Video games...what ya playing? And what are you looking forward to? (3 Viewers)

[Insein]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

Ive never been a fan of EA but a lot of that just has to do with their business model. They often just buy up good studios, push everybody out and install their own constant recycling game producing machine. They ruin franchises. Do you know why Madden and NCAA are the same monotonous games on the field and the gimmicky off the wall and sometimes re-induction of old features that were previously removed as a bonus? Because rather then pay the top of the line producers, they just put in a revolving door of sometimes good and sometimes just awful game designers. These guys only get a year or two, then they move on to higher paying gigs. Madden is a stepping stone. Madden is also the only game we can buy if we want to play NFL licensed football. - And that's just one long winded response to say- They suck.

 

[Insein]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

 

[Insein]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

Ive never been a fan of EA but a lot of that just has to do with their business model. They often just buy up good studios, push everybody out and install their own constant recycling game producing machine. They ruin franchises. Do you know why Madden and NCAA are the same monotonous games on the field and the gimmicky off the wall and sometimes re-induction of old features that were previously removed as a bonus? Because rather then pay the top of the line producers, they just put in a revolving door of sometimes good and sometimes just awful game designers. These guys only get a year or two, then they move on to higher paying gigs. Madden is a stepping stone. Madden is also the only game we can buy if we want to play NFL licensed football. - And that's just one long winded response to say- They suck.

People say they don't like it because they run it like a business but that's not entirely accurate. They run it like a chop shop rather than a business. They see something they like, take it, cut it up and sell those pieces to others. They want you to buy all the little features and bull#### that should be already in the $60 game.

Catch brought up day 1 DLC for ME3. That literally was part of the finished game. They carved it out and served it up for an additional $10 on the release day. So if you wanted to play the full intended game, it would have cost you $70 on release. You can tell it was part of the main game because whole areas of your own ship are completely inaccessible because they were designed for the one character that's in the DLC.

Ideas like this are not brought about by intelligent business people. They are shortsighted money-grabbers that know they only have a small window to maximize whatever profit they can snatch.

 

[Chaka]

Mass Effect = AwesomeBattlefield = AwesomeAnd I've heard Dead Space is a highly regarded series too. What's the problem?

Just wait. Just wait.

I am just trying to understand why people are so sure it's going to be bad. Is it because they bombed on the new Sim City release? I don't play Sims but I thought the problems with that were about their servers and not about game play.

Ea tends to do a lot of meddling lately. They turn established franchises from a game into a marketing tool.ME3 is a good example. ME had no multiplayer in the first two games. It was a single player story driven game. EA bought bioware and suddenly multiplayer was a must. It has ok gameplay but they spent a lot of time making it and then rushed the game to release. Some blame the weak, plothole laden endings on a lack of time. Spending what they did on mp certainly could have caused that. On top of that though, they originally forced the player to HAVE to play mp in order to get the "good" ending. And not just try it out. You had to invest a good 20 - 30 hours of mp to get your war readiness up high enough to get that single player ending.Simply things like this don't give me hope that they can take a franchise like star wars and do anything meaningful with it.

Interesting thoughts, I still think ME1 & 2 were phenomenal games and the gameplay improved from 1 to 2 (btw BioWare was involved in ME1 & 2 as well). I only just started playing ME3 and from the initial hour I have put in the gameplay seems improved over ME 2. Although I am not much for multiplayer unless it is co-op. You used the past tense about the multiplayer impact on the single player endings, does that mean they fixed the issue?

Either way they have shown me enough from ME & Battlefield that I am not concerned they will bomb with Star Wars.

 

[Chaka]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game.

I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

 

[Insein]

Mass Effect = AwesomeBattlefield = AwesomeAnd I've heard Dead Space is a highly regarded series too. What's the problem?

Just wait. Just wait.

I am just trying to understand why people are so sure it's going to be bad. Is it because they bombed on the new Sim City release? I don't play Sims but I thought the problems with that were about their servers and not about game play.

Ea tends to do a lot of meddling lately. They turn established franchises from a game into a marketing tool.ME3 is a good example. ME had no multiplayer in the first two games. It was a single player story driven game. EA bought bioware and suddenly multiplayer was a must. It has ok gameplay but they spent a lot of time making it and then rushed the game to release. Some blame the weak, plothole laden endings on a lack of time. Spending what they did on mp certainly could have caused that. On top of that though, they originally forced the player to HAVE to play mp in order to get the "good" ending. And not just try it out. You had to invest a good 20 - 30 hours of mp to get your war readiness up high enough to get that single player ending.Simply things like this don't give me hope that they can take a franchise like star wars and do anything meaningful with it.

Interesting thoughts, I still think ME1 & 2 were phenomenal games and the gameplay improved from 1 to 2 (btw BioWare was involved in ME1 & 2 as well). I only just started playing ME3 and from the initial hour I have put in the gameplay seems improved over ME 2. Although I am not much for multiplayer unless it is co-op. You used the past tense about the multiplayer impact on the single player endings, does that mean they fixed the issue?

Either way they have shown me enough from ME & Battlefield that I am not concerned they will bomb with Star Wars.

Yes ME1 and 2 were just Bioware. ME3 was Bioware with EA. You can tell by a lot of the more normal things missing (i.e. mission updates when you do part of it or directions on where the f to go for the next part of it are now gone when they were standard in 1 and 2).

ME3 has a fantastic soundtrack and the graphics are amazing. Throughout the game the story distracts you from the little things that don't work as well as they did in the first one (elevator on the citadel to take you to preset parts by loading instead of one continuous area). The original endings were awful though. The extended cut helped close up the plotholes and if they had gone with that at launch, there would have been no controversy. But we can't unsee what was seen.

All the other EA influence though is there (microtransactions, forced multiplayer which is now not needed, day one DLC, new DLC costing $15). IT's just not a good thing for the gamer.

 

[Chaka]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

Ive never been a fan of EA but a lot of that just has to do with their business model. They often just buy up good studios, push everybody out and install their own constant recycling game producing machine. They ruin franchises. Do you know why Madden and NCAA are the same monotonous games on the field and the gimmicky off the wall and sometimes re-induction of old features that were previously removed as a bonus? Because rather then pay the top of the line producers, they just put in a revolving door of sometimes good and sometimes just awful game designers. These guys only get a year or two, then they move on to higher paying gigs. Madden is a stepping stone. Madden is also the only game we can buy if we want to play NFL licensed football. - And that's just one long winded response to say- They suck.

People say they don't like it because they run it like a business but that's not entirely accurate. They run it like a chop shop rather than a business. They see something they like, take it, cut it up and sell those pieces to others. They want you to buy all the little features and bull#### that should be already in the $60 game.

Catch brought up day 1 DLC for ME3. That literally was part of the finished game. They carved it out and served it up for an additional $10 on the release day. So if you wanted to play the full intended game, it would have cost you $70 on release. You can tell it was part of the main game because whole areas of your own ship are completely inaccessible because they were designed for the one character that's in the DLC.

Ideas like this are not brought about by intelligent business people. They are shortsighted money-grabbers that know they only have a small window to maximize whatever profit they can snatch.

The DLC issue is really annoying as I want to get the full game day experience and agree that it is screwing the customer. Then again I can't entirely fault a business for maximizing profits.

 

[belljr]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

I liked the campaign

 

[Otis]

GET A JOB YOU BUMS

 

[belljr]

My favorite game series has always been Splinter Cell - love them. I avoided The last one because it downplayed stealth and instead made it more like a Jason Bourne type game. Anyway, the new Splinter Cell game is bringing back Spies vs Mercs which I'm pretty excited about and decided to give Conviction a 2nd chance. It's pretty good. Not as great as the others but still pretty fun. In order:Splinter Cell 1Chaos Theory(Slight dip in quality)Pandora TomorrowDouble AgentConviction

so in

 

[Insein]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

I liked the campaign

I loved the campaign. Haven't tried the new madden but 10 was awful for franchise mode. 04 had better features.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Just spent about an hour today trying to get all the clusters explored at 100% in ME2. Found several side missions already doing this. Once they are all at 100%, I will move on to the Reaper IFF mission. Since I'm not really scanning for minerals, just scanning for anomalies, it doesn't take long to log off a system.

 

[Chaka]

Just spent about an hour today trying to get all the clusters explored at 100% in ME2. Found several side missions already doing this. Once they are all at 100%, I will move on to the Reaper IFF mission. Since I'm not really scanning for minerals, just scanning for anomalies, it doesn't take long to log off a system.

You're going to want all the ship upgrades before you head through the Omega relay, which require minerals. And you probably are going to want most of the weapon/armor upgrades for your team too.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Chaka, on 08 May 2013 - 09:12, said:You're going to want all the ship upgrades before you head through the Omega relay, which require minerals. And you probably are going to want most of the weapon/armor upgrades for your team too.

I don't know if I have all the ship upgrades yet or not. I have done one for weapons, one for armor plating, and one for shields. I have most the armor and weapon upgrades. I think I have one or two left to go, but can't do them yet as I need to find/purchase another before they are allowed. As far as minerals go, I have ove 40k in element zero and over 150k in everything else. I have pretty much stopped mining at this point.Oh, and one question. HTF do you fire the mini nuke gun (forget the name)? I armed it up once. It shows 139 ammo. But when I popped up and pressed the trigger, it did nothing but expose me to enemy fire. I quit carrying it because I can't figure how to shoot the damn thing.

 

[5Rings]

I can't help but kill pretty much all enemies in Dishonored.

I did the same thing. I know they say it stops you from getting the "light" ending, but from what I understand, the endings are more like "dark" and "darker." And frankly, I was just enjoying blink across the map and stabbing people too much.

I made a full run through without killing anyone and I surprisingly enjoyed it more. The ending was significantly different than KillThemAll

 

[5Rings]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game.

I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

 

[Mad Cow]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game.

I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

He's not the only one you have to watch out for. . .

 

[Vykng]

My favorite game series has always been Splinter Cell - love them. I avoided The last one because it downplayed stealth and instead made it more like a Jason Bourne type game. Anyway, the new Splinter Cell game is bringing back Spies vs Mercs which I'm pretty excited about and decided to give Conviction a 2nd chance. It's pretty good. Not as great as the others but still pretty fun.In order:Splinter Cell 1Chaos Theory(Slight dip in quality)Pandora TomorrowDouble AgentConviction

so in

My favorite part about Splinter Cell is playing online. Sneaking around is so much fun imo.

 

[Bogeys]

For all the ME guys, would I need to play ME1 before ME2? Thinking about buying a time waster and everyone seems to like this game. I figure I can get it cheap used at this point.

 

[Insein]

For all the ME guys, would I need to play ME1 before ME2? Thinking about buying a time waster and everyone seems to like this game. I figure I can get it cheap used at this point.

IF you like story driven games, then yes you should get ME1 because every decision you make affects your character in ME2. IF you are not so big on that, you can just look up the synopsis on youtube or something and on to ME2. It will be very confusing at first though.

 

[Bogeys]

For all the ME guys, would I need to play ME1 before ME2? Thinking about buying a time waster and everyone seems to like this game. I figure I can get it cheap used at this point.

IF you like story driven games, then yes you should get ME1 because every decision you make affects your character in ME2. IF you are not so big on that, you can just look up the synopsis on youtube or something and on to ME2. It will be very confusing at first though.

I like story driven. Played nothing but single player games until just a few years ago..

Will probably pick both up. Thanks for the info.

 

[Chaka]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game.

I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

Kaiden? I am pretty sure you could romance him up in ME1 as well. Personally I went with Liara.

 

[Chaka]

For all the ME guys, would I need to play ME1 before ME2? Thinking about buying a time waster and everyone seems to like this game. I figure I can get it cheap used at this point.

ME 1 has a terrific story but the game play is a little clunky at times (PC version). Still it was not so bad that it took away from a fun overall experience.

The big deal is that the decisions you make with your character in ME1 will resonate in ME2 & 3 (if you decide to import your character when you start those games). If you don't care about that you can start ME2 fresh and they even offer a 15 minute intro game that allows you to make the critical decisions that would have been imported from ME1. I can't speak to what that is like as I chose to import my data from 1 into 2 and from 2 into 3.

 

[Chaka]

Chaka, on 08 May 2013 - 09:12, said:

You're going to want all the ship upgrades before you head through the Omega relay, which require minerals. And you probably are going to want most of the weapon/armor upgrades for your team too.

I don't know if I have all the ship upgrades yet or not. I have done one for weapons, one for armor plating, and one for shields. I have most the armor and weapon upgrades. I think I have one or two left to go, but can't do them yet as I need to find/purchase another before they are allowed. As far as minerals go, I have ove 40k in element zero and over 150k in everything else. I have pretty much stopped mining at this point.Oh, and one question. HTF do you fire the mini nuke gun (forget the name)? I armed it up once. It shows 139 ammo. But when I popped up and pressed the trigger, it did nothing but expose me to enemy fire. I quit carrying it because I can't figure how to shoot the damn thing.

I think you are talking about the Cain. It has a four second charge time (ie you need to hold the trigger for four seconds before it will discharge). It is absolutely devastating, it one shots just about anything and it has a large area of effect, but you will only get, at most, two shots out of it on any mission.

Link

 

[TxBuckeye]

Chaka, on 08 May 2013 - 11:54, said:

I think you are talking about the Cain. It has a four second charge time (ie you need to hold the trigger for four seconds before it will discharge). It is absolutely devastating, it one shots just about anything and it has a large area of effect, but you will only get, at most, two shots out of it on any mission.

Link

Ok. If there is anything in that Wiki about the four second charge time, I missed it first time through (edit: Ok I see it now). I took it because I knew I had to battle two large mechs and I figured, what the heck, I'll one shot the things with this BFG. But as I stood there trying to shoot, the two mechs basically devestated me. No way I would have lived four full seconds without dying. So it seems this thing is relatively useless in game.

 

[5Rings]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2.

I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game.

I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

He's not the only one you have to watch out for. . .

I'm watching my back when I'm around the guy from Jersey Shore too

 

[Worm]

Just ordered ME3 off ebay for like $12. Can't wait to finish the series.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Bogeys, on 08 May 2013 - 10:56, said:For all the ME guys, would I need to play ME1 before ME2? Thinking about buying a time waster and everyone seems to like this game. I figure I can get it cheap used at this point.

I tried playing ME2 without playing ME1 first (wasn't available on PS3 at that time) and felt totally lost the first hour or two. So I stopped and waited for ME to release on my console. Played ME, enjoyed it thoroughly, then felt much more comfortable starting out in ME2. So I would say it is well worth it. Seriously, you'll enjoy ME and won't feel you "wasted" your time playing through it.

 

[Insein]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2. I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game. I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

Kaiden? I am pretty sure you could romance him up in ME1 as well. Personally I went with Liara.

Yea if you were femshep. Now he has no problems with the sausage. Personally he's never made it past virmire in any of my play throughs anyway.

 

[Insein]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2. I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game. I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

He's not the only one you have to watch out for. . .

I'm watching my back when I'm around the guy from Jersey Shore too

He's harmless.

 

[Chaka]

Chaka, on 08 May 2013 - 11:54, said:

I think you are talking about the Cain. It has a four second charge time (ie you need to hold the trigger for four seconds before it will discharge). It is absolutely devastating, it one shots just about anything and it has a large area of effect, but you will only get, at most, two shots out of it on any mission.

Link

Ok. If there is anything in that Wiki about the four second charge time, I missed it first time through (edit: Ok I see it now). I took it because I knew I had to battle two large mechs and I figured, what the heck, I'll one shot the things with this BFG. But as I stood there trying to shoot, the two mechs basically devestated me. No way I would have lived four full seconds without dying. So it seems this thing is relatively useless in game.

I only got one shot off with it during my entire gameplay but, man, what a shot.

 

[Chaka]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2. I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game. I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

Kaiden? I am pretty sure you could romance him up in ME1 as well. Personally I went with Liara.

Yea if you were femshep. Now he has no problems with the sausage. Personally he's never made it past virmire in any of my play throughs anyway.

I chose to save him on Virmire because he was protecting the nuke which I consider mission critical.

Spoiler

then i learned it wasn't mission critical and regretted not saving williams

 

[Chaka]

Insein, on 07 May 2013 - 11:38, said:They lowered the war asset amount to get the "good" ending. So you should be fine if you get your war assets high enough now.

Is this something you do in ME3? Or is it something I am doing in ME2 that I am totally unaware of?

It's in ME3. You're fine for ME2. I always found it odd that all 3 games a very different from each other with the basic gameplay. ME1, you do a lot of exploring. Combat is largely unorthodox but effective. ME2, exploration is dumbed down to point and click while mining planets is what replaced it. Combat is vastly improved though. ME3, mining is replaced with gathering war assets to combat the Reaper threat but it has the best combat system of the 3. So combat improves over everyone but the level of chore becomes more tedious and boring for each as well.

I didn't mind planet scanning so much but I didn't like exploring planets in the Mako in ME1. It was entertaining enough and very useful if there were missions on that planet but the controls were frustratingly clunky. Scanning planets got tedious (although initially I liked it) but you could bang through a bunch in one session and likely not have to worry about it for the rest of the game. I only just started ME3 so haven't had to collect war assets yet so I don't have an opinion on those.

I agree with you and am at the same place you are. Just left the Citadel and am "exploring" my ship. Kinda cool you get Jason Collins on your crew

He's not the only one you have to watch out for. . .

I'm watching my back when I'm around the guy from Jersey Shore too

He's harmless.

Not for a lack of trying.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

 

[TxBuckeye]

Chaka, on 08 May 2013 - 13:32, said:I only got one shot off with it during my entire gameplay but, man, what a shot.

The one where you need to disable a drive or something on one of the Reaper ships? I did see (damnit) on the Wiki page some talk that it would one shot some drive or something, so it was useful there.

 

[thecatch]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in because

Spoiler

she might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

 

[Insein]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in because

Spoiler

she might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in because

Spoiler

she might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.Garrus is good too.

"

!"

 

[Insein]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in because

Spoiler

she might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

Spoiler

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Garrus is good too."

!"Yes forgot about that sarcastic *******.

 

[Chaka]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in because

Spoiler

she might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

Spoiler

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Spoiler

Garrus is good too."

Yes forgot about that sarcastic *******.Are you required to but the band back together or do they have other options to replace crew members?

I realized, too late, that I did not need Dr. Chakwas but I like her so I don't mind. Will I have options for all the other characters?

 

[5Rings]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in becauseshe might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Garrus is good too."

Are you required to but the band back together or do they have other options to replace crew members?

I realized, too late, that I did not need Dr. Chakwas but I like her so I don't mind. Will I have options for all the other characters?

Dude, I'd hit it.

 

[Insein]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in becauseshe might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Garrus is good too."

Dude, I'd hit it.Some give you choices. You could have gotten dr michele if you wanted. She gives you like 5 more war assets (which means like nothing). I just talk to everyone and make choices as I go. More satisfying that way.

 

[Insein]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in becauseshe might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Garrus is good too."

Dude, I'd hit it.I wont say I haven't thought of it. She stayed in shape despite her age.

 

[Chaka]

One of the biggest disappointments in all of Mass Effect is how meaningless the Williams character ends up being. She should be badass in ME3 but I think she's pretty wimpy.

100% agree. I can only assume they mailed her character in becauseshe might have been dead in a fair number of players' games. Their treatment of Miranda was even worse, probably for the same reason.

They mailed in everyone except liara and javik in 3.

Garrus is good too."

Some give you choices. You could have gotten dr michele if you wanted. She gives you like 5 more war assets (which means like nothing). I just talk to everyone and make choices as I go. More satisfying that way.Thanks for the advice. I like Garrus, Jack, Tali, Mordin and find Legion interesting but am not really married to the idea of bringing back Miranda, Jacob, Grunt, Samara, Thane or Zaeed (maybe Thane because I liked his character concept). I didn't pay for Katsumi. Some new blood would be nice.

 

[Chaka]

No spoilers but it would be cool if you could get a Rachni squad mate (I chose to save the species).

 

[Mad Cow]

No spoilers but it would be cool if you could get a Rachni squad mate (I chose to save the species).

Yeah, it really would be cool if that decision made any difference at all, wouldn't it?

 

[Chaka]

Mass Effect = AwesomeBattlefield = AwesomeAnd I've heard Dead Space is a highly regarded series too. What's the problem?

Just wait. Just wait.

I am just trying to understand why people are so sure it's going to be bad. Is it because they bombed on the new Sim City release? I don't play Sims but I thought the problems with that were about their servers and not about game play.

Ea tends to do a lot of meddling lately. They turn established franchises from a game into a marketing tool.ME3 is a good example. ME had no multiplayer in the first two games. It was a single player story driven game. EA bought bioware and suddenly multiplayer was a must. It has ok gameplay but they spent a lot of time making it and then rushed the game to release. Some blame the weak, plothole laden endings on a lack of time. Spending what they did on mp certainly could have caused that. On top of that though, they originally forced the player to HAVE to play mp in order to get the "good" ending. And not just try it out. You had to invest a good 20 - 30 hours of mp to get your war readiness up high enough to get that single player ending.Simply things like this don't give me hope that they can take a franchise like star wars and do anything meaningful with it.

Interesting thoughts, I still think ME1 & 2 were phenomenal games and the gameplay improved from 1 to 2 (btw BioWare was involved in ME1 & 2 as well). I only just started playing ME3 and from the initial hour I have put in the gameplay seems improved over ME 2. Although I am not much for multiplayer unless it is co-op. You used the past tense about the multiplayer impact on the single player endings, does that mean they fixed the issue?

Either way they have shown me enough from ME & Battlefield that I am not concerned they will bomb with Star Wars.

Yes ME1 and 2 were just Bioware. ME3 was Bioware with EA. You can tell by a lot of the more normal things missing (i.e. mission updates when you do part of it or directions on where the f to go for the next part of it are now gone when they were standard in 1 and 2).

ME3 has a fantastic soundtrack and the graphics are amazing. Throughout the game the story distracts you from the little things that don't work as well as they did in the first one (elevator on the citadel to take you to preset parts by loading instead of one continuous area). The original endings were awful though. The extended cut helped close up the plotholes and if they had gone with that at launch, there would have been no controversy. But we can't unsee what was seen.

All the other EA influence though is there (microtransactions, forced multiplayer which is now not needed, day one DLC, new DLC costing $15). IT's just not a good thing for the gamer.

I am still just barely into the main story but one of the things I am missing is the conversations between shipmates on the Normandy. For example in ME2 there were two crew members in the crew quarters and their story advanced every time you visited the quarters after a mission. There were a few such conversations that seem to be missing in ME3. It's a little thing but I miss it.

 

[Chaka]

EA did the opposite to the battlefield franchise. Shoehorned a silly single player campaign into game that is all about MP. Most bf players don't even touch the campaign. Total waste of time.

Typical tone deaf response. It took them 8 years of begging from the madden community just to get online leagues. Nowadays they are more apt to give you stuff you don't want because it fits their marketing platform.

Ive never been a fan of EA but a lot of that just has to do with their business model. They often just buy up good studios, push everybody out and install their own constant recycling game producing machine. They ruin franchises. Do you know why Madden and NCAA are the same monotonous games on the field and the gimmicky off the wall and sometimes re-induction of old features that were previously removed as a bonus? Because rather then pay the top of the line producers, they just put in a revolving door of sometimes good and sometimes just awful game designers. These guys only get a year or two, then they move on to higher paying gigs. Madden is a stepping stone. Madden is also the only game we can buy if we want to play NFL licensed football. - And that's just one long winded response to say- They suck.

People say they don't like it because they run it like a business but that's not entirely accurate. They run it like a chop shop rather than a business. They see something they like, take it, cut it up and sell those pieces to others. They want you to buy all the little features and bull#### that should be already in the $60 game.

Catch brought up day 1 DLC for ME3. That literally was part of the finished game. They carved it out and served it up for an additional $10 on the release day. So if you wanted to play the full intended game, it would have cost you $70 on release. You can tell it was part of the main game because whole areas of your own ship are completely inaccessible because they were designed for the one character that's in the DLC.

Ideas like this are not brought about by intelligent business people. They are shortsighted money-grabbers that know they only have a small window to maximize whatever profit they can snatch.

The DLC issue is really annoying as I want to get the full game day experience and agree that it is screwing the customer. Then again I can't entirely fault a business for maximizing profits.

x 100

After you pointed out that EA carved out the one character from the base game and made it a DLC (don't want to spoil it any more for TxBuckeye or 5Rings who are at about the same place in the series that I am) I ponied up for the "From Ashes" DLC and, while I am super happy that I have that character, I am definitely in agreement that it was a bush league money grab move by EA.

Still the game play interface for ME3 is much improved (particularly the combat and movement dynamics) and the story is solid, so far, and the history of their work on this series and Battlefield is so good that I really am not concerned that they will drop the ball on the new Star Wars franchise...I hope.