Horde Night?

As you may or may not know, the newest DLC for Gears of War 3 will be released tomorrow. The pack features remakes of Jacinto and Raven Down, plus 3 new maps. Is anyone down for a Horde smack-down on either Tuesday night or Wednesday night? I've got both nights open after about 6pm est and I'd be willing to start as late as about 10pm est. "Gentlemen, you have my demands. Peace out!"

Mass Effect 3 - SPOILER FREE Final Thoughts

What follows is a quick breakdown, of the first things that come to mind, of what I loved followed by some gripes and then a talk about the ending.

Loved -

- Combat - The game feels like it really hit it's stride with this 3rd installment and actually felt like a modern, competent 3rd person action shooter that had a pretty great RPG element to it.

- Action - There's a ton of it! Combat is fast and tense, but can get only slightly repetitive.

- Set Pieces - While not all were mind blowing I do remember saying "holy shit" more than once. Especially on one of the moons of Palaven. Watching a Reaper ground battle is pretty damned cool and terrifying.

- The Stakes - The game has the pressure set to 11 with pretty much, yet again, the entire universe depending on you. The game does a good job of never really letting you forget what you're up against and how dire the situation is.

- Cut Scenes - While I'm normally not a huge fan of these there were many more in ME 3. They weren't overly long, but generally every mission had a small intro explaining what's coming up.

- Consequences - I've always tried to play out the best/happiest possible ends in these games, but I inadvertently played critical missions out of order and what happened absolutely blew me away. I watched as 2 groups of people I was fighting for fought and the the one I sided with absolutely destroyed the other. My actions had cause the death of literally an entire race of people. I couldn't believe what I'd just witnessed.

Along with consequences there are several moments where I had crew members try and off themselves for various justifiable reasons, but was able to stop them by interrupting the scene with a Paragon Action. I missed one of these with one member and they died. Again, the stakes are high.

- The "I Actually Had Tears Well Up and Almost Cried Moment" - There's a scene where one of my favorite characters from ME 2 goes to right a wrong and this character does so knowing it's going to its death. The final moment is an extremely bittersweet throwback to a very funny dialogue from ME 2 that you'd only connect if you actually spent the time getting to know this character from the previous game.

I was shocked, stunned and actually blown away at my response. The only other time I've had a reaction to a game this strongly was actually in ME 2 DLC "Overlord". When you find that the person behind the machines going crazy was a handicapped savant that had been forcibly hooked into a machine by his brother. The savant in the machine is found in horrible conditions reciting numbers to a game that he and his monster of a brother used to play as kids. It was a beautifully sad moment that still musters up emotions to this day.

- Shepard - He's still awesome. I know that everyone's Shepard is different, but I've always loved how I've played mine. He is a nice guy that cares about others, but calls bullshit when he sees it. He never backs down from a fight. He's astoundingly deadly, but also compassionate.

- Multiplayer? - The multiplayer is actually a lot of fun. It's basically Gears of War's Horde Mode, but in the ME universe with better characters and powers. Winning in multiplayer actually helps your single player game. It was an additive I truly didn't expect to enjoy and I plan on dumping a bunch more time into it.

Gripes -

- Ammo Types - While they still exist there doesn't appear to be a huge difference in them like in ME 2. All are powerful. In ME 2 I constantly switched to get the best results, but in ME 3 I basically just used Inferno Ammo at all times. I only needed to switch on harder enemies that are more like mini-bosses thrown into fire-fights.

- Squad - I'm a little let down by the squad, but not in the way you might expect. This is honestly the best squad in the whole series because nobody sucks. In both previous games there was always one person that made my eyes roll or that was a snooze fest. Everyone in this game is actually pretty awesome. Great personalities and voice acting and they're all truly badasses. My problem is that I didn't get to spend a lot of time with them.

I feel like in the previous 2 games, especially 2, I spent a shit ton of time learning about them and becoming quite attached to their plight and story. Here you spend time around them and not so much with them.

So it's a positive and a negative I guess. So long as I wasn't forced to talk to Jacob from 2 ever again I was happy.

- Errand Boy - While I guess just about every game has you playing some version or variation of an errand boy it was a little more apparent here because of the very nature of your mission.

- Side Quests - All RPGs have main and side quests. While this game featured tons of action packed missions they were mostly all main quest related with only a handful of smaller ones that were side quests. However, there were a ton of side quests that were very weak fetch quests that seemed little more than filler.

- War Assets - It ties into some frustration with the end of the game, but the main crux of the game is building up as many allies as you can to take to war with you. Ultimately, it felt like I was just running up my War Asset number and it wasn't really doing anything.

You'd understand more fully if you've beaten the game.

- Unreal Engine 3 - The engine works better here than in the previous games so that's great, but the problem comes from a spot later in the game where you are fighting on the ground of a destroyed London. I shit you not you could almost interchange the set pieces and looks of ME 3 and Gears. The gameplay styles being so similar certainly doesn't help, but the identical engines really were distracting at moments at how similar the games not only played, but looked when not in space.

- Zaeed Massani - He's a DLC character in ME 2 and is briefly in ME 3. He made my gripe list because he's not in the game enough. He's a merciless bounty hunter that actually comes off as the deadliest man in the galaxy. His brutality and lack of non-sense has consistently made him a favorite of mine to be around, but he's never given any attention. He deserves an offshoot with his own game. You heard it here first.

- Day 1 DLC - Oh yeah baby! You know you love it. Buying a game and there being an additional pack for purchase as soon as you boot it up. Sadly, they marketed that son-of-a-bitch perfectly because it's not just another mission they added, but another squad mate....that's a fucking Prothean! Seriously, the alien race you've spent 100 hours learning about is usable in the game. As a ME junkie I couldn't help myself, but get Javik and use him in absolutely every mission.

The Ending - I'll try and keep this brief

Overall, the ending is bad. The backlash or anger you could feel towards Bioware is, in my opinion, justifiable, but isn't overwhelmingly surprising to this reviewer.

Now that that's out of the way I'll move slightly more into dissection without ruining it for those that haven't beaten it yet.

I beat the game right at 30 hours and for 29.9 of those hours the game was absolutely brilliant. It's literally the last 5 minutes that it falls apart.

The final 30 minutes is the actual end of the game and the first 25 minutes are awesome. You see Shepard get taken to the breaking point and I actually found myself astonished at his resolve and ability to....just....keep....going. It wasn't cheesey either. The bastard just wants to win!

The final 5 minutes and ending cutscene are, from a quick glance, actually pretty awesome. I found it to be emotionally moving, exhilirating and captivating all at once.

It's not until about 2 minutes after the credits started rolling that I began to dissect what I just watched. It's full of holes. And I mean it's riddled with them.

I could have gotten past the holes, but they also did a shit job letting you know about your squad. Who lived? Who died? As they seem to just show them at random in a cutscene. Also, during the final fight I saw a Krogan that I was 60% sure was Wrex get zapped by a Reaper, but I don't know if it was actually him! Did he live? Was that even him?

I went to youtube to look at other endings and basically they are all the same. No matter what you do or don't do or who lives or dies doesn't matter. What happens is a small (but, I guess, arguably large) variation in the cutscene. It's a pretty huge bummer that they're all so similar. To be able to so fully customize your game up until the very end and then be forced to choose door A, B or C was a downer.

I actually kind of dug the ending, but would have preferred another option or two that my Shepard would have chosen. To say, "Fuck these! We're doing option Go Fuck Yourself instead!"

I guess I just don't know where the disconnect happened for Bioware. Maybe being part of EA forced them into a time table that they had to make or maybe that's actually what they wanted, but with a game so full of history and careful plotting and writing the plot holes are glaringly huge.

I found a really good video on youtube that does an excellent job hashing out the big problems with the ending. Obviously, this video is major spoiler territory so only watch it once you've finished the game, but I'll just put it here for easy reference:



Overall -

ME 3 is an amazing game that falls apart at the very last moment. Does it ruin the game? Not at all, but the overall experience of my over 200 hours spent in this universe is definitely marred.

At the start of ME 3 I said that it's shaping up to be the best of the series and I don't really know if I can say that now. Not because of the ending, but seeing all of the differences between all 3 games gives me a much larger appreciation for what each offers.

ME 2 was my least favorite of the 3, but after finishing this game I might actually prefer 2 to the rest.

They seem to each have a different overall focus and, looking back, it's really pretty amazing what Bioware did. ME 1 laid the ground work and ME 2 built on it with am amazing story and unforgettable characters and ME 3 was all about bringing it all together effectively.

I don't think I could pick a favorite and in my opinion that's very high praise.

Bottom Line -

Why the shit haven't you played this yet?

Ninja Gaiden 3 Review: You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone

As I said in my preview, I'm a huge fan of the series and have been since I was a kid. Ninja Gaiden on the original XBOX and Ninja Gaiden II for the 360 (and later PS3) are phenomenal action games with super-slick, third-person hack and slash gameplay. I had high hopes for this third entry in the series, which were shaken earlier this week after reading a few ho-hum reviews. I still had certain expectations of the game, and thought that it couldn't possibly be as terrible as some were making it out to be, but that hope was quickly shattered after I'd had the game to myself for about 5 minutes. I know we've done the plus/minus system for reviews on here, but (and it breaks my heart to say this)....I have nothing positive to say for this one. Here is my list of complaints:

- the difficulties are not balanced very well at all. I had read in other reviews that Team Ninja dumbed the game down for newer players, so I decided to start on "Hard" difficulty since I'm a series veteran and consider myself to be pretty decent. I tried 5 or 6 times, but could not even reach the first checkpoint in the game. Fair enough. Challenge is a good thing, but I had already decided that I didn't like the new combat (more on that coming up) enough to try to struggle my way through on "Hard" difficulty. I switched down to Normal and proceeded to plow through the game. I can't be sure, but I'd say I could count on one hand the number of times I died. So I went from not being able to reach the first checkpoint to dying MAYBE 5 times the entire game. Not very good balance.

-the combat has been completely "neutered" this time. Gone are the random, occasional decapitations from the first game. Gone is the visceral dismemberment gameplay mechanic from NG2 where standard attacks would cut limbs off of enemies, who would then change to a more aggressive attack style, often doing major damage to the player with an explosive suicide move. What we're left with is still bloody, yes, but completely and utterly unsatisfying. Removing the dismemberment was such a huge mistake. I couldn't even believe just how BORING the combat was without it. It really honestly surprised me more than I could have thought. Enemies just seem to be damage sponges now. I found myself pretty much just mashing X to wear guys down instead of strategically dodging and countering like the previous games. Even the standard grunts take far too many hits to kill. Contrast that to NG2 (which I just popped in and played for a few minutes before sitting down to write this) where I had 2 guys charge at me and I countered, removing limbs from both of them. Press Y 2 more times to execute both of them, fight over in less than 5 seconds. Way more satisfying because I had the TIMING perfected to perform a counter move. My SKILL was rewarded with a powerful strike, versus NG3 where I'm just mashing buttons.

- the now-famous (and awesome) Izuna Drop is silly, since the victim's head doesn't even explode anymore (LAME!). Also the Flying Swallow (jump towards an enemy and hit Y) dive attack completely sucks now because instead of slicing limbs off it enters you into an auto-move that sticks you to the ground instead of being able to "swoop" 3 times.

- this game's version of an execution move is called "Steel on bone." Essentially it's just a standard attack, but when done on a weakened enemy, the camera will zoom in and you'll have to hit X or Y to finish the attack, essentially pulling out the sword since it's hitting bone. This does kill the enemy, BUT the weird part of it is that they'll still be crawling around the battlefield and you can hit them again...which makes no sense. I tested this out when I just let one of these guys crawl around the battlefield for a while. They just crawl around and eventually stop moving. Very irritating because you'll often hit them again unintentionally, performing the same canned "execution" animation

- this game is extremely linear. There is NOTHING to find, nowhere to explore, nothing interesting to look at. Contrast that with the original game where you had a large open world where bits were periodically opened up to you. You could find secrets (windmill shuriken, anyone?), collect scarabs, etc. NG2 was more linear than the first, but you could still explore the stages for collectibles, yellow essence (currency), etc. which leads me to my next point....

- there is no currency in the game. No shops, no upgrades, not even secondary weapons, which again leads me to a MUCH more important point....

- this game gives you, the player, ZERO sense of progression or getting stronger. That is a crime for any game, but especially a game in this series. I can't remember how many weapons there were in the first game. I'm thinking maybe 5? Plus secondary weapons. In NG2 there were EIGHT primary weapons. 6 of those had 3 levels of progression. 2 of them had 4 levels of progression, opening up new moves and combos with each level up. On top of that, you had, what, 5 secondary weapons to choose from? This game gives you 1 primary weapon (not even the Dragon Sword!) and regular shurikens, which are just as useless as always. Also, Ninpo as we know it has also been cut down to 1 choice (a dragon that swallows everyone on screen) and you slowly build up the ability to use it by fighting well, instead of having a set number of times you can use it.

- the combo counter has been removed. When I say "combo counter" I mean the counter in the corner of the screen that tallies your successful hits. That only makes sense. Why would you need a combo counter to keep track of how well you're able to flow in combat when you don't get rewarded for it and you're just button-mashing instead?!

- bosses have no life bars. There were a few times when I wasn't even sure I was doing damage because there is no life bar and they give no indication they're getting hurt. I hate that.

- I swear, you do not even have to hit the correct button when a QTE comes up for a steel on bone finisher in combat. This just furthers the point that it's a button-masher game. Developer speaking here: "Have a fun time mashing the buttons, even when a QTE pops up...don't bother stopping to look at the specific button to push. Just keep on mashing."

- the camera moves around so rapidly, it doesn't even let you process half of the cool Ninjitsu stuff you're able to pull off.

- the game occasionally forces you into slow-motion where you're just walking around in slow-mo. You walk up to guys who just sorta start milling around aimlessly and hit X to kill them with a Steel on bone attack. I fail to see the point. These parts are terrible.

- Anybody remember the Ultimate Techniques from the previous games? You could hold the Y button to charge up an Uber powerful attack that would take down 3 or 4 guys easily or do major damage to a boss if you could manage it. Well, since there's no essence to collect in this game, you can do an Ultimate Tech after you kill a certain number of guys (I think). The awful thing about it though, is that you don't even have to AIM it this time. You can just hop away from everyone, hold Y for a second, let it go, and you just zip around the screen insta-killing 3-5 guys. Awful.

- towards the end of the game, I found myself wanting to skip fights because they got so monotonous. And the game actually does let you skip them sometimes. I don't EVER remember wanting to skip fights in the previous games, unless my health was really low and I was scared of death.

- this almost goes without saying, but since Japanese folk developed this game, that old trick of "repeating bosses" gets pulled out of the bag multiple times. I fought the guy in the Red Pajamas and Mask 3 times, fought about 9 helicopters and 6 Spider Tanks. Give me a break.

- The game kept popping up tutorials on how to slide and how to wall-climb right up until the end. In fairness, I think this can be turned off in the menu.

- this game had the BALLS to tease me by showing me "stuff" from the previous games. In a "Virtual Reality" sequence, I fought in a few locations from the first 2 games (including the top of a rainy zeppelin). Also, the "shop music" from the first game was playing on a jukebox. BIG no-no.

- and finally, a bit of a nitpick, but it bugged me nonetheless: the main menu is sideways. It needs to be rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise so I can READ it. What were they thinking?

Alright, I've picked the game apart and basically said it's a steaming pile of crap. I think it's true and I stand by it. I had all these negative thoughts about the game and it really got me thinking. How could the designers of this game test it out and then think, "Yeah, I think we've made something really excellent here."? They removed SO much and gave the player so few options of how to play the game. Many reviewers of the game say these design decisions reflect Team Ninja's desire to draw in more of a crowd. I don't know if I really agree. It seems more like laziness on my part. If they wanted to "cater to noobs" more, couldn't they have just made an easier mode where you take very little damage? How about fixing the camera to give a better view of the action? I just really don't see how anyone could defend the decision to remove so much of what made the first 2 games awesome. Limiting the player's options does not make the game more enticing to noobs, does it? If I was new to the series, I would wonder what got players so fired up about the series at all. I would look at the previous games and think, "Wow, I want to use bladed nunchuks, and explosive shurikens, and a giant scythe! Oh, and look at all those different magic powers!" Team Ninja had almost FOUR YEARS to get this game right. There is no excuse for them spitting out this game as it is. I don't care that your lead designer left, as influential as he may have been. If I, Lead Salad, can play this game in 2 days and pick it apart like I have, couldn't someone else in a more professional position have done it and told them it was terrible? R.I.P. Ryu Hayabusa.

The Final Frontier

So.... Angry Birds Space is out, and it's awesome. I wish there was another way to put it. It's just awesome.  I was fairly certain that this was just going to be a cosmetic shift, maybe some new abilities, and more money in Rovio's pocket, but the lack of gravity creates a whole lot of new gameplay mechanics (still revolving around slinging your birds into oblivion), and it creates a whole lot of simple joy.

Angry Birds has always been a game that no serious gamer really likes to admit that they love, but I think it pushes our buttons the same way it pushes non-gamers.  Angry Birds Space ups the ante slightly by challenging even the most expert of Angry Birds Players to reconsider the tried and true strategies.  Thinking through some of the "harder" levels felt like there was a bit of a puzzle element to the game, requiring me to think about the sequencing of events much more than I ever did in the original angry birds.

It's free for Android, or $.99 if you feel like getting rid of the ads.  I don't think any of us have ever sat down for a long night of gaming and planned on that gaming being Angry Birds, but I do think we've all played it.  I'm curious what you all think about it.

News Flash: XBL Deal

Hey fellers, I just came across this deal and figured I would share. I'm not sure when everybody's XBL subscription is up, but this here's a steal. 12 months and a $20 points card for $46.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/list/parentCategoryID.50606600/categoryID.57398800?icid=XboxLIVE_1up_Generic_LIVEList

Ninja Gaiden 3 tomorrow. Maybe?

I'm a big fan of the series. I have been since the NES days. I love the hack-and-slash, frenetic, bloody goodness of the newer games.

Enter the newest entry in the franchise set to be released tomorrow. Developed by the same studio, but without the original designer of the series (Tomonobu Itagaki), it is opening up to mixed reviews. I was 100% set on buying this game tomorrow up until I read IGN's review, which ripped it to shreds and gave it a 3 out of 10. Now I'm having second thoughts. Only a few other reviews have been posted up but they are much more respectable (and 8/10 from OXM and an 8/10 from CVG).

I guess my question is....should I care what one review says? Would any of you let a few bad reviews turn you off from buying the next game in a series you've always loved? What if reviewers had unanimously taken a dump on Mass Effect 3? What if reviewers, later this year, give Halo 4 really mediocre scores? What if Black Ops 2 is finally the CoD game where reviewers start to wise up and give it low marks for lack of innovation, etc.? I know we've kinda discussed this before, but not quite so specifically.

Quantic Dream's "Kara"

Here's a short film showcasing Quantic Dream's (of Heavy Rain fame) newest performance capture technology. I feel that the whole self aware robot stuff is a little bit of an old hat by now, but this is still done well enough to warrant a watch.



I remember reading about David Cage kind of hating on LA Noire's face scanning system because that's literally all it could read was the face.

With this technology it captures the entire performance all at once.

Heavy Rain wasn't the greatest game ever and the story had a ton of holes in it, but it was a game I actually enjoyed immensely. It was so different and to say that the great actors in the game had nothing to do with my pleasure with it would be doing it a disservice.

Too bad the controls were as wonky as they were. Maybe next time.

Mass Effect Woes

Apparently, my save file for Mass Effect 2 has been corrupted or lost.  I had finished the game with some solid decision making, but apparently my xbox only remembers about half of my time doing that.

When I went to import my ME2 character to ME3, nothing showed up, so I signed into the Origin Servers, went into Mass Effect 2 to check to see if the file was still there.  It certainly was, but the most recent save in the game was somewhere around the 20 hour mark.  I haven't even met all the characters yet...

I'm not gonna lie, I almost don't even want to play Mass Effect 3.  The most compelling part of the series was the idea that my choices directly impacted the world, and it was really cool how all the choices I made, both good and bad, were mine.  Not anybody else's pre-rendered notion of how things should be... I was a different person then! I wasn't married, I had different dreams and aspirations... my choices were mine.

Now if I want to play the game I either need to dump another 20 hours into ME2 just to finish the damn thing, or jump in and not have any of my old choices in there...  What a freaking bummer. I know some of you have played multiple characters multiple times, but something I really liked about the Mass Effect games was the pressure of choice. I tried playing a second character in ME1, but I didn't enjoy making new decisions... If I really wanted to see the outcomes of different choices, I could always hop onto youtube.

The appeal of the series to me is entirely lost.  If I want good combat, I'll just play Gears.  If I want cool characters, I could just read a book or something.  Nothing can replace the fresh eyes of my original decisions...

Mass Effect 3 - First Impressions/How To Type While Being Really Tired

For those of you that know and understand me best as a gamer you're already well aware that I'm extremely critical of sequels. Lead Salad periodically makes a comment in regards to that and it spins into a series of small jokes which ultimately makes me provide evidence that there are, in fact, sequels that I feel are better than the original (see Hitman: Silent Assassin, Gears of War 2 and Assassin's Creed 2).

It's not that developers sucked up the game, but made changes that were unnecessary and ultimately lost what made the original better. The new Batman: Arkham City is worse than the original because of the sandbox and diluted plot structure. Dead Space 2 took the intimacy of the dark horror of the first game and threw it into a linear format with way too many enemies. I realize it's preference, but I feel that if a game has something special going for it don't change the formula. Unless your Assassin's Creed. Then absolutely change the formula.

Bearing all that in mind it's with no small thought process or uncritical eye that I can boldly claim that Mass Effect 3 is shaping up to be the best of the trilogy. I'm 3 hours in and I'm absolutely blown away.

Allow me to explain.

The original Mass Effect is in the upper echelons of gaming for me. Good action mixed with an excellent overarching story, great rpg elements, a phenomenal cast and decisions that I'm forced to make that actually mean something. If I remember right my first playthrough took me just over 65 hours and I continued to beat the game another 6 times. Continually improving my character and eventually beating the game on it's hardest difficulty to import that file to Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect 2 is an excellent game. It improved combat, in a manner, but also handicapped the Vanguard class. I figured the game was being more "shooter-y" than the original and after switching to the Soldier class the game was much more fun. The story still kicked ass and the characters were as excellent as ever (yay for Garrus!). It's an epic game, but went too far in removing rpg elements out of it's rpg-ness. Leveling up was almost non-existent and customizing your guns wasn't an option outside of ammo types and armor wasn't salvagable anymore. You had to just switch around different armor pads for different effects.

Mass Effect 3 is the evolution that ME 1 to ME 2 should have been. The action is even faster and more frantic and varied than 2, but reinstates a lot of rpg elements. There are far more powers to upgrade and you're given more skill points to distribute, but at a cost of higher powers costing more points. There are also skill trees within skills that make you further plot out your strategy for battle. The graphics are improved, but most noticeably in the faces and armor. Animations are much smoother and movement in general feels much more natural. It's nice to play an rpg that isn't clunky as hell....or made by Rockstar.

Next, I'm going to do the unthinkable and draw comparisons between Star Wars and ME:

ME 1 felt like Star Wars Episode IV. You have a new hero establishing himself and realizing his powers. He ultimately saves the day.

I felt that ME 2 was still Episode IV because even though you're against great odds and there is still overwhelming doom ultimately barreling down on you you still had a big victory against the enemy. The stakes were high, but I never truly felt very helpless.

ME 3 feels like Episode V. You know. The one where the rebels get their asses kicked and Han gets frozen? The one where it seems they're up against unbeatable odds and the stakes are through the roof and hope seems lost?

To me, the game is surprisingly dark and effecting (no pun intended). There's a small boy early on in the game that Shephard kind of sees from afar and while leaving earth the ship that the boy is on gets absolutely destroyed. Being a father of a small boy it kind of hit me in a strong way. The little boy does show up again in a somewhat expected/predictable, but very haunting manner that left my heart racing. It's a reminder of what's at stake and how terribly stacked the deck is against us.

It's nice too because even Shepherd admits, in dialogue, that it's pretty helpless. He puts up a good front for people, but when he's with Liara (one of his oldest friends and he's speaking candidly) you can actually see some cracks in his unending bravado. In the first 2 games he seemed almost untouchable, but here....he seems more human. More defeated. A powerful man that feels powerless in a situation that seems highly likely for failure.

All in all I played just over 3 hours and I'm absolutely thrilled with the direction the game has taken. I look forward to plunging dozens of more hours into this first playthrough and seeing how Shephard and his crew fair in the end....if they do at all.

Also, Ashley Williams looks a lot hotter and significantly less "cross-eyed," but holy shit. She's still a bitch.

Mass Effect 3 Is Coming. Any plans?

Anyone relatively excited about Mass Effect 3?

I've been getting more and more excited as we get closer to launch and I do have it preordered already. I'm just nowhere near the level of excitement as I was for Mass Effect 2.

Not sure why that is. Maybe because I'm so familiar with the series having dumped in hundreds of hours between the 2?

I'm def most excited about my squad. Garrus and Wrex are still the greatest 2 NPCs of all time. I'm excited to see where this next game takes them and to battle with them one more time. I hope I can manage to keep everyone alive, but Garrus dying in a blaze of glory while taking out a Reaper would be a bitching end to an absolutely badass and deadly character.

I'm currently attempting to finish my final playthrough of ME2 on "Insanity" difficulty as that's the profile I want to import and I want that Platinum Trophy!

Anyone else getting it at launch?