199 replies to this topic

[Ogul]

So. I went to the midnight game release. I don't usually do that, but then I thought, "I usually go to sleep around the time in the morning that I'd have to go pick it up, and I'm perfectly awake right now, so why not?" There were about twenty people there, some of which were also picking up Game of Thrones. It was a pretty smooth process though.

[Chris D]

Cool. I should have my copy sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening. Basically whenever UPS gets around here. Which is usually near the end of the day. Just hope I don't miss them and have to go through that process.

[Ogul]

Ok, so I just got done playing about four, maybe five hours of the game (note that I play slow, one could maybe do the same tasks in an hour or so less), and it's FANTASTIC. Storywise I got through the first two combat missions, not counting the stuff from the demo, and tooled around Normandy a bit. If you've played the game before, it will welcome you with open arms, chock full of references to your past adventures. If you've never played before, it does a really good job of both teaching you the controls, and also getting you up to speed on the plot, but in a fairly natural way. There are a lot of inter-companion dialogs that take place during missions that do a good job of feeding you intel, for example one conversation during the second mission that explains the whole "Genophage" situation linking the Turians and Salurians to the Krogan, and forshadowing missions to come. . .

The new team members are fun. James is a much more fun partner than any of the previous humans, he has a lot of life to him, even if he is a bit dumb. He strikes me as very "NCIS: LA," sort of a mash-up of G, Sam, and Deeks. The other new one I got, I don't want to spoil but it's hilarious.

There's a lot of fun elements too, like how for some reason they took all my toy ships away and scattered them all over the Normandy to find (and apparently there's a space hamster loose in the engine room). Also, Jessica Chobot is on my ship for some reason.

Also, they started me off where I left off, at level 30. They refunded a few of my skill points since the trees shifted around, but otherwise I was ready to go. Unfortunately they took my guns away though, so it took me a while to get my lovely Viper back. Stupid bolt-action Mantis.

And for those that don't mind spoilers (or are already past the "moon" mission and the scenes on the Normandy afterwards):

Spoiler

I love the scene where you get EDI's body. I haven't tried her in combat, but the dialog with the Doc afterwards, and with Joker, and then with EDI on the bridge are all hilarious. They made her one of those "sexy robot" models, and yet they hang a lampshade on it. There shall be Rule 34, I know it. It kind of makes me feel bad that I put Shepard in her black party dress for casual situations.

Anyways, can't wait to continue it tomorrow.

[Ryan Landau]

Regarding your spoiler:

Spoiler

I'm only about an hour ahead of you but EDI's character arc is kind of sweet (thus far, at least). Make sure you talk to her on the Citadel when the opportunity to do so presents itself.

[Chris D]

Arg, why did I even come to this thread before I have my copy. I'm just torturing myself. Avoiding spoilers though. Glad to hear your positive reaction so far, Ogul.

[craggy]

oh god oh god oh god. it's back? its out its now it on?!

I am not ready for The Reapers!!!

[Dave Hudson]

oh god oh god oh god. it's back? its out its now it on?!

I am not ready for The Reapers!!!

Only out today in the US, friday for the real world.

[Ogul]

Btw, while I'm loving the game, there were some technical issues. For one thing, if you import a save, you still have to redo Shepard's face, since they use different tools. I wasn't able to get mine quite right, and wasn't happy with the limited selection of hair styles, shades, and make-up options. Also, I got the 360 version (for the truly hardcore), and it hangs sometimes. Not a full lock-up reboot kind of hang, like Amalur has done once or twice and AC:R did several times, but a sort of "soft hang", where the music keeps playing, and you can hit the "Xbox" button to open the dashboard menu, but the stuff on screen stops moving for ten to twenty seconds. This doesn't usually happen during anything important, and hitting the "xbox" button prevents any harm from being done, but it is annoying. It usually occurs right after a complex cutscene ends and the game returns you to total control, but not after every such scene. Note that I'm playing this on an early model system (not launch, but around the time Bioshock came out).

[Chris D]

Yeah, the face import thing was annoying. A pretty big blunder on BioWare's part, really. But I managed to get the face very close to what it used to be. Still, kind of sucky. That said, I've played for a few hours. Just got reacquainted with the Normandy. Man, it's so empty and lonely feeling with my whole ME2 crew missing. Looking forward to getting into the actual game.

[RossS]

HMV have shipped my CE today

[Ogul]

Played another few hours, most of which was spent running around on Citadel and running side missions. I love the new exploration element, it's like the one from ME2 only they streamlined all the bull#### and added an element of danger. Now you have to use a radar "ping" inside the system to find viable planets, but each time you do so makes it more likely that Reaper ships will show up. Then you scan the planets, like in 2, but instead of looking for a bunch of waveform spikes, there's only ever one thing to find and it's got a radar arrow, like mission locations used to, so it only takes a few seconds. I haven't been caught by the Reapers yet, I have no idea what that does.

Anyways, met up with a bunch more ME2 characters, had a lot of fun with my NPC buddies, brought a whole bunch of mercs onto my fleet, the only combat mission I ran for the night was "the school" one, which was AWESOME.

Spoiler

I loved new Jack, great look, great attitude, and the f- funny joke they kept going throughout was great. I also loved the Atlas Armor section, that was a hoot, although the combat portion in the middle tore me up, mostly because I was too dumb to realize through most of it that my infiltrator was capable of hacking their own turrets. I had EDI along this time, and she's a pretty capable sidekick, although really, with how chaotic battles are in this game I have a really hard time telling what my companions are doing half the time. I really wish they had a replay function so I could see exactly how effective they were. All I knew was when they died and when Liara was throwing people around.

[Rory Abel]

Played another few hours, most of which was spent running around on Citadel and running side missions. I love the new exploration element, it's like the one from ME2 only they streamlined all the bull#### and added an element of danger. Now you have to use a radar "ping" inside the system to find viable planets, but each time you do so makes it more likely that Reaper ships will show up. Then you scan the planets, like in 2, but instead of looking for a bunch of waveform spikes, there's only ever one thing to find and it's got a radar arrow, like mission locations used to, so it only takes a few seconds. I haven't been caught by the Reapers yet, I have no idea what that does.

It kills you and sends you back to your last save point.

[Rory Abel]

My wife went to pick up my copy today (it was a birthday present) and they talked her into pre-ordering Assasins Creed 3 for me.

[Chris D]

I only got as far as the Turian mission yesterday before I had to call it quits. No idea what mission to do next, but the school one sounded interesting. Basically I just returned to the Citadel to catch up with a few people while I try and decide where to go next. Still haven't really tried the planet scanning, as I wasn't exactly sure what I was supposed to do and I do fear the Reapers coming to kill me.

Anyway, slow day at work so far, which makes me want to be home playing the game all the more.

[Jonny]

I do fear the Reapers coming to kill me.

Must... fight.. urge... to... quote... Blue...Oyster... Cult...

Between ME3 and Avengers (Assemble...?), this section of the forum has become the most excruciating tease ever. I want them now!!!

[Ogul]

Hey Chris, about your "####-up" playthrough, save Thane. He doesn't seem to have much of a role to play in 3, whereas some of the characters actually do seem to contribute.

And as for the planet scanning, the best thing to do is to wander the Citadel and eavesdrop on people. This unlocks missions to, say, "go to X system and find Y token," which is worth either money or mission credit or war support to you. Some of these are very specific, some are very vague. Then go to the system and read the planet descriptions, they might hint at the one most likely to contain what you're looking for there. Ideally you only need to scan once or twice before finding the thing you want. If the Reapers come, it's no huge deal, I dove about ten systems without getting caught once, and only attracted Reapers a few times. If they show up, they just appear on the system map like the Normandy and swarm towards you, all you need to do is avoid them and exit the system. If you cross into the "sector" map or use the gateway things then you've escaped them. After a little while they go away and you can come back to that area for more if you like. One thing I do wish for from the interface is that you could check your journal directly from the map, rather than having to back out to the CIC to view it.

[craggy]

Also, Jessica Chobot is on my ship for some reason.

Sold!

[Ogul]

She looks a little creepy though, like Zombie Chobot. Something to do with her cheekbones. It's not as good as Yvonne. Supposedly she's a potential love interest though, everyone on the ship seems to be a love interest this time around, and they even do seem to have some dedicated gay/lesbian love interests, rather than just straight or bi, so that should be interesting.

[Mikha'il Tegler]

The deeper I get into the game the more I like it. The combat is a lot harder then any of the previous games. I'm not that far into the game and I feel like I've killed a couple hundred Cerberus soldiers.

[Ogul]

Yeah, I completed the second mission that was in the demo, and then the "bomb" missions on the Korgan homeworld, as well as a throwaway Cerberus mission on that planet. The personal dramas in the story missions are really nice, they keep highlighting the cost of war, especially wars of total destruction. I've been running most missions with Liara and Garrus, and they support my Infiltrator well. We can give hevies holy hell between Overload, Warp, and Incinerate. I have a sniper scope that can see through smoke, which is handy, but it's a bit flakey, it sometimes works and sometimes not, and enemies show up as red ghosts so aiming isn't as precise. It also only works while the scope is up, making it hard to semi-aim before going precise. I love the "Mailslot" Achievement though, you get it for shooting ten of those shield-carrying jerks right through the eye-slot (which seems to hit them in the throat for some reason). I also love how headshots just pop heads like water balloons in this game.

I did have one amusing bug (or AI catastrophe, I have no idea what happened) during the first "bomb" mission on the Krogam world. The last battle was a "fend off waves of reapers" scenario, and my team mates just sort of wandered off or something. If I told them to use an attack, they would, but if I told them to move to a location they wouldn't, and I couldn't see them, they seemed to be at the edge of my radar, and eventually they died who knows where. Never did find the bodies but apparently they woke up and dragged themselves to the shuttle after the cutscenes. I suspect that they might have stayed up in the hallway above the battlefield, where you have to drop down from to start that sequence.

I love building my army, btw. I have this rag tag band of rescured squads, black ops teams, high-level individuals, all coming together.