Ok, so even if I quite like ME1 and kinda enjoyed ME2, I decided not to get ME3 and haven't even played that ME2 expansion. Everything I saw about M3 made me believe it would do what I didn't like about ME2 and make it worse: even cheesier story elements with the self-aware thing which I loathe about how the hero is the last hope and the fate of the universe is at stake. And the main story seemed just too obvious and Hollywood-like for my tastes. There's also quite a bit of other reasons to make me believe playing ME3 would be a frustrating experience.

Having said that, I'm getting more and more curious about playing the game each time I hear about it lately. Can anyone tell me important changes from ME2? Things which are better or worse? Is there some nice sci-fi moments in the main mission despite its nature? In the side missions too I guess? Maybe I looked too much at the potential negatives and there's actually things for me to enjoy in there. Despite the lot of things which I didn't like in ME2, I thought there were still nice aspects and I managed to genuinely like more than one or two moments.

So that's the short version. I hated the game when I first played it (launch) but it has since warmed up to me nicely.

Apparently, a new Batman game got announced today. There are some bits of information here, the most noteworthy of which are probably that the game is due for release this year (yay!) and that the Batmobile will totally be a thing - it might indicate that there would be greater emphasis on the open world side of things, something that's most assuredly bound to cause some disappointment. Dig the design from the trailer, though.

^ What Ozzy said. I honestly had the exact same reservations as you (ME2 being my favorite game of all time now), but I warmed up to ME3 pretty quickly in spite of the overblown themes. Though honestly, the multiplayer alone is almost worth the entire price of admission. Tons of characters, HUGE potential for strategy and equipment customization and the chance for some really nailbiting squad-based gameplay. I only stopped 3's campaign because I was burned out from pounding through the last two (and wanted to re-roll as an Infiltrator because that was my only chance at beating Insanity), but I've definitely sunk more hours into multiplayer than the campaign at this point. Also, what ME2 expansion are you talking about? You should definitely play Lair of the Shadow Broker before starting 3; it's brilliant.

You get some cool missions too. The first mission after the introductory chapter is a trip to a Mars research base that's a very obvious nod in atmosphere to the first game. Then you fight the Reapers on the Turian moon in the first mission taking place in a full-scale military battle and not just squad skirmishing. Some of the later main quest missions have some very creative bits as well.

You don't need any more squad members in ME3--they already give you Tali and Javik/Garrus, and they're all I would've ever used, anyway. :V

Also, I felt there were way more choices in ME3 than in ME2. More guns, more missions, more armor sets, more (as in they exist) mods, and more endings. And I kinda liked the "War Assets" mechanic--sure, it's probably tedious in replays, but let's face it, so are ME2's loyalty missions--as it really gives the feeling that you're amassing a humongous vanguard and you're pooling every resource you can find.

The combat is definitely way smoother than in ME2. The new Concussive Shot and Biotic Charge are tremendous amounts of fun to play with, and Tactical Cloak is awesome as well. Also, SHOTGUNS ARE GOOD AGAIN OH MY GOD--especially the really accurate ones (N7 whatever, Graal Spike Thrower, Geth Plasma something). As icing on the cake, there are plenty of cool weapons like the Arc Pistol (yay lightning) and Black Widow (supremely deadly headshots, anyone?) hiding out there, as well. Or if you hate weapons, just Biotic Charge and melee the shit out of everything. Because if it's on the ground, you totally can.

As for negative things, my first and foremost complaint is the art direction. Dull, gray, grimdark bullshit. The visuals can be incredible at times, and I wish the more colorful palette of ME2 (or hell, ME1) were still around. And is it just me, or does everything look supremely shitty when you turn Dynamic Shadows off? My compy can barely handle having them on, but having them off is just awful. The sound direction is pretty balls, too, with whisper-soft gunfire and awful menu sounds. Fuck that shit. Also, FemShep looks like she's about 130-140 lbs., so why do her footsteps sound like a sprinting elcor? Because that's distracting and weird.

And yeah, the story does have problems. The reason for Shepard being stuck on Earth at the beginning is never really explained except for a single vague line Anderson gives ("The shit you done, anyone else would've been blah blah blah I'm awesome and stop asking questions!") and you're just expected to roll with it. Which sucks. There's also a few silly retcons, like if you helped Legion rewrite the geth in ME2, then too bad--they're still being assholes and you have to rewrite them again.

But to get back to the good points, there are plenty of great, memorable moments scattered throughout. Basically any scene with Wrex in it is guaranteed awesome, Garrus is as cool as ever, and even Mordin gets a chance to be badass. And you can also go to the Citadel and hear clips from Blasto 6: Partners in Crime!

So yeah. The game has problems. But I enjoyed the shit out of it anyway.

+1 on Lair of the Shadow Broker and as for why Shepard is on Earth if you play Arrival DLC it makes sense (let's say a lot of people get killed).

They kind of did need more (of the right ones).


I was referring to dialogue options only. You really thought there were more? More important, sure, but not more. Not by my memory.

I think that was supposed to be tied into the ending of the Arrival DLC, where



Either way I agree that it is somewhat vague if you didn't play the DLC.

Edit: Derp, didn't see Ozzy's post.

I guess I'll have to try the game! Seems like I might actually enjoy it. And no, haven't played Lair of the Shadow Broker or Arrival yet.

I thought Vega was a pretty good character. Didn't add much weight to the plot, sure, but apparently the devs said he was supposed to act like a player coming to the Mass Effect series for the first time with the 3rd game, and when he was in my squad I was always thinking "Why, yes, I *am* that cool, and I'm glad you could join me on my tour of cool events and things."

Gameplay-wise, combat has been much improved. There are more options/customizations for skills, more weapons (all classes can carry all weapons), more powerful combos (tech/cryo/biotic/fire explosions), heavy melee, grenades, rolling from cover to cover, and some rather nasty enemies especially in multiplayer. Some things to note: resource mining is gone, and the galaxy's side-missions consist of scanning planets and launching probes to get artifacts/war assets. No more landings on completely alien planets/moons, no more Hammerhead, no more Mako (IIRC).

I can't comment too much on the story since I've only carried over and played as a paragon with all the ME2 characters being loyal. Many of the story bits vary depending on which characters lived/died in ME1-2 in addition to the loyalty status of the surviving ME2 characters,

I also haven't played the Citadel/Leviathan/Omega DLCs, mainly because getting them all together would COST MORE THAN THE FUCKING TRILOGY. THE FUCK.


Same here. Lots of good laughs to be had playing against the broken-as-fuck Collectors. I remember one time playing them on gold with a pub team and we were all really struggling to fend them off the whole time, partly because we were all douching around instead of teaming up. When it came time for extraction (a miracle that we even made it that far) a single Possessed Abomination managed to waltz right up to us amidst the orgy of Praetorians and Scions stomping on our asses in the very last couple of seconds before full extraction and the end of 30 minutes of torture. I shot it out of excitement, and next thing you know we all dropped like dumb motherfuckers. Good times.

Mmm, I always found Reapers the hardest since Praetorians and Scions at least can't zip around the map like fucking banshees and the big hulking things. Very rarely get full extractions, or even to the ending wave in general, against them. Geth are easy as fuck and Cerberus can go either way depending on your squad IMO.

That's such a shame they never continued doing the Mako thing. Sure it wasn't perfect, but I thought it was the beginning of something. Some planets were terribly designed, but a good number had their charm and there was a really nice sci-fi feeling to it. They could just have tried to improve the thing instead of saying ''well didn't work so well let's just try something new''. And then they realized the new thing wasn't so much better. And that's something which I think happens too often in the industry, ideas get scrapped because it wasn't perfect the first time...

So Deus Ex: The Fall is finally coming out soon for PC. I'm excited, since I love anything DX (even Invisible War, lol).

I'm also mildly peeved, as the game is apparently only the first episode, and they have yet to release-- and, as far as I know, announce-- the second episode.

The easiest way to describe ME3 is a sequel that got lazy at times. Its success is based on the fact the other two games carried it this far.

Very similar to Assassin's Creed 3. Some parts are just excellent. There's some interesting new concepts. But it's nowhere near as good as its predecessors.

ME3 is more of an emotional story I think and less sci-fi. There are some really touching scenes and really exciting ones.

If you don't like how Shepard is the hero of the galaxy, then ME3 would definitely be a put off there. What I didn't like about ME3 is how helpless the galaxy seemed until Shepard came aboard. I understand why they did it in the game and story. You're supposed to be there and interacting with some of the most pivotal scenes.

The worst part about ME3 is the new characters. None of them were interesting at all. Well Javik who was a DLC character is probably passable as interesting.

The best part about ME3 is how they resolve what happens to the old characters.

Basically, play Mass Effect 3 if you want to know what happens to your favorites from ME1 and ME2 and the entire fate of the Turians, Krogan, Asari, Quarians, Salarians, etc. Don't play it if you were only interested in the whole story of the Reapers invading the galaxy since they botched up how awesome that could've been.

No, no it wasn't. There's no shame about it. The Mako sucked. Fuck the Mako!

I remember getting my Mako stuck upright somehow, grr

Got a love / hate thing with the Mako. Lots of memories back around 2008 when I was in AIT playing the game and using my free time exploring. It soaked up damage and did enough when needed. The Hammerhead was better at air maneuvers and speed but god damn it felt like paper when taking shots from infantry alone. Not to mention that it wasn't implemented well in the game (being introduced in DLC and therefore restricted to DLC).

Although any time I'm on a planet like Nodacrux I wish I was doing anything else.

Anyone ever bought a Humble Bundle for Android before? Now that I have a fancy pants smartphone I may as well stick some games on it and Zombie Gunship and Catan at least sound cool enough to spend a couple cents on or whatever. I just have no idea how it works buying a Humble Bundle on Android.

You get links to the APKs. There's also a Humble Bundle app that allows you to download any Android game bound to your HB account.

Amy Hennig left Naughty Dog under mysterious circumstances: http://ign.com/articles/2014/03/05/unch ... aughty-dog

I really, really hope the "forced out" bit is made up bullshit, otherwise that's really disheartening. Sadly her tweets are inconclusive (she neither denied nor confirmed this particular allegation yet), but the lack of denial and absence of cheery "goodbye" tweets suggests to me that she did leave under less than favourable circumstances... I hope we get some clarification soon.
Uncharted 3 may have been kind of weak, but it was by no means terrible, and her work in UC1 and 2 and the Legacy of Kain games was fantastic. I hope she joins a worthy studio and keeps writing awesome games. Cthulhu knows, this industry has a severe dearth of talented writers...

KOTOR2 > ME

FTFY

I can never think of KOTOR2 without mods.

KOTOR2 really is the best thing the Star Wars universe ever created.

Downloading South Park: The Stick of Truth through Steam. Hope it will awesome, bet it will.

Is KOTOR2 much better than its predecessor? The insipid gameplay really put me off of the first one, though being fond of the Star Wars-universe - if not the movies themselves or the whole Force-thing - I did play quite a bit of it.

The gameplay is exactly the same, the story is alot darker and more mature though. I dunno if i like it more than the first one.

I feel #1 is made for Star wars fans and #2 is made for hardcore rpg fans

Playing ME3 should be a pretty weird playthrough.


Agreed. Really like the atmosphere and the approach to this one. Being stuck on a planet for some time and managing to get out against all odds never gets old. As being somewhere when everything already happened and you just try to leave and piece together what happened. There were so many great moments. The first KOTOR was nice and had its classic moments, but I really think KOTOR 2 got it right. Very dark, very ''nice'' planets and happenings. It was killer.

And I heard about that restoration mod plenty, but what is it exactly? I only ever played the xbox version, so...

I was actually kind of underwhelmed by KOTOR 2. Not that it was bad, far from it, but a classic? Nah. The party members were cool and well-written, and I liked the side quests well enough, but the main story ended up being a pretty big letdown. For all that they're hyped by the narrative, the Sith Lords don't end up *doing* very much. I was expecting really cool backstories or revelations or something but instead you just find them and kill them and that's it. They're just evil dudes. The plot of KOTOR 1, despite relying a bit much on a plot twist that's not too hard to predict, at least hung together well and had good pacing. The climactic confrontation with Darth No-jaw was genuinely climactic and actually pretty challenging, whereas I basically sleepwalked through the boss fights in KOTOR 2. Also, the parts that were supposed to be available to you if you played a bad guy just seemed really clumsily shut off - some of my crew members would barely talk to me because I was a good guy. Why the crap were they even with me at all?

Anyway I did like it, but compared to classics like Planescape: Torment, KOTOR 1 & 2 don't really stand up.

Surprised to hear all the love for KOTOR2; I thought the consensus was that it was rushed for release and really half-baked.

It was. If you have the PC version, the fanbase was able to restore a large portion of the game that got left out. Makes the experience way better.

http://starwarsfans.wikia.com/wiki/The_ ... ontent_Mod

I know I have been negative about the Elders Scrolls Online, but this part of it looks like so much fun:

Is there a Cliff's Notes version of what that adds? I'd like to give the game another shot at some point, it clearly had lofty ambitions.

http://deadlystream.com/forum/files/fil ... ntent-mod/

This is the official page.

TBH, even vanilla KOTOR2 was one of the better games I've played in my life.

Finished DS2 earlier this week and I quite liked it, even though the last chapter with the bloody reincarnating monster was insufferable. I emptied almost all of my ammos to it before realising what to do I also downloaded the Severed-dlc as it was only €3 and finished that one as well. Enjoyable game, although a bit repetitive and foreseeable at times; it still managed to keep me entertained through the main game and the dlc.

Now, I downloaded the latest Tomb Raider for free from psn store and try that one. I love holidays.

So uh... there's apparently going to be a The Last of Us movie. Screenplay by Druckmann at least, and produced by a Sony division. Still, uh... you know, laws of the universe and everything, movies based on games invariably suck. And Sam Raimi, ewww.

I dunno... that one Silent Hill movie was decent I guess. I think the The Last of Us premise lends itself well for a movie. I mean, the whole damn game is at it's core an interactive storyboard.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far on PS3, aside from the fact that it has some issues with slowdown. I spent like 5 hours the other day just exploring the town and farting on people.

I love almost everything about it, but I can't seem to get the hang of timing attacks and blocks etc.
So apart from the actual fighting, the game is absolutely great for me.