Mass Effect 3 To Include Co-op Multiplayer

BioWare has announced that Mass Effect 3, planned for March of next year, will be the first game in the series to include co-operative multiplayer. In a post on their forums, they provided details about the new mode of play: "Success in multi-player will have a direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory ... In multiplayer, players will create custom characters to fight on different and unique fronts in the war. This will include the ability to play as favorites like Turians, Krogans, Asari and more each with their own unique set of abilities." They also took pains to point out that while the co-op missions could affect the outcome of the main story, multiplayer is entirely optional.

Comments

Co-op is awesome

[lucm]

I hope this will work well, this game is already great.

I've played co-op missions with GTA4 and it was completely awesome. Robbing a bank is a different experience when you do it while your 12 y/o nephew is holding back the cops with a stolen garbage truck.

Can't wait to see how this turns out in Mass Effect (but I suspect there won't be bank robberies with garbage trucks).

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Count Fenring]

Armory planet robberies with junk freighters (from your house to the sun in three standard units, or your credits back!)?

Re:Co-op is awesome

[hairyfeet]

As long as the game doesn't neglect single player I'd be fine with it. But if they just focus on the co-op? Look at Fear 3, co-op tastic, single player suckatude.

And while i'm in a ranting mood and I know game devs sometimes come here, i just gotta ask: what is it with putting out games that you KNOW are absolute shite on a crusty roll? Now I can understand reaching too high and ending up with a buggy game, or having quirks in a game, that's understandable, shit happens and you can't appeal to everyone. But WTF is it with the OBVIOUSLY bad nasty shit, huh? games aren't cheap to make, why would you put out something that stank like a cat that had been squished by a truck a week ago huh?

Here are three of the recent games that bugged the living shit out of me. 1.-Bioshock II. WTF? you take the WORST part of the game, hell of ANY game, the most hated of hated, the fucking lame ass escort mission, and make it the WHOLE DAMNED GAME??? WTF? I won't even mention how badly out of balance the Plasmids were. level up Hypnosis and you can just sit in the corner while the bad guys all kill each other, lame. 2.-Red Faction Guerrilla...Who in the hell thought giving you weapons with like three rounds was a good idea? Or having the dumb as stumps friendly AI charge into every damned little thing, even when you aren't even trying to start shit, and then YOU get penalized when Forest gump bites it? That game should have been named "Just stay in the fucking truck dude" as that is all you'll end up doing. 3.-Kane And Lynch II...Yeah I know everyone made fun of it, but did you TRY it? I did and there was ONE flaw, above all others, that made that game the worst of the worst...weapons. WTF? I can be 10 feet from the bad guy, empty an ENTIRE Uzi and NOT hit him? What the holy fuck? who thought having NO accuracy at all was a good idea?

So please game devs, just think before you shit, okay? Ask yourself "Is this something I myself would find enjoyable? Is this something I would like in a game? Does it actually work like its supposed to?" because I don't know about everyone else but I personally HATE seeing what could have been a truly enjoyable experience ruined like having a fat stripper at the titty bar. We ain't asking for much, AI that doesn't feel like they should all be wearing protective headgear, weapons that give a nice WHAM when you fire them, levels that are fun to explore, and NO ESCORT MISSIONS EVAR!

Thank you for your time, have a nice day.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[TechLA]

Frankly, quite many people will co-op games highly entertaining. It's a lot more fun to play with other people. Dead Island is a great example of that, and I had really fun moments playing it with my friend. All from the driving accidents to helping out the other one get up again, or use strategies together. Left4Dead is another great example, and so is many other games. Playing with other people just is a lot more fun.

I actually think there are too few games that support co-op, and hope that game developers start move more into such designs. Apart from older gamers, it's also what most people want, because it's just more fun.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[lucm]

I played Fallout-3 and Fallout New Vegas so bugs... yeah. But those games, even if they manage to freeze a Playstation 3 console (!!!), they are so cool that I kept playing, trying to walk around the bugs as much as possible.

New Vegas before the patch was terrible. Once your guy is experienced and is carrying a bunch of stuff, the game keeps locking. But it is still an awesome game, definitely in my top 5 (with GTA and Heavy Rain).

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Just let the spammers get downvoted to oblivion. Don't give them legitimacy by answering them.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Eightbitgnosis]

Well if Erin and the Lizard don't mind chilling out until Mass Effect 3 comes out we could just rock some multilayer maps instead

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

I actually thought it was kind of funny. He delivered on his promise and actually cursed.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[ravenshrike]

Was it an IMI Uzi, an IMI Micro-uzi, or a Mac-10? Cause with the latter two it is in fact possible to completely miss from 10 feet away.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Luckyo]

Dead Island was a co-op multiplayer game with a very, VERY broken single player tacked on top. It really should have said "requires at least one more person to play" in requirements, or at least limit your character selection to one of the two males if you chose to play single player.

I played as chinese girl, and good lord was it retarded. Between her having no control over zombies due to her sharp weapons specialization, and her being designed to backstab while someone else is tanking, the game was everything but enjoyable solo until I got into co-op. It was like playing a WoW backstab rogue (before they removed need to hit in the back) without any control skills or stealth. Pointless, frustrating and just downright stupid.

I just hope they won't break ME3 in a similar way, essentially forcing co-op if you want to play the game properly.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[kernelphr34k]

Bioware Montreal is a dedicated team working on the multiplayer aspect of ME3.

Bioware has stated multiple times within the past few days that single player is MOST important and by adding multiplayer it WILL NOT take away from the single-player experience.

I see it as ANOTHER AWESOME choice for players to have. You can do the entire single player campaign by yourself beat the game etc. BUT if you want help or want to play with friends then they can co-op with you etc. The multiplayer actions you take WILL reflect the single player campaign but that only makes sense that it would.

Check out this video for some answers and explanations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWaANoSZSzE

Re:Co-op is awesome

[Quiet_Desperation]

Thank you. :-) Apparently you were the only one, however. :-\

Re:Co-op is awesome

[hairyfeet]

From 10 feet? WTF? Who would build a weapon where if you point it straight at an enemy who is BARELY 10 feet away from you and empty an ENTIRE clip you won't get a single hit? Sure to fricking God the law of spray and pray would dictate that with 60 rounds and only 10 feet at least ONE bullet would hit, yes?

We ain't talking no trick shot here friend, picture this: You are in a street, there are two apple cart about 10 feet apart. He stands behind one apple cart, you the other. When he stands up to fire YOU stand up to fire and BOTH empty your guns. YOU get the living shit shot out of you and HE doesn't get a scratch.

As for what kind I think it was a standard Uzi but it really don't matter, I had the SAME experience with a pump action 12 gauge slug, an AK47, hell the ONLY weapon I seemed to be able to get a single hit at more than point blank was the 9mm Baretta and that wouldn't hit past 12 feet. With that game if you weren't close enough to grab their dick you weren't gonna get a hit PERIOD. Worst fucking accuracy I have ever seen and while I haven't fired an Uzi I HAVE fired a 12 gauge pump AND the 45 acp and 9mm and all of them are a hell of a lot more accurate IRL than that POS game says.

One final thing: If you think THAT is irritating DO NOT PLAY Far Cry II. Man how they could take a sweet game like Far Cry and take a big runny shit on it like that I'll never know. First they insult you by saying EVERY mission is a "secret mission" which actually means "We were too fucking lazy to make friendly AI, so everyone just attacks you on sight no matter what". Picture COD where your own teammates are also trying to frag you!

But that was just the ass gas, the real giant explosive shit they took was making every weapon as fragile as cheap dishes and making malfunctions the order of the day. Imagine you whip out your RP7 because a truck is headed towards you, you pull the trigger and the RPG falls out of the barrel spins in a circle and then blows up in YOUR face! Does that sound like fun? Oh and you can forget being stealthy like in FC I as the ONLY weapon with a scope that is silent? yeah it only has FIVE BULLETS and breaks after shooting 7, so you can't even pick up ammo on the way!

If real life was anywhere near this shitty we would still be fighting WWII thanks to dropping nothing but duds on each other. you think I'm joking but I'm sadly not, guns WILL jam with as little as 100 rounds shot through them! And give up picking up dead enemies weapons, they might as well have had the firing pins removed. you MAY get a whole clip through it before it jams, but its doubtful. What fudnucker though having to beat on the slide trying to unjam the gun while a truck is trying to run you down would be fun or exciting? i can't count the number of times I got royally pissed because I lined up a great shot (BTW the guys? Take a dozen rounds before they fall, and they have NO body armor! WTF?) only to have my gun fire one or two rounds and lock hard. In FC II that may as well be a neon sign that says "Fuck me hard I'm defenseless!"

Re:Co-op is awesome

[GameboyRMH]

I thought BioShock2 was pretty decent. It was more like an overabundance of short escort missions than one long escort mission, and if you learn to use hacked security robots and the deployable turrets they're not that hard.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[GameboyRMH]

I agree about FC2. I really wanted to like that game but I didn't make it through more than about 6 hours. Best quote I've heard about FC2:

"You can shoot animals until their species goes extinct, but not those black guys, they breed like rabbits."

Re:Co-op is awesome

[hairyfeet]

Oh it wasn't the shitloads of guys, done right THAT can be fun, nope it was the one two punch to the nuts of shittastic weapons and just pure boring ass monotony! It was like "turn right, there will be five to seven guys, kill guys, hope guns don't take a shit, lather rinse repeat". Just the same damned "missions" if you can call them that, hell I wouldn't say they even qualify, over and over AND over. And didn't you just fucking HATE how you could have a sweet shot lined up and it not even drop the fucker? That is the only game besides K&L II where I saw a dead solid perfect head shot be fucking pointless unless you had the "right" gun, like you are just gonna take a half a dozen slugs like that! Cover? Pointless. Weapons? Shit. Stealth? Not a fucking chance. Who thought this shit would even be mildly entertaining?

You wanna play something fun? I mean really really REALLY fun? try Just Cause II. It is about as realistic as batman VS superman in a ballet contest but that just adds to the fun. It was what Duke Nukem SHOULD have been, just balls to the walls crazy good fun! that hook shot has to be one of the coolest things ever put in a game. I mean when you can jump on the hood of your flaming car at 60MPH+, fire a hook shot into the front fork of a bike chasing you and recreate the stormtrooper tree splat from jedi, follow it by recreating the T3 truck flip by hookshotting the police car behind you into the street, jump off the car before it explodes onto a passing car, chunk the person out, run right into a police roadblock on a Golden gate style bridge but instead of stopping drive off the bridge , pull a chute out your ass, hookshot the chopper flying beside the bridge, throw the military guy out of it and THEN use said chopper for a strafing run on the bridge blockade? Now THAT is some crazy ass fun! Oh and you have over 250 MILES of places to blow up! Deserts and mountains, LA style cities and villages, all open and waiting for you to go postal! Hell I even hookshot a soldier to a chopper and used him as a screaming wrecking ball to knock guys off a tower BWA HA HA!

Why companies can put out crazy good fun times like that while others put out FC II is beyond me. hell they could have just copypasta'd new levels and weapons onto FC I (ala FEAR) and folks would have bought it and more importantly HAD FUN. If you game is about as enjoyable as an STD? maybe you should rethink what you are doing before you release!

Re:Co-op is awesome

[GameboyRMH]

Yeah I thought JC2 should have been longer. A lot of the world went unused in the main storyline missions.

Re:Co-op is awesome

[hairyfeet]

Oh it wasn't that they were hard, far from it and thanks to the frankly game breaking plasmids one could just plow through that game even on the hardest difficulty no problem. no the problem was they broke game flow and took a big poo on what COULD have been a truly great experience. For example did you ever try to just sit back in a good position and observe your enemies, like you could do in Bioshock I? What would happen is little Suzy Fudnucker on your back would start bitching her ass off that you weren't dragging her ass to the next corpse.

Now lets talk about the "bad guy" Sophia Lamb. No be honest, didn't you want to be able to just stop wherever you were, walk straight up to that bitch and ram your drill down her throat so she would just SHUT THE FUCK UP with her CONSTANT mouthing off? Ryan would pop on once in a while in the first one, mainly it was Atlas and only when he had a bit of backstory or a mission, and when the big reveal came that just made what he said all the more relevant because it ALL had double meaning. with Lamb it was just one looooong "I'm right, you're wrong, go fuck yourself Delta' rant. I had a friend who had NEVER played a bioshock game, had him play BII and in less than 4 minutes he was "How can I kill the bitch? is there a quick way to kill the bitch? maybe an off button on her big fucking mouth?"

Finally lets talk plasmids. Plasmids in the first game was unbalanced but in the second game it was just fucking unreal. my oldest just ramped up ElectroShock and stomped the game. never touched a single other plasmid, just used that single one and slaughtered everyone. Myself I found that hypo was so badly overpowered that once ramped up i just walked around with a big daddy and let them take care of everything, I could just sit in the corner. No real need to be cool and set up traps like in the first one, you were just too overpowered.

So I'd say they took a shit. it wasn't a Kane and Lynch super explosive shit, but just a big fat turd average poo. That game COULD have been fucking awesome, the little sister could have made the "moral choice" matter by ramping up every little sister kill but instead they made her random, having both the weapon and plasmids could have made for some kick ass super combos instead they made all the plasmids (except for a few "joke" plasmids like swarm and decoy) so overpowered you could literally break the game and play like you had cheats on from less than half the game in by simply focusing on one of the early plasmids, and finally instead of having the missions build into this huge overarching story like the first it ended up just a bunch of fetch quests that were more annoying than anything.

Don't get me wrong, fun could still be had, but it was 'lame horror movie MST3K' fun when it could have been 'Dark Knight this is kick fucking ass you gotta tell all your friends' fun.

yawn...

[Dark Lord of Ohio]

Mass Effect is not a typical shooter, like Halo or Battlefield. During some action in ME you aim, yawn, shoot, reload, yawn again and then take your aim. Maybe I am wrong and they have prepared something special like Team Slayer mode (w00t!) but after playing ME i ME:2 I am rather sceptical about it.

Re:yawn...

[dbet]

FPSs are not the owners or even the originators of co-op multi-player. The original Neverwinter Nights for example had it and it worked very well (a RPG similar to ME).

Re:yawn...

[Dark Lord of Ohio]

I know, but I can't imagine how it would work in ME Universe. It is boring when going into FPS mode and excellent in RPG. Anyway I wish them well and will buy ME:3 to see how it worked. Hope that won't be yawning as much as I did during ME:2 gameplay.

Re:yawn...

[MSojka]

FPSs are not the owners or even the originators of co-op multi-player. The original Neverwinter Nights for example had it and it worked very well (a RPG similar to ME).

The original Neverwinter Nights? Of course it hat multi-player. It was a pure multi-player game after all (too bad it was restricted to AOL customers). That's like saying Ultima Online, Everquest or Meridian 59 had "some" multi-player capabilities and it worked for them.

Re:yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

Operation Flashpoint had large-scale co-op before NWN did. It didn't have the limitation that all Bioware games do, which is a severely limited actor count: in OFP, there were hundreds of (way smarter) AI, combined with better physics (including ballistics), BF2-modded graphics, 51.2km^2 areas (vs. 320^2m NWN), and 30-128 players. NWN modders had to fake large amounts of enemies by spawning them in at strategic trigger points.

Re:yawn...

[citizenr]

During some action in ME you aim, yawn, shoot, reload, yawn again and then take your aim.

this is how EVERY SINGLE shooter on a gamepad works.

Re:yawn...

[Nadaka]

Before neverwinter nights was baldurs gate 2.

As long as Tali is Safe

[rax313]

...I don't care about anything else =)

But seriously I'm glad that they didn't make this feature a requirement to get the "full story".

But if this new feature is anything like the overlord/shadowbroker(?) DLC where there's a car chase and not another shoot and cover then I think it will be an awesome co-op experience it might even deter people from pirating it.

Not my main concern

[RogueyWon]

Co-op... I could go either way on. If it's well designed, I'll probably give it a go. Unfortunately, this isn't as easy as it could be for me. Most of my friends have played this series on the 360, while I've been on the PC. Now sure, I could switch - but that would mean abandoning the character I took through the first two games and had intended to import into the third. It'd be fantastic if Bioware could put out some sort of savegame porting tool to allow people in my situation to get around that, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

What I'd really like to hear is the following: "We realised that planet scanning was incredibly boring and it's gone. Also, while we were at it, we went back to the first game's heat based system for weapons, rather than the ammo system from the second".

Re:Not my main concern

[Yev000]

What I'd really like to hear is the following: "We realised that planet scanning was incredibly boring and it's gone. Also, while we were at it, we went back to the first game's heat based system for weapons, rather than the ammo system from the second".

That and "Biotic powers now affect shielded and armoured enemies and some inanimate objects"

I was always cheesed off with the fact that while you can see in Jacks escape her take on 3 heavy mechs, and then see her get knocked out by one heavy mech becayse I didnt assign her to run 100 meters in the opposite direction fast enough.

Re:Not my main concern

[Anonymous Coward]

What I'd really like to hear is the following: "We realised that planet scanning was incredibly boring and it's gone

That already happened ages (months? last year?) ago. Don't remember what they are replacing it with though, I think they avoided giving anything specific.

Also, while we were at it, we went back to the first game's heat based system for weapons, rather than the ammo system from the second".

I'm not sure how I feel about that, I didn't mind the heat system but I also enjoyed 'cheating' by adding as many heat sinks, frictionless materials and recoil dampeners as possible to my assault rifle so I could fire a fully automatic barrage with excellent accuracy indefinitely. Made keeping enemies pinned down ridiculously easy.

The disposable heat sinks that have to be reloaded in ME2 made the game more challenging but really didn't make much sense from a story perspective, and unlike an FPS, an RPG lives and dies on its story. I'm not sure what they're going to do with it but I would like to see the original heat system come back but with better balancing this time.

---
As for the article, co-op doesn't interest me at all but I don't mind it being in the game as long as all major story endings can still be unlocked without co-op. (ie. the co-op just adds extra scenes and whatnot rather than whole new and different endings — special exception if Shephard dies in the finale and the co-op player carries the game to the end, I'd like to see what they do with that on Youtube)

Re:Not my main concern

[Anonymous Coward]

Jack forgot to use the singularity glitch on the last mech ;).

ME2 biotics were perfectly fine though, overpowered even, so long as the correct squadmates were present. Example. The loading tips even made that suggestion. Squadmates were basically a hotkey extension of the player.

Re:Not my main concern

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I quite liked planet scanning...

Re:Not my main concern

[Anonymous Coward]

There is a ME2 console DLC in a form of comics showing ME1 story that lets you choose to kill/save rachni queen, make you choose if krogan survived or not etc. I guess they will add something similar to ME3.

Re:Not my main concern

[sammy baby]

So say we all.

Particularly frustrating was the stupid in-game justification for the use of heat sinks. "We figured you were all so unhappy with the delay waiting for your weapon to cool for a second or two, that we'd retrofit it with ammo that you can actually run out of. And we convinced the Geth to do the same thing! Isn't that cool?"

Rasm frasm. At least managing inventory was easier.

Re:Not my main concern

[phorm]

Bioware doesn't have a tool, but there are various "save game editors" out there that I believe may also be able to convert...

Re:Not my main concern

[angrytuna]

I agree. There was a game called Sentinel Worlds, back in the day that featured resource mining much like Mass Effect 2. I just finished ME2 a short while back, and I wondered if the authors had played that game back in the day; the mining feature caused a lot of nostalgic appeal...

Re:Not my main concern

[RogueyWon]

I've had a look and while I would be ok moving from the 360 to the PC, there don't seem to be any options for going the other way - which makes sense given that the closed nature of consoles as a platform means that they don't generally like you messing around with savegames.

Re:Not my main concern

[Nationless]

Same problem, but a lot closer to home.

My wife plays it on a 360 and me on the PC. And based from our previous... disagreements, I don't think either of us is going to abandon our characters for the sake of Co-op.

I guess this really is another example of where going multi-plat hurts the end result of a game.

Re:Not my main concern

[Anonymous Coward]

Last I checked on the DLC page for this, there was a character generator available that basically lets you write an ME1 history. So at least you wouldn't have to replay ME1. I can't imagine that they wouldn't do something similar for 3 at some point?

Re:Not my main concern

[morari]

The ammo system is the only thing you can think of to crap on from the second game? How about going back and making it an RPG again, instead of dumbing it down to the likes of a Gears of War knock-off like they did in ME2?

Re:Not my main concern

[phorm]

I have the 360 version. There is an Save-Game-Editor for xbox - which is a modified version of the PC SGE - that allowed me to change my games.
I suppose if all else fails, you could find a 360 saved game, and edit a bunch of the flags to match how your PC-based game ended (it lets you edit your paragon/renegade points, which allies are alive/dead, your weapons, and some key "did or did not do" points).

More amusingly, it's supposed to allow importing of face models, but I never did get that to work.

Re:Not my main concern

[Dutch Gun]

Inventory management was easier because they removed upgrades! /slaps forehead

Yeah, and the heat sinks were an atrocious idea. I loved not having to worry about ammo, and learning how to manage weapon heat was a new and different mechanic that I found enjoyable. Upgrading weapons to absorb more heat took care of the problem if you couldn't learn to fire in short bursts.

I still can't imagine the thought process behind the decision to completely abandon the tank in favor of that absolutely brain-numbing scanning mini-game. If I recall, most people's complaints were along the complaints that there were only about three or four unique building types. Hell, they could have just added a bunch more buildings and locations for variety and I would have been happy.

I know it's a bit hypocritical to complain about too many formulaic games that don't take risks, but when you're already slapping a 2 behind the name of a game, it makes a lot more sense to try to refine the game with each new release rather than completely futzing around with its basic gameplay.

Bioware, if you're listening:

* If I wanted a brainless action game or shooter, I wouldn't be looking to you. Don't be afraid to make your RPGs deep and tactical.
* Get rid of the damn heat-clips. You had a unique weapon mechanic with ME1. I certainly wasn't pining for ammo clips like *every other game ever*.
* Don't "fix" problems by completely eliminating the feature. I liked collecting upgrades, and I liked the planet-side missions in the vehicles. They just needed more refinement.

--end rant

Sorry, but I loved ME1 so much, and 2 was a huge disappointment to me, despite the slightly better shooter mechanics (pretty much at the expense of everything else). And as shooters went, it was still only second-rate.

Re:Not my main concern

[Rich0]

If I recall, most people's complaints were along the complaints that there were only about three or four unique building types. Hell, they could have just added a bunch more buildings and locations for variety and I would have been happy.

Well, that and driving around the tank on the terrain they put on the maps was like driving a shopping cart with a bad wheel. I love the little rocket thrusters that let you jump all of about 3 feet in the air. The tank can apparently drop from near-orbit, and somehow get back to the ship, but it can't get past a mountain range without slogging it up some hill at a creeping speed because I'm too lazy to drive halfway around the planet after tumbling down the side of the hill or something.

The tank was nice, but often pretty annoying. Not nearly as annoying as planet-scanning, however.

Co-Op Bioware? THAT's your plan?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, because Co-Op is really what the game needed to improve over Mass Effect 2... Given how good Mass Effect 1 was and the dip in quality for Mass Effect 2 the announcement of Co-Op makes me concerned if the single player of Mass Effect 3 will be given the development time and attention it deserves.

Coop? *_* WOW

[LyannaStark]

This is so great... So i can play with my boyfriend and not only in solo mode. And i can play Asari, Turian, and so on *_*! I'm so Happy!

multiplayer is entirely optional.

[Anonymous Coward]

An always connected internet connection is not?

Split-Screen or go home

[Anonymous Coward]

My wife and I play Mass Effect together, discussing Shepard's decisions, deciding where to go next, etc. If we can both actually control the game at once, that will rock. If you tell me I have to get her a separate Xbox and separate TV in order for us to play together than I'm going to tell you to take your co-op and shove it.

Re:Split-Screen or go home

[Tukz]

It's very optimistic to think they'd make split screen[1] co-op.

Unfortunately, that seem to be a dying market.
Sure, there's the occasional shooter with split screen co-op abilities, but it's rare someone release a game with split screen co-op beyond that genre.

[1] Same screen co-op included

Re:Split-Screen or go home

[tepples]

Sure, there's the occasional shooter with split screen co-op abilities, but it's rare someone release a game with split [or non-split shared] screen co-op beyond that genre.

I don't know about Rare, but Nintendo released a co-op scrolling beat-em-up called "The Subspace Emissary" for Wii a few years ago. It's part of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and sort of plays like a Kirby game.

Re:Split-Screen or go home

[Fallingcow]

Perfect Dark remains, in many ways, the best local multiplayer console shooter yet produced. Bots (lots of them, with all kinds of configuration options), just about every kind of multiplayer mode there is, co-op campaign, AND that cool campaign mode where one player is Joanna and another plays a bot, hopping to another if that one's killed.

I'm not sure any other shooter's even come close to being as awesome at local multiplayer. It's the main reason I plan to get a used 360 when the non-"arcade" models get a bit cheaper, since the controls (which were good by N64 standards, to be fair) and screen resolution are pretty much the only flaws that game has, and from what I understand the 360 version fixes both.

Maybe it's generational and I'm just becoming an old fart, but to me consoles are for social, local multiplayer, and the PC is for online play. Why would I put up with shit controls, hogging a TV, and an all-around sub-optimal experience without the tradeoff of being able to play with a friend in the same room (without the hassle of a LAN party)?

But what about the sex?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you co-op a 3-some in Captains Quarters?

Shame it's not in the main story

[ZosoZ]

Pity the co-op is with custom characters, I was rather hoping they'd let a bunch of people all called "Shepard" get together as The Commander Shepard Brothers...

Re:Shame it's not in the main story

[Joshua Fan]

Isn't it kinda odd that a game that so prominently features a teamwork between a squad of 4 didn't have any kind of co-op for so long?

origin

[SkunkPussy]

It sounds like it will be a great addition but ME2 had a shitty plot compared to ME1 so I'm not convinced about ME3. Plus if you are forced to use origin then there's no way I'll buy it.

Re:origin

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed. I've played ME1 countless times. ME2 format sucked: the worst offender was minisode errand boy format for each character that broke the story's pace (apparently it was done that way due to technical issues on consoles...). I particularly didn't like the ending boss because it stunk of consolitis, and it's a huge step backward (compare what you achieve in ME1 with ME2). And you are forced to work with some group you'd rather shoot after ME1.

Probably even more of the same crap in ME3, where the cool part of ME1 (story) gets a back seat for flashy effects, compartimentalization, and headshots. :(

So...

[justin12345]

So ... will you be able to seduce and bang your co-op team by hitting the top dialog option over and over? Cause I don't really see the point otherwise.

Re:So...

[MatthiasF]

Or at least a renegade interrupt for a bun squeeze when you're both hiding behind the same cover?

A Big War...how original!

[aaaaaaargh!]

So this will be about another great, epic WAR, right? Heros fighting for their country/planet?

Sorry, but what I hear about ME3 doesn't really appeal to me. Here is some news: most gamers that buy games are more than 14 year old, especially when it comes to RPGs.

How about making a sci-fi game based on an interesting story? A story where the player does not invariably save the whole universe? I wonder whether any of Bioware's developers have actually ever read some real sci-fi stories? Like the ones by Lem, Asimov, Heinlein, Dick, or the early stories of LeGuin? How about an interesting plot? At least show some minimum respect to the genre. Pleaaase!

Re:A Big War...how original!

[Anonymous Coward]

So, since the first two ME games focused on fighting a major enemy that threatens the galaxy, you feel the third game should ignore the fact that that threat is still out there and go a completely different direction?
Really?

I mean, if you played the first two, there's nowhere this CAN go but to a war to save the galaxy.

Getting angry at a company for following a story to its logical conclusion, even if you don't like that story is kind of silly. That's what the franchise is. If you don't like it, then the franchise is not for you, but they aren't going to completely change it in the middle.

Re:A Big War...how original!

[Anonymous Coward]

That's unfortunately a drawback of the established story for the Mass Effect series. It was never envisioned to end in any way other than total war, not since before the first game was produced. Some story details were cut during production, like Cerberus' involvement during ME1, but otherwise the events remained intact. So there isn't really a chance that Mass Effect will change things up or return to the original game roots. The central plot to the game was already written in stone.

Re:A Big War...how original!

[ErikZ]

The Mass effect franchise story has revolved around the plotline that the reapers come by every X years and wipe out all intelligent lifeforms.

So, yes. It's not original. They've done it twice so far. It's the BACKBONE of the plotline!

Re:A Big War...how original!

[Rotag_FU]

First off, a lot of "real" sci-fi has substantial cerebral elements that would be very difficult to adequately translate to the video game medium in a fun and engaging way. Note that I didn't say impossible, just very difficult.

Second, there are multiple examples of excellent, "real" sci-fi that do contain a single person or group of people that save the universe. For example, the Dune series, the Ender's Game series, the Foundation series (since you mentioned Asimov), Starship Troopers (since you mentioned Heinlein), etc. They had interesting plot, but an epic war was a contributing factor or back-drop to that interesting plot.

Have you played the Mass Effect games? I think there is a general feeling that the first two games do have a very engaging plot and are not yet another war game like CoD, Battefield, Gears, etc. They even have innovated to the point where you make lasting decisions that not only impact the plot of the first game, but translate to the second, and purportedly the third. I do not remember a game where meaningful decisions were reflected across not one but two games.

Re:A Big War...how original!

[qwak23]

By twice so far did you mean ME 1 and ME 2, or ME franchise and DA franchise? ;)

DO NOT WANT!

[SirGarlon]

I wanted a multiplayer game, I'd play WoW.

I am seriously disappointed to hear this. I was looking forward to Mass Effect 3. Multiplayer support requires a huge amount of development dollars and talent. Which means, less love for the gameplay experience that matters to me. While the developers may swear up and down that choosing not to playing it solo won't detract from the experience, I seriously doubt anyone can work out the balance issues to make that happen.

They're fixing something that was not broken.

Re:DO NOT WANT!

[SirGarlon]

Fiddlesticks, editing fail. I meant, "IF I wanted a multiplayer game, I'd play WoW" and "While the developers may swear up and down that choosing to play it solo won't detract from the experience, I seriously doubt anyone can work out the balance issues to make that happen."

Re:DO NOT WANT!

[Yev000]

I think they are hinting that co-op missions will be totaly separate from regular single player missions and do not have to be completed to complete single player, but will afftec some story elements.

I'm guessing the outcomes of these missions are decided for you at certain points in the game if you didnt play them (bit like the outcome of ME1 is decided if you didnt play it)

As a programmer I see this having no effect on the main single player experience because id wager they are coded by separate teams. The co-op team is given a scenario to play out (bit like addons in ME2) that looly slot in to the pain plot, but not guide it. If that is the case, they probably written the game engine and level designer and gave it to another team to create some co-op addons while the main team finishes the game.

Assuming no resources were pulled from the main plot dev team it shouldn't be affected...

"multi-player will have a direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign" this could be lead one to suspect that victory conditions will be calculated on a point based system, since you dont have to use co-op but it will affect outcome, hence the same number of arbitary points can be collected in single player via other means. Maybe you get more time in certain timed missions when the support team is better. Think ME1 and Vermire, you could have a co-op mission attacking the main gate of the complex buying Sheperd more time to go around back. Making single player harder if you do not play co-op either way.

Re:DO NOT WANT!

[Anonymous Coward]

Bioware is doing what Bioware did best: making role-playing games which withstood the test of time, by adding a multi-player aspect. Icewind Dale. Baldur's Gate. Neverwinter Nights. They would have been "good" without multiplayer, but those six games were transformed into something much better.

Campaign?

[RivenAleem]

But still you can't play the campaign in co-op. This is just going to be like Rage.

co-op mode and mods

[sl4shd0rk]

What's great about co-op play is the entire game experience changes. You can only play UT so many times before it just gets annoying and monotonous. Throw in one extra person and it turns into humans against bots. It's like a whole new game. Also, if there's an included map editor -- I'll hardly ever put the game down...I still play Ghost Recon Island Thunder using custom maps.

I think monotony drives game sales too so it's not a shocker that we don't find co-op mode included so much anymore. Kudos to Bioware for doing it right.

Coop mining

[RandomMonkey]

Great, now you can mine planets in a over simplified mini-game for hours ... together.

Thanks Bioware

[glittermage]

Awhile back I decided to boycott Dragon Age Origins 2 & Mass Effect 2 + any future release of the titles because of Bioware's decision to not put co-op play into what would be an obvious benefit for both. Now my friends & I can buy ME3 & enjoy the game together (just like NWN series). Thank you.

Re:Thanks Bioware

[glittermage]

Crap, I forgot that my friends & I am boycotting EA's Origin distribution system. So if this game is Origin only then I'll pass just like Battlefield 3 & others...

Cool

[TXP]

I love this series. Coop will only make it better. (Unless they screw it up, which is not likely)