Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions [Online Open To All]

So anyone else not able to log into Cerberus for the demo gear? I want the omniblade daggers for my rogue in Amalur
 
Finally did all 11 waves on Bronze (easy) and it was tough, especially the last couple of rounds. Having people work together is a must.
 
Well I finished the demo on PS3. There's really not a lot I can say since it was mostly combat which bores me. It's a little quicker I guess but for the most part it felt the same to me.

Graphics- hard to tell since I'm not playing on PC. Looked mostly the same.

Animation- what animation :lol. Start over next gen Bioware.

Framerate- uhh not as completely awful as the ME2 trial I did about a few days ago but still pretty bad. Again I'm a PC gamer though.

Sound- Pretty weird for me. Everything was really low but explosions were like ear shatteringly loud.

I didn't really think the level up screen was that much better. They gave you two more slots for options from what I could tell instead of just the last level in ME2. It's definitely better than ME2 but I still feel that it's pretty basic and lacking from 1.

Dialog and story was the same cringeworthy stuff that has been discussed to death in this thread already. Doesn't give a good feeling going into the full game.

I'm pretty much at the same point I was going into the demo, it didn't do anything to pull me in 1 direction or the other. There just wasn't enough substance there, it was mostly combat.
 
I just tried the demo on PS3, although I'm trying to stick to MP and the character creator for now so I can go in fresh for the final game. I only saw gameplay in co-op Visually the game looks really nice, although I think it may run at sub-HD or have quincux AA since the image seemed a bit blurry. Speaking of blur, I don't think there's any motion blur on PS3, which is a damn shame. Hopefully it's on for SP.
 
Not liking the framerate of the PS3 version demo...

it looks fine, but honestly... get more than 1 or 2 characters on the screen and it bogs to hell.

Doubt it will be improved for the release.

damn it.
 
Framerate is not abyssmal but it's definitely not 30 most of the time. Combat is fine but I played the infiltrator and didn't feel like an infiltrator. Sound was lacking "umph". Explosions felt weak and well... everything didn't have that BAM to the face. Everything else is fine though.
 
In case anybody was wondering, you can use the same settings as ME1/ME2 in nVidia Inspector to force better AA.
 
I thought the graphics were actually pretty damn good, and then I played the PC version and saw it in all its "glory". Ouch.

Game's a blast though, can't wait for the full version.
 
I'm just messing around on the character creation screen and got Femshep looking pretty nice. The hair is a huge improvement. I can just save the code I have now and put that in when I get the full game even with an imported character, right?
 
I'm just messing around on the character creation screen and got Femshep looking pretty nice. The hair is a huge improvement. I can just save the code I have now and put that in when I get the full game even with an imported character, right?

Yes.
 
Not only that, it doubles your cooldown time. Juuuuuunk.

Well, it's 80% but can be lowered to a 50% penalty. Even with the 80% penalty, using one weapon gives Throw a cooldown of maybe 2 seconds. I'll take it for all of the benefits Tech Armor provides, not to mention having strong offense in both biotic and tech simultaneously.
 
Did it? Did it really?

relative to its sequel it did.

Actually, Tom Bishell has an entire chapter on it in his book 'Exta lives'. But then again, I was severely dissapointed when he found the sequel to be equally impressive. It is unknown to me how far he was into the game when he claimed that though.


As far as the demo goes, I found presentation and all to be okay (not going to bitch about animation, as the engine is now basically ancient. ), but the combat felt really clunky. With mouse and keyboard though, so maybe using the controller will change things.
But combat really was the one thing where ME2 improved on all counts, so it's strange that it would feel weird in this demo.

I think I am able to call the ending from the demo. Can we make an early speculation / spoiler thread? It's a bit of a risk to put it here if I happen to be right on it.
 
So I played both console versions, framerate in PS3 version is a bit off at times like the ME2 demo, it was better in final game though, 360 demo seems to have worse black crush. Gameplay seems fine to me not that much difference from ME2 really. Effects like Incinerate and others are turned down compared to ME2. Still gonna pick it up on release most probably 360 version.
 
Just finished the demo, so of course I have opinions:

-Graphics looked really good, even better than ME2 did. However the human faces and models seem a bit stiff moving and weird looking. Non-humans looked amazing, though.

-Music is still subpar in my mind. Needs more epic.

-Combat felt unchanged from ME2, minus the new cover leaping/rolling mechanic and the enemy AI being a bit better. Kept getting flanked and mobbed, but that could also be because I'm not used to the Vanguard class since they changed it from the first game (played Soldier in ME2).

-I kind of wish they had given some more plot hooks or teases to the main game, since it was a little bit boring.
 
Just finished the demo, so of course I have opinions:

-Graphics looked really good, even better than ME2 did. However the human faces and models seem a bit stiff moving and weird looking. Non-humans looked amazing, though.

-Music is still subpar in my mind. Needs more epic.

-Combat felt unchanged from ME2, minus the new cover leaping/rolling mechanic and the enemy AI being a bit better. Kept getting flanked and mobbed, but that could also be because I'm not used to the Vanguard class since they changed it from the first game (played Soldier in ME2).

-I kind of wish they had given some more plot hooks or teases to the main game, since it was a little bit boring.

What...

Clint Mansell's bit was amazing.
 
Not only that, it doubles your cooldown time. Juuuuuunk.

What cooldown time? Oh, you mean the cooldown time that happens while I'm exploring shit before getting into battles. And after I set up warp-ammo to SMG you with Warp Biotic shots in the meantime if it is taken off me?
 
Turn your volume knob to the right.

Thank you captain obvious, I would give you a cookie if I could.

Really, I just checked the config and there doesn't seem to be any options to boost the volume :( , I'm playing with headphones right now and have Window's volume all the way up and it still is a bit low for my liking.
 
So finally played it and:

1. The lack of weapon holstering capability is literally causing headache due to motion sickness. No time to ease up in the other view. I wish it had an Uncharted like system.

2. This iteration is the best looking so far but, a) where the fuck is option for GRAIN FILTER and b) Bioware still can't do faces as well some other top tier devs (this is the best so far, however). Lip syncing is still below par.

3. Soundtrack is better than ever and so is the sound design in general.

4. Melee combat is fun

5. Taking cover and forward rolling is both assigned to button "A" which can problematic in the heat of battle.

6. The animation for Anderson felt incomplete. However, once with team-mates it was highly reminiscent of previous games, i.e. you are too busy to defeat enemies to either see or care about their animation.

Over all, because I know the prior two games' quality, I'll glady pay to finish the trilogy. That said, to a new comer this demo will probably feel "weak" depending upon what he/she expects. I found it to be "okay" at best.

I must say the game has come very far from the days of ME1 and now it has been streamlined to a point where I feel like it has lost its uniqueness.
 
How so? Thinking of buying the games in this series now.

By using nVidia Inspector, if you have an nVidia card. Not sure what the AMD equivalent is. Just set the AA behaviour to the one that lists Mass Effect, the override application settings, and the AA of your choice. I'm using 4xMSAA, but you can use supersampling too if you have the grunt. Transparency multi/supersampling cleans up a lot of the textures with transparency layers too.

Also seems like forcing ambient occlusions works...kinda. It's there, but practically unnoticeable unless you're RIGHT up in front of an object. Might be tweakable to make it more prominent though, which should help improve the visuals.
 
I want to add AA to the demo via nVidia inspector, but I'm fairly new to the program and I don't know how it works that much. What do I have to do to add a profile for the ME3 demo?
 
This game needs more fucking polygons. My tits have like 3 polygons, no joke. Also my character's eyeballs stick through my eyelids when they're closed.
 
Just went through the second half of the demo and it struck me how clumsy Shepard feels. The level design feels like it gets in the way too much as well, and now I understand people's gripes with everything being assigned to the A button. I couldn't do anything on reaction because I would instead do a maneuver I had no intention of performing, more often than not putting me right in the line of fire.

Also, Shepard moves too slow. In everything. Move faster. I'm probably going to have to crank aim sensitivity up to its highest.
 
I want to add AA to the demo via nVidia inspector, but I'm fairly new to the program and I don't know how it works that much. What do I have to do to add a profile for the ME3 demo?

Firstly, make sure AA is turned off for Mass Effect 3, else it will force FXAA.

Then, open nVidia Inspector, and click the little screw and wrench icon to open the profile manager. At the top where it says 'Profiles' type Mass Effect, and you'll see Mass Effect III in the drop down list.

Enter the following settings (they'll be in a drop down list so no need to type them manually);
Antialiasing Compatibility = 0x080100C5 (Mass Effect, Mass Effect II)
Antialiasing Mode = Override any application settings
Antialiasing Setting = Whatever you want. I'm using 4xMSAA.
Antialiasing Transparency Multisampling = Enabled

Also, because I don't trust the in-engine settings, I also turned on;
Anisotropic Filtering Mode = User-defined / Off
Anisotropic Filtering Setting = 16x
Texture Filtering Quality = High Quality.
 
Straight nuclear fingertip power. That guy was awesome in ME2.

Renegade's Shepards response to make him go in there is lol and makes you feel bad about it right after laughing for ten minutes at it.

Garrus: He's high. Probably on the toxins.
Dude: I AM A GOD! I'M GONNA KILL THE BITCH!
Shepard: (Renegade) Charge! *throws hand up dismissively*
 
Awesome.

If anyone plays the PS3 version single player can you comment on whether or not there's motion blur? I don't see it in MP and I'm not venturing past the character creator.

There is, but I don't really notice it in the environment, only on Shepard when you are moving back and forth behind cover.

It's sad, to me the game looks great on PS3, but that framerate is just not where it needs to be.
 
-However the human faces and models seem a bit stiff moving and weird looking. Non-humans looked amazing, though.

True. Playing femShep I noticed that her eyes were rarely looking where I'd expect them to be looking at a given point. At one point I got a laugh out of it because she was staring at this guy's crotch while having a "serious" discussion.

Do you think the aliens look better because we have less to compare them to? Is it simply the uncanny valley?
 
There is, but I don't really notice it in the environment, only on Shepard when you are moving back and forth behind cover.

It's sad, to me the game looks great on PS3, but that framerate is just not where it needs to be.

I agree, looks just as good (the same?) as the 360 demo but the frame rate is worse. I hope it's ironed out for the retail version as I have the LE preordered for the PS3 and I can't find any more preorders for the 360 version.

IMO the frame rate in MP seems fine though. Can't play MP on 360 to see how it compares.
 
You're right, there's none of that in this beeatch. I liked the effect personally.

You know, it brought something into my head.

In a parallel world, it would have been fun to see a Mass Effect trilogy that tracks the progression of the sci-fi genre. ME1 is 70s Sci-Fi, ME2 is 80s-early 90s, and ME3 is late 90s-early 2000s.
 
Playing the 360 demo and then right after playing the PC demo really makes it hard to understand why BioWare is not implementing Gamepad support on the PC version. Visually, it is night and day difference between the console versions and the PC version. Even before I played the PC version I thought that the 360 version was a little hurting to begin with visually and peformance wise.

I loved the ME series, played through both 1 & 2 on the consoles, but lately been doing more PC gaming and there is no way I am going to get this on 360, but at the same time, for me and my personal preference, I prefer to play this type of game with a gamepad. Since it is not supported, I will wait for a Sale on the PC version or get it sometime next year for $19.99 or less....so fucking stupid not to put controller support in the game though.
 
I agree, looks just as good (the same?) as the 360 demo but the frame rate is worse. I hope it's ironed out for the retail version as I have the LE preordered for the PS3 and I can't find any more preorders for the 360 version.

IMO the frame rate in MP seems fine though. Can't play MP on 360 to see how it compares.

Yep, it's really really clean. The IQ is the same as the 360 version from what I can tell. I'm going strictly off the SP though. Can't comment on the MP.

I know ME2 on PS3 had some framerate problems here and there, but I was expecting them to be ironed out for this game. Instead it just seems worse in that department.
 
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