Mass Effect 3

[aris13]

Info from Gameinformer

Confirmed squadmates: Liara, Ashley/Kaiden, Garrus (if he's alive) and... James Sanders... That must be the guy from the trailer, I don't remember.

Confirmed to appear, but not guaranteed as squaddies: Wrex, Mordin, Legion, and Anderson. Obviously, if they live.

The game will by default feature a "previously on Mass Effect" comic to make decisions with if starting from scratch.

The Illusive Man also plays a prominent role, and Cerberus is out to kill Shepard. Reason why is unknown at this point.

The RPG elements are being beefed up, not going back to ME1, but giving more freedom with the character skills. Skill trees will be larger, and powers will evolve several times instead of just once, offering even more freedom. Weapons are ME2 style, with a set list, but mods make a return, not in the ME1 style, but allowing you to swap out different parts such as barrels, scopes, and so on, which effect both the weapon's combat performance and its appearance.

All classes can wield all weapons unhindered now, but will have limited slots to carry them. Only the Soldier can carry all weapons at once. Probably means Adept, Engineer, and Sentinal will be limited to two, and Vanguard and Infiltrator will have three.

Also mentioned: The game will have numerous endings, some good, some bad, and who you have in your squad and which allies you recruit can have a drastic effect on which are available.

Credit goes to Neogaf

[Darkmoon]

Sounds tasty. I demand more Tali and Jack though.

[Zombie Fred]

Yeah boy, it's good to have my Ashley and Garrus combo back! Game's already best Mass Effect title out of the rest comfirmed.

[Mr. Spencer]

The Illusive Man also plays a prominent role, and Cerberus is out to kill Shepard. Reason why is unknown at this point.

Won't be after me, I gave them the base.

[Zombie Fred]

Here's some poor images of the article, but the husks look much better now.

[Mr. Spencer]

Here's hoping that James Sanders is that British fellow in the trailer.

[aris13]

^According to Bioware he's not.

[Vector]

Yessss, Liara! I can't wait to re-kindle the love with her. My Shepard tapped that fine alien ass til he couldn't anymore.

[Zombie Fred]

Just updating this quickly for update from the GI aticle now, and the rest of the images from the magazine.

1. Humans aren't the only species that can be Husk-ified.

2. ME3 begins with Earth's assault by the Reapers, and things don't look so good, but there's something that is a silver lining, that makes it look like it's actually possible to not lose against the reapers .

3. TIM has sent his top agents to take down Shepard, The combat is going to be much harder and melee attacks are going to have more focus.

4. Shooting specific armor parts can have certain effects, and the AI of the enemies will have them routing Shepard and will coordinate with each other

5. Battlefields are going to be a great deal larger, and combat will be very varied.

6. Enemy Weapons can be PICKED UP. Soldiers can carry all kinds of weapons, and other classes understandably less so.

7. There is a larger skill tree and RPG aspects are going to be more integrated.

8. Weapon Modding is a greenlight, with things like barrels and scopes

9. Modding your weapons will vastly affect their appearance and how they function in battle

10. So far the CONFIRMED SQUADMATES are: Ashley/Kaiden, Liara, Garrus, and James Sanders who is mentioned is an Alliance Marine

11. Species Loyalty cannot only get obtained via Quests

12. Levels will have ladders

13. Available Squadmates will still maintain a balance, if per say Garrus had not survived ME2's events

14. ME1's Decisions such as sparing the Rachni will have a grave impact in ME3

15. There's no railroad to the end of the game, there are multiple paths to take back Earth.

16. And most importantly, there is no concrete way to fight the Reapers. YOU decided which idea to take - but beware, there's red herrings and the plan to take back Earth will change as you go.

Now after seeing the E3 trailer, I am going to go on a media blackout with this game. This sounds like the perfect title out of the three in terms of gameplay for me. Can't wait.

And this nice little image to go with the Cerberus plot this time around. Such a fantastic setup.

[Mr. Spencer]

3. TIM has sent his top agents to take down Shepard, The combat is going to be much harder and melee attacks are going to have more focus.

Kai Leng? I hope so!

[Zombie Fred]

Last of it out now

- Most, if not all, major characters will return in some form. There will be select major characters for squadmates, while other characters will be temporary squadmates for singular missions (think like Liara in Lair of the Shadow Broker). Others will return in other roles
- Because of the above, those 'confirmed' characters (Liara, Garrus, etc) are not confirmed as permiment squad members. It just says they are playabe to some extent, so they could be for singular missions.
- 'Full scale war' feel to the game, about as 'dark' as ME2.
- Some key plot element that will reveal why the Reapers can be defeated. Dont want to reveal it until the game is out. Dont want the way the Reapers can be defeated obvious from the start. Want the progression of the game to give red herrings and a flow of information, so it starts hopeless but you slowly work out what needs to be done.
- As with the above, the reason TIM and Cerberus are after you is another plot element they want kept secret.
- Recruit the races woop woop. Most races dont want to join because they dont want to be ruined by the Reapers. Most races caught up in their own shit. EG: Visit Salarian homeworld, they're stuck in a conflict regarding the Genophage. Quarians trying to take back their homeworld. Shepard must try and find a way to resolve these conflicts to get the best support.
- Solutions to the above wont be easy or obvious, and based on past choices may even be impossible.
- NG+ sound similar to ME2. Can continue playing, but can also 'loop back around' and do stuff over again.
- Shepard can roll, and can vault over obsticles without going into cover first. 'Peak' feature tweaked. Ladders for climbing up to higher areas. Bigger battlefields.
- Smarter AI that can 'plan' certain attacks on Shepard. BioWare feel that with the way ME2/ME3's combat is they need to compete with all the other shooters in the market, so improvements have to be made.
- Game cinematics want to focus on the sense of scale, of both the Reapers and the war. Lots of big moments. Aforementioned Thresher Maw Vs. Reaper is an example.
- Vehicles will be similar to ME2; not built into the main path of the game, but may return in some form as extras.
- Scanning is back but 'wont be at at all like ME2'.
- Dynamics of how choices effect the flow of the game more like the ending sequence of ME2 rather than the actual ME2 game, as in you'll make choices and see the differences quicker (or so they're promising). Quicker referencing of choices in the engine.
- People still dont believe Shepard that the Reapers are coming. They attack New York, London, Japan and others first.
- Earth is basically the first place the Reapers lay the smack down too, but they're spreading to other areas and shitting on everyone's parade.
- New Normandy.
- Dont feel that there is a 'missing out on content' feel to the game if you happen to make decisions in previous games. No one play through necessarily 'better' than the other, just different.
- ME3 will be more difficult than ME2.
- BioWare want to make a Mass Effect MMO.

Direct scans are now out.

Click here

[Mr. Spencer]

I hope to god that Zaeed returns. He's got a goddamn galaxy to save.

[aris13]

First Screenshots

[Humor Tumor]

I gave the Gameinformer story a quick read through. I might buy this game. It seems like it;s fixing some of the issues I had with the games.

But seeing as I didn't care for the other 2 games very much, I'm hesitant to say I'm looking forward to it.

[jimmyjoejangles]

i have been looking for a good space game, and thought I found one when i played first part of the mass effect demo, then I got to the second part and all the stupid powers of levitation combined with the horrible controls made me decide not to buy it I doubt the third one will be any better. What we really need is a "grand theft space ship". anyone have any good space game suggestions I'd look forward to hearing them

[Carnivol]

- ME3 will be more difficult than ME2.

I seriously hope that means they've studied the concept of difficulty, 'cause playing through on Insanity in ME1-2 was seriously one of the prime samples of how to not do difficulty settings in a game.

Thought they'd progressively learned in Mass Effect 2's DLC when I played through the end of the Shadow Broker DLC, but then The Arrival dropped and it seemed like all was forgotten again
Spoiler:

show spoiler

Or, well, you were supposed to lose the fight, but there was an achievement tied to stalling it for a long time... but... geeze... doing that on Insanity was friggin ... well ... insane, but for all the wrong reasons.

[aris13]

Mass Effect 3 will be released in the first three months of 2012. The development team is laser focused on making sure Mass Effect 3 is the biggest, boldest and best game in the series, ensuring that it exceeds everyone’s expectations.” - Casey Hudson, Executive Producer Mass Effect series

[Shadow Stalker]

Ever since I got Mass Effect 2 for the PS3 a few weeks ago, I sure as hell am getting Mass Effect 3 once it comes out!

I just recently got into the series. Though I've never played the first game. (I got it for the PC but the damn thing just wouldn't play shortly after I'd installed it, so I took it back.)

One of the main things that drew me to the series in the first place is the fact that Jennifer Hale does the voice of Commander Shepard (... if the gamer decided to play as a female Shepard ...). I've been a fan of hers ever since she did the voices of Naomi Hunter and Emma Emmerich in the Metal Gear Solid series.

[TheBatMan]

Gutted about the delay but hopefully these extra tweaks will make for a better final product. I can't wait to see how this all pans out.

One of the above posters mentioned a new Normandy, but surely it's still gonna be the SR2, just with the Cerberus logos scrubbed out!

Wonder why the Illusive Man is gunning for Shepard if you decided to keep the Collector base for Cerberus?

No mention of Miranda?

Has it been confirmed we can visit the Citadel again? I want to see the Turian Councillor 'Ah yes, Reapers!' response when he see's the invasion pics from Earth.

[Darkmoon]

Yeah, delay sucks. But all told I'd wait longer for it to be olished until it could blind people with it's awesome. And yeah, I also wanna go to the Citadel and point out the window, screaming, 'Hey, Reapers, whatcha know?' Although the response will probably be 'Well, those could be any giant mechanical life destroying machines. Maybe they're friendly!'