Mass Effect 3 (BioWare)

This is my next game I have pre-ordered. I can't wait for it!

yeah that is the version I have pre-ordered.

I too am interested in the game, however, I won't be able to get it for awhile.  I understand that it will use Kinect.  I would be curious to hear anyone's review of this, paricularly if you typically play with a surround system somewhat cranked.  With a loud soundtrack, will Kinect still function or do you have to scream for orders to be heard.  If I must use Kinect at the sacrifice of good sound, then I will forgo the Kinect.

Kinect calibrates itself to the sound system in your room and then uses sound-cancelling to ignore the sound coming from your speakers. That said, if you have a game blasting then it might get in the way of its functionality, though one has to wonder if you care that much about talking at a louder-than-average volume while also rattling the house with the sounds of sci-fi gunfire. There's info about how the game uses Kinect that came out yesterday or today from Microsoft, but I don't have access to it right away.

Frankly, I think ME1 and 2 were allowed to be half-games because they were announced as a trilogy but I've been generally disappointed by the first two. The story of the first one only got interesting in the last 1/4 and the second one was "you died, assemble a team, invade" and not much else. The idea of doing things in the first game that affect the second and third sounds neat, but I'm afraid its going to be either too simple to be interesting or too unimportant to be worth waiting all this time for.

I feel the ME universe is well suited to an MMO-style game, but honestly the story in the grand scheme of itself hasn't impressed me beyond the first one and I'm not sure if the third will have much more than "Earth is under attack, assemble a team, get it back." The action absolutely looks amazing, the graphics are top-notch, but what will this game do that many others haven't done, aside from wrapping it in a pseudo-action-RPG gameplay aesthetic?

I'll have to try it out. I really play this game for SP though.

Mass Effect is the best new IP to come along in over a decade.  While each episode has had some major hits and a few misses, the series has stayed consistently-good throughout.  Very few games reward the player who is also a fan (if that makes sense) like Mass Effect does.

 

Plus, it's great to see a home-grown studio like Bioware succeed.  It's not easy doing what Muzyka and Zeschuk did, and in Alberta, to boot.

 

Major kudos.

As a year and a half long Mass Effect fan (started with PS3 version, went PC two months ago), I'm kind of hesitant to show my excitement for Bioware's latest treatment of the Mass Effect universe. First and foremost, I'm a femshep who is pro paragon. I cannot play it any other way. I hate main characters who are jerks, and I'm bored with the over dominant male leading games we have out there.

When I played the first Mass Effect game a month and a half ago, I started to see more of the flaws that were inherited in it's sequel. There was a large sense of scale in how the many cultures of the galaxy co-existed with one another, and how humanity was just entering the scene to soon joining the members of the council races. The game even teased the player into believing that Saren was out to destroy humanity because he hates humans, when the truth is far from that.

When I mention ME2's flawed story, I am of course talking about the constant "humanity is under attack" drivel that Shepard is now dedicated to stopping. The tacked on "Humanity's cells are special" and that embarrassing TERMINATOR battle at the end just felt like EA wanted humanity to be the central focus of the Mass Effect universe when it's already been established that it wasn't. I know Shepard is human and the main character of the story, but no where in any of the games does it state that it was because Shepard was human that we are now able to fight the Reapers. The Turians, Assari, Krogan and even the Salarians all had a hand in defeating Sovereign's forces and eventually, Sovereign himself.

Now onto ME3. My problems started out with the very first trailer showcasing a ruined london. Putting aside my views that the entire trailer felt like it belonged to some other game series like Resistance, Halo or any of the super popular war-games, I was content enough to let all of that slide since it's Mass Effect. It wasn't until the last line in the end "If Shepard doesn't bring help soon, there won't be an Earth left to save" that sealed the deal.

My main problem with Mass Effect 3 is EARTH.

Why Earth? In ME1 and ME2, Earth never played a role in anything. The only thing you could do with Earth was orbit it and learn that this is where humans originated from. You got to play around in Earth's moon more than you did Earth itself. And now, for the final installment of the Mass Effect series, we've gone from saving the galaxy, to saving humanity, to finally saving.... Earth. I know a lot about the workings of the Mass Effect galaxy, and I can honestly say that if my Shepard, Paragon though she may be had a button that would blow up the entire planet with every single Reaper on it, I wouldn't hesitate a minute. I am so sick and tired of "Earth is being invaded by aliens!" story lines, especially when the real danger is supposed to be all life in the whole freaking galaxy.

Even after playing the single player demo, I'm still not convinced as to why Earth is so important. Hear me out. We have dozens of uninhabited planets that humans can thrive on, we have Bekenstein, a human controlled world in the Serpent Nebula (Where the Citadel is located) that houses millions of humans AND many genuine Earth artifacts, we have humans living on the Citadel, Noveria, Omega, Illium, and many other worlds. And these worlds have all sorts of aliens living and working together. Even the Krogan home world allows aliens to live there, even if most Krogan would not approve. What does Earth have? Humans, humans, humans and more humans. You would think that there would be at least ONE alien on the planet since their admission as a council race, but no. We're fighting for a planet that doesn't have any species diversity on it next to planets that do! Even the newest trailers showcase only the human characters fighting the Reapers with no alien aid to be seen. It's like Mass Effect, but without any of it's alien characters. This is a pretty non-epic way to showcase the grand finale installment of a galactic wide series.

This doesn't mean I hate Earth, I just think having Earth be the center of everything was a bad idea. I want to help the Quanari take back or find a new home world, I want to fight along side the Turians, I want to help the Krogan with their genophage, I want to fight alongside the Salarians like I did on Virmire, I want to protect the Citadel and all it's inhabitants from the Reaper threat, I want to take back Omega for Aria, I want to destroy Cerberus, I want to see what a Volas looks like under those suits, I want to be a part of something more than just Earth. Earth is boring.

Ted,

 

For me, a major theme has been--from the beginning--humanity's place in the universe.  Yes, the game deals with other races, but often it's only to reinforce the concept that humans are a fledgling race, mere children in a universe of adult races.  Indeed, the very fact that--as you pointed out--Earth is virtually a homo-sapiens-only club (to mis-quote Star Trek VI), demonstrates just how naive and, well, ignorant, Humanity is of the grand scheme of things.

 

The present attack by the Reapers is jeopardizing all the progress Humanity has made in recent years.  This reinforces the above theme by acting as the backdrop for the ultimate question: can the saviour of the universe, despite all their flaws and ignorance, be human?

 

That all being said, I think you are over-stating the focus on Earth.  First, Earth is just "first stop" (more-or-less) in the Reapers' ultimate goal.  Why not stop them at stage one?  Second, most of the actual gameplay takes place off Earth, and indeed pursues many of the things you listed above (eg helping the Krogan with their "female problem").  Third, you aren't merely saving Earth  (if indeed you even can--who knows how it ends?), you are saving the universe.

I can certainly see how that can play out in a game like this. Unfortunately, NONE OF THAT seems to be an issue with Shepard or any other human character seen thus far. The only focus so far, both in the game and the marketing, is that aliens have Earth and we need to take it back. This isn't about humanity being set back, this is just about humanity being the centralized victim with every other species survival being a secondary concern (Shepard even tells the female Krogan that she's vital to Earth's survival......). Those kids in the game's opening and trailers are an example on how focused this game is to Earth being the victim, and I hate pathos for the sake of pathos.

Now, I'm not trying to boycott this release or cancel my pre-order (even though Origin is an inconvenience), I still want to see what this game has to offer.

Nothing wrong in trying to appeal to new gamers. I remember that laserdisc interview with James Cameron regarding ALIENS on how he wanted to make the sequel be a true continuation of Alien, but not be so dependent on it that it would leave newer audiences who haven't seen the first movie in the dark. That's not exactly what I'm getting from Bioware. There are dozens of interviews and quotes from the higher ups saying that Mass Effect 3 is the perfect starting point for the series. Really? I would argue that the perfect starting point starting point to the Mass Effect franchise is the original game! The fact that new gamers have to select who lived and who died from the previous games is really short changing the new gamers, like how I felt short changed when I had to make the same decision in the Genesis Comic for the PS3 version of ME2. Imagine if Peter Jackson said that Return of the King is a perfect entry point to the Lord of the Rings series where you didn't need to know what happened in the previous two movies/books. Stand by your games, man. They're good, they're cheap and they run great today!

Oh, no.......

I've been uh, researching things trying to see if my fears about Earth being such a big part in this game are unfounded and.... it's worse. It's much worse. It's worse in the sense that I WISH it was about just taking back the Earth. At least with a story like that there's some chance of .... well,

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REAL SPOILER!!!
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So if you have many saved Shepards waiting to go through the grand conclusion of Mass Effect 3, start with the one you're most attached to. Chances are, you won't have any interest in doing it again.

I'm not about to praise Bioware for doing something for the sake of doing it. Whats bothering a lot of players out there is that this ending is being forced on them. Kind of like what happened with Dragon Age II. No matter which path you took, who's side you picked, it all ends with the same exact results. Now compare that to Mass Effect 2 where you can have all your squad mates killed including Shepard on the suicide mission with the Collector's Base in the hands of Cerberus. Too dark? Well, if your Shepard makes the right choices, you can save everyone and destroy the collector base to prevent Cerberus from potentially using it against the races of the galaxy. See how big of a difference there is between the two endings? Now here we are, playing a Mass Effect game where the choices can have much broader consequences since there won't be any need to follow any of it up with the next game, and the route they're going to go with.... is the Dragon Age II ending. Nothing you do will matter because it will all lead to the same result.

Because nothing spells out new and bold challenges like.... Command & Conquer Generals 2....

I got my shipping notice for the CE for the PC as well. I'm excited, but preparing for complete and utter disappointment should my fears come to pass. I will not be turned into an unreasonable internet troll. I will move on to other things like Game of Thrones BluRay, Transformers Prime BluRay and/or my unfinished Fallout New Vegas game.

Can't you tell I just want to love this game?

I saw mine ship as well. Can't wait to get home tomorrow and break it open. Unfortunately my Son has chess so i won't get much chance to play it.

Wow.... They were too cheap to use Steelbook.

Well I'm a good goody two-shoes so I picked the paragon action. The results of that were pretty satisfying. However, I do miss her old look.
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I'm also a little peeved at how much this game treats my ME1-3 Shepard like it's the first time they're playing in this universe. I'm being told by a character how to run my own ship that I was in command of SIX MONTHS AGO. For New Gamers, I can totally understand why this needed to be added, but to those familiar with Mass Effect, this comes off as the worst kind of exposition since you're being told in great detail about things they already know. I'm honestly surprised the characters didn't use the phrase "As you know" before each sentence.

Also, can I have a word with you Admiral Hackett? The scientists who made the atomic bomb that was used in World War II did NOT use it even though they feared it would ignite the atmosphere. Edward Teller, the man who brought up the 'possibility' of the bomb igniting the atmosphere, made a mistake in his research by not factoring heat loss which yielded very inaccurate results. Kind of like saying that a match is a weapon of mass destruction because the flame would NEVER BURN OUT. And handling a few matches myself, it's a pain in the rear trying to keep them lit even in an enclosed area. Teller even went to Los Alamos and came to the same results that Hans Beth made which concluded that the atmosphere would not ignite when the bomb was detonated. So the bomb was not used even though many feared it would ignite the atmosphere, it was used because they KNEW IT WOULDN'T.

Finished ME3. They killed it. I no longer care anymore. They can release all the DLC they want with flashing ratings, but I won't bother.

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Edited by Ted Van Duyn - 3/12/12 at 8:33am