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

[Who]

Originally Posted by Merilyn Mensola

Guide for all romance in mass effect 3

Spoiler:

http://uk.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Romance

Edit. Tali is my target now! i want to see you face!

I laughed pretty hard at Allers' face in the guide.

[Linkark07]

Oh man, still can't pass this.

Spoiler:

Gonna miss Mordin. My favorite scientist ever. Was the best. Great salarian, good singer. A great loss.

[synaesthetic]

Ending was whacked. Spoilers below.

Spoiler for ME3 ending:

For starters I'll definitely say that I'm happy Shepard died. I didn't want them to keep her alive and have EA make a half-million crappy spinoff games (which they'll probably end up doing anyway, sigh). I was hoping she'd get to make a heroic sacrifice of supreme badassery and save everybody--which she did, and for that I was quite pleased!

What's whacked about the ending is this:

I chose synthesis. I chose to bring peace through mutual understanding between the synthetics and organics. To preserve the Reapers, their technology, the mass relays, everything--and repurpose it all through the next stage of galactic life's evolution.

AND YET THE CUTSCENE STILL SHOWS MASS RELAYS BLOWING UP.

*facedesk*

*facedesk*

*facedesk*

What the actual fuck Bioware? I specifically chose NOT to destroy the Reapers (and all their technology and all everyone else's tech based on their tech) so specifically to AVOID plunging all galactic life back into a technological dark age that'd cause war and strife almost as bad as what the Reapers put the galaxy through.

Really? How the hell is this saving the galaxy? The geth would simply go extinct immediately if all the Reaper-derived tech was rendered inert--it is them. The quarians would quickly die of infections if all their suits shut down.

The remains of the fleet above Earth would all either crash into the planet, killing everyone on board and anyone in the immediate vicinity of the impact when the drive cores exploded.

Also what the hell Inconsistency City--if the Reaper tech died when synthesis took place and the mass relays were destroyed, WHY IS EDI STILL WALKING? WHY WERE THE REAPERS ABLE TO SIMPLY LEAVE?

The ending--or rather, what I extrapolated from the ending, makes sense and is actually a quite interesting ending. But the exploding mass relays is a HUGE GLARING INCONSISTENCY.

And very likely born from laziness, the unwillingness to create a second cutscene showing the Crucible's energy cascading from relay to relay without destroying it. They pulled this same shit in ME2 as well--if you choose to follow the Illusive Man's advice and save the Collector Base, the end cinematic shows it BLOWING TO PIECES ANYWAY.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, from the synthesis ending, the Reapers' intelligence is infused with Shepard's consciousness--they all turn green, lol--and leave in a hurry to who knows where. The Crucible's activation pulse spreads from the Charon relay throughout the galaxy, completing the synthesis of synthetic and organic life. The Normandy was traveling along the mass relay path as this happens which forces Joker to crash-land on a nearby garden world with two moons. With the threat of the Reapers gone and the potential for all the species of the galaxy--including the Reapers--to work together, a new era of peace is ushered in.

But because Bioware was too fucking lazy to make another cutscene we get this huge glaring inconsistency of the mass relays EXPLODING when they absolutely SHOULD NOT BE. The entire point of Shepard sacrificing herself and choosing synthesis was to prevent the loss of that, to prevent a technological dark age that would result in the deaths of trillions.

I blame EA for this. :|

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by Linkark07

Oh man, still can't pass this.

Spoiler:

Gonna miss Mordin. My favorite scientist ever. Was the best. Great salarian, good singer. A great loss.

You have to admit that's a fine way to go. So far I'm convinced that in this war nearly everyone is forced to take a level in badass just to survive, so I'm actually impressed by the resolve and the actions taken by a lot of the side characters and even background populations.

Spoiler for Dem Spoilers:

Also Thane.

Terminal phase of his illness yet he manages to subdue and kick Kai Leng's ass. So he gets stabbed in the gut, but dies in peace and doing one last heroic act for the galaxy.

Out of the side missions though, the one that impressed me the most was the Geth Server one. Nice touching back story and...

Spoiler for Dem Spoilers:

You get your own Geth Prime squad. Dayum.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Ending was whacked. Spoilers below.

Spoiler for ME3 ending:

For starters I'll definitely say that I'm happy Shepard died. I didn't want them to keep her alive and have EA make a half-million crappy spinoff games (which they'll probably end up doing anyway, sigh). I was hoping she'd get to make a heroic sacrifice of supreme badassery and save everybody--which she did, and for that I was quite pleased!

What's whacked about the ending is this:

I chose synthesis. I chose to bring peace through mutual understanding between the synthetics and organics. To preserve the Reapers, their technology, the mass relays, everything--and repurpose it all through the next stage of galactic life's evolution.

AND YET THE CUTSCENE STILL SHOWS MASS RELAYS BLOWING UP.

*facedesk*

*facedesk*

*facedesk*

What the actual fuck Bioware? I specifically chose NOT to destroy the Reapers (and all their technology and all everyone else's tech based on their tech) so specifically to AVOID plunging all galactic life back into a technological dark age that'd cause war and strife almost as bad as what the Reapers put the galaxy through.

Really? How the hell is this saving the galaxy? The geth would simply go extinct immediately if all the Reaper-derived tech was rendered inert--it is them. The quarians would quickly die of infections if all their suits shut down.

The remains of the fleet above Earth would all either crash into the planet, killing everyone on board and anyone in the immediate vicinity of the impact when the drive cores exploded.

Also what the hell Inconsistency City--if the Reaper tech died when synthesis took place and the mass relays were destroyed, WHY IS EDI STILL WALKING? WHY WERE THE REAPERS ABLE TO SIMPLY LEAVE?

The ending--or rather, what I extrapolated from the ending, makes sense and is actually a quite interesting ending. But the exploding mass relays is a HUGE GLARING INCONSISTENCY.

And very likely born from laziness, the unwillingness to create a second cutscene showing the Crucible's energy cascading from relay to relay without destroying it. They pulled this same shit in ME2 as well--if you choose to follow the Illusive Man's advice and save the Collector Base, the end cinematic shows it BLOWING TO PIECES ANYWAY.

Anyway, as far as I can tell, from the synthesis ending, the Reapers' intelligence is infused with Shepard's consciousness--they all turn green, lol--and leave in a hurry to who knows where. The Crucible's activation pulse spreads from the Charon relay throughout the galaxy, completing the synthesis of synthetic and organic life. The Normandy was traveling along the mass relay path as this happens which forces Joker to crash-land on a nearby garden world with two moons. With the threat of the Reapers gone and the potential for all the species of the galaxy--including the Reapers--to work together, a new era of peace is ushered in.

But because Bioware was too fucking lazy to make another cutscene we get this huge glaring inconsistency of the mass relays EXPLODING when they absolutely SHOULD NOT BE. The entire point of Shepard sacrificing herself and choosing synthesis was to prevent the loss of that, to prevent a technological dark age that would result in the deaths of trillions.

I blame EA for this. :|

Spoiler for Ending spoilers:

I do believe there's a Sheperd Lives ending.

As far as I can tell the Synthesis ending is a choice when it's more likely that the Galaxy will lose the war with the Reapers, and it becomes the option of survival by fusing Reapers with Sentient, so in some circumstances it's a forced choice.

However if you're effective strength is high enough, Sheperd CAN survive.

[Key Board]

Just beat the game. I like the choices, but all 3 endings are mostly just the same cutscene with a different color for the explosion.

If they were more elaborate on the endings, and the implications of the this could have been great. Really, they should have took an extra note or more from Deus Ex endings

Regardless, it's a solid game despite this.

I do wonder how non-Vanguard classes manage to survive the last mission, though. You have a lot of exposed cover, Banshee and Brutes from all directions and a Reaper shooting at you.

Vanguards have an instant teleport 100 shield regen power, so I can take the agro, but I wonder about other classes.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

Spoiler for Ending spoilers:

I do believe there's a Sheperd Lives ending.

As far as I can tell the Synthesis ending is a choice when it's more likely that the Galaxy will lose the war with the Reapers, and it becomes the option of survival by fusing Reapers with Sentient, so in some circumstances it's a forced choice.

However if you're effective strength is high enough, Sheperd CAN survive.

Spoiler for ending:

Well, I did every single sidequest in the game and united all the races without alienating any of them (got the genophage cured, got the salarians to play ball even then, got the quarians and geth to play nice) and my green bar was completely filled up, overfilled actually, when I went for the final push I had the same three options--destroy all reaper tech (including the reapers), control the reapers or synthesis.

I didn't get a fourth option. Bioware said the multiplayer wasn't required to get the best ending. So... am I missing something?

[Who]

^Fourth option isn't there. It's tied in with the Destroy ending; you need a score of 4000 EMS with certain pre-requisites fulfilled; otherwise it's 5000 EMS.

Originally Posted by Key Board

I do wonder how non-Vanguard classes manage to survive the last mission, though. You have a lot of exposed cover, Banshee and Brutes from all directions and a Reaper shooting at you.

Vanguards have an instant teleport 100 shield regen power, so I can take the agro, but I wonder about other classes.

It hasn't been too bad. I played an Engineer and Infiltrator. Cloak + 1 power bonus means you just spam Cloak and Energy Drain (Tali's bonus power)/apply medigel whenever you're in trouble and move around the map as needed.

Engineers do their drone spam to key enemies focused elsewhere. And Overload on Banshees. But, being a squishy class, died 3-4 times.

This is all on Insanity as well. Pretty sure Sentinels have go out of their way to die, with the Tech Armor and all, but I'm not sure about Soldiers and Adepts.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Spoiler for ending:

Well, I did every single sidequest in the game and united all the races without alienating any of them (got the genophage cured, got the salarians to play ball even then, got the quarians and geth to play nice) and my green bar was completely filled up, overfilled actually, when I went for the final push I had the same three options--destroy all reaper tech (including the reapers), control the reapers or synthesis.

I didn't get a fourth option. Bioware said the multiplayer wasn't required to get the best ending. So... am I missing something?

From what I see, there are 3 base endings with 16 variations.

Spoiler for Ending spoilers:

There's no fourth option.

There's 3 endings with slight variations. The variation is specific people surviving. Supposedly is you get 4000+ Galactic Readiness there is the possibility of Sheperd surviving, with the right choices.

So... the best ending is "best" depending on how you view this minor variation. Based on your view, the variation might actually be worse for you.

In my case I want the opposite to what happened to you, so the variation is what I want.

Some people claim to get the "best" ending without MP, but they say MP makes it a lot easier. In other words, the entire point of MP to the ending is to get that extra variation easier.

[MeoTwister5]

So to sum up:

So in other words, you're galactic readiness is the final determinant to your ending, which is the sum total of your war assets multiplied by your readiness rating. All in all the core best ending is easily achievable in single player, while the variant best ending can be done in SP but is made easier by MP.

The variant best ending is made different by specific people being alive and the effect of certain choices, but the overall galactic result is the same.

Spoiler for The Variation?:

The variation being that Shepard and Anderson die in the core best endings, but they can survive in the variant best endings. The Galaxy as a whole survives as a whole.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

So... the best ending is "best" depending on how you view this minor variation. Based on your view, the variation might actually be worse for you.

In my case I want the opposite to what happened to you, so the variation is what I want.

Some people claim to get the "best" ending without MP, but they say MP makes it a lot easier. In other words, the entire point of MP to the ending is to get that extra variation easier.

Spoiler for ending:

Yeah see for me Shepard dying wasn't what made it bad. I expected that from day one. From the time ME3 was announced, I knew Shepard would go out in a gigantic fucking blaze of glory and it'd be insanely badass and awesome.

I did not expect Blue God Boy and Space Magic and DX1 ripoff endings, and I sure as hell did not expect the goddamned mass relays exploding when I specifically AVOIDED the choice that would have resulted in their destruction!

The problem with the ending is it tried to be deep and philosophical in a fucking space opera. Mass Effect is essentially our generation's Star Wars. It's supposed to be crazy, ridiculous, action-packed, over-the-top Crazy Awesome cranked up to eleven. It's not supposed to be mystical bullshit with no closure.

[MeoTwister5]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Spoiler for ending:

Yeah see for me Shepard dying wasn't what made it bad. I expected that from day one. From the time ME3 was announced, I knew Shepard would go out in a gigantic fucking blaze of glory and it'd be insanely badass and awesome.

I did not expect Blue God Boy and Space Magic and DX1 ripoff endings, and I sure as hell did not expect the goddamned mass relays exploding when I specifically AVOIDED the choice that would have resulted in their destruction!

The problem with the ending is it tried to be deep and philosophical in a fucking space opera. Mass Effect is essentially our generation's Star Wars. It's supposed to be crazy, ridiculous, action-packed, over-the-top Crazy Awesome cranked up to eleven. It's not supposed to be mystical bullshit with no closure.

To be fair, the game is essentially a Galaxy of Badassery so it satisfies that regardless of ending.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

To be fair, the game is essentially a Galaxy of Badassery so it satisfies that regardless of ending.

Oh I know, but the game was billed and marketed and pushed as the end of Shepard's story. I'd like some fucking closure, thanks. This series doesn't need to be pretentious hipster bullshit and yet they made it end on a colossal pile of pretentious hipster bullshit.

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Ending was whacked. Spoilers below.

Spoiler for ME3 ending:

For starters I'll definitely say that I'm happy Shepard died. I didn't want them to keep her alive and have EA make a half-million crappy spinoff games (which they'll probably end up doing anyway, sigh). I was hoping she'd get to make a heroic sacrifice of supreme badassery and save everybody--which she did, and for that I was quite pleased!

What's whacked about the ending is this:

I chose synthesis. I chose to bring peace through mutual understanding between the synthetics and organics. To preserve the Reapers, their technology, the mass relays, everything--and repurpose it all through the next stage of galactic life's evolution.

AND YET THE CUTSCENE STILL SHOWS MASS RELAYS BLOWING UP.

Spoiler for Ending:

Uhm. Didn't the Catalyst basically say that no matter WHAT you choose, the energy expended by the Crucible would blow up the Mass Relays? It's why it mentions that fact at the end after it tells you all three choices you have, instead of just at one of them. Never did the Catalyst say that one of the choices will result in saving the Mass Relays.

And yes, I just played through the ending twice in a row just to see what the "Paragon" (aka Control Reapers) ending looked like.

Spoiler for spoiler:

Really? How the hell is this saving the galaxy? The geth would simply go extinct immediately if all the Reaper-derived tech was rendered inert--it is them. The quarians would quickly die of infections if all their suits shut down.

The remains of the fleet above Earth would all either crash into the planet, killing everyone on board and anyone in the immediate vicinity of the impact when the drive cores exploded.

Also what the hell Inconsistency City--if the Reaper tech died when synthesis took place and the mass relays were destroyed, WHY IS EDI STILL WALKING? WHY WERE THE REAPERS ABLE TO SIMPLY LEAVE?

Spoiler for Spoiler:

But the Reapers aren't destroyed in the Synthesis ending. THAT'S THE POINT. They're only destroyed if you choose the "Destroy Reapers" ending. In the Synthesis Ending, the Reapers are essentially "repurposed", as shown when they're shown glowing green and retreating from London.

The Synthesis ending only destroys the Mass Relays and the Citadel. The Reapers are shown very much intact, so why should EDI and the Geth be destroyed?

The Synthesis ending basically shows that synthetics and organics are now more or less one and the same now. We can basically say that both EDI and the Geth are now 50% organic now, and all other civilizations are now partly synthetic, as shown with Joker.

I see no inconsistencies in the ending choice you made. You simply mixed up what the endings entailed.

[synaesthetic]

Spoiler for ending:

Okay, that's actually EVEN WORSE.

I was trying to PRESERVE them since you doom the fleets and everyone on them if the relays go up.

Without easy interstellar travel, all those fleets left above a fucked Earth are going to end up dying. Especially the quarian and turian fleets, since they're dextro-amino and can't eat anything from Earth...

This ending is so fucked and retarded.

[Merilyn Mensola]

Originally Posted by Who

I laughed pretty hard at Allers' face in the guide.

me too...her face is awesome..is like she teases you or maybe she drank in this scene

So, many people are already finished the game...i hope this night i can play it a bit..maybe when my girlfriend sleep..

for the people that 'has finished it, you are satisfied with the ending? not spoiler..only yes or no because i don't want to know the ending...

[LoweGear]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

Spoiler for ending:

Okay, that's actually EVEN WORSE.

I was trying to PRESERVE them since you doom the fleets and everyone on them if the relays go up.

Without easy interstellar travel, all those fleets left above a fucked Earth are going to end up dying. Especially the quarian and turian fleets, since they're dextro-amino and can't eat anything from Earth...

This ending is so fucked and retarded.

Spoiler for Spoiler:

Don't think it's that hard to synthesize amino-dextro based supplies from Earth, considering their technologies, and the fact that with ALL of the council races now based on Earth, they can now work together to rebuild Earth as their home.

Basically, Earth is now the true center of Galactic civilization - Human, Asari, Turian, Quarian, Geth, Salarian and Krogan on the same planet. Well, on my ending anyway, where they all participated on the invasion of Earth. And with Shepard's foundation of galactic peace, they're going to get along better than if they had been trying to kill each other, so the politicking before wasn't all pointless.

You also forget that while the Mass Relays have been destroyed, FTL tech has not. What you have is the equivalent of the United Federation of Planets now, but starting from a single planet going outwards. Alpha Centauri is only 4 light years away, and that's nothing for ME hyperdrive. They can probably occupy the worlds within the former Systems Alliance space within a century even without Mass Relays.

[synaesthetic]

Originally Posted by Merilyn Mensola

for the people that 'has finished it, you are satisfied with the ending? not spoiler..only yes or no because i don't want to know the ending...

No. The ending sucks balls. It's pretentious hipster bullshit. It absolutely does not fit in a series that's basically our generation's Star Wars.

Did Return of the Jedi end with pretentious hipster bullshit? Fuck no. The Emperor got wtfowned, the good guys all survived and everybody had a huge fucking party on Endor.

[Who]

Originally Posted by synaesthetic

No. The ending sucks balls. It's pretentious hipster bullshit. It absolutely does not fit in a series that's basically our generation's Star Wars.

Did Return of the Jedi end with pretentious hipster bullshit? Fuck no. The Emperor got wtfowned, the good guys all survived and everybody had a huge fucking party on Endor.

Well put.

Despite all the backlash though, Bioware is pretty satisfied with their endings. We're 99.9% not getting any post-game or alternate ending DLC ala Broken Steel type DLC. Only one I can think of that we're getting definitely that relates to gameplay/plot is helping Aria take back Omega.

[MeisterBabylon]

I blame New Battlestar Galactica and the rampant deep pseudophilosophical bull rife in mainstream entertainment these days. Besides, they had to be different, or else they would really be a Star Wars ripoff.

And guess what's that Star Wars ripoff? It's that other big BW blockbuster of the season! So of course they'd have to give BW a significantly 'modern' ending, as SWTOR is positively 1980s (and people are lamblasting that as well.)

Trust me, at the end of this all, there will be a [Mass Effect: The Next Epoch] mmo by Bioware once SWTOR begins to decline 7 years from now. You will be that little boy, growing up with your grandfather's stories, and setting out to bring peace to the galaxy once more.