Mass Effect III

[one_klump]

Just finished ME3 last night. Not sure if I liked the ending or not.

I chose the "control" option. Besides the destruction of the Mass Relays, what exactly was the downside to it? We are in control of the Reapers, and can now study them and their tech. The synthetic intelligances go on living, and all it took was Shepard sacrificing himself. (I didn't get the super bonus ending with him alive)

Also, I took the old man story telling bit to be 40-50 years into the future, like a WWII veteran telling war stories to his grandchildren, so that bit really didn't bother me.

[Ghost Train]

Noooooo! Mordin! If they ever rebuild Broadway, Salarian Scientist will top Elcor Hamlet and Spiderman the Musical as the best selling show in town...

[Knight26]

The ending did not bug me as much as others. Was it the ending we wanted with Shephard running off into the sunset nailing/getting nailed by their lover, no. But in a way it was the best way things could end for him, I mean where do you go from there as a character? At that point he is too godlike in level to make any further game enjoyable without breaking him back down again in some way. IF there are any further DLC I just hope that they fill some of the plot holes,

like the Normandy escaping.

Also in regards to the destruction of the relays, what's the big deal? There is already statements to the effect of people building mass relays, it is rare but it happens and is generally frowned upon, but could be done. There will just be some time where things are a little messed up for a while, trade mostly as communications will still be available.

As for the Normandy escaping a single one liner while Shephard is on planet about sending the Normandy to Ilos as a backup would have been fine to explain why they were in transit.

And I know I will be in the minority on this one, but I missed the vehicular stuff, maybe it will be a future DLC, there is room in the hanger for a Mako or Hammerhead.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Knight26

[Freiflug88]

Noooooo! Mordin! If they ever rebuild Broadway, Salarian Scientist will top Elcor Hamlet and Spiderman the Musical as the best selling show in town...

There is a way to save Mordin. But only if you kill Wrex in ME1 and delete the Genophage data in ME2 causing Eve to die. Then and only then can you convince Mordin that sacrificing himself to deliver the cure is pointless because the Krogan will never find peace and stability without Wrex and Eve's leadership.

BTW who else plays ME3 multiplayer? I think it would be fun to host private "Macrossworld" games on ME3 this weekend for anyone up to it. Especially for the silver and gold maps were team co-operation is a must. You can find me through the Playstation and/or ME3 Network as Freiflug88.

[Lynx7725]

I play most nights. However I'm on xBox (and no mic usually), so a bit hard to link up with PSN/ Origin players.

[CoryHolmes]

I, too, enjoyed the Bouncy Buggy of Doom from the first game.

As for the endings, I choose Synthisis. I was about to turn around and go for control when the ending animation kicked in . I think the point that disapointed me the most about the endings (all of them) is that the endings of both ME1 and 2 were so epic and so deeply satisfying. The ending I picked... left me wanting more. I didn't have a sense of closure about my team, or my LI, or an idea about how the story went from there. The coda after the credits felt just too tacked-on to me.

But! All that said, I really enjoyed the game. There were moments when I didn't want to put the controller down and ended up pulling an all-nighter (and then going back to work in the morning). I haven't done that for a video game in a long, long, long time

[mikeszekely]

Finished the game with the "blue" ending this morning, then for the heck of it I reloaded and played the "green" ending.

Is the ending perfect? No. It could have been better written, could have explained a few things that seemed out of place, and maybe not created so many more questions. But I think it's ok. I think it's best to look at the last 20 minutes of the game not as the ending of ME3, but of the entire ME3 experience as the end of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Frankly, I don't understand the amount of rage the ending generated. Did people really want a happily ever after, everything goes back to normal ending? Something so mundane would have been a disservice to the epic scope of the trilogy.

[CoryHolmes]

Did people really want a happily ever after, everything goes back to normal ending? Something so mundane would have been a disservice to the epic scope of the trilogy.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a happily ever after. Especially those of us who haven't gotten LI-specific DLC yet

[Omegablue]

So how many endings are there in ME3?

I read somewhere that one of the endings can only be unlocked by playing all the MP side missions? Is this valid for the PS3 version as well?

[David Hingtgen]

The "secret" ending is a 2-second clip tacked on to the end of the "red" ending:

Shepard's in the rubble around the beam in London, and inhales

And that fact, that it only happens with the "red" ending is considered one of the bigger clues that

the whole ending sequence is a hallucination/indoctrination----only by killing the Reapers (mentally?) does Shepard "break free" of their control. Everything after approaching the beam didn't really happen except in Shep's mind---then Shep wakes up, armor ruined, in the rubble by the beam.

Apparently "green" is only an option with a decently high "readiness/army" in the first place, but the same requirements also do that slight alteration to the red ending. Or, possibly, "alternate red" has an even higher requirement than "green" does. 5000 vs 4000 pts, respectively or so.

PS---nice fan art of a fun ending: http://imgur.com/rC6FD

[Duke Togo]

And that fact, that it only happens with the "red" ending is considered one of the bigger clues that

the whole ending sequence is a hallucination/indoctrination----only by killing the Reapers (mentally?) does Shepard "break free" of their control. Everything after approaching the beam didn't really happen except in Shep's mind---then Shep wakes up, armor ruined, in the rubble by the beam.

Except that entire theory went out the window with the release of "The Final Hours" documentary/document. That ending is exactly what it seems to be, and it's the reason why it's the hardest to get.

[David Hingtgen]

IMHO it's sad when fan-theory is far better and makes more sense than the actual explanation.

PS--exactly what it seems to be? The 2-second add-on clip? It's beyond implausible if it actually takes place after "the ending".

[Knight26]

For those of us who are not apple whores can you spill?

[Duke Togo]

IMHO it's sad when fan-theory is far better and makes more sense than the actual explanation.

PS--exactly what it seems to be? The 2-second add-on clip? It's beyond implausible if it actually takes place after "the ending".

More implausible than what he/she was able to accomplish through the three games up to that point?

He/she survived by either escaping down through the beam (we're not given a time frame on events, really), or he/she survived the crashing of the Citadel's wreckage onto Earth.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Duke Togo

[Freiflug88]

I play most nights. However I'm on xBox (and no mic usually), so a bit hard to link up with PSN/ Origin players.

I don't even have a mic to use. Mainly because I find silent co-operation much more fun and engaging. Plus I think the most important component of team co-operation is just preparing a well-rounded team equipped for all threats. Like the other night I attempted silver as a grenade launcher wielding engineer with a trio of vanguards with only handguns. We played well as a supportive team, but we lacked the collective firepower to take down the heavies fast enough...

[VT 1010]

Finally, an ending to ME3 with closure.

[David Hingtgen]

[Freiflug88]

[Ghost Train]

I got through my first run. I don't dislike the ending, nor do I love it. I get strong Deus Ex vibes from the choice you have to make .

My biggest complaint is Kai Leng... of all the quality content that Bioware is known to put out... could they have created a deeper thought provoking evil counterpart to Shepard, rather than an Asian cyber-ninja guy with a pony-tail who wields a katana? Really.... ?

Currently doing a second playthrough as Infiltrator, sooo much more fun than soldier.

[eugimon]

Completely agree about Kai Leng... was really "meh". When I first saw that Illusive man had a new enforcer, I thought it would be a Shepard/husk clone but then it was random asian ninja dude.

[mikeszekely]

I liked Kai Leng... and seeing Kahlee, and going to Grissom Academy, all for the same reasons. They were in Drew Karpyshyn's Mass Effect novels, of which I'd read all three (skipped William Dietz's, though).

[Vepariga]

I didnt mind the ending. I mean I can see how some people would get annoyed,but I didnt. I was satisfied.

[David Hingtgen]

Well, IMHO that's the main problem. THE ending--singular. Based on how hyped the whole "choice" thing is, and "keep your saves, because it'll affect everything!" the fact that there's really only one ending in three colors goes against one of the series' main points----that things will turn out different because of what you did.

Why even list what happened to the Rachni queen in Noveria and what happened to the council at the end of ME1 when you import a save, when the game plays out the same way either way really? And has no effect on the ending?

We don't need *a* new ending, that won't fix a huge chunk of the player's complaints---we really need at least 2---generally a "paragon" and "renegade" one (since mostly people either saved or killed everything).

It was originally believed/hinted at that there would be many possible endings, basically built up of cut-scenes tailored to YOUR Shepard---what you did on Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Citadel, Collector Base, Tuchanka, Rannoch, etc. But instead, we got one generic ending that ignores the entire previous 90% of your decisions.

[Mommar]

So it's just like life. You make a bunch of decisions that amount to nothing when you die. Harsh dose of reality if you ask me.

[eugimon]

Well, IMHO that's the main problem. THE ending--singular. Based on how hyped the whole "choice" thing is, and "keep your saves, because it'll affect everything!" the fact that there's really only one ending in three colors goes against one of the series' main points----that things will turn out different because of what you did.

Why even list what happened to the Rachni queen in Noveria and what happened to the council at the end of ME1 when you import a save, when the game plays out the same way either way really? And has no effect on the ending?

We don't need *a* new ending, that won't fix a huge chunk of the player's complaints---we really need at least 2---generally a "paragon" and "renegade" one (since mostly people either saved or killed everything).

It was originally believed/hinted at that there would be many possible endings, basically built up of cut-scenes tailored to YOUR Shepard---what you did on Feros, Noveria, Virmire, Citadel, Collector Base, Tuchanka, Rannoch, etc. But instead, we got one generic ending that ignores the entire previous 90% of your decisions.

the rachni doesn't play out the same way. If you killed the queen, the cerberus clone queen is crazy and if you try to recruit her, she goes mad, kills a bunch of engineers and takes off doing harm to your cause. If you saved the queen, the rachni stay and help the crucible project.

And yeah, the game itself plays out the same but you miss a lot depending on how the first two games played out. If jack lived, for instance, you see her grown up and mellowed out as a teacher, if jack died in ME2, you still get the same mission but one of the kids dies during the mission and you miss out on some dialog between Shep and Jack. If you killed Samara and chose Morinth then you see Morinth as a banshee later on. Even that annoying obsessed fan from ME1 pays off and he apologizes for saying "lies about you" (joking about the messed up save import in ME2).

If your war asset something something rating isn't high enough, you get to see your party die, or shep dies, etc. So there are differences.

Edited March 26, 2012 by eugimon

[David Hingtgen]

So it's just like life. You make a bunch of decisions that amount to nothing when you die. Harsh dose of reality if you ask me.

Except that the whole "your decisions are important" was one of the key selling points and hyped things about the series. It'd be kind of like "most people aren't super-rich and drive Rolls Royces"---but if a game advertises that, but doesn't have it---that's bad. You can't just say "oh well, that's not how real life is, it's just being realistic". If you advertise money and cars in a game, they should be there. Real life also doesn't have space marines, but if they're on the cover, I expect to play as one.

eugimon, re:rachni. In the end it didn't matter. So what, the Crucible is rated at 640 instead of 680? Big whoop, based on how "important" ME1 and ME2 hyped that decision up to be. I mean, it was the entire point of Noveria, which was like 1/4 of ME1's main plot. (since Therum was a much shorter section, and Feros was inbetween the two) Now, if the Crucible was destroyed---yeah, THAT'd be something, and would have made a huge difference to how things played out. But it's the exact same effect as "not discovering book #42 while scanning the attican traverse"----the Crucible has slightly lower stats---which means nothing. Having the Crucible even 500 points higher or lower would have done what, exactly?

Expanding on that--really, no matter how big/old any decision was, all it ever does is change a few meaningless numbers around on the big map. Crucible 500 with Krogan 1000, vs Crucible 600 and Salarian 400 and Krogan 800. So what? Doesn't really change how anything plays out. I expected something like "planet X will be lost without Rachni support" or "you cannot get ending B if you chose the renegade option on Noveria". There were no consequences for anything. Heck, you could have purposely sacrificed pretty much every species ever, and the "red" or "blue" endings would be exactly the same. Except maybe Kaiden walks out 3rd at the end instead of Liara or something. Plus you'd miss out on Kirrahe's speech 45 mins earlier, if he didn't make it in ME1.

[eugimon]

meh

I dunno, I thought sacrificing a krogan squad and potentially your friend to free the rachni queen who turns out to be insane to be important.

Was it that last minute arrival of rachni ships emerging out of deep space to bail out the council races, the ones that nearly drove them to extinction that I was imagining? No... would that have been better? IMO, yes. But did the decision to free the queen in ME1 matter? Yeah, it did.

[mikeszekely]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that anyone ever said your choices over all three games would change the last 20 minutes of the game. They said your choices would matter. And they do... I'd imagine some of what I did in Mass Effect 3 would have been completely different under other circumstances, to the point where I spent hours doing stuff that I don't think I would have if certain people had died, and I wonder what content I might have missed out on completely because I didn't do things a certain way.

I think people are too focused on what happens after Shepard picks Red, Blue, or Green as the ending. The ending doesn't start there, it starts when Shepard gets on the Normady after the Reapers hit Vancouver. Because the story didn't start there, it started when the original Normandy was on it's way to Eden Prime with a Turian Spectre named Nihlus.

[David Hingtgen]

If you're going that route--then does any of ME3's missions matter? Why not go right back to Earth after Mars, with a quick snippet saying "during the 6-month gap, they built the Crucible". And start the final mission right then. Because spending hours and hours on any given planet only gets you a 5-word line from Joker---"the ____ fleet just arrived too".

[BeyondTheGrave]

I think people are too focused on what happens after Shepard picks Red, Blue, or Green as the ending. The ending doesn't start there, it starts when Shepard gets on the Normady after the Reapers hit Vancouver. Because the story didn't start there, it started when the original Normandy was on it's way to Eden Prime with a Turian Spectre named Nihlus.

Its more than that. Spoilers ahead

Edited March 27, 2012 by BeyondTheGrave

[Duke Togo]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall that anyone ever said your choices over all three games would change the last 20 minutes of the game. They said your choices would matter. And they do...

Except they don't. And yes, they did say your choices over three games would lead to wildly different endings, and there would definitely not be an "A, B, or C" type ending to the game. The ABC line is directly from Bioware.

For me, the biggest problem is the entire Normandy sequence at the end. It makes no sense at all. Had that simple been cut out, I'd be far less bothered by it. But it's still far short of what it should have been (and this is coming from someone who used to defend the ending).

[Mr March]

Spoilers ahead

Thanks for these videos. I've been exposed to the Mass Effect world by the discussion of coworkers and friends for the last week or two and since I've never played the series, I've no idea what everyone is so bloody angry about. Now I get it. It's like the Lost of video gaming. No wonder the internet is aflame recently

[Lynx7725]

Just want to share a particularly satisfying MP experience.

Took out my Asari Vanguard to level and joined a Bronze lobby, saw a N7 Level 7 and 8 Soldiers, and one other more experienced guy. Thought, ok, we can hack this. Went out to Dagger/ Reaper and fell apart in Wave 3.

Yeah well, Live and Learn. Stuck with the group, the experienced guy went off and another experienced Soldier joined up. Went out Ghost/ Cerberus. Team was surprisingly cohesive. With a leader in a similar class to lead, they turned out to be surprisingly good. Group really came together once they realised that they were so screwball as the last match.

Acted as a scout and managed to catch a whole bunch of Cerbies jumping down and managed to Stasis Bubble the first one.. and every Cerbie fell into the Bubble and got frozen. It was a Turkey Shoot. I looked behind me and all 3 of them were there splattering shots out. I looked at my pistol, decide to put it away, and just sustained the Bubble in place. Let them have the kills, why not?

Later, the group was drawing the attention of an advancing Atlas, I flanked it, started using Stasis to strip the infantry out. Just kept rapid firing with the pistol into the Atlas. Must've been a sight for the newbies. One slight Asari, armed with a pistol, plinking away, and the Atlas explodes. :lol:

To cap off an extremely satisfying run, I also managed to stasis every Phantom of the match and killed them all (or at least a majority). We ended up extracting fully, and fairly cleanly. One of my better runs.

[Knight26]

I think the biggest problem with the ending is the identical nature of it, and I don't think that was on bioware, I am willing to bet that they did originally plan, script and demo the "wildly different endings" and were shot down by their distributor EA. EA wanted the identical endings, EA wanted everyone's endings to be similar enough that they could come in later and cash cow more games out of the franchise. Look at their track record of how they treat other properties they have bought from developers that no longer exist. Even look at some of the characters taht were shoehorned in there, Diana Allers, Lt Vega, etc... They are attempts to make the game more accessible to people who were not initially invested in the franchise or genre. Let's look at how they treated another property first, Wing COmmander. They gave us a new WC game after a decade and what was it, a friccking top down arcade shooter, that had nothing to to do with WIng commander except for a few bastardized ship designs. But back to ME3, Diana Allers is a freaking waste kilobits, she makes no impact on the game, only has some dialogue with shephard and Specialist Traynor and never deals with any other member of the crew, she stinks of a last minute DLC more than Javik. But, no one would pay for a reporter (who gets nicer quarters than anyone other than Shephard or Liara) DLC. Heck I would have prefered to keep the PITA report we have the option of decking on the Normandy more than that Jersey SHore looking nasty. Speaking of Jersey SHore washouts, what is up with James Vega, we all thought Vega would be the cool sniper in the tower, who only gets a shout out once we get to Earth. Instead we get this roided out idiot, no thanks, I would have prefered a Krogan on my team, or an Elcor. Infact if you look at him he basically fills the Krogan role except he doesn't have any good biotic powers.

I would love it if bioware came out, with EA right beside them admitting that EA forced the ending, rewriting the epic conclusion and shoe horning it all down to the batch of near identical endings. And we know why too, to sell more games and to sell DLC. I will place good money that the Truth DLC will include a new ending explaining that what we saw was an indoctrination attempt and giving you the option to really stop the Reaper and give us the endings we all wanted.

[CoryHolmes]

Stories like that make me want to hook up the ol' 360 to the internet and give it a shot. Kinda. Maybe. Sorta.