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and this from the youtube comments section...

After three hours i begin to suspect that this guy has nothing else to say...

:D

Maybe I'm just feeling dumpy this morning but it doesn't have quite the punch that I remember from the ME2 trailer.

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Finally got around to downloading the demo - looks kickass. Looks like I'll be upgrading my computer over the weekend, so I should be ready to roll when this comes out in a couple of weeks. :thumb:

I played through the single player demo - this game is going to rock. Also played some more multiplayer. My buddies and I can breeze through bronze challenges with ease, we also beat all 10 waves of a silver challenge. I haven't tried gold yet though.

It's supposedly longer than either 1 or 2. Which is saying something. My initial play for both games was over 40 hours.

What weapons is everyone using in the multiplayer? I've unlocked all but the Locust (and the non-rares are 7+) and for instance I feel like the Avenger because of its compromise position on ammo and its minimal weight is strongest choice of the three assault rifles in the demo. The exception to me with all the rare weapons is the Widow since it does offer a superior weapon for the weight penalty.

Played some of the demo. Its like Gear of War no?

The multiplayer is very similar to gears horde mode.

I spent a few minutes this morning on the Bioware Social Network, the first time I've been there since DA2's release. Good grief. I'm not sure it hasn't gotten worse. And I didn't think that was possible.

This month's QQ is From Ashes, the Prothean DLC that's out day 1. It's like these people didn't play DAO. Or DA2. Or ME2. They've been doing day 1 dlc for literally years, but apparently this one is somehow causing the apocalypse.

By the time I got done pricing upgrades and taking into account the PITA factor, I just decided to get one of these:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Sku=I455-92603

Going to order it tonight. I doubt that they'll have any in stock, but hopefully it will be delivered by the time this comes out.

I really wanted to like Mass Effect 1 & 2, but I just couldn't get into them. Not my cup of tea I suppose.

I wouldn't sweat it. There's never going to be anything that everybody likes.

Yeah, its ****ing ridiculous how much QQing has been going on over the multiplayer being the "project $10" thing instead of some day one DLC. Especially since even games that had day one DLC as their p$10 thing like DAO also had Warden's Keep that was in the CE but not the regular version just like From the Ashes. Or with DA2 and the Signature Edition having the same situation with one DLC that's name eludes me in addition to the Black Emporium that was the p$10 thing. Plus there is the whole situation where probably 90% of even the best content released as DLC would've never seen the light of day unless it could be sold as DLC. Do they want more Duke Nukem Forever situations or do they want games released in a timely fashion?

DA2's was The exiled Prince.

ME2 had the Cerberus Network which offered as best as I recall The Price of Freedom(Zaeed) as well as the Normandy Crash Site on release. They were free, but the network itself cost money (though was included with the purchase of a new copy of the game, as I recall).

I actually liked the Cerberus Network idea the most, a one-time price to get a series of dlc, but the bitching over From Ashes is just silly. It's basically just an extra companion, like Zaeed or Kasumi. It isn't integral to the game, and it was designed as a bonus for the series' biggest fans (the character is a Prothean), the people who'd be most prone to purchase the CE or digital deluxe. I'm sure it's cool, but it's supposedly no more integral to the story than Zaeed or Kasumi.

Maybe I'd understand more if I wasn't one of those people who was one of the series' biggest fans and had preordered the DDE.

Yeah, the Cerberus Network was the p$10 thing in ME2 and came with a bunch of stuff. Zaeed, Firewalker, Normandy Crash site, Arc Projector and the Cerberus Weapon and Armor.

Yeah, but only Zaeed and Normandy Crash site were day 1.

Well regardless, I think we both agree there is nothing groundbreaking going on here either in gaming in general or specific to Bioware's games.

Definitely. I have no idea what the fuss is.

It kind of lays out an unpleasant reality about gaming communities though. For whatever reason there's a very vocal anti-Bioware segment out there, and they lock on to whatever the flavor of the month is as far as things to bitch about. I think it started with DA2, it carried over strongly into SWTOR and now here it is again with ME3. It's just a pet theory, but I'm wondering if there's any possibility that a rival corporation is using the internet as a sort of company-versus-company battleground. It's bad on bioware's own boards, but it's downright crazy if you go to sites outside of EA like metacritic or reddit or (I hear) 4-chan.

Gaming communities are generally very vocal and often very negative (the WoW boards were horrendous back in the day) but this is maybe the worst I've ever seen, and it makes me wonder if something's going on...

Some of it is probably the "rabble rabble EA sucks rabble rabble" stuff since they got bought up by EA. DA2 also had some rightful criticisms because boy was that game clearly rushed out the door presumably thanks to the aforementioned EA overlords. A lot of recycled (many times) locations in DA2 and they kind of took some risks that maybe were better suited to an original project instead in terms of making people less bitchy. That said I liked it anyway.

I'd agree with all of that on DA2. Although it didn't keep me from playing the complete game twice and won't keep me from buying 3. Basically, for me, Bioware's worst game (and that would be DA2 right now) is still better than anybody else's best.

They need to up their game from DA2 for that to remain true, though. From what I've seen of ME3 so far, I don't think there's anything to worry about.

How hard is it to transfer existing games from one computer to another? Last time I upgraded my old computer had died, so I lost everything.

I'll have old and new networked.

It's not hard at all. Just look in your documents folder > Bioware folder > Mass Effect 2 folder > Save folder > whichever character.

I have everything backed-up to a portable drive, too, just to be safe.

Been playing ME2 to get revved up for ME3. I'd forgotten just how awesome the launch trailer was for that game:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sjOEmHEd2XM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Wonder what they're going to come up with on Friday to top that?

I still need to complete my last go around on ME2. I haven't loaded it on the new computer yet, but the other games I transferred (Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amular) are fine.

Went from lowest to highest graphics settings on Skyrim. Too bad I'm 100% burned out on it - it sure looks great now.

I feel like every Bethesda game ever has burned me out, I think its just the combination of how big they make them and how I tend to play them. Its just a bad combination.

I haven't felt like I've missed anything by skipping Skyrim. I just think the BioWare model is much more "me". The storytelling is the thing that interests me the most.

Skyrim was leaps and bounds better than Oblivion and I enjoyed it greatly. But holy shit, once TOR came out, it was game over, man. Game over.

Sure it burned me out - after 323 hours. That's over 13 days of playing time.

I loved it and got my money's worth out of it. That's what matters.

Launch Trailer posted in the OP.

Bioware's released a re-cut of the original blur-style trailer but using the female shepard model. It's pretty cool: http://popwatch.ew.com/2012/03/05/ma...mshep-trailer/

In unrelated news, last night I sorted through my old ME2 saves to figure out which one I was going to use for my first run through ME3. I assumed it would be my Sentinel, and that turned out to be the case as that's the only one I have that played all the way through ME1, then all the way through ME2 and then through all of ME2s dlc...

What I'd forgotten is that this was my Nightmare mode character, and that I'd forgotten to get the med-bay upgrade before the suicide mission, and hence Mordin is dead. LMAO

So I guess my initial run through ME3 will be missing one of my favorite characters.

Apparently there is a bunch of nerdrage on the Bioware forums about the ending, I haven't really looked at it but its there. (****ing 530 page thread of it) I'm going to assume that means that there is no rainbows and unicorns ending.

I was just talking to a friend about that. It's ridiculous. I guess for me it was the last straw on the camel's back so to speak, after years in the community (going back to the original baldur's gate) I've finally gotten rid of my links to the bioware social network. It's been getting progressively worse for years, starting with Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2, then completely going nuts with Dragon Age 2. The SWTOR community, while not part of the network, is horrendous and now this junk with Mass Effect 3. It's like there's a segment of the community out to just trash everything about BioWare, so everything on every one of their forums these days is basically just post after post after post about how terrible they are and how awful the games are, and it's impossible to have any kind of conversation there anymore.

The thing on the endings is that the they were apparently datamined out of the game files, so people know you get such-and-such ending if you do events x, y, and z, and so on, and shockingly for a bioware game (read: sarcasm) there's some tragedy involved. So, yes, it does seem to be a rainbows and unicorn kind of thing, and you can't ride off into the sunset with your love interest for an intergalactic parade declaiming your awesomeness.

As I told my friend, it brought to mind a number of questions. First, are these people all new to the series? Because BioWare has said since the original game back in 2007 that the series was a trilogy and that Shepard's role in the ME universe would have a definite ending. Two, have they played any of the previous Mass Effect games? Because, you know, people die in these games. Like all over the place. Including, potentially, main characters. And, finally, how can there be any kind of non-tragic conclusion to this story, with the Reapers being what they are, both in terms of synthetic and numerous? I mean, I'm sure there's a Chekov's Gun of some kind, but come on, this has been building up to something of Epic scale, and I have always assumed that even the happiest Paragon ending (which is the way I tend to play) was going to come at a price.

But maybe the biggest point to me is how in the world you can judge the ending by the datamined info? Naked data? So no experiencing the events of the game up to that point, none of the action, graphics, voice acting or music of the game's ending itself, just the stark data, read in a vacuum.

I don't know. How do you judge the quality of the ending based on that? The ending may well be bad. But assuming that based on datamining? Come on.

And there's also the question of what you're looking for in the ending. Well, for me, it's emotional reaction. That's why I play, and why I love, BioWare games. Even in their worst games (which for me is DA2) they tell their stories better than anyone else, and they evoke feelings while I play (or while I watch - because I think of these games as more interactive novels or movies than choose your own adventure books), while the story unfolds. So if I get that out of the ending, something epic and something emotional, I'll be thrilled. That's what I'm looking for.

(I didn't read much of the actual spoiler details, I don't want to know...)

I did come across one troubling thing involving a child voice actor that I think probably is part of the game but really hope isn't because I'll hate it, but even if that turns out to be part of the equation, it won't ruin the ending.

Hell, with bad endings, fighting the giant human reaper fetus at the end of ME2 was so bad it made me laugh the first time it played, but it's still my favorite game of the last 5 years, and likely to be the middle chapter of my favorite game trilogy of all time.

Reviews so far are all great, by the way. Although that doesn't mean much.

Or it could mean that the ending is slapped together and rushed like KOTOR2. ****, I hope that's not the case. :grr:

BioWare has never failed. Don't think ME3 is going to be their first.

Garrus almost sounds like Ted Kennedy there for a moment....and on to the Bioware hate....

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This never gets old....

I'm somewhat excited for ME3, just not as much as the 1st two.

KOTOR 2 was Obsidian. I enjoy the **** out of logging into BioWare's KOTOR world on a nightly basis. :)

I think it's safe to say that's not the case. ME3 was delayed, rather than rushed, and it's (according to reviews) the longest game in the series.

What people are having a problem with (as I understand) is what actually happens in the end. A matter of taste thing.

I haven't seen any complaints about it with reviews yet. It's getting scores comparable to the first two games (@9 or higher). I've seen a couple actually laud the ending.

The problem with KOTOR2 wasn't obsidian, it was lucasarts forcing them to publish before the game was done. I thought it was actually in some ways a better game than KOTOR. But it ultimately fell apart in the final act.

So maybe that is a good demonstration of how an ending could hurt a game. But I think if they'd been given time to actually get everything in, it would have been fine.

And if you think that was bad well you must not have played Obsidian's next game for Bioware, NWN 2's ending was literally "rocks fall, everyone dies." And NWN2 wasn't rushed out the door thanks to LA like KOTOR2 was.

I don't know, man. That game lacked soul, IMO. I didn't dislike it, but it never even approached KOTOR as far as gripping me went (this is before I even realized the ending blew).

oh damn, no sleep tonite.

Your release date will be: Monday, March 5, 2012, 23:00

I actually played a chunk of it last year in preparation for TOR. I liked it a lot more in 2011 than I remember liking it back in 2004 or whenever it came out.

I actually enjoyed NWN2 and thought it was great, but I didn't have any KOTOR expectations when I started playing it. The problem with KOTOR 2 was that the bar was set so freaking high by KOTOR.

Agreed. I especially liked the female NPCs (the thief and the dark jedi) - they were really interesting characters. I liked the added weapon components as well. It was all good up until the end, which was stunningly bad. You go back to the ship, take off, and...... nothing. It kept hinting around that you'd run into Revan, but.... nothing.

That was just awful.

This is what happened with Revan and the Jedi Exile if you want to know, it's part of the storyline leading into The Old Republic (all of it's detailed in a novel called Revan).

Pirated version is now out for all 3 systems....fail.

Pirated version has been out since Friday.

Well, that's depressing. I kept hoping they'd do a third with Revan as the main character. Instead they did this MMO shit which I'll never play.

:cuss:

Only on Xbox 360, PS3 and now PC are "out".

I didn't realize I had the soundtrack already. Listening to it, I'm already missing Jack Wall. :(

Haven't heard anything approaching this...

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I think I can wait another 7 hours.

Have you done the Maelstrom Prison in TOR yet?

Well ya, was just sayin'. I can wait to play this for another month or so. I was replaying ME2 a few months ago but i'm currently burned out on it. Syndicate crashed on me and pissed me off, it's back to Amalur.

No, I felt lucky getting my guild to do Taral V a couple weeks back. I do know everything that happens, though. That one's been a controversial thing since long before the game came out.

Listening to more of the soundtrack, I'm finally hearing some things I like.

Played through Arrival again to finish my last ME2 achievement (beat all 5 waves). Ready to go!

Enjoyed Arrival again. Really like ME2 a ton. Not sure why I haven't played it more in the last 12 months.

Mass Effect 3 – No Import File Default Choices

The Mass Effect series features plenty of choice, and Bioware wants you to experience the consequences of your actions in Mass Effect 3. But, not everyone has played the previous games in the series, kept their save file, or switched systems to try Mass Effect on a new platform. Because of that, Mass Effect 3 starts with a set of default, generic, choices to get you started fast in Mass Effect 3. Sadly, these default choices won’t lead to some of the most interesting tidbits in Mass Effect 3, so another reply of Mass Effect 2 might be in order.

If you’re switching from 360 to PC, you’re in luck! Check out our guide to transferring save files from X-box to PC. Otherwise, check out our huge text and video walkthrough for Mass Effect 3 here.

Beware: MASSIVE MASS EFFECT 1 & 2 SPOILERS AHEAD

HOW DO I USE SPOILER TAGS?

http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect...fault-choices/

I couldn't tell you why, but the real game seems so much more awesome than the demo. And I liked the demo a lot. Must be something about it being my old character starting the game at level 30.

After playing so much of the demo going back to ME2 tonight to mess with some things was jarring. Combat is so much more fluid in ME3 and just a lot less shitty. Plus I was right back to pining for the not shitty gear systems of ME/ME3. I still can't believe they managed to make something that was not just worse but significantly worse than the awful inventory system that ME employed.

I actually despised the inventory in ME1 so much that I thought losing it completely in ME2 was a tremendous improvement.

It took me 2+ hours just to get through the prologue last night. I'm loving the hell out of the early part of the game.

I got it for the xbox. I can't wait. I'm geeking out.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but scanning planets in this game is awesome.

Is Miranda in ME3? I really liked Miranda. :drool:

I could do without Jack, though. Gag.

Really? I hated that in ME2.

I believe they both are, but I don't know to what degree. I'm barely into the game. I've played the prologue (which took more than 2 hours), the dlc From Ashes and a couple of side missions. I haven't even done the first main quest after the prologue yet, although I've played over 6 hours.

(this is looking like a huge game...)It's like they combined the best parts of ME1 and ME2. You fly the ship around looking for anomalies, by using a scanner. But if you use the scanner too much, the Reapers are alerted and they kill you.

When you do find an anomaly, you only have to use a single probe. And you can get a wide variety of stuff. I've gotten 2 quest turn-ins from scanning, a bunch of credits, fuel, and various war assets (stuff you have to build to have any chance against the reapers).

I'm actually enjoying it, and not just for a relaxing brain-dead tedium of it.

Is there an actual battle? or it just plays a cutscene and the anti-awesome button kicks in?

You only die if you are trying to die, what happens is the reapers come and chase you and you know where they are coming from by big red arrows at the edge of the system. You can pop out of the system and you're fine. You can even pop back into the system and keep scanning and running from them or grabbing the things you found and running from them. Or if you go do a mission you can come back and the Reapers are off doing whatever. The "hits" in the system will still be there so you don't have to re-scan them and their alert level is reset back to 0. The actual planet scanning is just the scanning for anomalies with the thing telling you what direction to go and the scan speed is turned up like in ME2 after the updates to scanning.

Played an hour of it so far, and I love it.

The only problem I have is that audio seems to be out of sync during cutscenes. The characters lips move before the audio comes in. Anyone else having this problem on PC?

The lip synch thing appears to resolve itself. I noticed it early on (also noticed it in the demo), but it hasn't been an issue for a while now.

I'm not sure it's related or not, but I think we may be hitting the uncanny valley with virtual acting.

I just got to Sur'Kesh, that being the 2nd half of the demo, and it's actually different from the demo, in some pretty cool ways.

Well, hell, I did the DLC and I didn't even realize it. I thought it was part of the regular storyline. IT WAS EPIC, though.

Yeah, I really liked the DLC. Totally worth it.

Have they fixed the import character bug yet? Only 1 of my 4 saves on the 360 would import.

Finally picked this up tonight. Still playing Kingdom, but I'll be ready to roll when I'm done. :thumb:

I'm about 20 hours in now. I'm guessing halfway through maybe, judging by the missions in my log (no idea really, though). It's crazy-good so far. Mordin died in the suicide mission in ME2 so I haven't seen him obviously, but virtually everybody else (from both games) has shown up in one form or another. A lot of great moments. A lot of unexpected references to ME1, like people I helped at Zhu's Hope or Feros, stuff that make me glad I'm playing a character that went through the original, and actually makes me want to play through all three of them again sometime. I was telling someone earlier it's basically like they took the best aspects of ME1 and the best aspects of ME2 and made just a hell of a game. So far.

Awesome trailer, but seriously it's full of spoilers in terms of returning characters. So don't watch it if you don't want things like that spoiled.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OoXn7x2IJ_o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Really considering picking this up tomorrow but had one question. I didn't play though any of the DLC from ME2 other than the pack at launch with the boring merc guy. Am I missing something worthwhile by passing on the rest of the DLC from ME2 or should I just dive into the new game?

Kasumi will show up in ME3 albeit briefly. Characters from Overlord show up in ME3 and the DLC is referenced several times. It's also a very cool dlc, completely different from anything else they've done. Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival are both integral to the story in ME3. Shadow Broker, in particular, was one of the best parts of ME2, completely worth playing through even if it wasn't an important lead-in to ME3.

Book characters even show up.