Mass Effect

[TheMightyEthan]

Sure it's not your browser, or some kind of server issue (loads fine for me, but maybe not US folks)? Because I can see plenty of American people commenting that they can see the app or have already got the demo.

 

I don't know what the problem is, but I tried it in both Chrome and Firefox. Maybe I'll try it on my laptop...

 

*Edit* - Working on my laptop. How weird. Both computers are using the same connection.

 

*Edit 2* - Figured it out, I had 3rd party cookies disabled.

Edited February 12, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[TheMightyEthan]

I haven't watched it yet, so I can't say how bad any spoilers might be, but according to comments on RPS the first 20 minutes shows the beginning of the game and the last 20 minutes is some random mission about 1/3 of the way through the game. I'm trying to hold out for the demo, and I actually think I might make it... Edited February 13, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[Hot Heart]

From a quick-look, it's nothing they haven't shown before . I can't confirm it, but I think that's all the single-player stuff in the demo.

[SixTwoSixFour]

It's interesting to see, in that demo, just how incredibly easy Story mode makes the combat. That boss at the end had all the resilience of a wet paper towel.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

The 2nd half is what I played at PAX.

[Luftwaffles]

It's interesting to see, in that demo, just how incredibly easy Story mode makes the combat. That boss at the end had all the resilience of a wet paper towel.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I haven't really been challenged by a Mass Effect game since Mass Effect 1, so that comes as no real surprise. Mass Effect 2 was really easy.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Mass Effect 2 on the first playthrough had its instances where I had to replay a section multiple times to beat it. This was usually instances with wave after wave of geth enemies.

[TheMightyEthan]

I didn't make it through ME2 on Insanity. Maybe I should try again, though I think if I did my wife might kill me...

[Hot Heart]

I rarely felt challenged during ME2, and I don't think I was playing a Vanguard particularly 'effectively' either. Probably died once or twice, and that was usually when Harbinger surprised me by ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL of someone I hadn't seen and then did that rocket-like attack.

 

Although, because I was on PC, I found it far easier to just headshot everyone (which helped, because I'm pretty cack at WASD movement and such) so rarely need to Charge or use the shotgun. Not that I really found the shotgun any good anyway. Of course, the game has three difficulty levels above Normal. If ME3 is the same, I'd imagine Veteran is the way to go. Same as you'd pick Heroic for Halo and Hardcore for Gears.

 

I've been playing a bit recently as a Soldier and found myself getting far more 'stuck in' during combat, and it's pretty fun. I just love the fact that bringing up the powers/weapons menu pauses the action, giving you time to breathe, gather your bearings and assess the situation. That would be the thing I'd struggle with in multiplayer.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I don't even bother with normal difficulty anymore. Especially if it's a sequel.

[Waldorf and Statler]

Yeah my rule of thumb is to play the second to the hardest difficulty in every game. If there's something between insane and normal [aka hard] I'll go with that, if it's just a easy/normal/hard game then I play normal.

[Hot Heart]

Well, in the case of Mass Effect 2, the combat wasn't a lot like the first game's in many ways. Plus, I wanted to try Vanguard out. I think the default difficulty should've been a little tougher though.

[TheMightyEthan]

I just started watching it, skipped to the second mission since I'd rather spoil some random mission than the beginning of the game.

 

Based on the intro to that mission though, I'd guess (or at least hope) that the voice acting here is stand-in. It's all super monotone, like it's being delivered by robots (I know it's not actually synthetic voices), and the fact that it's the same as what was at PAX leads me to believe it's probably something slapped together to show off at the show rather than the final product. Also the animations are much simpler than in previous games. All-in-all it looks unfinished, which isn't surprising since the game just went gold today.

 

*Edit* - Also, Wrex's, Garrus' and Mordin's voices all sound entirely different...

 

*Edit 2* - Biotic powers also look stand-in. I really really hope this stuff is stand-in...

Edited February 13, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[Hot Heart]

I believe Mordin has a new (worse) voice-actor. Not sure about the rest.

[TheMightyEthan]

Damnit, they changed Mordin's voice actor? I will stab someone...

 

*Edit * - Checked IMDB, and apparently all the other voice actors that I could think of are the same, down to the Council members. I wonder why they just changed Mordin.

 

Also I didn't know that Trinity played Aria.

Edited February 13, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[TheMightyEthan]

Downloading the 360 demo, which I won't be able to play until after work.

 

The PC version doesn't appear to be up on Origin yet.

[Vargras]

Damnit, they changed Mordin's voice actor? I will stab someone...

 

*Edit * - Checked IMDB, and apparently all the other voice actors that I could think of are the same, down to the Council members. I wonder why they just changed Mordin.

 

Also I didn't know that Trinity played Aria.

 

I didn't see Mordin at all on the IMDB listing.

[TheMightyEthan]

He's not on there for the Mass Effect 3 page, but his voice actor from Mass Effect 2 said he hasn't done any lines for ME3, so apparently they hired someone else.

[TCP]

That sucks. If his role has been reduced, and someone like Jack or Zaeed has been increased, I'm going to riot.

[SixTwoSixFour]

That sucks. If his role has been reduced, and someone like Jack or Zaeed has been increased, I'm going to riot.

 

We haven't seen either of them in the coverage so far, so that gives me hope that their roles are very small. Cause if they're too big, I'll have to replay ME2 and make sure they die.

[TCP]

Yeah, hopefully this game has plenty of Garrus, Thane, and maybe even some Legion.

[TheMightyEthan]

Legion's listed in the IMDb cast, so he must appear at least a little.

 

Also, now that I'm playing the actual demo, I've decided I think the voices sounding different was mostly just the shitty sound from the live stream, because now only Mordin sounds much different and even he sounds more the same than he did in the video. Voice acting's still shitty as hell though, so I'm really hoping it's stand-in.

 

*Edit* - I say that, and then Wrex starts talking to me over the radio and sounds absolutely NOTHING like himself.

Edited February 14, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[deanb]

Just to toss this one out there but IMDB is editable like Wikipedia (you just have to be a Pro member). You'll probably find a lot of the cast VA was put up as soon as ME3 was announced.

[TheMightyEthan]

*Edit* - I say that, and then Wrex starts talking to me over the radio and sounds absolutely NOTHING like himself.

 

Conversely, when Mordin talks to me over the radio he sounds EXACTLY like Mordin from ME2.

[deanb]

Demo Impressions: Kinda bummed that it had no save import function :/ Also none of the lovely external config editor I've come to like Bioware games for.

 

Overall much like Mass Effect 2. I'd probably need to play over a full game to see how the new "this OR that" level system works though. Shame we never got to see about editing guns, that would have been a nice feature to show off.

 

edit: I guess I should note I played a full biotic(Vanguard?). Turns out my main save is a Sentinel. My main issue would be that some attacks just whacked into scenery. Which is a bummer since the cool down can take a while.