I agree, whatever class/ability synergies the magics create will be of extreme interest to me. I love ME3 because I love the opportunities for teamwork that biotics and other abilities create. If Destiny is able to present a similar system of game mechanics, it will be super fun.

Man, I am really in the mood for some Warp Reave explosions right now.

I'm only slightly better at Halo than you, Jilly, so I feel the same. A Bungie game with the kind of focus on co-op I've seen in ME3 or BL2 is really exciting.

Basically, anything like the glory days of two-player Contra is boss.

(And Kal, you totally need to play with us.)

So me, MacPhisto and BlueNinja were playing a lot of Mass Effect on Thursday after the Reckoning kit dropped. We discussed, for a little bit, how much we enjoyed ME's multiplayer.

In fact, those of you who have had the misfortune to meet me at LANs know how badly I suck at Halo. I can barely scrape through a match and I don't enjoy it. My Halo stats are mostly inherited from when my sister and I shared an account. I thought that I just didn't like competitive play, or that I just didn't have the co-ordination, so I had no strong hopes for Mass Effect. But quelle surprise! I love Mass Effect's multiplayer. It's maybe the first time I've really 'got' the 10 seconds of fun rule.

Now I'm very much about glass cannon classes, again something that surprised me. I'm more excited about Destiny's versions of multiplayer now I see biotics magician characters in there too. I'm looking forward to greater flexibility of play, particularly when we have big open worlds to explore. But what I'm really looking forwards to is dropping into mass effect style multiplayer matches in the middle of my campaign.

ME3 multiplayer is a bit different, but you guys should try some Reach or ODST Firefight multiplayer. Reach especially has a bunch of built-in Firefight custom gametypes that are pretty similar conceptually to ME3 multiplayer.

Personally, I hope future Mass Effect entries are built around co-op multiplayer, because even before I heard ME3 multiplayer was gonna happen, I was excited by the potential.

Holler if you need someone to set up your biotic detonations.

~M

I like ME3, but the mechanics of movement, level design, and other gameplay elements are much more rigid and limiting than in Halo. I never got the chance to play Firefight in ODST, but I had a lot of fun with it in Reach. I also enjoy the ME3 multiplayer, and it seems to foster true cooperation better than some of the Reach Firefight modes (although if you stuck with the classic setup in Firefight, you really had to play smart to survive after a while, instead of just competing for the highest score).

I have mixed feelings about unlocks, though. Sometimes I feel like I'm grinding during ME3 MP, which bores me. But the powers definitely add a lot of interesting mechanics. I'm hoping that Destiny will have the strengths of both: the open and responsive gameplay of Halo, with the tactical and character-building elements of ME3, and then one-up both of them by adding in expansive, sandbox-like environments.