Premptive: What do you want to see in Mass Effect 3?

[Bateluer]

There seems to be a loading bug with certain dual-cores. Perhaps today's patch fixes it? On my quad-core Normandy loads are instant.

The combat/skill system isn't going to change -- that's why the level cap is 30. We'll surely see new skills though.

I don't see anything in the patch notes mentioning dual cores, few fixes for single core chips though.

 

[Qbah]

More interaction between party members and at least an honest attempt at a romance plot as great as Viconia in BG2... Yeah, one can dream. And not 4 talks and that's it... Loyalty mission + 3-4 talks is very weak... Compared to the epic feeling of BG2 romance plots, this is a joke

More items - not necessarily an inventory during missions, but more stuff to pick up and customize your gear with. Perhaps some unique mods for the weapons, more types of weapons you can customize. And armor - perhaps up their bonus a bit? And lower upgrade bonuses.

Also, perhaps try and implement space combat? This is the terminus system, pirates, geth etc. Would be fun to pew pew with the Normandy a bit.

I loved the gameplay btw. It was a lot more engaging than in ME1 and a lot more fun. You used skills a lot more and each gun was useful. Hopefully that will carry over to ME3.

 

[Ika]

At the start, it wasn't bad, but as the game progressed, it got progressively worse.

yeah, I noticed this as well - as I reached the final stretch of the game, my load times would sometimes randomly jump to 2-3 minutes. I would have to alt-tab, pray that my game hadn't crashed, and come back. It was really bad for time-sensitive parts of the game

Spoiler

like when you have to control Joker to save the ship

.

As for my personal issues... (some minor spoilers outside of the tags, read with caution)

1) I didn't like the ramping of difficulty as the game went on. The difference between level 1 and level 25 is very little - a little more health, a little more damage, slightly longer-lasting powers... but when it takes the entire game to get to level 25, and your improvement is pitiful, something seems wrong.

2) I also didn't like how some of the loyalty missions forced you to choose between paragon and renegade paths when deciding on a crew member (

Spoiler

for instance, Zaeed's loyalty mission; if you screw up and don't have the Paragon points for it, you'll never get his loyalty. It also takes a full Paragon meter to convince Jack/Miranda back to Loyalty if you don't have enough at the time of the confrontation...

.

3) The lore of the "ammo system" kinda sucks. If you need to eject a clip to "reload", what if you reload when you have 49 bullets out of 50? Is one thermal clip a real "clip" or what? They should at least elaborate on this more if they want to make it more believable.
Personally I think they should have overheating weapons that cool slowly over time; if you overheat, you can reload, ejecting one of your thermal clips, but if you manage your ammo, you won't necessarily need to.

4) Also the romance plots for ME2 SUCKED. It took all of maybe three dialogues to get Miranda in bed. What the heck is that? I put zero effort into romancing Tali as well; I didn't even need to do anything. Mass Effect 1 romances were at least fun to go for, and don't get me started about BG2 romances...

 

[Bateluer]

4) Also the romance plots for ME2 SUCKED. It took all of maybe three dialogues to get Miranda in bed. What the heck is that? I put zero effort into romancing Tali as well; I didn't even need to do anything. Mass Effect 1 romances were at least fun to go for, and don't get me started about BG2 romances...

This is something that really irritated me as well. I'd just gotten Tali as a crew member, got her loyalty quest immediately afterward, and then she was hitting on me the next I spoke with her. I'm not expecting something like BG2 or DAO, but when I spend a grand total of 5 minutes speaking with the character and they're stripping down for you, there's an issue.

 

[Niku]

Its going to be a big finale where all the races of the universe unite behind Shepard. How many people has Shepard helped if you play the game paragon? He even aids the geth. The Rachni. The Krogans are becomming a single people if you didn't kill Wrex. Eventually, every one is going to get buddy buddy enough to throw their collective lots in with Shepard. And its going to be pretty epic if its done right.

 

[Zenoth]

This is something that really irritated me as well. I'd just gotten Tali as a crew member, got her loyalty quest immediately afterward, and then she was hitting on me the next I spoke with her. I'm not expecting something like BG2 or DAO, but when I spend a grand total of 5 minutes speaking with the character and they're stripping down for you, there's an issue.

Suspension of disbelief is a good friend in RPGs, you don't have to take that five minutes as the only five minutes Shepard has ever spent with Tali, especially Tali in fact, she's "been around" with Shepard since ME1. It's just highly figurative, and you really don't have to take the implausibility of the narrative that seriously. Just tell yourself that your Shepard has been with her for the duration of the events in ME1, which certainly account for more than five minutes.

 

[l0cke]

Its going to be a big finale where all the races of the universe unite behind Shepard. How many people has Shepard helped if you play the game paragon? He even aids the geth. The Rachni. The Krogans are becomming a single people if you didn't kill Wrex. Eventually, every one is going to get buddy buddy enough to throw their collective lots in with Shepard. And its going to be pretty epic if its done right.

What a lot of people missed is

Spoiler

using the genophage cure made by Mordin's student to make an army of krogan. It said this in the summary of the Mordin loyalty mission.

I'm still hoping that they will pull something totally unexpected for the ending.

Also, if they stop at 3 I will be pissed. I want prequels or something. Maybe they will make a ME game where you can play as any race.

 

[Ika]

Suspension of disbelief is a good friend in RPGs, you don't have to take that five minutes as the only five minutes Shepard has ever spent with Tali, especially Tali in fact, she's "been around" with Shepard since ME1. It's just highly figurative, and you really don't have to take the implausibility of the narrative that seriously. Just tell yourself that your Shepard has been with her for the duration of the events in ME1, which certainly account for more than five minutes.

However, unlike Tali, Miranda was distrustful of you in the beginning, and it still only takes like five dialogues (maybe more, I kinda forget) to get her in bed. The least I'm asking for is DA:O style romances - those were pretty good too, I forgot.

Its going to be a big finale where all the races of the universe unite behind Shepard. How many people has Shepard helped if you play the game paragon? He even aids the geth. The Rachni. The Krogans are becomming a single people if you didn't kill Wrex. Eventually, every one is going to get buddy buddy enough to throw their collective lots in with Shepard. And its going to be pretty epic if its done right.

Remember, Bioware has to cater to both Paragons and Renegades. While it would be awesome if every race you helped joined you in the fight against the Reapers (as I did the Paragon path and saved everyone but the Krogans, kind of) they can't possibly make ME3 that much harder because you screwed up in the first two games.

 

[Niku]

Maybe. But i think they could pull it off. If you were going to be a giant ass hole, the human fleet might be large and powerful enough to defeat the reapers all by them selves.

 

[Kev]

And, from a technical standpoint. What with the damn load screens? Why does it take my E8500 with 8GB of RAM and a Radeon 4870 several minutes to take the elevator from the CIC to the Crew Deck? The game itself hums along at 60fps with maximum detail settings, but the load screens are a major interruption. I realize the game was ported from to the PC from the console, but part of a successful, well done, port is to optimize the game for the PC's strengths. Load screens like this should be minimal.

Something's wrong with your machine. I have a similar system with less RAM and it takes half a second to load. Maybe it's a HD issue?

A few things I would like to see:

1) More citadel. I wanted this in ME1 too. It just seems too small.

2) Have your choices actually have "real" consequences. At no point in ME2 did I feel like my choices in ME1 made and real difference in how things played out. Just mentioning what I did in conversation is not very intriguing to me. For example, if I freed the rachni in ME1, or let the rebel geth live in ME2, those choices should have serious consequences on how hard it is to beat the game.

 

[Qbah]

I can imagine the epic battle at the end though...

Reapers

vs

Geth (pure synthetics) + Rachni (pure organics) + all the sapient races (a synergy of technology and biology)

Plus battles aboard the Reapers with Geth fighting alongside the Rachni and Krogans, Humans, Turians, Salarians and Asari all united to fight the indoctrinated species and their Reaper gods...

Basically it will be Reapers vs The Milky Way

CAN'T WAIT !

Epic doesn't begin to describe the feeling it will have, if they make it right !