Mass Effect 3

By Yusuf M.
in Gamers' Hangout

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Grand Master

Xerxes

Posted
Posted

http://social.biowar...3/index/8975536

"1) Will Origin be a requirement to play all versions of Mass Effect 3? (Digital and/or from a retail brick and mortar store)

Yes, Origin is required for all PC editions of Mass Effect 3, physical or digital."

:/

That is abit of a kick in the teeth :/ I already have Origin (because of Battlefield 3 and few other games I have) but would of prefered it to be standalone like the first two MEs were. Getting slightly annoying having to install all these "platforms" to enjoy my games. Oh well, I'm still getting ME3 on PC and I still cannot wait! :woot:

Grand Master

Miuku.

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That is abit of a kick in the teeth :/

Au contraire - Origin supports things like paying with our local bank account and handling the security with a double keycode and cellphone verification which is much safer than say just paying with VISA - something Steam doesn't support at all.

Then again EA has always had a strong presence in EU, again something Valve does incredibly poorly.

Contributor

WesDog

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I won't be buying anything else from Origin. I didn't get a valid product code for Star Wars The Old Republic until December 30th. I preordered the game the day after they started preorders. I played in the Thanksgiving beta weekend and in the early release. On the 17th I decided to go ahead and set up my subscription and everything so it would be ready to go on the 20th. When I put in my code it said it was invalid or had already been used. I contacted Origin and they said they would email me a new code. I got a survey email asking me to rate my service experience but that was it. I never got a new code from them. I called back and gave them my support ticket number and they said they couldnt find it. I told them what happened and they said that since that person gave me a new code they could not give me another one. I explained I never got the code and they said to check my spam folder. There was no email in any folder from them with a new code. I started emailing support from Bioware for the game and they said I would have to let Origin fix it. So after a week of emailing and calling Origin and them never doing anything I called them on the 30th to request a refund. They said they couldnt do that. It was on my credit card so I told them I was calling Visa, filing a complaint and requesting they refund my money and charge it back on Origin. They got me on the phone with a supervisor and they said they would send me a new code. I made the supervisor sit on the phone with me for over 10 minutes until it showed up. When I got the email I put the code in on the star wars site and it worked so I hung up on the support supervisor.

The only thing I can think is that the first time I called support the chick gave me a false name and instead of emailing me the code she hijacked it for herself so she wouldnt have to pay the 79.99 to buy the digital deluxe version. I gave them her name when I called back and they said there was nobody there by that name. They didnt have anyway to look up my call to see who it was because the support ticket number she gave me didnt exist. It really ****ed me off. All my friends were playing the game and are way higher level than I am now. So I dont have anyone to do stuff with until I catch up with them.

I will not buy anything else from Origin. If thats the only platform they sell it on I'm just gonna have to pirate it. Ill be damned if those jerks will get another penny from me. There is no reason for all these digital content stores having exclusives. Thats like selling a game at best buy but not target. I dont want to have Origin, Games for windows live, steam, and 5 other content delivery programs running all the time on my computer just so I can play games that I paid for. Just make them available on Steam and you can have my money.

I'm tired of these game companies treating everyone like crap. We really need to stop giving them our money until they clean up their act. No matter how much you want to play the game. It's not worth it when you have to put up with crap like this.

Grand Master

inferniac

Posted
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To quote one of the reddit commenters on the matter:

The primary economic benefit of competition is that the players are forced by each other to not screw their customers over. It would be a different matter entirely if Steam was the only game in town and wasn't very good, but Valve has proven that they don't need a serious competitor to provide top-notch prices, services, and convenience. They have rightfully earned their stellar reputation.

That said, I would fully welcome Origin as a competing platform if it was even remotely competent as one. Argue teething issues all you want, but the fact is that digital distribution services are no longer new territory; newcomers at this point don't have the luxury of breaking new ground as an excuse for providing an impotent service.

It's been years since Steam became a quality product, and EA wants to compete by creating a massively inferior counterpart - not just feature-incomplete, but fundamentally broken - and then locking games from quality developers into that mess? That's not competition; it's a cash grab, plain and simple. I don't blame anyone for getting ****ed at EA for pulling **** like that.

addendum: I would also like to point out that we would all be far more forgiving of Origin's shittiness if we felt that EA was generally a competent service provider and Origin was simply a misstep on their part. But just as Valve has earned their reputation, EA has earned theirs; games riddled with unstable DRM, unforgiving "help" lines that are clearly just non-native English speakers working off of a script, banning paying customers from single-player games for forum infractions, etc. If EA cared about their customers, they would be breaking their backs trying to put a stop to this kind of nonsense. Instead, they have not only brushed these concerns off, but with Origin they now intend to hold their own games hostage to the cluster**** - and all the more shame that the games affected are of such high quality.

I pretty much agree.

Grand Master

Miuku.

Posted
Posted

And I pretty much agree Steam fanboys have the Valve Reality Distortion Field that's about as bad as the Apple one is.

Arguing with them is completely useless, Valve does nothing wrong - ever. Even if it takes them 5 years to implement a functionality that any competent team of programmers would've done in a few days.

Grand Master

Lingwo

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That's what i'll do, i own the other two for 360. I usually pick up the PC versions when they are cheap.

I don't mind these digital platforms, i'd prefer just one though (Steam). EA have jumped in and are just causing arguments and to be honest we don't need another platform.

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

That's what i'll do, i own the other two for 360. I usually pick up the PC versions when they are cheap.

I don't mind these digital platforms, i'd prefer just one though (Steam). EA have jumped in and are just causing arguments and to be honest we don't need another platform.

Nevermind.. I'll just say this, if you want to talk about Origin why not use the other thread in the pc section?

Mentor

SierraSonic

Posted
Posted

And I pretty much agree Steam fanboys have the Valve Reality Distortion Field that's about as bad as the Apple one is.

Arguing with them is completely useless, Valve does nothing wrong - ever. Even if it takes them 5 years to implement a functionality that any competent team of programmers would've done in a few days.

I don't see where you get this, we do not want it to be Steam exclusive, we just want it to ALSO be on Steam, where the rest of our games are.

And look before ANYONE ELSE SPOUTS BS, I am sure any steam user wouldn't mind steam making a mini-client of steamworks, so that valve games can be purchased on other services without losing that functionality, yet still making the users of other clients happy.

Right now by supporting EA, we are failing to protect the openness that ea claims they want to give to their customers.

Grand Master

Yusuf M. Veteran

Posted
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It's unfortunate that the game won't be made available on Steam but that doesn't mean I shouldn't buy it. Boycotting Mass Effect 3 won't do anything but hurt BioWare and EA.

Anyway, the demo will be available on the 14th of February for Xbox 360 and PC. I haven't read anything about a PS3 demo which is unfortunate. Hopefully, they'll release one before the game's March release date.

  • Muhammad Farrukh
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Grand Master

inferniac

Posted
Posted

It's unfortunate that the game won't be made available on Steam but that doesn't mean I shouldn't buy it. Boycotting Mass Effect 3 won't do anything but hurt BioWare and EA.

Lol, nobody has anything against Bioware, but the whole point would be hurting EA.

Grand Master

Yusuf M. Veteran

Posted
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Lol, nobody has anything against Bioware, but the whole point would be hurting EA.

It would take a lot more than boycotting one game to hurt EA. If people do it though, they'd be hurting BioWare way more than EA. And I don't think it's worth hurting a developer to try to hurt a publisher.

  • Muhammad Farrukh
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Grand Master

Phouchg

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Posted

Specs are out!

Minimum Spec:

OS - Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7

*Supported chipsets: NVIDIA 7900 or better; ATI X1800 or better. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 9300, 8500, 8400, and 8300 are below minimum system requirements, as are AMD/ATI Radeon HD3200, HD3300, and HD4350. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required.

CPU - 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)

RAM - 1GB for XP / 2GB RAM for Vista/Win 7

Disc Drive - 1x speed

Hard Drive - 2.5 GB of free space

Video - 256 MB* (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support)

Sound - DirectX 9.0c compatible

DirectX - DirectX 9.0c August 2009 (included)

Recommended Spec:

OS - Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1, Win 7

CPU - 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (equivalent AMD CPU)

RAM - 2GB for XP / 4GB RAM for Vista/Win 7

Disc Drive - 1x speed

Hard Drive - 2.5 GB of free space

Video - AMD/ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB or greater, NVidia GeForce 9800 GT 512 MB or greater

Sound - DirectX 9.0c compatible

Source (social.bioware.com)

Surprisingly low, I might add. Then again, Unreal Engine doesn't look half-bad, save for occassional lack of anti-aliasing.

  • Muhammad Farrukh
  • Like 1
Grand Master

Yusuf M. Veteran

Posted
  • Author
  • Veteran
Posted

Specs are out!

Source (social.bioware.com)

Surprisingly low, I might add. Then again, Unreal Engine doesn't look half-bad, save for occassional lack of anti-aliasing.

Indeed. BioWare has done a good job with the engine in Mass Effect 2. It looks like it'll be even better in Mass Effect 3 (see here). The lack of anti-aliasing is an issue but thankfully, it isn't that bad. For some reason UE3 doesn't support anti-aliasing in DX9 mode so unless BioWare has added DX10 support to their game, we won't be seeing it. You can, of course, enable AA in your video card's control panel. It's a brute force method so the performance could drop significantly.

Grand Master

ViperAFK

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I couldn't care less if its only on origin personally. I'd rather have it on steam but I still definitely plan on getting me3. I already have origin installed for bf3 anyway :p

Indeed. BioWare has done a good job with the engine in Mass Effect 2. It looks like it'll be even better in Mass Effect 3 (see here). The lack of anti-aliasing is an issue but thankfully, it isn't that bad. For some reason UE3 doesn't support anti-aliasing in DX9 mode so unless BioWare has added DX10 support to their game, we won't be seeing it. You can, of course, enable AA in your video card's control panel. It's a brute force method so the performance could drop significantly.

I've been using this in ME2 for AA:

http://mrhaandi.blog...injectsmaa.html

Works flawlessly. Its similar to MLAA like the option in catalyst, but unlike catalyst's MLAA or some FXAA implementations it does a decent job of aa without blurring the whole image.

Grand Master

shakey

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While the use of kinect is interesting on this, it seems to put the game on a rail or easy mode. At least from the video, it seemed to automate the throwing and shooting at people, where you basically just had to have them on screen, and the character would do what you said to whoever was in the way. While neat, and if it is the case I just stated, I don't want a game to play itself for me. There is little joy to having a game do the important parts, just because I said "shoot".

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