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First Person Shooters (Games) Games

Mass Effect 3 To Include Co-op Multiplayer 78

BioWare has announced that Mass Effect 3, planned for March of next year, will be the first game in the series to include co-operative multiplayer. In a post on their forums, they provided details about the new mode of play: "Success in multi-player will have a direct impact on the outcome of the single player campaign, giving players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory ... In multiplayer, players will create custom characters to fight on different and unique fronts in the war. This will include the ability to play as favorites like Turians, Krogans, Asari and more each with their own unique set of abilities." They also took pains to point out that while the co-op missions could affect the outcome of the main story, multiplayer is entirely optional.
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Mass Effect 3 To Include Co-op Multiplayer

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  • I hope this will work well, this game is already great.

    I've played co-op missions with GTA4 and it was completely awesome. Robbing a bank is a different experience when you do it while your 12 y/o nephew is holding back the cops with a stolen garbage truck.

    Can't wait to see how this turns out in Mass Effect (but I suspect there won't be bank robberies with garbage trucks).

    • Armory planet robberies with junk freighters (from your house to the sun in three standard units, or your credits back!)?
    • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:50AM (#37687418)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • by TechLA ( 2482532 )
        Frankly, quite many people will co-op games highly entertaining. It's a lot more fun to play with other people. Dead Island is a great example of that, and I had really fun moments playing it with my friend. All from the driving accidents to helping out the other one get up again, or use strategies together. Left4Dead is another great example, and so is many other games. Playing with other people just is a lot more fun.

        I actually think there are too few games that support co-op, and hope that game develop
        • by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

          Dead Island was a co-op multiplayer game with a very, VERY broken single player tacked on top. It really should have said "requires at least one more person to play" in requirements, or at least limit your character selection to one of the two males if you chose to play single player.

          I played as chinese girl, and good lord was it retarded. Between her having no control over zombies due to her sharp weapons specialization, and her being designed to backstab while someone else is tanking, the game was everyth

      • by lucm ( 889690 )

        I played Fallout-3 and Fallout New Vegas so bugs... yeah. But those games, even if they manage to freeze a Playstation 3 console (!!!), they are so cool that I kept playing, trying to walk around the bugs as much as possible.

        New Vegas before the patch was terrible. Once your guy is experienced and is carrying a bunch of stuff, the game keeps locking. But it is still an awesome game, definitely in my top 5 (with GTA and Heavy Rain).

      • Was it an IMI Uzi, an IMI Micro-uzi, or a Mac-10? Cause with the latter two it is in fact possible to completely miss from 10 feet away.

      • I thought BioShock2 was pretty decent. It was more like an overabundance of short escort missions than one long escort mission, and if you learn to use hacked security robots and the deployable turrets they're not that hard.

  • Mass Effect is not a typical shooter, like Halo or Battlefield. During some action in ME you aim, yawn, shoot, reload, yawn again and then take your aim. Maybe I am wrong and they have prepared something special like Team Slayer mode (w00t!) but after playing ME i ME:2 I am rather sceptical about it.
    • by dbet ( 1607261 )
      FPSs are not the owners or even the originators of co-op multi-player. The original Neverwinter Nights for example had it and it worked very well (a RPG similar to ME).
      • I know, but I can't imagine how it would work in ME Universe. It is boring when going into FPS mode and excellent in RPG. Anyway I wish them well and will buy ME:3 to see how it worked. Hope that won't be yawning as much as I did during ME:2 gameplay.
      • by MSojka ( 83577 )

        FPSs are not the owners or even the originators of co-op multi-player. The original Neverwinter Nights for example had it and it worked very well (a RPG similar to ME).

        The original Neverwinter Nights? Of course it hat multi-player. It was a pure multi-player game after all (too bad it was restricted to AOL customers). That's like saying Ultima Online, Everquest or Meridian 59 had "some" multi-player capabilities and it worked for them.

      • by Nadaka ( 224565 )

        Before neverwinter nights was baldurs gate 2.

    • During some action in ME you aim, yawn, shoot, reload, yawn again and then take your aim.

      this is how EVERY SINGLE shooter on a gamepad works.

  • by RogueyWon ( 735973 ) * on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @01:17AM (#37687306) Journal

    Co-op... I could go either way on. If it's well designed, I'll probably give it a go. Unfortunately, this isn't as easy as it could be for me. Most of my friends have played this series on the 360, while I've been on the PC. Now sure, I could switch - but that would mean abandoning the character I took through the first two games and had intended to import into the third. It'd be fantastic if Bioware could put out some sort of savegame porting tool to allow people in my situation to get around that, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

    What I'd really like to hear is the following: "We realised that planet scanning was incredibly boring and it's gone. Also, while we were at it, we went back to the first game's heat based system for weapons, rather than the ammo system from the second".

    • by Yev000 ( 985549 )

      What I'd really like to hear is the following: "We realised that planet scanning was incredibly boring and it's gone. Also, while we were at it, we went back to the first game's heat based system for weapons, rather than the ammo system from the second".

      That and "Biotic powers now affect shielded and armoured enemies and some inanimate objects"

      I was always cheesed off with the fact that while you can see in Jacks escape her take on 3 heavy mechs, and then see her get knocked out by one heavy mech becayse I didnt assign her to run 100 meters in the opposite direction fast enough.

    • So say we all.

      Particularly frustrating was the stupid in-game justification for the use of heat sinks. "We figured you were all so unhappy with the delay waiting for your weapon to cool for a second or two, that we'd retrofit it with ammo that you can actually run out of. And we convinced the Geth to do the same thing! Isn't that cool?"

      Rasm frasm. At least managing inventory was easier.

      • Inventory management was easier because they removed upgrades! /slaps forehead

        Yeah, and the heat sinks were an atrocious idea. I loved not having to worry about ammo, and learning how to manage weapon heat was a new and different mechanic that I found enjoyable. Upgrading weapons to absorb more heat took care of the problem if you couldn't learn to fire in short bursts.

        I still can't imagine the thought process behind the decision to completely abandon the tank in favor of that absolutely brain-numbing sca

        • by Rich0 ( 548339 )

          If I recall, most people's complaints were along the complaints that there were only about three or four unique building types. Hell, they could have just added a bunch more buildings and locations for variety and I would have been happy.

          Well, that and driving around the tank on the terrain they put on the maps was like driving a shopping cart with a bad wheel. I love the little rocket thrusters that let you jump all of about 3 feet in the air. The tank can apparently drop from near-orbit, and somehow get back to the ship, but it can't get past a mountain range without slogging it up some hill at a creeping speed because I'm too lazy to drive halfway around the planet after tumbling down the side of the hill or something.

          The tank was nice

    • by phorm ( 591458 )

      Bioware doesn't have a tool, but there are various "save game editors" out there that I believe may also be able to convert...

      • I've had a look and while I would be ok moving from the 360 to the PC, there don't seem to be any options for going the other way - which makes sense given that the closed nature of consoles as a platform means that they don't generally like you messing around with savegames.

        • by phorm ( 591458 )

          I have the 360 version. There is an Save-Game-Editor for xbox - which is a modified version of the PC SGE - that allowed me to change my games.
          I suppose if all else fails, you could find a 360 saved game, and edit a bunch of the flags to match how your PC-based game ended (it lets you edit your paragon/renegade points, which allies are alive/dead, your weapons, and some key "did or did not do" points).

          More amusingly, it's supposed to allow importing of face models, but I never did get that to work.

    • by morari ( 1080535 )

      The ammo system is the only thing you can think of to crap on from the second game? How about going back and making it an RPG again, instead of dumbing it down to the likes of a Gears of War knock-off like they did in ME2?

  • This is so great... So i can play with my boyfriend and not only in solo mode. And i can play Asari, Turian, and so on *_*! I'm so Happy!
  • by Anonymous Coward

    My wife and I play Mass Effect together, discussing Shepard's decisions, deciding where to go next, etc. If we can both actually control the game at once, that will rock. If you tell me I have to get her a separate Xbox and separate TV in order for us to play together than I'm going to tell you to take your co-op and shove it.

    • by Tukz ( 664339 )

      It's very optimistic to think they'd make split screen[1] co-op.

      Unfortunately, that seem to be a dying market.
      Sure, there's the occasional shooter with split screen co-op abilities, but it's rare someone release a game with split screen co-op beyond that genre.

      [1] Same screen co-op included

      • by tepples ( 727027 )

        Sure, there's the occasional shooter with split screen co-op abilities, but it's rare someone release a game with split [or non-split shared] screen co-op beyond that genre.

        I don't know about Rare, but Nintendo released a co-op scrolling beat-em-up called "The Subspace Emissary" for Wii a few years ago. It's part of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and sort of plays like a Kirby game.

      • Perfect Dark remains, in many ways, the best local multiplayer console shooter yet produced. Bots (lots of them, with all kinds of configuration options), just about every kind of multiplayer mode there is, co-op campaign, AND that cool campaign mode where one player is Joanna and another plays a bot, hopping to another if that one's killed.

        I'm not sure any other shooter's even come close to being as awesome at local multiplayer. It's the main reason I plan to get a used 360 when the non-"arcade" models g

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Can you co-op a 3-some in Captains Quarters?

  • Pity the co-op is with custom characters, I was rather hoping they'd let a bunch of people all called "Shepard" get together as The Commander Shepard Brothers [kiasa.org]...
    • Isn't it kinda odd that a game that so prominently features a teamwork between a squad of 4 didn't have any kind of co-op for so long?
  • by SkunkPussy ( 85271 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @06:34AM (#37688516) Journal

    It sounds like it will be a great addition but ME2 had a shitty plot compared to ME1 so I'm not convinced about ME3. Plus if you are forced to use origin then there's no way I'll buy it.

  • So... (Score:3, Funny)

    by justin12345 ( 846440 ) on Wednesday October 12, 2011 @06:47AM (#37688564)
    So ... will you be able to seduce and bang your co-op team by hitting the top dialog option over and over? Cause I don't really see the point otherwise.
  • So this will be about another great, epic WAR, right? Heros fighting for their country/planet?

    Sorry, but what I hear about ME3 doesn't really appeal to me. Here is some news: most gamers that buy games are more than 14 year old, especially when it comes to RPGs.

    How about making a sci-fi game based on an interesting story? A story where the player does not invariably save the whole universe? I wonder whether any of Bioware's developers have actually ever read some real sci-fi stories? Like the ones by Lem, A

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      So, since the first two ME games focused on fighting a major enemy that threatens the galaxy, you feel the third game should ignore the fact that that threat is still out there and go a completely different direction?
      Really?

      I mean, if you played the first two, there's nowhere this CAN go but to a war to save the galaxy.

      Getting angry at a company for following a story to its logical conclusion, even if you don't like that story is kind of silly. That's what the franchise is. If you don't like it, then the f

    • by ErikZ ( 55491 ) *

      The Mass effect franchise story has revolved around the plotline that the reapers come by every X years and wipe out all intelligent lifeforms.

      So, yes. It's not original. They've done it twice so far. It's the BACKBONE of the plotline!

    • First off, a lot of "real" sci-fi has substantial cerebral elements that would be very difficult to adequately translate to the video game medium in a fun and engaging way. Note that I didn't say impossible, just very difficult.

      Second, there are multiple examples of excellent, "real" sci-fi that do contain a single person or group of people that save the universe. For example, the Dune series, the Ender's Game series, the Foundation series (since you mentioned Asimov), Starship Troopers (since you mention

  • I wanted a multiplayer game, I'd play WoW.

    I am seriously disappointed to hear this. I was looking forward to Mass Effect 3. Multiplayer support requires a huge amount of development dollars and talent. Which means, less love for the gameplay experience that matters to me. While the developers may swear up and down that choosing not to playing it solo won't detract from the experience, I seriously doubt anyone can work out the balance issues to make that happen.

    They're fixing something that was not broken.

    • Fiddlesticks, editing fail. I meant, "IF I wanted a multiplayer game, I'd play WoW" and "While the developers may swear up and down that choosing to play it solo won't detract from the experience, I seriously doubt anyone can work out the balance issues to make that happen."
    • by Yev000 ( 985549 )

      I think they are hinting that co-op missions will be totaly separate from regular single player missions and do not have to be completed to complete single player, but will afftec some story elements.

      I'm guessing the outcomes of these missions are decided for you at certain points in the game if you didnt play them (bit like the outcome of ME1 is decided if you didnt play it)

      As a programmer I see this having no effect on the main single player experience because id wager they are coded by separate teams. Th

  • But still you can't play the campaign in co-op. This is just going to be like Rage.

  • What's great about co-op play is the entire game experience changes. You can only play UT so many times before it just gets annoying and monotonous. Throw in one extra person and it turns into humans against bots. It's like a whole new game. Also, if there's an included map editor -- I'll hardly ever put the game down...I still play Ghost Recon Island Thunder using custom maps.

    I think monotony drives game sales too so it's not a shocker that we don't find co-op mode included so much anymore. Kudos to Bio

  • Awhile back I decided to boycott Dragon Age Origins 2 & Mass Effect 2 + any future release of the titles because of Bioware's decision to not put co-op play into what would be an obvious benefit for both. Now my friends & I can buy ME3 & enjoy the game together (just like NWN series). Thank you.
    • Crap, I forgot that my friends & I am boycotting EA's Origin distribution system. So if this game is Origin only then I'll pass just like Battlefield 3 & others...
  • by TXP ( 592446 )
    I love this series. Coop will only make it better. (Unless they screw it up, which is not likely)

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

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