shotgun to literally blow enemies across the room isn't something that is in ME2. You really can't do crazy shit in 2 like you could in 1.

ME2 is probably still overall better. The skills themselves feel better and seem to affect the battlefield more (with the exception of biotics). Way more weapons. Cover is done better. Much faster paced combat. Also, doesn't get repetitive throughout the game.

Both, honestly, are pretty good. If ME3 got the feel and ammo+weapon upgrades of the first plus everything else from the second, I'd be happy.
Click to expand...
Kinda agree, but ME1's most effective weapon was a pistol with the marksman talent. That was bad. You could still do crazy things with the Vanguard in ME2.

Both games were repetitive combat wise though. "More chest high boxes. I guess there's an ambush just head" or fighting in the same Cerberus facility for the 10th time.

ThusZarathustra said:
Remember everybody, Mass Effect is combat/shooting game! Ignore the shallow, stereotypical character arcs and the lack of a substantial plot and the utter disregard for carrying story-threads forward (*cough*Rachni, Citadel*cough*), because it's all about the shooting!
Click to expand...
It's funny because even though you're being sarcastic, it's basically true. The games progress the story through combat, even if neither of us like it.
 
Grakl said:
Does the short run not matter? Side quests are practically defined by the combat in both Mass Effects - the side stories aren't really much. And the little sections you have between major plot points are defined by combat as well. And then, most probably, the major plot point against a boss or something still needs good combat.

I don't see why talking about combat in a vacuum is a bad thing - if I understand you correctly, it is essentially separate from the story. So why not? Either way, I'm still saying it does affect little elements in the story where it matters.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I just don't think the changes in the combat system contributed enough to the overall experience of the game to make up for the massive detriments it has in other places. But that probably says more about me and what I wanted from the series than anything else.
 
Patryn said:
You forget how the management and combination of powers played a much greater role in ME1, due to the fact that it was individual cooldowns, and not a global one.

My Engineer was a master of quickly disabling all the enemies on the battlefield through the use of multiple skills.
Click to expand...
Global cool down made me dread to use any form of shield (since it takes a good minute to cool down from.)

Perfect combat in ME3 would be ME2, with ME1's individual cool downs.

I'd love to chain together some of my bitchin' powers.
 
ThusZarathustra said:
I dunno, I just don't think the changes in the combat system contributed enough to the overall experience of the game to make up for the massive detriments it has in other places. But that probably says more about me and what I wanted from the series than anything else.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it doesn't. I'm just saying it at least matters. Hopefully ME3 can realize what ME2 didn't in terms of continuing individual plots.
 
Patryn said:
You forget how the management and combination of powers played a much greater role in ME1, due to the fact that it was individual cooldowns, and not a global one.

My Engineer was a master of quickly disabling all the enemies on the battlefield through the use of multiple skills.
Click to expand...
I have beat both games on insanity many times over. To me the individual cooldowns just made it easier to spam everything. I was far less concerned with cooldown and combining powers compared to ME2.

I remember when ME first came out some podcasts complained how hard the final fight was for an adept. It's ridiculously easy to perma-stun him by just casting whatever biotic is ready thanks to individual cooldowns.

It's partly why ME2 stasis needs a complete rework. Stasis is way overpowered even with a global cooldown.
 
rainking187 said:
Probably "Preorder six months in advance to get the collector's edition".
Click to expand...

Buy at any of these stores to get a different ending!

Gamespot: Ending 1
Amazon: Ending 2
Best Buy: Ending 3
Steam: Ending 4
 
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