Half-Life Fallout: Mass Effect 3 - Half-Life Fallout

EatChildren, on 16 February 2012 - 04:30 AM, said:

You sit on a throne of lies!

That is true.

In other news the multiplayer is fucking awesome. More awesome than it should be. Tons and tons of fun.

EatChildren, on 16 February 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

RAGE! I must wait for tomorrow.

EDIT: Anyone on Origin and playing the Demo? So far I'm liking the Co-op, though I haven't connection woes have kept me from completing a full game.

Apparently they're sending Mass Effect 3 into SPACE!. It's on a weather balloon, so it'll be back.
It looks like it's going to be part scavenger hunt, with GPS trackers telling you the location and then people desperately scurrying towards it.

I'm also having much fun with the Co-op.
The singleplayer part isn't all that polished. It's been confirmed it's an older build, but if your going to put out a demo you make sure it represents your product.
Anyone played it on Origin? My nick is Poison_Berrie.

gonna get the Origin-free version

Xbox, PS3 or are trying to show you how cool you are with yar new eyepatch.

Berrie, on 18 February 2012 - 05:05 AM, said:

This is what every single publisher/developer says when they release a shitty demo and it's never been the case. If something in a demo is shitty it will be shitty in the full game too.


Edit: Is it normal for FemShep's hair to go transparent during the intro where she recovers from the explosion and there's fire in the background?

Edit 2: oh my god what is wrong with these sprinting animations

I just played and finished the demo.
Beyond the good music and decent dialogue amongst the shitty one it feels like a Mass Effect 2 expansion pack, even the menu is identical to the one from 2 but with blue instead of red.

The level design of the second area was decent, but the first was very very bad. It looked like something straight out of a Valusoft/City Interactive budget title, especially paired up with those terrible animations Shepard and Anderson had. I don't know how Bioware/EA want this to be a AAA blockbuster when the level design and animations are so bad.

Another thing that bothers me from reading about the game is that all your decisions from the last two games mean nothing in the end, you'll be following a single linear plot all the way but with a different character and a handful of throwaway lines depending on your past actions.

There's no way in hell I'm paying u$60 for it, but I'll probably get it for u$37 from here.

The first area sucked. I mean, it's a tutorial so I expect linear hand holding nonsense, but even as a tutorial it sucked. I also thought it sucked as a intro. I get what BioWare wanted to do, make us care that Earth is being invaded, but the whole invasion is so rushed if you blinked you'd miss it. It's weird, really, as playing nostalgia is at least one part of the series that BioWare has done okay with. The ME2 into is a good example of it. Cheesy as it was, tearing apart the Normandy while decked in your original N7 gear, and the slow silent space walk through the blown apart interior, were really memorable and poignant moments.

BioWare wants is to care about Earth, a place they haven't shown for the entire series, a place we've, as far as the game is concerned, never been, and a place we spend a whole 30 second at during ME3's intro. We've got no reason to give a shit about Earth, and now we're supposed to.

Stupid BioWare.

El Inspector, on 19 February 2012 - 07:04 AM, said:

I always felt that while in general the ME franchise has high production values, you do see still many characteristics of budget/rushed titles. I think it's a result of having to release 3 full length games and wrap up the franchise within 5 years. That is a massive undertaking of work within a short period when you consider the scale of these games... Probably why they have compromised in areas. IMO this is one of the factors what prevents ME from being up there with the greatest RPGs...

EatChildren, on 19 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

I agree that was a brilliant moment, one of the best sequences in the game along with the Joker mission. I was genuinely upset when the Normandy got torn up and the view into space through the torn up hull was breathtaking.

EatChildren, on 19 February 2012 - 09:58 AM, said:

Since the very first game I have been itching to go to Earth and was a bit dissapointed when ME2 did not allow me to. They probably think that the fact that it is 'Earth' after all- our home planet is enough to make us care about it.

I loved the intro.

If you dust off your copy of the original, you'll notice the 3rd echoes the 1st with the video uplink of the Eden Prime colony invasion at the beginning of the 1st. It throws us right into it. Now we see it again for Earth, but on a much larger scale.

Actually in order for me to care about Earth they did something brilliant. Earth's innocence is represented by the young boy who at first is playing with a toy Alliance fighter as Shepard watches from above. Shepard has this look on his face where he's thinking 'That little guy is so lucky. Lucky to not know what the universe is really like. How pleasant that must be.' He later finds the boy amidst the chaos and reaches out to help him but the boy is scared and untrusting, thinking he's better off alone. The boy later becomes brave and trusting again, attaching himself to the Alliance who is a very real thing to him now, and uses the Alliance shuttle to escape. Shepard watches from above as this boy's trust is essentially betrayed and therefore his innocense is lost. Shepards emotional state and look on his face, along with Clint Mansell's score helps tell that story very well.

Beyond it already being our home planet (like Humbug touhched on), that's all I needed to care for Earth.

Humbug, on 19 February 2012 - 03:40 PM, said:

True that, though I think this boils down to BioWare's occasional technical incompetence and the sheer scope of the games. There's a lot that goes into each game. Thinking about ME3's enemy variety, it easily surpasses basically every other pure third person shooter on the market. The demo alone, in multiplayer, has seven different enemies just under the Cerberus banner. I think a lot of the lack of polish comes down to how much content they try and fit in, and how much variety they try and offer the player.

In terms of RPGs, I cant really think of anything that I'd label significantly more polished. Bethesda's games are about the same level of train wreckage. Most of the 'best' RPGs, the deepest ones anyway, are filled to the brim with bugs and ho-hum presentation. Usually a side effect of ambition and scope.

Quote

Agreed on BioWare's intentions. I've never really wanted to go to Earth. I find the premise a bit weird. It's like, they've got the entire galaxy to work with, free of any thematic restrictions to hold them back from doing whatever they want, wherever they want. I want to explore mysterious alien worlds, not go to friggen Earth.

Sly_Ry, on 19 February 2012 - 04:17 PM, said:

They did try to call back to ME1 yeah. The cinematography, the set pieces; they were 'remaking' the ME1 intro to a certain extent. I disagree on the kid thing though. That was, for me, an example of BioWare's poor writing, just throwing this cliché 'emotional' plug at the player out of nowhere, a doomed child no less. It didn't really do anything for me, which is strange given Mansells typically amazing work. Someone on GAF gave a good analogy for that particular scene; it was like combining a composer of exceptional quality with ham fisted cheesy narrative, as if Bach had scored The Room.

But the 'intro' goes much longer than the Earth segment, so I guess there's much more to see.

EatChildren, on 19 February 2012 - 03:39 AM, said:

Since the game was revealed, it's upsetting that we're back on Earth. Simple as that. Mass of Gears: Modern Effect cash grab. I hope we spend as little time on Earth as possible. I'm here for a sci-fi adventure that takes place, yano, out there.

Quote

That analogy is way too harsh. That guy should've at least been smart about it instead of going out of his way to make a joke about The Room. There's too many successful emotional tugs in cinema where you have poor writing but way better directing and musical scoring. Like say, movies directed by Michael Bay. Or even JJ Abrams intro to Star Trek where it's basically forcing the emotion on you because, aw she's having a baby amidst chaos and the Dad isn't going to know his son and he's sacrificing himself aww explosion. Or even the end of Sunshine. I mean, it's just a video game, we're supposed to be given at least some context to perform in. If it's a chaotic invasion and the only thing I've(Shepard) singled out is the death of a young boy, then thats good enough for me to use that to shoot aliens. I don't know what you're particularly asking for.

But yes hopefully theres more to the intro than that. And why we're even on Earth I have no friggen idea!

I don't really see how setting the game on Earth is a cash grab. And if it is, it's not a very good one. Earth was always going to show up and BioWare has been teasing it since the first game. Given it seems to come and go right at the intro I guess we'll spend most of the game elsewhere.

You're on Earth because of Arrival.

Only they never mention it and don't see to care.

So you're just...there.

I guess not necessarily a cashgrab as it is pulling as much mass market appeal. Defending Earth from aliens is just easier to sell to people. It's not "too weird". A buddy of mine is more excited for this game than any other in the series because "Bro it's an all out war on Earth" (huge Call of Duty gamer).

But whatever it's not a bad thing to pull new gamers into the story I just prefer spending more time on other planets or the Citadel like the last games. Star Wars and Star Trek are all about that...

On another note I'm actually really enjoying the co-op multiplayer.