Mass Effect

[Vargras]

Scotland and Northern England? No one ever compliments those.

Doctor Who is Welsh, Primeval is Pinewood and the south, Misfits in London, Red Dwarf in I dunno. There's not much UK sci-fi I can think of. At least recent.

 

Ian McDonald, Charles Stross, Ken MacLeod and Iain M. Banks, to name a few. Great modern sci-fi authors.

 

Now, back to Mass Effect: I hear ME3 features a return of RPG elements, especially regarding character customization and weapon customization. Fuck yes, dudes. Fuck yes!

 

Hopefully it's not a return to the clusterfuck that was ME1's skill progression and inventory.

 

You'll be able to upgrade and evolve skills multiple times. Take Incinerate in ME2, for example. Once you maxed that out and chose a specialization for it, that was it. It was done. You'll be able to do more than that in ME3.

 

Also, there will be weapon mods that will apparently change the appearance of the weapons themselves, just based on which mods you use.

[AgamemnonV2]

Give us back the gorram inventory system damnit!

[peteer01]

Male Shep has a stronger Canadian accent. It's all in the vowels. Once you hear it, you'll notice it all the time. Shep is a Canuck, born and bred.

This is going to be something I notice all the time...

 

I'm offline while I'm the states with my parents, and I've been catching up on single player games (Batman:AA, Mirror's Edge, Alan Wake), and planning to finish up ME and replay ME2 with a ME save...I'm sure my Male Shepard's Canadian accent will be something I notice now...

[topekaguy]

Sounds cool so far.

[TheMightyEthan]

@GOH!: They didn't sound especially Canadian to me, just Generic North-American.

Male Shep's voice actor and Female Shep's voice actress are both Canadian.

I know the voice actors are Canadian, I'd just never noticed them sounding particularly Canadian.

[Vargras]

@GOH!: They didn't sound especially Canadian to me, just Generic North-American.

Male Shep's voice actor and Female Shep's voice actress are both Canadian.

I know the voice actors are Canadian, I'd just never noticed them sounding particularly Canadian.

 

Mark Meer is kinda meh for a voice actor anyways. He tries to do it too seriously and ends up sounding kinda corny.

 

I'd definitely say Jennifer Hale is the better one of the bunch, though they (Bioware) seem to have made up for that with the voice acting in Dragon Age 2.

[topekaguy]

There is going to be an update today on Game Informer's ME3 hub page but it isnt up yet...

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/masseffect3.aspx

[HotChops]

There is going to be an update today on Game Informer's ME3 hub page but it isnt up yet...

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/p/masseffect3.aspx

 

I know, I've been refreshing all day.

 

It's probably nothing too big. Just more teasing for their next issue.

[HotChops]

It could be this:

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/13/exclusive-bioware-s-doctors-talk-mass-effect-3.aspx

 

but it's not on their ME3 hub page.

 

It's a pretty lame interview. Nothing all that insightful, revealing or truthful.

Edited April 14, 2011 by HotChops

[Hot Heart]

Speaking of the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2, a lot of fans are wondering why the first game was not ported as well.

 

GameInformer: asking those questions that everyone already knows the answer to.

 

Nice how 'The Doctors' completely skirt the topic though.

[HotChops]

Speaking of the PS3 version of Mass Effect 2, a lot of fans are wondering why the first game was not ported as well.

 

GameInformer: asking those questions that everyone already knows the answer to.

 

Nice how 'The Doctors' completely skirt the topic though.

 

It makes me wish more developers were like Ken Levine. His answers would have been completely different.

[HotChops]

video about making Legion's voice.

 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2011/04/15/mass-effect-creating-the-voice-of-legion.aspx

 

GI's coverage of ME3 seems more like short features on ME2, but what the hell, I'll take it.

[HotChops]

I just finished reading the Game Informer feature on Mass Effect 3. A lot of it was posted earlier by Pirandello, but I'll confirm, reiterate and expand on things:

 

Mild Spoilers

 

 

 

A lot of good images in this story. Images include

- the center spread of Shepard, flanked by a mean-looking Liara, and a guy in blue Alliance armor -- who appears to be the infamous James Sanders. Whoever it is, he looks a lot like an aged Kaidan.

 

- images of Earth, with very sexy-futuristic buildings and spaceships.

 

- Captain Anderson in light combat armor.

 

- Quite a few images of what appears to be Cerberus enemies. Many of them have heavy armor and storm trooper-meets-snorkle-style helmets. One appears to be a Cerberus woman wielding a samurai sword, and combat armor/helmet that is easily described as MGS4-Raiden meets the security armor from Dead Space 2 (she looks very cool.)

 

- a picture of Ashley Williams with her hair down, and generally looking much sexier than before.

 

In regards to characters, basically they'll all make an appearance in one way or another if they're alive in your playthrough. According to Hudson, "Some characters are going to be absolutely core to the story. They're squad members... the story kind of pivots around them. Others will be conventional squad members that you can choose to have with you or not... Some characters might just have cameo appearances."

 

Then there's a side bar that specifically states:

Bioware confirmed to be playable to some extent:

Liara

Garrus

Ashley/Kaidan

James Sanders

 

Characters or heard during GI's demo:

Wrex

Mordin

Legion

Anderson

 

Other appearances:

Udina

The Illusive Man

 

On combat:

You can pick up any weapon from a dead enemy, but non-soldier classes will be limited to only two weapon choices (I assume that doesn't include the heavy weapon). Added ability to jump over small gaps and vault over cover without having to duck behind it first. Melee combat will have special moves based on class.

 

And lastly, on James Sanders:

He's basically a character from the start who will represent the thoughts and reactions of the player who is new to the franchise. Hudson describes him as an "entry point" character.

 

He is not the same person as the sniper in the reveal trailer, and no confirmation of any relation to Kahlee Sanders from the novels.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I'm sure most of this will be on GI's website in the near future.

[Vargras]

 

 

Melee combat will have special moves based on class.

 

 

 

 

Melee combat?! Oh fuck yes.

 

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Did you play Vanquish? I imagine that it's just going to be like that where the melee is ultimately the same but has slightly different animations and effects (farther knockback and stuff.)

[Enervation]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

[topekaguy]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

 

Shun the nonbeliever! SHUN!!! *Shuns

[Pirandello]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

 

Shun the nonbeliever! SHUN!!! *Shuns

Hey, I have to agree with him. After everything I did in ME1 for her, she easily pulled a 180 and gave me the shoulder in ME2. So now, I'm just like "Screw you, bitch." If me coming back from the dead wasn't good enough, then what the hell is?

[TheMightyEthan]

"You were gone for two years."

 

"I was dead."

 

"Still, you could have like, called or something."

 

"I was FUCKING DEAD!"

 

"I just can't be with someone who would abandon me like that."

 

[Vargras]

Hey, I have to agree with him. After everything I did in ME1 for her, she easily pulled a 180 and gave me the shoulder in ME2. So now, I'm just like "Screw you, bitch." If me coming back from the dead wasn't good enough, then what the hell is?

 

Hey now, kudos to Bioware for creating an accurate videogame woman.

 

"Good to see you, Commander."

"Good to see you too, Ash."

"OMG WTF YOU SON OF A BITCH AASDOADISFASDADKSRKJASD"

 

lolol i maek joke.

[HotChops]

so, I've had time to read the article more closely, and there's more info. Be warned though, this info is more moderately spoilerish -- it refers to possible locations and plot details:

 

 

The game starts off on Earth as Shepard stands trial for the events of Arrival. Suddenly, the reapers are all over Earth and Shepard has to abandon the planet.

 

From here, the idea is not so much that you're recruiting a team, but rather a collective force of entire alien civilizations. For example, Shepard will visit the Salarian homeworld (yes!) but depending on your actions from the previous games, the Salarians may or may not be able to help you because of their own struggles with the Krogen. Similar dilemmas will exist for the Quarians/Geth, etc. By the time you get to the final battle, choices may have to be made regarding which species survive.

 

The overall mission of the game is to find the way to get the "upper hand" on the Reapers, but according to Hudson, "You won't just find some long-lost Reaper 'off' button."

 

Enemies will consist of a few mercs, and the Reapers themselves. The Reapers will use many different species-husks in their attacks against you. In two of the feature's images, you can distinctly make out a Batarian husk and a Rachni husk.

 

Cerberus is hunting Shepard, but they're hunting you regardless of your choices in ME2. The reason why they're hunting Shepard is a closely-guarded Bioware secret.

 

Finally, the Normandy is still Shepard's, but it has been reclaimed by the Alliance. GI and Bioware offer confusing details in addition to that, and it's not clear if the Alliance wants the ship for military gain or for the purpose of studying the ship.

 

 

 

 

Going back to this new guy for a second...

 

I don't think that James Sanders is related at all to Kahlee Sanders. He appears too old to be her son, and the novels strongly implied that she was an only child.

 

As someone pointed out before, he really seems like a red shirt character to me. He's there to hold the hand of idiots who never bothered to play the first two games. If given a choice, I'll be sending this douchebag to his death asap.

 

[AgamemnonV2]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

I don't understand the Ash hate to be honest. The usual argument I hear is, "lol racist" but I imagine that comes from people who don't read the back story to Mass Effect (you know, that one bit where turians show up and start blowing up human ships without so much as a chance to surrender?). That or they are people who specifically believe in Kumbaya Theory (and she doesn't subscribe to that).

[Mr. GOH!]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

I don't understand the Ash hate to be honest. The usual argument I hear is, "lol racist" but I imagine that comes from people who don't read the back story to Mass Effect (you know, that one bit where turians show up and start blowing up human ships without so much as a chance to surrender?). That or they are people who specifically believe in Kumbaya Theory (and she doesn't subscribe to that).

 

 

 

Sure, I read the backstory, but I still dislike Ashley. But only a smidgeon more than I dislike Kaiden, mostly because Ash distrusts aliens and several of my Sheps' closest friends are aliens. And if anyone has a problem with Garrus or Wrex, they have a serious problem with Commander Shepard.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Mr. GOH!

[HotChops]

So Ashley finally let her hair down.

 

I still don't like her.

I don't understand the Ash hate to be honest. The usual argument I hear is, "lol racist" but I imagine that comes from people who don't read the back story to Mass Effect (you know, that one bit where turians show up and start blowing up human ships without so much as a chance to surrender?). That or they are people who specifically believe in Kumbaya Theory (and she doesn't subscribe to that).

 

[/facepalm] You're killing me, you know that?

 

In my opinion, Ashley's views are pretty much the same as Cerberus'. I'd rather not go into that again yet, as I'm still compiling my essay on Cerberus.

 

Back to Ashley though, I disliked her for a number of reasons, including that she's occasionally rude as hell. Personally, I remember when I started playing Mass Effect that I loved the feeling of being in a much larger, more progressive universe. I'm all, "Oh wow, humanity is finally united. The big religions have all been humbled before tangible evidence that contradicts their ideas. There's so much room to learn and grow...."

 

And then I meet Ashley, and she acts like all the "For God and Country" types that I run into at local Texas bars.

 

btw, got my scanner working:

 

 

 

 

way hotter than Miranda imo.

[Hot Heart]

As far as I'm aware, Ashley was against Terra Firma. Plus, she may not trust certain aliens, but she will still work with them (even likes the Salarians, if I recall). So, not entirely like Cerberus.

 

She's just got that long military background and really hates Turians for the business with her grandfather (which has held her back). I can still see why it's easy to dislike her. And I'd rather have a bit of contrast in the crew instead of everyone being huggy huggy cookies and milk.

 

Can't say she looks better or worse than Miranda. But she doesn't have Yvonne Strahovski's voice.

Edited April 17, 2011 by Hot Heart