Mass Effect 3 - Beta Leaked on XBL

Dhruin

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The Mass Effect 3 closed beta was leaked on Xbox Live a couple of days ago, revealing different "modes" such as "Action" and "RPG". Kotaku has the story and a response from BioWare:
Hello everyone!
As most of you know by now, this evening an accidental leak occurred of some early Mass Effect 3 beta code. Microsoft has advised us that through human error at their end, content which was meant for internal beta testing was flagged incorrectly and released to individuals who had signed up for the beta of the Xbox Live dashboard update. It has since been taken down and deactivated.
We'd like to stress that the leaked code is in a rough, unfinished state and was not meant for public release. The content is not final, and is not reflective of the quality of the finished, polished game due for release on March 6, 2012 (March 9 in Europe).
One feature that was present in this early build is a set of game play modes that are in development. In the beta code they are referred to as "action mode", "story mode" and "RPG mode". We want to stress that these features are still in the early stages of development and will receive considerable iteration and refinement. These modes are designed to give players an even finer degree of control over their game experience than ever before. Whether it be someone who finds the combat difficult but wants to experience the amazing story, someone who wants to focus on the action and combat game play, or fans who want the rich, story-driven RPG Mass Effect experience they've come to love – Mass Effect 3 will support all of these options. We'll have more info in the days ahead!
Thanks, KapitanUnterhosen! If you check our forums, you'll find discussion and links to screens showing the controversial "Action", "Story" and "RPG" modes.
More information.
 
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Thanks, KapitanUnterhosen! If you check our forums, you'll find discussion and links to screens showing the controversial "Action", "Story" and "RPG" modes.

Where?




(extra characters)
 
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Here.
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Dear Green Place
I'm in the minority here, but I'm gonna posit that this opens up the possibility for more complex RPG features by offering more granular control over skills and/or what otherwise would be delegated to AI. It's not that many of you thought that ME2 was that high up in RPG land in the first place. We can only go up from here.
 
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I honestly don't see why this is so bad. If the RPG mode is still what we'd expect, then there is NO loss at all to any RPG fan, and it may make the game better non-RPG fans.

What matters is the robustness of the RPG elements. This doesn't say anything either way about that.
 
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Yeah, I just don't get what the fuss is all about. If the "RPG mode" is basically what we'd expect from a Mass Effect game... who cares about the action and story modes ?

-Sergorn
 
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I think this is Jennifer Helper's baby. It has potential for good, the way things were headed basically every piece of content had to be dragged down to the level of lowest common denominator in the target audience, so this opens up the possibility of deeper and more complex content in the full experience(although the extra content and features could just as well be fluff like New Vegas' hardcore mode).

Bioware might get sued for it however. Nintendo has already experimented (and patented) this kind of thing for its mario and zelda games. In mario they just have a in-game autoplay feature that you can turn on if you're having difficulty getting past the tough levels, the game takes control of mario and plays through the level until you tell it to stop, the result is that recent mario games have been the most challenging and varied yet.

For the new zelda you have a similar "story" mode where you can avoid all the trek between certains areas and just skip to the important bits and a "full" mode, all this on top of a similar autoplay feature.
 
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Interesting. I hope BioWare has the cash to do this. A game that's all things to all people would be very impressive!
 
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Sounds good to me if implemented well. That way they can set the default for the "masses" while those of us who enjoy RPGs can have the stuff we enjoy.
 
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You don't have to worry about Nintendo suing Bioware over this since Nintendo can only patent their own specific implementation of it and as long as the implementation isn't identical there wouldn't be patent infringement over this system.

PS. I really hope that Bioware takes advantage of this and makes the game an actual RPG unlike the predecessors.

PPS. I've actually been wondering why game companies haven't implemented this before since it would get rid of all of the complaints about dialog or leveling and the developers could then do what they want with the games. They would be able to please everyone that way instead of having to dumb the games down for the idiots.
 
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Uhh, forget what I said in the other thread about the speculation of BioWaste making another Autoduel. The boycott's back on. :p

I think I'll pass on the Henry Ford concept of an RPG. This puts me in the mind of that one South Park episode about the striking writers for Family Guy. I suspect BioWaste is now employing manatees with idea balls.
 
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