Mass Effect 3

[Sly Reflex]

SotC got really good reviews back in PS2 days despite it slowing to a fucking crawl every time anything happened. The scope and ambition of the game all weighs into the final decision to grade the game.

[DANGERMAN]

Funnily enough Edge gave that an 8 too (taken from metacritic)

Edge Magazine

80

There's not much that can be said about Shadow Of The Colossus. Not because there aren't pages to be written about the designs of the colossi, the wisdom of some of the puzzles involved in defeating them, or the deliberately ambiguous implications of the story, but because this is a game with so little content that to discuss specifics would be to tarnish an experience that needs to be approached with as few preconceptions as possible. [Christmas 2005, p.98]

These threads are supposed to be for impressions of the game, so can we keep the review talk out of here please. I'll have a look and see if I can move stuff from here into the news thread tomorrow without losing any of it, keep this nice and tidy for the games release

I've moved everything over, hopefully it's not bollocksed up the reading order too much

[wholehole]

I wonder who review scores are actually meant for, especially for big releases like ME3.

Fans of Mass Effect, especially those who have played both previous games aren't likely to give the third game a miss even if it got a very low score. Players new to the series aren't likely to start on the third game (or at least i'd hope not), by which point they'd either be wanting to continue the story regardless or just quit the series.

Most people know what they like, and casual players aren't very likely to go and read reviews anyway. If you're not into a specific genre then you're not likely to be interested in sci-fi or fantasy etc, no matter what the score is.

[halfagogo]

Hang on, let me get my tin opener.

So, if they are pointing out real flaws in the game, why does it deserve to get a 9. An 8 is still a very very high score, and if there are flaws in the game the score should represent that, or have no score at all.

im not biting properly you! but,

1. isnt that the age old argument with games reviews, i hate to say but i always look at the scores but its very dependent on the review source. apart form stuff i know i will like i usually favour gamefaqs user reviews.

2. As we know from deadly premonition, a game can be chock full of flaws and still knock your socks off, like a chubby, ugly mistress that you keep going back too cos she's so damn good.

[wholehole]

ShopTo News parped this out late yesterday, if there's anyone who wanted an N7 edition but didn't manage to secure one:

With the recent news about GAME not being able to supply the Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's edition, online retailer ShopTo.net has today announced that it HAS NOT sold it's allocation and will be offering a limited quantity for sale on Wednesday 2pm GMT.

With prices on Ebay already fetching in excess of £250 for the Mass Effect 3 N7 collectors edition ShopTo are expecting the allocation to be snapped up quickly by both gamers and opportunists who exploit the demand for EA's upcoming title via marketplaces on sites like Amazon and Ebay.

"We have seen unprecedented demand for this title over the past week, selling 3000 copies in just one hour after GAME announced they would not be stocking Mass Effect. We are delighted that we have Mass Effect in our warehouse now and will be processing all orders this week to ensure customers receive them before they can get them on the high street." commented Igor Cipolletta, ShopTo CEO.

"We expect the thousand or so remaining Collector's edition copies to be snapped up in minutes and have extra staff on standby to ensure the usual ShopTo 5 minute dispatch is achieved. We cannot thank EA enough for the support they have given us over the past week ensuring customers, who have been let down by the high street, get Mass Effect 3 by launch day." continued Igor.

Gamers who are looking to secure a copy of the game should go here (Xbox 360) or here (PS3) at 2pm on Wednesday and refresh the page until they see a buy button, when the buy button has been clicked that copy will be reserved until the order is processed and the customer will receive their item.

The info about Ebay is utterly false though, not sure where they've got their info from on that one, doesn't take long to check: http://www.ebay.co.u...d=p3286.c0.m283

Most of the copies listed for £100 - £150 didn't even sell. They seem to be selling for around £75 - £90, which is a ways off the info supplied above.

[Craymen Edge]

I remember before the game came out Casey Hudson said this RE: the day one DLC

"On [Mass Effect 3], content creators completed the game in January & moved onto the "From Ashes" DLC, free w/ the [Collector's Edition] or you can buy seperately [sic]," he wrote.

"It takes about 3 months from 'content complete' to bug-fix, certify, manufacture, and ship game discs," he added. "In that time we work on DLC. DLC has fast [certification] and no [manufacturing], so if a team works very hard, they can get a DLC done in time to enjoy it with your first playthrough on day one."

Then people found and unlocked the DLC character model and bits of dialog on the disc of the PC version (so it's presumably on the console versions too.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/parts-of-mass-effect-3-dlc-already-on-disc-ea-6365673

So Casey Hudson says:

in order to seamlessly integrate Javik into the core campaign, certain framework elements and character models needed to be put on disc," reads the statement. "We did something similar with Zaeed and Kasumi in Mass Effect 2.

So basically some of it was integrated into the game much earlier in development, therefore no way was it started in January.

What I don't understand is why fucking lie? Why not just state that the content was planned and budgeted from the beginning on the premise that it was going to be sold separately from the main game, and that without, it wouldn't have been made?

On the DLC itself:

(I wasn't intending on getting it, but using credit at gamestation to get just the vanilla version. But that plan went tits-up and I buckled when collector's editions re-appeared on shop-to.)

The character is actually pretty good, and the mission involved was enjoyable. It is obviously more planned and integrated than Zaeed or Kasumi were in ME2. Artistically speaking, I think this should have been part of the core game. There's plenty of other less important stuff in the game that could have been released separately.

[mmmark]

 

[one-armed dwarf]

Just thinking actually wouldn't it be cool if a Switch port did the whole steam/origin cross save thing.

 

I have never beaten the 2nd or even played the 3rd game but that kind of feature might make me take attention

[retroed]

Maybe this'll be part of the Nintendo Direct. 

[Maryokutai]

1 hour ago, Nag said:

If that turns out to be true (which is pretty much guaranteed at this point) it's an instant buy... wonder what qol changes would be made to the first game though.

 

A stable framerate is all that game needs.

 

And as much as I'd like this on Switch I'd probably rather get it for another system for that reason alone. You can't really expect more than just straight 1:1 ports on Nintendo's system but I expect a clean 60fps across the board on PS4 and Xbox.

[Sly Reflex]

All in one on steam with the DLC there and not spread out would be marvelous. I really want to play these games again, but it's a minefield on PC.

 

Also proper controller stuff, I hear the first Mass Effect had it stripped out for some unknown reason.

[Maf]

I love the ME trilogy but I would have to be very impressed with what they’re doing with this to buy again. I‘m making a stand next gen I’m not buying anymore remakes or remasters unless they’re legit