OFFICIAL Mass Effect 3

Posts : 162 Join date : 2011-09-02

Game Info

Publisher : EA

Developer : Bioware

Platforms : PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 / Windows PC

Director : Casey Hudson

Genre : Role Playing Game [RPG]

Mode : Single Player Only

Release Date : Holiday 2011

Quote :: Mass Effect 3 is the upcoming sequel to Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 developed by BioWare for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is intended to be the final game in the planned Mass Effect trilogy. The game was officially announced on December 11, 2010 at Spike's 2010 Video Game Awards.

Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release in "Holiday 2011". Previously Ray Muzyka had stated that release timing would be based on maximising both "quality" and "commercial success".

BioWare is considering an "uber-collector's edition" of the game and took suggestions for a very exclusive and pricey item to include. Community Coordinator Chris Priestly used the working night vision goggles included in the "Prestige Edition" of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as an example of the type of item they were looking for. This edition would be targeted at the most hardcore collectors and is not the usual type of collectors edition, such as those released for the first two Mass Effect games.

Mass Effect 3's game engine will be based on the same technology as the Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 2's engine, and take advantage of that engine's improvements. Like the first two games, Mass Effect 3 will use Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 as a foundation.

Story

The story is the 'epic conclusion' to the story started in Mass Effect and continued in Mass Effect 2, as well as the conclusion of Commander Shepard's story. The tone is expected to continue to get darker, yet also bring back some fun and lightness and include a lot more humor.

The player's choices in the previous games are expected to have a much more significant impact on the plot than the choices in Mass Effect had on Mass Effect 2. As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly different conclusions based on the player's actions in the first two chapters.

The story between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 is told through DLC for Mass Effect 2. The Lair of the Shadow Broker downloadable content is the first piece of DLC to begin to expand the story in preparation for Mass Effect 3. Arrival is the second and final piece of DLC that expands the story and bridges the gap between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.

Characters

As with the previous games in the Mass Effect trilogy, Shepard will be able to recruit companions that can follow Shepard into battle. Currently, these are known to include:

1. Ashley Williams1

2. Kaidan Alenko1

3. Garrus Vakarian2

4. Liara T'Soni

5. James Sanders

Gameplay

According to Project Director Casey Hudson, Mass Effect 3 will continue, with adjustments, the approach of Mass Effect 2 by focusing on "an awesome sense of exploration, intense combat, a deep and non-linear story that's affected by your actions, and rich customisation of your armour, weapons and appearance" instead of an approach where the player "(equips the) hero by sifting through an inventory of hundreds of miscellaneous items and spend hours fiddling with numerical statistics" noting the "overwhelmingly positive" response Mass Effect 2 received for its approach.

Combat

1. Changes to movement in combat including the ability to roll, leap over ledges or gaps without taking cover first and optimised maneuvering and firing from cover.

2. Melee plays a larger role, with each class receiving a unique close-quarters attack.

3. Enemy AI has been improved. Enemies now perform specific functions on the battlefield and coordinate with other enemies. For example, 'cover buster' enemies, such as Husks, are often paired with a 'suppressor' enemy type, which will try to keep Shepard in cover while the Husks get in close.

Weapons

1. The ability for all classes to wield any type of weapon. However, classes will be limited by the number of weapons they can carry at any one time, with the Soldier being the only class that can wield every weapon class at once.

2. The return of weapon modifications. Players will be able to modify their weapons with different parts, such as barrels, scopes and materials, that will affect the weapon's combat performance and appearance.

3. Shepard can pick up and wield weapons dropped by enemies.

Videos

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Screenshots

OFFICIAL Mass Effect 3 Screen1152

Covers, Enemy tactics, Combat

Sooo... one thing we're focusing a lot more on in ME3 is enemy composition. We have a handful of roles that enemies fit into. So, take husks for example - when fighting husks you generally don't want to be in cover. They're pretty mobile, and can do terrible things to you in close range. So, when engaging them you generally want to be able to move around a lot. They fall into our "cover buster" role.

In a given fight we might combine husks with a "suppressor" type of enemy. Suppressors try to keep you pinned in cover. With both of those types in one fight, as a player you have to decide which is the larger threat. Do you send your squadmates against the Husks? Do you try to find a position where you're more protected from the suppressor enemy and take on the Husks? Or do you run headlong towards the suppressor in the back, and try to take it down quickly while avoiding the Husks?

Obviously that's just an example, and normally a fight is comprised of more than just two different roles (additionally, "suppressor" / "cover buster" combinations are pretty damned hard to fight). So you might be able to see how just with interesting composition you can get extremely dynamic experiences that can vary significantly from attempt to attempt.

This is also not going into any of the synergistic elements of some of the enemies either... some enemies have ability sets that help or modify other enemies, making them potentially a *lot* tougher... if you let them...

New Game Details

Cerberus is out to capture Shepard, the reason for this, according to the magazine, is explained at the beginning of the game. Cerberus will utilize mechas, assault units, and shock troops in their pursuit.

Another enemy, the Reapers, will pilot ships of many shapes and sizes. These range from 500-600 meters for the smaller ships and up to 2 kilometers for the Herald.

Space battlers are possible, but not confirmed.

Enemies will have weak points. The Cerberus mecha, for example, take more damage when shot in the glass cockpit. Other enemies require players cut off the arms, break the head or breach their armor. Fights, as a whole, are much more dynamic. The game's speed has increased by 10 to 15 percent.

Shepard is packing a new skills, including cover launching, rolling, jumping over holes in the ground, and others. A new class, "Heavy Melee", is also mentioned in the magazine. Another class, the "Engineer", can apparently build turrets. Every class can use any weapon, all of which can be customized - scopes, clip, etc.

The game boasts larger scenarios than its predecessors. We will see people walking, ships duking it out, greater detailed architecture, more photo-realistic sights and more. (Spoiler Warning!) Locations visited by Shepard include New York, London, a moon on planet Koriana (this moon may be a typo), Mars, a Salarian world and more. According to the magazine, development on each environment took about 6 months.

Vehicles are out for exploration. Gameplay was designed to leave them out of the picture. Though, this doesn't mean there aren't any vehicles at all. There could be one of small use, but BioWare hasn't confirmed anything.

Posts : 1 Join date : 2011-09-05

Seeing some screenshots.. are they doing away with Garrus?

Admin Posts : 537 Join date : 2011-09-01 Age : 32

I hope not, he's too cool to die