Mass Effect 3 [TIMJ Database]

[Trent]

I knew someone would start it. I implore any veteran Mass Effect fans to support this in any way they can. I certainly will be.

http://www.fixmasseffect3.com/

We deserve a fix or at least an honest explanation.

[Paddy]

I've noticed a few things so far (no spoilers Trent, so you're ok to read on) that whilst do not detract from the game, I think any self-respecting Mass Effect fan would be hard-pressed not to notice:

Character modelling seems to either have been tightened up, or completely rebuilt from the ground up (the latter seems to be the most likely explanation of late, causing huge issues with people trying to import their Shepards in to Mass Effect 3. I have to say, I had heard the rumours and was praying that it would be fixed by UK launch date, or that by the grace of God I would be one of the lucky ones. Sadly, neither came to pass and I was unable to import my character model in to Mass Effect 3.

After tossing up the options whether to go ahead and try to remodel from scratch (no easy task on console let me tell you - PC owners don't know how good they've got it) or play the waiting game for BioWare to patch it. Well, how long that could be is anyone's guess, and BioWare and EA have been very quiet on the issue (one guesses due to not wanting to hamper sales).

Allegedly, if you post about it on the EA or Mass Effect 3 Facebook pages, it gets removed and you get blocked. Have they handled this well? No...not really. I do wonder how the hell this passed QA testing and wasn't picked up. Or maybe it was and it was too late in the game and EA insisted on the launch window being kept. Who knows. I have heard some people on the BioWare forums who have convinced themselves it may never be patched and corrected. Only time will tell.

After 30-40 minutes dedicated concentration with the creation tool, I think I got lucky, what do you guys think? (I've been telling myself that in His 6 months shore leave that He got His teeth fixed and His hair did) lol

My previous incarnation for games 1 & 2

Shepard version 2.0

Joker particularly seems a little different than in previous adventures - his lips are a hell of a lot thinner, mouth animation is kinda off, and he has...(wait for it) black teeth? Yeah...i'm still scratching my head over that one too.

General movement from A-B seems considerably slower than before, but at least when Shepard runs now it doesn't look like he's just had a stroke, and sprinting has improved.

When re-boarding the Normandy, the loading screen animation is static. I don't think this is intentional, it seems out of keeping with previous games. To date, I have only noticed this on disc 1 - but I could be wrong.
- EDIT: Nope, disc 2 also. So maybe it is intentional, but it looks...odd.

Audio can sometimes seem out of synch - secondary characters seem to be worst affected by this affliction.

Check out some of the patrons on the lower level dancefloors of Purgatory, interesting... "moves"!

Some death animations continue after opposing factions are long dead (wobbling heads seem to be the order of the day - I just pretend they are death throes however)

I have also noticed that whilst this game has without a shadow(broker) of a doubt been dialled up to 11 and then some, many things we have all come to expect have been scaled back:

Joker will no longer spin around to talk to you when you approach him in the cockpit being one of many.

Part of me understands this however - one presumes that due to the sheer scale of the game and fleshing out the world (The Citadel in particular now truly resembles the grandeur we always hoped for for example), that a number of things had to be stripped out to make room. Other examples include no longer being able to use the Normandy Male crew restroom, you can only enter it (which kinda makes it more...odd!), you can not enter the Ladies restroom now for shits 'n' giggles, and (somewhat strangely), you can use the toilet in your private quarters, but you can't wash your hands.

Again, I should reiterate that none of these things are even "issues" as such, but I guess when you faithfully follow a franchise for years, you pick up on all the little quirks...or should that be *quarks?

I'm sure there are more that i've forgotten, and i'll update as and when I either remember them, or come across any more.

*Only a real Si-Fi fan would get that. Heh.

[Edited: Saturday 10th March 2012 21:23]

[Paddy]

I just received this message on XBL from a friend in America, and pissed myself laughing:

"Holy God dude, level 38 already!?!"

[Ray]

Have to say. What an EPIC game.

I am pining so hard for Garrus and Mordin, though. Both of them died in the final mission of ME2 on my save, and I miss them terribly. So much, in fact, I'm already planning to go through ME2 again just to create a save and bring them into ME3. I need to know what happens to them

[Trent]

I also found out from a friend that you can no longer stow your weapons at all. Does this mean you have to jog around the Citadel waving a pistol in everyone's face?

[Paddy]

Umm...yeah,pretty much. You get used to it, but again - it's another little detail I miss.

[Paddy]

[Trent]

So I gave in a little and tried to solve the import issue myself, as many have. I first re-imported my ME1 Shep into ME2 and took photos of him from the front and the side. I then imported him into ME3 (sans his face) and set about spending a good half an hour flicking sliders around to try and rebuild his face. Here's my honest best shot...









As you can see, while there is a resemblance, it looks more like my boy's brother or cousin than him. The eyes and nose are wrong and the facial structure doesn't fit. In relation to this I discovered a few things:

1) The nose shape I used in ME1 is no longer present. All the noses have strange, wide nostrils and you have to choose between a bump nose and a slope nose; there's no middle-ground and no way to adjust the gradient.

2) The eye shape is also missing. While most of the eyes look fine in general, all the eyebrows either seem to make your Shep (or at least mine) look either angry or surprised.

3) The cheekbone and gaunt settings appear to do so little it's almost impossible to notice a difference. Obviously they were essential additions then...

4) It seems the lightest skin tone is a sort of light tan colour. Which is fine, except my Shep is pretty pale. Because I like to try to resemble myself in the games I play and I'm quite pale in real life, I usually go for a pale white character. I can let this slide; Shep's been off duty and chillaxing so maybe he browned a bit in the sun.


So it seems I'll be waiting patiently for a patch. In that regard I had an idea. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the main reasons we can't import our Sheps is because half the facial features are missing from ME3. That's why people are having such trouble rebuilding their Sheps, even with PC mods or that funny code at the bottom. The content just isn't there. So, why don't they bundle all the eyes, noses, etc into a pack and then release a patch to fix the import. When you import, if your Shep is one of the ones affected, it pops up saying 'You need to download addition facial content' and allows you to do so for free. I could even stand it if you needed to be an Online Pass holder to get the stuff, but I don't see why that would have to be the case.

The reason I mention this is because my fear is that Bioware will fix the import but not update the content. So you'll import your Shep and the game will reconstruct an approximation of them using the ME3 facial content; creating a bunch of misshapen Sheps and in my case a long-lost cousin. This wouldn't really solve the issue and maybe make it worse for those who have patiently waited because they could've spent half an hour pissing about with sliders to achieve the same results and saved themselves months (possibly) of agonising waiting!

I don't know, it's promising that Bioware have confirmed they're working on the issue but a little suspicious that they can't even put an approximate ETA out there. This means it's doubtful they've set a timeline for the fix and it's probably waaaaaay down on a list of things to tweak in the first title update. They'll probably fix an issue with the robot dog before they fix the importer...

[Paddy]

Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Telemetry Data Breakdown

[Paddy]

BioWare is releasing free multiplayer content for Mass Effect 3 later this April.
Get a taste of what you can expect:

[Best viewed in 720p]