The first two clues (plus a Mass Effect rifle) point (http://"http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/5259889/5#5260536") to Aequitas (http://"http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Aequitas"), a planet in Mass Effect 2 known for its "Iron Canyons" and a surface temperature of -128.5F (-89C).
It was also the site of a sidemission, N7: Abandoned Mine (http://"http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/N7:_Abandoned_Mine") in which a Reaper indoctrination device turned a research team into husks and abominations.
Here's the description:QuoteHome to the famous Iron Canyons, Aequitas has reddish iron oxide dust (hematite) covering much of its surface and significant blue cobalt deposits that freckle the terrain. Turian (http://"http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Turian") explorers have discovered hot springs in the polar ice caps, heated by magma in the planet's crust. In a strange combination of science and hucksterism a small facility exports water from these springs, which is bottled and sold as having medicinal properties. The funds are then used to maintain a research station, which has discovered some fossil evidence that Aequitas once harbored microscopic life, based on deoxyribonucleic acids in these springs.
IT'S THE PLANET FROM DRAGON AGE. HOLY SHIT. It's a prequel to one franchise but also a sequel to a different, unrelated franchise! MINDBLOW
There are some "viral" marketing hints. A few redlaser app images:All I get is binary when I scan the two on RedLaser. (Granted, I just downloaded RL for this purpose, so maybe I'm not using it properly.)
This scans as the mass of iron.
-128.5, which is the coldest recorded temperature on Earth.
They bought the Slann back in 40k like five years ago and I don't think they ever killed the old Warhammer Fantasy 'Slann Warp Gates' backstory.
Noise Marines still exist.
Orks are a weird one. They've arguably been made LESS stupid since Rogue Trader came out. Who here remembers that Orks were once allowed to field weaponised Ork heavy metal bands?
I just had a thought that there hasn't been a Firefly video game. Considering the fact that the crossover audience for Mass Effect style space RPG and Firefly must be huge, this seems like an oversight. Presumably getting the cast together wouldn't be too hard. Though I guess Bioware have their own franchise now so they probably wouldn't want to do it.
There's definitely been an ebb and flow to the ridiculousness though, particularly where Fantasy Battle is concerned. Much like Skaven they've had periods of relative normality punctuated by periods where their army list just makes you say "Wait, it does what?"
I have no idea what the Skaven are like now.
The Clash
Earth is burning. Striking from beyond known space, a race of terrifying machines have begun their destruction of the human race. As Commander Shepard, an Alliance Marine, your only hope for saving mankind is to rally the civilizations of the galaxy and launch one final mission to take back the Earth.
Aragorn (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GondorCallsForAid).
that summary makes it sound like they completely shelved all the rpg elements that weren't discarded in me2.
booo.
We are analyzing and criticizing a game based solely on a leaked blurb on a storefront.Wait, are you suggesting we entertain ourselves by playing video games that are actually out and playable rather than scrutinizing unreliable leaks about details that even if true are not finalized?
Have some perspective.
We are analyzing and criticizing a game based solely on a leaked blurb on a storefront.
Have some perspective.
Teaser! (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363)
You have 51 words written by a PR department and 3 seconds of a guy in the snow with a gun.
Teaser! (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/vga-10-mass-effect/708363)
Let's be serious, despite Bioware's gum-flapping to the contrary ME has always been about Shepard the Space Chosen One. The climax has to take place on Earth because this one dude is so aggravating to the Reapers that they're going to go after this one specific planet to conquer the galaxy. I'm sure the explanation will have something to do with making new Reapers, as shown at the end of ME2 - invariably in any setting with races other than humans, humans are exceptional in some special way, having to do with their adaptability or ambition or whatever.
so we went from "Save the galaxy" to "Save earth maybe sometimes"
so we went from "Save the galaxy" to "Save earth maybe sometimes"
don't think the premise is that they're going to destroy earth and then peace out back to dark space but ok
Multiple discs are only a problem if you are to lazy to get off your arse or keep 12-13 GB free on your HD.i'm a console gamer all the way, just can't use a mouse, especially not for shooters. so i play my games on xbox360. when it's time to switch disks it tells me which to swich to and i get off my bed walk the 2 steps and change disks :psyduck:
Future spoilers? xDThis sounds awesome pawsome.
It's easily one of the best and well fleshed out sci-fi universes I've seen in a very long time....I'm left to wonder how much of that is because the Mass Effect Universe has not been explored and the gaps are being filled with each person's imagination.
For the final chapter it is in my hopes that the game won't lose focus on the main objective: tell a great interactive story. That means no multiplayer please! We already have a dime a dozen. No more "pleasing the Halo/GoW" crowd either! Not if it implies budget cuts at their story depth. I'm not into M.E. for the take-cover system.i agree completley with everything you just said, but most strongly with the NO MULTIPLAYER PLEASE point. unless it is going to be coperative campaign where your friends can play as the squadmates then please don't sully a perfectly good game by slapping some stupid competitive mode on to the end. i play video games for the story and on a game like this adding a multiplayer mode would do nothing more than mean the people making the game have less time to bang out the awesome story mode and check for bugs and glitches and stuff.
Also, as neomang5 implied, I want to see more from other alien cultures and how they work. I wish for the "earth scene" to be a starter or middle event, and not the grand finale. I don't mind a little "we humans are important too" flavour to the mix. Lets just hope it isn't the main course. Shepard's "death" was the start of M.E. 2, and I hope Earth's invasion is M.E. 3 start as well.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and it's fucking brilliant multiplayer alongside its wonderful single player would like you to understand that that's not always the case.And yet, it is the case most of the times.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and it's fucking brilliant multiplayer alongside its wonderful single player would like you to understand that that's not always the case.yup that's why even though i absolutley loved the first two games and played through them several times each. i am boycotting brotherhood thank you very much, that game didn't need some gimmickey multiplayer to detract from disk space thus making the part of the game that made it good shorter
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and it's fucking brilliant multiplayer alongside its wonderful single player would like you to understand that that's not always the case.yup that's why even though i absolutley loved the first two games and played through them several times each. i am boycotting brotherhood thank you very much, that game didn't need some gimmickey multiplayer to detract from disk space thus making the part of the game that made it good shorter
Confirmed: Poorly coded, designed game contributes idea for better developers.
Like Dragon Age with LotR, yeah?
I think ultimately I was disappointed by ME2. Assembling the crew was interesting but then the actual campaign was over in a moment and wasn't particular memorable either.
I thought that was a representative of the female camp who happened to be male.
A female Salarian/Krogan companion will lead to a female empowerment/women's rights sub-plot. It is in inevitable.
I thought that was a representative of the female camp who happened to be male.
If I recall, it was a basically neutered male since he was the only one who could be a trusted representative and not just go around the female camp pillaging and raping. Mostly raping.
I would love to have a Batarian teammate as part of the whole, "We must all come together," thing, but I have the feeling that he would constantly get shit on by everyone else.
There are female krogan in the Urdnot Camp in ME2. They look and sound just like males, if that's what you're wondering.
I reckon a new feature will be the ability to have a romance with everything and anything in the game.not if joker has anything to say about it... :wink:
the Normandy,
I reckon a new feature will be the ability to have a romance with everything and anything in the game.
Anderson, Udina, the entire council (at the same time), your pistol, a Helper, the Normandy, the Citadel...
Will there ever be a game that contains an honest, realistic, player controlled relationship between two people?Torment did it quite well, except that she had a tail. Also, no sex, just talking.
Has that ever existed in any medium?
Will there ever be a game that contains an honest, realistic, player controlled relationship between two people?
Will there ever be a game that contains an honest, realistic, player controlled relationship between two people?
Has that ever existed in any medium?
You could sort of romance a lady with wings, too. But hers didn't culminate in a kiss, whereas the tail lady did.Will there ever be a game that contains an honest, realistic, player controlled relationship between two people?Torment did it quite well, except that she had a tail. Also, no sex, just talking.
Has that ever existed in any medium?
You guys didn't love the blood theme? It was so thematic!
I have to assume the Liara/Shitty Human Survivor/Garrus/"James" team is just at the beginning of the game, right?Sounds like it. Garrus can also, you know, be dead.
Right?
I have to assume the Liara/Shitty Human Survivor/Garrus/"James" team is just at the beginning of the game, right?
Right?
Jack is good if yr playing a on a lower difficulty, or if you really want Squad Warp Ammo.
Miranda was probably the best human companion of the series, which isn't saying much.I liked both the DLC characters a lot more, despite neither of them being all that fleshed out, mostly because I thought Miranda was a little too fleshed out (I get it Bioware, she has a giant rack and a peach-like ass) and her inferiority complex (AM I PERFECT OR REALLY REALLY PERFECT?!) was never anything less than irritating. Plus hers was probably the last companion mission I went on so I was all "Great, more family trouble"
I never noticed anything about Miranda's figure to be honest, she just seemed to look like the generic ME female to me.Her art ass (http://i.imagehost.org/0028/MassEffect2_2010-01-26_21-02-17-21.jpg)ets are significantly larger.
I think they did as well as they good with a supposedly brilliant individual. I know a few incredibly attractive and talented people who seem constantly haunted by the prospect of being anything less than perfect in every way. It's not like if you're super smart and ultra cute you have no problems, sometimes it ramps them up even more and I think they managed to just about capture that dichotomy.
In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.
If you worship money and things -- if they are where you tap real meaning in life -- then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you.
On one level, we all know this stuff already -- it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power -- you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart -- you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.
Look, the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful; it is that they are unconscious. They are default-settings. They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing. And the world will not discourage you from operating on your default-settings, because the world of men and money and power hums along quite nicely on the fuel of fear and contempt and frustration and craving and the worship of self.
Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom to be lords of our own tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the center of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.
I think they did as well as they good with a supposedly brilliant individual. I know a few incredibly attractive and talented people who seem constantly haunted by the prospect of being anything less than perfect in every way. It's not like if you're super smart and ultra cute you have no problems, sometimes it ramps them up even more and I think they managed to just about capture that dichotomy.I get that, I just don't think it's worth writing, hearing about, or playing therapist with in the hopes of having digital sex. Listening to people wrestle with privilege is very rarely interesting. I'm pretty much over companions with deeply ingrained self-esteem issues. I don't think it's a coincidence that my line between "interesting" and "intolerable" amongst ME2 companions neatly divides characters who are confident in themselves (Mordin, Tali, Grunt, Thane, Samara) and characters who nurse some deep insecurity (Miranda, Jacob, Jack). Unsurprisingly, those characters make up the majority of romance options. Garrus gets a pass because his vendetta/PTSD isn't inherently stupid.
I dunno if Jack is insecure. It seems more like she's a cold and impersonal person who struggles to get close to people. Which is rather like Lisbeth now that I think about it.I think they did as well as they good with a supposedly brilliant individual. I know a few incredibly attractive and talented people who seem constantly haunted by the prospect of being anything less than perfect in every way. It's not like if you're super smart and ultra cute you have no problems, sometimes it ramps them up even more and I think they managed to just about capture that dichotomy.I get that, I just don't think it's worth writing, hearing about, or playing therapist with in the hopes of having digital sex. Listening to people wrestle with privilege is very rarely interesting. I'm pretty much over companions with deeply ingrained self-esteem issues. I don't think it's a coincidence that my line between "interesting" and "intolerable" amongst ME2 companions neatly divides characters who are confident in themselves (Mordin, Tali, Grunt, Thane, Samara) and characters who nurse some deep insecurity (Miranda, Jacob, Jack). Unsurprisingly, those characters make up the majority of romance options. Garrus gets a pass because his vendetta/PTSD isn't inherently stupid.
This pattern is likewise reflected in Dragon Age 2, with Aveline and Varric being the best characters and Merrill / Anders being the worst.
I dunno if Jack is insecure. It seems more like she's a cold and impersonal person who struggles to get close to people. Which is rather like Lisbeth now that I think about it.
And I haven't done it myself because I actually haven't finished a playthrough as female Shepard yet, but I heard from people who did that Garrus's romance is arguably the best one Bioware's ever done precisely because it acknowledges how weird the situation is.
I think giving Garrus a chip on his shoulder did his character worlds of good. He's much more enjoyable now that he's a little more sarcastic. He has some of the funnier cracks in the game in my opinion.
And I haven't done it myself because I actually haven't finished a playthrough as female Shepard yet, but I heard from people who did that Garrus's romance is arguably the best one Bioware's ever done precisely because it acknowledges how weird the situation is.
Well, looks like the Citadel's going to get fucked up again. And I am getting a serious Shep vibe from that lead bot thing in the second pic.The article they're from indicates that the pics are from a mission on the Salarian homeworld (my money on ME2 companions being temporary / location-based in ME3 is looking smarter), so it looks like the Reapers are probably just hitting all the racial homeworlds in the galaxy. The Citadel's probably on the list, though I could see it being the resistance base and all. With the Conduit shut there's only one way in and it's through the front door.
Ashely looks silly.
She done got Flemeth'd!Ashely looks silly.
seriously
New promo vid: Casey Hudson on the beginnings of Mass Effect (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/26/casey-hudson-interview-how-mass-effect-began.aspx)To be fair to him I played on PC so I clicked my mouse button
"These relationships, you really have to pursue them, it's not just, you press A then you're in a relationship." - LOL
New promo vid: Casey Hudson on the beginnings of Mass Effect (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/26/casey-hudson-interview-how-mass-effect-began.aspx)
"These relationships, you really have to pursue them, it's not just, you press A then you're in a relationship." - LOL
How they made some of them aliens (http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/22/mass-effect-the-origin-of-species.aspx).
I'll finally have something to throw at the bros who insist that Asari aren't female.
PC Gamer UK posted:
-Tali is confirmed squadmate
"Garrus, Liara, Kaidan, Ashley and (newly confirmed) Tali are all full
time members of your team if they survived the previous games."
-Wrex?
"I asked point blank about Wrex and got as close to a 'no' as I think Bioware will come at this early stage: exceutive producer Casey Hudson simply re-emphasised that such characters canplay a role and fight alongside you without necessarily being permanent squad members."
-No new LIs in ME3
-Biotics are more potent in combat
"Biotics can use their Pull ability to rip a shield out of someone's hands" (I dont get this)
-Multi Layered combat areas
"The games combat spaces have graduated from the often-familiar open areas dotted with low walls. They're now multi layed encouraging you to seek high ground for a better vantage point...[the rest is about Cerberus rocket boot dudes using this to their advantage]
-class Specific Melee attacks
Engineer: Omni-tool fire lash attack
Adept: Melee (biotic) attack that knocks everyone near them away and stuns
-Powers Evolve more than once
"In ME3 this is just the start. A Vanguard player can customise their devastating Charge move first to slam people harder, then do more damage, then to reduce the cooldown.
-Powers combine
Example given with Soldier: "Soldier still has an arcing attack called Concussive Shot, but it now behaves differently depending on the ammo ugrade he/she is using. Cryo ammo lets you use that same trajectory to deliver a blast of ice that canfreeze every enemy in the area."
-Story is more like ME1 than ME2
-Places being visited (at least what the Magazine reports):
[...]mission takes you to the Salarian homeworld, the Quarian homeworld, the Asari homeworld, and the human homeworld - Earth. You'll even go to Mars [...]
-Every major character you have met will play a role in the last game
-Why is Cerberus after Shepard? They are working with the Reapers
"If your wondering why we were fighting Cerberus, having worked closely with this shadowy organisation in Mass Effect 2, the answer just raises further questions. They are wokring with the Reapers"
-Reaperized enemies include Asari, Krogan, Rachni
"In Mass Effect 3 we'll fight the Reapers other experiments, with other species.
One is a hideously bloated pregnant Asari, her gums stripped away and a robot skeleton showing through her rotting flesh"
"The Reapers take on the Rachni, who were already viscious insect monsters,are covered with bulging savs of lesser creatures. Rather than hitting their weak spot for massive damage, you want to avoid it like the plague: bursting any of these sacs before the creature is dead wit will unleash a swarm of horrible mini-rachni that crawl all over your body"
"The Reaperised Krogan wears heavy armor plates that can shear off with enough focused fire. Once you do the creature changes its behaviour to be more defensive clutching its lurid blue intestines to its stomach as its lumbers towards you"
Casey Hudson summarizing ME3 (This is an article quote):
"Casey sums up Mass Effect 3 as being about victory through sacrifice, the scale of that sacrifice has been increasing with each new chapter" [Rest is authors speculation about saving(or not saving) Wrex and Rachni consequences]
"In Mass Effect 3 we'll fight the Reapers other experiments, with other species.
One is a hideously bloated pregnant Asari, her gums stripped away and a robot skeleton showing through her rotting flesh"
Apparently, according to OXM, you can jump and roll, and blindfire has been introduced.
As well as gaining civilisation's alliegance, you can lose them to the Reapers if you don't play right, similarly to losing squadmates in the suicide mission.
Your weapons have three upgrade slots -scope barrel and grip, and you can change the colour and camoflage of weapons.
The magazine rumours that Garrus is being built up to a dramatic death.
Cerberus and husks will be main enemies, and cerberus is divided into three main types of troops - heavy bruisers, medium and light.
You may be able to get an eyepiece, like Garrus's, that will allow non-sniper weapons to scope in further, which also hints at armour having more of an effect on gameplay.
Bioware are going to announce something big at E3 - a lot of the gameplay features and more squadmates.
Gears of War has genuinely impressive set design and dressing in general. Much better than Mass Effect's horribly outdated rooms with two boxes in etc.
Really? Playing GoW2 (and Gow1 to an even greater extent) I was really struck by how much I noticed the abdomen-level walls that litter pretty much every level. Every single third-person shooter has them (even the MEs) but for some reason they were stood out in GoW. I think the main problem was that UE3, such as it was, restricted the size of areas thus making every level a linear corridor shooter with blockades you could blind-fire behind. They're promising much, much larger levels and a greater degree of tactical movement (along with an AI boost) in ME3. Hopefully they deliver.
frankly i think my favourite example of a cover system in games is still splinter cell: conviction, which has you using, like, parked cars and garden planters and desks in an office and a bunch of other things that are actually convincingly native to the environment
Happy to confirm #ME3 supports wider options for love interests incl. same-sex for m&f chars, reactive to how you interact w/them in-game.You don't just press a button either!
the ability to get wrex pregnant hasn't been confirmed yet, no
This directly leads to one of the most important reasons why a female Shepard works so well: not only does she benefit from equally elite status to her spear counterpart, she’s never subject to the usual incredibly tired tropes, like her authority being called into question on account of her gender, or everyone obsessing over her looks instead of her heroic achievements.You know what would be terrible, if female characterization in games reflected the common female experience
QuoteThis directly leads to one of the most important reasons why a female Shepard works so well: not only does she benefit from equally elite status to her spear counterpart, she’s never subject to the usual incredibly tired tropes, like her authority being called into question on account of her gender, or everyone obsessing over her looks instead of her heroic achievements.You know what would be terrible, if female characterization in games reflected the common female experience
then again, there's ashley
Marcus Meercat is his name, I thinkthat's a pretty great last name
Voting is not yet final and we haven't announced which FemShep has won, but it looks like Penny Arcade is rooting for blonde!
"After this, Commander Shepard's story is complete," Mazuka told PC Gamer, adding that they were "correct" in suggesting that Shepard absolutely will not be present in any future games set in the Mass Effect universe.
I guess this is Commander Shepard's last hoorahQuote"After this, Commander Shepard's story is complete," Mazuka told PC Gamer, adding that they were "correct" in suggesting that Shepard absolutely will not be present in any future games set in the Mass Effect universe.