Mass Effect 3

[Skywalker]

Something must be going on with YouTube, because on another vBulletin form I visit, I embedded a YT video and just got a white box, too.

[Reverend]

Possibly. However it worked fine on the page I found that video embedded in.

Actually, I should probably have linked straight there anyway as it also has a fairly extensive multiplayer FAQ. Playing as an Elcor and Hanar now?

Given that they're taking such pains on insisting the MP won't adversely impact the SP I suspect this is essentially a way to test the waters before publishing a standalone MP in the Mass Effect universe. I mean they're pretty much guaranteed good sales at this point no? It's not as if they're taking much of a risk, besides the extra production costs.

Also, I can't help but wonder if they're going to use this as an excuse to force people to use Origin since you can bet that they're not about to use Steam for the social networking side of things.

[Jeff O'Connor]

Reverend wrote:

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Possibly. However it worked fine on the page I found that video embedded in.

Actually, I should probably have linked straight there anyway as it also has a fairly extensive multiplayer FAQ. Playing as an Elcor and Hanar now?

Given that they're taking such pains on insisting the MP won't adversely impact the SP I suspect this is essentially a way to test the waters before publishing a standalone MP in the Mass Effect universe. I mean they're pretty much guaranteed good sales at this point no? It's not as if they're taking much of a risk, besides the extra production costs.

Also, I can't help but wonder if they're going to use this as an excuse to force people to use Origin since you can bet that they're not about to use Steam for the social networking side of things.

1. Yeah, I definitely agree about the multiplayer. The sales are pretty much guaranteed unless really bad word-of-mouth sets in shortly after release, which frankly I have a lot more faith in Edmonton and Hudson's team than that, but for fairly comparable evidence look no further than Dragon Age 2. Early sales were gangbusters but they slowed to a crawl after the negativity spread and the numbers actually never caught-up with Origins.

2. Speaking of Origins... Origin debate is a big thing on BSN these days. I play on 360 so I don't pay as much attention to it as many other folks, but suffice it to say, there's a lot of bracing for the 'inevitable' news that Origin will be required. Developer Brenon Holmes has been in the midst of prepping an 'Origin FAQ' for a while now in order to answer all questions, starting at the top with the obvious question of whether or not it's required. The fact that he's taking so long has a lot of folks understandably concerned though.

[bullethead]

The one big thing I'm hoping the co-op/multiplayer provides is splitscreen/local MP. That's been my biggest frustration with a lot of games recently. They give you an MP option, but no way just play locally with a few friends. Everything goes through XBox Live, which means that you need an Xbox for each person, which is a bit impractical. Splitscreen would at least give players an opportunity to share the ME experience with other without needing to buy tons of stuff so people can all play in the same room together.

[Reverend]

Jeff O'Connor wrote:

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1. Yeah, I definitely agree about the multiplayer. The sales are pretty much guaranteed unless really bad word-of-mouth sets in shortly after release, which frankly I have a lot more faith in Edmonton and Hudson's team than that, but for fairly comparable evidence look no further than Dragon Age 2. Early sales were gangbusters but they slowed to a crawl after the negativity spread and the numbers actually never caught-up with Origins.

2. Speaking of Origins... Origin debate is a big thing on BSN these days. I play on 360 so I don't pay as much attention to it as many other folks, but suffice it to say, there's a lot of bracing for the 'inevitable' news that Origin will be required. Developer Brenon Holmes has been in the midst of prepping an 'Origin FAQ' for a while now in order to answer all questions, starting at the top with the obvious question of whether or not it's required. The fact that he's taking so long has a lot of folks understandably concerned though.

Dragon Age 2 was a surprising disappointment, true, but the Mass Effect team already has two games of increasing quality under their belt while the DA team's track record was already a bit spotty. Non of the DLC or even the Awakenings expansion was really up to much and to be honest, the warning signs were already there.

As for Origins...I suppose on a purely intellectual we can't complain too much since after all, Valve pulled exactly the same crap with Steam back when Half-Life 2 came out. Personally I hated it at the time. See, back then I didn't have broadband so I had the thing permanently set on offline mode, so all it did was take up room on my hard drive. That all changed after I installed the Orange Box and I saw how much thing had changed and have continued to change and improve.

What it really comes down to is trust. Valve have earned my trust through long years of reliable service and for being a port in the storm when DRM for PC games got extra bonkers (also for letting me buy all the GTA & THQ games on sale for a price so low it almost felt like theft.) Can anyone say the same about EA?

In case it wasn't clear from the above statements, I'm almost certain ME3 will require Origins to be installed. I'm pretty much resigned to buying the physical copy. I had thought to get the collector's edition, but one look at the price cured me out that. £70 quid for a tin box, a bit of cloth, a tiny book and a handful of in game content that's either completely superfluous or game breakingly over powered? Bugger that.

[Trubinator]

I'll buy Mass Effect 3 but I'm kinda worried it may suck. EA hasn't exactly been the most healthy of influences on BioWare, and including multiplayer in an RPG rarely works.

[Reverend]

^Out of curiosity, has it actually been attempted before? If so, I wasn't aware.

Regardless, I wouldn't really call this a serious attempt to make an otherwise singleplayer RPG multiplayer. It sounds more like an especially separate game that uses the main game's engine and assets. Probably the most apt comparison would be the relationship between the Half-Life games and the Team Fortress/Counter-Strike games.

What makes it unique is the "spending" of points earned from MP in the singleplayer campaign (still not crystal clear on how that'll work.) I suspect the rest of the "Galaxy at War" system will be for integrating things like facebook and mobile phone games.

[bullethead]

Reverend wrote:

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^Out of curiosity, has it actually been attempted before? If so, I wasn't aware.

Neverwinter Nights and one of the Baldur's Gate games.

[Reverend]

In other news, a ME3 demo (single and multi-player) will be coming this January. Apparently early access keys will be given out with Battlefield 3, though that's purportedly not the only way. More to be announced in November/December time.

[Jax]

Reverend wrote:

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In other news, a ME3 demo (single and multi-player) will be coming this January. Apparently early access keys will be given out with Battlefield 3, though that's purportedly not the only way. More to be announced in November/December time.

Pre-ordered BF3 last week so I look forward to playing the demo

[Reverend]

It's pretty clear they're using this as a hook to attract gamers who are into the BF/CoD type games and might not have played the previous two ME instalments. Which is fine in my books, I mean that's what a demo should do, no?

For me personally...well I was never going to buy BF3 and even if I was I don't want to play the ME3 demo. I intend to stay as spoiler free as possible till launch. After what happened with DA2 I may even wait a few weeks till the inevitable launch bugs are patched.
What's actually funny is that I had a skim of the thread over on the official Bioware forums and they're all bitching and moaning at the unfairness of it all (I know right? Shocker!) I mean it's a demo for goodness sake! It's not meant for the fans who are going to buy the game regardless, it's for people that might not have otherwise been interested.

On top of all that, (because there's no way save importing would be included) why would I want to play a demo with the default Shepard anyway? That guy is an imposter!

[Saquist]

I already love Battlefield 3

[John Clark]

I'm leaning towards not playing the demo too. I already know I'm going to buy the game, but am going to try and avoid as much in the way of spoilers as I can.

[LeadHead]

I'm unsure about playing the demo at this time. I'll read reviews before I make a final decision. I'd imagine that the Multiplayer aspects will be mostly if not completely spoiler free.

[Saquist]

I won't play the demo...
I don't need a tease.