Gonna cut your post down and respond to only the parts I disagree with, IE your 'to be improved' section.
alphax1 wrote...
Top 5 "Things to be improved for ME3"
1. Integration of previous games... E-mails for 99% of the decisions and some nasty 'choice' glitches like the Sirta Foundation / Verner choices just aint gonna cut it... People who play ME3 are going to have played 1 and 2 or at least played 2... they will KNOW how the story goes... we don't need a 'restart' like in this game... they don't need their hand held... and the game will sell better if fans aren't treated to a copout just to satisfy 'newcomers'...
The emails are there as simply a reminder that you did a sidequest. That's all. You helped someone's life improve, and they wished to thank you for it. It was simply a reminder that BioWare has carried your decisions over. Almost none of these e-mails involved a major decision. Those major decisions were very evident in the way the world felt. If the Council died, you could truly feel the resentment for that from the way you were treated on the Citadel.
ME3 will definitely not have another 'restart'. For all we know, the only reason we're capped at level 30, could be because they plan to carry our characters exactly from 2-3 and let us go to 60 on them again. The reboot wasn't to satisfy newcomers, it was to reset Shepard after doing away with the poor leveling/combat system from the first game. You also can't claim the 3rd will sell better due to lack of reboot, because if the trend holds, it'll most likely sell better than the previous two regardless of how they handle the story. ME2 is a very successful game, even if the RPG elitists are upset about things being removed/streamlined.
2. Reintroducing some more 'traditional' RPG elements and combat... A lot of valid complaint were made about things like the ammo system, losing all hint of the Mako (although the new vehicle looks to be a big redemption), power simplification and no more inventory... Gotta balance ME1 and ME2 gameplay... how? I dunno...
'Traditional' is the problem. They're dated. Old. Out of place. Even Square-enix has finally learned that it's time to start evolving the series. Gone are the days of grinding for experience. Gone are the days of massive worlds where people can get lost. Those things are now staples in MMO's.
The ammo system won't be going anywhere. It's a vast improvement over the previous game, if anything, they'll make a light pistol or something that uses the old overheat system just to satisfy the individuals that do nothing but complain over something so minor(lookin' at you, Daeion) as the lore justification. Otherwise, the finite ammo does exactly what it's supposed to do. Prevents you from wasting ammo needlessly, and punishes you for doing so. It also ensures you don't make it your entire character's goal in life to just use the Widow. That's why the gun is so powerful, because you cannot use it 100% of the time.
Mako, I don't miss at all, mostly due to the poor controls(xbox) and massive waste-of-time that was the barren landscapes of the uncharted worlds. It wasn't a problem on the story planets, where there was a purpose for where you were going and stuff to kill on the way, but the vast planes of nothingness and absurdly annoying mountains and pitfalls with stuff in them will most likely never be seen again... for a good reason.
Explain power simplification. If you mean the short cooldown that lets you actually use a power more than once, twice a fight, then sure. If you mean that they turned 12 skill points worth of 3 ability levels into 10 points worth of 4, then sure. However, the fact that they can all be used without pausing makes them dramatically more fun to use. I played a soldier as my 'main' in ME1, it was simply the most fun class to play. Pausing every two seconds to use an ability detracts from combat and gameplay. That's why the system was changed to begin with.
In short, I don't think the RPG purists are going to be happy with ME3 either. The combat is highly praised in ME2 because they took the game apart and redesigned it from the ground up. They've admitted they had zero experience with shooter combat, and went with what they know is popular and works. We'll certainly see new abilities and the like, especially if they do just add another 30 levels for us, but don't go into ME3 expecting another combat overhaul. They got it right this time around.
3. Better main plot... I have no complaints about the dirty dozen setup in ME2 but the third game has to be about Shepard vs. Reapers and well done at that... No retarded Council jsut to keep Cerberus in... no IFF shuttle idiocy... this is for the whole ball of wax... dangling plot threads need not apply...
The setup is giving us our team for the next game for the most part. I expect we'll see Kaiden/Ash/Liara rejoin our squad making it all the surviving members of ME1 and ME2 with maybe one or two new ones to round it out. Beyond that, it'll be focused on stopping the Reapers permanently.
The Council could be playing dumb because of your current ties to Cerberus, they may be indoctrinated. We simply don't know. There are many things in this game that won't be explained until the next one. However, have you tried playing through ME1 after ME2? Things like the vision from the beacons... watching the circuits attached to the organic pieces... sounds like Mordin's explanation of the Collectors doesn't it? "No digestive system, replaced by tech..." etc.
Garrus speculates that he's worried the Council might be protecting Saren... what if they were? Vigil states that the Citadel emits a signal of its' own to control the Keepers, and that the Keepers are now controlled by it. What if the Council, who have had their meeting area right next to its' central control unit, are also now under the control of the station? Too much foreshadowing here to ignore, I think. We won't know until the plot is completed.
The Joker mission... I honestly don't know what to say here. My first reaction to putting the whole team on the shuttle was confusion as well. Every time we've taken the shuttle for missions, Shepard has left with only 2 others. Why would he go out with all of them now? I can't come up with anything other than 'BioWare needed the crew off the ship'.
4. Make the main areas at least as expansive as ME1.. Sure sometimes the bigness of the Citadel was annoying... but it was BIG... Omega and Zakeria Ward are not BIG... the missions were not BIG like the planets and main missions of ME1... Virmire alone was bigger / felt bigger than Freedom's Progress, Horizon and the Collector ship combined... I want the feeling of expansive planets and for the Citadel and Omega and any other 'base' to be big, not Oblivion size (God I hated that copy pasted snorefest) but a whole lot bigger than the shooting galleries and strip mall size planets we got in this game.
Virmire only felt bigger because you spent the first third of the mission in the Mako driving over long stretches of nothingness with the occasional Geth drone/trooper/Collosus in the way. It was essentially three smaller missions combined. Mako drive up, Infiltrate to reach Beacon, then Plant Bomb and leave.
You also have to remember, that there are more missions in ME2 overall than there was in ME1. You could clear ME1 in about 10 hours(not skipping dialogue) if you skipped all the side content, which was essentially spending 10 minutes driving across barren terrain to pick up a handful of items, some minerals, and then 2 minutes of combat... per planet.
In ME2, if you did only the bare minimum, you still have to go through all 4 of the first recruitment missions(assuming roughly an hour not skipping dialogue just like I'm not assuming you did in ME1), then Horizon(another hour). Now you have to do what, 5 missions to trigger the Collector Ship? I know you need 8 squadmates, but you don't get it immediately if you just recruit that many. Hell, you only need to recruit 1 to hit that mark. So assume you just recruit 1, then do loyalty missions for the rest, that's another 4-5 hours. Then Collector Ship/IFF/Suicide mission, another 2.
Even blazing through to beat ME2 as fast as possible, no scanning, no sidequests, it still comes out to at least 12 hours without skipping dialogue. There are just more missions.
Now, ME1 felt bigger environmentally, becuase it was possible to just charge straight at your enemies with the trigger down. Cover was unnecessary, despite its' inclusion. Most of that space was just pointless. Also realize, that most of the time, in ME2, we're fighting inside of buildings or in urban areas as opposed to giant, barren wastelands.
The only reason the Citadel was so enormous in ME1, was because there were 10+ sidequests there that had you running all over the place. In ME2, the Citadel sectioned off those areas(Garrus and Thane's loyalty missions). These missions alone make the Citadel much larger in square meters than it was int he previous game. There's just less social areas to visit.
5. Multiple awesome endings are needed... not just a main renegade and main paragon but at least 2-3 more including a 'Reapers win' ending.
Only reason we've been restricted to 2 endings each game so far is that they want to make ME3 possible. We've already got 4 possible imports to ME3, Council dead-base kept, Council dead-base destroyed, Council alive-base kept, and Council alive-base destroyed. That's 4 different starting points for ME3. The Collector base also has the side effect of 'are you still working for Cerberus?'. This will allow for a dramatically different feel for ME3 depending on what combination your character fits into. Either way, this lends itself already to 4 potential endings.
Council Alive-Base Destroyed: Spectre Shepard defeats Reapers and the entire galaxy ends up in a mostly happy-happy world of much Kumbahya singing and galaxtic harmony between the races.
Council Dead-Base Destroyed: Likely similar to the first one, except Shepard works with the Alliance and takes down the Reapers, letting humanity lead the galaxy in the end in a mostly diplomatic way.
Council Dead-Base Kept: The pure-renegade ending. Cerberus operative Shepard becomes Darth Shepard to Emperor Illusive Man, conquering the galaxy after eliminating the Reaper threat.
Council Alive-Base Kept: This one I'm not sure on. Cerberus operative Shepard takes down the Reapers ending in a massive civil war with the remaining Citadel forces...? I got nothing here.
But still, the reason the results of our choices weren't so impacting was because they need a somewhat similar set of starting points for ME3. They can't go all over the place without making the game impossible to make. I expect a dramatically different galaxy in ME3 between the Council Alive-Base Destroyed Shepards than the one the Council Dead-Base Kept Shepards get.
PS: My god that post was long. If anyone read all of it, I'm sorry, but I thank you for your time.
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