Yeah, I play as a Soldier and I think "action mode" will be "playing the game wrong". Story Mode will be a little wrong, probably. RPG mode is where it's (probably) at!
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
i'm kind of confused as to the differences between RPG mode and story mode.
I mean - story is a pretty big reason for RPGs being fun.
And skills are a big part of action.
I'm kind of imagining story mode being really easy, with a focus on whats happening in the world, almost like an interactive novel
And action mode playing out sort of like CoD where everything you get with powers etc is automated
and RPG mode being like ME1 with tons of weapons and equipment.
Soldier is also fun to play, like all the classes.
If they had fun playing as soldier then that is the main thing, and if the people that choose action mode in ME3 have just as much fun as people playing the other options then Bioware has succeeded with the game.
Because after looking through the official forums for some more news its annoying to see so many people telling others they are "playing the game wrong"
My main problem is that all 3 of the listed options take 2 of the 3 elements (leveling, combat, story decisions) out of the player's control by default, and it appears you have to delve into the options menus to wrest the ability to play the game you bought back from it.
I'm fine with people who don't enjoy all 3 aspects, and there being options for them. I am not fine with the implication that any given player should only be enjoying one of the 3 aspects of the games.
i'm kind of confused as to the differences between RPG mode and story mode.
I mean - story is a pretty big reason for RPGs being fun.
And skills are a big part of action.
I'm kind of imagining story mode being really easy, with a focus on whats happening in the world, almost like an interactive novel
And action mode playing out sort of like CoD where everything you get with powers etc is automated
and RPG mode being like ME1 with tons of weapons and equipment.
RPG mode takes story decisions out of your hands, and makes the combat piss-easy. Story mode takes leveling out of your hands and makes combat also piss-easy. Hopefully this beta build was just intended to test these 3 specific settings, because otherwise... it's pretty fucking insulting.
Wait, what? If that's how they work they're stupid. Has to be a beta-only thing. Edit: So it doesn't work stupid-like. Good. Not that it would anyway, I'm sure...
I feel like the market for something like that is vanishingly small because otherwise they wouldn't really play many videogames? Like my sister my appreciate something like that, but she's fine watching me play and certainly wouldn't go out and buy a copy just because of that mode, so it's a bit moot.
The action mode makes more sense seeing as story sections will play more like cutscenes than interruptions. Hell, I'll probably give it a look on later playthroughs, especially if they continue their trend of the default choices being the wrong ones (unlikely in this case, but one can hope).
I don't mind really because it doesn't seem like putting in stuff like this takes a huge amount of dev time.
3DS: 2234-8122-8398 | Battle.net (EU): Ladi#2485
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
i hope there is a fourth option which is "give me hard diffuclty, let me fucking choose by own story"
If this conversation mode just auto picks all conversation options, and/or always picks paragon or renegade options, I can actually see a use for it. For the most part, I just automatically pick the good guy option on my paragon Shepard anyways. If the game is willing to do that for me, why not take the lazy way out? Save me the effort of tilting the stick and pressing A.
Still though... like half of the fun of a Bioware game is all the conversation choices and such. Putting that on autopilot just seems wrong. It'd be like playing a Mario game that does all the jumping for you.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Sorry, I was not saying there is a "wrong way" to play it at all. I enjoyed my soldier run(s, I think, can't remember off the bat if I did one or more) a lot. Basically what's new is a possibility to turn off conversations and a super-easy mode for shooting. For me that's probably redundant as ME1 and ME2 have been best at hard-core level in the difficulty/fun curve, and I would never give up the option of tailoring how my character responds in conversations, but if others want that then that's fine too.
But what is this "united states" speech? I've heard of English, but if we get a lot of silly americanisms in the game because of the language setting then I'll be miffed! Is this a political statement about how English is not officially recognised as the language of the good old US of A?
You know, sometimes it's hard for me to be the kind of asshole a renegade needs to be. In the case of my soldier/earthborn/ruthless femshep (Can't wait to rock those sexy red lockes.) I'm not very familiar with being a righteous bitch.
I am looking forward to setting the autotuner to 'go you sexy beast' and just enjoying the show.
My only concern there would be missing some of the moments you would have to be without a soul to choose paragon. AKA- Tali's loyalty mission.
Bioware is #1 at trolling their fans; I almost fell out of my chair listening to the Turian try and hook up with the Quarian on Illium.
edit: I'm also curious as to what the default is going to be in ME3; I would imagine Garrus and Tali make it through again, but I doubt everyone will survive since that's not good for new players that won't be familiar with everyone. At least, it's what they tried to avoid in ME2.
The inclusion of action mode makes me think the ending outcome is going to be more due to the locales you choose to visit rather than the conversation choices you make. I imagine they'd keep interrupts in though, actions speak louder than words after all.
When choosing your Game Type, which is the default option?
The cursor starts on Action Mode, but their is no default. I mean, if you click through the menus as fast as possible, you'll pick Action Mode, but that's probably what you wanted and you can change it any time, just like difficulty.
What I mean is, do they change the dialogue wheel choices with Kinect enabled, because at e3 they were talking about it minimizing things to key word phrases, much shorter so you don't have to say outloud entire sentences.
I mean, I'm never ever going to use it, and I actually own Kinect. Just wanted to know if the main game was changed at its core to accommodate that feature.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
What I mean is, do they change the dialogue wheel choices with Kinect enabled, because at e3 they were talking about it minimizing things to key word phrases, much shorter so you don't have to say outloud entire sentences.
I mean, I'm never ever going to use it, and I actually own Kinect. Just wanted to know if the main game was changed at its core to accommodate that feature.
If I'm remembering correctly at E3 what he did was basically say the mini-phrase that was right next to the choice he wanted to make.
So unless they changed it to something like "Paragon, Neutral, Renegade, etc." I'm pretty sure it'll stay that way.
Cause there is simply no way I am speaking dialogue choices outloud. I've endured twenty years of shame and embarrassment at playing video games alone, in a darkened room in absolute silence. And that's the way I want it to stay, thankyou very much.
What's wrong with playing a soldier? I wanter flexibility in what weapon I used well, I like the slow down time ability, and I made sure to take people with me whose abilities I thought I would want on whatever mission. The prospect of, say, playing an engineer and know I'm going into a level with zero technical enemies but I have to go and be pretty useless in one out of three slots made me not want to specialize. I was general so I could be useful just about anywhere, and after analyzing the situation I took the right people with the right specialties with me.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
edited November 2011
Meh. I wouldn't use it simply because...I've tried using voice recognition software on my phone.
What's wrong with playing a soldier? I wanter flexibility in what weapon I used well, I like the slow down time ability, and I made sure to take people with me whose abilities I thought I would want on whatever mission. The prospect of, say, playing an engineer and know I'm going into a level with zero technical enemies but I have to go and be pretty useless in one out of three slots made me not want to specialize. I was general so I could be useful just about anywhere, and after analyzing the situation I took the right people with the right specialties with me.
Because its boring and easy mode!
Seriously though, even if we make fun of Soldier no one really cares what class you choose to play.
Don't make us come over there, Canada. It's been a while since we flexed our imperial muscles. Change it to English as it should be or we will fuck. You. Up.
I think my Shepard is schizophrenic or something. Being all paragon-y and wanting everyone to get along, attempting to organize peaceful Quarian-Geth relations, helping people all over and whatnot, while gleefully massacring Batarians and taking pretty much all the renegade interrupts.
Dude's a nice guy that nobody messes with. Also potentially unstable due to switching personalities on the fly. Keep them on their toes, you know?
And regarding the different game modes in ME3, I don't think I'll ever try any of them outside the RPG mode and changing difficulty settings.
Incidentally, I just realized I've never played a soldier in the ME games. I look at the abilities and think "cool, I could use all the weapons and get nifty massacring related abilities", but then I look at the other classes which basically amount to a stealth/sniper/tech-dude or a space wizard, and I get distracted.
Would probably play a soldier before a pure engineer though. Adept is where it's at for me usually. Hopefully ME3 will have some improvements in Adept effectiveness though, since ME2 was occasionally a bit of a pain before getting the Locust, and against enemies with strong shields and/or armor. It reduced the Adept effectiveness a little bit too much occasionally. Some sections were too easy and some were quite a bit more difficult than I would've liked. New powers would be sweet as well, although the usual "Pull-Throw" combo of playing mook-ball is always fun.
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
I will say my after ME2 Vanguard is my favorite class. But Vanguard was my favorite class in ME1 too. This time it doesn't feel like an Adept with more hitpoints though.
As for my second favorite I don't know yet. It used to be Infiltrator in ME1. But I've actually started to take a liking to Adept and Sentinel, especially since I thought Infiltrator skillset was kind of meh in ME2.
Soldier and Engineer on the back in. Soldier is fun but a little too one-note. As for Engineer I'm not really sure what my problem with Engineer is.
I've really grown fond of Engineer. Combat Drone, AI Hacking, and Dominate is a really fun set of skills to have. I'd probably put it in second or third place now (behind Vanguard and a shotgun Sentinel).
I used to love Infiltrator but the flaws of the class have become more evident to me lately.
Vanguard was my second preferred choice. Limited by shotguns not being very beefy usually. The charge seemed like a cool ability, but I tended to die a lot using it. :P
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Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
does anyone really use the cloak as anything other than
a) escape button
b) damage boost for a sniper shot
I like the adept, the engineer and the sentinel. All good classes that were tons of fun to play in hardcore or insanity.
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
edited November 2011
Feh. The only automatic option I want is to take away that Story/Action nonsense. I'm growing really pissed with this lowest common denominator pandering. While I can appreciate the timesaving changes in ME2 to deal with inventory glut, what's the bloody point of playing the game if Bioware takes away the option make my own choices in and out of combat. Might as well be playing Final Fantasy 13.
Feh. The only automatic option I want is to take away that Story/Action nonsense. I'm growing really pissed with this lowest common denominator pandering. While I can appreciate the timesaving changes in ME2 to deal with inventory glut, what's the bloody point of playing the game if Bioware takes away the option make my own choices in and out of combat. Might as well be playing Final Fantasy 13.
Fewer options. That's what the world needs.
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
Videogames by Ikeasoft, neh? No seriously, the core gameplay seems unchanged and at least I can ignore these 'features'. So whatever, I'll take my gronard card and go pick on kids in another thread. 8-)
Edit: Oh well. I know I'm being a silly goose about this stuff.
Like it or not, there are a huge, vast number of people who don't play video games for a branching, interwoven story and just want to shoot dem aliens. I'm not here to judge, and unless you want your pristine, unspoiled RPG to go the way of every other RPG franchise (ie, lose sales forever until the studio shuts down) then you're going to have to welcome those people into the fold. This is the most benign way of doing so that leaves the main game untainted. It is win win for everyone involved.
Just smacks of gaming snobbery to me. As though a game where you just shoot things instead of talking to things is more dumbed down or something. Protip: The best, most well written story in all of video gaming is still the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar by comparison to, you know, an actual book. A novel. A play. So let's just accept it for what it is.
I believe BioWare is forging an entirely new genre with Mass Effect, the same kind of game they hinted at with KOTOR before that. Time was, RPGs conceded fidelity for content. It was OK that the game looked like ass and was clunky and slow paced because you had simply so many options. Well Mass Effect sorta has both. At it's core, ME2 is not just a competent third person shooter, but legitimately one of the best on the market. It can stand side by side with Gears of War and its ilk at no mistake, without shame. But it also has more options to it. It's an interactive narrative. I think Tycho put it best when he said that RPG is now a sauce that you use to flavour the main meal. Well that's fine by me. I think no other series does it better.
I mean even Call of Duty, that last bastion for us learned elite to look down on and snivel with derision, it has more RPG elements to it than actual RPGs a few years ago. More weapons and perks and progression. And people think of that series as being 'lowest common denominator', as though its sales are an indication of an unwashed mass appeal, when actually it is indicative of a highly polished, but fit for purpose, game that does one thing and does it well.
Honestly, the best thing BioWare did with Me2 was stripping away all that superfluous RPG bullshit. It's 2011 and numbers and spreadsheets and damage modifiers are not a worthy substitute for actual fucking role playing. Role playing. When did RPG come to mean 'crunching numbers'. That has nothing to do with role playing. I've played games of Dungeons and Dragons with no dice at all, so I think it's fair to say that item collecting, inventory management and invisible dice rolling is not role playing. It's what you put into a game because you haven't got the resources to provide more content.
Posts
I mean - story is a pretty big reason for RPGs being fun.
And skills are a big part of action.
I'm kind of imagining story mode being really easy, with a focus on whats happening in the world, almost like an interactive novel
And action mode playing out sort of like CoD where everything you get with powers etc is automated
and RPG mode being like ME1 with tons of weapons and equipment.
My main problem is that all 3 of the listed options take 2 of the 3 elements (leveling, combat, story decisions) out of the player's control by default, and it appears you have to delve into the options menus to wrest the ability to play the game you bought back from it.
I'm fine with people who don't enjoy all 3 aspects, and there being options for them. I am not fine with the implication that any given player should only be enjoying one of the 3 aspects of the games.
RPG mode takes story decisions out of your hands, and makes the combat piss-easy. Story mode takes leveling out of your hands and makes combat also piss-easy. Hopefully this beta build was just intended to test these 3 specific settings, because otherwise... it's pretty fucking insulting.
And difficulty was defaulted to normal in the past two games, its not hard to change.
From what I've seen things die in one or two pistol shots.
The action mode makes more sense seeing as story sections will play more like cutscenes than interruptions. Hell, I'll probably give it a look on later playthroughs, especially if they continue their trend of the default choices being the wrong ones (unlikely in this case, but one can hope).
I don't mind really because it doesn't seem like putting in stuff like this takes a huge amount of dev time.
Still though... like half of the fun of a Bioware game is all the conversation choices and such. Putting that on autopilot just seems wrong. It'd be like playing a Mario game that does all the jumping for you.
But what is this "united states" speech? I've heard of English, but if we get a lot of silly americanisms in the game because of the language setting then I'll be miffed! Is this a political statement about how English is not officially recognised as the language of the good old US of A?
I am looking forward to setting the autotuner to 'go you sexy beast' and just enjoying the show.
My only concern there would be missing some of the moments you would have to be without a soul to choose paragon. AKA- Tali's loyalty mission.
edit: I'm also curious as to what the default is going to be in ME3; I would imagine Garrus and Tali make it through again, but I doubt everyone will survive since that's not good for new players that won't be familiar with everyone. At least, it's what they tried to avoid in ME2.
The cursor starts on Action Mode, but their is no default. I mean, if you click through the menus as fast as possible, you'll pick Action Mode, but that's probably what you wanted and you can change it any time, just like difficulty.
Or is that a fourth option?
The Kinect thing is just a feature and I'm pretty sure it'll be standard for everything. You'll probably have the option to turn it on/off though.
I mean, I'm never ever going to use it, and I actually own Kinect. Just wanted to know if the main game was changed at its core to accommodate that feature.
If I'm remembering correctly at E3 what he did was basically say the mini-phrase that was right next to the choice he wanted to make.
So unless they changed it to something like "Paragon, Neutral, Renegade, etc." I'm pretty sure it'll stay that way.
Cause there is simply no way I am speaking dialogue choices outloud. I've endured twenty years of shame and embarrassment at playing video games alone, in a darkened room in absolute silence. And that's the way I want it to stay, thankyou very much.
A.) It's bad.
B.) With my accent its extra bad.
I'm sure it will be the same in this cause.
Because its boring and easy mode!
Seriously though, even if we make fun of Soldier no one really cares what class you choose to play.
'Speech Language : United States'
Don't make us come over there, Canada. It's been a while since we flexed our imperial muscles. Change it to English as it should be or we will fuck. You. Up.
Dude's a nice guy that nobody messes with. Also potentially unstable due to switching personalities on the fly. Keep them on their toes, you know?
And regarding the different game modes in ME3, I don't think I'll ever try any of them outside the RPG mode and changing difficulty settings.
Incidentally, I just realized I've never played a soldier in the ME games. I look at the abilities and think "cool, I could use all the weapons and get nifty massacring related abilities", but then I look at the other classes which basically amount to a stealth/sniper/tech-dude or a space wizard, and I get distracted.
Would probably play a soldier before a pure engineer though. Adept is where it's at for me usually. Hopefully ME3 will have some improvements in Adept effectiveness though, since ME2 was occasionally a bit of a pain before getting the Locust, and against enemies with strong shields and/or armor. It reduced the Adept effectiveness a little bit too much occasionally. Some sections were too easy and some were quite a bit more difficult than I would've liked. New powers would be sweet as well, although the usual "Pull-Throw" combo of playing mook-ball is always fun.
No krogan vanguards is still stupid.
*pout*
(Sorry for my misinformation!)
As for my second favorite I don't know yet. It used to be Infiltrator in ME1. But I've actually started to take a liking to Adept and Sentinel, especially since I thought Infiltrator skillset was kind of meh in ME2.
Soldier and Engineer on the back in. Soldier is fun but a little too one-note. As for Engineer I'm not really sure what my problem with Engineer is.
I used to love Infiltrator but the flaws of the class have become more evident to me lately.
a) escape button
b) damage boost for a sniper shot
Fewer options. That's what the world needs.
Videogames by Ikeasoft, neh? No seriously, the core gameplay seems unchanged and at least I can ignore these 'features'. So whatever, I'll take my gronard card and go pick on kids in another thread. 8-)
Edit: Oh well. I know I'm being a silly goose about this stuff.
They're features.
Like it or not, there are a huge, vast number of people who don't play video games for a branching, interwoven story and just want to shoot dem aliens. I'm not here to judge, and unless you want your pristine, unspoiled RPG to go the way of every other RPG franchise (ie, lose sales forever until the studio shuts down) then you're going to have to welcome those people into the fold. This is the most benign way of doing so that leaves the main game untainted. It is win win for everyone involved.
Just smacks of gaming snobbery to me. As though a game where you just shoot things instead of talking to things is more dumbed down or something. Protip: The best, most well written story in all of video gaming is still the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar by comparison to, you know, an actual book. A novel. A play. So let's just accept it for what it is.
I believe BioWare is forging an entirely new genre with Mass Effect, the same kind of game they hinted at with KOTOR before that. Time was, RPGs conceded fidelity for content. It was OK that the game looked like ass and was clunky and slow paced because you had simply so many options. Well Mass Effect sorta has both. At it's core, ME2 is not just a competent third person shooter, but legitimately one of the best on the market. It can stand side by side with Gears of War and its ilk at no mistake, without shame. But it also has more options to it. It's an interactive narrative. I think Tycho put it best when he said that RPG is now a sauce that you use to flavour the main meal. Well that's fine by me. I think no other series does it better.
I mean even Call of Duty, that last bastion for us learned elite to look down on and snivel with derision, it has more RPG elements to it than actual RPGs a few years ago. More weapons and perks and progression. And people think of that series as being 'lowest common denominator', as though its sales are an indication of an unwashed mass appeal, when actually it is indicative of a highly polished, but fit for purpose, game that does one thing and does it well.
Honestly, the best thing BioWare did with Me2 was stripping away all that superfluous RPG bullshit. It's 2011 and numbers and spreadsheets and damage modifiers are not a worthy substitute for actual fucking role playing. Role playing. When did RPG come to mean 'crunching numbers'. That has nothing to do with role playing. I've played games of Dungeons and Dragons with no dice at all, so I think it's fair to say that item collecting, inventory management and invisible dice rolling is not role playing. It's what you put into a game because you haven't got the resources to provide more content.