Strategy Informer  

That pic raises my hopes of improved customisation :)

Do not be so high on your hopes. It is just a DLC content that will be present in your game if you'll buy Reckoning Kingdom of Amalur. There wont be customization such was in ME1 (Not just visual, but fully armor, with its characteristics) .

And it seems that U3 engine still in that shape, not upgraded at all...they could add DX10 at least.

@Chosen_One: No. That DLC is for playing the FREE demo.

Does it changes anything?

The armor increases all of your damage. The gun fires discs that explode.

Very average Reqs, but then most are these days....until the game is released and the cavalcade of bugs and hardware conflicts occur.
What IS surprising is that these games are connected, as one will be Origin-only ("ME3") but the other not. Very weird.

I like that they've stopped with the ridiculous speed of extra graphical power rising. Fact is that graphics are at a stage where improving them takes enourmous resources for a small payoff. Mass Effect doesn't need to look exponentially better with every release because it will still look good and had all the graphical tools any "director" would want to use. It's becoming more of an environment of style over power, which is definately a good thing.

Mind you they won't stop trying to make super realistic looking games etc, but it shouldn't be the main drive of any game. Supreme example of that: Crysis. Great visuals, crap plot, crap motivations, fairly bland gameplay despite the fancy nano suit.

@herodotus: Mass Effect 3 is *not* Origin-only. It can be bought on Direct2Drive, etc. It just REQUIRES Origin to be installed for activation and DLC purchases.

My mistake. The trouble is Direct2Drive is going over to Gamefly shortly and that requires it's own service (like Steam and Origin) to run so I would not be buying it from them. Besides, EA products on D2D are not diistributed Worldwide but restricted to UK/EU and North America/Canada/Mexico.
Gamersgate and Steam will be global if they release the game, but it will still be top dollar at $80-90 here. No game, I'm afraid is worth that.
@SirRoderick
The flipside of course is best shown by "Dragon Age II" and the demo for "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning". Crap visuals, crap controls, crap gameplay and crap motivation (the latter two only hinted at in the demo).
So basically you end up with a crap console port, with limited to no PC customisation. I hope this will not be the case for "ME3".

DA II did not have crap visuals in my opinion. That actually looked better than DA:O, which was the only improvement in there. Odd.

One more thing: orange/blue contrasts.

I.am.so.sick. of that contrast. It's everywhere, once you notice it it just does not go away anywhere. Nearly all major movies and games, it's like the lazy styling option. ME2 had that in abundance as well. Killzone uses nothing but, just off the top of my head.

EDIT
...erm, no offence to whomever designed this site. :/

Hmm, it is odd. I thought "DA II" just had the same-old-same-old look that all multiplatform games have, particularly when simply ported to PC. Even "W40K Space Marine" simply looked "okay".
Perhaps I was spoilt by "The Witcher" and other games made for PC, or at least doing as much as they can within the limits of the hardware architecure they are releasing for ("Batman: Arkham City, for example).

Speaking about the plot...ME 2 plot was horrible...and visuals could be better.

Again with the visuals...ME 2 looked great! I'm baffled by the difference in opinions there.

As for the plot, not stellar but not bad was my opinion.

Well, for example some are saying "SW:TOR" looks great, while others (and I'm talking the professional reviews here) say the visuals are kind of okay but not anything to write home about. It all depends if you like BioWare's engine or not. I'm not overwhelmed by it, but then not sick to death of it either as I am with the Creation Engine Bethesda uses.
I thought "ME 2" looks good, not great but not bad either. I have seen better, though.
In an RPG, particularly the Third and First Person types today visuals are extremly important to many. I used to always just "fill in the blanks" with imagination (it's all we had with text-based titles), but once you've been awe-struck by brilliant visuals just once, you expect it consistently.
I'll wait and see how gamers receive "ME3" before dropping a wa of dosh on it. I still want "SW:TOR", and almost gave in on an impulse the other day. Trouble is, it's just so damned expensive here.

Oh my... I need this game nao! :P
I hope I can see Tali's face!!!