Mass Effect 3’s Demo and Normandy Detailed

The folks at OXM have prepared another pair of Mass Effect 3-related articles for us today, including a list of eight things they think we should try in the forthcoming demo and a look at the past, present, and future of the Normandy. As usual, I’ll quote a bit from the former:

3. Play with the powers

If you’re keen to avoid spoilers, the multiplayer mode also offers a great opportunity to see how the game’s updated powers feel without touching single player. Character progression in Mass Effect 3 is far more open to customisation, with new branching skill trees for each class type. The best way to work out where you want to specialise is taking a test run online.

As with the main game, there are six classes to choose from: Soldier, Vanguard, Sentinel, Engineer, Infiltrator and Adept. Engineers are more fun than they sound, letting you alternate between freezing stuff and setting people on fire – they can also set up sentry turrets to help hold a position. If you fancy a crack at something different, the Infiltrator looks wonderfully sneaky – armed with proximity mines and a cloaking device. Check out the video below for an overview, but take the tone with a pinch of salt. While it’s certainly a wonderful video, the multiplayer isn’t quite as thunderously over-the-top as portrayed.

And a snip from the latter:

For all that BioWare has learned from the aviation industry, real-world considerations come a firm second to the fiction, as Watts’ next comment reveals. “And no, the inside doesn’t actually fit into the outside. It’s a video game!”

Memory limitations are harder to laugh off. “The wings were originally supposed to be front thrusters which bent down as a landing gear. But to put a landing gear on something that big would require a whole new level, and we can’t put in a new level because it’s too big.”

And what of Mass Effect 3’s Normandy? BioWare has yet to give away much on the subject, revealing only that the ship’s been impounded, stripped and rebuilt by the Alliance, who’ve added yet more gizmos and areas.

Watts does let slip one, tickly detail, however. “Shepard probably has the same amount of texture space as this Normandy. Yeah. Shepard is 1.8 metres long, and the Normandy is 170m long.”