Mass Effect

Concept · 02-06-2012, 01:56 PM

With the third and final game in the trilogy now just a month away, I thought I'd start up a thread for Mass Effect fans. Mass Effect 3 was already voted the most anticipated game of 2012 (VGA), beating out such competition as The Last Guardian (successor to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus) and Halo 4.

I've recently started playing through the first game again as it's been a while and I want to refresh my memory. I'm going to play one save file straight though ME1 and ME2 in time for carrying it on into ME3. Already have one save file at the end of ME2 for import into ME3 (straight up Paragon Vanguard), but as it's been so long since I've played either game I'm making a new one (more a mix of Paragon and Renegade, Infiltrator) which will probably be the first file I play through ME3 with as it'll be fresh in my mind. I've also downloaded a bunch of the DLC's (all the plot ones and the ones with extra characters) to make it as complete an experience as possible.

My current Shepard:

John Shepard, Infiltrator, Colonist, Sole Survivor. Short tempered, angry, often sarcastic to the point of verbal abuse, almost totally unwilling to compromise but in the end does actually care about people (made damn sure to save all the colonists on Feros, for example) and has no particular problems with aliens. It's my rough intention to have shoved even further renegade by the events on Virmire and through much of the second game (which will probably result in me not doing some of the loyalty missions because I don't think he would) but ultimately pulling a crowning moment of awesome by telling Cerberus where to shove it at the end of ME2.

Currently I've done Therum and Feros, so still need to do Virmire, Bring Down the Sky and Noveria before I can get to the endgame.

**Loki** · 02-06-2012, 03:25 PM

Yeah, I have ME3: N7 Collector's Edition on pre-order and all prepaid. Are you playing on 360 or PC?

I am also doing a replay through, but it's been kind of slow going for me. Some days you want to play. Some days you don't.

My First Shepard:

William Shepard / Spacer / War Hero / Soldier / Saved Everyone Everytime.

Had a relationship with Ashley, then Miranda.
Also reused him in ME2 as Adept, where he had a relationship with Tali. I wish we could have had a relationship with her in ME1 ~_~;;

My Second Shepard (FemShep)

FORGOT HER NAME Shepard / Earthborn / Sole Survivor / Infiltrator / Kind of mixed Paragon/Renegade, didn't kill Bug Queen but I did kill the humanoids.

I think I ended up deleting her cuz I didn't like the choices I made. They didn't feel like I was playing a character, but was power gaming (choosing the best choices for future bonuses in the sequels).

My Current FemShep:

Brenda Shepard / Colonist / Ruthless / Adept / Somewhat Xenophobic

Lift + Throw seems like the cruelest thing you can do to people, and I plan to use it every time I'm outdoors (especially since all the Mako missions suck ballz, I'll need something to amuse me).

Colonist seems like the perfect background for a xenophobic human due to the slaver attack during their youth. Ruthless seems like the perfect combination too, since you're attacking Batarians (who are slavers).

Concept · 02-06-2012, 03:30 PM

I'm playing 360, and also have ME3 on pre-order. Shame it comes out three days later here than in the states ;;. My current playthrough I'm planning on killing the insect and taking some of the more renegade choices in ME2 that I didn't take first time just to see the differences.

I don't know if I'll choose a different class for my current character come ME2. On the one hand, really enjoying my Infiltrator (love the sniper rifle), but on the other hand all my playthroughs have been combat oriented characters (also have a completed ME1 savefile with a FemShep soldier as well as my vanguard and current Infiltrator) and I enjoy biotic powers so I'm tempted to switch over to one of Adept/Sentinel.

I've not done ME2 with my ME1 femshep because her voice acting really annoys me. Even when she's supposed to be sympatheticly looking after someone she sounds condescending as all hell.

**Loki** · 02-06-2012, 03:43 PM

Cool, we should do ME3 multiplayer together lol. My Gamertag is "KoalaDevourer"

After playing Adept on ME2, I really did fall in love with biotics- even with the ME2 nerfing (shields, barriers, and armor blocking effects). It really makes the game less aim and shoot to kill that almost all the other classes have (even Engineers).

I think when I imported my unnamed Femshep, I did Sentinel. It was okay. I took up the Shotgun training in the Collector Ship and used the Tech Armor to let me rush up close. Although, I never used any power except Tech Armor because of it's long recharge timer ~_~;;

I half-agree with you on Femshep voice, but for a completely different reason. Femshep is played by voice acting legend Jennifer Hale, and she's been in almost every voiced game I've ever played starting with Baldur's Gate. So whenever I hear her voice, I'm flooded with all the characters she has ever been. And also, her voice tone shoots from calm to wildly over emotional sometimes.

Spoiler: show

[/end sexist comment]

Concept · 02-06-2012, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

Cool, we should do ME3 multiplayer together lol. My Gamertag is "KoalaDevourer"

I could definitely go for that - mine is "MrKoncept". Hopefully they'll handle the multiplayer well.

Quote:

After playing Adept on ME2, I really did fall in love with biotics- even with the ME2 nerfing (shields, barriers, and armor blocking effects). It really makes the game less aim and shoot to kill that almost all the other classes have (even Engineers).

I think when I imported my unnamed Femshep, I did Sentinel. It was okay. I took up the Shotgun training in the Collector Ship and used the Tech Armor to let me rush up close. Although, I never used any power except Tech Armor because of it's long recharge timer ~_~;;

I half-agree with you on Femshep voice, but for a completely different reason. Femshep is played by voice acting legend Jennifer Hale, and she's been in almost every voiced game I've ever played starting with Baldur's Gate. So whenever I hear her voice, I'm flooded with all the characters she has ever been. And also, her voice tone shoots from calm to wildly over emotional sometimes.

Spoiler: show

[/end sexist comment]

She was excellent as Bastilla in Kotor (that was her right?) because Bastilla is supposed to sound condescending all the time. That's the only other thing I really remember her in (it's been forever since I've played Baldurs Gate or Planescape which iirc she's in too?)

**Loki** · 02-06-2012, 04:02 PM

Yeah, she was Dynaheir in BG, Mazzy in BG2, and Fall-From-Grace in PST. She was also in Metal Gear Solid, Tales of Symphonia, Brutal Legends, and my most recent game MvC3. The list goes on. I think if I printed it, the sheet would be longer than my leg lol.

My other goal is to also get 100% achievements on ME1. I'm so close now too! I was so angry that on my Hardcore run, my L55 Soldier only reached L59 after doing all the missions and (I believe) all the sidequests. I mean really? Normal run levels you from 1-50. Hardcore, can't even get 5 levels. >_<;; Also need the pure Engineer tech spam achievements that Infiltrator doesn't have. I think it should only be Neural Shock. The rest I can do normally on my Adept's run.

**Loki** · 02-06-2012, 05:03 PM

Sorry for the double post, but after posting here, I looked on the Mass Effect Wikia page and saw a moment of absolute nerd rage.

Apparently on January 31st, Del Rey released a Mass Effect book with the permission of Bioware to continue their novels. Seems like the write never decided to look up Mass Effect, causing a large number of inconsistencies with already established canon and the fans are extremely vocal.

I'm both amazed and frightened by this.

Concept · 02-08-2012, 04:02 PM

So I just finished my play through of ME1 which I intend to take through ME2 in time for the third parts release. A run down of my Shepards story so far ~~as if anyone's interested :p~~

Spoiler: show

John Shepard is an Infiltrator, born a on Midnoir. His parents were killed my a slaver attack. Early in his military career, his whole unit was slaughtered by a thresher maw on Akuze. Based on his history, I decided to play him as someone with a seriously short tempted, sarcastic, with slight issues with interpersonal skills but also with chronic hero syndrome.

After the attack on Eden Prime, Shepard was pissed with the councils position on Saren and not afraid to let them know it. He immediately took a liking to Wrex's uncompromising attitude and Garrus gung ho approach and commitment to acheiveing his goals. Good example of my Shepard here - threatening the official to get a grieving husband his wifes body back. After finally convincing the council, he immediately headed to Feros - born and raised on a colony himself, he was worried for the colonists. There he managed to save every single colonist and decided to spare Shiala, the penitant asari who'd formerly worked for Saren. During his brief stop in the Citadel, he failed to stop a fellow former colonist and ex-slave from killing herself, a failure which (along with a later tragedy) seriously affected a man already prone to pessimism and anger thanks to his background.

Next, to Therum to rescue Liara. The arrival of Liara on board the Normandy proved troublesome, as her obvious interest in Shepard jeopardised his burgeoning relationship with Ashley. Despite not having any real feelings for Liara, he couldn't help but be protective of her. Meanwhile he had reservations about Ash's anti-alien sentiments.

Next cam Virmire, and here's where it gets ugly. Having helped Wrex recover his family armour (and Garrus to track down Dr Saleon and Tali with her pilgramage, come to think of it), he was able to talk Wrex down. Being the soldier, Ash was the obvious choice to accompany the Salarian fire team. Shepard did everything he could to pull the heat off them, but when it came to decision time Shepard made the only call he could - heading back to defend Kaiden and the bomb, the vital part of the mission without which it all would've been in vein. As a result, his love interest Ashley died, and Shepard went off the deep end.

I did Bring Down The Sky, in which Shepard stops an asteroid colliding with a colony. My Shepard, hating Batarians (colonist background) and still raging at the universe for Ash's death, sacrificied the hostages to kill the Batarian leader. Next to Noveria, where he got Anoleus arrested. Upon confronting Benezia, even Liaras presence only made him hesitate for a moment before killing her and, largely due to his grief over Ash's death souring his view of the universe, he condemned the Rachni to extinction once more.

Before the mission to Ilos, Shepard spent the night with Liara in a moment of weakness despite still not having particularly strong feelings for her - he was just feeling alone and not thinking straight. He wasted no time trying to reason with Saren and took great pleasure killing him, hoping it woulf make him feel better for his part in Ash's death. Determined not to fall at the final hurdle, Shepard ordered the human fleet to hang back until it could take out Soverign, resulting in a new human-lead (but not human exclusive) council run by Captain Anderson.

Thanks to a combination of his early short temper and his later cold, distant, pessimistic worldview, Shepard finished with a seriously high renegade score for someone who feels compelled to help pretty much everyone - around 80% of the paragon meter was filled and about 70% of the renegade meter.

/tldr

Wow that was a lot longer than I'd intended. Next up, ME2 - will his crew and in particular potentially a new love interest (made no decisions on that yet) be able to drag the Commander out of his pessimistic worldview or will he continue to be a grumpy ass? (hint: I intend the former).

EDIT the first: Also I found it amusing that my Xbox told me Loki was playing Mass Effect just as the credits started rolling on mine.

***deoxys*** · 02-08-2012, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

Sorry for the double post, but after posting here, I looked on the Mass Effect Wikia page and saw a moment of absolute nerd rage.

Apparently on January 31st, Del Rey released a Mass Effect book with the permission of Bioware to continue their novels. Seems like the write never decided to look up Mass Effect, causing a large number of inconsistencies with already established canon and the fans are extremely vocal.

I'm both amazed and frightened by this.

Holy shit, I read the first 5 inconsistencies and just stopped. Those are pretty big. How the hell can they get away with that? I mean... really? Laziness at it's finest.

In other news, I've recently reacquired both Mass Effects for 360 in an effort to replay them both by the time ME3 comes out in a month. I may or may not use the new saved data created by it. I basically just want to play the stories again.

**Loki** · 02-08-2012, 08:57 PM

Even Penny Arcade did a story on it.

Anyway, I find it funny how Concept has beaten the game and in about the same time, I just basically became a Spectre and left for Noveria. I've never introduced myself as "The person who killed your mom" before, so it should be interesting when I pick up Liara.

As a way to waste time, I was looking through the in-game Lore/Codex and for the Krogans, they had a great line that made me literally laugh out loud.

"Prior to the discover of gunpowder, the main cause of death was 'eaten by predators.' Afterward, it became 'death by gunshot.'"

EDIT: Forgot to mention, but it seems the multiplayer co-op will be a Horde mode but with some minor Mass Effect twists to the normal "Kill all the enemies of this wave." It will always be 11 waves (unlike GoW's Horde more which is 50). Some waves you will be required to defend someone who must hack a console. Other times you will have to find a certain number of data modules. It's pure combat. Some people are complaining that isn't also not particularly amazing (especially since combat has never been Mass Effect's strongest field). There are also hints that despite this being the last entry with Shepard, there might be more Mass Effect games or games set in the same universe, so they're telling people to keep their ME3 save files. I don't know if that's good news or bad.

EDIT2: Fan-made trailer:

Concept · 02-09-2012, 07:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

Anyway, I find it funny how Concept has beaten the game and in about the same time, I just basically became a Spectre and left for Noveria. I've never introduced myself as "The person who killed your mom" before, so it should be interesting when I pick up Liara.

May have only made the thread a few days ago but I've been playing for about a fortnight. Also I'm taking a year out of uni atm and failing to find work post-christmas so with no job and all my friends off at uni I've a lot of free time on my hands.

EDIT the first: I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favourite store on the citadel.

**Loki** · 02-09-2012, 02:58 PM

Hmmmm...

So I told my friend I was doing a new ME run with a xenophonic Shepard, so he challenged me to do the Pro-Human survival run on the ME2 Suicide Mission (where only Human characters survive the mission). I then thought for moment... I could technically take it one step further while still in ME1.

Spoiler: show

That's pretty sick. I might actually do it.

I lol'd.

Concept · 02-10-2012, 06:36 PM

I'm curious as to how the co-op mode will tie in with the main game. Although they've said it'll effect the main campaign, they've also said it'll be possible to get exactly the same outcomes in the single player campaign without doing Galaxy at War. Also, how are they going to mesh two people playing on different game files who've made completely different choices/Shepards/etc? Will it just have to be incredibly removed from the main storyline to avoid conflicts?

**Loki** · 02-10-2012, 06:51 PM

It is assumed it adds points to your campaign. So like if we did a co-op and took over a Radar post, we would get like "Recon points" and when the final counterattack against the Reapers comes, your forces would do better.

Your choices aren't affected in co-op. But you can make less helpful choices in campaign because you have co-op bonuses.

Fake Example: If you told the Canadians to attack the United States, this would make both the Canadian and American contribution to the war weaker. But if you do co-op and help steal resources or something, you can gain enough of a bonus eventually that the loss from Canada and the US won't matter when you invade the dark side of the Moon.

It's assumed that a full Paragon route will get a super powerful army to fight the Reapers with while Renegades might have made it harder through their various choices. i.e. not having the support of the Council because you sacrificed the original Council to Sovereign.

Concept · 02-10-2012, 07:07 PM

I'm vaguely tempted to make a worst case scenario run - murder and alienate as many people as possible. Just so the Reapers might actually present Shepard with a challenge.

Also to be honest, with the kind of numbers and power the Reaper fleet seems to have I'll be slightly surprised if the allied counterattack amounts to anything more than throwing every available ship in the galaxy at them to hold out just long enough to provide a distraction, giving the player an opening to complete the SUPER FINAL MISSION.

I hope it's not as simple as paragon choices = good for final battle, renegade choices = bad for final battle. Take the Rachni for example - it's heavily implied ingame that the Rachni wars were the result of them being indoctrinated, which suggests they're particularly easy to indoctrinate (if it were that easy to indoctrinate the entirety of every species, the Reapers would just do that. Game over). So I'd quite like to see, for example, the paragon choice of saving the Rachni coming back to bite you in the ass when the Reapers just take over control of them again. Similarly the paragon option to destroy the Collector base screwing you over with regards to access to Collector technology, or the Geth resenting the paragon solution to Legions loyalty mission and turning against you.

**Loki** · 02-10-2012, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Concept

I'm vaguely tempted to make a worst case scenario run - murder and alienate as many people as possible. Just so the Reapers might actually present Shepard with a challenge.

Also to be honest, with the kind of numbers and power the Reaper fleet seems to have I'll be slightly surprised if the allied counterattack amounts to anything more than throwing every available ship in the galaxy at them to hold out just long enough to provide a distraction, giving the player an opening to complete the SUPER FINAL MISSION.

Ultimate Renegade Ending:

Spoiler: show

**Loki** · 02-14-2012, 10:35 AM

Demo is out. Multiplayer can also be demoed, but is only available before the 17th by people who own Battlefield 3. After the 17th, it's open to the public until ME3 releases. The demo seems to contain two chapters of ME3 and will have 1-2 hours of content.

DEMO OF MULTIPLAYER:

Okay, seems you create a multiplayer character and over the coarse of killing off waves, you gain EXP and can level up and invest in powers. You also get credits, which you can use to buy and unlock things at random such as a new weapons, weapon mods, special bonuses, race/class as the default seems to only be humans. Not sure if this will be the same in full ME3.

DEMO OF SINGLE PLAYER:

It seems like we might get to keep our level from Mass Effect 2 if we import, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Powers are still unlocked in the same way as ME2 with each level up giving some points and using them to increase a power. Level 1 costs 1 point, level 2 costs 2 points, and so on and so on. At level 4, we can customize our powers by evolving in the same way as ME2, but also on levels 5, 6, 7 we also get to customize them further with each level having two possible evolutions.

They seem to have added a new passive ability to all classes which is Fitness. It passively increases HP and Shields. Seems odd that they separated this from your class passive power.

Omni-blade is not the standard melee, which is still an elbow attack. If you hold down the melee button though, the omni-blade comes out and slashes.

EDIT2: New FemShep: Looks good on posters... looks bad in-game =x

**Loki** · 02-17-2012, 06:30 AM

Apparently you can play the demo's multiplayer without Gold membership up until the actual release of the game. =O

Concept · 02-19-2012, 02:02 PM

Ran through the demo. Gotta echo some of the sentiments being expressed online about a slight worry over the amount of auto-dialogue where Shepard just says stuff without input, but I assume that's to so they can cut the demo down to as small as possible.

EDIT the first: What. Oh Bioware, you so crazy.

**Loki** · 02-24-2012, 03:17 AM

Some changes I noticed since I went into overdrive on the Demo and its Multiplayer =x

These are gameplay changes, so I won't spoiler them.

Sentinel Tech Armor no longer provides an extra layer of shields like in ME2. Instead it gives Damage Resistance %. It also no longer detonates upon losing your shields, now detonating on second use. First usage does not trigger recharge, but detonation does ~_~; In addition, while it is active, your other powers have an 80% longer recharge time! RARGH! Did they really need to gimp Sentinel that much?!

Warp no longer affects Barriers (except maybe after getting one of the level 6 power evolutions, haven't gotten it yet in Multiplayer). Makes Adapts sad. Save up Disruptor Ammo for Adapts in multiplayer or bring squadmates who can take down Shields/Barriers to help Shepard. BTW, this was super annoying to realize in multiplayer when Phantoms attack and you wonder why their goddamn barriers are still up after Warp doesn't phase them and they gut you with their swords. Fucken Cyber Space Ninjas.

Overload now damages Shields and Barriers! Makes Engineers overpowered (breaking Armor with Incinerate and Overload for everything else). Neural Shock was also removed and made into a selectable Overload evolution, allowing Overload to also affect non-synthetics.

Combat Drone no longer has a duration, it will stay around until dead or until you reuse the power. This means Chiktikka vas Paus can live forever! Makes Engineers more overpowered.

AI Hacking is now removed and combined into and replaced by Sabotage. Sabotage disables enemy guns and causes some minor backfire damage. Enemy Turrets, Combat Drones (I think), and various synthetics will become your temporary ally. Makes Engineers even more overpowered.

Some of the ammo powers are more powerful. Disruptor Ammo now also damage Barriers and has a chance to stun organics and synthetics alike. Cryo Ammo can now damage Armor (as opposed to none of the protections in ME2) and also slows enemy movement in addition to the original freezing. Incendiary, Armor-Piercing and Warp Ammo seem roughly the same. No one knows if Shredder Ammo is still around (have not seen it in multiplayer either).

Many powers have had their delays increased, but their duration and/or radius reduced. ~_~;;

Your Class Passive ability no longer has a direct power recharge reduction, instead, it is now linked to the weight of weapons you carry. The higher your weight carrying, the more weapons you can carry. In addition, if you carry less than your maximum weight, you get a power recharge reduction. Thus, if you only carry the lightest weapon (i.e. a Pistol), you can spam powers like crazy. Soldier can carry the most with 100 while Adept and Engineer can carry the least at 60.

Some spoilers, although nothing huge and you will have had likely seen all this information on either the Mass Effect site or the various trailers already out there.

Spoiler: show

TL;DR I wish this game was out already ~_~;;

Concept · 02-24-2012, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptor Jesus

Many powers have had their delays increased, but their duration and/or radius reduced. ~_~;;

Apparently there's a known issue in the demo that causes powers to be longer than they should be - something to do with spending points on those powers accidentally increasing the duration by 25% before it starts applying any reductions, or something. It's been floating around on Bioware forums since the demo was released, I'll see if I can find the exact details.

**Loki** · 02-24-2012, 03:50 PM

Even without that bug, the listed recharge times are considerably longer than the original listed recharge times seen in Mass Effect 2.

Warp was originally 6 seconds for Shepard and 12 seconds for Squadmates. Now it starts at 16 seconds, can be reduced to 12, then 6 after all 6 upgrades and the right evolution. That's a considerable amount of investment to get it back to the old recharge time and denies you the other possible evolution's bonus (in Warp's case, the ability to damage Barriers). This will pretty much force a heavy power usage class to want to carry the least amount of weapons as they can.

**Loki** · 02-28-2012, 08:35 PM

DOUBLE POST!

One week away from release (in AMERICA!) and here's my progress:

Brenda Shepard - Colonist - Ruthless - Adapt (ME1) - Vanguard (ME2)

Saved Eden Prime. Killed Fist. Got evidence of Saren's betrayal. Wrex paid me for killing Fist.

Went to Noveria. Killed the Matriarch. Killed the Rachni Queen. Fuck was that hard. Went from Level 5 to 19 on just Noveria.
Picked up Liara at that planet that turns into lava. Took down the crime syndicate and killed the boss lady who sent me on that mission too. Helped Shiala prove she didn't betray the Elcor. Something something.
Went to Feros and killed the overgrown plant. Left the colonists live. Killed the Exogeni guy.
Went to Virmire. Ash killed Wrex. Then I abandoned Ash and Kirrahe, saving Kaiden. Was all sad about Ash dying. Went back to the Citadel. Anderson unlocked the Normandy and got shot, but he's so manly he didn't care.
Shot my way through all the Geth. Remember, when bullets don't seem to be working, use more bullets.
Couldn't convince Saren to shoot his own brains out, so I shot them for him. Then we sacrificed the Council so we could destroy Soverign. BOOSH!

Died. Came back. Changed to a Vanguard. Not loving it really, but it's at least... interesting. Recruited everyone but Legion. Working on all the Loyalties before I grab the IFF. Will need to remember to break Tali's loyalty and scare off Morinth so I can get the all Human ending.

Also, I heard Microsoft fucked up. They had put up the bonus Collector's Edition DLC character up on XBox Live like last week (before the game ever came out) for a few hours and it's description kinda spoiled the secret bonus character. It's an alien. That's all I'll say.

Concept · 02-28-2012, 08:48 PM

I think you're at about the same stage as me - I've a save halfway through the Collector Vessel, with the intention of doing a bunch more DLC and loyalty missions before the IFF - I'm doing 8 of the 12 loyalty missions (not Thane, Miranda, Jacob or Jack) and all the DLC's except Arrival before the final mission, then doing any remaining loyalty missions and Arrival afterwards. I was at this stage like a fortnight ago and haven't touched it since because I was going to finish way in advance of the ME3 coming out.

And unfortunately I've had the DLC character spoilt for me, too. Some dick posted it in the supposedly spoiler free general discussion subforum on Bioware's forums, and I saw it by accident before it got taken down. Jackass deliberately marked the thread with an unrelated title (something about classes in the demo).

Concept · 02-29-2012, 07:11 PM

So the place I pre-ordered my copy from - one of two UK chains stocking the collectors edition - apparently won't have it anymore. Sadface.

Guess I'll get the regular edition off Amazon.

02-06-2012, 03:43 PM	#4
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Cool, we should do ME3 multiplayer together lol. My Gamertag is "KoalaDevourer" After playing Adept on ME2, I really did fall in love with biotics- even with the ME2 nerfing (shields, barriers, and armor blocking effects). It really makes the game less aim and shoot to kill that almost all the other classes have (even Engineers). I think when I imported my unnamed Femshep, I did Sentinel. It was okay. I took up the Shotgun training in the Collector Ship and used the Tech Armor to let me rush up close. Although, I never used any power except Tech Armor because of it's long recharge timer ~_~;; I half-agree with you on Femshep voice, but for a completely different reason. Femshep is played by voice acting legend Jennifer Hale, and she's been in almost every voiced game I've ever played starting with Baldur's Gate. So whenever I hear her voice, I'm flooded with all the characters she has ever been. And also, her voice tone shoots from calm to wildly over emotional sometimes. Spoiler: show I guess in the future, women still PMS over little stuff. [/end sexist comment]

02-06-2012, 05:03 PM	#7
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	NERD RAGE Sorry for the double post, but after posting here, I looked on the Mass Effect Wikia page and saw a moment of absolute nerd rage. Apparently on January 31st, Del Rey released a Mass Effect book with the permission of Bioware to continue their novels. Seems like the write never decided to look up Mass Effect, causing a large number of inconsistencies with already established canon and the fans are extremely vocal. I'm both amazed and frightened by this.

02-08-2012, 08:57 PM	#10
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Even Penny Arcade did a story on it. Anyway, I find it funny how Concept has beaten the game and in about the same time, I just basically became a Spectre and left for Noveria. I've never introduced myself as "The person who killed your mom" before, so it should be interesting when I pick up Liara. As a way to waste time, I was looking through the in-game Lore/Codex and for the Krogans, they had a great line that made me literally laugh out loud. "Prior to the discover of gunpowder, the main cause of death was 'eaten by predators.' Afterward, it became 'death by gunshot.'" EDIT: Forgot to mention, but it seems the multiplayer co-op will be a Horde mode but with some minor Mass Effect twists to the normal "Kill all the enemies of this wave." It will always be 11 waves (unlike GoW's Horde more which is 50). Some waves you will be required to defend someone who must hack a console. Other times you will have to find a certain number of data modules. It's pure combat. Some people are complaining that isn't also not particularly amazing (especially since combat has never been Mass Effect's strongest field). There are also hints that despite this being the last entry with Shepard, there might be more Mass Effect games or games set in the same universe, so they're telling people to keep their ME3 save files. I don't know if that's good news or bad. EDIT2: Fan-made trailer: Last edited by Loki; 02-09-2012 at 01:35 AM.

02-09-2012, 02:58 PM	#12
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Hmmmm... So I told my friend I was doing a new ME run with a xenophonic Shepard, so he challenged me to do the Pro-Human survival run on the ME2 Suicide Mission (where only Human characters survive the mission). I then thought for moment... I could technically take it one step further while still in ME1. Spoiler: show If Wrex is killed on Virmire, you decide to sacrifice the Council at the Battle of the Citadel, then have Tali and Garrus die on Suicide Mission you will only go into ME3 with Liara as the only alien squad mate (as James Vega + unknown Pre-Order bonus character seem to be the only additions in ME3). That's pretty sick. I might actually do it. I lol'd. Last edited by Loki; 02-09-2012 at 03:04 PM.

02-14-2012, 10:35 AM	#17
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Demo is out. Multiplayer can also be demoed, but is only available before the 17th by people who own Battlefield 3. After the 17th, it's open to the public until ME3 releases. The demo seems to contain two chapters of ME3 and will have 1-2 hours of content. DEMO OF MULTIPLAYER: Okay, seems you create a multiplayer character and over the coarse of killing off waves, you gain EXP and can level up and invest in powers. You also get credits, which you can use to buy and unlock things at random such as a new weapons, weapon mods, special bonuses, race/class as the default seems to only be humans. Not sure if this will be the same in full ME3. DEMO OF SINGLE PLAYER: It seems like we might get to keep our level from Mass Effect 2 if we import, but I'm not 100% sure on that. Powers are still unlocked in the same way as ME2 with each level up giving some points and using them to increase a power. Level 1 costs 1 point, level 2 costs 2 points, and so on and so on. At level 4, we can customize our powers by evolving in the same way as ME2, but also on levels 5, 6, 7 we also get to customize them further with each level having two possible evolutions. They seem to have added a new passive ability to all classes which is Fitness. It passively increases HP and Shields. Seems odd that they separated this from your class passive power. Omni-blade is not the standard melee, which is still an elbow attack. If you hold down the melee button though, the omni-blade comes out and slashes. EDIT2: New FemShep: Looks good on posters... looks bad in-game =x Last edited by Loki; 02-14-2012 at 03:15 PM.

02-06-2012, 03:25 PM	#2
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Yeah, I have ME3: N7 Collector's Edition on pre-order and all prepaid. Are you playing on 360 or PC? I am also doing a replay through, but it's been kind of slow going for me. Some days you want to play. Some days you don't. My First Shepard: William Shepard / Spacer / War Hero / Soldier / Saved Everyone Everytime. Had a relationship with Ashley, then Miranda. Also reused him in ME2 as Adept, where he had a relationship with Tali. I wish we could have had a relationship with her in ME1 ~_~;; My Second Shepard (FemShep) FORGOT HER NAME Shepard / Earthborn / Sole Survivor / Infiltrator / Kind of mixed Paragon/Renegade, didn't kill Bug Queen but I did kill the humanoids. I think I ended up deleting her cuz I didn't like the choices I made. They didn't feel like I was playing a character, but was power gaming (choosing the best choices for future bonuses in the sequels). My Current FemShep: Brenda Shepard / Colonist / Ruthless / Adept / Somewhat Xenophobic Lift + Throw seems like the cruelest thing you can do to people, and I plan to use it every time I'm outdoors (especially since all the Mako missions suck ballz, I'll need something to amuse me). Colonist seems like the perfect background for a xenophobic human due to the slaver attack during their youth. Ruthless seems like the perfect combination too, since you're attacking Batarians (who are slavers).

02-06-2012, 04:02 PM	#6
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Yeah, she was Dynaheir in BG, Mazzy in BG2, and Fall-From-Grace in PST. She was also in Metal Gear Solid, Tales of Symphonia, Brutal Legends, and my most recent game MvC3. The list goes on. I think if I printed it, the sheet would be longer than my leg lol. My other goal is to also get 100% achievements on ME1. I'm so close now too! I was so angry that on my Hardcore run, my L55 Soldier only reached L59 after doing all the missions and (I believe) all the sidequests. I mean really? Normal run levels you from 1-50. Hardcore, can't even get 5 levels. >_<;; Also need the pure Engineer tech spam achievements that Infiltrator doesn't have. I think it should only be Neural Shock. The rest I can do normally on my Adept's run.

02-10-2012, 06:51 PM	#14
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	It is assumed it adds points to your campaign. So like if we did a co-op and took over a Radar post, we would get like "Recon points" and when the final counterattack against the Reapers comes, your forces would do better. Your choices aren't affected in co-op. But you can make less helpful choices in campaign because you have co-op bonuses. Fake Example: If you told the Canadians to attack the United States, this would make both the Canadian and American contribution to the war weaker. But if you do co-op and help steal resources or something, you can gain enough of a bonus eventually that the loss from Canada and the US won't matter when you invade the dark side of the Moon. It's assumed that a full Paragon route will get a super powerful army to fight the Reapers with while Renegades might have made it harder through their various choices. i.e. not having the support of the Council because you sacrificed the original Council to Sovereign.

02-17-2012, 06:30 AM	#18
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Apparently you can play the demo's multiplayer without Gold membership up until the actual release of the game. =O

02-24-2012, 03:17 AM	#20
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Some changes I noticed since I went into overdrive on the Demo and its Multiplayer =x These are gameplay changes, so I won't spoiler them. Sentinel Tech Armor no longer provides an extra layer of shields like in ME2. Instead it gives Damage Resistance %. It also no longer detonates upon losing your shields, now detonating on second use. First usage does not trigger recharge, but detonation does ~_~; In addition, while it is active, your other powers have an 80% longer recharge time! RARGH! Did they really need to gimp Sentinel that much?! Warp no longer affects Barriers (except maybe after getting one of the level 6 power evolutions, haven't gotten it yet in Multiplayer). Makes Adapts sad. Save up Disruptor Ammo for Adapts in multiplayer or bring squadmates who can take down Shields/Barriers to help Shepard. BTW, this was super annoying to realize in multiplayer when Phantoms attack and you wonder why their goddamn barriers are still up after Warp doesn't phase them and they gut you with their swords. Fucken Cyber Space Ninjas. Overload now damages Shields and Barriers! Makes Engineers overpowered (breaking Armor with Incinerate and Overload for everything else). Neural Shock was also removed and made into a selectable Overload evolution, allowing Overload to also affect non-synthetics. Combat Drone no longer has a duration, it will stay around until dead or until you reuse the power. This means Chiktikka vas Paus can live forever! Makes Engineers more overpowered. AI Hacking is now removed and combined into and replaced by Sabotage. Sabotage disables enemy guns and causes some minor backfire damage. Enemy Turrets, Combat Drones (I think), and various synthetics will become your temporary ally. Makes Engineers even more overpowered. Some of the ammo powers are more powerful. Disruptor Ammo now also damage Barriers and has a chance to stun organics and synthetics alike. Cryo Ammo can now damage Armor (as opposed to none of the protections in ME2) and also slows enemy movement in addition to the original freezing. Incendiary, Armor-Piercing and Warp Ammo seem roughly the same. No one knows if Shredder Ammo is still around (have not seen it in multiplayer either). Many powers have had their delays increased, but their duration and/or radius reduced. ~_~;; Your Class Passive ability no longer has a direct power recharge reduction, instead, it is now linked to the weight of weapons you carry. The higher your weight carrying, the more weapons you can carry. In addition, if you carry less than your maximum weight, you get a power recharge reduction. Thus, if you only carry the lightest weapon (i.e. a Pistol), you can spam powers like crazy. Soldier can carry the most with 100 while Adept and Engineer can carry the least at 60. Some spoilers, although nothing huge and you will have had likely seen all this information on either the Mass Effect site or the various trailers already out there. Spoiler: show Aside from Cerberus Troops which are present in the demo, multiplayer will also have a Husk/Reaper mode and a Geth mode. Husks will now come in many races aside from humans. Batarians become Cannibals. Supposedly they eat dead Husks. Or dead players =x. Asari become Banshees, powerful biotic that give other Husks barrier. Turians become Marauders, which stay back and revive other Husks. Krograns and Turians can become Brutes, large YMIR or larger sized Husks with heavy armor. Harvester husk has also been seen. Uncertain of how it works in multiplayer. This is a possible story spoiler, but is Husk related: Spoiler: show Rachni become Ravagers, insect like Husks with built in guns and a bloated sac. If the sac is shot, baby Rachni swarm you. Uncertain if Scions or Praetorians will make a return. TL;DR I wish this game was out already ~_~;;

02-24-2012, 03:50 PM	#22
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	Even without that bug, the listed recharge times are considerably longer than the original listed recharge times seen in Mass Effect 2. Warp was originally 6 seconds for Shepard and 12 seconds for Squadmates. Now it starts at 16 seconds, can be reduced to 12, then 6 after all 6 upgrades and the right evolution. That's a considerable amount of investment to get it back to the old recharge time and denies you the other possible evolution's bonus (in Warp's case, the ability to damage Barriers). This will pretty much force a heavy power usage class to want to carry the least amount of weapons as they can.

02-28-2012, 08:35 PM	#23
Loki The Path of Now & Forever Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 5,304	DOUBLE POST! One week away from release (in AMERICA!) and here's my progress: Brenda Shepard - Colonist - Ruthless - Adapt (ME1) - Vanguard (ME2) Saved Eden Prime. Killed Fist. Got evidence of Saren's betrayal. Wrex paid me for killing Fist. Went to Noveria. Killed the Matriarch. Killed the Rachni Queen. Fuck was that hard. Went from Level 5 to 19 on just Noveria. Picked up Liara at that planet that turns into lava. Took down the crime syndicate and killed the boss lady who sent me on that mission too. Helped Shiala prove she didn't betray the Elcor. Something something. Went to Feros and killed the overgrown plant. Left the colonists live. Killed the Exogeni guy. Went to Virmire. Ash killed Wrex. Then I abandoned Ash and Kirrahe, saving Kaiden. Was all sad about Ash dying. Went back to the Citadel. Anderson unlocked the Normandy and got shot, but he's so manly he didn't care. Shot my way through all the Geth. Remember, when bullets don't seem to be working, use more bullets. Couldn't convince Saren to shoot his own brains out, so I shot them for him. Then we sacrificed the Council so we could destroy Soverign. BOOSH! Died. Came back. Changed to a Vanguard. Not loving it really, but it's at least... interesting. Recruited everyone but Legion. Working on all the Loyalties before I grab the IFF. Will need to remember to break Tali's loyalty and scare off Morinth so I can get the all Human ending. Also, I heard Microsoft fucked up. They had put up the bonus Collector's Edition DLC character up on XBox Live like last week (before the game ever came out) for a few hours and it's description kinda spoiled the secret bonus character. It's an alien. That's all I'll say.

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