Mass Effect 3

[Creed Bratton]

There's something you ain't gonna like probably:

http://nightmaremode.net/2011/06/christina...s-bioware-6283/

 

For the lazy people:

 

Talk about out of the blue–while browsing the Bioware forums today, I came across a shocking piece of information: Christina Norman, the lead gameplay designer on Mass Effect 2 and most of Mass Effect 3, has left Bioware. In a post on a thread with ME3 news in it, Chris Priestly, Bioware’s community manager, stated the following:

 

“I removed Christina Norman from the Twitter information section as Christina has left BioWare (she recently got married and she and her husband moved away from Edmonton).”

 

According to Priestly, replacing Norman in Mass Effect 3 will be Preston Watamaniuk, lead designer of Mass Effect 1 and 2. Christina Norman had been at Bioware for almost six years.

 

I just hope this won't affect the quality of the game in a bad way.

[mrpain]

Whuuuuut? Definitely an out of the blue news.

 

I'm happy she got married and all, but I'm sure Mass Effect 3 will be just fine. Sure she did quite a part, but the series will be just fine without her too.

 

But at least she got to work on Mass Effect 3 too right?

[papanesta]

Lead designers only hold the whips anyway.

[Creed Bratton]

Lead designers only hold the whips anyway.

She came up with the shooting mechanics in ME2.

[mrpain]

Lead designers only hold the whips anyway.

She came up with the shooting mechanics in ME2.

I always picture her as a hot blonde chick with geeky glasses.

 

And I just went to Google to get my first glimpse at her...

 

At least I got the blond part right.

[CharmingCharlie]

Yeah I got to admit that Christina Norman thing was a bit out of the blue. I understand she was instrumental in quite a few game play aspects and she always came across as some one that was totally and utterly dedicated to Mass Effect. It even seems from reading her tweets that she was a big RPG fan too. It really was a "WOW" moment when Chris announced she had left.

 

Ah well it seems that the departure was amicable, she is still tweeting stuff about Mass Effect 3 and oddly enough she hasn't changed her Twitter profile to reflect her new life style. I guess you could do a joke about marriage, women and kitchens to reflect what has happened but that is below me

 

Anyway whilst I am here it seems the next chance we will get a Mass Effect info overload is in July. Apparently Bioware are going to be present at the San Diego Comic convention on the 21st-24th July. They will be hosting a cosplay competition and Demoing both Mass Effect 3 and some DA 2 DLC apparently.

[G The Generous]

nah.i don't like the level design in ME2

ME1 level design is much better and it's bring back real RPG feeling

[Rockworm]

nah.i don't like the level design in ME2

ME1 level design is much better and it's bring back real RPG feeling

I agree. The same 3 buildings made it an RPG

[mrpain]

nah.i don't like the level design in ME2

ME1 level design is much better and it's bring back real RPG feeling

I agree. The same 3 buildings made it an RPG

Was just about to say that.

 

ME1 had plenty more locations than ME2 but that's because it was always the same old recycled building.

 

Like it or not, ME3 will probably stick to the ME2 style of providing us with few but unique locations.

[G The Generous]

I just hope they will bring back ME1 style

remember in ME1,location are awesome designed,long good mission,huge location and you doing both RPG and shooting in the same map,many thing and good side missions to do

in ME2 side missions are a bit boring,map is small and you just can hang around a few small location to buy stuff and doing mission.ME1 is an art,i was enjoy it level design so much,remember back in the day in Citadel,it's huge and great,good time to spent around and doing fun side mission,unlike ME2 where are bunch of shop and it's feel boring somehow.

the disappoint thing in ME2 is main story mission,it was short and you spend much time to shooting and find a new team members instead of doing a "real" mission like ME1 back in the day,where you go around the area and discover many interest thing.

 

[mrpain]

I just hope they will bring back ME1 style

remember in ME1,location are awesome designed,long good mission,huge location and you doing both RPG and shooting in the same map,many thing and good side missions to do

in ME2 side missions are a bit boring,map is small and you just can hang around a few small location to buy stuff and doing mission.ME1 is an art,i was enjoy it level design so much,remember back in the day in Citadel,it's huge and great,good time to spent around and doing fun side mission,unlike ME2 where are bunch of shop and it's feel boring somehow.

the disappoint thing in ME2 is main story mission,it was short and you spend much time to shooting and find a new team members instead of doing a "real" mission like ME1 back in the day,where you go around the area and discover many interest thing.

I agree the recruitment missions were quite annoying. We got Legoin so late that we could only have two missions with him.

 

Eh but if I had to choose, I would go with ME2 style. I like to see both games as independent games of their own. Sure ME2 may not be as big as its predecessor but ME2 is big in it's own way.

 

I gave respect to the art style for ME1 while I give respect to the developers for ME2.

[Rockworm]

The only thing ME1 was better than 2 was the story.

IMO the gameplay was crap.. The mako was garbage... Complain all about the recruitment missions in 2 all you want at least they didn't make me want to castrate a puppy.

Inventory was pointless and I'm glad its gone. ME has suffered an identity crisis it tries to be a shooter/RPG.. When it leans towards shooter more (ME2) the story suffered. THen it was more RPG the gameplay suffered.

As much as I love this series it had its problems. I don't expect 3 to be perfect but just like the last 2 I'll love them anyway

[G The Generous]

gameplay in both game are good.

but in ME2 most of the time you spend is in indoor enviroment,so it's mean most of the time is that you hang around a few house,keep cover in a few wall and shooting what you see a head,and then a boss come out,you kill him and done,1 main story mission done, and 3-4 more of them,you done the main story.

in ME1,shooting is not so comfortable,but it's great that you can run around the whole map and kill thing in your way,many use of enviroment stuff and you can even run from them or stand there and ready to fight off a large army a head.

OMG,i miss ME1 so much,too many good memory in there,where i don't have any when playing ME2 ,at least the suicide mission and Garrus moment was a good memory as well,such a damn awesome moment,but there are no more than that for me in ME2

ONE location i love in ME2 is omega,great atmosphere about futurism city. Lair of broken shadow and Kasumi DLC were great,good RPG style but map way too small and mission are short.

i love all the location in ME1,Citadel,huge sh*t enviroment,my jaw was dropped in the first moment Shepard put his foot on there,great to hang around and talk with alien races,help them and do funny sh*t.and then there is Noveria,great planet covering in snow,you can really feel a "cold" feeling in this place,and then put your foot in a stranger lab,fight a bunch of alien cockroach and found a safety place where scientist team used to hide.and then there is Feros,first time in there you can feel the deadly,despair feeling about this place,where people lost their hope on the war with Geth,and then you gotta run around this deadly island,go to a lab and discover some good thing,and run back to the first place.fight a bunch of "zombie" people and fight off the giant f*cking disgusting monster,but that sh*t is an ancient art,feel a bit sorry for myself about killing that thing in fact

well,there are many thing to say,but this is what i can say.i LOVE ME1.please bring back the good old atmostphere instead of a bunch of action cinematic and a short ass story

at least Bioware spend they time to craft the game well,i will happy to hear if they delay the game infact,where they could find time to plant a few more good thing for the game

Edited June 22, 2011 by badboy_zay

[mrpain]

Woah woah woah. Yes I find the ME2 story to be quite draggy and the Collectors were a boring bunch of enemies. However, the writing, dialouge and characters were further improved in ME2.

 

I hated Tali in ME1, but her character somewhat transformed in ME2 and I began to like her.

[G The Generous]

of course dialouge in ME2 is way much better than ME1

wait,did i'm wrong?

well,imo,Shepard in ME2 is an asshole,even i spend time to make him become a paragon instead of mr.angry.but his dialogue is less emoticon and whatever i choose it's still a same "angry" dialogue,this is not Shepard i used to know in ME1,where he very good with people and talk charm thing,in ME2 his dialogue make me hate him a few times somehow,most of them are because of his anger sh*t

it's seem they like to turn Shepard into some badass dude.but i still like the how he used to be in ME1.not sure if you noticed this but i did.

[Rockworm]

I have given up on reading badboy's writing

 

Vanguard in ME2.... /discussion.

[G The Generous]

^well i'm not talking about the gameplay

i was talking about the atmosphere in game if you know what i mean.compare both game in fact.

however people have their own opinion,but my choose is ME1 style, FTW

[Fnorg]

They will be hosting a cosplay competition

It's like they want their fans to be creepy chantards who are only in it to bang the blue chick/space gypsy.

[papanesta]

Lead designers only hold the whips anyway.

She came up with the shooting mechanics in ME2.

Sounds like she'd done her bit.

[CharmingCharlie]

I dunno if anyone is interested in these but thought I would make a post about them. There is a new episode of "Biowarepulse" up today you can find it here :-

 

http://www.livestream.com/biowaretv/video?...d6-5781cec828c9

 

The episode covers the behind the screens work being done to make the huge Atlas walker that you saw in the E3 demos come to life. It was quite a decent watch, I enjoyed seeing some of the basics of Mass Effect and hell it is only about 2:26 to watch so why not check it out. There are no major story spoilers but some might poo poo about some of the game mechanics being spoiled.

[mrpain]

ATLAS SMASH!

 

Yeap no major story spoilers in there alright. One thing we can extract from the video is there will be smoke grenades. Oh and at 2:51!

 

 

I know this isn't the ME2 thread but I have to share this. Just finished a playthrough with only Miranda surviving. So yeah, my Shepard died. It made sense to my Shepard the she was the only one who survived since she was the second-in command. But she ditched my Shepard just so she could save her own epic ass into the Normandy!

[MrcTOtheJ]

I know this isn't the ME2 thread but I have to share this. Just finished a playthrough with only Miranda surviving. So yeah, my Shepard died. It made sense to my Shepard the she was the only one who survived since she was the second-in command. But she ditched my Shepard just so she could save her own epic ass into the Normandy!

What a bitch, that really sucks man.

 

Yeah I was going though another ME2 play though with my main Sheppard (Male, Soldier), so I can have everyone alive on my PS3 game (I almost finished on my step bro's 360 but it came to the PS3) and I had a bit over 30hours into it, and had all most everyone (was lazy getting Tali) and I had done allot of side stuff etc. well, I go to do the shadow broker stuff, and during loading the game freezes, and then I shut it down and restart it's corrupted , pissed me off.

 

Anyhow that video was a good watch for sure, smoke grenades look good,

[CharmingCharlie]

Hm not sure what is going on at Bioware but they need a few heads knocking together. It appears today the voice actor behind Mordin Solus has confirmed that he has NOT been recalled to reprise his role as Mordin. If you will remember in the E3 demos whilst we see Mordin we also heard a very different voice to that we associate with Mordin. It was speculated at the time that the voice over was a "place holder".

 

This is what Michael Beattie had to say about things :-

 

 

You are correct.  That is not my voice you heard in the Mass Effect 3 trailer. As you know, I had a blast “giving voice” to Mordin in Mass Effect 2 and would love to reprise my role in ME3. However, as of this writing, I have not recorded anything for ME3 nor have I signed a contract to do so

source

 

Now it could simply be a case that Bioware haven't gotten around to signing him up yet. I get the feeling that Mordin is not going to have a massive role in Mass Effect 3 so it is conceivable that there isn't a lot of voice work for him to do so they are leaving it a bit later to call him in. However if this is true and they have dropped the guy as the voice of Mordin it is disappointing.

[Minic]

I really hope they get him back, Mordin wouldn't be the same with a different voice, though I will admit they 'place-holder' from the E3 footage did a pretty good job imitating the voice.

[mrpain]

They better not screw with Mordin's role. He's my 2nd favorite character in the entire series!

 

Been thinking about my squad wishlist for ME3, I really want this to happen.

8 members consisting of: Ashley/Kaidan, Liara, Garrus, Tali, Miranda, Mordin. So it's two characters from ME1, two characters from ME2 and the other two usuals. Plus two new characters: James and another alien dude.

 

 

I would like to encourage everyone to have really different Shepards ready for ME3. Don't get everybody to survive, kill them off in the Suicide Mission! My last few playthroughs has been about killing off my squadmates. I enjoy the sight of their deaths because I was so sick and tired of watching everyone survive.

 

Hell I have a black Shepard with only Garrus, Mordin, Miranda and Samara alive and another default FemShep with only Grunt, Miranda and Samara alive.

 

 

[CharmingCharlie]

I can't stand when any of my team mates die, but having said that I do have a "disaster" play through that I did to get some video footage for the "In The Army Now" video. So it will be interesting to see how Bioware handles team mate deaths.

 

Anyway who is up for a new Bioware video ? They have a new "Making of" video on the Mass Effect site :-

 

http://bcove.me/x4pjovve

 

Alternatively go here :-

 

http://masseffect.bioware.com/

 

The video is called "The Making of Invasion" and it covers all the stuff they did for that live action Reaper Invasion video. Yeah it was a bit cheesy and I hope to god they don't use anything like that in ME 3 but hell it is something to watch when there is f*ck all on TV.

Edited June 29, 2011 by CharmingCharlie

[WHAT!?]

I can't stand when any of my team mates die

I don't like it either. Somehow I manage to get attached to them. Still I had to see what would happen if they all died... but there was a youtube video for that. I really wonder how Bioware will handle the third game if Shepard died in Mass Effect 2 I might have to make that happen just to find out. It would be an interesting twist.

 

Anyway, I also have to say I'm a little put off by the fact they didn't contact Mordin's voice actor yet. Would be a shame if they replaced him. After watching some of the behind the scenes videos covering the audio production I wouldn't be surprised if they were able to achieve Mordin's voice with some kind of a mask.

[AreXi]

I don't like it either. Somehow I manage to get attached to them. Still I had to see what would happen if they all died... but there was a youtube video for that. I really wonder how Bioware will handle the third game if Shepard died in Mass Effect 2 I might have to make that happen just to find out. It would be an interesting twist.

I believe one of the game tips during loading screens says something like You can import your Shepard to Mass Effect 3... If you survive. I like to think of that as "self-explanatory" .

[WHAT!?]

 

I don't like it either. Somehow I manage to get attached to them. Still I had to see what would happen if they all died... but there was a youtube video for that. I really wonder how Bioware will handle the third game if Shepard died in Mass Effect 2 I might have to make that happen just to find out. It would be an interesting twist.

I believe one of the game tips during loading screens says something like You can import your Shepard to Mass Effect 3... If you survive. I like to think of that as "self-explanatory" .

Well obviously if Shepard dies I would have to pick up as a new character. I'm curious as to who would fill that role? It would have to be someone Cerberus would still have a grievance with as well otherwise there goes half of the games opposing force. I wonder if the player would get to choose who the protagonist should be or if Bioware would already have one in mind.

[MagnAn]

Well obviously if Shepard dies I would have to pick up as a new character. I'm curious as to who would fill that role? It would have to be someone Cerberus would still have a grievance with as well otherwise there goes half of the games opposing force. I wonder if the player would get to choose who the protagonist should be or if Bioware would already have one in mind.

I don't think Bioware would design an entirely different character for those 0.01 percent of people whose Shepard didn't survive.

You'll probably get some sort of cutscene, and that's it.