Mass Effect 1,2 & 3 - why, where what?

[gennath]

Hi there. I'm not adding this question purely for selfish reasons, so I actually hope to get some real replies to my query.

I'm not a big fan of shooters. I like to get in and out of a game in a few minutes without having to get too much into learning how to play it. Which is why I love racing games so much.

Mass Effect however looks like a stunning franchise (right word?). I however don't want to just go and buy Mass Effect 3 if playing the previous 2 will give my important insights and background.

My questions:

1. Is ME3 living up to its hype?
2. Should I play Mass Effect 1 & 2 before playing 3?
3. Where can I buy ME 1 & 2 for PC? (I have an Xbox, but shooters frustrate me on the consoles)

Thanks for viewing this post, hope you respond!

[Gforced]

1. Yes

2. Yes (Big Yes) although a friend of mine started on 3 (but the whole back story and choices you make are really defined by your previous game experiences especially if you import your saved games across. I used the same character in 1, 2, and now 3.
To me it really feels like just one big game.

3. I have seen them in Hifi Corp, Game, BT Games Musica, CNA all have Mass effect and Mass Effect 2 you can probably pick them up for under a hundred buck each now.

[Voicy]

Points 1 & 2 are obvious, however for #3 I would suggest you try ME 1 & 2 out on Xbox if you're going to be buying ME3 on xbox.

The reason I say this is because I absolutely loathed shooters on xbox...until I played ME1. It was such a smooth transition into "over-the-shoulder" shooters and I absolutely loved it. This coming from a guy who feels like he's shooting like this when trying to aim on a console controller:



However, the biggest benefit is undoubtedly importing your character profile all the way from ME1 to ME3.

There are constant choices and scenes throughout the series which are heavily affected by your choices in ME1 ... carrying through ME2, and affecting ME3.