Mass Effect 3 demo is out.

[Serephim]

mine lasted about 11-13 months.

Absolutely shitty hardware, i must say.

[SStrikerR]

Mine's lasted since I got it for christmas what, 3 or 4 years ago now? 1 faulty console I understand, but if it happens to people more than once, I say it's just their own fault. I 've left mine on for days at a time, logged a lot of hours playing games, and I've had no problems.

Anyway, it's just a demo. You can't expect it to be like the full game.

[Serephim]

If i've learned anything about the Xbox 360, it is not the person's fault.


I've treated all my game consoles the exact same, and i still have every single one in the same condition i bought it in, barring my Sega Genesis since my dipshit cousin stepped on it and kind of screwed up the video connector so i have to tape the cord just right or i dont get sound.


Ive had my PS3 for much longer than my Xbox right now. My Playstation 3 has never eaten any of my videogames before (nor has my Playstation 1, Playstation 2, Gamecube or Sega Dreamcast), and it has not "light of death'd" me.


It also didn't cost my dumb ass money for rechargable battery packs or an eventual $15 charge port for my controllers either because they were too stupid and cheap to roll with rechargable battery packs and USB ports like it was actually 2006. It also wouldnt have cost me $100 for a Wireless attachment. Granted the PS3 wireless capabilities blow, but hell, it gets me timely demos and lets me play Tekken/Blazblue just fine, so i really could care less.



I loved my Xbox when i had it, but a few weeks after having my PS3 i realized what an awful piece of hardware it was. I think i know ONE person who has had no hardware issues with his 360. My xbox etched records into two of my games before it died.

[McLaughlin]

The multiplayer turned out to be a lot more fun than I was expecting.

Stasis Bubble is hilarious.

[Kent]

Prior to trying this demo, I had played Mass Effect on my brother's computer for maybe ten minutes at most. He wanted me to try it, and despite that BioWare has a reputation for making really boring stories and hugely-uninteresting situations in RPGs (like Neverwinter Nights, which was only good for the module-creation tools into it - the actual campaign was thinly-veiled "here, go fetch these four things. Good, onto act 2... Do it again!" - the first expansion for the game was good, but by a different developer, and the second expansion was by BioWare again... and was boring as hell), I like to give new games a fair chance. After all, developers change sometimes, so maybe they got better at making non-crap.

Well, something came up and I had to leave. So yeah, I haven't tried it again since.

I decided to try the Mass Effect 3 demo because eh, why not? The single-player wasn't really all that interesting, though it may be due to my unfamiliarity with this game's universe and all. The combat seemed slightly awkward and clunky throughout it, but that was to be expected.

And then multiplayer got unlocked. It's surprisingly fun. The awkwardness of the controls and combat subsided after getting used to it, and the TCG-like system for finding useable equipment and new character classes is an interesting idea, if a bit RNG-heavy. The gameplay is pretty run-of-the-mill Horde mode stuff, which is not bad (the Gears of War 3 horde mode is still a lot of fun - especially when coupled with the tower defense-ish aspect they introduced), but the objectives they add into some of the waves and the extraction at the end serve to mix it up pretty nicely. You know, encouraging people to move around out of their heavily-entrenched position in an easily-defensible spot on the map.

The dynamism between classes is rather interesting, too. The Vanguard is a very different approach to combat from what I'm used to seeing in third-person shooters, and it's actually pretty fun - and very different from another class I got around to trying (human Engineer) in almost every aspect except for the fact that the weapon weight system affecting cooldowns means that it's best to run with either a pistol or an SMG if you want to be as effective as you can be. I would imagine something like the Soldier class would be less-reliant on cooldowns and could afford to take in heavier weapons, like assault rifles and shotguns.

Though I wouldn't be one to pick it up at launch (especially with this detestable Origin nonsense that EA is putting into everything), the demo is actually pretty fun in multiplayer. I've heard that the demo has about half of the unlocks as the full game for the multiplayer mode though, which seems like the demo has a disproportionately-high amount of the multiplayer content in it.

[Serephim]

Well thats two for two with multiplayer. Maybe i'll try it.


Honestly, i cant really get into Mass Effect 3 because its single player feels entirely too cheap to be a single player game. It kind of strikes me as a game that's online multiplayer though, simply by the way its animated.

[amtalx]

The board revisions and redesigns have helped with the 360's reliability issues, but the first couple years of suicidal units were due to manufacturing flaws. The main cause of failure is broken or fractured solder points due to heat. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but MS switched to a lead-free solder because of directives from the EU late in the design phase. Unfortunately for MS, they chose a type with a melting point that was too low. While these general hardware failures are on MS's head, other failures like scratched discs are usually due to user error.

On topic... I really enjoyed the demo, even though it felt incredibly uneven. That's always the risk with making a demo for an RPG. Luckily, ME3 can survive well enough on it's combat mechanics to avoid be a complete waste of time. I have no doubt that my issues with the pacing will disappear when I can play the proper campaign. Leaping around in the story with no context won't be a problem.

[AC9breaker]

I was super surprised with how fun the Multiplayer was. I was ready to rage on it but was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Love how you can customize your weapons now like you could in ME1. I'm really hoping the story is more like ME1 as opposed to ME2.

In ME1, things felt natural especially with the flow of he story where as in ME2 everything felt too deliberate. The combat was a huge improvement over 1 but was still shitty. The thing that keeps me interested in the game is the story. I love the story of the game and Sheperd as a character whom I decide how to be. Renegade 4 lyfe. Im a little bit upset though cause my previous saves where on PC but I don't have access to it or won't be able to get it for quite some time. So I'm thinking of buying 2 again for PS3 and playing through to get me ready for 3.

[Serephim]

multiplayer is pretty fun.


I HATE the unresponsive special abilities though, and also the load times are atrocious.


Other than that, it feels like Gears of War except less gray and in the future. And i love gears.

[Zyrusticae]

^- Load times seem to be more a function of connection, at least for me. When my connection is really poor to whoever the host is it takes forever to "load" (re: sync with the host), but otherwise it's pretty fast and clean.

So, I wasn't actually all that interested in the game (even though I mostly enjoyed the first two games) until I tried the multiplayer part.

Damn, this stuff's addictive. There's a constant, never-ending sense of progress. You really notice when you start picking up the big upgrades. My vanguard, for example, is now a moderately effective tank due to being able to fully recharge her barrier every 3 seconds while doing massive damage to whoever she's charging. (The damage in silver and gold is simply too high for this tactic to be viable there, unfortunately.) Also, pistols are ace in this game.

So many subgoals thanks to the medal system (or whatever they call it). Trying to get 15 melee kills and 20 headshots ASAP just for the XP boost is pretty much a fact of life for me now.

I'm actually thinking I should avoid this game, at least until I have more free time to devote to it.