Mass Effect 3 Beta Leak

[Wharrgarble]

So apparently this just happened, but the Mass Effect 3 Beta has been leaked for people who are apart of the Xbox Live Preview Program. (It has since been pulled down by Bioware.)

According to the few articles that are up, it is so far incredibly unfinished but there are some interesting (though low-quality) screen shots up to check out. This was most likely never meant to become available for public consumption, but nevertheless, here it is.

Link to the Kotaku article: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/11/mass-effect-3-private-beta-unintentionally-released-with-xbox-live-preview-update/

Neogaf article with screen shots: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=451016

Update (2): Now updated with the first 24 minutes of game play in relativity high quality. Please, do not watch if you're not interested in spoilers. Again, due to it being beta, it's incredibly unfinished.

Spoiler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF_KX6U0YDk

First thoughts anyone? Way to go Microsoft?

 

[legion431]

Why didn't I replay Mass Effect 1 when I had the chance and save Wrex.

 

[deathbydeath]

this looks the same as me2. which means it'll be shit.

on another note: combat mode, story mode, and rpg mode? seriously bioware? what about people who want more than one dumbed-down mode? is that too smart for you?

EDIT:

oh my fucking god, project lazarus is back.

seriously bioware, did you watch ANY of smudboy's videos?
or hire any good writers?

 

[Kopikatsu]

I like how you can just put conversations to 'Choose Renegade for me so I can go get a soda during the talkie bits.'

At least they know their morality system is rubbish.

Anyway...it's sad that somebody is probably going to get fired over this. Woe is him.

Edit:

Action Mode - For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action Mode will set automatic replies in conversation and normal difficulty
Story mode - For those who want to emphasize story and narration and minimize action management. Story Mode will automatically complete all combat engagements for you. Normal difficulty.
RPG Mode - For those who want to emphasize stat building and character development and minimize story and action management. RPG Mode will run the game as a pre-rendered movie file, allowing you to periodically "level up" your characters by "increasing" stats and "selecting" skills.

Lol'd.

Edit 2: Wow. So many people throwing a hissy fit over the automatic dialog options.

Did ANYONE not just do all Paragon or all Renegade?

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

In case anyone reads the above post and rages, here's what it really says:

Action Mode: For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action mode will set automatic replies in conversation and a normal difficulty.

Story Mode: For those who want to emphasize story immersion and minimize combat pressure. Story mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a minimal combat difficulty.

RPG Mode: For those who want to explore both realms of story and combat. RPG mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a normal combat difficulty.

Why are people so angry about this? They're giving us options. You can just choose RPG mode and play like normal. Chill out; it's exactly the same as setting difficulty (which you can also do elsewhere).

 

[MercurySteam]

this looks the same as me2. which means it'll be shit.

Judging a book by its cover? Shame on you, you should know better.

OP: This is pretty funny, thogh somebody is going to have a lot of explaining to do to EA. Stupid that only US users get it. Oh well.

Edit:

Action Mode - For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action Mode will set automatic replies in conversation and normal difficulty
Story mode - For those who want to emphasize story and narration and minimize action management. Story Mode will automatically complete all combat engagements for you. Normal difficulty.
RPG Mode - For those who want to emphasize stat building and character development and minimize story and action management. RPG Mode will run the game as a pre-rendered movie file, allowing you to periodically "level up" your characters by "increasing" stats and "selecting" skills.

Lol'd.

I know right? They have different play modes now? The really must be trying to appeal to the whole goddamn spectrum this time, including the lazies who can't be fucked to play the game properly.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Do not want.

Why do people even want to play games unfinished?

I'll happily wait for the finished, undoubtedly awesome final version.

 

[Zhukov]

I see a lot of Wrex.

This makes me happy.

 

[Kopikatsu]

Do not want.

Why do people even want to play games unfinished?

I'll happily wait for the finished, undoubtedly awesome final version.

Worse, people play the beta (Whether official or leaked in it's crappier than beta state like this one was), then decide whether or not the game is worth buying from that.

That's not how a beta works, people. It's just noooooooot. /rage

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

hmm..

not bad.

honestly it's looking awesome to me, so even though i was already going to get it, this looks like it's shaping up to be quite nice (hell it even has options for how you want to play the game, i know a few people who will take advantage of the action/story mode's for sure.)

 

[AmstradHero]

this looks the same as me2. which means it'll be shit.

...

seriously bioware, did you watch ANY of smudboy's videos?

Ah, a ME2 = Gears of War proponent? *sigh*

If they watched smudboy's videos, I imagine they probably had rational reasons to discard many of his suggestions. I disagreed with a large amount of what smudboy said. He wants a specific type of experience, and the majority of his complaints were nit-picky at worst, and preference based at best.

The story/action/RPG mode disturbs me slightly, but ME2 was largely an improvement on ME1, and based on the little preview information we've had, the gameplay seems to be getting further improvement. I'm hoping that the RPG aspects will also get a bit of a tweak along the way, but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[coolguy5678]

On the video, part 2, 5:00 Shepard's health only partially regenerates, although his shield regenerates completely (it seems they've gone with the Far Cry 2 segmented health system underneath the shields). Also First Aid is back as a power. I like.

 

[distortedreality]

I'm assuming the three SP modes are for testing purposes only, would be surprised if they made it to release. Wouldn't really bother me though.

Haven't watched any of the vids, but the screens of the characters looked pretty good.

 

[Knight Templar]

Saw them before, usually I avoid potential spoilers but these didn't tell me anything I didn't already know.

seriously bioware, did you watch ANY of smudboy's videos?

That guy is a dishonest prick, I don't think watching his videos will aid anything.

As for the project Lazarus label, it looks like they just took the ME2 face maker for this, which makes sense since we know there is no project Lazarus.

 

[Zhukov]

I'm not getting the hate over the game modes. Just choose 'RPG mode' and then look down your incredibly long nose at anyone who dares to play the game differently, and you're all set.

In other news, Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins were corporate sell-out CoD-clones because they had casual/easy difficulty settings, right?

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

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This looks so awesome I cannot wait for this game, i dare say that for me ME3 is more anticipated than Skyrim (blasphemy I know, i already preordered skyrim though so calm down)

One sad thing though, I am convinced that Anderson will die in the beginning Jenkins died, Wilson died, and from what i've seen Anderson will accompany you on the first mission of ME3,.. this makes me a sad kamina

I'm not getting the hate over the game modes. Just choose 'RPG mode' and then look down your incredibly long nose at anyone who dares to play the game differently, and you're all set.

In other news, Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins were corporate sell-out CoD-clones because they had casual/easy difficulty settings, right?

This also, i dont get why people whine about it, it actually seems like an improvement, if you know that your always going to be a Renegade/Paragon then choose action mode, if you dont like action but love the story choose Story mode, and if you want both choose RPG mode, it also looks like these are just presets and you can customize your own mode, so yeah, this is great

 

[Ghengis John]

I'm actually very disappointed to see no mass effect 2 characters in the squad. (Except for, in some respect, Garrus?) It reeks of corner cutting. "Yeah so we made a game where anyone can die and now we can't be bothered to let you have them on the team." Three disks and there's no room for them? BOO I say. It's looking like Mass Effect 1 redux. As much as I enjoy a friendly reunion I had also grown fond of the new cast. My hopes of seeing Miranda and Ashley getting catty on the Normandy are rapidly spinning down the tubes. Perhaps Bioware does not understand, I was ENGINEERING that situation. That was the whole point of my play throughs. Please don't leave me hanging after all these years.

 

[Zhukov]

One sad thing though, I am convinced that Anderson will die in the beginning Jenkins died, Wilson died, and from what i've seen Anderson will accompany you on the first mission of ME3,.. this makes me a sad kamina

Anderson does not die in the beginning.

Later on he... well, you'll have to wait and see,

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

One sad thing though, I am convinced that Anderson will die in the beginning Jenkins died, Wilson died, and from what i've seen Anderson will accompany you on the first mission of ME3,.. this makes me a sad kamina

Anderson does not die in the beginning.

Later on he... well, you'll have to wait and see,

Well thats good then, i was worried there due to Biowares little trend >.>

How do you know?