Mass Effect 3

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101

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

Yeah. The quarians are a bunch of wimps and morons, and every single conflict with the Geth was their fault… And the Geth are way more useful anyway.

[/quote]

This is exactly why I wouldn’t even think twice if given the choice. Geth all the way for me.
[/quote]

Tali. That is the reason. She helped me kill Saren and got on board with the suicide mission against the Collectors without blinking. So…if saving her dumb ass family is part of the deal I am still getting off cheap. I made her bunk on a ship where she was subjected to nothing but racism in ME1, made her part of my deal with the devil in ME2 (also sent her ass crawling through the ducts on the Collector ship), and she had to watch me make googly eyes at a blue chick with tentacles coming out of her head. Hell…she had more faith than either Ashley/Kaiden did.

The honest Sheperd line would have been to tell the Flotilla “I am only helping because of Tali. Keep fucking with her and I will use a stick pin and a coughing fit to end the lot of you.”

Same reason I knew I was going Krogan over Salerian.

Regards,

Robert A

102

[quote]Robert A wrote:

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

Yeah. The quarians are a bunch of wimps and morons, and every single conflict with the Geth was their fault… And the Geth are way more useful anyway.

[/quote]

This is exactly why I wouldn’t even think twice if given the choice. Geth all the way for me.
[/quote]

Tali. That is the reason. She helped me kill Saren and got on board with the suicide mission against the Collectors without blinking. So…if saving her dumb ass family is part of the deal I am still getting off cheap. I made her bunk on a ship where she was subjected to nothing but racism in ME1, made her part of my deal with the devil in ME2 (also sent her ass crawling through the ducts on the Collector ship), and she had to watch me make googly eyes at a blue chick with tentacles coming out of her head. Hell…she had more faith than either Ashley/Kaiden did.

The honest Sheperd line would have been to tell the Flotilla “I am only helping because of Tali. Keep fucking with her and I will use a stick pin and a coughing fit to end the lot of you.”
[/quote] Hahaha, that’s awesome. [quote]
Same reason I knew I was going Krogan over Salerian.

Regards,

Robert A[/quote]

SPOILERS AHEAD

Yeah, Tali was the only reason I didn’t simply go with the Geth instead of choosing both.

Thing is… And maybe I’m remembering this wrong…
But she was way more sympathetic and well written in ME 1 and 2 imo… Consider ME3’s Liara (and of course Garrus, the most well-written char in the series imo, I used to think I was the only one who thought “that one’s like the guys I spent long months crawling through the sand with, we’d totally be friends IRL”… But apparently it’s a common thing… The writer(s) did that very well)…
Liara has the advantage of, well, having a genrally visible face so you can see her expressions… And everything from her expressions, body language to her voice acting in ME3 were way more in line with the Garrus standard and more expressive and sympathetic than Tali.
It felt like the developers tried to make her more important/more of a buddy char, but didn’t do the same for Tali (at least not nearly to the same extent… Not the same attention to detail of her body language either as opposed to the previous titles… She felt more like a random Quarian and not really like Tali?.. The ending also sort of confirms this imo as Shepard thinks of Liara no matter whether you paid any attention to her throughout the game or not.

Anyway… There were a bunch of writing issues apart from that in ME3, but not nearly as many/bad as ME2… Except for the ending which is out of place.

I definitely got the impression that you were supposed to pretty much team up with Liara and Garrus primarily though. The ME1 surviving char seemed thrown in without much attention to their writing… The protean is interesting but doesn’t have all that much dialogue and you can’t really interact with him much, change him or anything.

Oh, and Joker and Edi definitely got elevated way beyond their original importance. Not that I mind, they’re cool characters. Shame that they didn’t get more in-depth interactive dialogue to match though. That’s a common problem from what I recall… Way too many “busy calibrating the guns” and “Shepard.” and “Commander.” and “not now?” answers.

I wonder if EA’s deadline had anything to do with this sort of thing.

As for the salarians… It’s not like it matters if you don’t choose them, they’ll come into the fold anyway if their councillor survives the assassination attempt due to the reptile dude’s intervention (there’s one char I never cared much for) or alternatively Kirrahe if Reptile dude died in ME2.

Come to think of it, the only really decent Quarian besides Tali, the marine captain guy, gets nothing more than a private message at your terminal stating that he died heroically in some last stand -type scenario. Damnit. I get the feeling the writers didn’t like the Quarians much this time around.

/end spoilers

103

What CC said.

I never connected with Tali in the first 2 series, even though I’m a female Sheppard. She always seemed whiny to me. And I couldn’t see her expressions and that irked me to no end, lol. A friend of mine told me he had seen her face though, can’t remember in what series, and that she’s very beautiful. Anyway, she was an awesome sidekick. Thanks to her, I completed missions I couldn’t with others team mates.

I was more drawn to Liara. I wish they had made Miranda a potential romance for both female and male Sheppard. As well as Jack. These are the females I liked more.

Oh and, Krogans are one my favourite races. I chose to end the genophage.

Spoilers:

I felt like punching that Salarian councillor when she revealed the shroud sabotage…

104

SPOILERS

who else thinks the end was a dream?

105

SPOILERS (sorta)

[quote]caveman101 wrote:

SPOILERS

who else thinks the end was a dream?[/quote]

I am really, really hoping that the indoctrination theory is true and that a DLC gets released explaining the whole thing to us in a month or two, and that that DLC is free, and . . . who knows, maybe I’ll even win the lottery tomorrow.

Edit: Just read your link. There are a few holes in his logic, but overall his theory is sound, and he brought up a few things I hadn’t seen elsewhere yet. I just hope it’s because the theory is actually true and not because the nerd gaming community is doing an excellent job of twisting facts to fit their theories.

106

Just finished the game. Saw a few posts about a “bad ending” and thought it was just people being bitter nerds.

WRONG.

SPOILERS

Besides being horribly depressing, that shit didn’t even make sense. That little kid was talking out his ass. “Hey guys, I know you don’t want to get killed by synthetics, so I’m going to kill you with synthetics so that never happens.” WHAT?

107

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
SPOILERS (sorta)

[quote]caveman101 wrote:

SPOILERS

who else thinks the end was a dream?[/quote]

I am really, really hoping that the indoctrination theory is true and that a DLC gets released explaining the whole thing to us in a month or two, and that that DLC is free, and . . . who knows, maybe I’ll even win the lottery tomorrow.

Edit: Just read your link. There are a few holes in his logic, but overall his theory is sound, and he brought up a few things I hadn’t seen elsewhere yet. I just hope it’s because the theory is actually true and not because the nerd gaming community is doing an excellent job of twisting facts to fit their theories.[/quote]

SPOILERS

Here is the thing: for the idea that the end to be just a dream, or indoctrination, it would mean that EA/Bioware planned all along on releasing an incomplete ending. And therefore, that they planned on finishing the game buy making you purchase more content via DLC, instead of just offering the normal types of DLC (side missions during the main game, more weapons, new sidekick,etc.)

I really would like to think better of Bioware (maybe not EA) and they wouldn’t do something so obtuse. They’d have to have known it would enrage fans.

Here is what I think really happened: ME3 was already delayed once, and probably still needed more time to get the game right. There are tons of bugs with cut-scenes, and some of the quests are bugged. Not to mention the horrible quest tracker that fails to update you on the current status of side missions (the who/what/where/when).

The end was just what they could come up with in the time allotted that fit their story. And it is their story. They just really didn’t run the ending by enough QA testers. They failed to realize that by not offering choices during the climax, and an epilogue to the many important characters, many many players would never play through the game again; and by extension, they wouldn’t play ME1 or 2 again. This tells me the idea was to blow up everything to begin with and they just didn’t have the right talent working on a fast fix ending. I’m sure they’d have given us more, but who knows. EA is a business and will push hard to get stuff out. I don’t blame them, but it is a known pattern that many worried Bioware would succumb to quality wise.

If Bioware planned an incomplete ending on purpose just to sell them the real deal for $10, I’d give them props for having balls. But it is a sizable risk and will result in universal derision and scorn. I really don’t know what these guys can do to bring back customers that are returning the game/selling on ebay en mass (no pun).

108

The quest/journal is bad. It is the only part of the “game” that I feel is just horrific. I don’t understand how they opted to make is so damn useless.

I also think it is possible that Bioware/EA thought/toyed of doing an expansion pack release for the ending. The game is already on 2 discs and maybe they decided a 3 disc deal would be too much. The expansion pack already happened with Dragon Age Origins and Awakening.

Even if they didn’t before. This is the lie they need to tell now. Claim that the ending is “Complete in and of itself, but that we always felt an entire 1 disc expansion would be needed to clear up the ending and allow the loyal/RPG gamers an opportunity to resolve their plot lines. That happens with ME 3: _________”

It will piss people off, but if the material is good they can sell another 25 hrs of game for $40.

Regards,

Robert A

109

[quote]steadfastred wrote:
If you’ve played through mass effect 3, watch this for some laughs.

Hahaha!

0.44 is hilarious.

110

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:
What CC said.

I never connected with Tali in the first 2 series, even though I’m a female Sheppard. She always seemed whiny to me. And I couldn’t see her expressions and that irked me to no end, lol. A friend of mine told me he had seen her face though, can’t remember in what series, and that she’s very beautiful. Anyway, she was an awesome sidekick. Thanks to her, I completed missions I couldn’t with others team mates.

I was more drawn to Liara. I wish they had made Miranda a potential romance for both female and male Sheppard. As well as Jack. These are the females I liked more.

Oh and, Krogans are one my favourite races. I chose to end the genophage.

Spoilers:

I felt like punching that Salarian councillor when she revealed the shroud sabotage…[/quote]

Jack was fairly awesome, but I liked the handling of her character in ME 3 for the most part.

I wanted to choke the salarian diplomat. I however loved Mordin’s patter singing ass.

Krogans are cool, but I could just be worried you would head butt me if I didn’t agree.

Regards,

Robert A

111

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

Come to think of it, the only really decent Quarian besides Tali, the marine captain guy, gets nothing more than a private message at your terminal stating that he died heroically in some last stand -type scenario. Damnit. I get the feeling the writers didn’t like the Quarians much this time around.

/end spoilers[/quote]

They decided to make them REALLY bad. Hell, if we consider the ending as cannon than the Reapers are kinder souls than the Quarians. The Reapers/Star Brat are saving us from ourselves where as the Quarians were genocidal slave masters who suck at fighting.

Another reason I hate the ending. I like the idea of the “sympathetic” Quarians turning out to have a ton of blood…er circuit boards on their hands, it lends some moral depth to the lore. I HATE the idea that all the actions in ME 1, 2, and 3 are basically “wrong” since they were thwarting the Reapers/Saviors of sentient organic life.

Regards,

Robert A

112

299×700 27.3 KB

This seems relevant.

113

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
SPOILERS (sorta)

[quote]caveman101 wrote:

SPOILERS

who else thinks the end was a dream?[/quote]

I am really, really hoping that the indoctrination theory is true and that a DLC gets released explaining the whole thing to us in a month or two, and that that DLC is free, and . . . who knows, maybe I’ll even win the lottery tomorrow.

Edit: Just read your link. There are a few holes in his logic, but overall his theory is sound, and he brought up a few things I hadn’t seen elsewhere yet. I just hope it’s because the theory is actually true and not because the nerd gaming community is doing an excellent job of twisting facts to fit their theories.[/quote]
SPOILERS
The indoctrination theory makes no sense. Why would you want him to be indoctrinated so humanity fails and the Reapers win? That kills the franchise. In the “Last Hours” app, some film crew followed the devs around and filmed them. They were trying to implement an ending where you became indoctrinated but somehow couldn’t get it to work. That pretty much throws the whole indoctrination theory out. They thought creating an ending where there would be a lot of speculation was good. But this ending doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit with the series. It copies the endings from Deus Ex. They had no clue what they were doing. Not to mention all the plot holes they created in the process.

Why spend the plot solving an organic vs synthetic quarrel. Quarians and Geth. When you get to the ending and are told your actions are for nothing and synthetics and organics can’t coexist. Why put this theme into a game that you can get organics and synthetic to live together peacefully and then at the end you can’t say anything about it to the Reaper child. It makes no sense.

114

Any of you guys playing online? It’s kind of like nazi zombies where you’ve gotta survive waves of enemies. It’s actually a lot of fun but I hope they add new modes, I can see it getting old quick. I’m not sure how it would work but PvP would be awesome. Also the item system blows, you earn credits to buy “packs” of random shit. I play a soldier and I’ve gotten a bunch of snipers and shotguns but no good assault rifles yet. They should just let you save up credits and buy the items you want.

115

[quote]overstand wrote:
Any of you guys playing online? It’s kind of like nazi zombies where you’ve gotta survive waves of enemies. It’s actually a lot of fun but I hope they add new modes, I can see it getting old quick. I’m not sure how it would work but PvP would be awesome. Also the item system blows, you earn credits to buy “packs” of random shit. I play a soldier and I’ve gotten a bunch of snipers and shotguns but no good assault rifles yet. They should just let you save up credits and buy the items you want.[/quote]
I don’t think they can do PVP because of the abilities in the game. Like what would it look like if you were being lifted and thrown off screen? They’d have to make the level visible from being high up. Also there would be no way to balance it with the powers. Imagine getting charged by a Vanguard and blasted with a shotgun or an Infiltrator running around cloaked all the time before lining up a couple sniper shots to take someone out then recloaking. It would be pandemonium.

116

biowares response to ending. Looks like dlc will be on the way:

117

[quote]Robert A wrote:

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]Cephalic_Carnage wrote:

Yeah. The quarians are a bunch of wimps and morons, and every single conflict with the Geth was their fault… And the Geth are way more useful anyway.

[/quote]

This is exactly why I wouldn’t even think twice if given the choice. Geth all the way for me.
[/quote]

Same here, Legion is too badass of a character.

118

[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
biowares response to ending. Looks like dlc will be on the way:

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/16/bioware-to-discuss-mass-effect-3-endings.aspx[/quote]
SPOILER

Of course there is DLC on the way. After you beat the game there is a screen that comes up and says to continue the legend with DLC. There were like 10-15 DLC for ME2.
I’ve heard a rumor there will be a retake Omega DLC and some kind of DLC mission for the planet the Normandy lands on at the end. They make sense but could be not untrue.

119

[quote]Grimlorn wrote:

[quote]TheJonty wrote:
SPOILERS (sorta)

[quote]caveman101 wrote:

SPOILERS

who else thinks the end was a dream?[/quote]

I am really, really hoping that the indoctrination theory is true and that a DLC gets released explaining the whole thing to us in a month or two, and that that DLC is free, and . . . who knows, maybe I’ll even win the lottery tomorrow.

Edit: Just read your link. There are a few holes in his logic, but overall his theory is sound, and he brought up a few things I hadn’t seen elsewhere yet. I just hope it’s because the theory is actually true and not because the nerd gaming community is doing an excellent job of twisting facts to fit their theories.[/quote]
SPOILERS
The indoctrination theory makes no sense. Why would you want him to be indoctrinated so humanity fails and the Reapers win? That kills the franchise. In the “Last Hours” app, some film crew followed the devs around and filmed them. They were trying to implement an ending where you became indoctrinated but somehow couldn’t get it to work. That pretty much throws the whole indoctrination theory out. They thought creating an ending where there would be a lot of speculation was good. But this ending doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t fit with the series. It copies the endings from Deus Ex. They had no clue what they were doing. Not to mention all the plot holes they created in the process.

Why spend the plot solving an organic vs synthetic quarrel. Quarians and Geth. When you get to the ending and are told your actions are for nothing and synthetics and organics can’t coexist. Why put this theme into a game that you can get organics and synthetic to live together peacefully and then at the end you can’t say anything about it to the Reaper child. It makes no sense.[/quote]

BIG ASS SPOILERS

I’m not going to get into all the details but I have read some very extensive writeups and watched a youtube video or two that do a pretty good job of convincing you of the “indoctrination theory” in some form. People much more dedicated than I have found lots of little clues that would suggest everything that happens after you get blasted by Harbinger is a dream that acts as a metaphorical battle (in the form of a dream or hallucination) of Shepard fighting the indoctrination, with Anderson representing the part of your mind that is still your own, and the Illusive Man representing the indoctrination. And when you get those final three choices at the end, the only choice resulting in the destruction of the reapers is coloured red (associated with renegade), implying the catalyst space magic boy god doesn’t want you to choose that one. If he was the manifestation of indoctrination in your mind, think about it, which choice would the reapers want you to make? By choosing to destroy them you “beat” the indoctrination. Of course this is all a hallucination/dream and you wake up in a pile of rubble back on earth and still have to kill them all. Personally I think that makes more sense than the ending when taken at face value, which you said yourself doesn’t make much sense and creates an array of plot holes.

And I haven’t seen the Last Hours app personally, but it was my understanding that what they said was they were trying to implement a section at the end of the game where you were indoctrinated and lost control of Shepard but they couldn’t find a way to make that work within the game, it wasn’t necessarily that the whole indoctrination angle didn’t work from a story perspective. I think.
/end tired and unnecessarily long post

120

[quote]overstand wrote:
Any of you guys playing online? It’s kind of like nazi zombies where you’ve gotta survive waves of enemies. It’s actually a lot of fun but I hope they add new modes, I can see it getting old quick. I’m not sure how it would work but PvP would be awesome. Also the item system blows, you earn credits to buy “packs” of random shit. I play a soldier and I’ve gotten a bunch of snipers and shotguns but no good assault rifles yet. They should just let you save up credits and buy the items you want.[/quote]

Been playing some (actually it’s the only ME3 I’ve played since I finished my first SP playthrough haha). Kind of enjoy it, just hate getting stuck with idiot teammates. I agree with you about the item unlock system, not huge on the random part of it. And PvP would be cool, but as somebody else said, it would be an absolute nightmare to design/program/balance/implement.

I also played a bunch of the multiplayer in the demo, and in my experience (and everything I read online) the human soldiers really aren’t effective above bronze. Can’t speak much for the krogan or turian soldiers, haven’t unlocked the krogan yet and haven’t played with the turian too much. Still feeling it out but I’m enjoying running around with an asari adept, warp/throw for some wicked biotic explosions and stasis anything that’s too much trouble to deal with ASAP. Well, stasis the things that aren’t massive, anyways.