demo up...

Default Female Shepard is ugggly.

coop was fun...though I am a little disappointed it is just Horde 3.0...


Demo froze a few times on me...this is getting to be a problem with EA games that seem to want to be connected to EA at all times...

Does it with this game....Syndicate demo...and Kingdom of Amalur (the last one is almost unplayable for me how many times it crashes...)

Anyone bother using Kinect to attempt to yell commands at their TV. I tried stuff like opening doors and throwing grenades but the delay between saying it and it actually happening was a bit too much for me.

I enjoyed the first two games but I might cancel my NewEgg preorder and wait on this one. I'm a bit thrown off by the story and I'm not sure if I can really get into it. I figured they wouldn't be waiting until earth was attacked to send for help at the Citadel. I want the SE of the game and maybe if I wait I get get it cheaper down the road.

The Citadel and Alliance are pretty much in denial mode, right? Isn't that a lot of what ME2 was about?

Plus, as seen in The Arrival DLC, the Reapers are on the door step and with the Mass Relays, they can hit the entire galaxy nearly simultaneously.

Good point. I had forgotten about that. It just seems everyone on Earth is in denial as well since it seemed like there was zero plan in place. I know that they need major help to stand a chance but it seemed foolish to do nothing while they wait to be attacked. Seems just lazy or like lazy storytelling.

The storytelling did seem off to me in the first part of the demo. It was really...quiet and uneventful considering the planet was attacked by beings that have successfully destroyed all life in the galaxy several times previously. I don't know how to explain what bugged me about it, but it felt like even Shepard and Anderson had a "meh" attitude about the situation. The dialogue was awkward as well, and it seemed like the Paragon/Renegade responses were basically the same in most cases. Also, I thought I had read somewhere that they were moving away from the ammo pickup system from ME2 and going back to more of a ME1 style for weapons, but I guess not.

Still buying the game day one, though.

When it comes to single player...

Graphics are not as good as Mass Effect 2...so I hope this is a demo thing...lacks polish...

As moviepage said, the characters seemed disconnected from the events...almost rushed but not in a hurry at the same time. It is the end of the world...and there seems to be no urgency...

The little kid in the vent...wow that was stupid...

Once you get to the second half all is forgiven...characters have more emotion, and things flow better..combat feels great..

Upset they fucked up tech armor though...but I am ok with that because the Infiltrator seems even better than before...though what the fuck is up with giving you 10 thousand weapons in the second half...thus putting your weight limit so high that only a soldier can use his powers? And no sniper to try out? Cooldown was like 30 seconds on some powers because I had too many weapons..

Throwing a grenade while cloaked and not coming out of the cloak is amazing...since cloak now last over 10 seconds this adds a new level of fun for the Infiltrator...

Not sure how I feel about health bar no longer being rebounding...

Going to do it again tonight on insanity to compare it to Mass 2....

also the kinect shit is stupid...real stupid

Only a few things you can do actually would make it easier...like switching ammo types..the truth is though on the harder difficulty settings, pausing to use squad powers actually gives you breathing room and a moment to think things out...also there is a delay when the kinect actually uses your powers, so I can see you actually having a harder time as that extra second it takes to activate throw on the charging krogan may result in your death..

also not real smooth...at times it worked well...at others it would not understand a power and I had to say it a few times...

The 360 SE of the game is already sold out and the others will be soon as well, just like the SEs of ME1 and 2 got sold out upon each game's release. You're not gonna find the SEs for cheap. Bioware's "collectors editions" are actually limited.

You can still order the 360 CE from Best Buy online as well as TRU and Walmart I believe.

Keep an eye out on Amazon's warehouse deals as well. That's where I picked up ME2 SE for $15.

Finished the demo on insanity...

The first thing that was wrong with my run on insane was the fact that playing the Infiltrator on the demo is not the best way to get the ball rolling because of the way you get handed all those weapons. I already mentioned this above, but basically any class outside soldier is going to feel the pain when you get to that point in the demo. My cool-down times on all my powers were very long. Also, you do NOT get to have a sniper riffle in the demo. This fucks over the Infiltrator class because you are not getting to use your greatest strength. I was not able to experience the slowdown while scoped or the bonus sniper damage. These things probably made the insane difficulty harder than it should have been.

That being said it was not that bad. I had heard the AI was much improved. I did not see this at all. They are more aggressive and that is it. They will flank you if you turn your back, but like EVERY game that does this, you can set them up. Just look the opposite way of where you know the enemy is and after a few seconds look back and they are all out of cover running toward you. This actually makes it easier. The last part was hard but I don't think I would have had any problem with a sniper and full powers.

If you like grenade spamming you will be in love. I knew this was going to happen. The first thing out of my mouth when I heard grenades were going to be a part of Mass Effect 3 was "well I guess we can count on rocket armed enemies hitting you with grenades behind cover" and it is true.

I don't call that improved AI. When your brag about your improved AI, and that ends up being enemies charging your blind side and throwing grenades at you over and over, that is just lazy programing.

I know I am sounding negative, but I actually enjoyed the second part of the demo very much. I also love that you can now revive fallen team members by standing over them and holding A. This is going to save a lot of gels on insane.

The graphics looked great on PC (a noticable step up from ME2). So I guess the console versions got gimped.

There was a plan in place. Hackett and the Alliance fleet were off planet, awaiting the Reapers. That's why Anderson was shocked the Reapers had already made it to the moon and there'd been no word from Hackett.

I haven't played the second half of the demo yet but I really dug the tone of the first half.

The PC collector's edition is out of stock everywhere! I was able to order it from Target but I dunno how long they'll still have it in stock.

If anyone delayed in pre-ordering it like I did, get to it before they're all gone.

I stopped playing the demo right after the 2nd part started. I know it doesn't really give away anything big but there is some stuff I would like to wait until the 6th to see. I'm glad to hear the combat got cleaned up a bit in the part I didn't play. My main complaint from the first part was how clunky it seemed. Halfway through my Paragon play though in Mass Effect 2 so got a little bit of work to put in before the release anyway to get distracted by the demo...although it was tempting

Question:

I don't think I ever finished (or started, even) The Arrival DLC. Would it make playing part 3 better or is it not necessary?

I played The Arrival but haven't yet played ME3 (if you can imagine). I don't see it being necessary...

Arrival is crap and, based on the demo, barely acknowledged. All you need to know is that Shepard is no longer with Cerberus and the Alliance grounded him. ME2 sort of explains why Cerberus and Shepard had a falling out (not that he was ever a willing recruit) and Arrival just explains the tough decision Shepard was forced to make that put him at odds with the Alliance (his actions could potentially ignite another war with the Batarians).

Save your money on that particular DLC. I wish I had.

I wonder if ME3 will give you a recap of your ME1 and ME2 decisions if you're starting from an ME2 save. It's been so long that I don't remember much of the plot.

That would be nice. I remember the plot, but I did so many playthroughs with multiple characters that I'm not sure I remember which decisions I made on which save files.

Bioware stated they'd use an interactive comic similar to what was used for the console versions of ME2.

ME2 walked you through the 'what did you do in __ situation before' and I honestly had trouble remembering the names and circumstances because I saved and re-tried different options.

Didn't you just port over your ME1 save (while keeping other saves handy)? That's what I did.

So far I have not felt that my choices have mattered that much when it comes to the games. If I let someone die, the game just replaces that character with another, giving them the same lines with a few different touches. It would be very difficult to make a game with true branching paths. I wanted my save files to have my choices going into 3, but I never truly believed that it would make any difference to my experience.

Mass Effect 3 is probably going to be my game of the year no matter what....