Gamescom 2011 - Mass Effect 3 updates

I will be updating this thread continiously throughout the week with the latest information regarding Mass Effect 3. Upload images and videos when I get a hold of them, and start listing new known features.

Also, please note that you will mainly see mainly action focused videos in trailers and marketing for the simple reason that they want to avoid spoilers a lot more this time. For ME2 there was a lot of criticism for excessive spoiling of the story.

Current schedule for ME3 is as followed:

Recordings from the two Saturday streams seem to have been lost.

Day 0 - Press Conference

Mass Effect 3: Squad Leader - Minor new details and it's part of a series of videos.

• The engineer was showcased, using both Incinerate and Cryo Blast. The heavy melee attack is an incinerating omni-blade.
• Liara gets picked up and crushed by the Atlas mech. Apparently not wise to stand near it.

Day 1 - Day of FemShep

On Bioware Pulse, David Silverman announced a second round of voting for the femShep appearence on their Facebook page. The hair style is locked, but you vote between a brunette, regular blonde, dirty blonde or redhead.

I created a poll for you guys to vote from. The official voting will be going on for a week and the winner announced at PAX.

Day 2 - Mass Effect 3 Q&A

Q&A Summary

• The CE Robot dog is possible to interact with aboard the Normandy, like having it follow you around, play fetch and it apparently has a story to it. No details on whether it's combat able or not though.
• Character creator will get a lot more hair styles and facial features in ME3. So expect the hairstyles from the femShep competition to make it into the CC.
• They are considering an Uber achievement for all three games. What that is exactly is they don't know, but they want to reward their long term fans.
• All squad mates will get their story and closure for ME3 even if they might not be a permanent squad member.
• We'll see more of the Yahg (The former Shadow Broker)
• Not loyalty of people, but loyalty of races. Less focus on building loyalty with squad members and more on the various races. So expect previous loyalty and decisions to play a part in this.
• XP system goes back to ME1. No details but they won't do the mission summary XP from ME2.
• The fate of the squad mates will not always be up to the player and decisions that feels right can prove to be harmful.
• The banter will be increased significantly since the squad member group is smaller this time.
• The ending of ME3 will give closure to the trilogy so don't expect answers on post ME3 DLC until the game is out.
• There will not be an SDK after Mass Effect 3.

Day 3 - A song for the Normandy and more ME3 Q&A

Gavin Dunne, the creator of the fan song "Commander Shepard", was interviewed today and showed his latest song Normandy.

Q&A Summary

Special guest, Casey Hudson, was unable to join David Silverman on the stream so it became a Q&A similar to yesterday. Oh well.

• Joker EDI romance is being "looked at".
• Aside from the Krogan princess, we will apparently not see female counterparts of turians, salarians and so on in ME3 either.
• Mods for ME2 has to be remade for ME3.
• Thane is still alive in ME3. (if he survived Collector Base)
• Kelly Chambers will return.
• Romance between Joker and Shepard is a case of "you have to play it to see it"
• If Hammerhead or Mako returns it's closer to critical path missions. Don't expect exploration using these vehicles.
• The Normandy will be upgraded by the Systems Alliance, so resource gathering for the ship is not likely this time.
• The geth quarian conflict will be concluded.
• Existing music from ME1 and ME2 will make its way into ME3.
• Side quests will pretty much always be in line with the critical path story.
• Classes will get new powers with up to six different ways to customize each power
• Squad mates appearances and armor will be possible to customize again.
• Seems Cerberus will be a full blown antagonist and not possible to align with in ME3.
• They have DECIDED about whether you'll get to see Tali's face or not.

Day 4 - ME3 Q&A's and Patryk Olejniczak

Bioware Q&A Summary

• There may be time sensitive story elements though it will be more focused ones like the Normandy crew.
• ME3 will make you cry!
• There will be a larger variety of environments compared to ME2.
• Heavy melee will pretty much always kill a target, but defensive factors like armor, barriers and shields will affect the outcome. Also don't try to melee an Atlas mech.
• There will be mini games though no announcements.
• We may see Quarians without masks. Whether that would include Tali or not was left unsaid.
• The choices you make in the trial at the beginning of ME3 will set the tone for the future in the game
• James Vega's voice actor will be announced really soon and is apparently a closely guarded secret, since he's really awesome.
• Indoctrination seem to play a role in ME3, possibly including party members.
• Kal'Reegar will return in ME3.
• They are discussing possibilities of missions that ties back to your background choice for Shepard.
• You have a lot more romance options in ME3. Possibly not limited to party members.

EA Q&A Summary

• You will be able to change class if you import your ME2 Shepard to ME3. Though you will have to start from Lvl 1 while kept class will get Import+ perks.
• Legion will return with a larger role in ME3.
• There may be a 'special' import for saves where Shepard died. The interest is clearly too big for them to simply ignore such a treat.
• Miranda will be back and has unfinished business with Shepard.
• Shepard's SPECTRE status will play part in ME3 and change things if you had the status reinstated in ME2.
• Conrad Verner's back.
• Normandy will be the SR-2 with an Alliance paint and some redesigned interiors. Joker will apparently be happy with it.
• How many team mates you speak to at the same time aboard the Normandy depends on the context of the missions.
• You'll have debriefings after each mission that are deeper than ME2, but you are still likely to only talk to the squad mates one on one outside of that.

Fan Art

Fan artist Patryk Olejniczak, or Patryk Garrett on deviantart, was interviewed in the final livestream for Mass Effect. He showed off his last piece as a fan artist before he joins the team at Bioware as an artist for the marketing department.

Images

More of German Shepard's exploits can be found here.

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Videos

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepard.

Awesome! Thanks for the stream link.

You can tell them to change weapons. Cool?

I missed it. What exactly did they show, and can I find a recording of it?

they had a gameplay trailer which they said is part of a series. The video will probably be up online soon

they had a gameplay trailer which they said is part of a series. The video will probably be up online soon

no no. The gameplay video was part of a series of similar gameplay videos, like what Rockstar did for Red Dead probably.

I'm not at all impressed.

@PhatSeeJay said:

Announcements:

Mass Effect 3: Squad Leader - No details about it, aside from the gameplay video. But it's likely the rumored Horde Mode MP feature.

Err...what? That was the first of a series of combat videos. Not a mode or MP announcement.

Weren't they supposed to reveal multiplayer during this event?

@N7 said:

Weren't they supposed to reveal multiplayer during this event?

Still just a persistent rumor. Then again there are three more presentations this week. Also, updated OP with the ME3: Squad Leader trailer.

Wow that combat looks great. and the graphics look even better! It looks like they improved the lighting a lot.

That trailer was messy and just made the combat look weird and jerky. Not the best showing of the game.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

I'm not at all impressed.

looks like it is finally a 3rd person shooter. Good job EA

@DonPixel said:

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

I'm not at all impressed.

looks like it is finally a 3rd person shooter. Good job EA

Yup. I'm one of those weirdos where ME1 is still my favorite so far. I'm hoping for something that will make me jump right back on board for this. I haven't given up hope yet!

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepard.

@Irvandus said:

@akiz_jack said:

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepard.

Wrex

Liara

Looking at this makes me realise how little I'm actually interested in this franchise now...

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepherd.

A heads up. Bioware Pulse will go live at 19:00 CET, 10AM PDT, with an announcement.

@Bioware Wrote:

Be sure to tune in to BioWare TV at 10AM Pacific to see a special announcement regarding a certain Mass Effect female.

So I guess it's either now we'll see the final version, or they announce that second round of voting that's been rumored. Or it's just about Ashley Williams or someone else from Mass Effect.

@akiz_jack said:

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepherd.

Day 1 concluded. Nothing new regarding Mass Effect 3, though the femShep voting is now in the second round.

Tomorrow: Scheduled producer presentation and most likely something more from Bioware Pulse.

That trailer was messy and just made the combat look weird and jerky. Not the best showing of the game.

@TaliciaDragonsong said:

I'm not at all impressed.

looks like it is finally a 3rd person shooter. Good job EA

@Ghostiet said:

@Abyssfull said:

@akiz_jack said:

@rjayb89 said:

I'm ready for you, Wrex.

Shepherd.

JASON

CHERYL!

Looks fucking awesome. Can't wait. 

Today's stream, Q&A, is now online. Currently questions asked to the Dragon Age team and ME3 will follow that. Questions can be asked to @biofeed on Twitter.

That Shepard seems pretty bored in the background.

Sounding good so far though.

oh wow this game looks even more exciting! i hope liara isn't mad i slept with the girl from Chuck! lol

The Yahg will appear in Mass Effect 3? Awesome!

You heard it here folks. Mass Effect 3's ending WILL be an ending. No open-endedness.

Any other tidbits?

@Dany said:

Any other tidbits?

I've updated the OP with a summary,

Great to hear about this.

• XP system goes back to ME1. No details but they won't do the mission summary XP from ME2.
• The fate of the squad mates will not always be up to the player and decisions that feels right can prove to be harmful.
• The banter will be increased significantly since the squad member group is smaller this time.
• The ending of ME3 will be the end to the trilogy so don't expect answers on post ME3 DLC until the game is out.

Didn't get any of my questions asked but there were some interesting answers for sure. At least some proper answers instead of a lot of tip toeing around the subjects.

Gameplay Demo.

@Rufi91 said:

You can tell them to change weapons. Cool?

You've always been able to have them change weapons... They just vocalized it, hopefully it doesn't make it into the game because that's just awkward.

The Mass Effect stream is now live.

I'm gettin' all Pavlovian.

The Mass Effect 3 bit is concluded. Updated OP with a summary of the Q&A.

EDI/Joker Romance? Ew, that's virtuality.

Great job CJ. Good stuff here. :)

I've been following this thread for awhile but haven't really seen much of the content or gameplay elements that's being revealed or being more elaborated on at Gamescom yet I'm replaying the first Mass Effect game, and soon thereafter Mass Effect 2. Nice to have a glimpse at the words "Shepard," "Joker," and "romance" in one sentence, though.

Joker EDI romance? Joker Shepard romance? Hilarious.

" Female versions of races, aside from the krogan princess, will apparently not be seen in ME3." 
 
Wait WTF? This makes no sense?