You know what, I think Mass Effect 3 will be awesome!

[radioactive lemur]

I wanted to cry when I heard EA bought Bioware. I will cry if and when they ruin Mass Effect.

No question that EA is a terrible terrible company that has not made a decent game on their own in I can't remember how long. However, they didn't ruin Mass Effect 2. It was truly an epic game with very few serious flaws. There's no reason to believe they'll change that much of a game that got 94 on Metacritic. They may be greedy and they may suck at making games but they are not stupid.

 

[boag]

I am too invested in the story to give up on it know.

The last RPG Trilogy I played that had huge changes from one Game to the next was Xenosaga, and the only thing that diluted my enjoyment was that the series was cut short.

 

[DustyDrB]

Mass Effect 3 will be awesome. But, in my opinion, that goes without saying. It's one of the few no-brainer preorder it and love it games coming over the next year.

 

[Popido]

I'm staying optimistic, so I'm with you bro! I'm just relieved that Garrus is still in my party. Oh, how I love my Garrus.

That gif should be banned. Its way too over used and usually out of content at this site.

'nough said.

Then I demand you ban ponies. Hah!

*chirp chirp chirp*

You gave up so easily. That thrice-damned Citizen Kane picture makes me want to puke because it reminds me that Citizen Kane is often celebrated as the best film of all time, when really it's a long boring load of shit.

Opinions, people, and that one isn't changing.

Meanwhile, ponies are... yeah, I don't care about them either.

On topic: Mass Effect 3 will, as so many have said before me, be a shooter with light traditional RPG elements and some conversations. I just hope that the 360 version comes on only one single disc.

I always thought that hes Pissed and Sarcastic on the gif. Must be because people use it too often on lame shit...

 

[Therumancer]

Ok, here's my promised counter-thread.

Mass Effect is one of my favourite series of games. Ever since I opened the first and smelled it's marzipan freshness I've been in love with it. It's got all the dialogue and choices and codex and backstory for the RPGers, and for the FPS/OTSS crowd it's got plenty of juicy and well executed combat with powers for everyone's enjoyment. Yeah there are ways to make it better and improvements that could be made, but all in all it went together pretty tightly.

It's story is pretty good and people love the characters, all of whom are quite well rounded and each has their particular sense of humor to appeal to different people. They've kept refining everything and it's really worked so far, from the cumbersome inventory and power screens to the streamlined system we saw in ME2, to whatever they decide to keep or change in 3.

So yeah, if you want to be pessimistic and complain about EA stick to the "Mass Effect 3 is going to fail" threads. But if you're like me and are on the edge of your seat for the next 10 months waiting for the announcement that legion defeats a reaper with a dancing contest, then join the party.

Well, your missing the point of the conflict. For one your trying to equate the story and dialogue choices as being "for the RPGers" that's hardly the case. Story and dialogue benefit any game genere, and don't define a genere.

The *only* way for a game to be "for the RPGers" is for the combat and events within the game to be determined by stats. As a result you cannot by definition cater to a shooter fan and an RPG player, because as soon as the player's skill in lining up and making shots, and avoiding fire and such, becomes the determining factor, it ceases to be an RPG. The first Mass Effect was an RPG as the success or failure of shooting was determined by your skills. No matter how good at twitch games a player might be, he was not going to successfully kill things with a gun without the skills. Walk up to something with a gun your unskilled with, put the muzzle up to it, and pull the trigger, your still going to miss since your CHARACTER is differant from you, and your character can't hit the broad side of a barn from the inside.

Whether or not "Mass Effect 3" is going to rock or not, depends on what kind of player you are. If your a shooter fan, by all reveals so far you'll probably like this game because it is a shooter, if your an RPG fan, your probably not going to like it very much since it's not even remotely an RPG anymore, no matter how it's being billed.

Bad blood is going to continue because they are still trying to present shooters as RPGs, and have basically stabbed RPG fans who bought into this as an RPG francbhise in the back.

How successful the game will be remains to be seen, the big motivation for stabbing RPG players in the back is financiail, since there are far more shooter players out there. As a result they will probably see decent sales from "Gears Effect". The series also has the advantage of a "captive audience" of sorts in that a lot of RPG players will probably still buy it just to see the end of the story.

That said, as an RPG this game is already an epic fail, it's not an RPG anymore, and Bioware's own words make it clear they have no real desire to make it one again. As a shooter with cartoons attached to it, it will probably be pretty well received.

Like most things, it's all about perspective.

I'm kind of interested in it's degree of success though. To be honest a lot of people bought "Mass Effect 2" because of the first game. Remember that more people played "Mass Effect 1" than you see in their sales figures due to the used game market. The people complaining about "Mass Effect 2" being people who bought the product and were disappointed based on how it wasn't an RPG like the first one was anymore. Bioware seems to be operating under the false assumption that greater sales meant they were on the right track, when really the "leap of faith" buying games requires means that their sales in no way indicate how well received the game actually was due to the initial sales period (which is the bulk of all the sales) having been driven by the first game, rather than the second one on it's own merits.

I doubt "Mass Effect 3" will be a flop that will fail to make more money than it cost to develop, but I'm also not going to be surprised if it's sales fall short of the number of people who played the second game.

I think Bioware is going to be in for a bit of a shock here, though by no means the kind of "power fantasy" shock that causes them to take a massive financial hit.