Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions [Online Open To All]

Demo is awesome. Would play more but I kinda just played the basic Soldier class first so I can play all the others on the PC demo once it comes out.
 
Something i meant to post earlier but didnt, IQ in the demo (and i assume retail) really sucks, as much of a mass effect fan as i am i cant help but feel they could of done a bit more with the textures for instance, The close ups of shepards military duty uniform is beyond horrible.
 
Deathcraze said:
I daresay we are meant to judge from the comic that with Vega watching over Shepard, they get a bit chummy. Somehow giving some info on Shepard blowing up a relay and his relationship with Vega would be good though.
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True, but barely anyone will have read that comic to begin with, even if its free, and its not like it even shows said interaction, just how and why the two were going to meet. So for the vast vast majority of people they going to be wondering "Who is this guy, why is here and why are he and Shepard so well acquainted." They need to at least introduce him before hand in some capacity and explain why hes there for most people, which an actual trial would serve to do. It would take no more than a single line of "Shepard, this is Corporal James Vega. He will be guarding you for remainder of this trial." Then a word or two between Vega and Shepard and done, on with the trial and then the intro we have seen.
 
Also remember that the the first part of the demo ends right when you are about to go to your ship. You don't get to see a lot of the interaction that might take place.
 
Deathcraze said:
turiancouncillorairquo5lys.gif
"Ah, yes. Gold. We have dismissed that claim."

To be serious, good to know. I assume the game is 2 discs again on 360?
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What makes the above comment even funnier is that they HAVE dismissed this claim. This was posted by the ever friendly Chris Priestly over at Bioware Cesspitocial :-

Chris Priestly said:
Sorry, you're jumping the gun. We have not had a go gold announcement sent to the team. When there's an announcement, which should be pretty soon, then you can crack open the bubbly.
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Source :- http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9247941/6#9249038
 
Let them go gold in 3 weeks. As long as they have a few days to print the discs and ship them out thats all that matters. It doesnt help me any having the game go gold almost 4 weeks before it ships.

Every extra day of dev time means a greater chance of certain things staying in the game that were close to being cut or were already slated to be cut, bugs can be found and fixed, and more polishing and tweaks can be done.
 
CharmingCharlie said:
What makes the above comment even funnier is that they HAVE dismissed this claim. This was posted by the ever friendly Chris Priestly over at Bioware Cesspitocial :-

Source :- http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/9247941/6#9249038
Click to expand...

You know, whenever I see a mod post at that forum, all I can think about is how bad an idea their not-quite-sigs are. I realize they're trying to seem interesting and unique, but who on earth thinks adding "LOCKDOWN! :evil smiley face:" to every topic they close is endearing? Or that ending every post "end of line" is friendly?
 
Welp, we can put it to rest:
Chris Priestly
Mass Effect 3 starts (roughly) 6 months after the end of Mass Effect 2. It starts with the end of the trial of Commander Shepard during which the Reapers first arrive on earth. This is the bit that starts the game and the demo.
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Turrible absolutely turrible. BioWare is throwing away a fantastic opportunity with that trial bit to act as intro to the game for new players and an interesting segue for returning ones. Its just as bad as skipping over the actual escape from Lothering in DA2 intro.

I generally dont care to admonish BioWare for things, but this feel rather clearly like a sacrifice of the greater narrative in order to open up the game with an action packed intro that we've seen in the demo.
 
Enduin said:
Turrible absolutely turrible. BioWare is throwing away a fantastic opportunity with that trial bit to act as intro to the game for new players and an interesting segue for returning ones. Its just as bad as skipping over the actual escape from Lothering in DA2 intro.

I generally dont care to admonish BioWare for things, but this feel rather clearly like a sacrifice of the greater narrative in order to open up the game with an action packed intro that we've seen in the demo.
Click to expand...

I don't mind leaving new players behind in service of a cohesive narrative. My issue is that the intro tries too hard to catch people up. I don't even want that silly text scroll.

If someone gives a fuck about the story, maybe they should start at the beginning. It's not like Deathly Hallows caught people up on Harry Potter. The concept is inane.
 
thetrin said:
I don't mind leaving new players behind in service of a cohesive narrative. My issue is that the intro tries too hard to catch people up. I don't even want that silly text scroll.

If someone gives a fuck about the story, maybe they should start at the beginning. It's not like Deathly Hallows caught people up on Harry Potter. The concept is inane.
Click to expand...

This.
 
Enduin said:
Turrible absolutely turrible. BioWare is throwing away a fantastic opportunity with that trial bit to act as intro to the game for new players and an interesting segue for returning ones. Its just as bad as skipping over the actual escape from Lothering in DA2 intro.

I generally dont care to admonish BioWare for things, but this feel rather clearly like a sacrifice of the greater narrative in order to open up the game with an action packed intro that we've seen in the demo.
Click to expand...

Yeah, concurred. The trial would have been an interesting way to catch players up and enable players to make decisions from earlier games. What's more, if they'd transitioned through various scenes from the trial, each not needing to be longer than a single choice and the resulting dialogue along with some indication of time passing like the seasons changing outside, it could have established the sense of Shepard's warnings going unheeded until too late very well.
 
thetrin said:
I don't mind leaving new players behind in service of a cohesive narrative. My issue is that the intro tries too hard to catch people up. I don't even want that silly text scroll.

If someone gives a fuck about the story, maybe they should start at the beginning. It's not like Deathly Hallows caught people up on Harry Potter. The concept is inane.
Click to expand...

Well I could give a shit about new players, but a trial still would have been an interesting way to start the game for returning players as well. All the back story questions could have been left out for us and instead we could have gotten a number of questions on the Arrival and then making a stand publicly about the Reapers which could have gotten Shepard in a lot of trouble and caused public outcry and dismissal by the Alliance brass along with indefinite detention while they tried to figure shit out. Then cut to "blank" days/weeks later and the demo intro starts.

GSR said:
Yeah, concurred. The trial would have been an interesting way to catch players up and enable players to make decisions from earlier games. What's more, if they'd transitioned through various scenes from the trial, each not needing to be longer than a single choice and the resulting dialogue along with some indication of time passing like the seasons changing outside, it could have established the sense of Shepard's warnings going unheeded until too late very well.
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Agreed, theres just a lot of interesting and worthwhile ways they could have handled it.
 
Throw in me in the group disappointed about the lack of a trial. It's a missed opportunity I think. Would have served as a nice, quick recap of some of the shit we've done in the last two games, and a logical continuation of Arrival into the new game. Instead ME3 starts at the end of the trial.
 
EatChildren said:
Throw in me in the group disappointed about the lack of a trial. It's a missed opportunity I think. Would have served as a nice, quick recap of some of the shit we've done in the last two games, and a logical continuation of Arrival into the new game. Instead ME3 starts at the end of the trial.
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Yeah, that could have been awesome if handled right. :(

Trial.
Subtle signs of shit going wrong.
Brief intro of civilian life for Shep (+kid) or jump to the Intro of Demo
 
The intro just seemed like Bioware were rushing us to get into the action. It would have been nice to appreciate Earth a little bit before it gets fucked up.
 
So the start of the demo is the start of the game?
That's kind of weird, Vega is already there and knows Shepard, i thought we would meet him before that or something.
 
Arjen said:
So the start of the demo is the start of the game?
That's kind of weird, Vega is already there and knows Shepard, i thought we would meet him before that or something.
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He meets Shepard in the Conviction comic. So yeah, BioWare basically gloss over everything.
 
Arjen said:
I'm getting lost with al the comics. Invasion is involving Aria right? Is conviction the new one, the one that comes with the collectors edition?
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Conviction is a free, short eight page comic that introduces Vega. You can read it here. Invasion is the Aria one yeah.
 
I'm looking forward to the game, but I honestly don't understand people who cried during the opening sequence (check youtube for those reactions if you haven't seen them yet). I found the opening sequence to be faux politica followed by explosions. I found myself laughing because the whole scene was fucking stupid.

You have this Council procession that means absolutely nothing because of what happens 30 seconds later, and the there's laser beams and giant reapers everywhere, and you're shooting endless....things until the Normandy arrives. I found the whole sequence to be utterly braindead. A bombastic intro to be sure, but any level of gravitas was ruined by the awful scene direction.

Anyone wowed by the opening sequence is likely easily wowed by things blowing up.

I hope the story delivers in a way the new skill tree already does: delivering actual intelligent solutions to seriously dumb problems.

Explosions mean nothing if there's nothing at stake, and I don't feel like the demo made me give a fuck about anyone on Earth. Even the kid in the intro cutscene seemed insufferable.
 
Gahhh, no trial and no calm before the storm? That's a shame...

thetrin said:
I'm looking forward to the game, but I honestly don't understand people who cried during the opening sequence (check youtube for those reactions if you haven't seen them yet). I found the opening sequence to be faux politica followed by explosions. I found myself laughing because the whole scene was fucking stupid.

You have this Council procession that means absolutely nothing because of what happens 30 seconds later, and the there's laser beams and giant reapers everywhere, and you're shooting endless....things until the Normandy arrives. I found the whole sequence to be utterly braindead. A bombastic intro to be sure, but any level of gravitas was ruined by the awful scene direction.

Anyone wowed by the opening sequence is likely easily wowed by things blowing up.

I hope the story delivers in a way the new skill tree already does: delivering actual intelligent solutions to seriously dumb problems.

Explosions mean nothing if there's nothing at stake, and I don't feel like the demo made me give a fuck about anyone on Earth. Even the kid in the intro cutscene seemed insufferable.
Click to expand...
Dat song man. Dat song.

You could play it over a video of a guy eating a cupcake and I'd feel some emotion. But, I do agree the intro is very cheap in its current state/permanent state :|
 
Darknessbear said:
Gahhh, no trial and no calm before the storm? That's a shame...


Dat song man. Dat song.

You could play it over a video of a guy eating a cupcake and I'd feel some emotion. But, I do agree the intro is very cheap in its current state/permanent state :|
Click to expand...

The song is great. It added nothing to the scene. I just thought the whole time "man, this music is great."

I wish the dialogue wasn't so goddamn bad. "we fight, or we die!" really Shephard? That's why the Council kept you around? So you could give us a trite motivational message?

HP_Wuvcraft said:
People on YouTube cry over the Twilight trailers.
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I'd like to believe it's not the same people. I hope.

Lakitu said:
The intro just seemed like Bioware were rushing us to get into the action. It would have been nice to appreciate Earth a little bit before it gets fucked up.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. Spending some time exploring in a benign capacity would a be great way to establish pathos.
 
I know it's out tomorrow but I have 2 codes left over if anyone has a lazy day today.

Was giving them away on my site's Facebook page but because it's only a small site and I'm presuming most people are at work all interest has dried up.

http://www.facebook.com/MKGaming

Anyway, if you want one just PM me - first two get it. EDIT: All gone!
 
Shame there's not more to the intro. Maybe there'll be some extra bits of dialogue during the trial depending on how you handled some things in ME2(events of Arrival, and just how much you aided Cerberus)?

They did say that your choices in Arrival, while having no effect on Bahak's fate, would play some part in ME3.
 
Compared with the awesome Mass Effect 2 opening sequence, this one (demo) is realy sub par, and doesnt make much sense.

This only from the extended walktrough footage...

1. Unexplained friendship with that endemic Jersey gorilla specimen

2. Ashley apparently is Lana Del Rey´s great great great granddaughter... the question is... can she sing as well?

3. Absence of the courtroom trial and missed opportunity of a "previously on Babylon 5"

4. If the Reapers fear humanity so much to attack it first and shep in particular for messing up their plans, it would figure that they would nuke the planet from orbit instead of leading a ground invasion. Not even the human husks are an excuse, as they are so much weaker than the other alien species ones (besides the fact that there is plenty of raw material in the colonies).
 
Kem0sabe said:
If the Reapers fear humanity so much to attack it first and shep in particular for messing up their plans, it would figure that they would nuke the planet from orbit instead of leading a ground invasion. Not even the human husks are an excuse, as they are so much weaker than the other alien species ones (besides the fact that there is plenty of raw material in the colonies).
Click to expand...

That's true, and then we'd have no game to play.

Seriously?
 
thetrin said:
I'm looking forward to the game, but I honestly don't understand people who cried during the opening sequence (check youtube for those reactions if you haven't seen them yet). I found the opening sequence to be faux politica followed by explosions. I found myself laughing because the whole scene was fucking stupid.

You have this Council procession that means absolutely nothing because of what happens 30 seconds later, and the there's laser beams and giant reapers everywhere, and you're shooting endless....things until the Normandy arrives. I found the whole sequence to be utterly braindead. A bombastic intro to be sure, but any level of gravitas was ruined by the awful scene direction.

Anyone wowed by the opening sequence is likely easily wowed by things blowing up.

I hope the story delivers in a way the new skill tree already does: delivering actual intelligent solutions to seriously dumb problems.

Explosions mean nothing if there's nothing at stake, and I don't feel like the demo made me give a fuck about anyone on Earth. Even the kid in the intro cutscene seemed insufferable.
Click to expand...

Its probably just the music that made people feel emotional. If the kid scene had some generic hollywood epic music, no one would have cared. The music did all the job, thank you Mansell.
 
shinobi602 said:
That's true, and then we'd have no game to play.

Seriously?
Click to expand...

I think having earth blown to bits would have a bigger emotional impact than a kid in a ventilation system, for an opening to the third game... making it a tale of revenge.

As Hitchhiker guide proved, a good story can start from having the earth destroyed. :)

Then again, it´s scifi, it doesn´t have to make sense, i guess saving earth for the 100th time is as good a plot as we are going to get.
 
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