Shadow Broker, too.

How good is the first game? I'm considering playing through it just so I can replay 2 with more perspective.

It's great.

Hmm, also just thought, saving or letting the council die at the end of the first one could influence things too.

I wonder if anything I do can prevent billions of humans being exterminated and Earth being invaded.

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IJvrN6JijuU?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IJvrN6JijuU?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q10u2SIQ4pw?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q10u2SIQ4pw?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3n_hA_IsqGY?version=3&feature=player_detailpage"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3n_hA_IsqGY?version=3&feature=player_detailpage" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

It influences whether you get to hear Armin Shimmerman's voice work or not at any rate.

Just like Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3 won't be available on Steam since EA listed the game going to just Origin and a few other providers.

The PC version also requires a constant internet connection for multiplayer, no limits on installs but does require a mandatory one time verification check.

No news if the saves from the previous games will work on Origin but a lot of people are assuming it won't be possible if Origin doesn't allow Steam stuff to be used.

http://kotaku.com/5876171/surprise-s...aunch-on-steam

I want to buy it on release day, but I'll probably hold back a week or so, because games are released as broken messes these days.

Me and Shep will conclude our epic journey once the patches come in.

Then again, Bioware might completely surprise me and release a finished game. :eek: It's not like they're Bethesda.

Oh god, just finished my third full-run of the game. What a weird game to be addicted to.

Anyways, got the DLC "Genesis" and made a bunch of decisions. Saved the council, Kaidan, didn't have sex with anyone, allowed the Rachni to live, let Wrex live.

Now I've done everything I can to prepare for the war with the Reapers in ME3. Geth virus, genophage cure, wiped out a bunch of mercenaries, my entire crew survived, sent the information on Cerberus to the Alliance and on a whim allowed my son to decide the fate of the Collector Base. Out-of-character he said, "Keep it."

Really thought he'd want to see it blown up.

Bioware teamed up with Big Fish Toys to create an action figure set for Mass Effect 3 and as an extra bonus, each figurine comes with an access code for exclusive DLC for extra weapons and characters.

Each action figure costs $17.99 while a set of 4 figurines is $67 and the whole collection is $271. To make things a bit worse, the DLC is randomized so the same figurines don't contain the same DLC code content.

The DLC will also be available to use in the PC and Xbox 360 while the PS3 version won't get access.

http://kotaku.com/5878284/mass-effec...-expensive-dlc

Kinda wanna get one.

These going to be available at Toys R Us or some obscure online store?

I'd get a figure or two, but FFS, this DLC being spread all over the place is getting out of hand.

Steam and non-steam copies of 1 and 2 played nice together just fine. It just looks in your My Documents folder. It will be a non-issue.

I won't buy a doll just so I can have better armor.

I'm willing to just straight-up by better armor, however.

I'd wager all of the choices that were made in the first two games have some sort of effect on the culmination of events that will be Mass Effect 3.

honestly i doubt the choices in the first few have very much weight at all. just background noise to flesh out the world by in large.

Well, here's one example as someone who played Mass Effect 2 without playing one first ( I eventually played Genesis as I said).

The Rachni are extinct, Wrex died and the Krogan are so far from uniting that they'll be warring up until the Reaper invasion, most aliens hate humans for allowing the council to die and Anderson is a little bitch for an all-human council.

I went through and made sure to save the Rachni, Wrex and the council and things seemed a lot better this last go. I made all my decisions with amassing a giant galactic army against the Reapers in mind. Trying to cure the Genophage, remaining a spectre, saving my entire crew, and saving the collector base.

I think the Protheans lost against the Reapers because they went it alone. With all their technology (remember they disable a Reaper with some sort of super weapon) they still couldn't mount a successful war with the Reapers. If the humans don't have cooperation with everyone I think it's possible that you could end up losing the game.

Think of it like this, if you didn't get people's loyalty throughout the game and/or didn't make the right decisions you could "win" the game but end up dying. You can actually play the third game without Shepard.

Against my better judgement I think I might end up pre-ordering this.

<object id="flashObj" classid="clsid<img src=" images="" smilies="" biggrin.gif"="" alt="" title="Big Grin" smilieid="3" class="inlineimg" width="486" border="0" height="412">







<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="videoId=1416509827001&playerID=47033724001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAACs5syck~,78rNhQXP3tgTPdl2qi zABxM_IAHV3k_7&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" swliveconnect="true" allowscriptaccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" width="486" height="412"></object>

Human Soldier: Adreniline Burst, Concussive Blast, Frag Grenade

Quarian Engineer: Incinerate, Cryo Blast, Sentry Turret

Drell Vanguard: Biotic Charge, Pull, Cluster Grenade

Turian Sentinel:Warp, Overload, Tech Armor

Asari Vanguard: Biotic Charge, Stasis, Lift Grenade

Salarian Infiltrator: Energy Drain, Tactical Cloak, Proximity Mine

Krogan Soldier: Carnage, Fortification, Inferno Grenade

I cannot wait to play as the Salarian Infiltrator.

Just started playing through 1 again.

I have no interest in Kinect functionality.

I started my third run of Mass Effect 2, and got quite into the mood of it, but I have been distracted by Arkham City. I've completed ME1 3 times and that's more than I thought I ever would, the third was on PC just to see what it was like there. ME2 is a game I really like and yet when I'm not playing it I don't look forward to playing it, but when you get drawn in it really works.

It's the story and the depth of the relationships. It's the best "choose your own adventure" story I've ever seen and I know that doesn't sound like a compliment. It's a pretty linear game when it comes down to it, but it feels like a massive setting.

Same here, forgot how much of a bitch Matriarch Benezia can be. You fight her minions wave by wave and eventually you get the wave where it's all fucking Geth Snipers...UGH!

You get me so well. Exactly. Like I have NO files now from 1 or 2, since my hard drive died. So I will be starting from scratch. But I was hoping maybe it could detect my achievements, and see that all memebers lived through 2, thus affecting my game in 3 so that I dont have a completely "Generic" file. Which will be the case.

Did you get rid of both of your games already? Or is this just not wanting to put the time and effort of redoing everything?

It can detect achievements in that it'll offer you powers to pick from if you've finished the game in the past, even if you don't have the save games any more, but I'm not sure about anything else.

I do not own either copy anymore, traded them both away :(

I am thinking about picking both back up and cranking through them again, but thats alot of work (I never want to have to "Mine" another planet like in 2)

I've mined loads twice and I'll mine again. I love mining http://forums.rajah.com/images/smilies/wired.gif

I mined so much that at times I forgot what game I was playing.

Here's a solution if all else fails. Buy 2 and then buy Genesis. It'll be cheaper and you won't have to replay 1.

What is genesis like? I'm not too bothered about what particular path the game takes from ME1...

It's a brief and mildly lame animated comic where you get backstory and make major decisions. I allowed Ashley Williams to die, didn't have sex with anyone, saved Wrex, saved the Rachni and saved the council.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YG9otVyV6GI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Chobot's face has gone a bit wrong, also tits.

I hate animated comics, and I'll never look near another one after that Dead Space Ignition garbage. I'll just live with the default decisions since they match what happened the first time I played ME1 anyway.

You genocidal alien racist!

femshep is the only shep

Blasphemy.

Nope.

Jennifer Hale's voice acting > whoever does the male version.

There are definitely issues with how he reads a few lines...but that smooth Shepard voice makes it all worth it.

Definitely agree that femshep is the best one. Especially renegade.

When you make a decision as a Renegade to do something "good", does it still do it in the "good voice"?

paragon femshep ftw :rant:

yeah, you kinda either have to do one or the other, mixin it up almost feels like you're playing a completely different person.

But renegade femshep is such a cold bitch. It's so satisfying.

lol, well thats true, she is a hardcore bitch. i only play femshep (because manshep is terrible) but i always play paragon first. game is more epic as paragon shep. renegade shep is only for the second playthrough just cause the game was good enough for a second go through.

The first time I played through more or less as myself. Mainly paragon stuff, but I totally allowed Grunt to Krogan out. Second time I sort of failed at getting perfect paragon, third time I figured it out (only because I wanted to save everyone).

A couple of Mass Effect 3 news with the Xbox 360 version of the multiplayer demo having a special "Gold"-access promotion for Silver/Free users starting on February 14 and lasting till March 6. PS3 and PC users will get the demo on the same date.

The single player demo will not carry any saves nor custom Shepard from previous ME games and was leaked to be a side quest style mission that doesn't really affect the ME 3 storyline or previous series saves.

Finally, EA will be revealing details on the mobile and handheld version of this game in the near future but its assumed to only be an app or extension pack to help manage items like what was done with Mass Effect 2 on mobile devices.

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...s-coming-soon/
http://www.giantbomb.com/news/mass-e...d-access/3960/

I'm a bit bored of Femshep now. I am playing as the default Shepard to get my money's worth out of that face.

The Kinect thing has had plenty of derision, but my particular problem would be "Do Overload, no, wait, which one does Barriers?"

When I was given that choice, I had no idea of the implications. I didn't see why I would sacrifice my attack on Saren in order to save a bunch of pencil pushers. How am I supposed to know that it will have absolutely no negative impact to go out of my way to save them and that I was just being selfish?

That's the problem with a lot of these "morality" games. Mass Effect does it the best and it is still extremely flawed. If this was the Star Trek Universe at least we'd have some guidelines to follow rather than just guessing what the game makers consider to be good and bad.

The only reason I even know that saving the council was "good" was because it added a cut-scene that ended with Shep being a Spectre again. The first time I played Mass Effect 2 the council died. I encountered a shitload more anger from aliens because of it.

Achievement list got leaked with an achievement giving the option of either playing the campaign twice with no previous saves or once with a ME2 save imported. Highest point value is 75 for beating the game on Insanity.

http://www.screwattack.com/news/mass...r-immeasurable


Also for the Xbox 360 version is the ability to get free avatar stuff and early demo access by downloading the Mass Effect 3 Mission Command App from Facebook. The stuff has some requirements such as a free Normandy avatar prop to everyone if enough people sign up and then extra gifts based on achieving certain requirements with free DLC being given away as a possible gift.

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...y-demo-access/

Take it with a grain of salt but Gamestop is already selling codes for DLC content for the game with the first one rumored to be called "From Dust."

The DLC has a $10 price tag but neither EA nor Bioware have made any mentions of DLC content nor day 1 DLC packs.

It could either be a mix up by Gamestop or something EA wants to hold off from revealing so that people don't get upset at Day 1 DLC.

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...led-from-dust/

Hmmm...I dunno about the DLC, I got some just because I had gotten xbox points for Xmas. Feel like the DLC armor and stuff wasn't worth it. Though it was neat at first wearing the bright red Cerberus armor.

Not really fussed about the Collectors Edition, but HMV are offering a free N7 shirt with pre-orders, so I'm all over that shit.

This is the first game I've actually pre-ordered. Usually I wait a year as I'm a budget gamer.

paid off the game today...it will have to wait till im done with amalur tho

I hope the spikey armor I get from playing the Amalur demo is available from the start.

2 new characters were leaked with one having a physical appearance change and the other being a character who ends up changing part of the previous assumed storyline as a result.



They were also leaked to be playable in the campaign mode.

http://www.screwattack.com/news/spoi...d-mates-leaked

Gender change?

It's available for $47 this weekend from newegg.com with the promo code EMCYTZT1174

...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

You can pre order this and enter the code above at checkout. Free 3 day shipping. I've ordered I think 4 games from newegg and they usually get here on Thursday, one time on Wednesday. No pre order bonuses though like with other sites.

Some people have problems with them not shipping until the next week but they seem to be in the minority and I've never experienced that.

Thought the game wasn't available until March. Hell, the demo's coming out on my birthday.

Pre-order

Ah.

Demo out tomorrow, unless you got it early. I can't figure out that facebook app "decode" shit...

One of the gameplay trailers (the reaper base one) clearly shows Legion in the Normandy.

Edit: not in the Normandy, but very much part of the game

Xbox 360 campaign demo is available today but with a small restriction on the co-op multiplayer part while the PC and PS3 version should be getting it before the end of the day.

The demo is around 1.7 GB in size and offers 2 single player missions with an extra 2 co-op missions only available now to those who activated their Battlefield 3 Online Pass. Non-pass users have to wait till February 17 to unlock the co-op portion of the demo.

http://www.egmnow.com/articles/news/...demo-now-live/

PS3 PAL version of the demo is reportedly delayed though for an extra day.

Multiplayer is hella fun. Level 9 or 10 sentinel right now. Can't wait to see what it's like in the full game. Looks like there are different enemies other than Cerberus, and obviously there will be more maps. It's just really smooth and plays really fast.

I enjoyed the single-player demo. I just wish it had let me port my character for it. Wasn't able to access multiplayer when I tried.

Can't figure out a good color scheme for my guy :(

Also can't remember which bionic power it was that kept an enemy levitated in the air

So, figured out that hotkeys will assign automatically if you select the character and restart the game (on PC at least).

That said, Sentinel is overpowered and fun as hell. Infiltrator is my second favorite class. Love cryofreeze spamming everything. Soldier is a pussy for the most part. Not that fun to play. Haven't played vanguard or adept. Engineer is sort of weak it seems. Turret is not that good, although I haven't really leveled it.

Yay for xbox! Multiplayer on the demo is online and fun. Everyone I play with is fucking horrible though. Maybe I need to turn the mic on...

Been playing alone on the White Firebase and just racking it up with my little engineer. Never knew the combat drone was so useful since I've always played as a sentinel (tech shield ftw).

Gunna add you

dazhavu752 xbox live

Wow...I...generally didn't care very much about the combat in Mass Effect 2. It wasn't bad or anything, but I felt like it was just a hurdle I had to overcome to get to the next part of the story.

Been playing the shit out of multiplayer now and, despite a few flaws (reviving a squad member usually puts you in the cover position), it is really fun. I might not make my teammates do all the work in the next game.

From Penny-Arcade's Tycho:

That's good to hear, I can go ahead and let my Gold membership expire then.

You won't be able to play the full multiplayer without it.

That's kind of what I mean, I always do the side-quests, so I don't need to bother with the multiplayer to get the best ending.

Oooohhh....well, I have been really enjoying it. Give it a shot.

You guys wanna run a squad tonight? I'll be home around 10

I know how to invite people, yet I am pretty confused about how to join games. Been playing with a Brit and an American pretty frequently. Can't find anyone good enough to finish a Silver game so far.

LEVEL 20 ENGINEER! :D

i have just primarily rocking a krogan soldier. pretty badass. never played a mass effect game before, but this has been pretty fun. becoming pretty decent. may try some silver tomorrow, but hate playing with randoms.

More often than not I join a silver room only to find that everyone is level 1. A good portion of the times it's half and half...with me and one other dude being level 18+ or something and then two people who have never played before.

If I'm the leader I change it to bronze and just play it.

I'm just glad they didn't make it so that some of these other portions of the game had to be played in order to get 'X' result in single player.

im now confident that i can do silver. bronze is getting way too easy with 4 guys

Feel the same way. Fuck, bronze is getting easy with three guys.

Gold is still ridiculous however.

dont think i will ever be able to do that before the actual game comes out

Unless our characters level max is going to be like 40, I don't see it either.

The first DLC packs for the game was accidentally leaked by the Xbox Marketplace and will be called "From Ashes".

The DLC pack also confirms earlier rumors about the Mass Effect 3 story changing part of what was previously known in the other 2 games.



http://kotaku.com/5887092/xbox-marke...s-effect-3-dlc

For those of you who have purchased the N7 Collector's Edition (including the PC Digital Deluxe Edition), you will get this content at no extra charge. We'll have a lot more details for you later this week! Stay Tuned!

yay 4 me

I only preordered the standard edition since I didn't care for most of the other shit. Will download the From Ashes DLC though.

The digital version on PSN will be having an exclusive pre-order not available for the PS3 version.

http://www.giantbomb.com/news/you-ca...-via-psn/3998/


Bioware also confirms the first DLC pack called "From Ashes" will be free to anyone who ordered the N7 Collector's Edition of the game while everyone else has to pay regardless if the game was bought used or new. The DLC was never originally intended to be part of the collector's edition until very recently which is why its only a download code and not on the disc itself.

http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/...-for-paid-dlc/

I got the points...want the fucking Prothean on my team.

WELL DTTS, THANKS FOR SPOILING THAT!

You purposely avoid anything regarding the games plot or DLC, and this dude here fucks it all up.

just kidding, i read it already and spoiled it for myself.

Is it really a spoiler? I mean, people already know about available characters and whatnot, and considering all the news on this ya know?

Anyways, glad you're kidding.

How does talking about a DLC character, that would've been announced when the dlc was announced, spoil anything anyway?