not with that replacement.
New info, semi-spoiler-ish the locations which you visit and returning party members.
Five New Mass Effect 3 Details You Might Want to Hear
I largely don't mind this. RPGs often have a large cast of henchmen who I never bother to use in my party, outside of a couple missions or so.1. Mass Effect 3 will have fewer party characters than Mass Effect 2
If they're doing more with your squad mates, narrative/literature wise then I don't mind at all."Twelve was a big number in Mass Effect 2 - almost too big", says Hudson. "We're focused on a smaller squad with deeper relationships and more interesting interplay in Mass Effect 3' he explains. "We're not going to have twelve again but we are going to do more with the characters on your squad
Of course there might just be a smaller cast than ME2 due to having a shorter (and possibly more rushed) dev cycle, so they've had less time to make as much content (a la Dragon Age 2).
YES! I missed the big worlds from ME1. Wandering around the Citadel's Praesidium, the large outdoor environments (in general, not just the Mako sections), etc. Curse ME2 largely being in corridors because 360 hardware is dated, underpowered garbage.3. Those worlds are going to be big.
Reapers are big. In order to have accommodate fights with them, or even having them nearby means designing levels much larger than the usual spaceship corridors that make up a large portion of Mass Effect's locales. Many of levels will include more open spaces. BioWare plans to make the shift in a way a dramatic way, claiming that some levels that are not only larger than anything ever seen in a Mass Effect game, but larger than any game built with the Unreal Engine.
Deeper RPG experience? Hmmm, sounds more like they're taking cues from post-CoD4 MP shooters, TBH.5. Weapons are going to be much more customizable and detailed
In keeping up with their pledge to create a "deeper RPG experience" this time around, you'll be able to fine-tune your weapons in Mass Effect 3 much more than the last two games. "Every weapon is modular and can be customised with up to five modifications; scopes increase a rifle's zoom factor, new barrels increase accuracy or damage," Says Hudson. "Sling your gun on a workbench and it can be customised for a job at hand." Based on that last part, it sounds like it may be important to not only upgrade your weapons, but adjust them to suit different situations.
Or, maybe they're just taking cues from ME1? Weapon mods were removed from the series from ME2, and having them back will add some depth.
...and it had framerate issues that many complained about. ME2 had smaller, more corridor like map design on purpose to maintain their target of a constant 30fps on 360.
No shit. The design philosophies of combat and other core gameplay systems had changed pretty dramatically. ME1's combat was still very stats-driven (eg sniper scope wavering if not enough points were pumped in the Sniper Rifle proficiency skill) vs. ME2 shift to being almost entirely skill-based. The entire weapon implementation was changed, from being unique by having infinite ammo + cooldowns to your bog-standard shooter fare, with ammo packs (in implementation that's what they are, ignoring the fact that they're "heatsinks" in lore). All these changes in shooting mechanics and other gameplay systems was to make the game appeal to the broader action game audience.
...scopes increase a rifle's zoom factor... That quote screams CoD MP to me. This "re-introduction" seems like it's designed to appeal to the mainstream console shooter fan, rather than RPG fellas who yearn for ME1's RPG systems that were pretty much all ripped out for the sequel.
Mass Effect 3 built for mass appeal
Speaking in an investor Q&A, Riccitiello said, “One of the things that Ray Muzyuka and the team up in Edmonton have done is essentially step-by-step adjust the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 to put this in a genre equivalent to shooter-meets-RPG and essentially address a much larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 began to approach.”
“We're huge believers in the IP and are purposefully shifting it to address a larger market opportunity.”
The engine? UE3 is a great piece of tech. I'd wager it was more to do with Bioware's engineers not having enough experience with neither the hardware, nor the graphics engine. ME1 was their first 360 game and also their first UE3 powered title. Also they were pressed for time, given the lack of content in side-quest worlds and copy-pasted dungeons.
My theory for ME2 have mostly small, corridor mapping? The team took the same approach as they did for the majority of ME1's criticisms - avoid the issue altogether rather than addressing it. Our large levels/environments are unoptimised and have poor framerate? Don't make large levels. Oh, our inventory and item management is unintuitive, time consuming garbage? Throw them out, rather than trying to make improvements. Planet exploration is dull, lacking in content and variety? Cut it completely. You get the idea.
source
Also, the fact that the Citadel is so big means that if you try to have combat, the 360 emits a high-pitched whine and then explodes. Even without combat, the Citadel pushes the 360 to the edge of its memory constraints pretty hard, and at one point in playtesting, we were playing in a special game mode, “Get from one end of the Presidium to the other without crashing,” using our FPS indicators as sonar to try to figure out which way to go without our memory going splat. As a result, our plot designs for the roleplaying plots had to include not a whole lot of combat and limits to the number of characters and the size of their dialog files. (Note that combat that does take place on the Citadel as part of the critpath tends to happen in small hallway areas with doors nearby as level-load areas.)
Add to THAT the fact that the tech guys are swamped by putting together a game in a new engine, with the arrival of new combat functionality like cover and tech beacons requiring last-minute changes to every fighting area in the game, and you’ve got tech guys who don’t have a whole lot of time to do complex scripting on the plots you wrote in about a day apiece. The plot with the grieving widower, for example, is generally considered to be stronger than the not-at-all-about-MMR plot. It’s also more complex, with two conversations and multiple options for who says what and goes where and when they do it. (It’s not very complex as plots go, but it’s more complex than “These guys fire one conversation, then despawn after you’re done talking to them.”) That complexity extends to QA as well. Given that QA found bugs on these plots that ranged from people not appearing to people appearing too early to people despawning but still firing their ambient “Hey, Spectre, come talk to me!” lines despite, you know, not being there, the simpler we could make those plots, the better. (Note: Not a knock on our tech guys. Our tech guys were awesome. Also, they were learning a new engine and scripting system. The writers made their share of fun mistakes, and our conversation system didn’t change as much as their scripting system.)
Stage demo gameplay
Gameplay:- on-rails, turret-on-vehicle section
The Kinect voice control for the dialogue wheel is pretty laughable. Why would you choose that over the far less tasking route of just using the fucking analogue stick?
Using Kinect voice control to issue squad commands is an excellent idea though. But we'll see how well it actually works in practice. (Eg I suspect that I would have to fake a Yank accent for the fucking thing to work.) Still mappable keyboard hotkeys would likely require far less effort to execute.
I have to disagree with the thread title. Guys like Shepard actually do sound like that in real life.
Also, the only reason there's that kinect functionality is that Microsoft is pushing for "all" games to have some sort kinect feature(ie, forced gimmick) in them.
It's widely known that the performance for male Shepard is shit all around, Mark Meer sucks. Male Shep just sounded bored and/or constipated all the time.
Yeah, female Shepard was provided with a hearty performance featuring a lot of range. You can feel genuine emotion in the acting.
Microsoft wouldn't be bullying around a giant like EA. The game likely has Kinect features because the developers saw the potential in the voice recognition capabilities of the device.
Mark Meer is a local actor here in Edmonton. I saw him doing Shakespeare last week and he was fantastic. I've also seen him at improv shows, and he can be surprisingly funny.
Anyway, I think he's a good guy, and while his Shepherd might be a little stiff, I find it endearing (based on his live performances, I suspect his Shepherd is deliberate). Based on the comparison videos around Youtube, I don't buy the argument that Jennifer Hale is doing such a better job; she's a different *kind* of hammy, but it's still obviously ham.
Besides, he didn't invent the character. There are audio directors instructing him how to do stuff. I'd guess Shepard isn't the way he is because that's the only thing Bioware could get out of Meer.
Jennifer Hale ... That name sounds familiar.
I want to say MGS. Meryl? or Naomi?
Naomi. She was also in KOtOR and about a BILLION other games and cartoons.
Naomi. Also Bastilla Shan from KotOR, Samus Aran in Metroid Prime, and a whole buttload of other games and animated TV shows.
Correct, Naomi in MGS - but she done loads more video game stuff, you're bound to find a few here that you recognise. KotOR, Metroid, Baldurs Gate, Doom, and my favourite, Planescape: Torment
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0354937/
edit: Wow, super slow!
oh and I always thought Mark Meer was great. I agree with CCCToad, not the the extent that real-world equivilents talk like that (I've yet to meet one), but I always found him convincing, and most importantly, consistent.
Last edited by ANTSHODAN; 8th Jul 2011 at 09:36.
Fem Shep goes red, and hopefully now the internet can collectively calm the fuck down.
Has no relevance to me, I'm always ManShep.
I did try playing FemShep but it just felt wrong because I couldn't empathise with her. I suppose it's kind of like fancy dress - I can put up with it for a few hours and then it just becomes annoying. The voice in particular I couldn't get used to either. And there was no way I was going to go after one of the male crew members.
I like to chase the womens and that's that.
So bang Liara like everyone else.