Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions [Online Open To All]

Took some snaps with ambient occlusions forced via the nVidia Inspector. Before followed by after.

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One thing I hate is that everything is on the same button, so it's kind of hard to manage the roll/cover/jumping over obstacles, and since character controls in ME games are kind of clunky, it makes it a bit sloppy (playing a vanguard), framerate is really bad on the ps3 too, I'll probably stick with the PC version as always (it's a years old duo core mac so it's why I was trying it on console, and too lazy to reboot to windows).
 
Very disappointed with the Demo. Game doesn't look too good, animation is horrible and frame rate is inconsistent at best.

The writing is terrible ("there is only one thing we can do: fight or die!"), the editing in the cutscenes is downright amateurish, especially the beginning with all the moving clutter in the background, and the voice acting is so so.

Gameplay wise it's still janky, combat tries to force you into melee, and there is too much camera stutter when shooting.

Might even pass on this one. Too bad, I loved Mass Effect 1 dearly.
 
Played the PC demo, it feels faster but man do I hate the Gears of War "one button" sticky movement and cover. It doesn't look pretty (probably why it ran so well on my laptop lol) in the Earth bit, but the backgrounds were really cool in a Halo peripheral storytelling way. I hope the Earth stuff isn't a tease like Halo 2.

Is there an explanation for the awful framerate during cutscenes, just like Gears of War? Is that a UE3 thing? I wish they had improved on facial stuff, great Keith David stuff but dead-eye kind of ruins it.

I love the Clint Mansell music, is that the one playing during the Reaper slaughter of the ships with the kid?
 
Nabs said:
So they couldn't find a button for Roll? Heh. Any way to holster my weapon?

Glad SSAA works just as well as it did in the other two games. Give it a try if your computer can handle it.
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Can You switch AA via nvidia inspector ingame or You need to reload game before it applies?

I use OGSSAA with ingame AA right now, but i think 4x MSAA + OGSSAA would be much better solution.
 
Imp the Dimp said:
What should I be looking for? I don't see any difference whatsoever.
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Soft shadows where two pieces of geometry come very close together, like a sign on a wall or a corner. It's really hard to see side by side, and is more noticable when you flip between the two screenshots. It's very subtle, but adds a little extra depth to the image. Not sure I'll use it though, as it was a little bit bugged out in the second mission.
 
I'm not running into the "I'M ROLLING INTO COVER" issue so far. Hold X: Storm. Tap: Get into cover. Same thing I did with ME2. *shrug* The lack of sticky for cover can be an issue at times but it isn't anything too terrible.

Combat's been MASSIVELY improved otherwise and the choice of options for powers is welcome but I feel the rank up levels should be similar. Level 3 Warp Top option is 1 point while the bottom is 6 points. Wait, what?
 
I loved the demo.

the writing isn't stellar, but feels better than ME2 and even better than ME1 in some places, in both the quality of the lines and in the delivery (specifically the delivery, though). I'm thinking specifically of the exchange between Garrus, Liara, Wrex, and Shepard in the second section. I got a strong feeling of nostalgia from getting those folks together, and the delivery of the lines really felt like some old buddies getting back together for one last job, so to speak.

the combat felt much better than it was even in 2. The rolling and running felt closer to gears, which is good, and the powers felt more fun to use, and you could use them more often. Enemies were much better this time around about flushing you out of cover and forcing you to move around the map, and the boss was pretty hard and took me a few tries (I blame the minions that spawned once the shields dropped).

Aside from the biggies though, there were more things I really enjoyed about ME3. The UI is slicker than before, and I really liked everything from the new conversation wheel to the new health bars on shepard and the baddies, the level up screen feels well thought out, and the experience system feels like a return to ME1 without inundating you with pages of "Exp +3, Exp +3, Exp +5".

so glad this is only coming out in a few weeks.
 
Is the demo indicative of the texture quality in the final game? It's not a deal breaker for me, but i would have expected them to have stepped up from low-res cum fiesta to actual decent texturing.

Wish they'd seperate some of the functions. Change E to use or something instead of having a single "win" button.
 
EatChildren said:
Soft shadows where two pieces of geometry come very close together, like a sign on a wall or a corner. It's really hard to see side by side, and is more noticable when you flip between the two screenshots. It's very subtle, but adds a little extra depth to the image. Not sure I'll use it though, as it was a little bit bugged out in the second mission.
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Not sure it looks way to dark in the after pictures.

Edit: Haven't followed this thread but is there a way to get higher res textures or did they cut them out to save on bandwidth for the demo.
 
FrontalMonk said:
I loved the demo.

the writing isn't stellar, but feels better than ME2 and even better than ME1 in some places, in both the quality of the lines and in the delivery (specifically the delivery, though). I'm thinking specifically of the exchange between Garrus, Liara, Wrex, and Shepard in the second section. I got a strong feeling of nostalgia from getting those folks together, and the delivery of the lines really felt like some old buddies getting back together for one last job, so to speak.

the combat felt much better than it was even in 2. The rolling and running felt closer to gears, which is good, and the powers felt more fun to use, and you could use them more often. Enemies were much better this time around about flushing you out of cover and forcing you to move around the map, and the boss was pretty hard and took me a few tries (I blame the minions that spawned once the shields dropped).

Aside from the biggies though, there were more things I really enjoyed about ME3. The UI is slicker than before, and I really liked everything from the new conversation wheel to the new health bars on shepard and the baddies, the level up screen feels well thought out, and the experience system feels like a return to ME1 without inundating you with pages of "Exp +3, Exp +3, Exp +5".

so glad this is only coming out in a few weeks.
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I giggled like a school girl in that section.

Having my full team back is going to feel awesome, and even more if there are intercations like those of Wrex, Liara and Garrus but in all the game with the squadmates.

How I missed you in my team Wrex. When he talks with Garrus :lol
 
Facism said:
Is the demo indicative of the texture quality in the final game? It's not a deal breaker for me, but i would have expected them to have stepped up from low-res cum fiesta to actual decent texturing.
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dragonelite said:
dit: Haven't followed this thread but is there a way to get higher res textures or did they cut them out to save on bandwidth for the demo.
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Given this is BioWare, and Mass Effect 2 was equally low res, I don't expect the full game to have any higher texture resolution. Going by the (buried) config, FXAA, and more, its pretty clear this this port is identical to ME2; straight from console to PC with minimal to no enhancements or changes, right down to identical assets.
 
Imp the Dimp said:
The writing in ME3 is fucking atricious, goddamn.
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There was some pretty awful dialog in the intro alone. I mean jrpg-level bad, the only difference is it's voiced better in this game.

I guess it wouldn't be a big deal if this series wasn't taking itself extremely seriously but they are.
 
The co-op on PC is actually pretty amazing so far. Even my friends who are Mass Effect "purist" and hate every change to the series, for better or worse, loved it. It gets so intense later on and we eventually all agreed that it's probably one of the best teamwork based co-op games we've played in a while. Of course this was a three man party. We never did get that forth player.

The MP really shows how well the controls and shooting have been improved. SP part of the demo wasn't very good for that just because of how linear it was.
 
the lack of polish and performance in general is shocking for such a high budget game. the first section on PS3 is abysmal, and i can deal with poor framerates most of the time but that was something else.
 
Moaradin said:
The co-op on PC is actually pretty amazing so far. Even my friends who are Mass Effect "purist" and hate every change to the series, for better or worse, loved it. It gets so intense later on and we eventually all agreed that it's probably one of the best teamwork based co-op games we've played in a while. Of course this was a three man party. We never did get that forth player.

The MP really shows how well the controls and shooting have been improved. SP part of the demo wasn't very good for that just because of how linear it was.
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:/

How come I can't do online? Says I have no access yet ;_;
 
Spamming biotic powers is the fastest way to make the demo crash, with the Vanguard I charged an enemy, Liara used Singularity on the same enemy and the game started loading for no apaprent reason. Next, I foudn my chararacter in the same room but I could not progress, the door won't open and basically I was stuck in the first area of the second part of the demo. :/
 
On a mechanical standpoint, I thought the demo was pretty good. I thought they improved the enemy and ally AI. Enemies actually flank out, use grenades, etc. There are some patterns but for the most part, they were much better than the brain dead enemies in the first two.
The allies actually used their powers wisely, I only had one stupid death (Garrus was too close to the big mech when the battle started), but they seem to know when to retreat for cover.
I didn't think the melee was overpowered and if you try to use the omni knife against a guy with armor or shields, you're going to get blasted. It seems pretty balanced, though someone who plays a lot of shooters may laugh at that.

Thematically, well, I have reservations about this. I don't think this is going to be DA2 bad, but I've realized that the series is going to end up where nobody thought it would when it started.

This game feels like series is essentially a retelling of Halo. Shepard = MC, Covenant, Flood, Reapers, Cerberus, doesn't matter its all the same result. I understand a little better the people that complained about ME2 from ME1 in terms of feel and atmosphere. There is something more appealing about exploring the universe to solve a mystery and stopping a huge invasion than fighting said huge invasion. I thought 2 still had that sense of adventure in the varied locales you'd go to to get new teammates, loyalty missions. I think I enjoyed those because they weren't necessarily tied to the main conflict.

Beyond that, ME2 is going to end up like Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Sure it happened, but its going to have little impact on the main storyline (other than the plot twist) so it may as well not even exist.

If bioware does continue the ME line, which I heard they were supposed to, lets lighten up on the end of the universe level threats. Its boring.
 
gogogow said:
Yeah, female Shep runs and walks like a man. It was way better in the first two games.
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fem shep ran like a man in the first 2 games too, she had the same animation as male shep in those games I think (though i can't be sure since I've never played male shep).
 
EatChildren said:
Given this is BioWare, and Mass Effect 2 was equally low res, I don't expect the full game to have any higher texture resolution. Going by the (buried) config, FXAA, and more, its pretty clear this this port is identical to ME2; straight from console to PC with minimal to no enhancements or changes, right down to identical assets.
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The lazy buggers :D
 
Anteater said:
fem shep ran like a man in the first 2 games too, she had the same animation as male shep in those games I think (though i can't be sure since I've never played male shep).
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Yes, the female and male Shep had the same animation in the first two games, but the animation is less obvious in the first two games than in ME3. Finished ME1 again a few weeks ago and now replaying ME2. Just try to sprint in that game, the running animation is totally different and more neutral than ME3.
 
gogogow said:
Yes, the female and male Shep had the same animation in the first two games, but the animation is less obvious in the first two games than in ME3. Finished ME1 again a few weeks ago and now replaying ME2. Just try to sprint in that game, the running animation is totally different and more neutral than ME3.
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Oh, I didn't really notice that in 3, but I thought 2 was really bad when I played it back then, though I didn't pay much attention to it as I'm always in combat rolling around in this demo, and I was too distracted by Anderson's running animations :lol

Someone told me that fem shep has a different set of animation in 3, we'll see about that! I wonder how she walks now out of combat
 
So how is the framerate on PS3 and 360?

I wanted to play it on the PC but they have once again left out gamepad support rendering it useless to me. Pisses me off that I can't enjoy the game with SSAA and 60 fps as a result. :(
 
Enjoyed this demo. Multiplayer is tight. Not 100% original but was not expecting it to be. A worthy sequel to the franchise. Will pick up a few weeks after release.
 
I can't stand the shitty vignetting otherwise its a more customizable Gears of War with magic abilities, which is a good thing. The MP is addicting and fun too.
 
Could it be that the memory ceiling that Bioware hit which forced them cut the holstering animation has anything to do with Kinect integration?

Also, in the beginning of the demo a part of the message flashes contains the statement that Reapers wipe out "all organic life in the galaxy" every 50,000 years. Really... really?
 
dark10x said:
So how is the framerate on PS3 and 360?

I wanted to play it on the PC but they have once again left out gamepad support rendering it useless to me. Pisses me off that I can't enjoy the game with SSAA and 60 fps as a result. :(
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There's surely software to fix that? Xpadder and stuff?
 
I found it jarring after coming off of the familiar (8 playthroughs now..) ME2.
I'm sure the controls and such are sweet.. it just felt a bit different and weird to be honest, sure it will grow on me though. RPG demos are generally a bad move in my books (good for n00bs to the series though), if you know you're going to buy it, might be best to leave it alone till release I'm thinking... just when you start to get in the swing of things it's over, after all - it's only a demo.

Haven't touched Multiplayer yet (have BF3 pass so is accessible), might try it out tonight.

now -

My Impressions:

* Awesome enemy AI - really noticable when compared to ME2, they are A LOT smarter (cerberus especially) and showed tactics and response to my actions

* Not so awesome Health/Shield/Team interface... what's with the MASSIVE health bar and stuff? is this to fit the multiplayer guff in, cause if it is... AGGGGH. (expletives).

* Really good music and lip sync/facial animations, not so good writing.... but I'm guessing the bulk of the good writing will occur when off planet, and doing actual missions and such (I hope, Fight or Die was pretty, pretty, pretty lame).

* On the topic of talking, where were the Dialogue options???? I know they recorded a ****load of dialogue for this, I just hope it's not all in pre-done cutscenes.. oh lord, let it not be so. (actually praying on knees as saying this)

* Awesome new power/character development, so many options.. looking forward to my shotty/heavy toting Vanguard ripping up with customised fit-out.

- Keep in mind that I am the MOST MASSIVE Mass Effect Fanboy, and I have huge bias/expectations for this.. so of course any little thing that bothers me will be heard I tells ya! :)


Pre-Order Cancelled!


- jokes.

Pre-Ordered CE still anticipated with lustful longing (albeit, with a tinge of worry)
 
Playing the demo more I am noticing the small improvements over ME2, characters do look better, gameplay does feel slightly better now also. I still hate the black crush in 360 version, ME1 does not have this, ME2 has it but I thought for sure they would fix it in ME3, sure it is suppose to be a dark game but it is too much when you are losing some detail when it's overused like it is in ME3.
 
i-Lo said:
Could it be that the memory ceiling that Bioware hit which forced them cut the holstering animation has anything to do with Kinect integration?

Also, in the beginning of the demo a part of the message flashes contains the statement that Reapers wipe out "all organic life in the galaxy" every 50,000 years. Really... really?
Click to expand...

Regarding the Kinect memory thing: Didn't Kinect itself have dedicated memory or processor? But still, the code for the voice commands must take up some of the memory budget. Nevertheless, the Roll and Melee animations also take up the memory budget.

Regarding the intro text, it's really indicative of Bioware not being aware of what the fuck they are doing in part 3 of the series, at least writing-wise.
 
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