Mass Effect 3 Demo Available.Follow

I know that's what they said, but I don't believe it (for many reasons).

1. There are voice files, among other things, for him in the demo version of the game. That mean he's at least partially bundled with the actual game, not a separate patch-style DLC. It means that he's been included in that 3-month testing phase.

2. And of course he has. Think they are going to release a DLC without extensively testing it first? Especially if he's a significant part of the game, then this character has been in testing with the whole kit since the original version finished. That's why most DLC IS released much after launch--it's what the Dev teams did after the fact.

No way, this character had to have been included with their overall design and testing process. There's just no way it would be ready in time otherwise. Now, I can agree that Prothean-specific testing might have lasted too long for him to be printed on the disc in an implemented way, but that doesn't excuse anything.

Fact of the matter is that the character is completed and available content at launch. Considering launch day patches are pretty much standard now (and probably will be for ME3), and he definitely has files in the core version, then there's no good reason that the character couldn't have been enabled by that initial day patch (after they finished their last minute testing). Considering, you know, that's the case.

Bioware is pretending like a completely different design team worked on him after the fact. And it's a downright lie.

3. Why is it a lie? Because we have proof in the form of dated concept art that they released in the art book that the character has been intended from the start. And it specifies as a squad member.

4. Because, obviously, it's impossible to be true. The design team spent 3 months working on him? What, so he's just not being tested? Yeah, no. They're going to have to just as thoroughly test the game with the character as without. That means, at best, we are talking one month of design.


Remember, this is going to be a launch day DLC. To have that on the PSN by then, they'd have to submit it at least 3 weeks in advance. So we just cut the timeline down to 2 months. There's no way in hell they implemented that character in two months. I can believe that they didn't have that content ready to be enabled on the disc. But we know a fair amount of his content is actually printed on the discs.

[EDIT]

To be specific, the core game content was allegedly finished in January, and then they went on to the character. Which I flat-out don't believe.

The character in question was included in the scripts that leaked last November. It's been using up design time throughout the entire process.

Edited, Feb 24th 2012 10:28am by idiggory

Thing is, it shouldn't take much to get it ready beyond that. Those two things constitute the vast majority of the work and they are already in game. Allies, at least in the last two games, largely used a pre-existing template for their abilities. The only thing that would need to be worked on besides that is the mission to get the character, and the character model.

What is absolute bullsh*t about this is something I don't think you are quite seeing.

We are paying for a game disc that includes the character data already. The launch DLC will largely be an unlock code for that content. Might it deliver some more? Sure. Maybe balance tweaks, maybe there's an important part of the mission not printed on the disc.

But the fact of the matter is that I just paid for something for them, after the fact, to tell me I need to pay $10 for a key that unlocks some of what I already bought.

[EDIT]

There are rumors going around that the character in question is in the game regardless. As in, you would be doing the initial mission to get him. But whether or not you have the option to bring him along is what the DLC decides.

If that's true, I honestly don't know if it makes me angrier or appeases me. On the one hand, it slightly reduces the "complete story" complaint. On the other, it possibly firms up the greed accusation (adding proof that the bulk of the work was completed for the core game, with only the small amount of companion-oriented stuff implemented later.

Either way, $10 is frickin' insane. Frankly, if you can't earn it in 1 hour of minimum wage, it's too much. I'm even okay rounding up to $8 (US min. wage is $7.50)

Edited, Feb 24th 2012 11:30am by idiggory

What I figure it means is that Spoilerrescuing him from stasis is linked to the story, and there are plenty of reasons to see why. But the DLC will cause him to tag along instead of going on his mission without you.

Maybe he wants Spoilerto try and find some old colonial effort another Prothean group attempted or something. If the DLC has, say, Miranda send you a galaxy map they uncovered, you might be able to use it to bribe him to come along.


Completely imaginary for instance, of course. We don't even know if those rumors are true.

I'd be fine with a Dragon Age MMO. I don't want to see a Mass Effect one. ME is Shepard's story, where DA is a story about the world.

A Dragon Age III would be good, first.

That is, assuming it's not the rushed abortion 2 was.

Also, I just realized something. I'm replaying DAO right now (primarily because doing the DA 30 Day Challenge on my tumblr made me want to play). All 6 characters from the Origins exist. Choosing your Origin chooses where Duncan goes at the start of the game, which in turn decides which of the 6 survives.

So the middle child of the Dwarf King is exiled, but dies in the Deep Roads.
The corpse in the cell next to Leske is supposed to be the Dwarf Commoner (it still exists there later if you choose that Origin, but Leske doesn't explain anything about the deceased).
The Cousland child either dies alongside his or her parents, or either never even reaches them when Howe attacks.
The *Mage probably helps Jowan escape, but is punished for it (made tranquil, killed in Uldred's rebellion, etc., etc., etc.)
The Dalish dies to the taint (and this is referenced by Merrill in DA2, apparently).
The City Elf isn't given weapons by Duncan, and likely fails and/or is executed.

As the only Origin with two possible races, it might be that both are true, and that it is one for each of the two characters (just without any additional specification)

This just made it much, much harder for me to choose my Warden race. O.o;;

Why? Because if I'm not a Mage, then I feel like I've just killed ANOTHER of Hawke's family. If I'm not a Cousland, Fergus is all alone.

D:

Yeah, I really didn't. I remember vaguely wondering about it, but I only played Mage and the Cousland really. And, of the two of them, only Mage really gets any references (Cullen/Jowan).

I don't remember if I've cleared Origins since doing the other 4 origins (which I wanted to see, even if I wasn't interested in playing as an elf or dwarf).

So, yeah...

The article I read about it used the phrase "heinous memes" and accidentally said the statement was posted on March 22.

Yeah, I'm not going back to that site.

Play them all. Not so you can enjoy number 3, but because 1-2 still stand up as great games that you will enjoy.

So there have been some tweets on the subject of the DLC.

They say that all of the remaining plot arcs regarding the SpoilerProtheans and their exctinction will be completely resolved in the core game, not the DLC. Another tweet from Casey Hudson says that Spoilerthe Prothean is just intended to be a cool companion, not to add anything substantial to the main story, beyond what the implications of any companion would at least (I imagine).

I haven't seen any real confirmation regarding whether or not you'll meet him without the DLC, but I at least feel better knowing they didn't just keep out a significant lore source just to milk cash from my wallet. Still don't agree with the launch day DLC for a cost, but it's somewhat better now than it was.

SpoilerBy using a paragon or renegade persuade, you tell the tribunal to @#%^ off so hard that they have absolutely no choice but to do so. Alternatively, if you save the quarian from the recruitment and return the one from the first mission directly to the quarians, you can incite the crowd to stop the trial.

The Paragon option is so incredibly satisfying that if you haven't seen it, you absolutely need to go youtube it. Renegade is pretty badass too.
SpoilerIt's kind of a huge point of Shepard's characterization and an overlying point of the narrative. There are happy endings, so far at least, if you have a strong enough personality and work for them.

Edited, Mar 2nd 2012 4:22am by Poldaran

Edited, Mar 2nd 2012 4:25am by Poldaran

Know one thing I love about BioWare games? You can play through a second time, even making the same decisions as before, but still discover a ton of new stuff because of the way conversations work.

I only played ME through once, as a Paragon FemShep. I'm playing it again for my canon FemShep, to import to ME2 for a canon run, to import to ME3. And I'm going pure Paragon. I did the same on my first playthrough, but this time I'm being more careful with my dialogue choices--looking at them and thinking about them (since I want this to be my "real" Shepard). And I've actually discovering a lot more now.

For instance, take that one conversation where Ashley is complaining about there being all of the aliens on board the Normandy. After her more intense rant, I told her she was out of line last time, and it pretty much ended the conversation (she apologizes and that aspect of the discussion is over).

This time, I chose to be more diplomatic and asked her to speak her mind. The conversation probably ended up being 66% longer. She explains that she doesn't mistrust or dislike aliens for being aliens, and she insists she's not racist. She distrusts them because of her belief that every species will always seek to protect itself, which is understandable since they all ultimately need to protect their own families and gene pool, so she's afraid to place too much trust in them. Not because she thinks they'd betray the Alliance, but because she thinks the most any species can expect from another is to be fair-weather friends. And she universalizes it--she thinks humanity would do the same to them, Turians would do the same to Salarians, etc.

My Shepard that she understood where her views were coming from, but that she disagreed and Williams couldn't let her opinions get in the way of proper workings on the ship. Ashley assures her that they won't.

In retrospect, I kinda wish I had chosen the other "diplomatic" option, but it's more curiosity than anything--I think the conversation would have ended pretty much the same.

But yeah, TOTALLY just further developed Ashley's character for me.



Also, having had Cerberus so prominent in the second game, I'm finding that it was quite a bit more prominent in the first than I even remembered. It's still all assignment, not mission, stuff (more or less). But you're introduced to it pretty early in the game as an Alliance shadow ops group that went rogue (which we know wasn't even half of it, since the shadow ops group was actually just one small branch of the whole organization).

But a good number of assignments deal with it, and you see quite a few horrific things done under them. I'm happy that I'll be thinking about that going into ME2.

So, this little trailer just got released.



Effing *****.

Edited, Mar 2nd 2012 12:49pm by IDrownFish