[PC/PS3/360/WiiU] Mass Effect 3

[james0246]

I just finished my pre-owned copy (the only way to both get the pleasure of the game, while still voicing some minor discomplaint), and I was very impressed. The sheer size of the experience was quite daunting at times, but my greatest pleasure was the little details. Whether they be the simple overheard conversations that slowly evolve over repeated listenings (my favourite was the mother pleading with the Asari embassy to take her daughter to safety...sadly this conversation repeats itself even after a major event, which defeated the purpose of the entire overheard discussion), or the beautiful music after a major event, these simple moments truly encapsulates the size and scope of the entire ME experience.

That being said, besides some silly dialogue, and the occasional plot hiccup, the story came together more or less as I expected (I especially loved the inclusions of most of the ME2 characters, save for Jacob who has always been exceedingly dull). Geth, genophage, and everything inbetween were expected, and even the ending was something I had been leaning toward since the ending of the second game (I disliked some of the plot holes and contrivances in the ending, but the overall ending (at least the Shepard part) was not unpleasing to me. Did I want something more? Yes. But what I got was still good.). I did dislike how the online content affected the singleplayer story (especially since my wireless internet connector for my XBOX broke recently), but besides the pressence of the 50% Readiness indicator I never really noticed any problems. Overall this was a strong 90/100 experience, and the franchise as a whole gets a 95/100.

P.S. The Atlas was as stupid as I expected. .

edit: Completed all the endings (without online play support, so I am unsure if I have unlocked all the endings possible), and I do not know which I prefer. Here's hoping that if there is a post-ending DLC (which I am not saying needs to be made) either each individual ending will be explored further (if not simply transporting the player into a new avatar 100s of years in the future), or they could simply update the current endings further. Whatever the case, I still do not mind the endings that much, and they certainly do not and will not affect my overall Mass Effect experience.

[killer3000ad]

ANgryJoe's list of why the ME3 endings are bad.

[npal]

^ He summed it up pretty well :P

I wonder if they're going to apologize for the things they ripped off of the internet, like the narrator background and Tali's pic.

[Hooves]

Marauder Shields was planted there by someone who knew in Bioware, that the ending stunk. Wanted to prevent us from getting that ending and get disappointed. Saving us the trouble of raging at the sign of Bioware breaking promises, and hoarding money from DLCs.

R.I.P Shields

[-Sho-]

Originally Posted by Hooves

Marauder Shields was planted there by someone who knew in Bioware, that the ending stunk. Wanted to prevent us from getting that ending and get disappointed. Saving us the trouble of raging at the sign of Bioware breaking promises, and hoarding money from DLCs.

R.I.P Shields

You said it

Originally Posted by npal

^ He summed it up pretty well :P

I wonder if they're going to apologize for the things they ripped off of the internet, like the narrator background and Tali's pic.

They'll "apologize" to make up with fans but don't really care about it.They are making fun of us.


Only thing that i liked at the end was the bgm...

Spoiler for Shepard is looking at the endings:

That was priceless Conrad !

[FlareKnight]

Yeah, I don't really care about apologies really. Just fix the endings with free DLC. If not then I'll just make sure not to get tricked by Bioware again. I hoped that DA2 was a blip in the system, but this ending does make it seem like Bioware is done with quality.

[npal]

Originally Posted by FlareKnight

Yeah, I don't really care about apologies really. Just fix the endings with free DLC. If not then I'll just make sure not to get tricked by Bioware again. I hoped that DA2 was a blip in the system, but this ending does make it seem like Bioware is done with quality.

I actually didn't have any real issue with DA2, although DAO had more of an epic story and there was the mystery behind the whole Darkspawn deal. I thought it was ok though.

I actually care about apologies at this point. I hate it when companies do not AT LEAST ACKNOWLEDGE they failed somewhere.

Also, I seriously doubt there'll be a free DLC. This is EA we're talking about, I doubt Bioware can have a say in this, even if they wanted to.

[Skane]

Makes me real glad I stuck to my guns and not buy ME3. It really, REALLY killed me to not conclude the trilogy... but I rather end up disappointed in not being able to complete the game, than hating myself for supporting these sort of shenanigans.

Valve's Gabe said it best. They're selling us a service. Make it worth my dimes.

Cheers.

[SRanger]

I beat the game over the weekend.

Thank god I did not pay for this..so many things wrong with this game, what a big "F U" to the long-term fans.

And so much for replayability, when the exact same shit happens no matter what.

Did anyone else feel like the romance was skimped out on this game?

[Nixl]

Wow, that Angry Joe list summed a couple of issues rather well, especially point 1.

Although, I am still not sure how anyone still believes that humans formed genetically viable society off of whatever small amount of crew that the Normandy carried, which is essentially an Adam/Eve scenario.

[Aqua Knight]

Originally Posted by SRanger

I beat the game over the weekend.

Thank god I did not pay for this..so many things wrong with this game, what a big "F U" to the long-term fans.

And so much for replayability, when the exact same shit happens no matter what.

Did anyone else feel like the romance was skimped out on this game?

I think there was enough of romance, well for me, as my LI was Liara so I don't know whether some of her appearances were plot or not.
But compared to other ME games there were hugs, kisses on the cheek, supporting and caring conversations between my Shepard and Liara which I liked a lot and they even happened on Mars(not sure though, a hug+cheek kiss if I am right), compared to 2-3 dialogues and implied sex scene in ME 1 and ME 2. Here I actually felt that Shep and Liara were in relationship and despite war conditions managed to maintain it on high level .

So in terms of romance (with Liara) - ME 3 is definitely the best game (not counting the ending).

Dunno about other characters, I just like Liara the most. And I think Bioware does too.

[SRanger]

Originally Posted by Aqua Knight

I think there was enough of romance, well for me, as my LI was Liara so I don't know whether some of her appearances were plot or not.
But compared to other ME games there were hugs, kisses on the cheek, supporting and caring conversations between my Shepard and Liara which I liked a lot and they even happened on Mars(not sure though, a hug+cheek kiss if I am right), compared to 2-3 dialogues and implied sex scene in ME 1 and ME 2. Here I actually felt that Shep and Liara were in relationship and despite war conditions managed to maintain it on high level .

So in terms of romance (with Liara) - ME 3 is definitely the best game (not counting the ending).

Dunno about other characters, I just like Liara the most. And I think Bioware does too.

I wasn't criticizing the romance as in, like, physical relationships, but more as development. Back in the previous games it was a constant progression.

For ME3 there were really only two scenes - when you initiate the romance, and then there's this huge gap through the second half of the game, until the very end where we have our obligatory mass effect sex scene.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by SRanger

I wasn't criticizing the romance as in, like, physical relationships, but more as development. Back in the previous games it was a constant progression.

For ME3 there were really only two scenes - when you initiate the romance, and then there's this huge gap through the second half of the game, until the very end where we have our obligatory mass effect sex scene.

For the new ME3-specific romances maybe. For the long-time inter-series romances though, they definitely get fleshed out more. Many conversations at times will both show and tell you that you're in a relationship (sometimes even in combat lulls in missions), and certain character scenes change depending on whether they were an active LI or not.

If you kept loyal to your previous LI, ME3 provides affirmation more than progression. Haven't tried out every permutation though, so I can't talk about the purported love triangles or how some of the others go (Mine was Tali in this playthrough).

[Aqua Knight]

Well, I don't complain about Liara in any form (physical or further development of romance). I can agree that good romance development is provided only for previous LI, who are currently your team mates i.e. Ashley/Kaidan, Liara, Tali and Garrus.

Miranda comes after that, then Jack and everyone else.

[Sides]

Just finished it yesterday. Gameplay wise ME3 wasn't bad. OK animation suck, frame-rate is bad on the consoles, but it is fun to play.
However the ending really left me stunned, you spend 80-90h (I think 20-30h for each ME game it the average for most people) going on a journey with shepard and you get a

Spoiler:

"congratulations, now wait and buy more DLCs from us to complete the legend". That is the strangest ending in gaming history. It doesn't ask you to play replay it on a higher difficulty, new game+ or anything, but ask you to wait and buy further content

Actually I am glad the series is over, probably going to be my last bioware game. To give them credit, at least the are honest and tell you

Spoiler:

that they just want your money.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by Sides

J

Spoiler:

"congratulations, now wait and buy more DLCs from us to complete the legend". That is the strangest ending in gaming history. It doesn't ask you to play replay it on a higher difficulty, new game+ or anything, but ask you to wait and buy further content

That's quite the exaggeration there methinks. The actual ending message is more along the lines of, paraphrase, "Continue Shepard's adventures by starting a new game and through DLC". ME2 had a similar message at the end. And that message comes AFTER the actual ending itself. It's similar to the Captain America movie going "Captain America returns in the Avengers!". It's one thing to rave about the actual ending - I know and understand all the complaints about it -, but trying to put that easily skippable and quick message as the crux of the ending and the entire game strikes me as grasping for straws to add further antagonism towards the game.

****

Also, while I know noone here in these boards cares about the MP afaik, this particular news just wowed me:

Operation Goliath a Success

Originally Posted by Bioware

Congratulations everyone! The first N7 Challenge saw a tremendous level of success – the community goal of killing one million brutes was beaten handily by participants. Through your combined efforts, over THREE MILLION brutes were destroyed! Many thousands of players also managed to beat the Reaper faction on Silver difficulty and achieve extraction. As per the initial announcement, Victory and Commendation Packs will be awarded tomorrow (Tuesday, March 20) at 5 PM PST.

I had actually thought it impossible to achieve that target in just three days. But to go three times above the target number just blows my mind Seems those weekends incinerating Brutes and suffering Banshees along the way paid of

[synaesthetic]

I don't care. Blatantly demanding you buy DLC at the end of a game is a pretty big dick move. Fallout New Vegas had tons of DLC and not once did the game harass me to buy DLC. I bought all the DLC. So obviously the game doesn't need to tell you to buy DLC. It's a slap in the face.

[BetoJR]

It's a standard message, tho. ME2 had it, DA2 had it...

[com_gwp]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Also, while I know noone here in these boards cares about the MP afaik, this particular news just wowed me:

Operation Goliath a Success



I had actually thought it impossible to achieve that target in just three days. But to go three times above the target number just blows my mind Seems those weekends incinerating Brutes and suffering Banshees along the way paid of

The amount dedication the gaming community has to things like this always wowed me. Have you seen numbers from some of the bigger shooters like MW3 and BF3 before?

[Who]

Originally Posted by BetoJR

It's a standard message, tho. ME2 had it, DA2 had it...

You mean, it's a standard message in Bioware games.