icemann on 9/3/2012 at 19:34
Quote Posted by Dresden
What exactly is impressive about the opening level?
The level of destruction shown + the alien attacks going on in the background was what impressed me. Especially with the ships flying past close by etc.
van HellSing on 9/3/2012 at 20:39
Quote Posted by icemann
The reliance on multiplayer for what I assume to be later events on the singleplayer end of things is a bit of an annoyance as it forces you to play the multiplayer
How many times does it have to be said? You don't
need multiplayer. It just makes getting the war assets easier by giving you a multiplier. By the way, it's also possible to attempt the multiplayer missions solo.
Also, the prologue level is crap, for the reasons Dresden mentioned. It doesn't even feel like the city was ever inhabited. As far as showing the Reapers destructive power, Mennae was far more effective so far.
Jason Moyer on 9/3/2012 at 21:08
I'm finishing up a replay of 1 and 2 to make a character to import into 3 but I tried the prologue and I can't say I was impressed. The mechanics felt as good as they did in 2, which is fine, but there were a lot of other things that bothered me. The character models/textures look terrible (I'm running at 1080p full detail) compared to the first 2 games, not to mention that they changed some of the models (Ashley looks like a goddamned pornstar with her cropped/dyed hair and fake tits). I never had the impression that the earth had become a slaughterhouse since I was able to run in a straight line through a linear path without any fear of danger. The attempt at pulling hearstrings was a huge failure; I've invested 50-100 hours into the series so far and into the main characters, why the fuck do I care if you kill someone off I've never seen until 15 minutes ago? If Captain Anderson had died or chosen to come with me as a squad member depending on choices I had made earlier in the series - that would have been goddamn awesome. Killing off someone I have no emotional investment in means nothing. On the plus side, making it meaningless and scripted means there's no "I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE" cheesy goddamn dialog a'la the first game.
Speaking of that, I'm replaying 1 and there are so many places where the dialog is making me laugh out loud this time. I like that the one time in the entire series where there's any real choice&consequence (kind of) they have to reference it 800 times in the span of 5 minutes beforehand and afterwards because otherwise the soap opera fanbase would have gotten confused about what happened. I HAD TO MAKE A CHOICE. HOPE YOU NEVER HAVE TO MAKE A CHOICE WITH CONSEQUENCES, JOKER. COMMANDER, I COULDN'T HAVE MADE THAT CHOICE. DON'T BLAME YOURSELF ASHLEY, IT WAS MY CHOICE.
EvaUnit02 on 9/3/2012 at 22:38
Since the game builds upon ME2's gameplay base, rather than tipping out the bath water like with ME1 => ME2, character importing is noticeably better. Say that your ME2 character is level 30, she'll be at that level in ME3. Also if you chose the same class upon save importing, you'll have the number of skill points invested up until point where the skills branch off.
Jason Moyer on 10/3/2012 at 00:18
Interesting. I figured they used his retirement as an excuse to start over.
Phatose on 11/3/2012 at 06:58
Beat it.
Jesus Harold Christ, Bioware. First you fuck up Dragon Age 2, then you make KotOR3 a star wars skin on WOW, now this? WTF.
They stole the ending to Deus Ex. And to do so, they used an actual fucking Deus Ex Machina. Both in the literary "Oh shit we need an ending bring on a god from nowhere" literary sense, and the literal "Hey look what's coming out of that machine! It's a god! Surprise!" sense.
And then nonsensical bullshit to boot. "Oh, look, the Normandy is barely escaping a death ray through a mass relay. How EPIC!"
Why the fuck would the Normandy be going through a Mass Relay right then? Joker just decided to bug the fuck out in the middle of the most important battle of human history for no fucking reason whatsoever?
Oh look, now he's a happy cyborg with Edi. And there is Ashley, getting off the Normandy...wait, what? She was on fucking Earth with me! Running headfirst into the damned TRON beam. In fact, so was fucking EDI.
So Joker flies through a mass relay right before a death ray for no goddamned reason, and both EDI and Ashley forgot to mention they could fucking teleport?
Plus, all this "Merge machine and man" shit gave Joker fucking circuits running through his flesh, but couldn't fix his goddamned bones so he's still fucking limping?
Good lord, this makes the epic fuckup that was the end of KotOR2 look like goddamned high art.
Dresden on 11/3/2012 at 08:20
Yeah some other thoughts:
Why is Shepard having nightmares about this fucking kid he met for 3 fucking minutes? Especially since mine is a Sole Survivor. He's killed 100s...well THOUSANDS with that Batarian system blowing up, seen friends die, and now he loses his shit because of some kid? Why not kill Anderson, someone he's known for a long time? It would've made way more sense that way.
The end of Grunt's quest is idiotic as well. I choose to sacrifice Grunt's team knowing full well what the consequences may mean, he helps you escape with this long drawn out death scene, falling down a big cliff at the end...only to come out of the cave literally 5 seconds later like "I'M TOTALLY FINE GUYS". OH THANK GOD. I ALMOST FELT SOMETHING FOR THE STORY AND MY CHOICE THERE FOR A SECOND.
A lot of the things in the story reek of the Lucas school of writing. It happens because it's supposed to happen, never mind the logic.
Avalon on 12/3/2012 at 01:23
This game continues Bioware's recent tradition of "gay people are easy sluts, straight people are tougher to crack than Fort Knox." In Bioware's universe of games, I assume the Epilogue to every game since DA includes "mankind goes extinct due to a lack of natural procreation."
I'm not entirely sure how far through the game I am (feels like maybe halfway), but the females are giving me vague flirty non-committal hints, while the males are either begging me to go all rectal-rooter on them or all of Shepard's non-asshole responses are sleazy come-ons.
icemann on 12/3/2012 at 06:16
So I'm approaching the end of the game (I think) and its become more and more apparent to me as I progress through the third game of how much all of the games rip off Babylon 5 to an extent. The rest I'll say in spoilers since it spoils both Mass Effect 1 - 3 and the plot of Babylon 5.
Ok point by point comparisons between Mass Effect and Babylon 5.
1) Warnings of incoming Invasion. Possible end of universe.
Mass Effect 1 by Shepherd - Babylon 5 Season 1 by G'Kar
2) Invading Aliens that wipe the universe clean other than the younger less evolved races so that the cycle can continue in several hundred thousand years later.
Mass Effect 1 - Reapers - Robotic Ships, Mix of Robotic and Biological troops
Babylon 5 - The Shadows, Biological Ships and units.
3) Central location for all races to co-exist, communicate and have political meetings and negotiations.
Mass Effect - The Citadel
Babylon 5 - Babylon 5
4) Primary hero to play in the defeat of the invading forces.
Mass Effect - John (changeable) Shepherd
Babylon 5 - John Sheridan
5) Death and later resurrection of hero
Mass Effect - Start of Part 2
Babylon 5 - Season 3 Finale (for the death) and Season 4 start for rebirth.
6) Full invasion by invading forces
Mass Effect - Part 3
Babylon 5 - Season 4
7) Uniting of all alien races against the invading forces by hero, otherwise total defeat assured
Same as 5.
It has quite surprised me overall of just how much the 2 have in common. Even when you go into the finer details for how the reapers work with indoctrinating key figures, the shadows in Babylon 5 did (via alien parasite that takes over higher brain functions) to a degree. And the uniting of the races to take on the invading forces is nigh on identical.
Koki on 12/3/2012 at 08:23
Considering life began on Earth about 3.7 billion years ago, these "Reapers" don't have a particularly good track record, failing what... 74,000 times in a row?
