Wow, that sounds remarkably sophisticated, and on the SNES as well! Nice find, gpstr. Hope you�ll continue to sink much time into it


Are you playing on your own childhood system btw?

Well... it's not a "childhood" system - I'm older than that. My childhood system was the Atari 2600.

I do actually still own my SNES, and most of the games from it (though I've sold off some of the better ones when the prices got high enough to justify it), but that's all carefully stored away and appreciating. I exclusively play on emulators, in part because it's cheap and convenient, in part because it makes it possible to play things I wouldn't be able to play otherwise (like fan translations of Japan-only games) and in part because it stresses me to play on the console. Every time I put a cartridge in, I swear I can actually feel the tiny bit of abrasion - the little bit of plastic and metal that's being ground away. I'm just more comfortable knowing that all of that stuff is stored away, not being worn and torn and potentially damaged.

I see what you mean. It�s not quite the same on the NES though with the Zero Insertion Force thing, so I can play on it without worrying too much



But selling games because the price got up.. You just don�t do it!! ... If you�re a Collector, that is..

That game sounds really neat, gpster. Holy [censored], that was SNES? Never heard of that game. Sounds awesome though. Some of those Nintendo games were incredibly creative, and I'm not just talking about Final Fantasy, either.

I don't know how it works on SNES, but with the original Nintendo, I used to clean the metal contacts with isopropyl alcohol, otherwise the picture would get funny after awhile with some games.

Oh, and I'm playing Oblivion this weekend. Big surprise, right? I keep getting urges to return to one of the Tomb Raider series, but I haven't got the time. What I'd REALLY like to do is have a look at GTA: V. I wonder if this is mod-able, yet. One of my daughter's friends' older brother has this game, and although I forbid her to play it, I couldn't help but watch him as he was gaming the other day. I can't play as a guy though, I'd have to mod a woman character in, instead. I'm spoiled by Beth games, I suppose.

Isopropyl + qtip = we�re in business

Has anyone ever played Divinity Original Sin? It is on my list of games to try. But before I spend $40 I'd like to hear what people who have played it have to say.

I am done with Amazon Total War for the foreseeable future. I reached 51 territories with Amazonia, and the long campaign victory condition is only 50. For some reason the victory window never kicked in. My guess is that it might be because 4 of my territories are from the Parthians, who are my protectorate. That means their territories count toward my total. But perhaps not where the victory conditions are concerned?

I kept going for a little bit, but then got a CTD at turn end. I could go back to a previous save. But at this point the turns take forever. That is one of the downsides of this game. The minutia of managing fifty settlements, hundreds of units, generals, spies, assassins, etc... really bogs things down in the late game. So I declared victory.

Now I have moved back to NWN1, where I still have Persephone's game to finish. She recently had to switch to a bow to shoot some orcs who were otherwise unreachable. Afterward I unequipped the bow, but forgot to equip her sword again. She ran into an Ettin soon after, and after Persephone killed it with just a few hits, I realized that she had done it with her bare hands! Her sauce is definitely most awesome at this point.

I have played some turn based RTS games in the distant past - and do recall that it could take a long time in late game to go through all your holdings to ensure everything is set for the next turn.

Purse Phone = Awesomesauce indeed!

I'm still playing Uncharted Waters: New Horizons on SNES (emulated).

It's really a tremendous game. I can't recommend it strongly enough, for anyone who likes strategy, exploration and open world (and even a bit of roleplaying), and isn't put off by 16bit graphics. It's just amazing.

I could (and actually started to, but thought better of it) write a whole wall of text about it, but... I won't do that. I could spend that time playing instead.

playing Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War. Played it approximately 39385629 times through on the 360 but now i have the fancy updated Xbox One version, which includes Bladestorm Nightmare which adds things like goblins and dragons to the medieval setting. Haven't got round to starting Nightmare yet, having too much fun being a (very biased) mercenary.

This updated version has way better graphics and character customization as well as some little gameplay changes that make everything easier to plan out during battle. The best part is that you can now create multiple characters alongside your main mercenary who can do their own thing during a battle or add their squad to yours so you can command up to four units (max. 200 soldiers overall) in one super squad.

In other news, only 3 days until The Witcher 3 is released. I'm rather looking forward to it.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Playing The Witcher 3. Absolutely fantastic game, having so much fun. So many locations to find, monsters to hunt, people to chat to. Really beautiful game, and hunting monsters has real depth to it.

For example, in a quest I just completed, I had the option of killing a rare monster or performing a ritual to appease it. It was unhappy at people setting traps rather than hunting properly. After tracking it through a beautiful, ancient forest and learning that it protects the village nearby by being bound to a random villager I decided to help it out. Several wolf-hearts-burnt-at-a-shrine later and the skies filled with ravens as a sign that the monster was happy and the village was safe once again.

Rarely do games live up to the name 'Open World'. Yet here we are.

Also, now I have a fancy Xbox One I can do screenshots. Spending lots of time exploring the nordic islands of Skellige.

The sun trying to peer through the clouds

Skyrim-esque feel to this one

This is gorgeous! I never saw any screens or vids of Witcher done on the exterior, these are fantastic!

Hazmick - MALX is right, the game does look gorgeous and Skyrimesque. I've heard about the Witcher series and it seems well-thought of. I like the open world aspect. Looks like its challenge would be playing a character that is simply given to you instead of being able to create your own. Let us know how it goes!

The Boy is playing Witcher 3 right now. He�s been waiting all week for Friday when he could get his hands on it. It looks gorgeous, but I got so motion sick after less than a minute I had to leave the room. He was running around inside a fort or something and you could see over the walls to the mountains. Ugh, I really wanted to watch!

Great pictures, hazmick. Enjoy!

What causes that? I get it really badly playing Oblivion, or especially watching someone else play it that is very fast or moves the camera a lot. (like happens in some gameplay vids).

I would guess camera movement. He is very fast and jerky with the controller.

Yes, the jerky action of the camera from side to side is a big cause for me.

Lots of times in gameplay when someone is going somewhere they know well they will hurry through on a run and just dart their "head" from side to side like they are checking the place out (or trying to show it to the viewer) - that kills it for me, I get severe motion sickness and the rest of the day is shot for me.

But my question - what I was asking was: I wondered if there was a cause physically in some people that makes them get motion sick watching gameplay when others don't. Because my son never gets motion sickness from games, and I have staggered from his room sick after watching him play for a relatively short time - and he feels nothing, goes on playing for hours with no problems - and the oddest thing about it is, my son used to have seizures riding in cars when the sunlight flickered on the car window through trees - strobe light effect. But he is very fast and jerky with the controller in games and never gets sick.

Head-bobbing in games does make some people sick. Many games have an option to turn it off just because of that.

I got sick playing Oblivion the other day, but played Fallout 3 all those weeks without getting sick once.

What I used to have to do to watch KC's "Aravi" vids was to stand behind the chair at my desk and watch them, because if I sat too close to or at eye level with the monitor and watch gameplay vids I get sick.

Re: motion sickness from camera movement - I get a bit of that playing Oblivion, or more accurately I did get a bit of it until I installed ChaseCameraMod?, and I've never played without it, nor have I ever had any motion sickness, since.

It seems to not actually be related to the camera movement itself, but to the camera movement not corresponding with point of view. In the vanilla game, the camera lags behind changes in the point of view, and it appears to actually be that lag that causes the motion sickness, since the mod definitely works for me, and all it does is eliminate the lag, such that the camera just stays in position behind the character at all times.

I suspect, but don't know, that if one is susceptible to that motion sickness, it's just that much worse watching someone else play, since you don't even have that bit of warning you'd have if you were playing. At least when you're playing, you know when you're turning the character's head, so you can be a bit prepared for the camera motion. When you're watching someone else, it just happens.

To the thread topic: STILL playing Uncharted Waters: New Horizons on the SNES (emulated). Just this morning, I finished up the last of the six available characters/scenarios. I'd actually already started a replay of one of them, but set that aside for a bit so I could finish the first playthrough of the sixth one. Now that I've finished that one, I'm going to go back to that replay, and I'm already planning a replay of at least one of the other characters as well.

Thanks for the tip on the mod, just downloaded it and will most def be trying it out. Appreciate the help!

I hope whoever you're talking about is pretty mature. The Witcher series is known for having incredibly adult themes like explicit sex.

I don't know about the explicit sex, but I can confirm that the Chase Camera Mod works as advertised. I have been using it for a while. The weird, laggy camera in Oblivion always got to me as well. It never made me sick, but I never liked it.

Another endorsement for the Oblvion Chase Camera mod. Pseron Wyrd turned me on to it many years ago and I've had it installed ever since.

Come to think of it, a good Chase Camera Mod would probably make explicit sex scenes better to watch as well...

...


KABOOOOOM!


*mALX's head explodes. She hurries off to buy Witcher*




*




For sex scenes on the run?


Yeah, I had a great looking guy pounding on my door all night last night, I finally let him out,






Well, I did install that mod, and Acadian suggested I toggle the grass off too - trying that as well.

I'll probably get in game again tomorrow and test these changes out a bit; so for right now I'm still playing Oblivion, lol.

Thank you everyone for your help on this, it is HUGELY appreciated, especially if it works!

I just figured I'd warn Grits as a matter of courtesy, I wasn't sure how old the person she was referring to was.

The Witcher series is definitely not for kids. The violence is extremely detailed, there is explicit sex/nudity, and more adult language than an underground fight club.

I think it's refreshing because it is a game for adults and it makes no apologies for this. It's a dark, gory, terrible world that is extremely detailed in it's lore. Basically it's an average medieval fantasy story without the rose colored glasses most people wear when revisiting the renaissance.

Witcher update, brought to you by hazmick Entertainment Industries.

So I finished the main story. It was full of twists and turns, ups and downs, I laughed, I cried, I thought "woah" quite a lot. But seriously it's a really well written story, which actually changes on the choices you make. You meet loads of characters as you go and feel a real connection with them as you help them out or whatever you choose to do.

One particular section that really impressed me was with a character known as the 'Bloody Baron' and it involves several different characters, including the ghost of a miscarried child. Can't say more without spoilers, but by the end of it I felt invested in the story of these people and actually cared how it turned out.

Kiln's right about those adult themes, it has loads of 'grown-up stuff' but it's all there for a reason and isn't just thrown in for fun. They handle loads of themes really well. Side note: not quite as much sex and nudity in this one (that I've seen, I don't go looking for it). No shortage of attractive sorceresses though, as always.

You get to play as a character called Ciri for a few levels in the main story. She's kind of the adopted child of Geralt (it's a long story) and trained as a Witcher when she was younger (just without the mutations). She also has pretty cool magic abilities. Her sections of gameplay allow you to build her up as a character since the entire Witcher 3 story focuses on Geralt looking for her. Their relationship is so adorable too. Warms my heart.


Also completed all of the Witcher contracts. These are individual missions where you hunt a specific monster for a reward. Basically what Witchers do everyday. They're supposed to be side quests but each is so well written and full of flavour that they're more like mini-stories. Hearing people talk about monsters, going off to track it down, preparing to fight it, the fight itself. Really fun.

Now I'm just exploring the open world a bit more, doing some treasure hunting quests for some witcher's armour. Finding hidden gems all over the place.



More screenshots for you to peruse, I can't stop looking at stuff!

Walk in the woods

The witcher fortress of Kaer Morhen

Some secret place

edit: Not sure why the picture quality suffers so much when I upload them from the Xbone (via OneDrive). Darn it, Microsoft. The graphics are actually stunning, I promise.

Thanks for mentioning The Witcher 3�s mature content, folks. Though I call him �The Boy,� he�s not a kid any more. I appreciate you looking out for him!

These screens are amazing! From your description of the storylines and quests, I am really fast becoming interested in this game, it sounds Awesome!

Hazmick Entertainment Industries - Thanks for the update and new screenies from W3. The game does indeed look great!

Wow hazmick, Witcher 3 looks amazing. Have you read the books? I downloaded some fan translations of them from The Witcher forums years ago, and I wasn't impressed with them. It being next-gen/pc only pisses me off though.

Does it reference any of the events of Witcher 2?

Recently I've been dragged back into Mass Effect, and have smashed my way through ME and ME2 with an Adept. I'm not sure if I'll pick up 3 though. The ending of that game is just awful.

But all of your actions determines whether the universe explodes in red, green, or blue! What is not to like about that kind of depth, and control over the outcome of the story?

I haven't read them, but I want to at least check them out. Heard mixed opinions from various people.

There's a couple of references, but the only actions from W2 that seem to matter are those involving sorceresses and Letho. Bit of a shame after I poured so many hours into helping the elves out back in the day.

Choices in W3 at least have an immediate effect, regardless of how important they might be. I guess if you knew which decisions were important it would make the games feel a bit less interesting.



As for ME3, the game itself is really fun though! Regardless of the last 5 minutes. Sentinel class all the way for me

Or I can download the extended endings Bioware made, refuse the ridiculous logic(and I use the word quite wrongly there ) of the starchild, and watch as Bioware flip me the bird in a special ending!



In my opinion there are only two worth reading: The Last Wish and The Sword of Destiny. Those two each contain several short stories revolving around Geralt, very well written, better than the other books as far as I'm concerned.



Well that's disappointing. So the whole Roche vs Iorveth thing doesn't really matter then?

Roche deserved better than that.



I'm toying with the idea of picking it up preowned, it's cheap enough(and that way Bioware doesn't get any money from me ) and switching off after taking down Marauder Shields. That way I get to skip that trainwreck, and he completes his mission of saving me from the ending

I'm also playing Witcher 3 right now... I have to say, it is, bar none, the best game I have played in years.. In fact, it may actually be the best game I have ever played, period. There is just so much they nailed... and I am enjoying the way they married a deep story (or "stories" might be more accurate) with a stunning open world..
I also loved the first two titles in the series.. but with this finale instalment CD Projekt has raised the bar to an entirely new level, not just within the RPG genre, but gaming as a whole.

*sigh* I sound like a "fangirl" don't I?
I don't usually get like this, but Witcher 3 has completely swept me away.
Of course, all of this is very subjective...


Though, very seriously, it has been an awesome year or so for good, more story-driven RPGs... the best in a very long time, and it's wonderful.

Roche and Ves are still around, and you get to do some stuff with them, but Iorveth isn't even mentioned.

I am currently downloading the Witcher 3. It came for free with my new video card. I doubt I will ever actually play it though. I am tired of games that force a male protagonist on me.

I don't know if I should be pleased or taken aback that there are already three patches for the game, and it has only been out for about a week?

I also wondered why they didn't give a Male-Female choice, but dialogue files are huge and there is a tremendous amount of it already in the game. I thought that may be why - but then if they can change your point of view to that childs, ...???

And I wondered (since it was said that there was explicit sexual activity in the game) - is there a way to take into account the Player's preferences in gender? Are all the sex scenes made involving Geralt; and if so is he strictly hetero? That would kind of limit the enjoyment for anyone that wasn't, I would think.

I have to agree with you on your edit: On the one hand they are jumping on ilssues quickly - that is good. On the other hand, why did it ship with errors to begin with?

Still, I have to give them kudos over the way Bethesda handled Skyrim issues or how New Vegas issues were handled - at least they are doing something to fix their gaffs and not telling everyone they will "Get to it once the DLC is finished."

("We're working on the DLC right now! WHEEE! - pant, pant ... aren't you excited about that? Oh, those silly game ending errors? Pshaw, don't even think about them, we have DLC to give you soon!!!" - OR - "But there are DRAGONS! PANT, PANT! DRAAAAGOOONS!!!!!!")

So yeah, just the fact that they are tackling them is an improvement, lol.



** By the way, the Camera Chase mod and toggling the grass seems to have helped me a lot !!! Thank you everyone for all your great help and suggestions!

On a completely different topic:


I bought my son ESO, and have him setting it up. When he gets time to play on it, I'm going to watch his gameplay and have him give me reviews and tips, etc.

Everyone I know that has tried it has loved it tremendously, and I know several who are playing it solo now. That was the biggest encouragement to me, knowing it could be played solo, lol.

So possibly in the foreseeable future I may be playing ESO.

For that, you have to blame the author of the books. In the Witcher universe only men can become Witchers, so playing a female character would require a major change in gameplay to account for that, or a major change to the Witcher universe.

Well, there's that and...



The problem with letting the player take the role of an established character. I would assume, based off the books and the previous games, that it's all hetero. Witchers are sterile, and Geralt has the unfortunate character trait of taking advantage of that. A lot.

Oh, thank you for the explanation! Well, for me that kind of kills my ability to roleplay the game. It might be a great game for one play through, though. But I wouldn't want to buy the game under those circumstances. If I got it for free, I'd probably try it though.


*

My son started in on ESO tonight. So far it is looking Awesome! A bit confusing, because I was having trouble figuring out who was a Player and who was an NPC - well, some were working so I knew they were NPC's; and some were running around madly, so I knew they were Players; but the ones walking or milling around - those I couldn't tell.

And some character came up and attacked my son's pet imp and then attacked my son for no reason - in the middle of a town. Neither my son or I could figure out if it was an NPC or some crazed player. My son finally killed him because the guy wouldn't leave him alone; and there was nothing on his body to indicate if it was Player or NPC! (So still don't know, lol).

Right now he is still just trying to figure out what the/his objectives are.

All the conversations are run in a small box on the left of the screen, and the print on the conversations is so tiny I can't read it - my son can't read it either, it is that small.

But the game itself - the graphics and sheer size of it is AWESOME! The characters are lifesized, the ships really look like ships and not small replicas. It is an amazing game so far!

My son has played online a LOT before, so he will orient himself a lot quicker than I will be able to - but for right now he is playing solo.

I am seriously considering sneaking on while he is at work and starting a character in the Ebonheart just to try it out, .



*

That�s sounds neat, mALX. I�d love to hear how solo play works out. So far the gameplay videos I have tried to watch have been too much jumping around and jerking the camera, so I�ve mostly seen screenshots. The world looks great.

Thanks all, for the reports, info and observations regarding ESO and W3. Both look to be pretty neat. I'll be watching both and look forward to hearing more about them both.

I got Witcher 3 going last night, and found that one of the three patches was not really a patch. I got the pre-order version (which might be the only version), which lets you install the game before the official release date but not play it yet. The first 'patch' just unlocks the game and lets you play it. I assume they did not make that available until release day. Which is actually rather clever, as it took a long time to download the entire game, and a loong time to install. The whole thing is about 22 gig, so I can see why. It probably would have really hammered their servers if everyone was downloading the entire game at once on the first day.

I noticed from the first cinematic that it is another 'Dark' Fantasy genre, which does absolutely nothing for me. I am not sure if I should think the people who write this stuff are fictional racists who hate anything that isn't human, or if they despise everything that is human. I note that they always portray humans as enslaving every other race, apparently due to the natural racial superiority that comes with being human. But then on the other hand, they always portray humans as being nothing but petty, bigoted, violent brutes. Which granted much of RL history does support. But it also ignores much of RL history to the contrary.

After the first cinematic there was another cinematic (so is there an actual game in here? Or is it just a 20 hour long cinematic?). Sorry, that is a pet peeve of mine. I hate games that start with seemingly endless cinematics. Yes, I am looking at you Mass Effect 1. I buy a game because I want to play it. If I wanted a movie, I would have bought a movie.

Anyway, the second cinematic is an example of that sexual content that so many people have already brought up. I would not call it hard core porn, as there was no genitals in view. Just a lot of scantily clad flesh (does Geralt shave his legs?), which served absolutely no purpose. Except perhaps to titillate a very young audience. I would say that it also firmly establishes the heterosexuality of the male protagonist (which is of course the most important thing in any story ), but the way Geralt appears be wax his entire body seems very metrosexual, which in turn is not a great way to trumpet the fact that sausage is not on his menu. Maybe they are throwing a bone (all puns intended!) to all the gay guys out there playing, as Geralt is certainly no fem, fat, or hairy.

I also noted that his naked body seems a lot more slim and trim than when he is clothed. I guess his armor adds about 200 pounds, and an extra ten inches around the waist? I was under the impression from screenshots and the like that he was a guy in his fifties, with grey hair, a beard, and a bit of a gut that comes with age. But the guy I saw a the beginning of this game was a stereotypical hunky stud-boy, like you would see on the cover of GQ. Except for having lots of scars of course. That was a letdown. I liked the idea that the hero was an older guy who had seen a lot of miles, and had a face and body that showed it.

OTOH, I saw some pics online of the new character Ciri, and I liked her. She has some big whopping scars on her face, which I loved. She had the usual body I (and I think most women) would murder for. But the scars take her out of the stereotypical cute girl sex symbol territory, and make her feel more like a real person.

In any case, it is all I needed to know I never want to play any further. I am glad it was free.



mALX, I am interested to hear what ESO is like as well. It sounds like I imagined. Pretty to look at, spoiled by some intentionally annoying person. Was your son in Cyrodiil? I understand that is the only player vs player area. If it was somewhere else I imagine it was an npc who attacked him. Unless it was a player using hak to circumvent the pvp rules.

You can't get to Cyrodiil till you reach a very high level, it is blocked completely before then. And yes, Cyrodiil is the only Player VS Player (from what I heard it is a massive battleground there, which means I'll never want to go there, lol).

I don't know what (if anything) keeps Players from attacking Players before then, though they are not supposed to and I'm sure if complained against they could lose their play privileges. I

What made me wonder if it was a Player rather than an NPC was that he was in the first town you arrive at - Inside the town - which is why I didn't think an NPC would be attacking his imp or him.

Plus when he died, there was no way to search him. If it was a Player, he won't be playing long if he is attacking other Players.

But before that happened; my son had been supposed to be talking to an NPC in a particular store. The store was full of people, but none had the little white arrow over their head. He was trying to talk to people, and kind of bumping into them thinking they were NPC's - then suddenly realized they were other Players, lol. So it is possible he ticked off some volatile Player, lol.

But if it was a Player mad at my son, and he said something in the conversation thread - neither my son or I could see it, the printing is so tiny on that thing.

My son is going to set up the character gen page before he leaves today so I can play on it a while.


@ Grits - I saw the same thing you did in the gameplay vids, all that jumping around turned me off wanting to play it all this time - it was the screens and friends who played it raving about it that got me interested again.

But never having played online before - I wanted to go solo too. My allies don't fare well in melee with my characters, I hit the wrong people with both weapons and healing magic.

My son said that online game is all about creating a small group of friends who each have a needed skill set to ensure the group survives and prospers. "Tanks" take the damage for the group (Orcs/heavy armor); the healer keeps everyone fighting; etc. As a group you strategically plan the battles and how best to defeat the enemies.

The enemies are leveled to be powerful enough to be a challenge for a group of players; and I don't know if their level drops based on the numbers in the attack. If it does, then playing solo would work very well; but I don't know if it does or not.

My son said that even the best multiplayer game in the world is only half as good if you try to play it solo, for him the group adds tremendously to the experience.

But for me, I want to play it solo till I feel very comfortable with the game - then maybe just one or two close friends, no group of strangers.

*

I can relate. Absence of racial options are just as annoying.


This perfectly articulates my biggest (though certainly not my only) problem with the industry right now!


I think this might be on a sign hanging in Todd Howard's office!


'Rosa, you just made my day! Dismissing over 100 hours of potential gameplay over two opening cinematics of a dark racist fantasy setting where the overcompensating hetero male protagonist may/may not wax his legs is just brilliant!!

(Oops� it occurs to me that the above may come across as sarcasm. Believe me when I say that it is not. You always know what you like and what you don't, and I love it when you articulate your reasons.)


I am right there with you on that, mALX. I don't need gaming to be a social activity. In fact, I tend to play a game when I need to avoid social activity.

I am looking forward to more of your perceptions of ESO. I was firmly against playing it before, but you are slowly drawing me back to the fence.

Potential gameplay? That sounds like a bunch of internet rumors and innuendo to me! All I saw was cinematics. It isn't a game, its a movie!

Seriously though, it was Mass Effect 1 that really, really made me furious with cinematics at the beginning of games. In that game I spent five minutes creating my new character's face, and then 10 minutes watching one cinematic after another, and another, and another, and another. Then when I finally got to actually play the game I looked at my character's face. My response was "Oh hell no!" Then I had to start the game all over again, and create a new face again. And ten more minutes of cinematics. Repeat this about a dozen times, and I was ready to throw the game disc through my monitor.

One thing I have to give Bethesda is that they at least keep that sort of thing to a minimum. In Oblivion you get a little teaser video that you can escape out of, create your character, and immediately jump into the game. Skyrim has an intro cinematic, but it is at least only about 3 minutes long, and then you can start playing.

Imagine me then with my well-documented case of restartitis! I made at least 20 versions of the same character before I even got into the meat of Mass Effect 1 (only to end up saying to-hell-with-it and running the default Shepard). I could recite every line and nuance of the opening cinematic before I even knew what the game was about!

ME2's opening was even worse. It lasted a full 17 MINUTES!!! And that is when you import a character. Imagine having to sit through that whole thing and then having to create your character's face!

ME3's opening cinematic might actually be one of the best things in the entire game (and the rest of the game is excellent, despite Callidus' spot-on assessment of the ending). The opening cinematic truly sets the stage and the stakes and gets the player invested in Shepard's struggle. If you can slog through 90+ hrs to get to ME3 I highly recommend checking it out.

Or you can just download the interactive comics for 1 & 2 and plug in the major decisions. Of course then you have to sit through about 15-20 minutes of 'did you do A� or B?' before you get to play the game�