Word on the street (twitter) is that if you're in the dash preview beta you can now go to the channel on your dashboard (it doesn't need to be updated, you just need the channel) and download the ME3 prviate beta. I'm in the beta so and I'm not sure if I can confirm this or not. But people are saying it on twitter. wink

edit: they pulled it

fact, I am in the preview program and I am downloading the Mass Effect 3 Private Beta right now 1.8 gb

i'm at 67% right now. almost there. talk on gaf is that this is busted beyond busted in some ways. will have to wait and see for myself.

@suikoden352 said:

i'm at 67% right now. almost there. talk on gaf is that this is busted beyond busted in some ways. will have to wait and see for myself.

Well, it is a private beta and not a demo. When they open them up to the public they're usually somewhat polished. BF3 seemed to be an exception. I played Homefront and a few other games long before release and they were very spotty. Hardware crashes, server crashes, missing textures, bad framerates, barely functional menus, etc. are normal for these things.

i know but this is clearly internal stuff from what i'm seeing. also, are you having trouble getting online in it? i have it going but it's having trouble connecting. for obvious reasons of course but still. just curious.

3 preset modes of play..all of which can be adjusted or ignored to create an experience you want. All taken from gaf

Action Mode, Story Mode and RPG Mode are just presets for options you can adjust individually before starting the game

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=451016

Action Mode: For those who want to emphasize action and combat and minimize story management. Action mode will set automatic replies in conversation and a normal difficulty.

Story Mode: For those who want to emphasize story immersion and minimize combat pressure. Story mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a minimal combat difficulty.

RPG Mode: For those who want to explore both realms of story and combat. RPG mode will set manually-selectable replies in conversation and a normal combat difficulty.

i saw all those images while downloading the beta. doesn't want to connect at all so i can't do anything with it till i can get online with it.

[a bunch of pics]

@Three0neFive said:

@Dany said:

[a bunch of pics]

When I saw the Action Mode stuff I was fucking fuming, but the more I think about it, isn't this basically just like changing the difficulty (only now instead of affecting only combat, it applies to the rest of the game as well)?

it is just a preset to remove 'you making choices" you can change the presets a menu in apparently.

Gaf was freaking out about these modes but you can change everything

you can change them but you have to be connected to the ea network to even play it. which is a bit of a pain atleast for me right now unless i'm doing something totally wrong here. anyone in the beta as well wanna help me out here real quick? i'd appreciate it.

I'm in the Pre-Release thing but all I have is the Preview Tab, Announcements, New Features, and Help and Tips.

So this is only available with the Xbox dashboard preview? When did the preview open? I signed up, but never recieved an email or any notification of if I got into the preview or not. I'd really like to check this out if possible.

My body....

are you in the US? if not then i dunno what to tell ya, duder.

@suikoden352 said:

are you in the US? if not then i dunno what to tell ya, duder.

You got it to show up? Hmmm I registered just yesterday. When did you register?

please don't be US only... :'(

@matt_wickstrom said:

So this is only available with the Xbox dashboard preview? When did the preview open? I signed up, but never recieved an email or any notification of if I got into the preview or not. I'd really like to check this out if possible.

It is a bug, apparently this is the preview build that EA has been using to show press but some audio is missing ,some sounds and some textures are not up. This also includes the MP but it doesn't seem to be working.

Dunno if what people are downloading is the preleased demo or a preview build for press

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate@matt_wickstrom: go to that link and then follow the instructions if it says you were accepted into the beta. make sure you are signed in when you check the link.

@Barrock: i got on and started dl'ing it as soon as i saw info on neogaf about it breaking out. still having a hard time even getting onto the rest of the game like everyone else and it's really frustrating/bumming me out. i wanna play too =(

i registered the first day we could for the beta on both the sign up day and the console registration day earlier in the week.

@suikoden352 said:

https://connect.microsoft.com/XboxLIVEUpdate@matt_wickstrom: go to that link and then follow the instructions if it says you were accepted into the beta. make sure you are signed in when you check the link.

Thanks. I signed in. Under the announcements tab was a headline stating I've been put into the preview program. Will get on my 360 shortly to see if I get an update to download, then will check things out from there.

@matt_wickstrom: the update isn't out yet. just the pre-release tab. you'll have to download the registration application onto your xbox that you want the update to be on. the website shows you what all you need to do. the demo has apparently been taken down. i still can't get on.

Even if it's just there for those rare gamers who are too intimidated by Mass Effect's branching decisions to invest, it seems crazy that they would go to the trouble of recording 2-3 different dialogue options and then give the option to auto-select one... then again, I bet a ton of people instinctively hit up-right or down-right anyways without even thinking, so maybe it's not so out there.  Just seems like they're not making the best use of some pretty expensive content.
 
Story Mode just seems like regular old Mass Effect with the combat on easy.

@Brodehouse: are you in on the me3 beta as well?

@suikoden352 said:

@matt_wickstrom: the update isn't out yet. just the pre-release tab. you'll have to download the registration application onto your xbox that you want the update to be on. the website shows you what all you need to do. the demo has apparently been taken down. i still can't get on.

After Imade my last post I noticed the registration process I needed to complete. Just got my code and will punch it in soon.

Anyone know why this preview program is so different from past ones? In the past I remember just getting an email saying I was accepted (or not accepted), and then automatically got an update the next time I signed into Xbox Live. Kinda weird it's getting changed al of the sudden.

@matt_wickstrom: they've changed the way they are doing it this time around. i know what you mean as i've been thru the last few betas they have run outside of the kinect one because i didn't hear about it in time. it's weird not getting an email anymore. dunno if this is the new permanent way they are handling things but i sortof like this way. a bit easier than years past.

What a massive fuckup by EA and Microsoft. Wonder if someone will lose a job over this.

Not that the fans will complain, but this was clearly not meant for public release.

@RobertOrri: not as massive as some may think. just means that the marketing crew will have to really rush to refigure their plans.

Sweet. I'm in the beta too but I haven't turned on my Xbox yet today.

@Barrock said:

I'm in the Pre-Release thing but all I have is the Preview Tab, Announcements, New Features, and Help and Tips.

@Brodehouse: exactly. this is probably what is going to happen. if anything, this is extra publicity for mass effect 3. be it good or bad. seeing all this feedback from this will only benefit bioware and mass effect in the long run as they get closer and closer to that march 6th release date.

Shepard

Man, that was actually really fun. It was a long demo. This wait is going to kill me.

DOES IT HAVE A COVER SYSTEM?!?!

This is the demo they were showing at E3. Still, pretty fucking rad to be able to play it.

@RobertOrri said:

Not that the fans will complain, but this was clearly not meant for public release.

This is a case where the Beta tag clearly applies, unlike some other things (ie - BF3 demo).

@fragstoff said:

DOES IT HAVE A COVER SYSTEM?!?!

Confirmed.

I like the level up system in this one.

Also, no more connecting your EA account. You now access the Origin servers. I guess that branding change was inevitable and kinda obvious.

If anyone is still trying to get it, it's no longer available for download.

Even if you managed to download it, in order to play anything you are required to connect to EA's servers... which have also been taken down.

I got to play the entirety of the singleplayer demo, but I didn't see the multiplayer.

Even in this unfinished state, it's pretty good.

The single player demo was great. The multiplayer surprised me. I wasn't expecting much. I don't play a lot of multiplayer games and waves of enemies aren't why I play ME games. My first round was boring. There's a persistent leveling system and I only had one low skill. After hitting level 2 I put some points into push and that one change opened up combat quite a bit more. I was having fun then. I definitely would like to see more. I'm just glad that I bailed and got my SP game up and running before they pulled the servers.

I finished the single player demo also, some parts look really good, an others were not entirely finished, had fun playing though.

@Indiana_Jenkins: they took down the servers alot quicker that people thought they did. as soon as i got done downloading the beta, which was pretty much when everyone else was at first when it was first mentioned, i tried to get on and the server was down. atleast it was when i kept trying for over an hour or so to get on. i unfortunately didn't get to see much of anything other than what was posted up. glad to hear atleast some people got to experience it though. i don't know why i couldn't get on at first since everyone else was getting on when i had it downloaded but i just kept getting error messages. idk.hopefully bioware takes this as good publicity and me3 becomes that much more of a better game all around because of all this.

James Vega is growing on me, I like his voice a lot!

What the fuck is this "action mode" shit though! Fucking god damn...

@Brodehouse: Come on dude that is NOT the same fucking pile of cards. Changing the difficulty does not fundamentally remove an entire core feature of the game! I'm not mad at Bioware, I'm not even mad at EA, I'm mad at the state of the industry when it's okay to add a "feature" which to me seems to me not unlike a hack. Presumably you are going to be able to press a button that says: "hey pick every paragon option" or "pick every renegade option" it's sickens me to think that someone is okay with letting the game ship with the ability to do that it represents nothing that makes the Mass Effect series great and it's belittles their choices and story and ruins any immersion by melting them down to binary choices and statistics (which is something I personally find hard to ignore anyway)

It would be like adding a feature to Mario that automatically jumped every time their was a gap, it's lazy, it's stupid and it shouldn't have taken any of the development time.

So yes, I'm mad bro and I'm throwing my toys out of the cot, but hey I'm passionate enough about the series to care so take that as a positive.

@rmanthorp said:

@Brodehouse: Come on dude that is NOT the same fucking pile of cards. Changing the difficulty does not fundamentally remove an entire core feature of the game! I'm not mad at Bioware, I'm not even mad at EA, I'm mad at the state of the industry when it's okay to add a "feature" which to me seems to me not unlike a hack. Presumably you are going to be able to press a button that says: "hey pick every paragon option" or "pick every renegade option" it's sickens me to think that someone is okay with letting the game ship with the ability to do that it represents nothing that makes the Mass Effect series great and it's belittles their choices and story and ruins any immersion by melting them down to binary choices and statistics (which is something I personally find hard to ignore anyway)

It would be like adding a feature to Mario that automatically jumped every time their was a gap, it's lazy, it's stupid and it shouldn't have taken any of the development time.

So yes, I'm mad bro and I'm throwing my toys out of the cot, but hey I'm passionate enough about the series to care so take that as a positive.

Nothing stupid about it, I enjoy playing games where I get to pick the dialogue just as much as I enjoy playing them when they have a nice set story that doesn't have to pause every 5 seconds for me to pick what to say. It'll be a nice change of pace and I'll really enjoy playing ME3 that way. Awesome new feature Bioware.

@rmanthorp said:

@Brodehouse: Come on dude that is NOT the same fucking pile of cards. Changing the difficulty does not fundamentally remove an entire core feature of the game! I'm not mad at Bioware, I'm not even mad at EA, I'm mad at the state of the industry when it's okay to add a "feature" which to me seems to me not unlike a hack. Presumably you are going to be able to press a button that says: "hey pick every paragon option" or "pick every renegade option" it's sickens me to think that someone is okay with letting the game ship with the ability to do that it represents nothing that makes the Mass Effect series great and it's belittles their choices and story and ruins any immersion by melting them down to binary choices and statistics (which is something I personally find hard to ignore anyway)

It would be like adding a feature to Mario that automatically jumped every time their was a gap, it's lazy, it's stupid and it shouldn't have taken any of the development time.

So yes, I'm mad bro and I'm throwing my toys out of the cot, but hey I'm passionate enough about the series to care so take that as a positive.

I know right. It's like the driving assists in Forza. Come on, Turn 10. Either make a driving sim or don't make anything. Automatic braking? What is that shit. It's insulting to the hardcore racing fans that you made the game friendly to lots of different players!

Mass Effect is about choices. If they give me the choice the take away choices in the story I'll be angry. ARRRRRRGH!

@louiedog: Yo dawg, we heard you like to make choices. So we put choices in your choices, so you can makes decisions before making decision.

I'm obviously not going to use Action Mode (though maybe Story Mode for my 2-6th playthroughs), but if some person is intimidated by the dialogue trees and branching decisions, it's nice they found a way to tune the game for those players while leaving it good ole Mass Effect for fans.

I didn't skip any action sequences in LA Noire, but I'm happy the option is there for those who want it. And actually I'm super glad travel skip was an option, so there you go.

Those preset modes are not required. A button press in it gives you all the options of what you can normally control.

Those three 'modes' are just another selection in line with easy/medium/hard

Oh lord, I hope this isn't a prelude to what they did with the story in Dragon Age 2: "Hey, remember all those choices you made? They kind of interfered with the story we wanted to tell, so we retconned everything for you. No need to thank us!"