As suggested in the other topic, I guess it's time for a Mass Effect 3 thread. The HUGE and UNEXPECTED announcement is coming tomorrow :D
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-12-10-ea-store-confirms-mass-effect-3

What do you think? I'm getting a bit worried the game will feel a bit dated now :-/

I like the idea of the Reapers invading Earth... that's a good send-off to the story. I assume the whole "gaining alliances" thing means that like ME1 and ME2, and any Bioware game really, it will be a collection of linear missions you can do in any order you choose.

ME2 was a great game. In my RPG gamer soul I have to yell at it for dumbing everything down, but at the end of the day it was still unquestionably a great game, unlike many other simplified sequels such as Oblivion, Gothic 4 and Fable 2.

Can't wait for the third one.

Mass Effect 2 looked so much better than Mass Effect there is no reason to think it will look dated. The only thing I am worried about is how they will handle the RPG grind. In ME1 it was the Mako and almost all of us hated it and in ME2 it was planet scanning and we ALL hated that. I'm hoping for more of the same with some new way of grinding which is not cock whackingly boring.

The funny thing about Mass Effect is that the whole thing feels so epic that the game play is just a way to unlock the story. Well told stories never get old.

I wonder if they are going to change a major game mechanic again and just retcon it like with ME 1 -> ME 2 (the removal of internal heat sinks on weapons and changing to a clip based heat sink system... which happened universe wide in the few years that Shepard was "dead")

I don't see why. TBH I think the new system worked brilliantly in ME2. Yes people cry about the loss of the inventory but TBH it was far better having everything streamlined into the UI.

Meh - I am just getting old and crotchety. I liked the ME 1 system (Well, mostly - I suck at any type of shooter really) - and they never explained (in story terms) why the change. The only thing that crossed my mind was that it was done to make it more "Compatible" with console users more used to the shooter type game play [I am not meaning to generalize anyone with that, that is just what crossed my mind when they first talked about it]. I preferred being able to outfit my companions in full armor rather than them having a few cosmetic looks that you had to unlock. I also liked the power system better, ME 2 streamlined things a bit too far in my eyes.

To each their own - I liked the story, mechanics and game play in ME 1 better, other folks love ME 2 much more - no one is wrong if it is what they enjoy. I am sure ME 3 will have just as big of a rift between those who like it and those who do not.

I meant game mechanics, not graphics. As much as I love Bioware and their style, it's bound to get old sooner or later. This again seems like an epic quest, gathering allies around the galaxy for an epic final fight against the Reapers.
Anyway, I will trust Bioware to surprise in a positive way :) They somehow managed to make ME2 feel great, even though they cut out some pretty vital RPG mechanisms. So I'm still hoping :) If nothing else, then at least I need to see how the characters will evolve.
Now... Tali, or Liara, hmmmm... (please don't spoil Lair of the Shadow Broker for me)

They did. It was based on Geth technology. The Geth started using thermal clips so they would be able to almost constantly fire compared to the original tech which requred cooldown periods. As the alliance had got so good at killing Geth it didn't take them long to capture and assimilate the tech. Or Ashley or Kaiden. You know one of them is coming back in ME3.

The problem is that the Geth in ME 1 never seemd to exhibit this technology, and even with rapid duplication and deployment how is it possible that everyone in the universe (especially those not associated with the Alliance like the gangs on the mining station, the prison ship, the Krogan home world clans, etc [Krogans would never just outright agree to start using this technology just because some Alliance scientists said it was better]) were using it?

It also takes only 2 years for this change to occur - there is no feasible way, even with the technology of the Mass Relays, that they could have spread that particular technology so far so fast - at most the Alliance would have limited it to Spectres and the Alliance Fleet to start with. Shepard died knowing only weapons that had internal heat sinks and "woke up" knowing about a heat sink clip system that didn't exist when he died. He says "this gun has no thermal clip" when Miranda directs him to pick up the weapon on the Cerebus Medical Station.

Sorry - I don't mean to write a wall of text. I see where they were coming from, I understand why it is liked.. but it never really jived with me. It is a good game in of itself, but it threw off my personal Mass Effect continuity - that is all on me and I am not trying to say my opinion is the best.
[i]
Edited because I actually forgot a few words that made a sentence seem... off :)[/i]

Ah, Liara. We meet again.

I understand completely. I have spent a lot of time reading the Mass Effect Wikia and that is the answer that is given based on the games, books and the game designers. It doesn't make much sense I agree but then nor do AT-AT's. I will default to something the great Warren Ellis once said: "Canon is fine but sometimes canon get's in the way of a good story and you have to say fuck canon."

The explanation still doesn't make any sense. A heatsink "clip"? Fine, that makes sense, insofar as the purpose is avoiding waiting for it to cool down. But I assume it does cool down eventually, so there really is no need to throw them away. Keep 3 clips with you, and when the last one is "full", the first one will have cooled off again. But no, we'll just throw them away, to make sure we can run out of "ammo" in a firefight.

Sorry, I'm a big fan of hard sci-fi, so illogical inconsistencies like that annoy me ;-)

Depends how long it takes for a thermal clip to become usable again I suppose.

Given that technology has improved since ME1, I assume it takes no longer than it took for your gun to cool down in that.