Mass Effect 3: Not As Pretty As ME2 On PS3 [TheGameHeadz]

Charge your mass effect fields, tune your omnitool, it's time for another installment of Bioware's award winning RPG franchise. It's time to end the war with the Reapers, and now, it's personal. EA kept Mass Effect 3 carefully behind closed doors at E3, only letting a select few in to see the live code demonstration they'd prepared.

[BobbyMcCOOL]

I thought the same thing. Visuals didn't quite catch me. But overall the game was amazing

[jeseth]

Title should have "Than" instead of "Then".

Poor grammar from an author = no read. Go back to class.

[zinkabass]

Maybe he is not a native English speaker,...

Well, whatever works for you bro,... I am personally more interested in content.

@MyOtherHatIsUrMom(down): No it did not,.. hell I even had to screw around to get AA to work with it,.. Haven't played much of PS3 version,.. but you are talking out of your ass,..Except for reso and appropriate assets probably, but I am not even sure about that to be honest,.. It would more sense, they actually improved somethings,.. like lightning and shit,..Not exactly a looker bdw,.. At least it is prettier than Dragon Age,..

[Army_of_Darkness]

Am i the only one that thinks mass effect 1-2 is still a boring 3rd person shooter!?!?

[afterMoth]

ME2 is ugly on the PC, uglier on the PS3 and ugliest on the 360. People don't play it for the graphics or gameplay, both of which are subpar. People play Mass Effect 2 for the choose your own adventure style RPG. The soundtrack is great as well.

[Pixel_Pusher]

ME2 looked horrible on the PS3(don't know about the box ver) and what you're saying is that ME3 is going to look worst? ha ha! But you still want the same amount of money for a sub par version? I predict low sales for ME3 on the PS3.

[Projekt7tuning]

Come on, the games not even done yet. I hate when "gaming journalist" write crap like this. It's not fair to the developers. I guess it is just another slow news week...

[Hitman0769]

I guess its not a big deal if people enjoy the gameplay right?

[Godmars290]

Depends on what gameplay is. Past any Gears of War clonage.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Call me old fashion, but an rpg ain't an rpg without swords.

[Denethor_II]

"Call me old fashion, but an rpg ain't an rpg without swords."

That's exactly what it is if your from the West. I don't mind these western rpg's, but it is very frustrating to see them take over from the more traditional genre.

[Christopher]

If you're going to have a flamebait title, how about at least making sure you check to make sure it is grammatically correct?

Don't worry, though, I've fixed the title to match the same as the original article for ya.

***He’s a guy filled with some amazon Ideas***

Worked for Wonder Woman *sighs*

*** Speaking of cover to cover, a new helpful icon system indicates your movement action, be it hurdling the cover to charge your enemies, or diving to a better position. ***

Didn't find cover overly difficult to manage in the first two games. Guess adding in GeoW cover was inevitable as they put a lot of focus on heavily TPS focused gameplay.

***ME3 does away with that, adding dozens of new animations for Shepard. ***

Ask me which I would rather have, 24 or so new animations or more content and focus on the storytelling?

***For those who love their Halo and Call of Duty, the run and gun approach is still viable. Our Gears and Rainbow Six fans will find that cover can and will often save their life.***

Games I never wanted to see being compared to a game that started out as an RPG. Well, at least it should be a good TPS w/RPG elements. (yes, I am in a bit of a downer mood with people praising a game for moving so much towards being a TPS without any news other than weapon mods on how it will be a better RPG)

***Speaking of the Reapers, yes you fight them.***

One would hope so...

***Beyond that, their servants have increased quite a bit. Cerberus Agents now appear constantly, fighting to defend the Reapers and sabotage Shepard's attempts to unite the galaxy. Why the change of heart in the Illusive Man? There seems to be evidence that at least large parts of Ceberus have been Indoctrinated.***

This is something BioWare should have kept mum. Talk about a major change from the second game.

[JellyJelly]

It's too late now but if you click the cogs in the story picture you can select 'report' and then 'bad spelling' to tell the author what is wrong.

Imo it's not only the spelling :/

[SageHonor]

Yep Cerberus is definately indoctrinated. That is confirmed. Also, do you voice your complaints on the forums because you've done alot of Mass Effect 3 bashing.

I think alot of stuff will reveal itself overtime. Especially content and the storytelling part.

[Christopher]

I'm not sure what I've said is "bashing". It's not like I'm just saying "ME3 sucks" but I'm expressing my disappointment, fairly constructively, at how far they are going to focus on how much more of a TPS ME3 will be over what RPG elements they are working on improving/implementing.

Sure, a lot of stuff could be revealed over time, but they could at least say something now about the items being requested rather than just holding on to them until a month prior to release. Their responses to many of the questions regarding RPG elements have side stepped the actual questions and/or have been very general and not indicative of a change closer to what many experienced with ME1.

As I said in your Blog, the best news is their plans to delay it. That's the best sign I've seen for potential RPG improvements.

And, yes, I express my points directly to BioWare.

[TheOtherTheoG]

Regarding RPG elements, watch the 15 minute live demo on Gamespot from E3, it shows... well, RPG elements. At the moment, it's kind of a half-way house between ME1 and ME2, it's not that uber expansive, nor is it nearly as streamlined as ME2.

[Christopher]

So, just watched it. It's pretty much the exact same Salarian home world demo I've seen at a few other places.

As far as RPG elements mentioned?

~2m he mentions "RPG elements and story stuff" but nothing specific. That's pretty much all he said.

@4m they show the weapon mod system, which is the one notable RPG element I've mentioned as being known for ME3.

@4m20s they show some character screens, but it's the same trees, expanded. Nothing on whether these skills are RPG focused considering all combat is player skill focused and not character skill focused except for some minor ones (such as AR spread reduction). Not a sign of RPG since these will likely focus on improving player skill-driven abilities and not ones controlled by die rolls or similar statistical variables common in RPGs.

@7m45s they show a few of the environments you will visit. It definitely is different from ME1 and ME2 in many respects, but they've also discussed that "exploration" is still about "hubs" but that there will be multiple "hubs" on some planets. Nothing on whether the exploration that you had in ME1 will be implemented and improved upon, nor if each area won't be as linear as it was in ME2.

@11:10 they mention the usual Renegade/Paragon options. Same as ME2. The only element of the game that saw an improvement from ME1 that relates to RPG IMHO.

That's pretty much it... the rest was generalized jargon focused on the usual "ME3 is a story focused on combating the Reavers" with gameplay shown of... shooting.

=====

I've had this conversation with SageHonor on his blog, but let me reiterate what I've said before.

ME2 does have RPG elements and ME3 will have them as well. But it is by far a very stripped down version of what was in ME1. Including:

- Reduced focus on exploration

- Reduced focus on character-derived skill (now completely reliant on player-derived skill). This includes the removal of die rolls on the back end. Your damage is based on where you aim to hit and not based on a variable rate like most RPG-first games.

- Removal of mob-drop loot

- Removal of world exploration

- Removal of complete party customization

- Removal of armor & weapon mods. We are seeing weapon mods come back, and the same armor mods will be available for Shepard. But, we have no proof that these mods will carry over to NPCs and not just Shepard.

- Removal of XP by individual action and instead they've moved it to a "bucket" approach that encourages you to do the least amount possible rather than work to do more.

As I also said in SageHonor's blog, ME2 is a great RPG TPS action game, but ME1 was a great RPG. ME3 will likely be another great RPG TPS action game.

====

It's obvious by the disagrees here, though, that I am definitely in the minority of those who would rather have a traditional RPG game rather than see it turn into yet another "shooter" focused game with RPG elements. Luckily, there are still some RPGs coming out for me to enjoy, it's just hard to see BioWare leave what they've built a career upon behind in a fashion this generation (DA2, ME2, possibly ME3).

Though, the previews for SWtOR have cited that it looks like a lot of the RPG elements people have missed from their latest games are available in spades in the MMO.

[bwazy]

As long as the games fun I dont care.

[maniacmayhem]

Graphics looked to me. When did we become so reliant on pixels, jaggedness and such?

Seriously the game looks good.

[vgcgames]

the game does look awesome, but not as good as I expected. Its still as some time to go before release, I'd expect things to look amazing once its all said and done. Either way, we will all enjoy it

[maddfoxx]

The game is still in development. I'm pretty sure there is more work to be done. The title is the definition of flamebait.

[vgcgames]

To be fair title was change by N4G admins, to make it shorter.

[Christopher]

No, it was changed to reflect the actual title on the source page. The original title used was not the same as the one on the source site.

Something like this is usually caught in the approval process by the community, but not always.

[ViserysTargaryen]

Will the 360 version looks better? This article is missing that angle to achieve 1000 degrees.

[doublebass2]

Ok..both internet comparisons proved that the ps3 version was infact the least best version(in terms of visual perfomance)..I dont know what kind of version the author of this site did witness,but if he saw the xbox 360 version and said that it does nt match the ps3 there are three things going on:1)he is obviously not a specialist in judging graphical tweaks,2)he obviously wanted to get more hits in his site from fanboys,3)he did see an early build for the xbox 360,which was not even on par with both ps3 and xbox 360 Mass Effect 2 versions,which did nt actually have that many differences between them.

http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

http://www.lensoftruth.com/...
As 4 the game,no one should expect the next Uncharted in space,it offers a bit more as a single player,and its fair that it is one the best franchises on every gen!2012 is only 5 months,hope they dont delay it more,unless,they can make the best of it and a delay is needed!

[SovereignSnaKe]

Mass Effect isn't Pretty,.. It's Beautiful!!

[Hicken]

I feel like I should expect this from Bioware... or am I confusing them with Activision?

[RAmar101]

ME2 looks really good, although I hate film grain filter

[tigertron]

Then you should turn it off.

Anyway, the Mass Effect games look great on any platform, whether it be PS3, 360 or PC.

Also, I'm not concerned about Mass Effect 3 not looking as good...its still 8 months away from release, so I'm sure they can polish the graphics by then. Jesus, judging a game that won't be out for ages yet. *Facepalm*

[RAmar101]

ME3 will be an improvement from ME2, its on an upgraded engine, you have to remeber the size of the game also, lots of different places etc

i would like them to simplify the look of ME3 as opposed to ME2 and more content in

i dunno why some people hate on the game its very unique, i think the balance between combat + rpg undertines is perfectly suited to this type of game

[WitWolfy]

Haters are gonna hate. this game is gonna kick ass man I just know it!

[greyhaven33]

ME2 has some of the best graphics on consoles....don't know what some of you are looking at....and ME3 will be phenomenal, I've already accepted that. And if you feel like trashing my comment don't bother...its my opinion and I have a right to it.