Mass Effect 3 [Archive]

Monk

02-13-2012, 00:25

The more i see that female shepard trailer, the more I think something is terribly wrong with the textures on her face. It almost looks like a ps2 era texture. Something is very wrong with it. Maybe its me. :no:

Worse than iffy is their choice for voice actors for the new characters: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/...ebrity-talent/

And the new characters themselves: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/James_Vega

I mean, do we really need Jersey Shore IN SPACE?

I'm not really worried about that. A much more incompetent branch of bioware than the ME team managed to write SWTOR, and that had some really good storylines in it. Way better than an MMO deserved to have and was the sole reason i stuck with it for as long as I did.

I liked every aspect of ME2 even the absolutely stupid 180 degree shift in tone that was the final boss fight. Mass Effect is an oddity for me, its the one series thats going in gaming that I just can't be objective with. ME2 fixed or removed everything I hated about the first game, and ME3 looks like its just improving on that. I dig the universe and the overall story, even if when you boil it down, its just a generic sci-fi trope of "Everyone come together to fight the ancient evil." I want to see what they do with that, even though I think i have a pretty good guess how they are going to end this with the hints they've been dropping.

I will play it day one. It will either confirm Mass Effect as my favorite gaming franchise since the original Metroid games, or utterly crush my heart in a flurry of cliches and half-thought storylines.. Either way. It will be one heck of a ride.

Who am I kidding. I'll love it no matter what. Such a dumb fanboy when it comes to ME.

Kekvit Irae

02-13-2012, 00:46

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

Alexander the Pretty Good

02-13-2012, 05:21

I just finished a ME 1+2 femshep (nearly full paragon, about half renegade) in anticipation. Even if it's bad I'll see it through. Hopefully I can just never bring the crappy characters anywhere (sorry, Kaiden and Jacob). If not, well, they're ablative armor for Shepard. :3

a completely inoffensive name

02-13-2012, 07:19

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

Yes, because it's the same exact people working on all of them, right?

rajpoot

02-13-2012, 08:20

Considering how bad Dragon Age II and SWTOR are, I have little faith for ME3.

Thing is the Dragon Age team had a switch in team leads mid series.
Plus they never hid the fact that they were taking the series into a different direction (what they did hide was that they'd been smoking something dreadful while they decided that direction).

ME3 team is still led by Casey Hudson, and I don't think anything apart from the shooting mechanics would be changed much. The story itself might turn out to be a little cliche (it's a well beaten genre after all), but with all the old characters from ME and ME2 coming back and the ever-excellent voice work, I'm sure the game won't disappoint.

CountArach

02-13-2012, 08:27

Worse than iffy is their choice for voice actors for the new characters: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id/4783/article/mass-effect-3-s-obsession-with-celebrity-talent/
I'm going to trust BioWare. They have a history of hiring amazing voice acros (Claudia Black as Morrigan for instance) and I don't doubt that whoever they hire will meet their own expectaitons.

As for the game, I have not been this excited by a new release for quite some time. I'm replaying as Paragon FemShep to prepare myself.

Monk

02-14-2012, 21:19

Finished the demo. Interesting.

They chose the opening of the game (essentially the tutorial) and a later mission to showcase. Most of it was quite actiony and very little dialogue options were available. If i had to guess I'd say they did that on purpose. Don't want to spoil people with your demo any more than you have to - but still its always nice to see how expansive your talking options are, which we sadly didn't get a feel for.

The ME games have always had a slow start. 3 does not. Action starts relatively quickly and is interesting from the start. Your backstory/import options are talked about in between firefights and during the brief pause in the fighting of the tutorial.

Combat feels tighter and very kinetic. Movement as well is highly improved over ME2, its much easier to move around and not feel like you weigh 400 lbs. I was skeptical about playing ME3 multiplayer at all, but I can for once see why they chose to develop it. Feels like enough of an improvement to really make co-op worthwhile and not a chore to slug through.

Grenades are back! That alone is cause for celebration. Glorious, tasty frag grenades. How i missed you.

Health system has combined the systems from ME1 and ME2. Your life is broken up into bars, your life will regenerate one its own but only to fill up the bar that you currently reside in. So if you're down to 2 out of 5, you can only regenerate to fill the second bar. You have to use medigel to recover lost bars of life. Feels like a compromise between people who liked the ME2 system and those who liked the ME1 system. Can't complain but I would rather they went all or nothing in one direction rather than hit a middle ground.

Heavy melee system feels like its not gonna be used much if only because the gunplay feels much better. Stabby time isnt as fun as shooty time.

Some of the abilities were bugged. When i died the bugs disappeared and the abilities worked fine. Strange.

This demo is a horrible tease. Lots of action, lets me customize a character but doesnt let me import and doesn't show off its dialogue options to any great extent. Still, its fun which i suppose was the point, and it got me curious about the full game. Will have to check out the multiplayer after the 17th when they let everyone in.

Alexander the Pretty Good

02-15-2012, 01:27

They let you import your ME2 character into the demo?

Monk

02-15-2012, 01:33

They let you import your ME2 character into the demo?

lets me customize a character but doesnt let me import

Full character customization is in the demo but there's no import, just as i said. Though i heard face codes work if you've got one from the ME2 customizer.

Crazed Rabbit

02-15-2012, 07:30

I like the new implementation of the biotic powers when you deploy them. Skeptical about the skill progression. I don't like how one using biotic power means they all have to recharge. (Was that in ME2? Haven't played biotic in that yet).

Allies seem to use biotic powers well. I liked the shooting combat.

Graphics are nice, though still low res in places. Runs well on my 2008 computer.

CR

rajpoot

02-15-2012, 07:39

Monk

02-15-2012, 14:17

I like the new implementation of the biotic powers when you deploy them. Skeptical about the skill progression. I don't like how one using biotic power means they all have to recharge. (Was that in ME2? Haven't played biotic in that yet).

Yeah, thanks to players like me who broke the system in ME1 biotics got heavily nerfed in me2. There is now a short global cooldown that activates on all abilities after you use a power.

Graphics are nice, though still low res in places. Runs well on my 2008 computer.

CR

The word circling a number of online communities and comment sections are that bioware purposefully limited texture resolution and the dialogue options in the demo in order to fit to the 2gb limit microsoft puts on demos for xbox live. Other versions of the demo were apparently just ported from that code. I cannot for the life of me find the original quote though, so take it as you will. :shrug:

seireikhaan

02-15-2012, 18:06

Tried it. Not too shabby. Combat's definitely more fluid, but I still had a couple issues sticking to walls and the like and hopping back and forth across a space when I was wanting to vault over instead. Trees seem somewhat improved- at least a bit more differentiation. Shockwave is still awful, even leveled to max. :bigcry: Ashley's appearance still bugging me to no end. Kinda wishing I could just leave her on earth. Didn't fiddle with grenades much, though the AI made decent enough use of them that I had to be aware of their presence. Heavy melee seemed to have a slightly weird hitbox for adept. Overall, fairly good. Good to see Wrex off his butt.

rajpoot

02-15-2012, 18:32

Shockwave in ME2 was only useful against husks and abominations. Against them it was devastating. You could take down a dozen of them at range, maybe even blow up the abomination and cause even more damage.
Against every other enemy it was pretty much useless like you say. But I'm sure ME3 has some kinds of husks :D

Mailman653

02-15-2012, 19:44

Can't wait to import my Shep for the grand finale of the series.

Hooahguy

02-15-2012, 21:39

Unfortunately I lost all my ME playthroughs so I have no idea what Im gonna do.

Monk

02-15-2012, 21:47

TotalBiscuit has done his usual thing - a new WTF is...? on the multiplayer component of ME3. Looks like your standard horde mode with a ME twist. Mild language warning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zkp472M1z8Y

He takes some time to familiarize with the options and the customization before going into a few games. Action starts at around 11 minutes in.

Being a huge fan of co-op horde I think I am gonna love this.

a completely inoffensive name

02-16-2012, 01:23

Unfortunately I lost all my ME playthroughs so I have no idea what Im gonna do.Google, "mass effect save games" without the quotes. There is a website full of tailored shepards for download.

Alexander the Pretty Good

02-16-2012, 01:27

Full character customization is in the demo but there's no import, just as i said. Though i heard face codes work if you've got one from the ME2 customizer.
Sorry, I think I read what you wrote but interpreted it the opposite way. :x

Unfortunately I lost all my ME playthroughs so I have no idea what Im gonna do.
You could always play through them again. :P

There's also http://www.masseffectsaves.com/ which has saves for ME 1 & 2 (I think I used it to get an ME1 save when I first got ME2). There's a ton of variety of saves so you should be able to find something approximate to what you had.

EDIT: ACIN beat me to it, while I was typing that. :/

a completely inoffensive name

02-16-2012, 09:56

https://i.imgur.com/FOhf4.jpg

High expectations.

rajpoot

02-16-2012, 10:13

Ashley looks better than Miranda now IMO.

Kekvit Irae

02-16-2012, 19:16

Been playing the ME3 multiplayer non-stop lately. It's actually quite good and doesn't feel tacked on at all. I especially like the booster pack mechanics where you can buy packs with in-game credits and have random items and unlocks pop out of it.

Vladimir

02-16-2012, 20:17

Finally watched the video in the first post. Yea, I'm terrible.

Not a big fan of the cliches but it looks like it will be very exciting. Of course, I'm a little lame and kept thinking about logistics, technology base, and center of gravity of these Reaper things. I hate the idea of reactive warfare like is portrayed in the video. It's getting hard to enjoy games anymore.

Monk

02-17-2012, 06:25

Its not hard to see why people are enjoying the MP so much, got in a few hours ago and its good. Very fun even with random strangers, though I gotta think with friends this would be 10x better. A surprising spread among the classes as well. I expected to see everyone playing soldier, but there seems to be a good even spread. Infiltrator and Engineer are tied for my favorite. :yes:

Make sure to buy some recruit packs with your credits before ever thinking about saving up for a veterans pack. The supply packs contain (among other things) super weapon ammo, if you don't have any the final two waves get very painful.

Ran into an odd bug - if you disconnect from a lobby, sometimes when you try to join a new one you get stuck on a loading screen. Only way to fix it I found is to restart the demo. Really odd.

Other than that one bug? This feels like an amazing addition to the game. Like others i was worried it would be a tacked on oddity and I was fully preparing to ignore it as I played post-launch. After the amount of fun I had tonight I doubt that's an option. ~D

Crazed Rabbit

02-17-2012, 08:23

My adept is stuck using warp, singularity, and shockwave. Time for a different class methinks.

Pretty solid though.

CR

Monk

02-17-2012, 13:58

My adept is stuck using warp, singularity, and shockwave. Time for a different class methinks.

Pretty solid though.

CR

Yes thats quite annoying. The different race and class combinations each have different skills so obviously you want to unlock one that has the abilities you like, the problem is its quite hard to do so. I've yet to get a single character token despite opening quite a few supply packs. Probably just bad luck of the draw. :no:

Crazed Rabbit

02-17-2012, 17:38

So I have to grind with my human adept until I get really lucky and can play the character I want? When did this become good game design?

CR

Mailman653

02-17-2012, 20:02

This one thinks that the Hanar should be made playable in MP, may the Enklinders grant this one's wish.

Crazed Rabbit

02-17-2012, 23:26

I'm Crazed_Rabbit762 on Origin.

CR

Monk

02-17-2012, 23:38

I'm HardLuckRabbit, same as my steam. :yes:

Chaotix

02-18-2012, 01:12

Just got the demo, loving the multiplayer.

I'm Chaotix2732 on Origin if anyone wants to play.

Kekvit Irae

02-18-2012, 02:44

So I've been playing the multiplayer for the majority of the week, and I finally got the Carnifex. Awwwwww yeah

Monk

02-18-2012, 02:59

So I've been playing the multiplayer for the majority of the week, and I finally got the Carnifex. Awwwwww yeah

I'm a bit jealous.

I just got my Viper earlier today and am loving it. Makes sniping on Silver a lot less stressful when you can lay down a bit of supressing fire.

I've noticed that if you want to get new weapons or characters, you absolutely need to be saving for Veterans Packs. Whereas if you want to upgrade existing weapons, you should focus on Recruit packs. Each duplicate weapon you find will upgrade your damage a bit, and the recruit packs are filled with duplicates and single-mission power ups. My starter sniper rifle (single-shot) is incredibly powerful thanks to getting like 5 duplicates. :grin2:

I've also added everyone who has put their origin name here in this thread. If you want to do some co-op (in the demo and post launch), gimme a shout.

Kekvit Irae

02-18-2012, 03:16

Seriously, the Carnifex is the Mantis sniper rifle in pistol form. Higher rate of fire too. I can one-shot normal enemies with a head shot in Bronze. I used to play an Infiltrator, but now that I have my Carnie, I am loving the Vanguard. Snipe at long range with the pistol scope, Biotic Charge in when shields are down, and lay down a Nova before going all out with my Carnie.

My origin name is KekvitIrae if you guys want to start up a team game.

Monk

02-18-2012, 07:51

Ugh. The MP is surprisingly addictive. Sat down to play a bit, looked up and it was 3 hours later. When did that happen? :dizzy:

CR, Chaotix and myself did some co-op, as well as me and CR doing some duo bronze runs when the games slowed down a few hours ago. We had some good synergy going after a few rounds which confirms my believe that this is WAY better with repeat people.

Thus far I am in love with Firebase Ghost. Its such a great map, but there's some deceptively hard to defend places. Most of the buildings are death traps on Silver, with only one or two good spots to hold down an area. Mobility seems to be the best way to defend that place, along with the area near the drop zone. I just wish people who play Krogan would be a bit more careful on Silver. You're not indestructible :no:

Not really enjoying Firebase White. Its not a bad map, but it loves to screw you over by putting defense nodes right in the middle of major spawn areas that have no cover. The node by the ship is especially notorious.

I really wish that it was easier to unlock characters as I'd like to have a Quarian for my infiltrator, but thus far all i've unlocked are races for other classes. Got a Drell for Vanguard. Bleh! Rumors going around that the full game will feature much more diverse booster packs. Here's hoping for a race unlock pack that gives you a few random race selections.

My origin name is KekvitIrae if you guys want to start up a team game.

Added you. Next time I'm on the hunt for some games i'll keep an eye out for your name. ~:)

Chaotix

02-18-2012, 20:13

Co-op with CR and Monk was fun indeed.

CR's biotic powers pretty much wrecked everything and left nothing for anyone else to kill, though. :clown:

Seriously, though- when most of the enemies don't have shields, you can toss them around like rag dolls.

Kekvit Irae

02-18-2012, 22:18

Seriously, though- when most of the enemies don't have shields, you can toss them around like rag dolls.

That's when you bring in your friendly neighborhood Engineer to Overload those shields.

Crazed Rabbit

02-19-2012, 05:23

Monk

02-19-2012, 05:39

Got a Quarian!

...

It was for Engineer.

Well whatever because I am loving Engineer even more than I was Infiltrator. Sentry turrets > Combat Drones by an absolute mile. Not at first, but once you upgrade to the point you can choose between a flame turret and a missile turret they are incredible.

Also got the long range smg unlocked but haven't had a chance to use it. I had to call it a night to write a paper after tonight's Orgah Co-Op spree. :grin2:

ggs to CR, KekvitIrae and Chaotix

Kekvit Irae

02-19-2012, 06:59

The 6th cant come any quicker. I've never been so enthralled in a demo in my life. Except for having Cerberus as your only enemy and only two maps available, the multiplayer has full functionality. You see, future game developers, THIS is how you make a demo!

Monk

02-19-2012, 12:21

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF- stop giving me mattocks game. I want more characters to play on, not assault rifles! D:

Thus far i've only gotten 2x Drell Vanguards and the Quarian Engineer I love so much. Would like a Krogan Soldier or Quarian Infitrator but I just can't get a good roll from the veterans packs to save my life. Heck at this point i'd settle for an Asari just to get some variety. I can only take a bit of hope in that apparently the full game has better drop rates according to a Bioware post.

Getting really annoyed by the "one button does it all" method of play. I never really had a problem with it in ME2, but in a fast-paced co-op environment having one button do so many things is just asking me to make mistakes. It's gotten me killed twice now. Doubt it will be changed since the game is essentially done but its a real hindrance. Not enough to ruin enjoyment, but enough to feel like i'm having to overcome it every now and again to get the game to do what I want. ~:(

The 6th cant come any quicker. I've never been so enthralled in a demo in my life. Except for having Cerberus as your only enemy and only two maps available, the multiplayer has full functionality. You see, future game developers, THIS is how you make a demo!

100% agreed on all points. The progression system is what really surprised me. I was not expecting so many unlocks in a demo of all things.

There are some leaked weapons lists from people who have hacked around in the demo files, i'll see if i can find the link again - but the full game has some incredible weapons that I can't wait to play with. Not the least of which are Geth weapons and grenade launchers.

Hooahguy

02-19-2012, 12:33

Ugh, I cant play ME3 for another at least another month. This is such a tease!

seireikhaan

02-19-2012, 17:47

Added y'all. Origin username is Seireikhaan. Getting to the point of being irritated with some of the randoms I get matched up with. Swear I have yet to see a good team playing infiltrator. Other than that, mp has been pretty fun.

Chaotix

02-20-2012, 00:35

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF- stop giving me mattocks game. I want more characters to play on, not assault rifles! D:

Thus far i've only gotten 2x Drell Vanguards and the Quarian Engineer I love so much. Would like a Krogan Soldier or Quarian Infitrator but I just can't get a good roll from the veterans packs to save my life. Heck at this point i'd settle for an Asari just to get some variety. I can only take a bit of hope in that apparently the full game has better drop rates according to a Bioware post.

Getting really annoyed by the "one button does it all" method of play. I never really had a problem with it in ME2, but in a fast-paced co-op environment having one button do so many things is just asking me to make mistakes. It's gotten me killed twice now. Doubt it will be changed since the game is essentially done but its a real hindrance. Not enough to ruin enjoyment, but enough to feel like i'm having to overcome it every now and again to get the game to do what I want. ~:(

100% agreed on all points. The progression system is what really surprised me. I was not expecting so many unlocks in a demo of all things.

There are some leaked weapons lists from people who have hacked around in the demo files, i'll see if i can find the link again - but the full game has some incredible weapons that I can't wait to play with. Not the least of which are Geth weapons and grenade launchers.

I know I've gotten at least 8-10 veteran packs and I haven't gotten a single new character, not even a new human. I keep getting repeats of female infiltrator and female sentinel. Best thing I got so far was probably the Viper sniper rifle - never liked it in ME2, but in this multiplayer setting it's godly.

So you guys are luckier than me! :laugh4:

Still loving the demo anyway.

Kekvit Irae

02-20-2012, 00:56

I have recently discovered the joys of weapon weight. Carry only a pistol (Carnifex), and your Power Recharge Speed is around +165%. I can chain spam Throw and Warp all day long on my Asari Adept.

seireikhaan

02-20-2012, 01:52

I have recently discovered the joys of weapon weight. Carry only a pistol (Carnifex), and your Power Recharge Speed is around +165%. I can chain spam Throw and Warp all day long on my Asari Adept.
Yes, a thousand times yes. I've found the carnifex with scope to be all I need with my vanguard. Rather just keep spamming pull and charge over and over again than have a second weapon I don't even need.

And apparently I've gotten somewhat lucky on unlocking classes/races. Drell vanguard, quarian engineer, asari adept. Would love to get a krogan anything, but I guess I can't be ungrateful.

seireikhaan

02-20-2012, 04:18

Yes, a thousand times yes. I've found the carnifex with scope to be all I need with my vanguard. Rather just keep spamming pull and charge over and over again than have a second weapon I don't even need.

And apparently I've gotten somewhat lucky on unlocking classes/races. Drell vanguard, quarian engineer, asari adept. Would love to get a krogan anything, but I guess I can't be ungrateful.
I should wish for stuff more often apparently. Next vet pack had a krogan soldier in it. :smitten:

Kekvit Irae

02-20-2012, 06:04

I should wish for stuff more often apparently. Next vet pack had a krogan soldier in it. :smitten:

I just got two Krogan Soldiers in a row. I think I'm in love. One game I played with him I got 75+ kills. The majority of those were melee kills.

Chaotix

02-20-2012, 08:01

Had a lot of fun playing with Orgahs again.

Got enough cash to get myself four more vet packs, none of which contained new characters! :laugh4:

Guess I'm just gonna stick with FemInfiltrator for now. I do like the Cloak/Cryo/Sticky Grenade combo.

One thing I really don't like is the smoke grenades. I guess they're good if you've got an assault rifle and just want to spread rounds indiscriminately, but they really mess up my sniper shots.

On the subject of Infiltrators in general: I'm finding they're at their best in a support role. Often CR or Kekvit will rush up with biotics and immobilize enemies, after which I promptly pop off about three or four heads in quick succession while they move on to the moving targets. Also, laying down suppressive fire is a piece of cake up on the bridge on Firebase White. On Firebase Ghost, I tend to struggle more due to the greater need for mobility- taking along the Tempest SMG for quick, close-range firefights is a better choice than the more accurate Locust.

Also, Infiltrators are simply the ideal role for reviving downed teammates and activating the 4 modules during missions. Just cloak, rush in behind enemy lines, revive/activate, and if I'm quick enough I'm often in a safe zone before the cloak shorts out.

seireikhaan

02-20-2012, 08:09

Yup, good times. Just maxed out the drell vanguard, will probably try out the krogan for a bit from now on. Overall, we were definitely doing better than the average random teams. :beam: Although I did feel like 3rd wheel at times(especially at White) due to all the havoc being wreaked by CR. At least I got to duke it out with a few of the phantoms on Mars. I've decided that's my new hobby for when I play vanguard.

And I agree about infiltrators. Depending on which race, they've got a few different nice support abilities. Cloaked res is also a plus. :yes: Definitely better than to have them go off camping somewhere trying to rack up kills on their lonesome.

Kekvit Irae

02-20-2012, 09:04

I'd much rather have a Human Infiltrator than any other race. Cryo Blast can help line up those perfect shots, and fully upgraded sticky grenades can turn into sticky landmines for 15 seconds.

Monk

02-20-2012, 17:10

I'd much rather have a Human Infiltrator than any other race. Cryo Blast can help line up those perfect shots, and fully upgraded sticky grenades can turn into sticky landmines for 15 seconds.

Also, Infiltrators are simply the ideal role for reviving downed teammates and activating the 4 modules during missions. Just cloak, rush in behind enemy lines, revive/activate, and if I'm quick enough I'm often in a safe zone before the cloak shorts out.

Stickies and clocked res are the reasons why I almost didnt stop playing infiltrator. Plant a sticky onto a phantom with a good throw and watch the AI squirm. :yes: And cloaked res is almost a necessity on silver. Its the one thing I really miss when I am rocking my engi.

Kekvit Irae

02-20-2012, 18:27

I'm kinda torn between the Asari Adept and the Human Adept. Both have Warp, but the Human gets Singularity and the Asari has Stasis. Both races are great and but situational. Human Adepts are great at capturing objectives; just lay down a Singularity at a choke point and hope nothing shielded comes through. The Asari's Stasis provides a way to completely shut down those damn Phantoms (even if they have barriers, Stasis locks them down), leading to more kills. The choice really depends on team composition. If you've got an Infiltrator on the team, there's no need to capture points using Singularity.
On the Soldier side, I'm still rocking the Krogan. Sucks at the end of mission or when you need to hold a point, but every other time you have free reign (except against turrets) over the entire map. I can even tank a shieldless Atlas. Takes about only four to five heavy melee attacks, and the Fortification power ensures I stay alive while doing so.

The biggest complaints I have are three fold, something that NEEDS a patch:
1. Hosted matchmaking. GIVE US DEDICATED SERVERS! I don't need to be jumping from one location to another back and forth for a minute just because my connection to the lobby host sucks.
2. The spacebar. This complaint has been done over and over again by others, so I don't need to go into details other than say that I've died more times to the spacebar than actual combat. And I've seen players die out because my character has developed a sudden love interest in a nearby wall instead of reviving the comrade.
3. Give us a way to view who is in the game, the score, and most importantly the ping. I cant count how many times I was the only one left alive in a wave, only to find out much later that one or two idiots left because they didn't have the patience or faith enough that the wave would end successfully. On a Silver game, having only two people left in the game is suicide.

Chaotix

02-20-2012, 19:45

3. Give us a way to view who is in the game, the score, and most importantly the ping. I cant count how many times I was the only one left alive in a wave, only to find out much later that one or two idiots left because they didn't have the patience or faith enough that the wave would end successfully. On a Silver game, having only two people left in the game is suicide.

Agreed on the first two points.

For 3, if you hit Esc then it brings up the current players and the score for each (admittedly, you have to stop killing things to do so, but checking between waves is simple). I don't think it shows who's alive or dead, but if someone leaves or joins the game it reflects that.

EDIT: Also, leaving a game after you die is stupid in general. If your teammates win, you get back in, and if they don't, the game ends and you get your experience (which is often quite substantial if you were past wave 5 or so).

Graphic

02-21-2012, 10:06

I've played the co-op multiplayer in the demo more than I care to admit. Of all the "horde mode" style game modes I've tried, its easily the best to me so far. Maybe the goals aren't very interesting, but the incredibly satisfying combat makes up for it.

One thing that bugs me though...probably 15 Veteran packs unlocked so far, and no Krogan! :wall:

It took me forever to notice that weapon weight effects recharge time. But once I did I've started making incredibly overpowered characters (like a soldier with a 1 second recharge concussive shot). BTW Asari adept is clearly superior. The stasis bubble is incredible, especially if you have the semi auto sniper with the heavy barrel to go with it. Freeze a group of enemies and get 4 headshots in 2 seconds.

Kekvit Irae

02-21-2012, 17:02

The stasis bubble is incredible, especially if you have the semi auto sniper with the heavy barrel to go with it. Freeze a group of enemies and get 4 headshots in 2 seconds.

Wait until you get the Carnifex pistol with scope. Then you will truly understand how OP your character is.

Beskar

02-22-2012, 00:43

Currently got Demo and experiencing multiplayer. The Xbox live name is the same as my forum one if you want to add me for a couple.

seireikhaan

02-22-2012, 04:38

Unlocked Turian sentinel, which leaves just Salarian infiltrator for demo unlocks. Gave him a trial run on bronze. Quite effective, he is. Probably the most harrowing experience I've had yet, because wave 5 involved one of those download missions and the engineer went down right next to a turret while we were trying to navigate to the second location. A couple medpacks and lots of benny-hill-ing later, I somehow ran my way around the enemy dudes enough to get the dl missions and slowly pick them off with the awesome combo warp and overload(albeit at cruddy low levels). Mattock with mid level stabilizing and accuracy upgrades was incredibly effective.

Sadly, wave 10 was our undoing- hold the location for 4 minutes. He went down to the phantom while I was bazooka-ing the atlas and that pretty much screwed the whole thing over, since I didn't really have any effective way of dealing with it.

http://screenshot.xfire.com/s/121815510-4.jpg

Graphic

02-22-2012, 04:54

3 times out of 5 there's always some yokel so busy showing off during the last wave that he misses the extraction, robbing everyone of 15,000 experience. It's irksome.

Kekvit Irae

02-22-2012, 18:52

Mailman653

02-22-2012, 19:24

I saw the pictures but I didn't think they would make him a team member. That's nuts though...how do they plan to explain him being alive in the first place?

seireikhaan

02-22-2012, 19:32

If in doubt, cryo. Very... strange.

Monk

02-22-2012, 20:18

Mass Effect 3 just got weirder with the addition of a day one DLC featuring a new team member. A Prothean. http://www.vg247.com/2012/02/21/mass-effect-3-from-ashes-dlc-spotted-on-xbox-live/

Pretty lame an interesting and potentially really profound moment is packed away in DLC. Especially since the Collector's Edition needed for it is so expensive. EA is already pushing what I can accept with the $60 pricetag, then.. ugh. No. No way I can afford $80 for a single game no matter how much I've loved the demo.

And, of course, people are up in arms about day one DLC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri0vrJ-y2zM)

Meanwhile at the official Mass Effect forums:

https://i.imgur.com/0t9wH.gif

seireikhaan

02-22-2012, 23:13

Having given it a bit of thought, I'm not remotely surprised at the day one DLC. Having already pre-ordered the game(too hooked on mp, let alone the main single player) to not, the main reason I went ahead and suckered up for the 'digital deluxe' was the promise of an additional party member and missions. So my best guess is all this means is that everyone else will be able to buy Mr. Cryo/Ghost in the Shell/Evil Tristan that didn't do so.

Graphic

02-23-2012, 01:02

If the DLC party member is as one-dimensional and bare-bones as the ones in ME2, I don't think people are missing out on much.

Kekvit Irae

02-23-2012, 02:35

Under all the vitriol and the shock-jock persona, TotalBiscuit is an extremely intelligent and rational person.

Quoth the Twitter:

Totalbiscuit
If it doesn't offend you then by all means purchase, your right as a responsible consumer, but at least know what you are talking about

Totalbiscuit
That is the worst bit. It's a case of making an informed and responsible purchase decision and having your own, rational opinion.

Totalbiscuit
The fact is, it is ok to like a game, or like a company, even love them, but do not allow that to cloud your judgment. Stand up for yourself

I, personally, weighed the pros and the cons of boycotting Bioware over this, and it's unfortunate to say that the cons of sticking by your guns do not outweigh the pros of finally finishing a series I love to much (as well as the multiplayer), and I will not be joining in the boycott. But at the very least I made a personal decision influenced by judging both sides of the argument, instead of joining the Cynical Fleet without a thought for myself. It's the same with the boycott of Battlefield 3 when they did the same thing with pre-order exclusive gear; I weighed both sides of the argument and decided that a boycott would be in my best interest.

Alexander the Pretty Good

02-23-2012, 02:53

I'm actually more disappointed that they decided to dig up some Protheans to talk with Shepard than EA decided to slice it off and sell it for more cash. I mean, they're nothing special, just the last round of aliens the Reapers uplifted then paved over. They should've stayed dead (I think the Collectors were a mistake in the plot as well, but at least they weren't actual Protheans).

Graphic

02-23-2012, 06:21

I got my Krogan soldier finally

...something that fun should be illegal.

Monk

02-23-2012, 08:03

Under all the vitriol and the shock-jock persona, TotalBiscuit is an extremely intelligent and rational person.

I, personally, weighed the pros and the cons of boycotting Bioware over this, and it's unfortunate to say that the cons of sticking by your guns do not outweigh the pros of finally finishing a series I love to much (as well as the multiplayer), and I will not be joining in the boycott. But at the very least I made a personal decision influenced by judging both sides of the argument, instead of joining the Cynical Fleet without a thought for myself. It's the same with the boycott of Battlefield 3 when they did the same thing with pre-order exclusive gear; I weighed both sides of the argument and decided that a boycott would be in my best interest.

That's one of the reasons I enjoy TB's work so much. He feels quite strongly about whatever it is he's talking about, but he never moves into hating on others for their choices solely for them choosing differently. He's big enough to admit when he's wrong, or to respect your opinion when its wholly against his own.

In this case I hear him fully and I don't like it any more than he does - but boycotting ME3 would be a little like not watching Return of the Jedi in a world were no one has seen the final part of the star wars trilogy. There's too many unanswered questions, too many loose ends, and a love of the series thats weighing too heavily on me to say no. Mass Effect is my favorite gaming franchise, I've enjoyed the last two games way too much, the multiplayer way too much to not buy this over something like a day 1 companion DLC.

Though I still cannot justify the digital deluxe edition, I'll stick to the standard and read spoilers/get the companion at a later date if I feel like it.

tibilicus

02-24-2012, 01:52

Are the Mass Effect 2 DLCs worth playing before ME3? As in will they effect my ME3 story playthrough in any way?

Chaotix

02-24-2012, 04:13

Are the Mass Effect 2 DLCs worth playing before ME3? As in will they effect my ME3 story playthrough in any way?

I would argue yes for some and no for others.

Arrival- this "happens" in ME3 whether you play the DLC or not. Its conclusion is why you are on Earth at the beginning of ME3.

Shadow Broker- play this if you romanced Liara in ME1 and want to keep that romance open as an option.

Overlord- mostly irrelevant to the main story.

Zaeed & Kasumi - if you want them as squad members in ME3, you have to import them from ME2.

I think those are all the big ones. The rest should be irrelevant.

seireikhaan

02-24-2012, 04:38

Monk

02-24-2012, 10:12

I'd say shadow broker is easily the best one. Even if you didn't romance Liara or anything, it's still very nice. Overlord's utterly unnecessary and not particularly good. I'd say the only major ones to pick up would be Shadow broker and Zaeed/Kasumi, and even the companions aren't exactly enthralling.

I disagree slightly. I found Overlord quite enjoyable, but despite that it is entirely skippable. It's a side-plot and is in no way tied to the main story from any indication.

Like others have said Shadow Broker is the best without a doubt.

Arrival is forgettable. Read a plot synopsis on Wiki to find out what went down, its not really worth the money to buy imo.

Kekvit Irae

02-24-2012, 11:40

I disagree slightly. I found Overlord quite enjoyable, but despite that it is entirely skippable. It's a side-plot and is in no way tied to the main story from any indication.

+1
I got System Shock 2 vibes from playing Overlord, which is always a good thing for me. The only downside of Overlord is that the ending is redundant if you did Legion's loyalty quest.

Zaeed is a good party member for shooty shooty party compositions, and his DLC is free.
Kasumi's DLC gives you a third choice during the suicide mission for the vents, and the DLC quest isn't half bad.
Firewalker was overhyped and is trash. Skip it. On the bright side, it's free.
Normandy Crash Site is just for nostalgia. Again, it's free.
Arrival... well... the ME3 demo single player pretty much tells you everything you need to know anyway.
Shadow Broker... BUY THIS. Seriously. Best DLC in ME3.

Chaotix

02-24-2012, 23:24

+1
Zaeed is a good party member for shooty shooty party compositions, and his DLC is free.
Kasumi's DLC gives you a third choice during the suicide mission for the vents, and the DLC quest isn't half bad.

I always thought it was odd that Zaeed was basically useless in the suicide mission. I expected him to be another possible Fireteam leader since, you know, he founded and lead a band of mercenaries. Especially when Kasumi gets to be a possible Hacker. He is good for "holding the line", though, when your "line" is otherwise composed of squishy aliens like Mordin and Tali.

Monk

02-25-2012, 11:20

I always thought it was odd that Zaeed was basically useless in the suicide mission. I expected him to be another possible Fireteam leader since, you know, he founded and lead a band of mercenaries. Especially when Kasumi gets to be a possible Hacker. He is good for "holding the line", though, when your "line" is otherwise composed of squishy aliens like Mordin and Tali.

The only reason I can think of him being no good is his history after leaving the suns. Twenty years of looking out for yourself above all doesn't nurture good leadership skills. Seriously, how many stories does Zaeed have where "only I made it back alive"? That guy could take the normandy crew out for lunch and somehow everyone but him would die.

a completely inoffensive name

02-26-2012, 08:38

I think the idea of not boycotting a game that is milking you of money because you love it too much is why the gaming industry is the way it is.

BF3 is easy to boycott since there are a dozen modern military FPS shooters out there, take your pick.

ME3 is something unique and story driven. I'm not advocating the boycott, but I just want to throw out there that you all are part of the problem.

rajpoot

02-26-2012, 10:08

ME3 is something unique and story driven. I'm not advocating the boycott, but I just want to throw out there that we all are part of the problem.

Fixed it for you. Unless you are boycotting it ofcourse.

a completely inoffensive name

02-26-2012, 10:14

Fixed it for you. Unless you are boycotting it ofcourse.

I'm not boycotting it, I simply don't have the time to play it. So I don't even have a chance to buy it. If I had time to play it, I would at least be honest with myself and everyone here by saying that I am a hypocrite.

Monk

02-26-2012, 13:18

I'm not boycotting it, I simply don't have the time to play it. So I don't even have a chance to buy it. If I had time to play it, I would at least be honest with myself and everyone here by saying that I am a hypocrite.

Personally I don't find the issue of day one dlc to be a deal breaker. Sure it annoys me, but it doesn't cause me anything in relation to 'outrage', and certainly doesn't get enough of a response for me to not buy the game. That doesn't make me a hypocrite, that makes me someone able to make a choice.

People are not hypocrites solely for disagreeing with your opinion.

Graphic

02-26-2012, 14:07

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17eig06xukt8apng/original.png

rajpoot

02-26-2012, 14:54

I believe hypocrite is a very strong word for such an issue. I have my own thoughts about how the money grubbing game publishers will finally be fixed but they are rather backroom-ish.

That chart seems accurate. I would be glad to know who made it though.
Also, I do feel that if any content can be made before the game is released, it should be included in the game, no matter what.

Chaotix

02-26-2012, 22:07

I don't doubt that the chart is accurate for how the gaming industry works today.

However, that doesn't make it any less BS. 10 years ago, there was no such thing as "DLC". Maybe the closest you got to that was an "Expansion Pack" for a PC game. Either way, every game was released complete (meaning, with ALL the content it would ever get), and if the dev team needed more time to fit everything in, they either got it or they didn't (and it wasn't a game worth playing anyway). And when they were done making that game, they set to work on making a new one.

There's only one reason why things aren't done the same way today, and that's because DLC, Day 1 or otherwise, is more profitable for game producers because they can sell it at inflated prices compared to the actual in-game content they contain.

So yes, the game industry is an industry for profit, and they have every right to sell their content in whatever way they want. But I won't pretend they're anything more than that, and I won't be pleased about them dangling extra add-ons in front of me with $10 price tags.

a completely inoffensive name

02-27-2012, 01:13

Personally I don't find the issue of day one dlc to be a deal breaker. Sure it annoys me, but it doesn't cause me anything in relation to 'outrage', and certainly doesn't get enough of a response for me to not buy the game. That doesn't make me a hypocrite, that makes me someone able to make a choice.

People are not hypocrites solely for disagreeing with your opinion.

If you have principles, you have principles. Saying that day 1 DLC that is not cosmetic should be part of the original game is a stance. By making the "tough decision" and deciding to feed the day 1 DLC machine anyway because you just HAVE TO HAVE the game is hypocritical. It's fine, everyone is a hypocrite.

If you have no problem with day 1 DLC, you are not a hypocrite and I never said you were.

a completely inoffensive name

02-27-2012, 01:17

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17eig06xukt8apng/original.png

That chart is 100% correct and it perfectly illustrates that what is needed are shorter games. We shouldn't be supporting a system where we end up paying $90 for a game instead of $60 because the structure of teams causes layoffs. Games should be short and sweet and the team wouldn't have to be laid off because there is a year between when they finish and when they are needed again.

Kekvit Irae

02-27-2012, 02:43

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17eig06xukt8apng/original.png

HAHAHAHAHA! No.

TB deconstructs the chart. (http://www.facebook.com/cynicalbrit/posts/333028400072644)
(language warning with the link)

Graphic

02-27-2012, 03:08

That's one of the reasons I enjoy TB's work so much. He feels quite strongly about whatever it is he's talking about, but he never moves into hating on others for their choices solely for them choosing differently. He's big enough to admit when he's wrong, or to respect your opinion when its wholly against his own.

It would seem he's moving away from that

This chart has been making the rounds and is being used by fanbois to lazily justify Bioware and EA's position. https://i.imgur.com/m77S3.png This is fairly typical, easily influenced people with weak positions tend to flock around things that look scientific. It doesn't mean it's right. To address some specific points.

Anyone who disagrees with him is now an impressionable fanboi [sic].

To be clear I don't agree with the chart (or have an opinion on it at all, really, or this whole subject) but just posted it for the sake of discussion. Still I can't help but roll my eyes at the epic terms he's framing this issue in. I recently unsubscribed...mostly because I have too many subs but also because I can use less "Game politics is serious business, bro" in my life right now.

a completely inoffensive name

02-27-2012, 04:09

HAHAHAHAHA! No.

TB deconstructs the chart. (http://www.facebook.com/cynicalbrit/posts/333028400072644)
(language warning with the link)

I'm skeptical about some TB's arguments here. He is comparing Mythic which is working on subscription based MMO that requires constant tune ups/patches, dodging layoffs with the Mass Effect team, making a one payment product. yes, big devs are not charity cases, but EA and Activision have had no problem in dismantling successful and innovative studios that have hit a rough patch or are only turning out mediocre results.

What I do agree about is:
A. Why should we care in the first place.
B. It is price gouging and is wrong.

rajpoot

02-27-2012, 04:48

I think it all comes down to whether or not one agrees with what he said at the end-

If it's done before release date, it should come with the game.
This is what happened in the olden times and this is what I would like to see now.

Kekvit Irae

02-27-2012, 05:46

This is what happened in the olden times and this is what I would like to see now.

All you whipper snappers with your xstations and your playboxes...
Why, back in my day, we had 5.25 inch disks. 3.5 if we were lucky. And the games that came with them were complete! Not like this namby pamby Dee El Cee stuff you kids are peddling.

rajpoot

02-27-2012, 06:20

All you whipper snappers with your xstations and your playboxes...
Why, back in my day, we had 5.25 inch disks. 3.5 if we were lucky. And the games that came with them were complete! Not like this namby pamby Dee El Cee stuff you kids are peddling.

:laugh3: The only console I ever owned was a Chinese NES knockoff which I used to play Contra and Duck Hunt.
And Dave, I used to love playing Dangerous Dave on the PC.

Kekvit Irae

02-28-2012, 05:18

Back to the multiplayer, the Asari Adept is now my new favorite character class now that I've got a Stasis bubble. It can lock down EVERYTHING, especially Guardians (even when using the power from the front). It's also awesome to use when capturing points since it works as a short-term landmine. Only things I cant lock down are turrets and the Atlas, but that's why I roll with an Engineer.

Secura

02-28-2012, 14:58

I really don't see what all the fuss is about with this "Day One DLC" and I certainly don't see why it's Bioware's fault. If people want to point the finger, they should blame piracy.

This Prothean DLC may well be a major piece of narrative for the game, but it was initially intended to be an exclusive bonus for the Collector's Edition; the alternative would be for EA to completely pull the content from PSN or Marketplace and leave it for CE owners. I, for one, welcome the chance to have this content as I'm only getting the bog-standard version of the game and I'm not fazed by paying a few extra pounds for it.

On the game itself, I'm totally enthralled with the multiplayer aspect like many of you. I've unlocked all the available characters with the exception of the Turian Sentinel and Asari Adept (I wanna try both before the game comes out), but I'm having a blast with the Salarian Infiltrator. Energy Drain is fantastic, both keeping me alive and keeping enemies weakened/immobile for a quick snipe. I'm not having much luck with the Vet Packs though, I keep getting the Drell Vanguard which is a little too squishy for my liking.

rajpoot

02-28-2012, 15:05

I really don't see what all the fuss is about with this "Day One DLC" and I certainly don't see why it's Bioware's fault. If people want to point the finger, they should blame piracy.

Harsh DRM or intrusive software like Origin can be blamed on piracy, but I cannot see how you blame Day One DLC on piracy.

johnhughthom

02-28-2012, 15:06

I really don't see what all the fuss is about with this "Day One DLC" and I certainly don't see why it's Bioware's fault. If people want to point the finger, they should blame piracy.

This is completely different from the other day one DLC, the likes of Shale and Cereberus Network. It's a blatant attempt to grab more money from gamers on day one. My opinion is that calling it "immoral" or similar is rather naive, EA is a business and free to charge what they want, when they want, how they want. Like has been mentioned before, if this becomes the norm it's gamers to blame, not developers and publishers. Personally I'll not be bothering with ME3, simply because I'm not overly enamoured with Bioware's recent releases.

Secura

02-28-2012, 17:41

Harsh DRM or intrusive software like Origin can be blamed on piracy, but I cannot see how you blame Day One DLC on piracy.

Playing pirate copies (or indeed, buying the games second-hand or renting them) results in both publishers and developers losing money; I recall a quote from the Heavy Rain team that claimed a few million people played that game without them getting a penny for it due to these problems.

To combat this, the base price was increased but that just perpetuates the problems, so publishers have taken to using incentives to those who buy the game new, but leaving the content to be purchased for $10 for those that want it. The thing is, how many of those people playing second-hand go on to buy that content? And what of the pirates who cannot buy it due to DRMs, Microsoft banning their console or whatever?

How does the company make money when people are experiencing their product for nothing? People may be irked by Online Passes and Day One DLC, but I feel the blame for it falls to piracy and second-hand sales more than it does the greed of publishers.

My opinion is that calling it "immoral" or similar is rather naive, EA is a business and free to charge what they want, when they want, how they want. Like has been mentioned before, if this becomes the norm it's gamers to blame, not developers and publishers. Personally I'll not be bothering with ME3, simply because I'm not overly enamoured with Bioware's recent releases.

If people weren't fortunate enough to get the Collector's Edition, and thus the From Ashes content, they'd be complaining about missing out on a major storyline and character arc; instead, EA opt for making this content available for purchase for those without the CE, and there's still complaining. What are they supposed to do in this situation? What would people prefer?

As for the fans boycotting the company by not buying Mass Effect 3, that's their loss. It's like watching two thirds of a film and then walking out. They'll all cave in eventually, once they start hearing about the game.

johnhughthom

02-28-2012, 17:58

It's like watching two thirds of a film and then walking out.

Not really, unless it was a film in three parts. Part one was something you enjoyed immensely, part two still enjoyable but moving away from what you enjoyed about the first. Then you remember the other recent film from the same company, where part one was fantastic, and part two was a complete piece of ****. Pattern of decreasing quality, from my point of view anyway.

As for missing what happens, I always thought the story was hugely over-rated. Sentient machine life wipes out biological life when it reaches a certain level of technological advancement, yawn, it's been done to death, and done a lot better with more believable universes. My favourite science fiction book series for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe) (released seven years before ME, just for the record).

Still everyone here seems to be enjoying it, good for them. Just don't assume us ME1 and 2 players who aren't bothering are feeling a sense of loss. :wink:

Monk

02-28-2012, 18:08

As for missing what happens, I always thought the story was hugely over-rated. Sentient machine life wipes out biological life when it reaches a certain level of technological advancement, yawn, it's been done to death, and done a lot better with more believable universes. My favourite science fiction book series for example (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe) (released seven years before ME, just for the record).

Still everyone here seems to be enjoying it, good for them. Just don't assume us ME1 and 2 players who aren't bothering are feeling a sense of loss. :wink:

Its a bit funny. ME is without a doubt my favorite franchise in gaming at the moment and I enjoy the story a lot, but you're right, its quite an average (bordering cliche) storytelling trope. Its generic sci-fi to the point that a lot of people have made the claim its made that way on purpose in an attempt to mimic to cheese of 80s sci-fi miniseries. I don't think Bioware is smart enough to go that far but I like it all the same. Subjective opinions and all that. ~:)

As for multiplayer, I havent played much of it since being involved with CKII - but what little i've played I've been continually frustrated with my unlock purchases. Still not a single race other than Quarian or Drell. That's just insulting. :sad3: Will probably let the demo lay until launch day since its so close, and i have other things to worry about.

For those planning to play multiplayer after release my Origin name is linked in this thread. I'll be up for co-op post launch.

johnhughthom

02-28-2012, 18:14

rajpoot

02-28-2012, 21:07

Graphic

02-29-2012, 07:01

Thing is no matter how many restrictions the publishers place on their content, DLCs and game, pirates do and will eventually get it. And the publishers know this. AFAIK, till date there are no full proof means to prevent a game from being cracked.
So if the publishers are really releasing the day one DLCs to combat piracy (which I doubt) they are merely wasting their time, and earning the ire of paying customers.

There is only one that I know of so far: ArmA II.

If anything is out of the ordinary at all with the files, eventually your guns become so inaccurate that you literally cannot hit the side of a barn at ten paces.

There's no way around it because it's part of the game's design, not just some stuff slapped on top of it.

Its a bit funny. ME is without a doubt my favorite franchise in gaming at the moment and I enjoy the story a lot, but you're right, its quite an average (bordering cliche) storytelling trope. Its generic sci-fi to the point that a lot of people have made the claim its made that way on purpose in an attempt to mimic to cheese of 80s sci-fi miniseries. I don't think Bioware is smart enough to go that far but I like it all the same. Subjective opinions and all that. ~:)

Well, the (awesome) 80s synth soundtrack adds at least a little circumstantial evidence for that theory.

naut

02-29-2012, 11:24

So... the script leaked. It's terrible. Discuss.

Graphic

02-29-2012, 13:18

It's totally fair to judge a script from a video game with branching conversations and a million game states based on your choices from the first two, and no voice acting or context for any of the scenes.

rajpoot

02-29-2012, 13:26

So... the script leaked. It's terrible. Discuss.

:dizzy2:
I did not even hear when this happened. I googled it but then realised that I did not want to click on any of the links no matter what. Been waiting to hear the end of this story since...ME1...lol. No use spoiling it now!

Graphic

02-29-2012, 14:23

Monk

02-29-2012, 14:52

So... the script leaked. It's terrible. Discuss.

https://i.imgur.com/i0H6i.jpg

Alexander the Pretty Good

03-01-2012, 01:27

Where is it / what's so bad about it?

easytarget

03-01-2012, 02:14

Probably best to ignore my opinions on modern Bioware games. I'm one of those grumpy old-timers who hate the fact that after releasing KOTOR, Bioware realised they could churn out the same game with a different theme again and again and people would lap it up. And we wouldn't get Baldur's Gate 3. :wink:

This, exactly this. Bioware in its current state as judged by the games they put out would not recognize themselves if the company they were previously bumped into them today. In fact, the good doctors would no doubt have done a re-enactment of body snatcher pointing at who they are today in horror. I know I do.

Oh, and to Monk's point above about the story, so true. Gaming when it comes to story telling doesn't even count as being in its infancy, that would give it too much credit and suggest it's doing even as good a job at telling a story as silent movies did in the beginnings of cinema. When in reality most the stories in games are laugh out loud bad.

And in closing, I count myself among those who will never, not in a million years, ever buy a game EA publishes and tries to shove down my throat via Origin. I will, quite literally, quit playing PC Games before I'll ever buy anything affiliated to EA. Period. Full stop.

naut

03-01-2012, 09:41

BioWare might change Mass Effect 3 script in wake of leak (http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/11/16/bioware-might-change-mass-effect-3-script-in-wake-of-leak/) (No spoilers, just article).

Unfortunately the early script reads like very bad fan-fiction, Dragon Age 2 bad. Fortunately now it's leaked it'll likely see changes.

Where is it / what's so bad about it?
If you want to spoil it, here (http://pastebin.com/ferTx1qx). DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS.

Graphic

03-01-2012, 10:01

How can they change the script? The game has to be days from gold status.

Also, this:

"He added, however, that Mass Effect isn’t a book. It’s much more than words on a page, and things like facial expressions, music, lighting, choreography, tone, and setting all drastically alter the way a story’s told. A script, then, is hardly indicative of the final product."

Crazed Rabbit

03-02-2012, 04:11

Useful for ME 1 & 2 playthroughs; a great texture mod:
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/01/26/mass-effect-texture-mod-makes-massive-improvements-to-main-characters/

CR

rajpoot

03-04-2012, 13:47

NVM.
On second thoughts all this should stay in the BW forums.

Why does it appear that now-a-days Bioware have made it a hobby of theirs to :daisy: their own stories?
Either ruin canon, or ruin choices, or ruin endings, or do all of that together. :no:

So is anyone else following the ending fiasco at all?

Kekvit Irae

03-05-2012, 03:30

I'm going to gg out of this forum for a few weeks to prevent myself from running into the inevitable flood of LOLOMGSPOILERS.

seireikhaan

03-06-2012, 08:06

Yaaaaaaaaaay. One less annoyance to deal with.

You can reject that bizarre looking reporter and apparently not have to deal with her. WOOT.

seireikhaan

03-06-2012, 18:42

Super duper spoil, don't say I didn't warn you.I mean it.Mooooooordin! :bigcry:

Crazed Rabbit

03-06-2012, 21:50

A preemptive reminder to everyone to PUT SPOILERS IN SPOILER TAGS.

Thanks,
CR

Beskar

03-06-2012, 22:45

I am so tempted to make up "Spoilers" and post them to get people frustrated, then knowing my luck, I end up actually being correct and do spoil the game for people, myself included.

Monk

03-07-2012, 00:00

Had some time alone with ME3 so i'm gonna dump thoughts here.

What I like:

Combat. As tight as it was in the demo and just as fun, the expanded arsenal is a welcome touch too, and i'm surprised by how hard ME3 can be. In the last ME games there was always a point where i could turn a corner and make the game my own. In the first, it was my biotic jugglers who could bounce entire rooms at once. In ME2 it was somewhere after Horizon that your leveling just got too strong for collectors to handle. Here? Nah. Good balance all around, both weapon and enemy scaling. What I HATE though is no heavy weapons. I am really missing my arc projector <3

N7 missions that dont suck: You know, the strict side missions from the game that used to scream "filler" content? Well they rock in this ME3. Bioware put some real effort into making them feel like apart of the game instead of just hastily hammered on to grind resources with. I feel like i'm doing something worthwhile when I do them.

Co-Op: My love for it has been displayed elsewhere. Copy/paste Combat section here.

The Story: Its been good thus far with no "are you serious? -_-" moments yet. Bioware has taken the Metal Gear Solid 4 approach to ME3. No there's no huge conspiracy involving dumb psudo-espionage (at least not yet i don't think) i mean that every single person you've met seems to have shown up for 3. Anyone you've helped or hindered is back to either return the favor or make your life a bit harder. Including some old friends who might not be so friendly anymore... :sweatdrop:

NO MORE MINI GAMES TO UNLOCK DOORS. FINALLY. GOD. Hacking and bypass minigames are gone. I hope Bioware never gets it in their head to make them for other games. Ever. Again.

War Assets system. Its pretty cool! Building an army isnt as simple as just doing one companion mission and being done with it. Doing a race mission unlocks their path, and you go down it doing extra missions as well. The more you do, the more effort that race will put in toward the final goal. Unfortunately this creates a bit of a problem i'll mention later.

What I don't like:

Conversations and companion management. Stupid stupid stupid. dialogue paths have definitely been simplified when you're out in the world and you can't talk to companions whenever you want. No more random investigating whenever you wanna hear a story. You long indepth conversations only at certain points. There's a number of them, but I still don't like it. No sir.

Too much. Too fast. Slow down. I'm getting bombarded with so many things, words, ideas, objectives and needs from the people i'm picking up that I'm not sure which is more important. I have NO idea what has time limits, what will happen if x instead of y, and no idea what the consequences might be. Some of this comes from it being a new game, but some is sloppy conveyance on Bioware's part. Which leads me to my next point.

What the heck happened the the Journal? It was always basic. But it at least told me where to go on a certain quest. Sometimes you won't get that and you'll get stuck running around like "where do I goooo, what do I doo!?"

War Readiness system. Lets get this out of the way now, if you want the best ending you need to play Multiplayer. There's really no way around it and bioware lied to you. War readiness is the multiplayer tie in with the single player game. The more MP you play, the more your readiness rises. The higher your readiness the better your amassed armies can fight the reapers. It seems account bound to your origin so you only need to grind it up once - but make no mistake it IS a grind. You trade planetary scanning from ME2 with Co-op in ME3. An improvement, but it still screws you over a bit.

Plot oversights:

Why is Udina on the council? Why does no one say anything about this and its expected I know whats going on? No one ever explains this. Ever. I put Anderson on the council. The logical conclusion is that Anderson resigned to head up Reaper defense but its such a shock to see. No one ever comes out and explains it. Its jarring.

Even with the bad I played this game for 5 hours yesterday. Its a Mass Effect game alright and thus far I really like it. But I can see why people got upset with Bioware. The game is certainly more shooty and actiony rather than RPG(y?).

Beskar

03-07-2012, 04:06

I have been told for spoilerish reasons that if you do not, you get really bad endings. Apparently, there are major plot hooks in the first two games which decides many factors. So if you got saved files or even just going to do one of those "I picked these options edited" save files, I suggest you use them. It really meant to penalise those who are starting anew (like me, since I got xbox version)

Monk

03-07-2012, 04:18

I have been told for spoilerish reasons that if you do not, you get really bad endings.

If you mean the war readiness, yeah. It was mentioned in a PC Gamer article that if you dont play MP and go into the epilogue at 50% readiness (default) your ending is incredibly bleak. Bioware has commented that its possible to ignore MP... but due to the readiness penalty if you do you'll need to 100% SP content to get the same result.

Tracking my readiness progress i'm at 71% galactic readiness after about 5 or 6 co-op wins.

Apparently, there are major plot hooks in the first two games which decides many factors. So if you got saved files or even just going to do one of those "I picked these options edited" save files, I suggest you use them. It really meant to penalise those who are starting anew (like me, since I got xbox version)

From some of the spoilers I have seen, they have been disappointing though. It really shoved a lot of "cannon" ME1 into the game, making ME2 feeling like some random interlude.

I can attest to that. There's a lot of callbacks to the previous games but they take two different flavors.

(no spoilers but discussing how the game mechanics are laid out. Some people might not want the minor surprise ruined.)

ME1: You get into a situation where something you did from ME1 has seriously impacted what is about to go down. In some cases that means living with harsh consequences. I'm fairly certain I am gonna regret a few of my choices from the first game before this day is done..

ME2: One of your former team members contacts you and you solve a problem. It's usually personal, and usually something done within 30-45 minutes (ie a typical side-quest fluff). Sometimes they don't want anything and just want to talk, resulting in a good 10-15 min of dialogue. Unlike the ME1 callbacks, they dont seem to mean a whole lot and are just there for spice. Still welcome though.

I'll say that cameos in ME3 are handled much better than they were in ME2.

Chaotix

03-07-2012, 09:22

So I've ordered the hard copy of the deluxe edition since I want the metal case. Gonna have to wait a bit for it to ship though, it seems.

In the meantime, Monk: who of your former squad is able to join you permanently? I'd like to know that but would rather not know any more details than possible, otherwise I'd look for it myself. Put it in spoilers if you have to?

Monk

03-07-2012, 11:14

In the meantime, Monk: who of your former squad is able to join you permanently? I'd like to know that but would rather not know any more details than possible, otherwise I'd look for it myself. Put it in spoilers if you have to?

Garrus and Liara have been featured pretty prominently so i don't think its a spoiler to say you can roll with them. You get them pretty early on (within the first hour) and they prove to be the most effective combination for quite a while. Don't be surprised if they make up your squad for a large bit of the first act.

Ashley/Kaiden will also help you in the tutorial/prologue, but whether or not you keep them is based on your choices through the game. They are still :daisy: about you joining Cerberus and don't trust you. Winning back their trust is a sub-plot which might determine whether or not you can keep them. I'm not totally sure but it seemed to heavily imply such, which is why I tried to win them over.

Other than that though, permanent returning squad members seem to be limited. I've only just now completed would might be considered the first act of the game (12 hours in) and I've got about 5 squad members. So maybe more are on the way.

Also my first spoiler seems to have been dealt with by reading the in-game Codex:

If you appoint Anderson to the Council he eventually resigns out of frustration. Udina is then elected to the council position. Bit of a lame turn of events, but at least having Anderson on the council for ME2 let you re-obtain spectre status

Beskar

03-07-2012, 20:06

Yeah, big outrage over this game over the ending to sum it up: "We cannot get the ending we want, no matter what we do".

So choices are being forced upon the players or so it feels.

A link, full of spoilers about the endgame and story, if you don't want the game "ruined" at all spoiler wise DO NOT CLICK:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/347/index/9512916/543

Vladimir

03-07-2012, 21:39

Greyblades

03-08-2012, 00:58

Considering what I have just watched they have a reason to complain about the ending. Who, what, where, why? Nothing about what happens after the end is explained beyond "here's options, have fun because all they do is determin what colour the game's final explosion is." Doesnt really help that neither option, paragon or renegade, averts the implied apocalyptic outcomes, either 1. we lose any chance of galactic space travel for the next few centuries while we have a bunch of PTSD aliens who cant really survive on human food running around earth with no way of getting home, or 2. we lose space travel, have a bunch of PTSD aliens running round earth, all machines are destroyed and we have a space station the size of kent about to make a rapid reentry.

Also apparantly the guys I was carting around for the last 5 years decided to jump planet the second shepard disappears and are now stranded on a seemingly perfect paradise planet, aww at least they got a nice ending, all three of em, at least until we relize that one of the survivors of the crash cannot actually eat the same stuff as the other two, so he's likely to starve after a month or two. Seeing as FTL travel is set back 500 years the chances of them being rescued in thier lifetimes is slim to none, he's likely to end up a cannibalistic snack for the others.

And dont even get me started on that transparant-machine-child-thing!

I'm really hoping that there's afew alternative endings that I missed due to not completing side missions or getting enough resources or something.

Yes I'm ridiculously tired after binging on this game for a day, why do you ask?

CountArach

03-08-2012, 11:46

I've been playing single player for about 2 hours today. I hate, hate, hate the space-bar-does-everything approach.

seireikhaan

03-08-2012, 13:56

And it's done. It took a steady ignorance of my studies for the last couple days and having a fun ride with my sleep schedule, but the game is finished and wrapped up, clocking in at just under 30 hours. Maxed out war readiness and nearly every resource I could get. Probably will need a bit of time to gather my thoughts on the whole, but I'll summarize- plenty of good, a touch of bad, and a fairly infuriating 'epilogue' if you would call it that. I had fun.

Monk

03-08-2012, 15:00

I'm about 20 hours in. I got lucky in that this game was released after i'd finished up for this quarter. Not a whole lot to do in my classes right now so i've been letting myself get lost in this game for the next day or so. I don't think I'll finish before Friday though as I still have to meet social obligations...

All in all I've been enjoying myself immensely. I mentioned what I hated in a previous post and I still hate it quite a bit. The stripped down conversational paths is a huge problem and has in some parts come close to hurting the enjoyment. I feel like ME3 is much more of an action and a shooter than it is an RPG. Oh don't get me wrong it has tacked on RPG elements but at its core, it feels like it was designed as a shooter and cinematic experience first. Bioware has definitely sacrificed some of the RPG feeling to obtain a greater sense of those two aspects and I don't feel good about that.

I've also been warned by almost everyone that the ending is going to seriously upset me as a fan of this series. While i'm still in the dark about what that spoiler is (and wish to stay that way), i have to admit that hearing the same thing from so many people doesn't have me optimistic. I will say this, that the entire build before that point is great. I feel like i'm getting close to the end and the story has been great so far with no profoundly stupid moments to speak of. Some oddities here and there, some things that i have to chalk up to sci-fi cheese...

The death scenes for certain characters have been hit or miss. I remember bursting into laughter at one with how overly dramatic Bioware attempted to be. And yet with another, I was on the edge of my seat as I watched. Hoping that maybe this wasn't going to end like it seemed it would..

The tone has been mentioned in many articles but it bears repeating.. christ is this game bleak. Its not a detraction or anything but I've rarely seen writing where the destruction, loss and hardship is on this scale. I used to write stuff this crazy bleak when I was 15 and posting in the Mead Hall, but this stuff even beats that for how dark it is.I don't think it hit me until.. well.. Until i did Samara's quest line.

Spoilers for Samara's involvement in the game and quest line. Major plot spoils.
You run into Samara (provided she survived) when you're on a quest given by Liara. You're trying to secure an Ardact-Yahkshi temple, only the reapers have gotten there first and everything goes into the :daisy: quick. The Reapers want to turn the Ardact-Yakshi into super weapon husk variants, almost something out of dead-space imo. Samara is there trying to find her two daughters who are also in danger. Long story short.. you manage to destroy the temple but one of Samara's daughters is makes her escape with you. Samara is a Justicar, but now that there is no sanctuary for the Ardact Yakshi and Asari space is crawling with Reapers, there's no place for her daughter to go.

Samara's code compels her to kill her own daughter so as to not let her be released into society and potentially turn into another Morinth. And that's when Samara shoots herself in the head. I could have tried to stop her but I didn't. I honestly didn't know what I could do or say to make her stop. I mean jeeze, I played ME2.. i know what can happen. So Samara killed herself right in front of me. When i first met that character i had a feeling Bioware would do something like that. The strict code - it doesnt jive with how people live their lives. She said it herself in ME2 - the code is black and white. Life isn't..

There were others before that. Moments where I felt that this story was very dark, but it was that moment that really slammed the point home. I don't think Bioware wants this game to have a happy ending, and i'm sure that's exactly what has people so up in arms. Is it? I have no idea. I'll know after about 10 hours of game time.

Greyblades

03-08-2012, 15:40

Monk

03-08-2012, 16:20

Funnily I found out if you do it right, utilize a high paragon or renegade score and fight tooth and nail fo it you can resolve almost everything into a good and upbeat manner.
For example, I cured the genophage with wrex and eve in charge of the Krogan, managed to talk the quarians into not attacking when legion makes the geth stand down and united both sides on thier homeworld, and saved the rachni again with no casualties. Which kinda makes the endings so dang annoying because whatever I do I can do jack squat about it.

Unfortunately for some of us, our choices are haunting us.

Saving the female was never an option since i destroyed Maelon's cure in ME2. Bit of a cloaca move now that I think about it but it seemed like an okay idea at the time. In fact I did a lot of dumb stuff in ME2 solely to grind renegade points. Should have just cheated a full renegade score for the conversation options and did everything smartly.

And Rachni V2? Good lord man the Queen was screaming insanity. I dunno about you but it seemed a VERY bad idea to keep her around. Then again, i killed the crap out of the queen in 1. Maybe she would have been more stable if i didn't

Some things have been resolved nice and happily, but on the personal level there's been high instances of not being able to get everyone out. A lot of personal loss for strategic gain.

Greyblades

03-08-2012, 17:44

Unfortunately for some of us, our choices are haunting us.

Saving the female was never an option since i destroyed Maelon's cure in ME2. Bit of a cloaca move now that I think about it but it seemed like an okay idea at the time. In fact I did a lot of dumb stuff in ME2 solely to grind renegade points. Should have just cheated a full renegade score for the conversation options and did everything smartly.
Ouch, Wrex plus ungenophaged krogan gave me an 800 war score, better than anyone else aside for alliance.

And Rachni V2? Good lord man the Queen was screaming insanity. I dunno about you but it seemed a VERY bad idea to keep her around. Then again, i killed the crap out of the queen in 1. Maybe she would have been more stable if i didn't

My main game strategy was save as many people as possible so I pushed as far as I could the peace options, and it works! I only lost one ex party member this game and I think that one was because I forgot to get to the member's sidequest in time. That's what annoys me about the ending, I managed to do the impossible in my first run getting everyone together, Asari, Salarian, Turian, Krogan, Quarian, Geth, Aria's mercs, Ex-Cerberus, Rachni, Volus, Elcor, even the blasted Batarians and yet I get such a cruddy ending, heck when I checked online for the 100% "perfect ending it still didnt do anything for me.

Monk

03-08-2012, 18:06

My main game strategy was save as many people as possible so I pushed as far as I could the peace options, and it works! I only lost one ex party member this game and I think that one was because I forgot to get to the member's sidequest in time. That's what annoys me about the ending, I managed to do the impossible in my first run getting everyone together, Asari, Salarian, Turian, Krogan, Quarian, Geth, Aria's mercs, Ex-Cerberus, Rachni, Volus, Elcor, even the blasted Batarians and yet I get such a cruddy ending, heck when I checked online for the 100% "perfect ending it still didnt do anything for me.

What really? I've lost a ton. Can I ask some questions then?

Thane, Samara, Legion and Mordin are all dead.

Thane got stabbed in the chest by a cliche while protecting the Salarian councilor. How could I have saved him? It didn't seem like it was an option, he was pretty far gone in his disease by the time i caught up with him on the citadel. He didnt seem to have any quests for me and i did his quest in Me2

Mordin sacrificed himself to distribute the cure, i tried to interrupt him but he told me he had to do it. Probably because of what I did in ME2. I am assuming you kept the cure?

Samara i probably could have saved but didn't try. Would the interrupt have actually worked?

Legion killed himself because there wasn't enough data, he had to upload his consciousness to the Geth collective to distribute his upgrades fully. Did you save the heretics in ME2 or kill them?

Greyblades

03-08-2012, 18:24

Thane, Samara, Legion and Mordin are all dead.

Thane got stabbed in the chest by a cliche while protecting the Salarian councilor. How could I have saved him? It didn't seem like it was an option, he was pretty far gone in his disease by the time i caught up with him on the citadel. He didnt seem to have any quests for me and i did his quest in Me2
Oh, Uh I kinda lost him in the second game, didnt come up.

Mordin sacrificed himself to distribute the cure, i tried to interrupt him but he told me he had to do it. Probably because of what I did in ME2. I am assuming you kept the cure?
He still dies with the cure but it actually works in helping the krogan, kinda wish I could get both him and the cure there but they treated his death nicely so it wasnt a big problem. Huh now that I think about it when I said I only lost one member I had forgotten about him, I lost 2 members.

Samara i probably could have saved but didn't try. Would the interrupt have actually worked? Yup. Kiddo had to agree to stay at the ruined monistary though, I kinda hope none of the reapers survived that explosion.

Legion killed himself because there wasn't enough data, he had to upload his consciousness to the Geth collective to distribute his upgrades fully. Did you save the heretics in ME2 or kill them?
Saved them, yeah he dies technically, but I don't count it because he's just now spread among the whole race, I could see him returning to life in an instant if the geth felt it neccissary and made the effort.
What he means is he forgot
Shut up!

Monk

03-08-2012, 18:55

Oh, Uh I kinda lost him in the second game, didnt come up.

He still dies with the cure but it actually works in helping the krogan, kinda wish I could get both him and the cure there but they treated his death nicely so it wasnt a big problem. Huh now that I think about it when I said I only lost one member I had forgotten about him, I lost 2 members.Yup. Kiddo had to agree to stay at the ruined monistary though, I kinda hope none of the reapers survived that explosion.

Saved them, yeah he dies technically, but I don't count it because he's just now spread among the whole race, I could see him returning to life in an instant if the geth felt it neccissary and made the effort.
What he means is he forgot
Shut up!

Hah, whoops. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to spoil that for you unnecessarily, i just assumed. Yes.. despite my renegade tendancies I got everyone out alive in ME2. I think thats whats been so shocking this time around - I've lost a lot of people and that sucks.

Though I do feel a bit better about Mordin and Legion now that I know it's just a cause of circumstance, and not another Embarrassing Renegade Shepard Moment©

The cure still works without the female by the way so long as you take the relevant options. The female would just give the Krogan a much stronger hand, obviously. Guess Wrex will have to settle on his own

seireikhaan

03-08-2012, 19:11

Oh, and as an fyi- without spoiling anything, the 'final mission' is looooooooong. And there's a glaring lack of save points. Keep it in mind when you plan to do it. I'd just give it about 4-5 hours where you don't need to do anything else so you can go through it in one 'sit down', so to speak.

seireikhaan

03-08-2012, 20:10

Alright, a general wrap up. Overall, pretty good time. First, oh, 95% of the game was fairly consistently decent or good, imo. There's that one plot device(y'all know the one) that you'll either hate or not mind, and I didn't mind it. Interaction with the characters and party members is honestly not in a bad state, imo. Previously, yeah, you could initiate the conversation wheel, but you would run out of stuff to say for a while until something new pops up. Wasn't any point. Now, it still essentially works the same way. Just keep popping back and after a mission or two and they'll have something else to talk about. Could be better, but not something I'm too up in arms about. Gameplay more or less worked. Playing 'normal' with an adept was fun, although a bit easy for most of the game. Final mission was a nutcracker at times, though. There's that spacebar issue that loves to crop up at the worst times, but I wouldn't say it detracted from the experience. As Monk said, the n7 side missions are definitely better fleshed out than in ME1. Wish the planet scanning had been abolished altogether, but the decidedly marginalized role they gave it was a definite positive step. Generally, the gameplay decisions worked, for me. Felt a lot less grindey than ME2. Only main thing I miss is the humor. Lot of it isn't there this time around. Granted, that's understandable, what with everything getting mowed by reapers and whatnot, but I still miss it. When it does crop up though, it shines.

Favorite part of the game: having romanced Tali, the whole Geth/Quarian conflict was very fun. Especially at the end, when:You orbital strike the daylights out of that reaper. Cutscenes and dialogue were quite nice and fairly satisfying. Also, I absolutely lol'd when they pulled a "mass effect 2" with her face, only to have her send me a picture of herself because of the relationship. Not quite as irked as others are about the whole deal, but who knows, maybe enough upset people will get them to actually whip up her face fo realz. It'd be nice.

I've also been warned by almost everyone that the ending is going to seriously upset me as a fan of this series. While i'm still in the dark about what that spoiler is (and wish to stay that way), i have to admit that hearing the same thing from so many people doesn't have me optimistic. I will say this, that the entire build before that point is great. I feel like i'm getting close to the end and the story has been great so far with no profoundly stupid moments to speak of. Some oddities here and there, some things that i have to chalk up to sci-fi cheese...
Having gotten the "100%" ending, Imma just go ahead and say that you honestly didn't hear too wrongly. The end is pretty bad, there's really no way around it until they fix it with DLC, which they give ultra-hint to. Sad thing is, it's literally the very last, like, .5% of the game, but it just gives a bad taste in the mouth. Most everything prior was either decent enough or actually good.

....With one exception that still bugs me. One of your former party members:Jack. Hope you didn't like her too much, because wow. Just wow. Maybe I screwed something up from the last game, but I'm fairly certain I didn't. I was honestly ticked off about the whole thing even though I could't stand her character. Turned into a mostly generic grade phantom by illusive man. Not even a cutscene or nothing, just her screaming at you once or twice while you fight the phantom.

Hah, whoops. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to spoil that for you unnecessarily, i just assumed. Yes.. despite my renegade tendancies I got everyone out alive in ME2. I think thats whats been so shocking this time around - I've lost a lot of people and that sucks. Though I do feel a bit better about Mordin and Legion now that I know it's just a cause of circumstance, and not another Embarrassing Renegade Shepard Moment©The cure still works without the female by the way so long as you take the relevant options. The female would just give the Krogan a much stronger hand, obviously. Guess Wrex will have to settle on his ownWell, for the renegades, there is at least a bit of good news: you can save at least one of your old crew via rengade-ness, so at least they don't all die. :wink: I didn't though. But no worries, I think you've mostly saved who you could. Got a hunch you'll pull out of it all with more than I did.

The death scenes for certain characters have been hit or miss. I remember bursting into laughter at one with how overly dramatic Bioware attempted to be. And yet with another, I was on the edge of my seat as I watched. Hoping that maybe this wasn't going to end like it seemed it would.. Honestly, unabashedly shed a tear for Mordin. Crazy little dude is just so awesome and that scene was honestly really well done, imo. Thane's was a bit more expected- the instant that he and the assassin started at it, I had a pretty good idea what was about to happen. But overall, I don't feel like any of them were 'cheesy', and I didn't laugh at any of them. Legion's death was... interesting for me, because I sided with the quarians flat out. He attacked me and Tali finally used that knife on her boot and rammed it right through him. Cue a bit of drama. And then there was that Grunt deal.... Omigod, I was very nearly very upset at Bioware, because of the timing of when I did the mission. Had lost Mordin and Thane just a bit ago. When he pulls a Custer, I was like "oh hell naw, you guys going to kill every single good ME2 companion? And then he comes back at the last second sporting a second skin of blood and I honestly just about lost it.

Oh yeah, one last thing. That day 1 DLC. My thoughts, put simply: worth it, but altogether unnecessary for the whole experience. The party member is reasonably interesting. Not quite a Shale ala Dragon Age, but quite strong. Also nets a nifty weapon that gives me nostalgia for ME1 because it effectively never runs out of ammo. The bonus mission itself was decent enough, but nothing too noteworthy. Also nets Shepard a couple extra bonus biotic powers- Slam, and a new thingamobobber that is pretty nifty, but not necessarily all that strong. Inflicts damage over time, and will hop from enemy to enemy as they keep dying. Lasts a long time, but doesn't really do a ton of damage. Main thing is that it gets through shields and barriers, and so can be used to set up warpsplosions on otherwise hard to warpslosion enemies. ... That made sense, right?

Monk

03-08-2012, 20:23

Having gotten the "100%" ending, Imma just go ahead and say that you honestly didn't hear too wrongly. The end is pretty bad, there's really no way around it until they fix it with DLC, which they give ultra-hint to. Sad thing is, it's literally the very last, like, .5% of the game, but it just gives a bad taste in the mouth. Most everything prior was either decent enough or actually good.

Oh :daisy: . I bet I know what it is now. Sigh. Not gonna say anything. I'm not even mad -_-

....With one exception that still bugs me. One of your former party members:Jack. Hope you didn't like her too much, because wow. Just wow. Maybe I screwed something up from the last game, but I'm fairly certain I didn't. I was honestly ticked off about the whole thing even though I could't stand her character. Turned into a mostly generic grade phantom by illusive man. Not even a cutscene or nothing, just her screaming at you once or twice while you fight the phantom.

Did you do the Grishom Academy mission? She makes an appearance there and all indications from that mission were positive upon its conclusion (and later events). Does that change in the final mission?

None of the "important" deaths have been cliche/cheese worthy. It was a hapless redshirt that got the laugh out of me. It was just so ridiculous I couldn't help it, and honestly i don't even remember what point in the game it was now.

But oh man, you are right about Grunt's mission. That mission just had "GAME OVER MAN" written all over it, and when he doubled back I got some serious puppy-dog eyes. I was like "No. No! Not my number 2 Krogan bro. D:"

But i got some real disappointment from Thane getting offed by a cliche. Seriously man. I can't believe that Cerberus guy is built to be so hard to kill, he's a pansy.

Greyblades

03-08-2012, 20:34

Anyone noticed the wierd grey elcor with a set of forks in it's head in the citadel bar? That was weird.

seireikhaan

03-08-2012, 20:37

Oh :daisy: . I bet I know what it is now. Sigh. Not gonna say anything. I'm not even mad -_-
If you called it at this point, congrats. I sure didn't. Oh, and as a precaution, I definitely advise getting max readiness. It's not too hard, but I've got a hunch you'll want to get it in spite of the generally dissatisfactory endings regardless.

Did you do the Grishom Academy mission? She makes an appearance there and all indications from that mission were positive upon its conclusion (and later events). Does that change in the final mission?
Aaand there it is. Knew there was something important there. No, because I didn't realize it was on a timer. Once I did, it was obviously too late. That makes it at least a bit better. Can't say how it'll change for you at the end, I just dunno.

None of the "important" deaths have been cliche/cheese worthy. It was a hapless redshirt that got the laugh out of me. It was just so ridiculous I couldn't help it, and honestly i don't even remember what point in the game it was now.
Well, that is why redshirts exist- to brighten our existence with their general misfortune :D

But oh man, you are right about Grunt's mission. That mission just had "GAME OVER MAN" written all over it, and when he doubled back I got some serious puppy-dog eyes. I was like "No. No! Not my number 2 Krogan bro. D:"

But i got some real disappointment from Thane getting offed by a cliche. Seriously man. I can't believe that guy is built to be so hard to kill, he's a pansy.
Well, probably not a huge spoiler, since the guy's basically Illusive Man's dragon in this game, but just in case:
You do get to kill him later. Kind of a lame fight, imo, but I wouldn't call it awful. He's not very difficult, compared to the rest of the game.
Anyways, my only beef with the character, aside from being utterly one dimensional and having no backstory at all and having been basically invented for the sake of convenience, is that he looks so much like NightWing. Probably my biggest detraction from the main part of the game.

Monk

03-08-2012, 20:53

If you called it at this point, congrats. I sure didn't. Oh, and as a precaution, I definitely advise getting max readiness. It's not too hard, but I've got a hunch you'll want to get it in spite of the generally dissatisfactory endings regardless.

I'm calling it mentally, i've seen a number of subtle hints here and there and they were reinforced by pre-launch speculation. I just have a bad feeling now. Honestly I dont think it will upset me but.. yeah, its definitely a lame way to end a trilogy. Oh well! Not gonna worry about it til i get there. ~D

Well, probably not a huge spoiler, since the guy's basically Illusive Man's dragon in this game, but just in case:
You do get to kill him later. Kind of a lame fight, imo, but I wouldn't call it awful. He's not very difficult, compared to the rest of the game.
Anyways, my only beef with the character, aside from being utterly one dimensional and having no backstory at all and having been basically invented for the sake of convenience, is that he looks so much like NightWing. Probably my biggest detraction from the main part of the game.

He just looks so out of place. For that matter the entire concept of Phantoms is pretty out of place for Mass Effect. I've already fought him once and got beaten by a cutscene, so yes, i'm eager for a rematch. -_- Ruin my undefeated streak, will you..

seireikhaan

03-08-2012, 20:58

He just looks so out of place. For that matter the entire concept of Phantoms is pretty out of place for Mass Effect. I've already fought him once and got beaten by a cutscene, so yes, i'm eager for a rematch. -_- Ruin my undefeated streak, will you..
In that case, you're pretty rapidly closing in on the end. Only a few plot missions left. :2thumbsup:

White_eyes:D

03-09-2012, 07:45

I managed to get my total war readiness up to around 6700-ish by the end. Mutiplayer was ok but not anything like Left 4 Dead level of fun.(For me anyway)

I loved the story better then ME2...it was dark but I liked it. Didn't like the endings so much though.

Too many questions remained for the endings...Why did Joker and co run away from the battle all of a sudden? Did the armada make it home before the relays were destroyed? Did everyone survive the crash on the abandoned island world?
Overall, it is a minor thing but when you have that much build-up for three games end that way, it sort of feels disappointing. Still...I did enjoy the first 95% of the game and I think it was great and worth playing.

rajpoot

03-09-2012, 07:47

I saw the BW forums thread two days before launch when I posted here. Then I edited my post thinking that people might not want to see ending spoilers even in spoiler tags. I see I could not have been more wrong.

So anyone else from here posting in that thread?

Monk

03-09-2012, 09:38

Finished it.

I understand the frustration some people have said about the endings but.. really, honestly you guys. What was I supposed to be angry about? If it was the fact that my choices had no bearing on the final ending - that's always been the case for ME. You could play the entire first game as a renegade, but still save the council at the end and set the state for a paragon opening for 2. The only difference in 3 is that you've got 3 endings instead of 2, and none of them are particularly bright. Reminds me of DX:HR in a lot of ways - and i enjoyed that game's ending just as much.

I kept myself insulated from spoilers completely and went into this thing blind. All i knew was that some people were really mad.

and I was half right! The reapers were just an agent of something else trying to keep order. They couldn't stop the cycle even if they wanted to. It was in their construction.

I chose the Red ending as, believe it or not, it seemed to be the happiest despite everyone claiming Green was the happiest. The only disappointment I have is that there was no big run down of what happened after the battle. There's so many questions floating around that while the ending was emotionally satisfying, i feel I need more.

And that tease. Not cool Bioware.

Greyblades

03-09-2012, 10:47

Monk

03-09-2012, 11:11

Well its multiple things;
How out of left field the choices came,
How bleak the choices were,
How dumb the villian's justification was (the kid not illusive man),
How there's no final boss,
How there's no epilogue,
That there's little way to restore space travel in the next century and that the relays exploding most likely just exterminated half the galaxy,
The utterly unexpected and unexplained bit with the crashed normandy,
That the "perfect" 100% ending is still pretty bad as there's no way they're rebuilding earth any time soon,
The part where none of your choices do jack squat for the ending beyond whether or not you unlock the 3rd choice.

After ME2's ending the whole 3 choices at the end ala Deus ex HR is disappointing, this was such a good game! It doesnt deserve to go out like this! I want a fallout New vegas level of ending not something that is even worse than the Falout 3 without Broken Steel ending, at least that one had voice over explaining some of what happens next!
Gah! I'm getting way too passionate about this.

Fair points! But I don't feel they become enough to ruin the overall experience.

I wasnt bothered by the fact there was no final boss. In fact I felt the final fight in Me2 was so ridiculous and outlandish that I feel we were better served to not get a repeat. Mass Effect 2 became Contra III during that last fight, and while it was funny and awesome, it blew the atmosphere out of the water. That moment just wasn't even the same game you had been playing.

I think most of what the ending suffers from is just a lack of information. Investigating with the hologram/VI would have been WAY better than just being forced down the path. There was so much there that was unsaid, and you could feel it. Obviously something went really wrong numerous cycles ago resulting in the status quo. A lot of unanswered questions and on this I have to agree. This is the biggest failing of the ending because while we know a lot of things, there's still so much more we don't.

No epilogue does suck. I said that before. :yes:

The relay's getting torched isnt the end of the world, but it is the end of civilization as we know it. But that isn't a bad thing, per say. You have to remember that galactic civilization was based on Reaper tech. Sovereign told you in the first game that your technology advances on the paths they desire. Wiping that away is a necessary step if the galaxy is truly going to be free from that influence. Otherwise men like the illusive man will always come along to mess it up.

At least thats what I got out of it. ~:)

All in all I still really enjoyed ME3 and i plan to play it for quite a while to come. While the endings weren't perfect, i feel they struck an emotional cord and really capped off the series well. Its unfortunate that Bioware chose to leave it open in the way they did. No doubt for future expansions/DLC.

Greyblades

03-09-2012, 11:58

While I would be quite willing to agree with you I just dont like it, I wanted multiple endings, a tickertape parade if I won with 100%, the universe ending if I lost and everything in between, the last two games had the spectrum of endings, but with this I feel like all I'm getting is variations of bad ending, I feel after such a good game getting such an ending where the main character is dead, the companions are stranded, the civilisation I've been trying to save will collapse anyway and this ending is the end of a series? Gah, it's not good enough, I've become too invested in this series and it feels like I've lost everything. This is more bleak than ego draconis' ending or Neverwinter nights 2.

Monk

03-09-2012, 13:07

Might want to tag your spoilers ~:)

But no, I can understand where you're coming from. I'm certainly not going to say you're wrong for feeling that way or for wanting it to end differently. If anything, I seem to be in the minority when it comes to the discussion on the endings. Most people feel as you do - they love 98% of the game but get let down in the end.

Personally i felt it made sense from a story perspective. It is only bleak in the sense that civilization has fallen, but your actions have given the freedom to build a new one that's free of the Reapers. It hurt to see everything go down. I actually got a bit misty eyed when Shepard couldn't make it to the console. I watched a character whom i've known for over five years struggle and labor to hold onto life only to die in the end. It was like saying goodbye to a good friend.

Like i said, i chose the Red ending because it allowed a future free of the cycle - free of forced evolution and free of control. I had to let the life in the galaxy be free to make their own mistakes and not have their destinies decided for them. In fact, thats what I thought the stranded scene combined with the scene after the end credits symbolized. It hurt to see the old civilization torn down, but it was needed if a new one was going to be built.

But again. My opinion seems to be a bit unique on this. No one else seems to be thinking along these lines, and thats okay. ~D

Vladimir

03-09-2012, 15:00

seireikhaan

03-09-2012, 17:56

But no, I can understand where you're coming from. I'm certainly not going to say you're wrong for feeling that way or for wanting it to end differently. If anything, I seem to be in the minority when it comes to the discussion on the endings. Most people feel as you do - they love 98% of the game but get let down in the end.

Personally i felt it made sense from a story perspective. It is only bleak in the sense that civilization has fallen, but your actions have given the freedom to build a new one that's free of the Reapers. It hurt to see everything go down. I actually got a bit misty eyed when Shepard couldn't make it to the console. I watched a character whom i've known for over five years struggle and labor to hold onto life only to die in the end. It was like saying goodbye to a good friend.

Like i said, i chose the Red ending because it allowed a future free of the cycle - free of forced evolution and free of control. I had to let the life in the galaxy be free to make their own mistakes and not have their destinies decided for them. In fact, thats what I thought the stranded scene combined with the scene after the end credits symbolized. It hurt to see the old civilization torn down, but it was needed if a new one was going to be built.

But again. My opinion seems to be a bit unique on this. No one else seems to be thinking along these lines, and thats okay. ~D
For me, it really boiled down to a couple things about it that irked me.
1) Lack of epilogue. I just feel like there was still a lot left untied, especially given how the relays were asploded. Closure is awesome. This, not so much.
2) How the heck did Garrus and Tali get back on the Normandy so fast? Like 2 minutes ago they were right there with me when I got nuked by a giant space laser. And really, the whole Normandy sequence doesn't make any sense or offer any solace when they'll probably start starving.
3) I know it's cheesy and all, but I honestly wanted at least the possibility of a Dragon Age ending- not necessarily king of the universe, but at least one where the folks I cared about most survive and I get to spend my golden years with them recovering from all the stress.
4) The fact that the end basically was stamped with DLC DLC DLC DLC BUY MOAR OF IT. If they'd planned this wholly unsatisfying ending with the purpose of making it better via DLC, I'd be a bit irked about it. I'd still get the DLC because I'm a chump, but still...

Oh, and good to know I wasn't the only one who picked the giant red button. Granted my Shepard was always more of the "RAWR DESTROY MACHINES" type. :D Never bought Legion's story in the first place in ME2, and I felt pretty darn justified when they handed over control of their fate, which was supposed to be of paramount importance, to the Reapers. Plus, with the Geth already nuked out of the galaxy, the only other main thing besides the reapers I was nuking off was EDI, who frankly became really darned creepy in this game. Figured giving living critters the chance to rebuild with their own choices was better than forcing everyone into fusion mode, which seemed really bizarre. And controlling reapers...? No. Also fits the selfish goal of not dying.

Kekvit Irae

03-09-2012, 18:39

Collected thoughts:

1. I'm not reading any spoiler tags. At all.
2. The spacebar isn't as annoying in SP as it is in MP. Being able to remap separate functions would help, though.
3. The game is mostly emotional porn. I don't mind this, considering this is the end of the series (so far). Particular scenes stand out for me as tearjerkers.
4. I finally reclaimed my Carnifex in MP. It just got real, son!
5. I just bought the Black Widow in SP. DO WANT IN MP!
6. Still rocking the Infiltrator and Adept in MP. Two levels away from maxing out my Infiltrator.
7. Sticky Grenades (landmine upgrade) seems less reliable in SP than MP. They randomly wont explode when you throw them near an enemy, despite working perfectly in MP.

rajpoot

03-09-2012, 20:49

So I've finally started playing and up until now I got just one question. Where are my heavy weapons. Infact where are all those weapons that I purchased and edited into my save file. I mean I thought weapons were supposed to import but I cannot find the Collector Assault Rifle anywhere.

Aside from that the game is good. Combat certainly is a lot better. The dialogues are not. there are fewer 'options' and chances to actually pick what one wants to say. I think in a conversation with Ashley I actually got to pick what I wanted to say just once after which the thing carried out like an automatic dialogue.

Kekvit Irae

03-09-2012, 22:19

So I've finally started playing and up until now I got just one question. Where are my heavy weapons.

In a particular mission, I've only gotten the flamethrower, and it's not a permanent weapon. Switch out weapons and it drops to the floor, but you can pick it up again. Cant bring it with you, however.
I've seen the Mattock here and there as a permanent pickup, but I don't think I started with one. I didn't really care, since I play an Infiltrator. I would have liked to have my damn Widow back, but now that I have the vastly superior Black Widow, I don't care either. Once you get the Normandy, you can go down to the cargo hold and buy weapons/upgrades.

seireikhaan

03-10-2012, 04:34

Went back to multiplayer. Unlocked asari vanguard and quarian infiltrator. Absolutely adoring the infiltrator- sabotage is absolutely hilarious against cerberus. The vanguard is awesome- stasis on class is excellent. Also discovered the asari power melee is essentially a longer duration nova. Awesome.

rajpoot

03-10-2012, 06:30

In a particular mission, I've only gotten the flamethrower, and it's not a permanent weapon. Switch out weapons and it drops to the floor, but you can pick it up again. Cant bring it with you, however.
I've seen the Mattock here and there as a permanent pickup, but I don't think I started with one. I didn't really care, since I play an Infiltrator. I would have liked to have my damn Widow back, but now that I have the vastly superior Black Widow, I don't care either. Once you get the Normandy, you can go down to the cargo hold and buy weapons/upgrades.

I think the best sniper can be bought from Specter requisition office for 35 or 40 k creds.
Also I just found out that I can apparently get all the weapons back but I'll have to scrounge for them on missions. Why did the Alliance have to nick all my weapons and gear?

And I recruited the Prothean. He is hilarious. In the very first conversation with Liara present,
He remarks that he finds it amusing how the primitives of his time are ruling the galaxy, Asari, Turians and Humans. Liara adds;
Liara : You forgot Salarians.
Javik : The lizard people evolved?
Liara : I think they are amhpibious.
Javik : (blank look) They used to eat flies.

Monk

03-10-2012, 07:57

Unlocked the Black Widow sniper rifle in MP. Oh my. That's all I can say - such a huge upgrade over the mantis that I was using before. Think i'll start to level the infiltrator again just so i can use it and not feel guilty about sniping as an engineer :laugh4:

I think Reapers are the hardest enemies to fight in MP without question. I've yet to complete a Silver rank game against the reapers. Cerberus are the easiest imo, with geth being neither too hard nor too easy. Their missile spam is a bit annoying though.

Chaotix

03-10-2012, 08:25

Monk

03-10-2012, 08:34

Are there other enemies to fight against, or is it just those three?

Blue Suns/Eclipse/Blood Pack or Collectors maybe?

I have the game, but it is at my house whereas I am at school... spring break can't come too soon!

No its just those three. Looks like they focused on the 3 main antagonists you faced from ME3. Reaper forces are heavily melee based. It isnt bad at first, but at around wave 5 when Banshees, Ravagers and Brutes start rushing you things get incredibly chaotic. Best way my friends and I have found to deal with them is to split up 2 by 2 and try to pick the wave apart. Sometimes it works, other times its a nightmare. But every time we've stayed together everything always falls apart - there's just too much melee flushing us out of cover to be killed by Reaper fire support.

Geth aren't nearly as bad as their heavy hitters are pyros, rocket troops and hunters (cloaked shotgun rush). The pyros are easily dispatched by good snipers or engineers, take out their shields and then shoot the tanks on their backs for easy explosion kills. The rocket troops and hunters are what you really have to watch out for. Shotgun rush can kill you pretty quick (two hits on silver and you're done) so you need to be watching for them. Rocket troops aren't a big threat, just annoying.

Cerberus is the same as they were in the demo, which is why I listed them as the easiest. They are a familiar enemy, and you've had a ton of practice in dealing with them.

Not only are their troops much easier to control than Geth and Reaper forces, but (with the exception of Phantoms) they are predominately a ranged force. So snipers get to have a field day.

Kekvit Irae

03-10-2012, 12:10

I disagree. I find the Geth to be easy mode. A good Infiltrator with a Mantis can take out the Geth Prime in just a few shots. The rockets can be avoided easily with cover, the Geth Hunters are only a threat if you aren't paying attention, and the flamethrowers are not a factor unless you get them close enough to you. The only disadvantage to fighting Geth is that Stasis (and Stasis bubbles) cant lock down the Geth Pyros because they are armored troops, but a good biotic explosion takes care of that problem.

And I do agree that the Reapers are the hardest of the three. You haven't seen terror until you face two Banshees and a handful of Brutes at the same time in Silver.

Monk

03-10-2012, 13:28

Do not go into a multiplayer game while your store is open, or go into the store while "ready" at all. Unready if you want to buy a pack or if you accidentally click on store.

If you head into a mission while your store is open you run the risk of encountering an unlock reset bug which will wipe away all your weapons and races. I just ran into it and apparently i'm not alone. A lot of others got it too and the best Bioware can offer currently is "this is what causes it, we're trying to fix it."

So co-op lovers beware.

tibilicus

03-10-2012, 22:12

So I tried to import my ME2 save and it says I didn't save the council? pretty sure I did?

Kekvit Irae

03-10-2012, 22:12

I opened up a Spectre Pack, got myself another Geth Plasma Shotgun and... a Cobra Missile Launcher Capacity upgrade. I was NOT expecting that to be in the upgrades, but I love it none the less.
I also unlocked the Widow earlier. It's not the Black Widow, but it's still a significant upgrade from the Mantis.

Monk

03-10-2012, 23:20

So I tried to import my ME2 save and it says I didn't save the council? pretty sure I did?

I haven't noticed anything like that. My save imported correctly with the council alive and well. The only thing that messed up was the face of my shepard - for some ungodly reason Bioware changed face codes so some faces got broken.

I opened up a Spectre Pack, got myself another Geth Plasma Shotgun and... a Cobra Missile Launcher Capacity upgrade. I was NOT expecting that to be in the upgrades, but I love it none the less.

That will come in handy for the Reaper waves. You can never have enough missiles to deal with the Banshee/Brute swarm...

tibilicus

03-10-2012, 23:26

I haven't noticed anything like that. My save imported correctly with the council alive and well. The only thing that messed up was the face of my shepard - for some ungodly reason Bioware changed face codes so some faces got broken.

Showing me within spoiler tags, will this effect my end result?

Edit: From what I read one key decision from ME2 and your war readiness are the only factors on how the ending plays out? let down much?

Monk

03-10-2012, 23:35

End result as in overall ending of the game? Highly doubtful due to the way the game is structured

Past choices will influence how specific plot threads are resolved. The Council is involved in one such thread in ME3, and by not having saved them in ME1 (and to an extent, burning bridges in ME2) you may have to settle for the bronze instead of getting the gold in that instance.

Edit: From what I read one key decision from ME2 and your war readiness are the only factors on how the ending plays out? let down much?

edit:

structural talk about how the ending works. Minor spoilers overall but some people might not like it.
Some people think so. The biggest contributing factor for the ending is your war assets, ie, how many people you've brought into the fight. If they aren't high enough you won't be unable to unlock the "best" ending. Most people are disappointed with the endings as is due to the way the game is structured. But there's been so much hyperbole engaged on both sides that the entire discussion is absolutely exhausting.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from spoilers and take it as it comes. Make up your own mind whether you like it or no. There's enough blind opinions on this subject.

And for the love of god stay off the bioware forums. You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and idiocy.

Greyblades

03-11-2012, 00:10

Scum and idiocy? I've seen several neo natzi and fundie forums after trawling through FSTDT, these guys are practically sunshine and rainbows by my standards.

rajpoot

03-11-2012, 06:21

Most of them are just too passionate about their games. I frequent the forums for news and stuff, but I rarely post there.

Sometimes it's also fun to see people trolling each other. Specially when devs get involved.

Monk

03-11-2012, 07:40

Scum and idiocy? I've seen several neo natzi and fundie forums after trawling through FSTDT, these guys are practically sunshine and rainbows by my standards.

Absolutely they are. Something as trivial as a video game has caused people of those forums to maliciously attack others. Facebook trolling because you dont like the game they like, phone spamming, it was all pretty much there leading up to launch. It's one thing to disagree with one another, its a complete different thing to throw a tantrum on that magnitude. It's absolutely ridiculous, all of it.

Without resorting to Godwin that forum is populated by self-entitled :daisy: without merit. :no:

Most of them are just too passionate about their games.

Yes I caught that. :sad3:. Crying that a game has ruined your life is not acceptable, either if its true or if its hyperbole. The news section is just about the only place where anything resembling information can be obtained. The rest is an example of why online game communities suck

Kekvit Irae

03-11-2012, 08:28

Mass Effect 3 completed. 30 hours and 37 minutes. I'm... conflicted about the ending. Not angry, not content, just... conflicted.

White_eyes:D

03-11-2012, 13:11

I personally was confused until I saw the bonus scene after the credits.(NG+ or a Imported ME2 was needed or so I was told)

Greyblades

03-11-2012, 13:52

Absolutely they are. Something as trivial as a video game has caused people of those forums to maliciously attack others. Facebook trolling because you dont like the game they like, phone spamming, it was all pretty much there leading up to launch. It's one thing to disagree with one another, its a complete different thing to throw a tantrum on that magnitude. It's absolutely ridiculous, all of it.
:shrug: people do stupid hateful things when they're upset and what happened was pretty upsetting, considering how much was invested and how many hopes were dashed in this one, there's nothing especially heinous about this reaction beyond the standard disdainful acts of some of the internet's less mature denizen's, which comes part and parcel of anything on the internet. There's not much special about this one.

Without resorting to Godwin that forum is populated by self-entitled :daisy: without merit. :no:
Really? After reading though the link beskie gave us I've seen quite afew coherent and thought out complaints in there, methinks your statement is a tad hyperbole.

Yes I caught that. :sad3:. Crying that a game has ruined your life is not acceptable, either if its true or if its hyperbole. The news section is just about the only place where anything resembling information can be obtained. The rest is an example of why online game communities suck
Present company excluded, I would hope.

Monk

03-11-2012, 13:58

Present company excluded, I would hope.

Of course.

https://i.imgur.com/9Y30j.jpg

Back to the topic of the game itself and not its community, i suppose :yes:

I personally was confused until I saw the bonus scene after the credits.(NG+ or a Imported ME2 was needed or so I was told)

That is one reason why I don't view the endings in such a negative light than many others do.

The scene after the credits seems to heavily imply that while civilization fell, a new one was built. However my biggest hangup is one i share with what others have expressed here, in that there just isn't enough said. A little exposition would have went a long way, and while they tried to do that, there's still tons of questions left floating around. The normandy sequence didn't help putting any of those questions to rest, in fact it just gave me more!

I am in the mood for co-op these days. I'd be glad to play on Bronze/Silver but would prefer silver, even after i got my weapons erased I still enjoy the MP quite a bit. I unlocked the Geth Plasma weapons and am having a ball gunning down Reapers with them. Origin name is HardLuckRabbit, same as steam ~:)

Beskar

03-11-2012, 14:13

Well, I can put it this way. There are plans for a Mass Effect MMO.

Monk

03-11-2012, 14:24

Well, I can put it this way. There are plans for a Mass Effect MMO.

I haven't heard anything about that. Source? It would make sense story wise if they wanted to do so. ME3's endings would be the perfect launch point for an MMO's setting/story.

But honestly I can't see it happening. If SWTOR had done better then maybe, but with that game's current state of health I can't seriously foresee EA thinking another half-baked bioware mmo would be a good idea. (its really not)

rajpoot

03-11-2012, 20:01

Heh, I'd rather the franchise was lost into the void rather than have it desecrated by an MMO.

A few more DLCs then they should consider moving onto something fresh instead of squeezing it and accidentally deforming it in the process.

White_eyes:D

03-12-2012, 00:31

My origin/steam user name is dotjohn999 and if your asking why...I lost a bet with my roommate.:shame:

Edit: I am REALLY upset with the MP on ME3...after being disconnected from 3 games(In progress and winning by a thread till the disconnect) in a row, this is starting to look more unreliable then any other MP in a game I have played.

Are they having server troubles or is it something on my end?:wall:

Kekvit Irae

03-12-2012, 04:37

Edit: I am REALLY upset with the MP on ME3...after being disconnected from 3 games(In progress and winning by a thread till the disconnect) in a row, this is starting to look more unreliable then any other MP in a game I have played.

Are they having server troubles or is it something on my end?:wall:

There are no servers. It's a peer-to-peer lobby system. If you are having connection problems, it's on your end.

White_eyes:D

03-12-2012, 06:39

Monk

03-12-2012, 08:45

Weird...because I checked the bioware tech forums and it seems like other people are running into the same issues I am. Mind you, I played a few games after my post and run thur them without the same issue popping up.:shrug:

You may need to open up some ports, try this link http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/343/index/9271235

Edit: Don't know if it was mentioned but they seem to have fixed that bug Monk was talking about.

Did they? Can't find anything on that and my lost weapons are still lost.

rajpoot

03-12-2012, 15:19

Just realised that nearly 25 k people (http://social.bioware.com/633606/polls/28989) are asking for a new ending.

Can they really just ignore their most vocal fans?

White_eyes:D

03-12-2012, 18:54

Did they? Can't find anything on that and my lost weapons are still lost.

When you go into the store after pressing "Ready", it won't let you buy anything. I think your weapons are perm-lost though, unless there is a way to get them back somehow.

Monk

03-12-2012, 19:08

When you go into the store after pressing "Ready", it won't let you buy anything. I think your weapons are perm-lost though.

https://i.imgur.com/Uk4yy.png

I figured as much. Which is why i did a bit of grinding to get some lost ground back - unfortunately, i've had terrible luck with spectre packs. Sigh. I already miss my M-37 Falcon. That thing was amazing. Walk into a room and everything dies... provided it doesnt bug. :dizzy2:

Chaotix

03-12-2012, 19:10

Just realised that nearly 25 k people (http://social.bioware.com/633606/polls/28989) are asking for a new ending.

Can they really just ignore their most vocal fans?

Yes. It's their story, and they can do what they want with it. They picked for the ending what worked best, in their minds, and they almost certainly spent a lot of time on it.

It'd be like asking a novelist or director to change the ending to your favorite book or TV series. There's a chance they might listen if they like your idea, but it's still their work and they can do what they want with it.

rajpoot

03-12-2012, 21:24

Monk

03-12-2012, 23:10

Just unlocked a Krogan for the first time. Multiplayer is now a hundred times more fun/hilarious.

Greyblades

03-12-2012, 23:47

Yes. It's their story, and they can do what they want with it. They picked for the ending what worked best, in their minds, and they almost certainly spent a lot of time on it.

It'd be like asking a novelist or director to change the ending to your favorite book or TV series. There's a chance they might listen if they like your idea, but it's still their work and they can do what they want with it.

True, but this is an interesting case, the story isnt in the hands of an author with a tale to tell but a company trying to make money. The badgering of the fans are more likely to work with bioware seeing as making thier fans happy makes them more likely to buy the company's products like DLC.

seireikhaan

03-13-2012, 09:56

Monk

03-13-2012, 10:20

Grar. Been playing around with spectre packs in mp to see if they're worth it. 10 spectre packs later and still not a single character unlock. :bigcry: The gold/black weapons are mostly nothing to write home about, with the exception of the ever lovely widow, of course.

The pistol and the black widow are wonderful - everything else though is quite marginal. I had a similiar experience, must have bought 5 spectre packs after my reset only to get a whole lot of nothing. I've since switched to Veteran packs and have gotten Asari/Drell/Salaraian and my first Krogan. :yes:

Still little luck in reclaiming lost weapons - but Krogan + Geth Shotgun is some incredible fun. Nevermind the fact that the plasma shotgun can double as long range support, as a Krogan I killed a brute in melee on silver. I think i've found my new favorite class.

seireikhaan

03-13-2012, 11:09

The pistol and the black widow are wonderful - everything else though is quite marginal. I had a similiar experience, must have bought 5 spectre packs after my reset only to get a whole lot of nothing. I've since switched to Veteran packs and have gotten Asari/Drell/Salaraian and my first Krogan. :yes:

Still little luck in reclaiming lost weapons - but Krogan + Geth Shotgun is some incredible fun. Nevermind the fact that the plasma shotgun can double as long range support, as a Krogan I killed a brute in melee on silver. I think i've found my new favorite class.
Well, decided to give the Saber assault rifle another try. Figured I'd see if it's worth it's billing as "ultra-rare", which I didn't seem to think last time. It's actually pretty fantastic as long as you're not trying to spam powers. Sadly, no turian or krogan soldiers for me. :bigcry: Only non-human, non power spamming class I have is my quarian infiltrator, and she's married to the widow. Really fantastic watching a single headshot take a geth prime's shields from full to a single measly bar.

Btw, which pistol? I've gotten a couple- the arc pistol or the Talon? Or is there another one?

Monk

03-13-2012, 11:20

Well, decided to give the Saber assault rifle another try. Figured I'd see if it's worth it's billing as "ultra-rare", which I didn't seem to think last time. It's actually pretty fantastic as long as you're not trying to spam powers. Sadly, no turian or krogan soldiers for me. :bigcry: Only non-human, non power spamming class I have is my quarian infiltrator, and she's married to the widow. Really fantastic watching a single headshot take a geth prime's shields from full to a single measly bar.

Btw, which pistol? I've gotten a couple- the arc pistol or the Talon? Or is there another one?

Arc Pistol is great as long as you charge your shots, so is the ultra-rare pistol. I can't think of its name offhand. Its really great for Adepts spamming stasis, or anyone who is rolling with crowd control build really. It usually only takes one shot and your target's head is a distant memory - if you've got someone sturdy like a Turian or a Krogan between you and the enemy you can sit back spamming stasis/pistol shots all day.

Only non-human, non power spamming class I have is my quarian infiltrator, and she's married to the widow. Really fantastic watching a single headshot take a geth prime's shields from full to a single measly bar.

I miss my Quarian infiltrator the most I think. I had a Black Widow on her :sad3: good times.

As for assault rifles, i'm pretty underwhelmed with most of the choices. I stick with my Avenger maxed out at rank X - amazing how good that base gun is when its fully upgraded. It can still hang even on Silver (would probably be useless on gold though). The Geth Pulse Rifle has got to be the worst of the lot. I thought it was fine on Bronze - but on Silver it's absolutely awful. Probably the worst gun in the game, the dps is just way too low.

seireikhaan

03-13-2012, 11:47

Arc Pistol is great as long as you charge your shots, so is the ultra-rare pistol. I can't think of its name offhand. Its really great for Adepts spamming stasis, or anyone who is rolling with crowd control build really. It usually only takes one shot and your target's head is a distant memory - if you've got someone sturdy like a Turian or a Krogan between you and the enemy you can sit back spamming stasis/pistol shots all day.
Huh. Apparently the ultra-rare one is the Talon. I wasn't super impressed with the damage output given the extra weight. Then again, didn't even know I could charge its shots. Seems weird, seeing as it's a psuedo-shotgun. But alas, no stasis adept for me. Do have an asari vanguard leveled pretty high, but I prefer the much better cooldowns that the phalanx offers since I generally rely on charge + dance-dance(revolution)/rinse and repeat. Stasis is used less, unless I'm against cerberus. Geth, and especially the reapers, just have way too much armor for it to be something I rely on against them.

I miss my Quarian infiltrator the most I think. I had a Black Widow on her :sad3: good times.

As for assault rifles, i'm pretty underwhelmed with most of the choices. I stick with my Avenger maxed out at rank X - amazing how good that base gun is when its fully upgraded. It can still hang even on Silver (would probably be useless on gold though). The Geth Pulse Rifle has got to be the worst of the lot. I thought it was fine on Bronze - but on Silver it's absolutely awful. Probably the worst gun in the game, the dps is just way too low.
How'd the black widow compare to the regular one? I didn't mess around with snipers much when I was in SP because I was an adept.

White_eyes:D

03-13-2012, 11:53

seireikhaan

03-13-2012, 12:20

To me, the Reapers are pretty easy if you have some AP rounds and some distance. Melee is just suicide vs the Banshee/Ravengers, that's probably why most people find them hard.

I love using the Raptor, has enough of a kick to stun the enemy but not enough to throw off your aim and just enough of a clip size to finish most standard footsoldiers on Silver. Did I also mention its a sniper rifle?:grin2:

I hate fighting the Geth if no one is a engineer....tried it with 4 adepts and it was a slaughter.:sweatdrop:
Haha. If you want lulz, play against the Geth with 3 quarian infiltrators with widows + an engineer. Didn't have anyone go down even once on silver. Technically it would be more balanced to replace one of the infiltrators with a sentinel or another engineer, but hey, no complaints. Pity we only got one match out of it before someone left.

Raptor is decent enough weapon, I just didn't like it so much because I like to use one weapon only, and it didn't do quite enough damage against the really powerful enemies. Found I ran out of ammo too often.

But back to the Reapers, it's not the general fighting them that's the issue. It's the occasions like I mentioned where your objective anchors you to a point for 3 minutes and keeping distance becomes nearly impossible without forfeiting the objective. That and the banshees can just ruin the whole day if they get a successful impale on someone and make it impossible to res them back up.

Monk

03-13-2012, 13:15

How'd the black widow compare to the regular one? I didn't mess around with snipers much when I was in SP because I was an adept.

The damage is roughly the same - but you get 3 shots per clip before you have to reload instead of the standard single shot. That means you can literally wipe out a hallway in a matter of seconds. Its one of the best ultra-rares imo.

To me, the Reapers are pretty easy if you have some AP rounds and some distance. Melee is just suicide vs the Banshee/Ravengers, that's probably why most people find them hard.

The problem isnt fighting them - the problem is keeping your distance. At wave 6 on silver you're going to be facing 2x banshee/brutes with ravager fire support. Cover isnt an option against Banshees because they will one shot you. Banshees can close distance before you have time to whittle down their barriers, which means CQC with an almost full health banshee, while attempting to dodge ranged enemies. If you're not careful, you'll get gunned down by the ravagers as you displace to deal with the melee rush.

At wave 10-11 you will be facing 2x banshees and 4x brutes with ravager fire support. Things get messy quick. The only way to deal with them is to stay mobile and try to have someone gunning down their fire support while the bulk of the team controls them. Having someone with warp is almost a requirement. Warp and biotic explosions can knock people out of a banshee's grasp and prevent the one shot.

rajpoot

03-13-2012, 16:27

I'm probably the only one here, but I've been monitoring the poll I linked to before, and ATM it actually has more that 2-4 new votes per minute. I had no idea that the gaming community could be so vocal.
Now if only they let gamers pick politicians too. :laugh3:

White_eyes:D

03-13-2012, 22:00

Haha. If you want lulz, play against the Geth with 3 quarian infiltrators with widows + an engineer. Didn't have anyone go down even once on silver. Technically it would be more balanced to replace one of the infiltrators with a sentinel or another engineer, but hey, no complaints. Pity we only got one match out of it before someone left. In quite a few of the rounds I played, people seemed to prefer fighting the Geth....honestly, I have won more times against the Reapers then against them. Engineers can easily hack/overload/cloak and it becomes a mop-up operation at almost every wave. I hate how everyone seems to choose the Blackwidow...it's not fast firing enough of a weapon if you get a couple Geth hunters surrounding you. In most of the rounds I played, some of them used a back-up power but most were quickly killed and then the team followed.

Raptor is decent enough weapon, I just didn't like it so much because I like to use one weapon only, and it didn't do quite enough damage against the really powerful enemies. Found I ran out of ammo too often.
I like to use one weapon as well. The Raptor has around 140 rounds at base but I have that capacity heat sink upgrade mixed with that damage increase. It's a really beastly weapon and I have found it can kill a Brute at around 40 shots if you have AP rounds. What I love about it is that it stuns enemies for a sec and it only takes 2-3 shots, don't know about heavy's but I can easily keep two Banshee's busy for most of the round.

And sometimes the game is cruel and makes you upload data on wave 10....the best thing to do is to mob it and upload the data as fast as four people can and scatter when finished. I had more trouble when I had to kill the enemy in wave 10 and it was 2 Banshees and 2 Brutes. I was killed in the end by a husk when I just needed to finish off a weakened Ravenger....Soul-crushing experience there.

Kekvit Irae

03-14-2012, 01:47

In multiplayer, why do the Quarian characters keep saying "Banana!" after the wave is complete? :laugh4:

seireikhaan

03-14-2012, 01:58

In multiplayer, why do the Quarian characters keep saying "Banana!" after the wave is complete? :laugh4:
:laugh4:

Oh good, I'm not the only one who thought that was what they said. It's actually "For Rannoch!" but the suit/accent combo definitely makes the confusion actually seem reasonable.

White_eyes:D

03-14-2012, 03:00

That "store bug" is still around....just lost all my weapons/characters,*sighs* need to start from scratch. Also had a weird game where I couldn't reload at the ammo points and couldn't inflict any damage on enemies but they still tried attacking me....MOST HILARIOUS GAME EVER:bounce:

rajpoot

03-14-2012, 08:18

gaelic cowboy

03-14-2012, 12:40

Perhaps. Still I have not seen such a vocal proof of discontent concerning a BW game (or any game) till date.

I've been replaying key missions using saves and I've decide my favourite moments in the game. All of them are related to ex-squadmates.
IMO the crowning moment of awesome is Thane sparring with Kai-Leng. I admit I never particularly liked Thane in ME2, but the scene where he saves the Salarian councilor just shines.
Close seconds are the big Threshar Maw taking out the Reaper while Mordin calmly goes to die and Legion's sacrifice.
Looking forward to playing with a female Shepard next. Jennifer Hale does stellar voice-work.

How does one get that to happen when I saved the councillor it was major kirrahe who took the bullet. In fact I cant find Thane anywhere think he might have died before I spoke to him I went to the hospital but hes wasnt there.

Anyways he was not in my save the councillor bit or do you save the councillor twice?

On an unrelated note I actually played my first multiplayer game ever I never actually played online games intenet is connection was always ruubbish in the house funnily enough I can play the MP easier than the SP.

I had to turn the pc down to ugly just to play ME3 the horizons are usually just big white wall half the time.

Must say I enhoyed it immensely and I didnt feel like I was too useless unlike the couple of times on my friends xbox with call of duty. That kind of thing actually puts me off MP for a lot of games what the points of joining up if everyone seems to be like a jedi or a jerk.

Monk

03-14-2012, 12:57

Casey Hudson finally breaks silence. (http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/14/mass-effect-3-director-stands-by-ending-promises-single-player-dlc/)

Nice to hear that they are listening, and the DLC new sounds promising.

Edit:
The fans continue to surprise. Apparently there's even a charity (http://www.vg247.com/2012/03/14/retake-mass-effect-petition-backers-raise-12000-for-charity/) devoted to this cause now. With more 26 k dollars.

Hm. Interesting. I'm fine with the endings, but I'm interested to see what else they will do. Would still be nice to have some of these questions answered.

How does one get that to happen when I saved the councillor it was major kirrahe who took the bullet.

or do you save the councillor twice?

Thane spoilers
If thane is dead then its the major who saves the councilor. If the major died in ME1, then no one saves him and Leng succeeds in the assasination

gaelic cowboy

03-14-2012, 13:11

Hm. Interesting. I'm fine with the endings, but I'm interested to see what else they will do. Would still be nice to have some of these questions answered.

I havent even got to the end yet in my playthrough but when I accidently found out the ending I didnt think it was wrong at all.

Think people are just annoyed they dont get to go off into the sunset is all.

Monk

03-14-2012, 13:21

I havent even got to the end yet in my playthrough but when I accidently found out the ending I didnt think it was wrong at all.

Think people are just annoyed they dont get to go off into the sunset is all.

Probably so. There are a few odd inconsistencies and not enough said that also contribute to the reaction. People's frustration is largely understandable even if I don't exactly agree (as long as they don't go to crazy extremes with it).

gaelic cowboy

03-14-2012, 13:25

Probably so. There are a few odd inconsistencies and not enough said that also contribute to the reaction. People's frustration is largely understandable even if I don't exactly agree (as long as they don't go to crazy extremes with it).

We know its the end of Shepards story because they said it a loads of time but that does not mean it's the end of The story. I expect to see an ME4 eventually twill be the same universe but different people sequel or prequel it doesnt matter I would enjoy it just the same.

rajpoot

03-14-2012, 16:34

Thing is I don't think that fans are really bothered by sad endings. I mean I'm sure most of the people knew that this will be the end of Shepard. Because the greatest heroes always die.
Maybe not everyone liked it, but then endings that tug at the heart strings can be pretty good.

What is frustrating and unacceptable is how the ending says nothing about the characters and races who were the motive behind the entire game. The ending sequence with Shepard is done very well, and Clint Mansell's track An End Once and for All complements the scene beautifully. But then after that everything is vague.

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.

Greyblades

03-14-2012, 16:42

Though a riding into the sunset would be nice.

gaelic cowboy

03-14-2012, 16:49

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

There will be DLC which may give some closure but not for everything clearly there not going to make DLC for characters that could be dead since ME2.

ME4 will be announced no doubt maybe next year in order to sell some DLC

Greyblades

03-14-2012, 16:54

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

rajpoot

03-14-2012, 17:27

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

03-14-2012, 17:32

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

03-14-2012, 17:44

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

03-14-2012, 18:05

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. :no:

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

03-14-2012, 19:53

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

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

03-14-2012, 21:51

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 :daisy: 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

03-14-2012, 22:31

White_eyes:D

03-14-2012, 23:30

seireikhaan

03-14-2012, 23:37

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.:mean:
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

03-15-2012, 00:47

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

03-15-2012, 00:55

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? ~D

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

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. :confused:

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

seireikhaan

03-15-2012, 01:51

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

03-15-2012, 02:04

I just just three things from the ending DLC:

1. I want closure. 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 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 (https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:EA) right now? Releasing it free would only do good for both the players and the shareholders.

rajpoot

03-15-2012, 06:33

Chaotix

03-15-2012, 07:05

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

03-15-2012, 07:09

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

gaelic cowboy

03-15-2012, 11:43

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

03-15-2012, 11:47

Those magnificent b:daisy:rds.

rajpoot

03-15-2012, 11:49

gaelic cowboy

03-15-2012, 12:17

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

03-15-2012, 13:59

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)

(http://retakemasseffect.chipin.com/rss/id/a640a41f9b9991d1)Edit:

There's also this rumour, it supposedly started on 4chan but still. (http://www.gamefront.com/rumor-mass-effect-3-dlc-the-truth-due-in-april/)

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

03-15-2012, 14:45

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

03-15-2012, 14:51

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

03-15-2012, 15:08

For those interested in how desperate developers' situations are:

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/when-the-consoles-die-what-comes-next

gaelic cowboy

03-15-2012, 15:34

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 (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/13/mass-effect-3-day-one-dlc-files-spotted-on-disk-bioware-respond/)

Monk

03-15-2012, 15:43

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 (http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/03/13/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

03-15-2012, 15:47

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? :clown:

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

03-15-2012, 16:01

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

03-16-2012, 07:34

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

rajpoot

03-16-2012, 19:32

The Final Hours of ME3 (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/final-hours-mass-effect-3/id508355905?ls=1&mt=8)

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3PQT4c_r7Q

Monk

03-16-2012, 22:19

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/343/index/9992705

Bioware announces the first ("of many") N7 challenge weekends. Are you a bad enough dude to beat Reapers on Silver? If you are you'll get special unlock packs. Beating the Reapers on Silver is good enough for a "commendation" pack, which contains random weapons that were originally only available through single-player DLC.

They've also attached a metagame - if the community (across all platforms) kills a million Brutes by Sunday(i think) then everyone who plays MP gets a "victory" pack. If you want to contribute to the score tally, make sure you turn "upload game feedback" on in the online options of the game.

Full details are at the link above.

edit:

Its time specific so don't bother trying to grind it RIGHT NOW if you're after the commendation packs. The event doesnt start for another couple of hours.

Greyblades

03-17-2012, 00:01

Spoilers in the link.
So it turns out there's a bunch of stuff they cut from the ending (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=booBmcFw_Lk&feature=related), maybe they kept it for this dlc ending but it really feels kinda wasted.

Kekvit Irae

03-17-2012, 00:54

Kekvit Irae

03-17-2012, 01:11

Dear Quarian Infiltrators,
There are other enemies besides Geth. You should try them.

Dear Infiltrators in general,
You are the "flag runners." Use your Tactical Cloak to get in and capture the objectives. The quicker the team finishes the objective wave, the more money you get.

Dear Asari Adepts,
When going up against armor, Warp then THROW. Don't just use Warp all the time. A Biotic Explosion will do more damage than Warp ever could.

Dear Human Vanguards,
Biotic Charge followed by a Nova will get you killed. Don't expect me to revive you.

Dear Turian Sentinels,
Keep being awesome.

Dear Krogan,
Don't melee anything with an instakill attack when they are focused on you.

Dear Soldiers,
Please choose a class that doesn't suck.

Dear Bioware,
Give me my :daisy: Black Widow already!

Dear snipers,
Stop using the Black Widow. You're making me jealous.

Dear Human Engineers,
Let's face the facts: The only reason we let you play is for Overload.

Dear Human Adepts,
A Singularity on a Ravager will kill all Swarmers that pop out. A Singularity on anything else with armor will kill all respect for you.

Beskar

03-17-2012, 01:27

Monk

03-17-2012, 02:10

It seems all the people who are useless came out of the woodwork for this weekend. By the looks of this thread, there are people here who play MP a lot more then I have, yet I keep being ahead of my Silver-Reaper colleagues by like 30 odd overall levels whilst they are generally 8 or 12.

If anyone has Xbox version and wants to hook up, let me know.

Double this but for PC. You guys know my origin name just give me a ping if you want to hook up for a few games, some useless people clogging up the lobbies at the moment. Think i may go mess around in single-player or CKII while i wait for the rush of idiots to calm down.

As an addendum it looks like we'll be waiting until after the event to get our unlock packs.

"PLEASE NOTE THAT REWARDS WILL UNLOCK ON TUESDAY, MARCH 20 @ 5 PM PST.
YOU MUST REDEEM (OPEN) YOUR PACKS IN THE MULTIPLAYER STORE MENU WITHIN 7
DAYS, AT WHICH POINT THE PACKS WILL EXPIRE AND CANNOT BE RESTORED.

Each player can earn a maximum of one pack, and each pack contains a random N7 Arsenal Weapon. :) Just one Commendation pack. This is likely only the first of this type of challenge though, so stay tuned

So cross your fingers you get a shotgun if you like shotguns...

Dear Krogan,
Don't melee anything with an instakill attack when they are focused on you.

Dear Soldiers,
Please choose a class that doesn't suck.

As a Krogan Soldier I resent that! I'm a credit to team, honest ~:(

seireikhaan

03-17-2012, 11:10

Chaotix

03-17-2012, 20:08

Just got my hands on my Collector's Edition (though I still think there should be a Collector on the front :clown:).

Spent an entire night playing it instead of sleeping. Poor internet connection here though, so no multiplayer yet.

Still having a ton of fun with it.

Monk

03-17-2012, 20:16

Think I've found my favorite reaper-fighting class. Salarian engineer is gorgeous. Decoy is possibly my favorite thing ever. Nothing like watching 2 brutes and a banshee stupid out and wail on nothing while everyone unloads hell on them.

I've been rocking Krogan Soldier with a Geth Plasma Shotgun. Due to how the pellets work, the plasma shotgun can double as close range mayhem and long range fire support, it also has a charge shot that makes Ravegers, Banshees and Brutes a triviality! (well not really, but it does do some damage!) I've maxed Rage and Carnage with inferno grenade up to about 5 bubbles. This means that I can charge it - hit melee, unload a fully charged plasma shot, fire off carnage (which has upgraded aoe effects) and throw down an inferno grenade. My close combat burst is insane. Carnage and Inferno grenade are specially good for taking down Brutes.

I fear the Krogan Soldier would be a bit worse on Gold where everything has a ton more health, but on Silver the Krogan is an absolute bruiser. So far i've taken part in 6 successful extractions (2 full and 4 partial) since the event started.

seireikhaan

03-18-2012, 06:37

I've been rocking Krogan Soldier with a Geth Plasma Shotgun. Due to how the pellets work, the plasma shotgun can double as close range mayhem and long range fire support, it also has a charge shot that makes Ravegers, Banshees and Brutes a triviality! (well not really, but it does do some damage!) I've maxed Rage and Carnage with inferno grenade up to about 5 bubbles. This means that I can charge it - hit melee, unload a fully charged plasma shot, fire off carnage (which has upgraded aoe effects) and throw down an inferno grenade. My close combat burst is insane. Carnage and Inferno grenade are specially good for taking down Brutes.

I fear the Krogan Soldier would be a bit worse on Gold where everything has a ton more health, but on Silver the Krogan is an absolute bruiser. So far i've taken part in 6 successful extractions (2 full and 4 partial) since the event started.
Hmm. I've got a krogan soldier myself and tried it, but I just kept falling flat against Banshees. Just feel like I can't sustain enough damage, and lack the nimbleness to avoid their attacks.

Naturally, since my previous post complaining about a lack of soldiers to try the saber with, I've got enough Turian soldiers to customize them for everything except the skin color. O_o. I've had pretty good success combining the saber with maxed out marksman. Saber is a beautiful weapon in Turian hands. Lots of power, accurate, doubles as a sniper if you equip a scope, decent mag size, and very nice rate of fire when combo'd with marksman.