Mass Effect

[Waldorf and Statler]

I'm too much of a Shepard purist to give the demo a chance. I need to play it with MY shepard and be able to customize anything I might dislike of my previous game.

 

 

In other words, I'm turning my Shepard into an Albino like I do with every game of mine

[deanb]

Yeah that was a missed opportunity in the demo considering it did let you make a custom character. Would help get folks more into it if they could see their Shepard in action.

[Hot Heart]

As I noted in my demo impressions, seems folks must have disliked the hacking mini-games of ME n ME2 cos they're now seemingly gone from ME3 (just hold space and it just "hacks" the doors for you). I'm hoping it's a case of old version not with the hacking in.

 

See, I'd like to think that but I'm not sure if they were just trying to keep the pace of the sequence going. For example, there's no workbench (which would've been nice to show off in the demo), which means no tinkering with things; just a pure focus on action throughout. I doubt Wrex would be happy with you faffing about with your weapons when you're supposed to be getting the hell out of there as quickly as possible.

 

Then again, they may have put a workbench in since...

[TheMightyEthan]

Do we get to faff about with our weapons (TWSS?) in the multiplayer section? I really want to see how the equipment system works.

[Hot Heart]

I believe so, yeah. I've downloaded the demo on 360 too, just to increase my chances of getting a game with someone.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Finally managed to find a copy of this that had the music isolated, and no other sound at all.

 

I'm gonna be listening to this soundtrack so much.

 

Wow. I really liked that. A lot more synthy than his other space stuff, which really fits this universe and is in line with the other games soundtracks.

[Vargras]

Finally managed to find a copy of this that had the music isolated, and no other sound at all.

 

I'm gonna be listening to this soundtrack so much.

 

Wow. I really liked that. A lot more synthy than his other space stuff, which really fits this universe and is in line with the other games soundtracks.

 

A lot of the music I've heard within the demo so far has been pretty synthy, and definitely makes it feel a bit more like Mass Effect.

 

Not that I have anything against the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack (which was predominantly orchestral, from what I remember), but Mass Effect has always sorta been known for being synthy.

[SixTwoSixFour]

A lot of the music I've heard within the demo so far has been pretty synthy, and definitely makes it feel a bit more like Mass Effect.

 

Not that I have anything against the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack (which was predominantly orchestral, from what I remember), but Mass Effect has always sorta been known for being synthy.

 

I don't think you can talk about what Mass Effect has "always" been known for when there have been two games, one that is that way and one that isn't.

[Vargras]

A lot of the music I've heard within the demo so far has been pretty synthy, and definitely makes it feel a bit more like Mass Effect.

 

Not that I have anything against the Mass Effect 2 soundtrack (which was predominantly orchestral, from what I remember), but Mass Effect has always sorta been known for being synthy.

 

I don't think you can talk about what Mass Effect has "always" been known for when there have been two games, one that is that way and one that isn't.

 

Perhaps 'always' was a poor choice of words. When I mention Mass Effect, folks tend to think of two things (as far as music goes) - they either think of some of the synthy music from the first game, or they think of the Suicide Mission theme from the second.

Edited February 16, 2012 by Vargras

[TheMightyEthan]

When I think "Mass Effect music" I think of either the start screen theme from ME1 or the galaxy map theme from ME1.

[Vargras]

The multiplayer portion of the demo is now open. Already tried it myself, and it's surprisingly fun.

 

You get experience and credits for completing missions. Credits can be used towards gear packs, which can contain weapon and armor mods, temporary mods (single use only), and new weapons. It's actually a fairly smart system.

 

In addition, four race/gender choices per class, each race usually has different abilities available to them.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Vargras

[TheMightyEthan]

It's open to everyone? I thought it wasn't supposed to open until tomorrow except for people who own BF3.

[jimmuhpage]

Yup, open to everyone

 

If you wanna play on xbox right now, I'd love to play with someone willing to communicate and COOPerate...

[Vargras]

It's open to everyone? I thought it wasn't supposed to open until tomorrow except for people who own BF3.

 

That's what I thought as well, but apparently not.

 

Also, you can unlock new races as well from the gear packs, and doing so will score you some bonus exp towards the relevant classes. I unlocked Turian Sentinel and got 50k exp for free.

 

If anyone has the PC demo and would like to play multiplayer, my Origin name is the same as this one.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Vargras

[Hot Heart]

I'm actually quite looking forward to giving multiplayer a go. Although, I have to wonder what sort of benefits being a Krogan soldier has, since adrenaline rush won't work like before (maybe it recharges abilities like ME1?), you can't really take cover behind low bits of scenery and everyone has access to all the weapons now anyway.

I'm guessing they're a bit tougher overall, and don't suffer many penalties for heavy weapons. Edited February 17, 2012 by Hot Heart

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I've never played such an undramatic, dramatic game. The Clint Mansell song at the end of the first part of the demo was the best thing about it.

[TheMightyEthan]

I'll probably be on 360 this afternoon CDT (GMT -6), at around 12 or 1.

[Hot Heart]

I've never played such an undramatic, dramatic game.

 

"Gotcha."

"I owe you one."

"You owe me more than one."

 

Umm, OK...

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, if that was actually the beginning of the game it's pretty shitty, especially compared to ME2's badass opening. I'm hoping there's at least a cutscene or something before that part that sets it up better.

[Vargras]

Yeah, if that was actually the beginning of the game it's pretty shitty, especially compared to ME2's badass opening. I'm hoping there's at least a cutscene or something before that part that sets it up better.

 

There probably will be. After all, if folks haven't played Arrival, they'll have to explain why Shepard is back on Earth in the first place.

[TheMightyEthan]

Good point.

[Hot Heart]

So, I started playing on PC and in my starter pack I unlocked a Drell Vanguard; a class I hadn't actually tried in the demo yet. It's pretty fun and having to use hotkeys hasn't been so bad, plus you can always bring up the menu with shift, if you're really stuck; it just doesn't pause the action. I like the fancy moves the Drell has too.

 

Shame I encountered a bug during my second game that meant I couldn't use Charge (Pull was fine though...), pick up ammo or climb one ladder in particular. Not sure what happened in the first game, we did wave 10 and then had to get to an extraction zone but two guys stayed outside killing things. Then when we all died except one, the last guy stayed in the LZ until the timer ran down but then it said Mission Failed: Wave 11.

Edited February 17, 2012 by Hot Heart

[Vargras]

Microsoft put out a list of Kinect commands compatible with the ME3 demo, and in the process, they inadvertently leaked what appears to be the final list of usable squad members.

 

-Ashley/Kaidan

-Garrus

-Liara

-Tali

-James

 

Edited February 17, 2012 by Vargras

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Wow, that's it for party members? What happened to the new characters from ME2 that weren't connected to Cerberus?

[Waldorf and Statler]

I'm guessing those members listed above are the "long-time" party members. The rest of the party members will appear, as Bioware said, in one-off missions and other stuff but won't be full-time crew members like before. Apparently I'll be forced to use Tali and Garrus since I need a sniper and an engineer in my team. Wish we had a krogan but w/e.

 

I feel kind of iffy that they're forcing down my throat the conflict with kaidan/ashley. I would rather have legion or Grunt in my party.