As a cooperative four player online shooter Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer is very good fun and the online community have kept things ticking over all year. Â That could be all about to change though with this week’s release of Borderlands 2 to which the first seven words of this paragraph also apply.
There has been some speculation on the Mass Effect 3 forums, powered mainly by some seeming hints in recent operation status updates, about what new DLC BioWare many be about to release for the multiplayer side of the game to help it maintain mindshare during the autumnal onslaught of new releases.
[drop2]New maps and a new enemy type are of course the favourites, with The Collectors appearing at the head of a short speculative list. Â This weekend’s operation blog post doesn’t offer such grand additions to the game though and instead announces a new gun, the Argus assault rifle, which was previously only available in the single player game.It is quite possible that BioWare know they have no chance of competing on Borderlands 2’s opening week and will look to lure players back a little later in the season. Â That could work though we know that Gearbox are planning a succession of DLC releases for Borderlands 2 through to June next year.
In the short term it means that this weekend’s Mass Effect 3 operation will be especially tough with much of the player base off skag hunting.
Operation: PATRIOT (Sept. 21st – 23rd)
Cerberus continues to put pressure on our troops, hindering our fight against the Reapers. Our allies have committed their top military units to target Cerberus’ most valuable assets: their Atlas Mechs.
Squad Goal:Â Extraction on any difficulty with all squad members as the same non-human race. Requires 2 or more players in squad.
Allied Goal:Â Kill 600,000 Atlas Mechs on any map at any difficulty.
Special Circumstances:Â Escort Drones travel speed reduced.
Squad Goal Success:Â All squad members awarded a Commendation Pack.
Allied Goal Success:Â All players awarded a Victory Pack.
The special circumstances are graciously bestowed upon us for failing to complete Operation Vigilance two weeks ago. Â Same non-human race squads of either Krogan (Soldier/Sentinel/Vanguard) or Turian (Soldier/Sentinel) are likely your best bets.
Krogans have high levels of health and carry heavy weapons while also being savage in close quarters fighting. Â Turians also have good levels of health and their innate ability with weapons, represented by a racial bonus to stability, makes them very handy in a firefight at medium and long ranges. Â If you are helping with the Allied Goal, Bronze difficulty is best avoided as you’ll have very few Atlas’ to shoot.
Lastly, we come to the stats, in the form of a new infographic:
I know I will be playing some of both Mass Effect3 and Borderlands 2 this weekend, assuming my BL2 pre-order turns up, how about you?
PoorPaddy89
Haven’t played ME3 in a while. However my PC vault edition of BL2 is on it’s way – very excited! Thankfully I’ll be able to play it whilst my newly-upgraded PS3 reinstalls/downloads a ton of games, saves and data.
zb100
Sadly, I’m working on Saturday so I suspect I’ll only have time for 1 of the 2 titles & it’s most likely to be the new one.
That said, I’m getting the house to myself for a whole week from next Monday so maybe I could delay on the Lands of Border… Em, nah. Borderlands 2 all the way!
I am pleasantly surprised by just how good the multi-player portion of ME3 is and it’s great to see it being supported though.
yogh_wayne
I’ve participated in most of the previous weekend operations, but probably won’t play that much ME3 this weekend (yes, it’s because of Borderlands 2. Hurry up, postman!). But I’ll still play a few rounds and try to get the squad goal done. Hopefully there’ll be another Hurricane upgrade, or finally a Valiant sniper rifle in the commendation pack. Salarian STG, anyone?
I like those infographs they provide from time to time. But I wonder what the least used weapon is apart from the Collector rifle. The only way to get that is as promotional item with the purchase of certain Razer products, and to my knowledge it’s even XBox/PC only (like the Battlefield 3 soldier class). Oh, and the Argus wasn’t a very good rifle in single player, I doubt it’s any better in multiplayer.
Greg Aldridge
Yeah, I’ll probably just play enough to get the squad goal plus a couple of Cerberus/White/Silver missions to help out a little with the Allied goal.
Got my Valiant I, hoping for an upgrade, though I tend to use a Viper X or Black Widow I as my light/heavy sniper rifles. And agree that the Argus wasn’t much use in single player. Got one in my last Spectre pack though so I’ll try it once…
And yes, the Collector Rifle hardly ever being used is a bit of a given. Amongst the people I play online with the least-used weapons are probably the Scimitar and Tempest (except for the guns none of us have unlocked obviously).