Mass Effect 3 Demo Thoughts

[Anraleth]

I had a blast, anyone else tried it yet?


Few things caught my eye that bothered me, but overall I enjoyed it.


Combat is REALLY fast paced in it, almost like a hamster on coffee.

 

[silverliquicity]

What were the things that bothered you, im a big "ME" fan but haven't played the demo yet.

 

[Uther39]

OOOO downloading now .

 

[Anraleth]

What were the things that bothered you, im a big "ME" fan but haven't played the demo yet.

From what I saw you couldn't turn off motion blur, but I may have missed it.


Few dialogue choices, but it could have been their choice of content to demonstrate.


That being said, the first part of the demo was incredible.

 

[13thmonkey]

a complete lack of video options, but then it looked pretty, well the cut scenes did, liked the three modes depending on whether you want a shooter and rpg or story telling, will play through later on.

 

[Anraleth]

Figured it out. You can change video options by going into your installation directory for the demo and running the config.exe. Not sure why I didn't think of this sooner.

 

[Anraleth]

a complete lack of video options, but then it looked pretty, well the cut scenes did, liked the three modes depending on whether you want a shooter and rpg or story telling, will play through later on.

Graphics are like names, pretty, but ultimately empty. I'd rather them provide quality content over superlative graphics.

 

[Tibbs01]

Graphics are like names, pretty, but ultimately empty. I'd rather them provide quality content over superlative graphics.

While I agree with your sentiment completely, there has been a slew of multi-platform games lately where the lack of graphical options has been a warranted the "raising of the red flag" for the prospect of the title being poorly ported to PC, which I am guessing is where 13th is coming from.

In the case of this particular game I am not as worried because of prior experience with the franchise. Many of us though are still feeling the sting of recent titles *cough Dead Island and Rage cough* where the red flags were raised but our concerns were dismissed and the release product was sub-par for the PC (in my opinion at least).

I think it's completely reasonable these days for a PC focused gamer to see things like lack of graphical options or console UI's in a title that has it's primary development focus placed on the console platform to be at least a little worried.

 

[johndud]

I've played the ME3 demo and I have to say its very enjoyable, the single player was alright, you can only say so much about it, since it was so short, but...the multiplayer I really enjoyed, its like horde mode from Gears of war, the controls are very responsive, the sounds of gunfire are really cool, and on higher difficulties the AI is pretty hard, they will flank you and use grenades fairly effectively. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I don't think they will implement PVP, which would be really cool to be able to able to control your own squad of Cerberus operatives. Also I think they should have a mode where you start from scratch with abilities and have to build up abilities every time you start a new mode and keep taking on hoards going from bronze to silver, then gold hoards. I hope they also have the option to pick a single ability from any class once you level up your character fully or beat the game like they did in the previous ME games, it was great being a soldier and having other abilities and biotics! woot woot but yes its good and I think bioware is going in the right direction, I hope so bad that they make Dragon age 3 they're legacy and make it just as good but hopefully better than origins!!

ps: what are your guys's favorite developers?

 

[Anraleth]

While I agree with your sentiment completely, there has been a slew of multi-platform games lately where the lack of graphical options has been a warranted the "raising of the red flag" for the prospect of the title being poorly ported to PC, which I am guessing is where 13th is coming from.

In the case of this particular game I am not as worried because of prior experience with the franchise. Many of us though are still feeling the sting of recent titles *cough Dead Island and Rage cough* where the red flags were raised but our concerns were dismissed and the release product was sub-par for the PC (in my opinion at least).

I think it's completely reasonable these days for a PC focused gamer to see things like lack of graphical options or console UI's in a title that has it's primary development focus placed on the console platform to be at least a little worried.

I will concur with you completely on this. Unfortunately I think the PC era is reaching its twilight time, developers are finding it cheaper and more cost effective to produce on consoles than personal computers by virtue of the simplicity and universality of console design. Designing for two set systems, such as an XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 is much simpler than taking into account a multitude of hardware configurations such as are present in computer systems.


I'm rather upset by this, feeling the console world is more an intrusion of privacy ( XBOX live, Playstation Network, both synonomous with identity sucking leeches such as with Apple and the Iphone. ) and lackluster development plot all for the sake of $$$.


That being said, Mass Effect III does have a utility for graphical options. My point, of course, was that if given the choice between 10% better graphics or 10% more content, I would choose content.

 

[Anraleth]

I've played the ME3 demo and I have to say its very enjoyable, the single player was alright, you can only say so much about it, since it was so short, but...the multiplayer I really enjoyed, its like horde mode from Gears of war, the controls are very responsive, the sounds of gunfire are really cool, and on higher difficulties the AI is pretty hard, they will flank you and use grenades fairly effectively. The only thing I didn't like about it was that I don't think they will implement PVP, which would be really cool to be able to able to control your own squad of Cerberus operatives. Also I think they should have a mode where you start from scratch with abilities and have to build up abilities every time you start a new mode and keep taking on hoards going from bronze to silver, then gold hoards. I hope they also have the option to pick a single ability from any class once you level up your character fully or beat the game like they did in the previous ME games, it was great being a soldier and having other abilities and biotics! woot woot but yes its good and I think bioware is going in the right direction, I hope so bad that they make Dragon age 3 they're legacy and make it just as good but hopefully better than origins!!

ps: what are your guys's favorite developers?

I loved Origins. I hated Dragon Age II - with a passion. IMO it's probably one of the few, if only BAD game Bioware has ever stuck its name on. Sure Origins combat sucked - according to most people, but not to me. I thought it was fine, mostly because i've played Bioware RPGs since Baldur's Gate I.


Favorite Developers? I'd stick with Bioware, even though their quality seems to have suffered some under the tutelage of Electronic Arts' money sucking game design philosophy.

 

[silverliquicity]

A console is a mass produced, cheaply made PC with a custom OS. The GPU hardware in an Xbox for example, theoretically would get trampled by a 9600gt, yet the performance is equal to what a GTX 260 would produce.

My point is, when developer's have only 1 type of hardware to work around, they really can get the most out of it. But as the gap between console and PC hardware shrinks, we may notice PC game's becoming more popular to developer's.

 

[AntiZig]

that gap will never shrink, IT industry will keep moving forward every day with developers releasing new GPUs every year. Yet what is a lifetime of a console generation? well over 6 years now? It's been outdated when it was made (because they picked budget parts to keep the cost down) and it will keep getting older thus creating more of a gap between PC and consoles.

I wish there were more developers out there like Blizzard, who would not stoop down to making console ports to PC and who know that the game should release when it's done, instead of when the publisher wishes to start making money on half-baked product. Valve deserves an honorable mention in this too. I wish bioware didn't join up with EA, but nothing can be done now. And I'm only expecting the things to go downhill for them from here on (i'll be watching closely but I'm not holding my breath)

I will agree with anraleth. If there's a choice between better graphics and better game content, I'd rather choose content. Case and point - Skyrim, the game has decent graphics, of course they don't compare to dx11 titles like BF3, but hey, they are good enough and the game play is simply fantastic. Bethesda really outdid themselves on that one, and I sure as hell was glad to spend money on such a splendid game, even if the graphics lacked tessellation and what not.

I'm really disappointed for EA forcing Bioware to release ME3 on origin instead of steam.

 

[johndud]

I loved Origins. I hated Dragon Age II - with a passion. IMO it's probably one of the few, if only BAD game Bioware has ever stuck its name on. Sure Origins combat sucked - according to most people, but not to me. I thought it was fine, mostly because i've played Bioware RPGs since Baldur's Gate I.


Favorite Developers? I'd stick with Bioware, even though their quality seems to have suffered some under the tutelage of Electronic Arts' money sucking game design philosophy.

I would definitely stick with bioware too. I think they make mistakes in games but at the same time they bring something we didn't expect that is great, and from playing the ME3 demo I can say they learned a little about what we wanted from the game and have implemented most of it, but I expect the game to be short and I don't like that too much, I loved the length of the original, so hopefully that the great story makes up for it being short.
And a even though I've only played the demo of DA II I didn't like it either, I like how visceral the combat was, the animations, the glancing blows, and thats about it. I hated how they took away the tactical Isometric camera..that's a big no no! There were alot of the same skills and some new ones but overall the atmosphere was not doing anything for me, I had played the demo about a year ago for ps3 but couldn't remember how it was compared to DAO since I had not played DAO at the time, but I didn't even finish the pc demo I was that annoyed and just uninterested

 

[AntiZig]

they did the camera that way in DA2 because that form of camera is the only one that makes sense on consoles. Isometric didn't make sense on consoles.

 

[johndud]

they did the camera that way in DA2 because that form of camera is the only one that makes sense on consoles. Isometric didn't make sense on consoles.

That's weird cuz I played command and conquer 3 tiberium wars on xbox when it first came out and it was fine

 

[Anraleth]

. But as the gap between console and PC hardware shrinks, we may notice PC game's becoming more popular to developer's.

I find this a dubious suggestion, but only time will tell. I think the opposite will occur. Custom computers as we know it, will disappear as game platforms and will be supplanted by homogenous console systems.

 

[Anraleth]

I wish there were more developers out there like Blizzard, who would not stoop down to making console ports to PC and who know that the game should release when it's done, instead of when the publisher wishes to start making money on half-baked product. Valve deserves an honorable mention in this too. I wish bioware didn't join up with EA, but nothing can be done now. And I'm only expecting the things to go downhill for them from here on (i'll be watching closely but I'm not holding my breath)

Blizzard games have great atmosphere, but somewhat lack in the story department... if that makes any sense. They have good replayability ( hence the ridiculous success of Battle.net )

I certainly hope things don't continue trending the way they are for Bioware, but you're absolutely right. Nothing can be done about the merger, we can only hope. Traditionally Bioware has done better delivering up front content rather than DLCs, Expansions, Supplements, etc. Which may indicate the fallout with Dragon Age II and somewhat trim feeling of Mass Effect II. ( Again, that's my HOPE. ) I think Bioware knows DA2 was something of a flop.



And yeah, graphics are nice and all, but i'd rather more red meat and tissue in a game than fat. Yeah the fat makes the game tasty, but it doesn't supply the nutrition - to use a metaphor.

 

[AntiZig]

are you saying starcraft or wc3 had bad story? I think the story is terrific. diablo might have been a bit on the bland side, but in no way was it a weak story

 

[Anraleth]

are you saying starcraft or wc3 had bad story? I think the story is terrific. diablo might have been a bit on the bland side, but in no way was it a weak story

Allow me to rephrase. Decent story, weak plot.

 

[jaguarskx]

Favorite Developers? I'd stick with Bioware, even though their quality seems to have suffered some under the tutelage of Electronic Arts' money sucking game design philosophy.

Yeah, it was a sad day when BioWare was acquired by EA.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would really like to buy ME3, but I'm on the fence regarding Origin DRM.

 

[AntiZig]

I would really like to buy ME3, but I'm on the fence regarding Origin DRM.

same here
boycotting all EA titles until I see some improvement