[CharmingCharlie]

After nearly a month of speculation and racing around with our smart phones trying to decode QRcodes we finally got our answer on the 11th December 2010 a day that will live in infamy. We finally got to see the first CG trailer for Mass Effect 3 and what an epic trailer.

Once more you take on the role of Commander Shepard and this time the odds are really stacked against you. In the previous games Commander Shepard managed to thwart the Reapers not once but TWICE. However now things are different the gloves are off and Harbinger is not playing the "nice guy" anymore. The final instalment of Shepards adventure looks set to involve a massive invasion of the Reaper fleet and their primary target is Earth. Will Earth burn ?, will Shepard manage to rally the different Citadel races to his cause ? .......... you will find out around the end of 2011.

Confirmed Features

• Game will show a “previously on Mass Effect” comic to make decisions if you’re starting from scartch
• Enhanced RPG elements
• More freedom with character skills
• Mods returning, swap out different parts such as barrels, scopes (effect both the weapon’s combat performance and its appearance)
• All classes can wield all weapons unhindered now
• Numerous endings
• Shooting specific armor parts can have certain effects, and the AI of the enemies will have them routing Shepard and will coordinate with each other
• Battlefields are going to be a great deal larger, and combat will be very varied.
• You will begin ME3 with most of your powers from ME2, that will get evolved in different ways later on
• New skills: Engineer can build turrets.
• Space Battles (NOT CONFIRMED BUT HINTED AT)
• Scenarios: larger. We will see people walking, ships fighting, architecture in greater detail. Searching for the photorealism of the sites using new lighting techniques on the stage

Screenshots
(click for bigger versions)





















Trailers



E3 Trailer



E3 Microsoft ME3 Compatibility "Showcase"




Platforms



Note this is probably NOT the final artwork (which is a pity I think it looks pretty good) however it does hint that we will get a simultaneous release across the PC, PS3 and 360 which is good to hear.

EA has confirmed that Mass Effect 3 will see a simultaneous release on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. see here

Release Date
US = 6th March 2012
EU = 9th March 2012



UPDATE HISTORY

Date	Event	Link	Forum
12/12/2010	Officially Announced At The Spike TV Awards	Link	Link
12/12/2010	First CGI teaser trailer	Link	Link
10/02/2011	Clint Mansell (sound producer for the movie Moon) producing the music	Link	Link
22/03/2011	Tricia Helfer (EDI) confirms she is back in ME 3	Link	Link
02/04/2011	Seth Green (Joker) confirms he is back in ME 3	Link	Link
08/04/2011	Game Informer first preview	Link	Link
10/04/2011	Game Informer Mass Effect 3 hub Launched	Link	Link
20/04/2011	First Official Screenshots released on the net	Link	Link
03/05/2011	Mass Effect 3 appearance confirmed for E3	Link	Link
04/05/2011	Two new screenshots released and game delayed till 2012	Link	Link
02/06/2011	New IGN E3 Mass Effect 3 Preview & 3 new screenshots	Link	Link
06/06/2011	Mass Effect 3 E3 trailer	Link	Link
08/06/2011	4 Mass Effect 3 game play trailers released at E3	Link	Link
23/07/2011	Default Femshep Competition announced	Link	Link
16/08/2011	Mass Effect 3 shown during the EA conference at Games Con	Link	Link

This post has been edited by CharmingCharlie on Tuesday, Aug 16 2011, 16:44

[oysterbarron]

lol lot of info to go on at the mo! Will be a nice little time filler for those waiting for mass effect 3 no doubt!

[Moonshield]

It looks like there might be guns in the game. That's really up in the air though.

[CharmingCharlie]

CharmingCharlie speculates wildly

It could be a Mass Effect spin off, the Reapers got hold of a VHS copy of Terminator and have decided to travel back in time and murder Commander Shepards Great Great Great Grandfather .

I am hoping this isn't just a straight shooter though. I can't see anything bad about an RPG set around a modern warfare theme myself and it is certainly a game I would happily pick up (and there doesn't even have to be sexy blue aliens in it).

[Moonshield]

My thoughts exactly. A modern combat action rpg might be pretty fresh too. I just hope it wouldn't just be a Mass Effect clone with different plot/story/characters/setting. I do think, however, that this might be set in the 'near future', judging from the dude's attire.

[fullmetal]

I will probably the only one but this reminds me alot of Halo. Or well, HALO-ISH.

[Mati]

Mass effect 3???

[CharmingCharlie]

Nah I would be shocked to the core if this was Mass Effect 3, although some others have commented that the rifle the old chap is using in the screenshot looks eerily familiar and is nearly a carbon copy of the Incisor sniper rifle used in Mass Effect 2 :-



I will tell you something I really want what Bioware are smoking these days because it is "hella trippy" a Bioware dev has started up a photo album here :-

http://social.bioware.com/172/albums/925446/63068

On there you will find the screenshot I posted and erm these two things :-


Mobile barcode scan = 001101010011010100101110001110000011010000110101
Converted to decimal it comes to 55.845 (Google says its the atomic mass of iron)


Mobile barcode scan = 0010110100110001001100100011100000101110001101011011000001000110
Converted it comes to -128.5°F (the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth)

Now for those that don't know what the hell those graphics are, they are mobile barcodes. If you point your smart phone at the screen it scans the picture and gives you a link. I just tried it with my smart phone and just get a bunch of binary numbers.

This post has been edited by CharmingCharlie on Wednesday, Nov 17 2010, 16:44

[oysterbarron]

they do look almost identical apart from the colors! your not the only one that would be shocked i want to know what happens with the! BIG MASS EFFECT 2 SPOILER!!! loads of reaper ships waiting just outside of the galaxy but thinking along those lines they could get away with a prequel perhaps if they tell the story of the other times the reapers have cleared the galaxy of all life

PS charlie i thought those barcode things were for blackberry phones only!

[CharmingCharlie]

Nah you can get apps to use these barcode thingies on iphones and android phones. I have an android phone here and there are several apps that will use the built in camera to scan the code.

[Minic]

Anything Bioware makes tends be pretty brilliant and has my instant attention. I do like the idea of a modern day combat type RPG and it would be interesting to see how the make it work, but all we can do for now is speculate I guess.

[oysterbarron]

well i translated the binary to text and got back what looked like a youtube code in the base64 code form but it leads to nothing!

one reads as -128.5 degrees faranheight
and the second one comes back with this number 55.845

an relevance to mass effect universe?

This post has been edited by oysterbarron on Wednesday, Nov 17 2010, 15:32

[Robinski]

QUOTE (oysterbarron @ Nov 17 2010, 15:16)

they do look almost identical apart from the colors! your not the only one that would be shocked i want to know what happens with the! BIG MASS EFFECT 2 SPOILER!!! loads of reaper ships waiting just outside of the galaxy but thinking along those lines they could get away with a prequel perhaps if they tell the story of the other times the reapers have cleared the galaxy of all life PS charlie i thought those barcode things were for blackberry phones only!

The other times this happened in the ME universe humans wouldn't have been on the scene, we'd still be living in caves at the time (in the most recent scenario)

[CharmingCharlie]

QUOTE (oysterbarron @ Nov 17 2010, 16:23)

well i translated the binary to text and got back what looked like a youtube code in the base64 code form but it leads to nothing! one reads as -128 degrees faranheight

Yeah one code translates as -128 degrees Fahrenheit which is apparently the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth. The other barcode converted to decimal comes out as "55.845" which is apparently the atomic mass of iron.

I really don't know where Bioware are going with these barcodes, at first I thought the first barcode was simply a mistake by the guy that started the album, but he later added the second barcode. These barcodes are definitely something to do with the game though.

This post has been edited by CharmingCharlie on Wednesday, Nov 17 2010, 15:44

[Seddo]

I so need to update my phone, i see those barcode things everywhere, i wanna play.

Loved Mass Effect, loved Dragon Age and so i reckon i'm gonna love this .

[papanesta]

I'm calling the name now: Iron Cold.

... or Cold Iron.



I am so excited.

[CharmingCharlie]

QUOTE (Seddo @ Nov 17 2010, 16:41)

I so need to update my phone, i see those barcode things everywhere, i wanna play.

Ah you won't be sorry, I am a cheap arse my Android smart phone was £100 .

Ok here is some wild speculation for you from another board. The second barcode translates to -128.5 which is the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth. The location of this temperature recording was at Vostok, Antarctica on July 21, 1983. Now if you go to the Mass Effect Wiki here you will see there is a planetary system called Vostok which happens to be a METAL rich planet.

You got to love all this speculation, unfortunately we probably won't have any answers till 11th December

[papanesta]

I thought I'd take a screen cap of the over-the-shoulder moment, because I'm geeking out.



View from a church, perhaps? Looks pretty post-apocalyptic or war torn.

[oysterbarron]

well looking at the teaser video you see him looking out of the window before the picture that was supplied happens and it appears to be a white enviroment out of the window but cant say for sure yet.

[CharmingCharlie]

An interesting tweet has emerged here about all this :-

QUOTE

Yeah. That BioWare thing RT @patlike Or it's a red herring. Says IM man: "it's Mass Effect 3, says mysterious sources"

http://twitter.com/VG247/status/4923661916045312

You know sometimes I am very critical of the way Bioware does things, but they sure as hell know how to hype their games