18 replies to this topic

[theacefes]

So, I pre-ordered ME3 and its guide a month ago from Best Buy and everything was good. Today, I received an email telling me it would be ready to be picked up at the store tomorrow. Nice, right? No. I get another email saying there is a problem with my billing.

I called them and wanted to know what was going on. Turns out that when you pre-order stuff online and pay in full, they do a fake charge to your account in the full amount to make sure the funds are still there. They do this check once a week until the item comes out. Then right before the item is ready, they do an actual charge. Since I ordered on a Monday and the game comes out Tuesday, for some reason my account was checked for the full amount and also the attempted charges were made. My bank put a hold on my account since it looked like Best Buy was trying to charge me twice.

After an hour sitting on the phone, I sorted things out. But it makes me debate if I'm going to pre-order again in the future. I hate ordering anything from Amazon since something always goes wrong with shipping dates and item availability and Gamestop has too many assholes working for them.

Then again I have gotten lucky- didn't preorder DA2 but when I went to Best Buy on launch day there was 1 copy of the special edition left. It was a preorder someone didn't pay for.

Anywho, just wanted to share my fun experience.

[cmorgan]

Hmmmm.... no email on mine yet from Best Buy. Perhaps I'd better give them a call.

[Eleima]

I've rarely had any issue with pre-ordering, and when things do go smoothly, I never regretted it. Of course, I don't get my game on launch day anyhow, because I always have to have it shipped overseas, but nonetheless, I'm sticking with it.
The only problem I ever had was when I pre-ordered my ME3 CE from Game.co.uk, and they cancelled my pre-order literally a week before launch. But then again, Game is having major issues, and we all had our pre-orders cancelled and scrambled to find an alternate way of getting it (exclusive rights to selling the ME3 CE were transferred to other retailers, so all's well that ends well).
Aside from that, in the past, I pre-ordered Skyrim, my ME2 CE, DA:O, DA:A, DA2, AC2, AC:B (yeah, not going down *that* road again), and Portal 2 (I wanted a box, I'm old-fashioned that way). Quite a few of those were pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk, and they've always provided stellar service.

[Yovaneth]

I've just got the 'it's been despatched' email from Amazon. Date of expected delivery is Friday, but that's just Amazon covering their ass; I bet Royal Mail will have it here tomorrow.

@Ace: Good on your bank. PIta it may have been but it shows that they're doing their job.

-Y-

Edited by Yovaneth, 07 March 2012 - 03:27 AM.

[Yovaneth]

It's arrived... but I suspect that it won't let me install until tomorrow... so I'm not even going to try!

-Y-

[Almateria]

Activate it on Origin, download it, then proxy out to the US and play before the release date!

[cmorgan]

You might be better off waiting a day or two - two patches so far, and some odd stuff. BestBuy pre-order bonus items were solved nicely, in my case, and very quickly; just some silliness with whether or not the code would come on the receipt or via email. But mic issues for me, and lots of bug reports.

[Eleima]

I got my "dispatched" e-mail yesterday. Apparently, there are loads of bugs, namely with the save import from ME2 (the face gets totally messed up). Didn't check the patches yet, but hopefully, they'll address this sooner rather than later.

[Yovaneth]

I'm still playing ME1 on a 'final' runthrough atm; in truth, I had no real intention of even loading ME3 until it's been well and truly patched. I'm definately not an 'early adopter'!

-Y-

[cmorgan]

Yovaneth, you are a smart dude. I am messing about with multiplayer, which is suprisingly fun (only two or three games with mic chatter about how kwewl they were and how sucky the enemies were; and Retribution lifted her shawl and engulfed them in the form of a banshee.. ) .
It is silly, as expected, with folks kicking low level characters out before giving them a chance on Bronze. But every once in awhile it is kind of cool. I just am not technically ready for Silver, so puttering around learning with whomever will play is enough. I really have hopes for group play with friends, though. The bigg taught me alot in just a few games.
What I should do is let BioWare fix the bugs while i complete the rebuild of my ME2 Paragon save, and begin sacrifices to the Gods in hopes that EA will become enlightened. (Unicorns and puppies, everyone; remember, rose colored glasses make everything all right!!)

[Archmage Silver]

I received my CE in the mail yesterday. Impressions to follow on a later date.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 10 March 2012 - 11:09 AM.

[Yovaneth]

I really have hopes for group play with friends, though. The bigg taught me alot in just a few games.

Well, if it's possible you could count me in for next weekend. Currently I'm four hours ahead of you and one behind The Bigg. Generally I hate online with strangers simply because as you say, the 'early adoptors' think it's funny to instantly kill off those who are just starting to try.

-Y-

[Kulyok]

I finally "got" the ME1 controls and got over "ugly" ME1 faces(high textures did the trick), so I'm going to finish ME1, go through ME2 and try ME3 in a couple of weeks. I hope it's going to be interesting, though I heard a distirbing rumor that you'll have to play through ME3 *twice* to get a better ending. I hope that's not true - that'd be boring, right?

[Yovaneth]

The 'rumour' is that you can't get a good ending unless you had been through the multiplayer scenario. Unfortunately, according to many news sites it's a fact, not a rumour. The only other way to get a half-reasonable ending is not to play through twice but to ensure your ME1 and ME2 Paragon rating is full.

So much for EA's promises that not playing multiplayer wouldn't affect the single-player campaign. I've been an un-fan of EA ever since that epsiode where they took my money twice for a DA DLC and refused to refund it until I got one of the large American consumer associations involved.

-Y-

[Kulyok]

No, no, you don't have to do multiplayer, thankfully, according to Bio guys(no-spoiler link): Bioware forums. It's just I reat at ign.com that there was a secret ending for those who already finished the game once, but it seems they already disproved that. Or at least I hope they did, because I really don't like being *told* to play the game several times, whether for a better epilogue or better weapon bonuses.

Anyway,I gotta check if ozon.ru has ME3 in English. Thank Bioware for giving DA2 users some ME2 for free.

[Archmage Silver]

Hm... I really should try ME1 with some mods.

The graphics were decent enough back then.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 12 March 2012 - 11:03 AM.

[the bigg]

You don't have to do multiplayer to get the best ending, but you'll have to grind a lot. Plus, ME3 multiplayer is co-op only, so the idiot factor is easily blocked out by turning the chat off (to avoid hearing Random Internet Guy) and playing on Bronze (so that a single failed Rambo doesn't cause an instant game over).

Edited by the bigg, 12 March 2012 - 11:53 AM.

[Yovaneth]

Thanks for the corrections guys - that'll teach me not to read further!

-Y-

[Kwiat_W]

No, I don't believe you can get "the best" ending without playing mp. I have already finished the game (it took me 44 hrs doing everything that there is to be done), I used character imported ME1>ME2>ME3, all my squat mates survived suicide mission (except for the guy without an eye, whom I have never recruited), I had bonus assets for the following DLCs: Bring down the sky, Kasumi, Overlord, Arrival (I also had firewalker dlc but I'm not sure if it gives any war assets). In all games I have done all quests I could find and in the end I was a little over 1 thousands points away from the best ending.

Since I have finished the game I have spend around 8 hours browsing the web and trying to figure out how could I get those missing points. By my, and other players, there's always around 400-500 war assets points missing.

My conclusion is that what bioware and players consider "the best" ending are two different things. Tiny spoiler below about how you achieve different endings (no story spoilers, so I think it's safe to read).

Spoiler

In the end Shepard can make one of three choices, but the third one is unlocked only if you have enough war assets. The number required is very low and easy to achieve unless you rush the game. The results of your choice also depends on your war assets. I think what bioware means saying you can get the best ending is that you get the third choice, as they consider it to be "the perfect solution", however players are interested in something else, in results of one of the other choices. To get best possible outcome in the other choice you need a lot of war assets.