Mass Effect 3...

[Datadog]

A Seattle/Vancouver Megacity?! Awesome! There'll be sushi bars everywhere!

[Tawmis]

E3 Video Promo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMYM6rmRUUM

[AndreaDraco]

The trailer is, as I expected it to be, extremely good. Visually gorgeous, the story tidbits it provides are really interesting and I think I'll like the tone of this installment, even if the new shooter-oriented direction isn't my usual cup of tea.

During E3, BioWare revealed some companions, which I put here under Spoiler Tags.

Kaidan Alenko
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy
Liara T'Soni
Garrus Vakarian
James Vega (a new NPC, created especially for the newcomers to the series)
Ashley Williams

It is unclear if these are the only companions available or if more are yet to be announced.

BioWare has also stated that the following characters will return in some capacity, provided that they survived the events of ME2, maybe even as still unconfirmed companions:

David Anderson
EDI
Jack
Thane Krios
Miranda Lawson
Legion
The Illusive Man
Zaeed Massani
Jeff "Joker" Moreau
Mordin Solus
Jacob Taylor
Donnel Udina
Urdnot Wrex

[Tawmis]

... The War for Earth has begun!

http://masseffect.bioware.com/me3/media ... id=eag3088

Other stuff -
Fem Sheppard:
http://www.livestream.com/biowaretv/vid ... 42a507a856

Definitive Edition:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/me3/game/ ... id=eag3088

Stuff:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/me3/n7ops ... id=eag3088

Videos:
http://masseffect.bioware.com/me3/media ... id=eag3088

[Maiandra]

That's odd. The last article said it would be out this November. However, I've read elsewhere that it was postponed until next year.

[DeadPoolX]

Yeah, everything I've read recently has said it's getting released in March 2012. I don't mind the date getting pushed back if it means they're testing the game more thoroughly. The last thing I want is a buggy mess upon release, like DA2.

[Maiandra]

I found out today that Mass Effect 3 is going to have a 4-player co-op component! Apparently, it's optional to the single-player campaign and won't involve Shepard, but will allow people to customise their own characters and progress by level like the main game.

Read about it on IGN and the Bioware forums.

From what I've been reading so far, I think this could be pretty cool. I tend to prefer RPG-hybrid co-op play, like Borderlands, over pure FPS, like Left 4 Dead, so I think this will be right up my alley.

Since they seem to be making a point of keeping it separate from the main, single-player story and it's even being developed by a different team, I'm not too worried that it will affect the main story. I just hope this separate team is able to make it good!

[Tawmis]

I think they have to make it co-op if they want to up the stakes in what they have done! Granted it's a great single player game (the other ME games) - but making it co-op would add a whole new level to it.

I wonder if they will make it like Gears of War 3 / Halo 3.

[Maxor127]

Co-op is always a welcome edition, even if it ends up sucking.

[DeadPoolX]

I think they have to make it co-op if they want to up the stakes in what they have done! Granted it's a great single player game (the other ME games) - but making it co-op would add a whole new level to it.

I wonder if they will make it like Gears of War 3 / Halo 3.

The whole game isn't co-op. There are optional missions in which gamers can join together to play co-op and these missions may affect the single player game.

[Tawmis]

FAQ, Video, and stuffs...
http://masseffect.bioware.com/me3/game/ ... WSB8d9opQJ

[Tawmis]

This looks pretty epic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81f-bBKkhGw

[DeadPoolX]

The Mass Effect 3 demo was officially released today on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3!

If you're playing it on the PC, you'll need Origin (EA's version of Steam) to play it and an active EA/Origin account. Whatever your EA or BioWare account was becomes your Origin account.

Some people may not like having to use Origin, but I don't mind it. To me, so long as it's as user-friendly as Steam -- which it seems to be so far -- I don't have an issue with it. I'm glad they modeled it after Steam and not GFWL, which has more bugs than a South American rainforest and never seems to work right.

Right now you can only play the single-player portion of the demo. The multiplayer co-op part is available right now to those gamers who own Battlefield 3. The co-op section will be available to everyone on Friday, February 17th.

That's how it works on the PC, so I'm assuming it's a similar situation on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

As for the game itself, it's awesome! The gameplay is very, very similar to ME2 (which is good in my opinion) and although they've improved the graphics some, it doesn't seem to slow anything down. In fact, my computer (a Pentium 4 3.6 GHz, WinXP SP3, 2GB of RAM, 512MB ATI Radeon HD 3870) which will be eight years old later this year, played ME3 perfectly. No slow down and all graphical options were turned up to their highest (although admittedly, there aren't very many options to choose from).

I'm sure many gamers elsewhere would say I'm full of shit. They've said it before regarding my old PC and modern games. According to these morons, my PC shouldn't be able to run anything more than Flash games or casual games, like from PopCap. Obviously, they don't know anything.

[Maiandra]

Yeah, I thought it was pretty good too. The cover system will take some getting used to as will the perspective, but I think it was good overall and I'm really looking forward to having a good single-player game with a great story.

[Maxor127]

I'm worried if I download the demo on Origin, it will forever show up on my account like the Battlefield 3 Beta does now.