Yep the new Gameinformer has quite the information in it.
-Combat is supposed to be bigger, more challenging (but not frustrating) via better combat AI (they're talking about coordinated tactics from the enemies. I know we've seen that talk about a lot of games...Killzone 2 had the best AI of any shooter I ever played. Hope they take a page from Guerilla Games) and they've added in some new things into the cover system, mantling now so that you don't have to take cover behind every single object to go over it, as well as ladders. No more weapon restrictions either which is a relief to me...I prefer the assault rifles over the rest of the weapons. Though the Soldier is still the only class that can carry all the weapons at one time...apparently the other classes have a limited amount of slots, but they can choose an AR or shotgun if they're an adept for instance. I think the fact that an overwhelming amount of players played as Soldier had a role in that change. Good to see Bioware getting good use of the gameplay feedback they put in ME 2.
-You can pick up used weapons on the battlefield. Basically, Casey Hudson the lead dev said now that they have shooter combat, they need to get more on-level overall with other shooters. Its actually not so different from ME 2's system really, we will have to see if we can buy the weapons. They probably will use the same ones that were in ME 2, or some of them, with a few new ones added in. I saw a Revnant MG in one of the screenshots, it could be a placeholder though. There's also a picture on one page that has four weapons, 3 are completely alien to me but one looks similar to the Mattock AR. It looks like a Cerberus gun, a white rifle with yellow markings on it. I also saw an Avenger AR in one of the screenshots being used by an enemy while Shepard uses the Mattock looking rifle. You can also get different scopes, barrels, and materials to give weapons different combat effects as well as cosmetics. Each class has a unique melee attack, I guess there's going to be more of an inclusion of melee in the third game. There's a picture of a Cerberus guy with what looks like an arm-blade, and one of a female Cerberus operative with what looks like a sword...her right hand is glowing red as well. Definitely a lot of new stuff is being added for the third game.
-The class powers are going to be very powerful. The game will have you more in line of where your character ended up as in ME 2, and each power will have multiple evolved forms instead of one.
-There's a picture of I guess a Rachni that has been implanted with Reaper technology. Its a quad-petal cybernetic and flesh mixture. Ghastly looking thing. There's also what appears to be a Batarian husk (it has four 'eyes' similar to them) perhaps its a scion type thing but with Batarian DNA. Its so big that at first I thought it was a Krogan husk.
-There's a pic of Ashley with her hair down, didn't recognize her at first. Better looking I'd say. Speaking of crewmates, in the third game we should see Ashley/Kaidan, Garrus, Liara and a new guy named James Sanders (perhaps related to Khalee Sanders from the novels? Also Bioware said that hes not the guy who's sniping in Big Ben from the first trailer they released. Hmm.
I also stumbled upon this old article from IGN, which I had read on the ME wiki but just realized that the James in that email might just be James Sanders...probably only important if you romanced Ash in the first game. Some sort of love triangle maybe in ME 3.) They also saw/heard Wrex, Mordin, Legion and Anderson. There's a picture of Anderson in body armor, but Bioware said he's a "placeholder". No idea what that is supposed to mean. So there's no way of knowing yet if he can fight alongside you. Ambassador Udina and Illusive Man are going to play a role as well. Cerberus is apparently trying to stop Shepard.
-They've improved the technology that reads your decisions and how you view cutscenes and such, so hopefully no more obvious hitches as the game reads what you've done and what to show you.
-Fun fact: Apparently thresher maws can go toe-to-toe with a Reaper starship. Damn! Thank god for Tuchanka.
