Mass Effect 3

[rajpoot]

We can sleep easy on closure rajpoot EA is not about to let the biggest story of 2012 just fade into the back catalogue.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

In other news, Gibbed's savegame editor for ME3 is out, as is the Coalesced file editor. Handy little tools I highly recommend.
(Although, fair warning, Gibbed's editor can glitch the save games. I edited a few talent points into mine to check out Nova, and then all of a sudden my points started resetting automatically, randomly after cutscenes.)

[gaelic cowboy]

Huh, I had been given the impression that this was the last shepard ME game.

Yes Shepards story not the end of The story

Assasins Creed has managed quite well with 4 main characters at this stage Altair, Ezio, Desmond and the new one coming soon dunno his name.

[Greyblades]

Yeah but if this is the end of shep's story it feels way too empty for me.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The only options are all basically screwing over the galaxy at the behest of a genocidal, transparant star child with suspect intentions and bad logic. Your crew just fleeing the final battle abandoning thier leader and being marooned. It just feels wrong for such a story to end this way.

[Monk]

Had they even provided a Dragon Age Origin-esque epilogue where they had these screens with small passages about the various characters, it would've gone a long way to improve the ending. Because most people AFAIK aren't bothered by the lack of logic or coherence, but by the lack of closure for the characters they invested so much in.

That's really my only complaint, but its a small one in the grand scheme of things. As i said, there was a definite need to be able to use investigate options in that final conversation. A lot could have been put to rest if you could have just said a few things and got a little more exposition. The vague (almost cliff-hanger) ending with your squad mates and the state of the galaxy is a bit meh as well. Bioware concluded the Reaper, War, and Cycle story arcs in a neat package but left a lot of things open. Future DLC? Time will tell.

Although if you take the Red ending, the tease they give is downright unfair.

Yeah but if this is the end of shep's story it feels way too empty for me.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The only options are all basically screwing over the galaxy at the behest of a genocidal, transparant star child with suspect intentions and bad logic. Your crew just fleeing the final battle abandoning thier leader and being marooned. It just feels wrong for such a story to end this way.

I've said my peace in this thread on why i believe the endings are not so bleak as everyone makes them out to be. We'll have to agree to disagree at this point.

edit: If the next game gets a new main character, personally, I vote for Garrus to take over the lead.

I think the world is ready for Mass Effect 4: Calibrations.

[Kekvit Irae]

There are a few things in the ending that really ticked me off.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1. It has been established in Arrival that the destruction of a Mass Relay destroys the entire system. So no matter which choice you take at the ending, it always results in the massacre of trillions of people. With different colored explosions, of course.
2. The squadmembers who appear in the ending cutscene with Joker are randomly picked, with at least one from your own party the moment Harbinger bombarded London. How the hell did Javik get on the Normandy from Earth in that short of a time?
3. Even if the Mass Relays didn't nuke the entire galaxy, you've still committing entire races to their extinction. Need I remind you that the entirety of the galaxy's fleets are in the Sol system? And how Turians, Quarians, and the Volus (if you picked up that lone Volus dreadnought from scanning) cant eat anything produced from Earth? And how Earth is lightyears away from any reasonable planet with food suitable for them with no chance of resupply? Yeah.
4. You know all that trouble you went to in scanning planets, making hard decisions, and maxing out your War Assets (5000)? It only grants you a single, short cutscene where Shepard survives...
5. ...and only if you pick the option to destroy all synthetic life everywhere. All those hours making nice with the Geth and finding out they were actually the good guys in the war that chased the Quarians out of their homeworld? Gone. All those VI's that regulate important duties on a ship, such as not exploding the ship during heavy engine duress? Gone. EDI? Gone. All to save a single character.
6. The Citadel is taken by the Reapers. Ok, I can get on board with that. What I cant get on board with is that there is absolutely NO mention of the Citadel Defense Force or anything else that required me to make hard decisions on the Citadel back when it was in the hands of the Council.

All I want is proper closure. Bioware robbed me of that.

If the next game gets a new main character, personally, I vote for Garrus to take over the lead.

I think the world is ready for Mass Effect 4: Calibrations.

Garrus teamed up with Blasto. We need this to happen.

[Kekvit Irae]

Oh, and a special note to Human Vanguards:

If you do a Biotic Charge and then Nova, you are the reason we lost The Game. It's viable on Bronze, but if you do that on Silver, don't expect me to go out of my way to revive your sorry butt, and I'll be the first one to votekick you out of the team.
Nova has its uses. Nova is wonderful. But Nova right after a Biotic Charge WILL get you killed. A PROPER Vanguard will Nova first from cover THEN Biotic Charge to restore shields, finishing off with a shotgun blast to the face.

[Monk]

Oh, and a special note to Human Vanguards:

If you do a Biotic Charge and then Nova, you are the reason we lost The Game. It's viable on Bronze, but if you do that on Silver, don't expect me to go out of my way to revive your sorry butt, and I'll be the first one to votekick you out of the team.
Nova has its uses. Nova is wonderful. But Nova right after a Biotic Charge WILL get you killed. A PROPER Vanguard will Nova first from cover THEN Biotic Charge to restore shields, finishing off with a shotgun blast to the face.

THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THIS.

[White_eyes:D]

I play as a Asari Vanguard....what does Nova do again?

The only time I almost was kicked from a game was after we won...ironically. One of those "I helped you win but because you had the lowest score, we don't need you" monuments. Talk about ungrateful...the fourth player even bailed mid-game and we still won, I think I pulled my own weight at least.

[seireikhaan]

I play as a Asari Vanguard....what does Nova do again?

The only time I almost was kicked from a game was after we won...ironically. One of those "I helped you win but because you had the lowest score, we don't need you" monuments. Talk about ungrateful...the fourth player even bailed mid-game and we still won, I think I pulled my own weight at least.

It's that hammer shockwave thingy the human vanguards can do. Very nice damage and stun, and technically zero cooldown. But has this nasty drawback of sorta using your barriers to power the move so you're instantly one shotted the second after you use it. Tends to make people hate vanguards. Asari vanguard is better than human anyways, stasis > nova, even with all the armored reapers. Also, the teleport dash is far superior to any roll, if you're judicious in its use.

[Kekvit Irae]

And don't even get me started on the Vanguards who think it's cool to use Biotic Charge in the final seconds of an extraction wave. You're hurting everyone, including yourself, out of 10000 exp gained from a full extraction just so you could get 500 from a kill.
Partial extraction + kill = ~5500 exp.
Full extraction = 15000 exp. Do the freaking math.

[Monk]

New packs are available for purchase with your credits. "Equipment" packs that give you mods, missiles and lots of medigel. Basically if you need the essentials more than you need weapons they are a very good investment. Interestingly enough its marked to expire in 120 hours. Perhaps we'll see a different kind of pack for sale after its gone? Maybe character packs?

On the ending discussion: Bioware is doing some massive trolling with their twitter accounts, here's something i found posted on the main forums.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Some twittering with the devs - are we trolled or they are up to something that will blow us all away?

User 1: "I still want to believe you guys are sneaky trolls and have something going on you don't tell us yet. Can I get a cryptic reply?"
masseffect: "The sun, it shines. www.youtube.com/watch"


User 2: "You are either a massive sadist or a beacon of hope."
masseffect: "Can't it be both?"


User 3: "I kinda feel lost after that ending...not what I expected and left me feeling everything done was for nothing."
masseffect: "We know it's a lot to take in! But hang in there. Your decisions matter."


User 4: "Are you holding something back, that could quell the large amount of frustration from the community, a tiny hint would be enough."
masseffect: "Mike Gamble already said on his twitter, if the fans knew what was in store, the reaction would be different."


User 5: "I loved 98% of ME3..but something has to be up w/ ending..too much talent at BW for that business. Keep my saves?"
masseffect: "We're keeping our saves, that's for sure."


User 6: "Fans are people too. Playing with their minds isn't that nice as it may look like to people from Bioware."
masseffect: "We're not playing with anyone's minds, we are answering what questions we can and recording what feedback we receive."


User 7: "Its not that the ending was taken in the wrong direction its that it makes NO SENSE. Ashley was on the Normandy? she [was] with me."
masseffect: "Probably a good thing to be cautious of."


User 8: "Do y'all have any ETA when more news will be released? Dying for news on a new ending/DLC."
masseffect: "No ETA yet, but you will be updated via Facebook and Twitter when the news is available :)."

And some more:

User 1 -Well, i think i'll stop naggin you and trying to get you to talk about the indoctrination theory. :( Good game though!
Merizan - I want people to make up their own minds right now, then when more people have played we'll talk :)

User 2 - then I want to SEE that he was lying. I want to get up and finish the fight with Commander Shepard. Then retire.
Merizan - augh. want. to. discuss! Staying spoiler free for now :P

User 3 - But should've confronted the kid instead. Shep went meekly into the night.
Merizan - are you sure he went meekly into the night?

At this point who the hell really knows what the plan is for this game.

edit: took out @ signs because here at the org that hashtags a user name, and that might be annoying.

[seireikhaan]

I'm sure they have something planned for 'ending dlc'. Even taking out people's general dissatisfaction with the lack of closure, if nothing else, the end sequence after the credits simply hinted waaaaaaaay too much at it. No idea what, but I'm not complaining if they want to do something about it.

[Kekvit Irae]

I just just three things from the ending DLC:

1. I want closure.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I don't care about the status of Commander Shepard. In fact, I think it's a better idea to kill her off and keep her dead. She was a legend, but was still mortal; someone who wouldn't have a second thought about sacrificing herself to save the galaxy. No, what I want is the ability to see what all the choices I made from ME1, ME2, and ME3 had, post-Reapers.

2. I want

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

the Mass Relays to be preserved.

This closes the biggest plothole in the ending.

3. I want the DLC to be free. I hate sounding like an entitled git, but seriously, have you seen EA's stocks right now? Releasing it free would only do good for both the players and the shareholders.

[rajpoot]

I can't even speculate anymore as to what they've got planned. It can anything from Joker learning to drive a tractor to Hackett rebuilding Earth in a city sim. Although it does seem a little odd that they would deliberately give a cliff hanger ending and then complete it in a DLC (I mean it appears this was pre planned, and not due to everything th fans are doing). As though they did not have enough time to complete the game.

[Chaotix]

I can't even speculate anymore as to what they've got planned. It can anything from Joker learning to drive a tractor to Hackett rebuilding Earth in a city sim. Although it does seem a little odd that they would deliberately give a cliff hanger ending and then complete it in a DLC (I mean it appears this was pre planned, and not due to everything th fans are doing). As though they did not have enough time to complete the game.

Nah, we've been over this.

These days the DLC is always pre-planned. I think there was a nice chart a few pages back that gives a nice general overview (with a token opinionated statement at the end, of course).

Basically, it's all so that massive corporate publishers like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft can continue to make even more money after they sell you the game.

[rajpoot]

So it's like GRRM saying that give me more money or I kill another Stark in my next book.

[gaelic cowboy]

Anyone get the feeling some fella at a meeting said

"if we play the controversy in the right way we might sell more DLC"

"Excellant idea sir your right I alwasy said we should have a massive cliffhanger"

"Brilliant sir lets start a viral campaign to shape the debate on this cliffhanger ending too"


"There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. I am Sovereign and we have decided to sell more DLC"

[Greyblades]

Those magnificent brds.

[rajpoot]

Well there is something brewing up there is no doubt, and more and more I am inclined to believe that some of these larger movements might have some unseen hand behind them. I found a link to the feed for the charity, and apparently many people have contributed upto $100.
But the stunner is that yesterday one person contributed $10,000!
(link, you need to scroll down a bit, it's at 14 March 2012 09:38)

Edit:

There's also this rumour, it supposedly started on 4chan but still.

[gaelic cowboy]

It's not beyond people to start controversary on there own product sure they knew it had sold a load before people copped the ending.

Why not get people mad and direct there energy, look at that fake Kony thing it's a classic example of money grubbing chuggers.

They have done this on purpose

[Monk]

Well there is something brewing up there is no doubt, and more and more I am inclined to believe that some of these larger movements might have some unseen hand behind them. I found a link to the feed for the charity, and apparently many people have contributed upto $100.
But the stunner is that yesterday one person contributed $10,000!
(link, you need to scroll down a bit, it's at 14 March 2012 09:38)

Edit:

There's also this rumour, it supposedly started on 4chan but still.

Yes I've heard that rumor before. It allegedly comes from the same anon who discovered the DLC companion's files already in the base install/on the disk, which tends to make people a little more believing. Add to it the blatant teases being thrown around by Bioware and you've got an interesting rumor that is, unfortunately, still just a rumor.

Bioware does not have a track record of offering free DLC. The Cerberus Network is the exception, which was thrown out the window with the From Ashes idea, so again, who really knows? All anyone can do is speculate which is exactly where we were before.

I have to agree with Kekvit, if they offer it for free then this might turn out to be the biggest misdirection (and save of face) in recent memory. If they end up charging for it, there will be considerably less fanfare/acceptance. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this ends up getting sorted out. Plus I want to play a Geth in multiplayer. Is that so wrong?

[gaelic cowboy]

I thought that From Ashes being on the disc was disproved in the end, it was like how people could kinda add in kasumi in me2 without downloading her loyalty mission.

[Monk]

I thought that From Ashes being on the disc was disproved in the end, it was like how people could kinda add in kasumi in me2 without downloading her loyalty mission.

From what i've heard all his assets are on the disc, which includes models, textures and a good percentage of his lines. The only thing missing is the mission.

[SwordsMaster]

For those interested in how desperate developers' situations are:

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/w...hat-comes-next

[gaelic cowboy]

From what i've heard all his assets are on the disc, which includes models, textures and a good percentage of his lines. The only thing missing is the mission.

Yes and that would mean the DLC was required to be bought surely to actualy use the character properly and to it's fullest.

Mass Effect 3 day one DLC files spotted on disk, Bioware respond

[Monk]

Yes and that would mean the DLC was required to be bought surely to actualy use the character properly and to it's fullest.

Mass Effect 3 day one DLC files spotted on disk, Bioware respond

Okay? I wasn't arguing anything one way or another on that issue. My stance on the day 1 DLC was expressed on page.. four or so, i don't know. It's back there pretty far in this thread and it hasn't changed really. I brought it up due to the rumor at hand allegedly originating from the same individual. Whether it did or not is probably highly debatable, but its what I've seen claimed numerous times around the internet so i felt the need to mention it along with my thoughts on the subject.

[rajpoot]

I have to agree with Kekvit, if they offer it for free then this might turn out to be the biggest misdirection (and save of face) in recent memory. If they end up charging for it, there will be considerably less fanfare/acceptance. Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this ends up getting sorted out.

Offering such a DLC for free would give their PR a big boost, but would be the complete opposite finances-wise. I mean if there is any guarantee that fans will buy a DLC, it would be this one. No matter what happens this DLC will sell.
Obviously as you say that would be kind of bittersweet for everyone because then people will say that they deliberately withheld endings to make more money and it'll be the From Ashes thing all over again. But then I don't think EA/BW are much bothered by controversy now. I mean, just count. DA2 and Mike Laidlaw, the Origin software fiasco, then SWTOR and people getting angry about canon, then the attacks on Jennifer Hepler, then the From Ashes controversy and now this ending controversy. Quite a handful.

Plus I want to play a Geth in multiplayer. Is that so wrong?

I think the question is, does that geth have a soul?

Edit-
BTW if anyone thinks that this discussion is getting redundant then just say so, because I get the feeling that I am the main promoter of this subject and I'd rather not be the cause of unpleasantness on our nice little forum.

[Monk]

Offering such a DLC for free would give their PR a big boost, but would be the complete opposite finances-wise. I mean if there is any guarantee that fans will buy a DLC, it would be this one. No matter what happens this DLC will sell.
Obviously as you say that would be kind of bittersweet for everyone because then people will say that they deliberately withheld endings to make more money and it'll be the From Ashes thing all over again. But then I don't think EA/BW are much bothered by controversy now. I mean, just count. DA2 and Mike Laidlaw, the Origin software fiasco, then SWTOR and people getting angry about canon, then the attacks on Jennifer Hepler, then the From Ashes controversy and now this ending controversy. Quite a handful.

Well I don't think its fair to lump in the failings of the DA and TOR teams into all this, and that's a line I draw that a lot of others don't. The Mass Effect team has been largely much better than both of those teams in how they deliver the final product, as well as their overall business practices. ME3 was the change of that which has everyone ranting off about the other branches' failings.

Yes I think it's obvious the DLC will sell no matter what anyone does or says to the contrary. But I also think it's a matter of bioware laying in the bed that they choose to make. I'd also be concerned with attrition rates among the people who bought ME3 and those who eventually play the DLC. There's always a natural falloff of people who don't get DLC whenever they buy a game - it would bug the crap outta me if i was on the writing staff to know a large amount of people didnt get the "full story."

I guess we'll see come April. I'm bracing for the inevitable flood of April Fools jokes in regards to this topic, by the way.

[Kekvit Irae]

Ran into my first cheater. t15hd79 was firing the Widow as fast as the Viper without reloading or going back for ammo. :/

[rajpoot]

The Final Hours of ME3

Interactive iPad App for 3 bucks. Supposed to be the story behind how the devs reached the current endings, contains a few scenes that were cut and has some sort of an explanation for the ending.

Unfortunately I don't own anything with an 'i' before it. So if anyone else ends up getting this, please post spoilers.

Edit:
It's going to come out on the PC and Mac too, eventually.

Already found some spoilers about the endings as they were supposed to happen.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Apparently the theory going around about current endings, that Shepard gets indoctrinated in the last few minutes of the game was actually on board sometime during development.

Also they cut out some of the more.....sadistic scenes.....like the deaths of Garrus and Liara.