# Mass Effect 3 (spoilers for ME1&2)



## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

That noise you might have heard yesterday evening was the sound of a thousand fanboys and fangirls squeeing as EA 'accidentally' went live with their pre-order listing for Mass Effect 3.











http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/mass-effect-3-outed-on-ea-store/

It was quickly removed, but that hasn't stopped the rumour mill from working overtime.

It's been common knowledge for a few weeks now that BioWare's 'new game' would be announced at the Spike VGA awards today, and as you can see from my previous thread there were plenty of little clues pumped out by BW hinting at it being something set in the ME universe.

All that remains is the official announcement at the VGA's later.

So there will likely be a year to go before release, but it's never too early for a thread, and there's never to little information for me to make a mountain out of a molehill.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

A few things to note, as we get on board the speculation train:

1. THEY ARE GOING TO EARTH! It says so in the game description. But diligent fans already knew this: a completely bland and featureless screen shot of someone looking through a sniper scope onto a desolated landscape had been leaked a week earlier, and the truly obsessive power of fandom managed to track down the exact location of that desolate landscape to just outside the Houses of Parliament. There is speculation that the sniper himself may be situated behind the broken face of Big Ben.

2. Shepard is described as an Alliance Marine. This makes those fans who hate Cerberus with a passion very, very happy, and is also CLEAR EVIDENCE* that if Shep is back working with the Alliance s/he will be able to continue her/his relationship with Ashley or Kaidan.

3. ME3 is listed under the categories, RPG and Action. Further down, ME2 is listed under RPG, Action and Shooter. As you might expect, this is CLEAR EVIDENCE* that BW have decided to re-focus on improving the RPG elements that were lost in ME2.

*I hope you recognise the sarcasm. I'm into my fanatical speculation as much as the next guy who frequents the BW forums, but I'm also self-aware


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

Most guessed at the end of ME1, and throughout ME2, that the plot of ME3 would involve rallying the forces of those races you've helped along the way. With the description that was on the EA store site yesterday that is now pretty much a given.

A short article about which choices from the 2 games could be important, regarding your potential allies: http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/113/1139737p1.html


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

Here is the original teaser trailer for the VGA awards announcement:



That is not Shepard, so unless they've changed his face model (highly unlikely at this stage of the trilogy) that is either a) a potential squad mate; b) someone naughty; or c) absolutely no one of consequence.

I'm naturally hoping for 'potential squad mate', mainly because he's hot.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

*The impressive/obsessive deductive powers of fandom:*

I post this merely to illustrate how scary and obsessive the BW forums can get at times.

This screenshot:






led to this piece of deduction:






which led to the explanation that that is London.

Which in turn led to:












^ and this is the shot that suggests he's in Big Ben.


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## agricola (Dec 11, 2010)

Obsessive but thats a good argument.


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## Epona (Dec 11, 2010)

He's not "in Big Ben".  Big Ben is the bell.  You mean St Stephen's Tower.

Sorry, I get very pedantic about that


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## Kid_Eternity (Dec 11, 2010)

Never really got into this game, 3rd person shooters are a bit fiddly ime...


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

Epona said:


> He's not "in Big Ben".  Big Ben is the bell.  You mean St Stephen's Tower.
> 
> Sorry, I get very pedantic about that


 
Meh, as long as there's a union jack nearby.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 11, 2010)

I've been teaching cleverbot important life lessons:


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## Epona (Dec 11, 2010)

Vintage Paw said:


> Meh, as long as there's a union jack nearby.


 
Must.... resist.... damn you VP!

I am glad to hear though of any hint that it may be more RPG than ME2, that perked me up a bit.

Will you be watching the VGAs tonight?  Apparently they have 13 new game announcements/trailers lined up to show*.  I found a UK accessible stream at http://www.boxlive.tv/channels/spiketv, starts at 1am here.  I think it's too much of a coincidence that this slip occurred 24 hours before a load of games are going to be announced - almost like they were getting it ready to go up afterwards and went live by mistake.

*As well as the awards of course, which are supposedly the whole point of the thing...


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

I don't think I can stay up that late (tired), but the first vid in the OP is a teaser saying they will be announcing "BioWare's new game" at the VGAs. I expect the forums to be in meltdown when I get up in the morning 

Unless BW have been very, very sneaky I can't see the game having a release date of anything much before next autumn, so it seems odd they'd be ready to go live with a pre-order on EA store. So I'm more inclined to believe it was an intentional 'leak' to whip up excitement, and boy have they ever done that.

I could be wrong though (it's been known, on occasion). BW could have been hard at work and may be way ahead of where we expect them to be. But I doubt it.

Either way.

Squee.

(although I warn you Epona, it is rumoured to include MP. I'm not bothered about that, as long as it still features the strong main story (and long main story) we've come to expect from the franchise. Maybe they'll keep the pewpew shootery stuff for MP and let us have our more in-depth rpg stuff in the main game?)


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## Epona (Dec 12, 2010)

Vintage Paw said:


> I don't think I can stay up that late (tired), but the first vid in the OP is a teaser saying they will be announcing "BioWare's new game" at the VGAs. I expect the forums to be in meltdown when I get up in the morning



I'm watching in the slightly desperate (and unlikely) hope that something will be said about TES V* - if it is announced I think the Bethsoft forum will probably overload and burst into flame.  You think Bioware fans are keen, but at least you guys know that the games you are waiting on are actually being developed, TES fans have zilch to go on (we know BGS are working on a big project, that's all the info we've had in more than 2 years!) and the slightest rumour has everyone salivating and praying and cooking up theories...

****ETA: YES YES YES YES YES YES YES, OMG OMG OMG OMG, it actually was announced, I am sooooo happy I actually cried  ****



Vintage Paw said:


> (although I warn you Epona, it is rumoured to include MP. I'm not bothered about that, as long as it still features the strong main story (and long main story) we've come to expect from the franchise. Maybe they'll keep the pewpew shootery stuff for MP and let us have our more in-depth rpg stuff in the main game?)


 
I don't mind it including MP as long as there is a long and in depth single player campaign that lets us wrap up the main story that will be fine.  I just want it to be more RPGy than ME2, you know my views on that - it's not that I didn't enjoy ME2, I was just hoping for more than it delivered (in terms of what I enjoy most in games).


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## Epona (Dec 12, 2010)

I had to stop watching the VGAs because the OH wanted to watch the repeat of X Factor on the telly and I couldn't hear anything over that noise through my crappy headphones - but according to posts at Bethsoft they just announced ME3.  I am sure VP that you will know this before you read this post (assuming you're asleep right now!) but I just wanted to share the joy as I am so happy myself about the announcement I was particularly waiting for - and although it doesn't excite me to quite the same level of course I will be getting ME3 myself.  

We have an exciting year or two for gaming coming up: on my list are DA2, The Witcher 2, Skyrim, and ME3 (and of course New Vegas DLC to be released next year) - as an RPG fan used to one new game a year if I'm lucky, that's almost more games than I know what to do with


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

OMFGWTFBBQ!

Pretty much everything the forums had guessed, but cor. It looks very pretty (in a grey, utterly destroyed kinda way). 

Dozens of Reapers over London.  

And I guessed the time frame too - next Xmas.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

See, the powers of fandom were right, he's in Big Ben (lol Epona). He's gotta be a squad mate, the forums say he's modelled off some dude and that's the same dude's voice.*

I'm proud of how restrained I'm being on this thread. irl I have a sore throat from squealing.


* That 'some dude' would be Jason Statham, apparently. He's #1 in the 'let's guess the face model and voice actor' list atm.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

The BioWare forums deliver:


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

Epona - I haven't seen the ES5 announcement yet, but I'll likely get it. I really couldn't get into ES4 though, but I'm hoping it will have been worked on and improved. I'm looking at getting windows and bootcamping, so I might get it for PC so I can bask in teh epicness of mods. And I keep hearing good things about the witcher 2, but no nothing about it 

I'm just so freaking excited about ME3 right now


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

Actually, it looks a bit like Jason Statham, but everyone reckons it's Simon Pegg doing the voice lol. I can 'sort of' hear him in there, but that would be weird.


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

Just for the geeks, this is pretty cool:


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## Vintage Paw (Dec 12, 2010)

Popular opinion now holds the VA for the gritty British dude is Richard Armitage, he of Spooks. And one of the 'clues' BW put out in the lead up to this was the url for the SIS/MI6 website.

Sounds a bit like him (but I reckon it still sounds more like Pegg, but I'm willing to be wrong )


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## fen_boy (Feb 11, 2011)

Client Mansell to score Mass Effect 3 which will be awesome.


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## Augie March (Feb 12, 2011)

This thread has got me bouncing with excitement and relieved that I managed to rescue all my ME saved data from my borked Xbox yesterday.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 12, 2011)

Yay! What a relief, Augie.

Not much more news on the old ME3 front other than it'll be coming out in Nov. Been spending my time getting super excited for Dragon Age 2 dropping onto my doormat on 11th March instead. Have been playing ME1 and 2 recently though. Decided to do another back-to-back run, this time with a mShep vanguard who romances Ash and stays faithful to her. I haven't saved Ash on Virmire one single time, not up until this run through anyway. There was wailing in the VP house as I left Kaidan at the bomb. But, it means I'll have my single, solitary save game with Ash ready for ME3.

I'm quite taken with my new renagon vanguard Shep though, so I might new game + him back into ME1 when I'm done and save Kaidan, because that's my default game preference.

I'm not obsessed. Nope. Not one bit.

(And I very definitely didn't get someone on dA to draw me some super hot and amazing Sheploo/Kaidan art. Nope. Not me.)


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 12, 2011)

Vintage Paw said:


> (And I very definitely didn't get someone on dA to draw me some super hot and amazing Sheploo/Kaidan art. Nope. Not me.)



I'm lying. I did.


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## Epona (Feb 12, 2011)

I've suffered a borked hard drive since playing ME1 & 2, does anyone have any femShep Paragon save games (for PC) that I could have a copy of in preparation for ME3?


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 12, 2011)

http://www.masseffectsaves.com/


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## Epona (Feb 12, 2011)

Cheers mate, will get something from there when the time comes!


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## kabbes (Feb 15, 2011)

I would like to play this game now pls thx.


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 15, 2011)

You and me both.

I'm playing through ME2 again at the moment. You know, just because I clearly haven't played it enough already. >.< November isn't _that_ far away though. And there will be one more piece of 'bridging' dlc in the same vein as 'Lair of the Shadow Broker' between now and then. Just don't know when. I will, of course, come bearing news as soon as I hear more.


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 12, 2011)

Well, ME3 is rumoured to be getting multiplayer. Hmm.

Part of me doesn't care because I have no problem with others playing the game how they want, even if I might not utilise those options, but at the same time, I always panic it'll take something away from the main campaign. However, this being the final installment, I think they'll be doing their best to do it justice. What I've heard so far sounds excellent, they are trying to tie together all your choices from the previous 2 games (including all the ones from ME1 that I was utterly angered over not appearing in ME2 in any meaningful way), they are introducing more of an upgrade system to weapons and armour, overhauling the skills trees to branch more and have more customisability, and there will apparently be quite a few ways the game can end. I'm very excited.


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## kabbes (Aug 12, 2011)

I have some skepticism that they can actually manage to diverge the stories meaningfully based on past decisions, but I live in hope.


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## Vintage Paw (Aug 12, 2011)

Well, they've said that because it's the last one, they don't need to worry about tying everything up nicely at the end ready for import into a Mass Effect 4, so they can go wild with the various iterations of choices and consequences. The fact they needed to have something that could import into ME3 constrained them somewhat in ME2. But still, yes, so many variables, I doubt they will ever be able to realise the diversity as fully as any of the fans would like. That's game development for you though.


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## Vintage Paw (Nov 5, 2011)

Soooooo, the Mass Effect 3 beta got "accidentally leaked" to those who signed up for the new xbox dashboard beta.

Epona, you're not going to like this 

Anyway, for your perusal:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=451016
http://www.mediafire.com/?3hannhjigofl9


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## Epona (Nov 5, 2011)

I like the idea of the different modes, as I'm not really a shooter fan and my reaction times are not great I found some of the combat in ME2 nightmarishly difficult even on the easiest setting, hopefully RPG mode will allow me to enjoy the story (which has been great in both parts so far) without having to reload as frequently and start again from the beginning of that segment (I hated having areas where I couldn't save!).  I keep wanting to play ME2 again and I heard some of the DLC was good and I don't have it yet, then I remember how frustrating I found some of the combat!!!  Hopefully they have realised that some aspects were offputting to the more traditional RPG segment of their fanbase and will be cutting us a bit of slack for the next installment!  I have yet to see an action-RPG that caters well to both audiences, so it'll be interesting to see if they can manage it.

VP- am I correct in thinking that the main campaign will still be single player, but there are separate mp modes as extras?


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## Vintage Paw (Nov 5, 2011)

My problem with this "action" mode thing is that we already know BW collects data on what their players do, including data on how many people skip over conversations. I'm worried it'll impact on what they continue to make in the future, and I think we'll see their more traditional RPG background start to disappear more and more. I'm worried they are trying to make a game that caters to every single possible type of player, instead of trying to make one cohesive, excellent experience. They made some initial hopeful noises, when they said they were trying to bring back some of the RPG stuff from 1 that they admitted they omitted from 2, but in eliminating any and all RPG/story aspect from their "action" mode ... idk, if a game gets rid of RPG, is it an RPG? It just seems odd. If they get data that suggests a huge amount of people played action mode over story or rpg mode, what kind of games will they make next? And what amount of data they get varies by platform. For the first 2 years of me owning an xbox, I never played while connected online. The type of console player who plays connected to Live most often, is more likely to be the sort of person who might enjoy playing online, in other words those who might pick the action mode, than those who might only play single player rpgs. I know I'm possibly overstretching there, but I simply mean the way they gather that data might be misleading of the overall picture.

Anyway, yes, the main mode is single player. The MP mode is co-op, and they are integrating it into the main campaign in such a way as anything you do in MP can shape your SP experience. So if you take key regions of the galaxy in MP, it can make your SP experience easier. However, they have said that you will still be able to achieve the optimum SP ending without playing MP, but if you play MP it'll be easier to do so.

I ... er, yeah, I'm not sure about how I feel on that.


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## Epona (Nov 5, 2011)

Good point, I hadn't thought about the statistics gathering side of things.  Pretty sure none of my Steam games think they have been played for more than 20 minutes because I always play in offline mode, and then mod the shit out of games where possible - which always turns off the recording of play time and achievements.  Steam probably think that I get bored really quickly!  So yeah you make an excellent point there that hadn't crossed my mind.

Not keen on the idea of the SP campaign being easier if you do MP co-op as I am very much a solitary gamer and MP never appealed to me so I don't really want to be funnelled into it - the only exception to that is playing CIV against my OH on 1 PC (using hotseat MP mode) which is a bit different, that's more about doing something on the PC together rather than being about gaming if that makes any sense!


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## Vintage Paw (Nov 6, 2011)

Yeah, that makes sense to me. Not everyone likes to play online, with strangers or friends. Gaming's usually pretty solitary for me too, for the most part. Exceptions are Portal 2 and hopefully the upcoming TOR (and I've had the odd game of L4D (1&2) with folks in the past).

BW released stats they'd gathered about various aspects of ME2 a while back. They found that something like 80% of players played as a soldier, most played manShep, most with the default background without making any changes. And the instances of people fast-forwarding through, or skipping, dialogue was rather high. Now, as I said earlier, most of my xbox gaming was done offline, and when I played ME1&2 for the first few times, when I was listening to all the dialogue, it wasn't being recorded in anyway. Now, when I play it, now I have my xbox hooked up online, I skip a lot of dialogue because I've heard it all before multiple times. So that's one instance of their data not reflecting the reality of the situation. That's the sort of thing I worry about. Especially since they seem utterly obsessed at the moment with replacing their old fanbase with a new, larger one.

Oh, and they appear to have replaced Mordin's voice actor. I am disappoint. He was the best character in ME2 by far.


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## kabbes (Nov 7, 2011)

Nooooo, not Mordin!


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## kabbes (Nov 7, 2011)

My 360 is never online, incidentally, because it has mysteriously lost the ability to connect to the internet.  The wireless picks up our network, but the Xbox can't then connect to the internet itself.  Bizarre.

But yes, I play like you, VP.  Solitary, virtually no interest in multiplayer or online play, playing Mass Effect with bespoke adaptations and fully engaging the dialogue.  Bioware won't be picking up any of that.

But look, if Bioware forget what made them popular and successful then they will lose their fanbase and another company will realise they can become popular and successful instead by doing what Bioware used to do.


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## Epona (Nov 7, 2011)

Vintage Paw said:


> Now, when I play it, now I have my xbox hooked up online, I skip a lot of dialogue because I've heard it all before multiple times. So that's one instance of their data not reflecting the reality of the situation. That's the sort of thing I worry about. Especially since they seem utterly obsessed at the moment with replacing their old fanbase with a new, larger one.



Yep I have a bit of a hearing problem so I always play with subtitles and I read really fast so tend to skip the end of each audio line of dialogue because it's kind of pointless to sit through the audio when I can only catch about half of what is said and I already read it anyway, so click on to the next line. I bet that registers as skipped dialogue, and I bet I'm not the only person who does that, hearing problems or not... it has absolutely no bearing on how much I am enjoying the story or reading/taking in the text dialogue!


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## Blackandyellow (Nov 12, 2011)

Done with Mass Effect 2 but not completely satisfied with how things went. The ending I got is what I wanted (killed the huge robot), but I keep losing Mordin or Tali. They keep dieing in the end. I helped all my squad members with their personal quests. Any suggestions as to how I can keep all members alive?

Can't wait for Mass Effect 3!!!!


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## kabbes (Nov 14, 2011)

Blackandyellow said:


> Done with Mass Effect 2 but not completely satisfied with how things went. The ending I got is what I wanted (killed the huge robot), but I keep losing Mordin or Tali. They keep dieing in the end. I helped all my squad members with their personal quests. Any suggestions as to how I can keep all members alive?
> 
> Can't wait for Mass Effect 3!!!!


http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/ki...e-the-suicide-mission-save-everyone/30-37384/


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