I just don't understand what was wrong with whatever they did for ME2.

Really? I have played for 25 hours and have only switched once.

I'm thirteen hours in. How is it that I've only swapped once?

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Really? I have played for 25 hours and have only switched once.

@RoyaleWifCheese said:

I'm thirteen hours in. How is it that I've only swapped once?

Because you guys aren't doing side missions, then switching back to the main stuff, then side missions again. Side missions are on disc 2 while the main stuff is on disc 1.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@Klei said:

Well, another joy of owning a gaming PC. No framerate locked at 30 fps, no disc swapping, instant loadings and three times better picture quality. But those disc swaps are insane, seriously.

5 hours in, still waiting to see a loading screen. What the fuck is wrong with this game? It loads so fast I can't get a screenshot of the screen quickly enough.

Loads on ME2 on my Xbox were like 30-45 seconds. Loads for ME2 on my PC are like 2 or 3. Mass effect 3 is the same way on my PC. I just wish the galaxy map was keyboard control rather than mouse. Having to move with the mouse AND click the investigate button(unless I am missing something) can make avoiding the reapers a hassle.

PS3 has zero

@Shun_Akiyama said:

PS3 has zero

Frame rates?

@Shun_Akiyama said:

PS3 has zero

Frame rates?

@CL60 said:

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

Really? I have played for 25 hours and have only switched once.

@RoyaleWifCheese said:

I'm thirteen hours in. How is it that I've only swapped once?

Because you guys aren't doing side missions, then switching back to the main stuff, then side missions again. Side missions are on disc 2 while the main stuff is on disc 1.

Actually I have been doing all the side missions I get.

@fox01313 said:

If a lot of the side stuff is on disc2, they should have just put something at the front of the game stating to just install disc2 to avoid the disc swapping.

You have to switch even if you install disc 2. I think someone said when Mass Effect 2 came out that Microsoft doesn't let developers make it so that you just install a disc and play it off the hard drive but I don't know if that's true or not.

@AhmadMetallic said:

@MideonNViscera said:

I just don't understand what was wrong with whatever they did for ME2.

The technology moves forward, and it requires contemporary hardware.

Technology prevented them from having early game side missions on the same disc as early game main missions? Ones that I can't even do later in the game? It's an issue with common sense and organization, not technology.

I don't get the big issue here with disc changing, sure I'm on PS3 so it's not even a problem for me. But i would have no problem changing the discs, it's not a big issue.

Okay, I'm now at 31 hours, 21 minutes of gametime, and I've only switched discs one time. I've been on Disc 2 for some 20+ hours now, doing both side and priority missions. I've just completed the Quarian strain of missions and have done just about every side mission you can do up to right before that point.

No idea why people are having to change so frequently.

About 16 hours and I've done one change.

The fact that you can't just install both discs and simply run the first one at all times is fucking retarded. How could they not have thought about that when they made the decision for two discs.
 
@Vitor said:

@mikey87144 said:

@handlas: The frame rate isn't horrible. From what I hear it's no worse than the 360 version.

Also wow. Swapping discs 9 times is stupid. I don't know what the solution is but Bioware could've done a better job. Actually Microsoft could've done a better job and give you the option to download the game like you can on the PS3. At least then you guys wouldn't be dealing with this.

Uh, you heard wrong: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-mass-effect-3-ps3-fps-issues

The fact that you can't just install both discs and simply run the first one at all times is fucking retarded. How could they not have thought about that when they made the decision for two discs.
 
@Vitor said:

@mikey87144 said:

@handlas: The frame rate isn't horrible. From what I hear it's no worse than the 360 version.

Also wow. Swapping discs 9 times is stupid. I don't know what the solution is but Bioware could've done a better job. Actually Microsoft could've done a better job and give you the option to download the game like you can on the PS3. At least then you guys wouldn't be dealing with this.

Uh, you heard wrong: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-mass-effect-3-ps3-fps-issues

That is insane. It's running at ~20 FPS normally? Surely they realized this during development.  (also the textures are really ugly but that's for another time)

ME3 generally feels pretty lazy

13 hours in no changes.... PS3! and PC!

Although I wanna play on 360 as well.

I'm about 5-7 hours in and I've had to change discs 4-5 times because I didn't go exactly where the game wanted me to go...pretty sloppy altogether, and I'm now dreading doing any side missions because I'm not up for changing the damn discs every time I go off to explore or get a few extra credits and whatnot. This is 2012, this shit shouldn't be happening with a modern game. The only way I could see this working out would be if they let us install disc two and play the game off of the hard drive, but since you can't, then this game is seemingly going to grind to a halt every time I want to go off the beaten track, until it deems my progression far enough so that I don't have to switch discs.

Its part of the experience.

old platform is old.

38 hours, finished the game and I only had to switch twice. Once when I got to a side mission, then again just at the final mission.

That's exactly how ME2 went for me as well. 2 swaps, final mission on disk 1.

Yeah, the disc swapping stuff is stupid. I had to switch over less than two hours into the game to do an N7 mission. Less than TWO HOURS! 

I'm at 32 hours and have switched discs 3 times. So yeah, I don't know what I would have to do to switch it 9 times.

I've also never understood why anyone would complain about something so trivial.

To all those who commented my PS3 has an SSD in it so same rules may not apply.

I'm glad I got the PC version then. No disc swapping for me!

@The_Laughing_Man said:

@Azteck said:

The fact that you can't just install both discs and simply run the first one at all times is fucking retarded. How could they not have thought about that when they made the decision for two discs.

@Vitor said:

@mikey87144 said:

@handlas: The frame rate isn't horrible. From what I hear it's no worse than the 360 version.

Also wow. Swapping discs 9 times is stupid. I don't know what the solution is but Bioware could've done a better job. Actually Microsoft could've done a better job and give you the option to download the game like you can on the PS3. At least then you guys wouldn't be dealing with this.

Uh, you heard wrong: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-mass-effect-3-ps3-fps-issues

That is insane. It's running at ~20 FPS normally? Surely they realized this during development. (also the textures are really ugly but that's for another time)

When they compared the PS3 is missing cloud effects when the reaper comes from the sky.

I'm a few hours in now. The framerate is definitely at it's worse at the beginning of the game. Once you are past the Earth portion it seems to steady out. I played on ME2 on 360 and it felt generally the same. Hasn't been as much as a bother as I was expecting based on the demo (since the demo takes place on the horrible Earth part).

In both Me2 and Me3 the first disc has the start and end of the game, and disc 2 has the middle. If you have to change discs a lot it's because you are alternating between early story quests and misc side quests. I think Me2 did a better job of gating quests so that you were probably 'done' with disc 1 until the end of the game after the first swap.

@SethMode: It really comes down to the outright confusion that comes with the disc swaps. I got a side mission involving some sort of school ship thing, and this was just a random email I got after finishing out a very early story-related mission. So I figured, I'll go there and do that to get some more XP. The game demanded I change discs...but why? Why is this mission available so early in the game, but it forces you to swap discs for it?

I don't think it's trivial that people don't want to have to change the disc for missions they've just picked up at a point in the game where they seem readily available, because the poorly structured game they're playing hasn't got data from missions at that point on the current disc. The point is, there shouldn't be a reason why anyone has to swap a disc to do a mission that unlocks early in the game, if this was going to be the case, then the side missions should have been integrated into both discs for you to find and complete, but broken up across both disc one and two for certain points in the game, allowing people to access the areas for them only on discs one or two.

We also have to sit through long load screens, so on top of this, we aren't seeing a very solid game structure here, seems that some aspects were badly implemented, and they're the ones that people are going to be most annoyed by, because they break the game's flow. I hope that sheds some light on your understanding of the mindset of the people who are taking issue with this. I mean, you can understand that it'd be a pain in the ass to change the disc 9 times, but you've gotten really lucky with only 3 swaps after that many hours of gameplay, probably because you went the exact way, and progressed in the manner that, the game was set up for. It's just jarring, especially for someone like me, with about 6+ hours and 4-5 disc swaps, on top of other problems.

I'm about 22 hours in with zero disc changes(no discs) and 1-2 second load times running in 1080p @ 60 fps. I feel for the console sub-race.

@mm665 said:

@Shun_Akiyama said:

PS3 has zero

Frame rates?

This made me laugh pretty hard. Anyways the frame rate is completely playable on PS3. You hardly notice it dip most times. It could be smoother, but it's not game breaking. I own ME3 on all 3 consoles, and they all run well enough.

i played on ps3 so i have no disc changes... sorry

I honestly think in like 27 hours with the game, I might have swapped disks 4 times. Not a huge deal

Kindof sucks to change discs, but really is not that big of a deal for me. Its not that big of a deal to get off your ass for five seconds...

It seems like the main missions are on one disk and lots of the side missions are on other.

I don't swap discs unless I'm switching to another game, which is the way it should be on all consoles really. I understand why it isn't like that, obviously, but it still feels like something that should be gone by the time new consoles are out.

I can't remember the last time I put a disc into my PC, due to Steam.