Rumor: Australian Magazine Confirms Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer

[Vrach]

but it's a little worrying to see EA and BioWare make Mass Effect something that it has never been before in order to pull in a wider audience

Care to state a source for that? How exactly is implementing a much hated (by the mainstream audience, or at least its vocal representatives) feature into a game the multiplayer crowd generally has no interest for doing something to "pull in a wider audience"?

If they've implemented the ability for people to jump into the roles of companions, that could be awesome. Similarly, a co-op campaign on the side would merely add to the game. A full blown multiplayer would probably be somewhat lackluster considering the mechanics (but some might enjoy it I guess), but it's still something on the side. Why do people get annoyed at bonuses for existing?

Where was this outrage when Portal 2 was announced to have co-op? It's been a while since I played, but I don't remember Portal being a multiplayer franchise, does anyone else?

 

[VulakAerr]

My personal opinion? Unconcerned. Whining about the addition of multiplayer to Mass Effect would be like a Gears of War fan getting pissed off about having 'Beast Mode' in Gears 3. "Oh no, extra features! My world is ending!"

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but adding a new multiplayer mode to a series that already has a strong multiplayer focus isn't really the same thing as adding a multiplayer mode to a series that has been exclusively single player until now.

What do you feel about Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood? For my money, it had some of the best "tacked on" multiplayer of the last 5 years.

 

[Davih]

As long as the single-player is still good, I don't mind. A Horde type mode sounds good to me. I hope there isn't Co-op in the main campaign. That would be a letdown.

I don't see Team Deathmatch working in the game, nor CTF or other tactical game modes. They could prove me wrong though.

 

[AMAZED]

It's co-op missions casey hudson revealed that over twitter

 

[SageRuffin]

I kinda like the idea of a small series of co-op side missions. It could be a little like a cross between NGS2 and Bulletstorm (if I'm lucky).

Although I do wish BioWare (and EA for that matter) stopped trying to "gather up CoD's audience". It's not gonna do anything but bring doom for themselves.

 

[Grey_Focks]

Neverwinter Nights had co-op, Baldur's Gate had co-op, why the hell shouldn't Mass Effect have co-op? Just let your friends play as your teammates and let them occasionally say stuff in dialogue sequences, I don't see why everyone has such a problem with this, and I personally hope it's true.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

Co-op missions are like offering a starving man a chicken mcnugget and then patting yourself on the back for handing out chicken dinners.

Usually they are just rehashed levels from the single player, barely updated to support more than one player, with boring objectives. It's like going to a paintball compound with a friend or two but being told that you can only play together using two trees at opposite ends of 30 yard long patch of grass with a boulder in the middle. Sure you're playing paintball, but it's not the same thing as having the campaign world and story-level excitement.

Still I contend that most games are better with full coop as an option as opposed to none at all or a tacked on deathmatch served up like a melted after dinner peppermint.

 

[Vargras]

There's a lot of people who are seriously over-reacting to this bit of news. If Casey Hudson's tweets are any indication, singleplayer has been done for MONTHS now - all they're doing now is just playtesting and tweaking sections.

For those of you questioning why ME3 needs multiplayer, look at Portal 2. On it's own, it's still a fine singleplayer game. The coop, however, helps reinforce the story and build upon it. If Bioware can pull off the same, it'll be great and no one will complain about it afterwards.

Honestly, they know what they did wrong with ME2 and DA2. Have a little more faith.

EDIT: The multiplayer was already confirmed by Casey Hudson to be coop, and will be entirely separate from singleplayer.

Why is everyone throwing such a fuss over this? Is it suddenly illegal for developers to try new things? Might as well just update the textures in ME and ship it again, if that's the case.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Meh. I'll assume this is going to be another half-baked multiplayer component for a game that has no need for one (Hellooo, Bioshock 2!), just because there's apparently a demographic out there that shivers with disgust at the thought of NOT being graced with whiney twelve year-olds spewing profanities into their Xbox or PS3 microphones.

I just can't understand why some people apparently cannot be bothered to play games that don't include a multiplayer component. I've got nothing against multiplayer gaming, honestly, but whatever happened to sitting down to enjoy a good hour or so of plot or character development? What happened to enjoying games the way we would books? Why is it so important that franchises that are clearly focused on their narrative aspects suddenly display the ability to frag other players over an Internet connection? Are there honestly some people out there who went "Dude, Bioshock looks cool, but it sucks because you can't frag with your bros!"?

If so, I'll weep a little inside. I'll still play the Hell out of that game, seeing as I love Mass Effect's story so far - but you probably won't see me in any multiplayer lobby.

 

[Dark Prophet]

Stop fucking with the game, first they took out all the good rpg bits, and made it into an action rpg(granted some good came out of it too but it was mostly bad), then it looked like it was going to be dating sim with some rpg and some action ( the kind that involves guns )and now it is slowly transforming into Second Life. Fuck
End the series properly and then go and make your mmrpg or a facebook game I don't care.

 

[cross_breed]

This news upsets me. The Mass Effect games are some of my favorites... you better not rape this series, guys. Seriously, you better not screw this up.

 

[A Sad Soul]

I honestly don't care whether the game has Co-Op, Online Modes, Leaderboards, or any other kind of multiplayer features. But if they screw with the single player campaign... I swear that I will flip a table. Or seven.

 

[Ghengis John]

Well, that's it me and my buddy Brian can now roll out as Shepard and Garrus, professional badasses. Why does the phrase Gears of Space come to mind?

Meh. I'll assume this is going to be another half-baked multiplayer component for a game that has no need for one (Hellooo, Bioshock 2!), just because there's apparently a demographic out there that shivers with disgust at the thought of NOT being graced with whiney twelve year-olds spewing profanities into their Xbox or PS3 microphones.

You're assuming a whole hell of a lot, let's be honest here. I know life's full of disappointments but how about we take "the worst" off the list till we know a little more?

 

[Moosejaw]

New news, folks! It's actually...not so bad!

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/8481789/1

Hi Everyone

Today BioWare and the Mass Effect 3 team are very pleased to announce 4 player co-op multiplayer missions and the Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system for Mass Effect 3 on the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.


4 player co-op multiplayer

Join your friends in the all-out galactic war to take Earth back. The universe of Mass Effect expands with the addition of new co-op multiplayer missions, playable over Xbox Live, PSN and PC internet. Players can choose from a variety of classes and races, form an elite Special Forces squad, and combine their weapons, powers and abilities to devastating effect as they fight together to liberate key territories from enemy control. Success in multi-player will have a direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory against the greatest threat mankind ? and the entire galaxy ? has ever faced.

Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War

As a bonus to the campaign, BioWare is introducing the Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system, a new way for players to manage and experience the galactic war from multiple fronts, including a new 4-player co-op mode. The key to saving the galaxy is the ?Galactic Readiness? level, measured by Commander Shepard?s ability to apply
every possible asset ? people, weapons, resources, armies, fleets ? in the final battle against the Reapers. Players can impact their game?s Galactic Readiness level in multiple ways via the Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system, including multiplayer. Other platforms and interfaces will be announced in the coming months. It is important to note that the system is entirely optional and just another way players can have control over your game experience ? it is still possible to achieve the optimal, complete ending of the game in Mass Effect 3 through single-player alone.

More details at the link. Not sure about the protocol for news, sorry if I'm stepping on any toes.

 

[Undead Dragon King]

My personal opinion? Unconcerned. Whining about the addition of multiplayer to Mass Effect would be like a Gears of War fan getting pissed off about having 'Beast Mode' in Gears 3. "Oh no, extra features! My world is ending!"

Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but adding a new multiplayer mode to a series that already has a strong multiplayer focus isn't really the same thing as adding a multiplayer mode to a series that has been exclusively single player until now.

Why not? They each constitute an additional feature that was not previously present in their respective series.

But for some reason it seems to be multiplayer in particular that gets people up in arms.

Imagine if they had announced that there would be, say, some sort of exploration mechanic that lets you pilot the Normandy around. Would people still be running around like headless chickens exclaiming that it was going to divert attention from the elements that made the previous game(s) good? Somehow I doubt it.

But multiplayer? Commence the wailing and gnashing of teeth. Not sure why, maybe it reminds people of Call of Duty or something...

Ah well, proof of the pudding and all that.

I think you're being a little disingenuous there-

PLEASE tell me you meant that in the way I hope you did!


OT: I'm really not sure about the way that they chose to reveal that they're including multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. By simply stating that there will be multiplayer and offering next to no details about it, they're seding the rumor mill spinning off its hinges and are almost guaranteed to ignite a flame war on this site and others. If I were in their place, I would have revealed multiplayer when I had more raw data to give people to convince them that this idea is for the best.

 

[Vault101]

too early to say

Im remain compltley neutral here, while to be honest id rather not hear anything about multi at all...it doenst automatically mean game breaker

 

[Animyr]

Since appearantly the component is being outsourced to a different studio like Bioshock 2, I don't give a darn. Bioshock 2's campaign turned out fine, at least IMO, and what flaws it had had nothing to do with short resources.