ME3 demo footage

Not sure if this belongs in General RPG or General Non-RPG… Anyway here's the vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCXHz…layer_embedded

I read about this earlier. There was an app on Facebook to get the demo early with dlc avatar gear if you solved a puzzle. Sorry to say if you interested there are no more codes.

We consider ME 3 an RPG.

Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with the "sprint" animation?

Recognized Keith David's voice immediately. No matter how much stuff that guy does, I'll always picture him as Childs from "The Thing".

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with the "sprint" animation?

No, it definitely looks a little odd. Especially from the knees downwards.

Corridor Effect 3 !

Is it allready out ?

The 2nd half of the demo, including the boss fight, is an advanced version of the playable demo from GC.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I read about this earlier. There was an app on Facebook to get the demo early with dlc avatar gear if you solved a puzzle. Sorry to say if you interested there are no more codes.

No, I'm not interested in the slightest - posted it on the off chance others are/were. I have no desire to install origin. Which is why I watched part of the above video, it confirmed what I already expected("cinematic", poor animations + cover based corridor combat) and made passing on ME3 that much easier… Oh and what is with the galactic readiness? I have heard that it affects the SP experience, seriously?!?

Atm I'm enjoying JA: BiA and will probably get around to playing the copy of rage I bought way back when(assuming it's patched up)…

We consider ME 3 an RPG.

Good to know, because I have no clue what I consider it to be…

Originally Posted by MasterKromm
Atm I'm enjoying JA: BiA and will probably get around to playing the copy of rage I bought way back when(assuming it's patched up)…

I started playing Rage a few days ago, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. The recently released 1.2 patch added some nice features, including a new graphics option that sharpens those nearby textures.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Recognized Keith David's voice immediately. No matter how much stuff that guy does, I'll always picture him as Childs from "The Thing".

Same here. He's da man.

Gee I hope you can toggle those onscreen promps off. Nothing breaks game immersion better than big onscreen promps in the shape of Xbox controller buttons telling me to reload or whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Nice little demonstration of an AAA game

Originally Posted by JDR13
I started playing Rage a few days ago, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. The recently released 1.2 patch added some nice features, including a new graphics option that sharpens those nearby textures.

Sounds good… I remembered I had the game when I visited my brother and watched him play it on the PS3. It actually struck me as entertaining, even the driving/vehicle battles look fun.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Nice little demonstration of an AAA game

Now that is funny, the added sound track perfectly captures and enhances those special moments!

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Nice little demonstration of an AAA game

That video just makes the game look unfinished, like they are releasing an early build of it. Strange animations, glitches (did you notice how a character just popped in in at 2:46?) and what looks like poor AI (judging by the enemy reactions) makes me suspect that this game won't be much better than DA2. It hardly looks like a game that I would like to pre-order, but depending on what others say, I might pick it up once it has dropped considerably in price.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gayz4s82LHs

Nice little demonstration of an AAA game

Running and some other animations were never state of art in the previous games, but some of those in ME3 sure are abysmal. Running anims are especially mind boggling since it must´ve been obvious to anyone involved in making the game how subpar they are (and it must´ve been obvious people will notice it right away). That needs to be patched pronto (though part of me hopes Anderson´s sprint would stay because it´s positively hilarious).

As for the rest of the demo…
The whole opening leaves a lot to be desired, it´s rushed in delivery, writing is lazy and unconvincing and the beginning doesn´t connect well to the previous game, DLC or not (but in this case I think there´s a good chance this will be "corrected" further into the game, though I´d still consider omission of trial to be missed opportunity).
I´ve expected the game to deliver writing of varying quality, so for now I hope it gets, at least on average, better once the game leaves the introductory parts.
Also, having such a supposedly epic event serving as a backdrop for tutorial doesn´t work all that well from the dramatic standpoint.

I´m not going to comment on sparse dialogue choices, because a lot of dialoguing stuff was supposedly cut off from the demo (as was the usual run-around-and-talk-with-NPCs segment in the beginning of the demo´s second mission).

Speaking of the second mission, I think it, along with few MP missions I´ve watched, shows there´s a potential for ME3´s combat to be the best in the series, but it depends on encounter and level design in other missions and also whether the devs will be sensible enough to patch in the possibility to split omnibutton´s functionality into more keys. Cover actions need their own button, at least. FoV might also need some adjustments.
Companion and enemy AI seems to be improved, enemies are generally more proactive, health doesn´t auto-regen and the system as a whole seems to encourage more mobile approach to fights, at least on higher difficulties. Moreover, ability "trees" offer more customization, there´s more support for combos, plus there´s some other info (mostly external to the SP portion of the demo) that includes a good variety of guns and variety of mods for these, more substantial armour upgrades, as well as encumbrance mechanics.

At any rate, can´t say I was concerned with the combat or character development, however story bits and presentation most definitely weren´t encouraging and some of the aspects reek of insufficient dev time or budget.

I also briefly checked Bioforum if there´s some official response to some of the most usual concerns (there isn´t, at least yet), but there´s this and, man, what the fuck .
Basically, in that post Chris Priestly encourages players to not import their saves for their first playthroughs, because that way they´ll be able to appreciate the changes imports bring to the table more (on replays).
It doesn´t take much reading between the lines to come to the conclusion this is (a pretty pathetic at that, if so) an attempt to reduce import-related shitstorm that´s expected to happen upon release. Otherwise, I´ve no idea what the point of that post was.
Personally I don´t expect wonders from import related consequences in ME3 (though I do expect it to capitalize more on these than ME2 did) and, frankly, I appreciate Bioware for at least trying as even those little nods here and there make the series rather unique, but the above post certainly isn´t encouraging.

On a more positive note, can´t say I´m getting DA2 vibes yet, because even with all the worrisome signs, the game still felt somewhat in line with the prequels to me.

Hmm. Right now it's looking like ME3 won't get any love from me until it's in the bargain bin.

Originally Posted by DeepO
At any rate, can´t say I was concerned with the combat or character development, however story bits and presentation most definitely weren´t encouraging and some of the aspects reek of insufficient dev time or budget.

You're certainly more generous than I, but then - it's no secret that I've been developing a distaste for Bioware for the past few years.

Lately, TOR turned out to be a very, very bad MMO - but that's not the issue. The issue, for me, is how they blatantly lied about aspects of the game pre-release. Especially regarding the "fantastic" and "to die for" open world PvP.

Then we have DA2 - and how they've been so arrogant in public about the issues with the game, and how they were ever so proud of what their team accomplished.

Stuff like that just gets to me after a while, especially when the actual games are so weak.

Now, I liked Mass Effect 2 "well enough" - as in I would call it a passable experience for me, personally. But I did recognise that it was probably a good game if you're into shooting more than RPG'ing. I'm not, though.

As for the Mass Effect 3 demo, the less said about the introduction and first section - the better. As for the second section - it certainly looks better, but the actual content was, like, 90% filler combat - and 10% dialogue/button pushing.

The actual combat was all EXACTLY the same. Enemies jumped down from somewhere - and you pop out a bit from cover from time to time. Exactly like Gears of War and exactly like Mass Effect 2. I simply can't fathom how people can keep enjoying the same exact fight over and over and over. But that's just a subjective observation. If you like cover shooters - then it seems ME3 will be very good.

I will concede that the branching skill trees seem like a marginal improvement - but it remains to be seen how much of an impact choices have on playstyle. To me, it seems you'll still be popping out of cover a bit - over and over and over. No matter what skills you use. No meaningful alternative approach to combat. I hope I'm wrong.

If that's how the average level will play, then it's going to be really boring to play - for my part.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
You're certainly more generous than I

Yeah, but I wouldn´t say "certainly", because likely a big part of it is simply me giving them more benefit of doubt in the case of this particular game, even though I´m aware that the current realities don´t quite justify it - I enjoyed both previous games (enjoying a replay of ME1 right now, actually) and I really want the concluding part not to suck across the board because it would ruin the first two games in retrospect.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
As for the second section - it certainly looks better, but the actual content was, like, 90% filler combat - and 10% dialogue/button pushing.

I remember seeing some leaked footage of that section some time ago and that included some running around and talking between arrival to the base and shooting, which was cut from the demo. Also, supposedly there will be more dialogue options in general in the full game - could be a dev bullshitting, but again, a benefit of doubt from my side.
In this regard, I think the moment of truth in the full game will be, at the latest, the Citadel.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I simply can't fathom how people can keep enjoying the same exact fight over and over and over. But that's just a subjective observation.

Speaking for myself, my reasons would be:
1. Context - ME2 has some running around hubs and a lot of dialogues and this can be utilized to pace the overall experience.
2. Powers - it´s not just shooting (I would never play ME2 with the soldier class)
3. Encounter design - because I actually disagree it´s the exact same fight over and over. The covers are almost always there for sure, but personally I´ve found there to be a good variety due to (some subtle, some more obvious) differences in level design (even if too game-y and unnatural) and enemy composition. Part of it may be the insanity difficulty where you usually can´t just sit behind one cover till everything dies.
Missions mostly feature a fair share of unremarkable encounters, but usually make up for it with one or two scenarios which bring something new to the table and some of these I´ve found to be really good (Horizon ending, Geth colossus piece or saving "Archangel"). Eventually it does get repetitive for me too, but that´s mostly because ME2 is a quite long game if one doesn´t ignore the optional content.
4. Companion variety - at least on insanity the squad composition makes a difference in how encounters play out. Not a striking difference, mind you, but it does allow for some synergies and lessens the potential repetitiveness a bit.
5. Character development (very funny, I know) - in the beginning pretty much every class is strongly dependent on covers, but part of the fun for me was playing and developing my protagonist in a way that progressively led to more dynamic opportunities how to go about combat. That very likely doesn´t work for all the classes, but it somewhat worked for an infiltrator and it definitely worked for vanguard and sentinel.

That said, I think that the first point colours the other four quite a lot - I definitely give this game´s combat more leeway than I would if the game was only combat.
Somehow the combination of running around, talking and fighting in its pretty well developed setting just hits the spot for the occasions when I´m in the mood to grab imaginary popcorn and relax .

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
If you like cover shooters - then it seems ME3 will be very good.

I know this isn´t addressed just to me, but personally I wouldn´t exactly say that I like cover shooters - ME2 and, to a lesser degree, ME1 are pretty much the only cover shooters I´ve played (I´ve never used a sticky cover in DE:HR ) so maybe I don´t mind it simply because it´s something different compared to what I´ve experienced in other games.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I will concede that the branching skill trees seem like a marginal improvement - but it remains to be seen how much of an impact choices have on playstyle. To me, it seems you'll still be popping out of cover a bit - over and over and over. No matter what skills you use. No meaningful alternative approach to combat. I hope I'm wrong.

Well, there´s the new heavy melee option, enemies usually don´t just sit behind cover and they use grenades regularly (also, I think some might even be able to shoot you through cover, judging by the new armor piercing ammo properties).
It seems that the combat is designed to encourage more dynamic playstyles than in the previous game and on insanity I certainly had to move around all the time.
What level of changes will the skill trees, encumbrance and weapon mods bring to table is certainly to be seen, as well as whether these changes will be for the better or not. For example, I already suspect that sentinel´s tech armour has been changed in a way that might result in this class being less enjoyable for me to play.

I don't even like shooters in general, yet I like ME1 and 2 a lot (ME1 more than 2 though, by a wide margin). Then again, combat is hardly the most important aspect for me - characters, story and so on is far more vital. So far, BioWare still delivers, though DA2 was shabby, no doubt about that. That's also the only game BioWare has released that let me down.

I just downloaded the demo and played for about 40 minutes (in RPG mode)…and was totally underwhelmed. The same old scrambling around behind crates, a cover system which annoyed my - (too 'sticky') - the same old…same old. Maybe the demo was too disjointed, but I feel no desire to buy this game, even though I purchased ME1/2. The opening scene was one long interactive cinematic, complete with faux emotion when Shepherd tries to save 'the poor lost boy' (complete with 2 choices woohoo) The graphics look dated - almost ME1 level - although that could be the fact that its a demo. I found absolutely nothing to like - even though I had recently replayed ME2 (out of sheer boredom). I'll pick this up at a sale some day. I think Bioware have lost something vital in their games, although I can't quite put my finger on it.