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 johnscott10 wrote:

 Aldarionn wrote:

 Karon wrote:
It was indeed a joke, plebeian console peasants.

Yes but if you remember, Mass Effect 1 (and 2 I think?) was a console exclusive.

Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.

Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.

Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.

 Karon wrote:
It was indeed a joke, plebeian console peasants.

In that case I apologise.

360 for me.

This weeks multiplayer balance changes are up.

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September 11, 2012
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Overload Power
- Duration that Tech Burst power combos are set up increased from 3.5 to 5 seconds

Cryo Blast Power
- Base duration increased from 3 to 4 seconds
- Base cooldown reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
- Evolve 3 movement speed penalty increased from 20% to 30%
- Evolve 5 recharge speed bonus increased from 50% to 100%

Crusader Shotgun
- Damage increased from [530.9-663.6] to [573.4-716.75]

Graal Shotgun
- Damage increased from [80.0-100.0] to [88.0-110.0]
- Damage multiplier for head shots increased from 2.5 to 3.0

Kishock Sniper Rifle
- Damage increased from [645.4-806.8] to [774.5-968.1]
- Percentage of total damage that is done as bleed damage increased from 20% to 33%
- Bleed damage duration remains at 10 seconds

Interesting changes. That's a pretty huge buff to the Kishock, and a reasonable buff to the Crusader, though it's still crap until it gets a scope. The Cryo Blast buff is kinda nice since it will make setting up explosions quicker and easier. Ultimately it's useless though until they unlock fire/ice blasts. I'm not positive what good the Overload buff does.....I've never really used it to PRIME combos. Only detonate.

Can't really see why you'd want a scope on the Crusader.

I've always viewed it as a medium range weapon if you're going for headshots. At long range you aim for the body to be sure you hit (and with good mods and a weapon damage build a bodyshot is enough to kill unprotected enemies anyway, at least on silver), the only exception being Guardians due to their slow movement and the fact you know exactly where their head is behind the shield.

A Town Called Malus wrote:

johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.
Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.

Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.

And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.

 Lynata wrote:

A Town Called Malus wrote:

johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.
Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.

Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.

And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.

If by consoley you mean streamlined then yes. A lot of the people who complain about 2 and 3 seem to have forgotten how bad some of the stuff in ME1 was.

- The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.
- The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.
- The weapons were all identical in their function.
- A lot of the side quests were just "go to this planet, land in the Mako, drive over some cliffs to a building whilst hoping not to encounter a Thresher Maw, enter the building and kill everything inside, profit."

I boarded the ME train late and played the three games back to back just this year (started 2 months prior to me3's release). ME1 basically felt like KOTOR without the ability to turn off the autostop between game turns and I really didn't enjoy the very beginning due to crap gear and low skills. My soldier couldn't hit the broad side of a barn at 30 paces with his assault rifle (the reticle was bigger than the me3 claymore one!) and I felt like a drunk sailor trying to play darts when using the sniper.. I actually found it more effective to simply let the crosshair wander instead of adjusting it and simply pressing the trigger when it meandered over an enemy. I joked about the Mako finally making me appreciate how "stable" the halo warthog was but I found the driving parts to be enjoyable overall in the end as was the combat in the later 2/3 of the game. ME2 felt like a huge improvement with its combat action style but still truely felt like an RPG as it kept those great elements from the first game... about the only "complaints" I had were that the scanning was tedious and I didn't like the idea of thermal clip ammo introduced after the cooldown mechanic of the first game (it felt less futuristic to me). The 3rd game was good storywise right up until the end (which definitely soured the overall experience) but went too far down the action road for me personally and crossed the line from RPG with action elements firmly into a 3rd person action game with RPG elements. The multiplayer, despite all the flak it gets online, really took me out of my comfort zone though as I had only played soldiers in the 4 playthroughs of the previous games since I didn't feel comfortable with the biotics (especially in the 1st game).

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Can't really see why you'd want a scope on the Crusader.

I've always viewed it as a medium range weapon if you're going for headshots. At long range you aim for the body to be sure you hit (and with good mods and a weapon damage build a bodyshot is enough to kill unprotected enemies anyway, at least on silver), the only exception being Guardians due to their slow movement and the fact you know exactly where their head is behind the shield.

The point is, the Crusader is a Black Widow with an extra shot instead of the scope. The way the reticle works is wonky on a shotgun making aiming more difficult, and without the added accuracy of a scope, it makes using the weapon far more problematic than it's worth. If I want to use weapon that behaves like a Sniper Rifle, I'm going to use a Sniper Rifle. If I want to play a Shotgun Infiltrator, I'm going to use the Piranha or the GPS.

Also, it's f***ing heavy! Too heavy to use on anything that actually uses powers, and on classes that don't need a fast cooldown (Infiltrators, Destroyers, Demolishers, Krogan Soldier/Sentinel) there are MANY better weapons to take........like a Black Widow.........

Why would you take a Black Widow on a Krogan Soldier? You can't stick a knife to a Black Widow!

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Why would you take a Black Widow on a Krogan Soldier? You can't stick a knife to a Black Widow!

I actually use a claymore/widow combo with my krogan. I don't know if its due to the shotty sniper mode of Halo creeping in or the idea that a real son of Tuchanka only needs one bullet to kill a foe! If it's still moving, it needs a good solid headbutt to finish it off.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Lynata wrote:

A Town Called Malus wrote:

johnscott wrote:Console exclusive?? I find that hard to believe when I have both 1 & 2 sitting on my shelf for the PC.
Knowing my luck however I have managed to completely miss that the part I quoted was also a joke within a running joke.

Well 1 was released on 360 first and ported to PC later. ME2 was released for 360 and PC at the same time.

And ironically, ME2 is much more consoley than ME1.

If by consoley you mean streamlined then yes. A lot of the people who complain about 2 and 3 seem to have forgotten how bad some of the stuff in ME1 was.

No, its much more based towards having a console controller actually in your hand IMO, rather than using a keyboard...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.

Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.

Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The weapons were all identical in their function.

Huh? No idea what you mean...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- A lot of the side quests were just "go to this planet, land in the Mako, drive over some cliffs to a building whilst hoping not to encounter a Thresher Maw, enter the building and kill everything inside, profit."

Agreed, my single biggest problem with ME1, i LOVE the Mako, but not every planet has to be 'Mountains-with-some-plateaus'

 warboss wrote:
The multiplayer, despite all the flak it gets online, really took me out of my comfort zone though as I had only played soldiers in the 4 playthroughs of the previous games since I didn't feel comfortable with the biotics (especially in the 1st game).

Biotics in the first game were so overpowered by the end it was hilarious. You could Throw/Singularity/Lift literally anybody with them having no defence against it. Robo-Saren was so easy when you just keep throwing him into the wall and blasting him whilst he can't move. Throw was especially powerful as you got massive force and a large radius in the first game, rather than choosing which one to have in the sequels.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
Biotics in the first game were so overpowered by the end it was hilarious. You could Throw/Singularity/Lift literally anybody with them having no defence against it. Robo-Saren was so easy when you just keep throwing him into the wall and blasting him whilst he can't move. Throw was especially powerful as you got massive force and a large radius in the first game, rather than choosing which one to have in the sequels.

They're still pretty powerful IMO. I played a soldier on my first me3 runthrough and struggled a bit at certain points mainly due to a lack of ammo (even on regular difficulty). After playing the multiplayer and getting used to the biotics, my second playthrough is now as a sentinel (basically an asari adept with tech armor power wise) and I'm finding the game slightly easier on Insanity than I did on regular due to the biotics.

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.

Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...

It's not hard to have a little bookmark on the map telling you that in that particular cluster there is a mission for you to do. It isn't a bad thing to have a clearly marked map so the player knows whereabouts they should be looking without having to flick back and forth between several different screens and looking through all their missions in the journal in case there are two missions in the same cluster.

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The weapons were all identical in their function.

Huh? No idea what you mean...

Every Assault Rifle is fully automatic, every sniper rifle is bolt action etc. You effectively got one assault rifle, one sniper rifle, one pistol and one shotgun which come in a variety of different shapes and colours.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.

Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...

That's fine and dandy until you try to sell something to make some space. Then you realise that all of those upgrades are scattered throughout a long list of all your items, with no way of narrowing down the number of items you're looking through such as sorting it to show only ammo mods, or only weapons.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The quest journal and Galaxy Map were rubbish. Finding the right system for a side quest was so annoying, considering there was no indication on the map of which cluster you had to go to, so instead you had to leave the map, open your journal, find the quest, read through it to find the system and cluster and then head back into the map.

Except that you can go straight from the map to the journal, and God forbid you have to remember something as opposed to you having a marker that tells you exactly where it is...

It's not hard to have a little bookmark on the map telling you that in that particular cluster there is a mission for you to do. It isn't a bad thing to have a clearly marked map so the player knows whereabouts they should be looking without having to flick back and forth between several different screens and looking through all their missions in the journal in case there are two missions in the same cluster.

It isnt that hard to read and remember either. Obviously they changed it for the later games, but it really isnt difficult to just read the journal entry and then remember what it says...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The weapons were all identical in their function.

Huh? No idea what you mean...

Every Assault Rifle is fully automatic, every sniper rifle is bolt action etc. You effectively got one assault rifle, one sniper rifle, one pistol and one shotgun which come in a variety of different shapes and colours.

...And different specs of course, that being the point...

Honestly, i didnt care that they all worked the same way, it was the increase in 'power' that i was interested in (and the look of some of them, some weapons just dont look as good)...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
- The inventory was a total mess and a nightmare to use with its 150 item cap and complete lack of any sorting feature.

Apart from going in to each weapon/Mod and looking that way....in fact, theres no way not to sort items...

That's fine and dandy until you try to sell something to make some space. Then you realise that all of those upgrades are scattered throughout a long list of all your items, with no way of narrowing down the number of items you're looking through such as sorting it to show only ammo mods, or only weapons.

You are okay with just having "Generic Shotgun/Sniper Rifle/AR/Pistol" with higher numbers?

That sounds incredibly boring, and one of the reasons I find combat in ME1 a chore more than actual fun.

 Karon wrote:
You are okay with just having "Generic Shotgun/Sniper Rifle/AR/Pistol" with higher numbers?

That sounds incredibly boring, and one of the reasons I find combat in ME1 a chore more than actual fun.

Yes. While it is better having a more diverse set of weapons, it really didnt impact with me that much at all. I expect AR to be full auto (or burst if you dont hold the trigger as it were), for a shotgun to be a shotgun, or not to have an assault/machine pistol, but to have a semi instead (wow, that sounds more wrong than i wanted it to...) etc. Im fine with that. While a Sniper Rifle with a magazine as opposed to bolt action would have been nice, it doesnt instantly make it boring either when that isnt included.

ME1 combat was more about the powers for me anyway, being able to non-stop shoot with a heinous Shotgun that has rounds that set people on fire was just icing on the cake...

So, has Bioware ever said if ME3 is the end, or will there be other games? Like even an all new game that doesn't revolve around Shepard?

They've said if there will be another Mass Effect game, it will not focus upon Shepard--even if it is a prequel covering instances like the Skyllian Blitz.

Did anyone from here send me a friend request recently on 360? Got a friend invite from someone I didn't recognize. Asked who they were and didn't get a response. They invited me to chat last night, but it didn't work, and when I invited them to a party they did not join.

Gamer tag was "Ultimate Man" and some number......

If you look at "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" (which, incidently, a lot of people got for free the other day), there are quite a few pieces of insight.

Including the answer to that question.

'Hudson isn't sure where the series goes next, but he's pretty confident that he never wants to tell any stories that take place in a post-Shepard era. "Whatever we do would likely happen before or during the events of Mass Effect 3, not after."'

 Compel wrote:
If you look at "The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" (which, incidently, a lot of people got for free the other day), there are quite a few pieces of insight.

Including the answer to that question.

'Hudson isn't sure where the series goes next, but he's pretty confident that he never wants to tell any stories that take place in a post-Shepard era. "Whatever we do would likely happen before or during the events of Mass Effect 3, not after."'

During would be quite good, a different team on a different front (even though you cover a fair few of them in game). Or, actually, a new team set up to cover the loss of Shepard at the beginning of ME2 (that year or so he/she was gone) would be quite a good premise as well IMO.

I'd take a strong guess that they'll be doing something with Major Coates (the English dude from the trailer that hangs out with Anderson) as either some chunky dlc or maybe an expansion.

Mainly because we never really did explore future-Earth properly, the guy was rather bigged up and it's something I think people will be wanting to see.

I wouldn't mind a starcraft-esque RTS game in the ME3 universe. Or maybe something Diabloy but more about controlling a unit instead of 1 guy

If they do another game (likely), I personally hope they let you totally customize your character instead of making you go human with some backstory/quests based on your race included ala Dragon Age.

 warboss wrote:
If they do another game (likely), I personally hope they let you totally customize your character instead of making you go human with some backstory/quests based on your race included ala Dragon Age.

I second this.
I also call shotgun on playing as an elcor.
A vVnguard Elcor... Hehe

Everyone knows the best classes will be the Elcor Infiltrator and Volus Adept! Nothing tops a 1200lb ninja and small round biotic god!

 warboss wrote:
Everyone knows the best classes will be the Elcor Infiltrator and Volus Adept! Nothing tops a 1200lb ninja and small round biotic god!

This one is excited to melee you in the back...

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Everyone knows the best classes will be the Elcor Infiltrator and Volus Adept! Nothing tops a 1200lb ninja and small round biotic god!

This one is excited to melee you in the back...

That's hanar

Elcor would be: Enthusiasticly; Take that scum