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This thread has been linked to the game 'Mass Effect 3'.
There's only two weeks to go to the release of Mass Effect 3. If you're a fan of the series then you've probably already got your copy pre-ordered. If not, then you're best off starting with Mass Effect 1 or 2. Mass Effect 3's demo starts you off right at the beginning of the game, and it becomes apparent that, unlike Mass Effect 2, you really need to have played one of the other games to have a clue what's going on.
The first thing that can be said about the game is that it actually looks better than Mass Effect 2, on the PS3 at least. Even the demo's less buggy than ME2's PS3 release, which suffered from out of synch audio and other problems. The frame rate does drop a little during cut-scenes but again that could be down to the demo being non-optimized or something. If you're worried about spoiling the game by playing the demo, then you're best off playing through the first part and then turning it off when it jumps forward to a later part of the game. But don't worry - the first part of the demo, which is the first few minutes of the actual game, is spectacular.
Not in a graphical sense, mind, although the graphics are very good. I'm talking about the sheer balls-to-the-wall excellence of starting on a truly apocalyptic note. The first game implied that the big baddies, the Reapers, lurking outside the galaxy, would arrive and start methodically annihilating all the races. Turns out that isn't the case - the character you play, Commander Shepard, has annoyed the Reapers so much that they've decided to make Earth their first port of call and as such the game starts with a full scale Reaper invasion of the planet.
After a brief cut-scene, which explains why you're on Earth and not out in space, the game begins in earnest. At which point your main tactic is to just run like hell, blasting enemies along the way. The actual mechanics of the game haven't changed much - you've got a stronger melee attack, and the weapons still use ammo rather than having infinite energy as they did in Mass Effect 1. But the enemies are more varied than they've been before, with all sorts of different Reaper modified bad guys coming at you. Taking cover is the order of the day, but the cover system feels pretty fluid as opposed to being clunky a la Gears of War.
That's assuming you can keep your eyes on the enemies, though. The city-scape that features in the first level looks amazing, but even more eye catching are the Reapers themselves. They're not just sitting there doing nothing - you can see them laying into cities and annihilating the earth. I found myself stopping several times just to watch. You're also constantly reminded of the human cost - and there's a pretty heart-rending moment during this demo. Awesome stuff.
Once you get onto the second part of the demo, you're back in familiar territory - this time working with a few familiar faces as your squad members. You also get to see a character from Mass Effect 2 in a cameo role, though if he didn't survive the events of that game when you were playing it, he won't appear in the full game. What's odd about this is that - although it is admittedly a stand alone demo level - there's no real sense of urgency. The Reapers are presumably still assaulting Earth and you're doing what feels like a fairly standard mission.
That said, none of this has put me off picking up Mass Effect 3. Based on the demo, it won't be full of innovations - there's a multiplayer mode, but it feels kind of unnecessary - but it will hopefully be a suitably dramatic conclusion to Commander Shepard's story. I just hope there won't be some kind of deus-ex machina style ending that comes out of nowhere.
The first thing that can be said about the game is that it actually looks better than Mass Effect 2, on the PS3 at least. Even the demo's less buggy than ME2's PS3 release, which suffered from out of synch audio and other problems. The frame rate does drop a little during cut-scenes but again that could be down to the demo being non-optimized or something. If you're worried about spoiling the game by playing the demo, then you're best off playing through the first part and then turning it off when it jumps forward to a later part of the game. But don't worry - the first part of the demo, which is the first few minutes of the actual game, is spectacular.
Not in a graphical sense, mind, although the graphics are very good. I'm talking about the sheer balls-to-the-wall excellence of starting on a truly apocalyptic note. The first game implied that the big baddies, the Reapers, lurking outside the galaxy, would arrive and start methodically annihilating all the races. Turns out that isn't the case - the character you play, Commander Shepard, has annoyed the Reapers so much that they've decided to make Earth their first port of call and as such the game starts with a full scale Reaper invasion of the planet.
After a brief cut-scene, which explains why you're on Earth and not out in space, the game begins in earnest. At which point your main tactic is to just run like hell, blasting enemies along the way. The actual mechanics of the game haven't changed much - you've got a stronger melee attack, and the weapons still use ammo rather than having infinite energy as they did in Mass Effect 1. But the enemies are more varied than they've been before, with all sorts of different Reaper modified bad guys coming at you. Taking cover is the order of the day, but the cover system feels pretty fluid as opposed to being clunky a la Gears of War.
That's assuming you can keep your eyes on the enemies, though. The city-scape that features in the first level looks amazing, but even more eye catching are the Reapers themselves. They're not just sitting there doing nothing - you can see them laying into cities and annihilating the earth. I found myself stopping several times just to watch. You're also constantly reminded of the human cost - and there's a pretty heart-rending moment during this demo. Awesome stuff.
Once you get onto the second part of the demo, you're back in familiar territory - this time working with a few familiar faces as your squad members. You also get to see a character from Mass Effect 2 in a cameo role, though if he didn't survive the events of that game when you were playing it, he won't appear in the full game. What's odd about this is that - although it is admittedly a stand alone demo level - there's no real sense of urgency. The Reapers are presumably still assaulting Earth and you're doing what feels like a fairly standard mission.
That said, none of this has put me off picking up Mass Effect 3. Based on the demo, it won't be full of innovations - there's a multiplayer mode, but it feels kind of unnecessary - but it will hopefully be a suitably dramatic conclusion to Commander Shepard's story. I just hope there won't be some kind of deus-ex machina style ending that comes out of nowhere.
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There's only two weeks to go to the release of Mass Effect 3. If you're a fan of the series then you've probably already got your copy pre-ordered. If not, then you're best off starting with Mass Effect 1 or 2. Mass Effect 3's demo starts you off right at the beginning of the game, and it becomes apparent that, unlike Mass Effect 2, you really need to have played one of the other games to have a clue what's going on.
The first thing that can be said about the game is that it actually looks better than Mass Effect 2, on the PS3 at least. Even the demo's less buggy than ME2's PS3 release, which suffered from out of synch audio and other problems. The frame rate does drop a little during cut-scenes but again that could be down to the demo being non-optimized or something. If you're worried about spoiling the game by playing the demo, then you're best off playing through the first part and then turning it off when it jumps forward to a later part of the game. But don't worry - the first part of the demo, which is the first few minutes of the actual game, is spectacular.
Not in a graphical sense, mind, although the graphics are very good. I'm talking about the sheer balls-to-the-wall excellence of starting on a truly apocalyptic note. The first game implied that the big baddies, the Reapers, lurking outside the galaxy, would arrive and start methodically annihilating all the races. Turns out that isn't the case - the character you play, Commander Shepard, has annoyed the Reapers so much that they've decided to make Earth their first port of call and as such the game starts with a full scale Reaper invasion of the planet.
After a brief cut-scene, which explains why you're on Earth and not out in space, the game begins in earnest. At which point your main tactic is to just run like hell, blasting enemies along the way. The actual mechanics of the game haven't changed much - you've got a stronger melee attack, and the weapons still use ammo rather than having infinite energy as they did in Mass Effect 1. But the enemies are more varied than they've been before, with all sorts of different Reaper modified bad guys coming at you. Taking cover is the order of the day, but the cover system feels pretty fluid as opposed to being clunky a la Gears of War.
That's assuming you can keep your eyes on the enemies, though. The city-scape that features in the first level looks amazing, but even more eye catching are the Reapers themselves. They're not just sitting there doing nothing - you can see them laying into cities and annihilating the earth. I found myself stopping several times just to watch. You're also constantly reminded of the human cost - and there's a pretty heart-rending moment during this demo. Awesome stuff.
Once you get onto the second part of the demo, you're back in familiar territory - this time working with a few familiar faces as your squad members. You also get to see a character from Mass Effect 2 in a cameo role, though if he didn't survive the events of that game when you were playing it, he won't appear in the full game. What's odd about this is that - although it is admittedly a stand alone demo level - there's no real sense of urgency. The Reapers are presumably still assaulting Earth and you're doing what feels like a fairly standard mission.
That said, none of this has put me off picking up Mass Effect 3. Based on the demo, it won't be full of innovations - there's a multiplayer mode, but it feels kind of unnecessary - but it will hopefully be a suitably dramatic conclusion to Commander Shepard's story. I just hope there won't be some kind of deus-ex machina style ending that comes out of nowhere.
The first thing that can be said about the game is that it actually looks better than Mass Effect 2, on the PS3 at least. Even the demo's less buggy than ME2's PS3 release, which suffered from out of synch audio and other problems. The frame rate does drop a little during cut-scenes but again that could be down to the demo being non-optimized or something. If you're worried about spoiling the game by playing the demo, then you're best off playing through the first part and then turning it off when it jumps forward to a later part of the game. But don't worry - the first part of the demo, which is the first few minutes of the actual game, is spectacular.
Not in a graphical sense, mind, although the graphics are very good. I'm talking about the sheer balls-to-the-wall excellence of starting on a truly apocalyptic note. The first game implied that the big baddies, the Reapers, lurking outside the galaxy, would arrive and start methodically annihilating all the races. Turns out that isn't the case - the character you play, Commander Shepard, has annoyed the Reapers so much that they've decided to make Earth their first port of call and as such the game starts with a full scale Reaper invasion of the planet.
After a brief cut-scene, which explains why you're on Earth and not out in space, the game begins in earnest. At which point your main tactic is to just run like hell, blasting enemies along the way. The actual mechanics of the game haven't changed much - you've got a stronger melee attack, and the weapons still use ammo rather than having infinite energy as they did in Mass Effect 1. But the enemies are more varied than they've been before, with all sorts of different Reaper modified bad guys coming at you. Taking cover is the order of the day, but the cover system feels pretty fluid as opposed to being clunky a la Gears of War.
That's assuming you can keep your eyes on the enemies, though. The city-scape that features in the first level looks amazing, but even more eye catching are the Reapers themselves. They're not just sitting there doing nothing - you can see them laying into cities and annihilating the earth. I found myself stopping several times just to watch. You're also constantly reminded of the human cost - and there's a pretty heart-rending moment during this demo. Awesome stuff.
Once you get onto the second part of the demo, you're back in familiar territory - this time working with a few familiar faces as your squad members. You also get to see a character from Mass Effect 2 in a cameo role, though if he didn't survive the events of that game when you were playing it, he won't appear in the full game. What's odd about this is that - although it is admittedly a stand alone demo level - there's no real sense of urgency. The Reapers are presumably still assaulting Earth and you're doing what feels like a fairly standard mission.
That said, none of this has put me off picking up Mass Effect 3. Based on the demo, it won't be full of innovations - there's a multiplayer mode, but it feels kind of unnecessary - but it will hopefully be a suitably dramatic conclusion to Commander Shepard's story. I just hope there won't be some kind of deus-ex machina style ending that comes out of nowhere.