So leveling and imports.
I had a 30 in ME2 that I brought over. I kept my class. All of the points that I spent are still spent in the same trees and at the same level. Keep in mind that ME3 adds trees and ranks so there’s more to dump your points into.
I also was given 20 points as they appear to have changed the progression curve for 1-30.
flyinj
1842
Excellent. In that case, I’ll bring in my ME2 guy.
You can also respec Shepherd once you get to the Normandy one time for free - costs after that.
I don’t think I played The Arrival DLC in ME2. Should I do that prior to starting ME3?
BleedTheFreak (a couple posts above) says it’s not necessary.
RPS reviews the DLC:
In short: not worth the asking price. Personally, after reading the review, I think $10 for this is crazy.
It’s not necessary, but I played it on Sunday and really enjoyed it. It was the first time I’d played ME2 for over a year, and I wanted to get ready for ME3. Definitely worth the money I paid, IMO.
I’m impressed by the improvements to combat AI. In previous ME games (and in most cover shooters, in fact), targets have a habit of mostly parking behind one spot, popping up to fire a few rounds, then hiding again, until you fill them with a sufficient number of bullets. Less a tactical situation and more of a whack-a-mole shooting gallery.
This is no longer the case. Enemies will advance on you if you’re not pressing them hard enough. (All of them, not just the big guys or the hacked mechs as in ME2). They’ll attempt to flush you out with grenades, or cover their movement with smoke bombs if you start picking them off with a sniper rifle. They will start to retreat if they’re losing numbers too quickly. The encounter areas are large enough that you can flank and be flanked.
In ME2, the higher difficulty modes were mostly about maximizing the efficiency of your ammo and your squad powers, and staying in an optimal location behind cover. But ME3 confronts you with constantly evolving field conditions, giving combat a more natural flow. Sometimes you just won’t have a good vantage point. Sometimes a surprise grenade will thwart your next move. But when I finally win the battle, there’s a satisfaction that I haven’t gotten from the previous games, or from most other cover shooters. I figured out their tactics, and I countered them.
Sounds right up my alley. Of course it can be hard to smoothly execute all that if you’re limited by the controls.
Binding powers for squadmates to the D-pad makes this not an issue IMO.
This combat is ridiculously more tactical.
JeffL
1851
OK, I’m playing on the XBox, so sounds like I will go all the way back to ME1, then ME2 and ME3.
Ha, so I am working from home today anxiously awaiting delivery of my ME3 CE. I hear the doorbell, run upstairs and open the door and there’s a package! I open it up and feel a little let down that it’s my Game of Thrones season one collection. Imagine that, disappointed that I got my Game of Thrones.
Funny enough, UPS routed my Game of Thrones Blu-rays to the wrong town, so I get them tomorrow, and my ME3 doesn’t want to play nice on my PC.
Right now I’d love to have Game of Thrones while I wait for Bioware to fix their broken PC DLC.
rei
1854
good thing i stocked up on 2-for-1 bioware pts earlier last year.
lolwut
Seriously though, I’m talking about maneuvering. Flanking enemies are nice until you have to fight the controls to execute a counter. I’ve harped on it a few times so I’m going to stop talking about it and try for myself. Just chatting as I wait impatiently at work.
On a related note, how’s the encounter design? If it’s magical waves spawning in the rear like DA2 (or sort of like the co-op) then it’s a little cheap and I don’t give it credit for “flanking me” in that case. I didn’t see any problems in the demo levels, fortunately.
I’ve also seen the AI flank on a small scale in co-op and the demo, so that’s another great sign.
Quaro
1856
ME1 on the Xbox has some performance issues. Frame rates, excruciatingly long ‘elevator’ rides, etc. If you have a nice PC these pretty much go away and they even added some more options to the PC version like instantaneous travel to anywhere on the Citadel.
RickH
1857
They aren’t serious performance issues. I played through 4 times on the 360, the last one ending last weekend. It’s quite playable.
And the Citadel rapid-transport system is in the 360 version as well, so once you find a locale, long elevator rides (and the often amusing conversations between your squad) are up to the player.
Joe_M
1858
I’ll try to be circumspect about this: there are two things you need to activate in the DLC. From the bridge, one is to your right and another is more or less dead ahead. If you activate the one that’s straight ahead first the game won’t CTD when you visit the other one. I recommend creating a fresh save after each combat encounter just so you don’t accidentally lock yourself into the CTD room.
The installer off a disc threw me into install hell with Origin, updated it and then it wouldn’t load (mainly because the origin.exe was missing). So did a uninstall/reinstall and that fixed it. What’s sad about the testing is that my Origin client was already updated to the latest version.
I know the workaround, the problem is that Shepard refused to walk at all once back on the Normandy.
Reinstall fixed it, but yeah.
