1781

The more i hear, the more i wish they had never tried to add this multiplayer bullshit in the first place.

1782

It would be akin to reading Book 7 of Harry Potter without having read 1-6. It’s a cracking good tale (well, the first and last thirds of it, at least) with lots of action, drama, and magic explosions, but it’s all drenched in 6 years of accumulated interpersonal drama and relationships. The body count at the end of Book 7 can only be meaningful (if, in fact, it is) if you give a flying flip about anyone who’s died.

I’m fairly certain that you could play ME3 as a cover-based shooter without really knowing much about who these people yelling and dying are. . . but if you want a shooter with a paper-thin scifi plot you’re going to ignore, why not buy Gears of War and enjoy the fact that you don’t have one Goddamned button for literally every action in the game ever*.

  • I am assuming that GoW does not make this fatal error. It very well could. Sorry.
1783

Why would you want to buy and play ME3 if you haven’t played the previous ME?

1784

I see RPS has a PSA about the multiplayer affecting the singleplayer ending. I wanted to point out something I mentioned last night:

It’s not going to take a lot of grind. I played an 11 minute round with a single random level 1 teammate. We died on wave 6. Galactic Readiness went up 2%. So even if you’re desperate to hit 100%, you’re still only looking at 4-5 hours. (A full team on easier stages might be even more efficient.) Heck, I probably scanned for shitty minerals in ME2 for half that amount of time. It still sucks and you shouldn’t have to do it, but don’t feel like EA has signed you up for years of servitude.

1785

Oh that’s a very good point, yes. Given the choice between the pre-patch mineral scanning and playing some (apparently entertaining) multiplayer, I think I’ll happily take the latter!

1786

On the xbox that means paying what, close to 14 bucks for me to enable multiplayer - thats bad.

1787

If you’re referring to combat, yes.

Having gone directly from the end of ME1 to ME2 last weekend, ME2 combat feels quite different. It essentially forces you to use cover or fail, even on normal difficulty. Too bad the cover system is wonky and doesn’t consistently put you in actual cover. It doesn’t feel like an improvement, since KICK ASS COMBAT wasn’t my reason for playing in the first place.

1788

I’d also say the non-combat stuff feels very different as well.

1789

Yeah, I didn’t consider the “mission” structure, inventory/upgrade/combat points, and interface/highlighting system changes to be improvements, either. Just changes.

1790

What’s up with this review? Is this the new IGN layout for reviews?

1791

Not sure, but I like it - it looks sort of like a magazine page.

1792

Ok, a quick statement about FemShep:

Casual Outfits

Given the choice between a few casual outfits and the leather N7 skin tight dress with the zipper up the back…uh, the choice is not difficult. Given that it’s a military designed dress, I almost expect block letters to be spray-painted above that zipper that say “Insert Penis Here” and “Not a Step”.

1793

What happens in 2 months when nobody is playing ME3 multiplayer? It ain’t counterstrike.

What happens in exactly 12 months when EA shuts down the ME3 multiplayer servers?

1794

The Reapers win.

1795

Does anyone know of a great combo deal for 1 & 2 for the PC right now that includes the DLC? I know they were $5 on Amazon a week or so ago…

1796

None of the deals for ME2 have included the DLC as far as I know. EA wants to “maintain the value” of the DLC.

1797

I think I have this right:

So let’s say you need 100 points of war readiness to get the “best ending”. You can either accumulate 200 points worth of assets at the default 50% modifier for the Galaxy at War display, which is the default if you never play any multiplayer. Or you can accumulate 100 points of assets and multiplayer the Galaxy at War modifier up to 100%. Or you can accumulate 50 points of assets and multiplayer the Galaxy at War modifier up to 200%.

I don’t necessarily have a problem with the way this works for a couple of reasons:

  1. I liked the collectibles you gather as assets. There are a couple of different ways to get these, and they’re pretty cool from a lore perspective. There isn’t any of the tedium of the last game’s planetary scanning. Instead, they mostly come from exploration and the new design of Citadel Station, where you can overhear bits of backstory that guide you to various locations.

  2. The multiplayer is really good at playing on the same basics as single player. It uses the powers, enemies, equipment, and even locations from the single player game. If you like the basic combat in Mass Effect 3, there’s no reason you should shy away from the multiplayer or write it off as tedium.

  3. Don’t get me started on this “best ending” nonsense. We shall have more talk of this in spoiler threads at a later date.

    -Tom

1798

…because it’s getting better reviews than either of the first two games and seems a shoe-in for being shortlisted on game of the year lists for 2012?

EDIT: unnecessarily harsh snark removed.

1799

Are you saying his original question is unfair? Many positive reviews for ME3 mention the sense of closure the story brings, perhaps most reviews would rate it much differently if they had not played any of the previous entries.

1800

Tom, the hints you’re dropping about the assets sound fine.

As far as the endings go, my concern was about the best way to see them. I’m not sure I’ll want to replay all of ME3. It seems like the unready ending would be easier to do the first time around.

Now that’s funny.