Mass Effect III

[Shadow]

Was looking forward to this title for quite sometime but the backlash after its release forced me to hold off. Poor ending aside, how does the game stack up to the previous two titles? I'll probably still wait till the game goes on sale or drops in price before finally picking it up.

[Lynx7725]

I personally find the story element better in ME2 but only marginally so. But combat is better for ME3. So depends on which boat you're rocking.

[Freiflug88]

If your interested in playing ME3 multiplayer though then now is actually a good time to buy since the new price has already been lowered from $60-> $40. Otherwise you will probably have to wait until ME3 Muitlplaying starts to die off before they start lowering the price again.

EDIT:

Edited April 21, 2012 by Freiflug88

[VF-15 Banshee]

Was looking forward to this title for quite sometime but the backlash after its release forced me to hold off. Poor ending aside, how does the game stack up to the previous two titles? I'll probably still wait till the game goes on sale or drops in price before finally picking it up.

Poor endings aside, it does stack up pretty well. Personally I gave it an 8.0 out of 10.

[Wanzerfan]

Okay, I'm now in the London base where you talk to your sqadmates. I've so far found James Vega, Garrus Vakarian, and Kaiden Alenko. I can understand why I can't find EDI, Liara, and Javik, since they're most likely with Admiral Anderson, but Tali'Zorah? I've scoured every meter of that area and couldn't find her anywhere. I would like to find her before I contact my former squad members via hologram, because once you do that, most of the people you talked to disappear (namely Kaiden and Vega). I just need a little help here.

[Lynx7725]

Tali, EDi, and some of the others are on the other side, after you finish talking to Garrus, you play a little mini game with husks, and then you get to move to the other side of the compound. You can't backtrack, but additional members are available on the other side to talk to.

Then you talk to Anderson and move on.

[Negotiator]

*2 cents...i haven't played part 3(no time to play games anytime soon), but watched the "good" and "bad" endings....I don't see what the problem is that's getting so much criticism.

[Benson13]

*2 cents...i haven't played part 3(no time to play games anytime soon), but watched the "good" and "bad" endings....I don't see what the problem is that's getting so much criticism.

It's because you haven't played the game.

[Ghost Train]

*2 cents...i haven't played part 3(no time to play games anytime soon), but watched the "good" and "bad" endings....I don't see what the problem is that's getting so much criticism.

I've played all 3 games, and I agree with you. Though my playthroughs were very casual - the most hardcore thing I ever did was probably just to make sure my whole crew survived in part 2. I didn't religiously create one profile for every single decision in the previous games you could have made. OMG, if I lied about the fish that supposedly exists in the Presidium will I not be able to recruit the Krogans for the epic final battle?!!??1!! NOOOOOO!

... but this is part of the reason some people are upset. The hardcore gamers who religiously "profiled" every path and every scenario from ME1 & 2 are basically up in arms, because none of the hard work mattered in the end

Yes, you can still cure the genophage. Yes, you can still help the Quarians retake their homeworld. Yes, you can still defeat the Reapers

. Heck, you don't really need ME1 & 2 to get the best outcome, just keep spamming readiness and you'll be in good shape.

The degree to which gamers thought that their choices would influence the end was unrealistic to begin with. In the end, it would have been impossible to churn out this game in a timely manner and within budget but also take into account every important decision that the player made in ME1&2.... those voice actors reading alternative lines for the same scenes to account for different outcomes don't work for free you know .

And also, I disagree with the whole "different explosion color but same ending" argument. The outcomes are clearly different, but they just weren't explored in detail. Even a short narrated epilogue explaining what happened to the Galaxy if say, the green ending was chosen, would have been an improvement. Instead Bioware (like most companies with profitable milkabe IP's) left things "open" for possible future titles.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Ghost Train

[eugimon]

my problem with the a lot of the criticism

the choices I made were often times dictated by my relationship with my party... so, for instance. I don't care for quarians as a whole, but I love Tali, so I saved the quarians for her. If she had died in ME2, I would have let the geth wipe out the quarians in ME3.

Similarly for the rachni, on one play through, I killed her and so when it came to saving the crazy rachni or sacrificing grunt and the krogan, I killed the crazy clone queen. But on my other shep, I asked grunt and the krogan to die for the queen.

So yeah, you can play the game and get everything and if you're just checking off a list, then I agree... but if you're actually playing the game and getting involved with the characters... see, I dunno. I thought it was very satisfying. I saved the krogan because I believed in Wrex, if it weren't Wrex... I think I would have saved Mordin and let the krogan slowly go extinct.

Anyways, I thought the ending was fine because for me, the "ending" was all 30 hours of ME3, not just the last 5 mins.

[Wanzerfan]

Tali, EDi, and some of the others are on the other side, after you finish talking to Garrus, you play a little mini game with husks, and then you get to move to the other side of the compound. You can't backtrack, but additional members are available on the other side to talk to.

Then you talk to Anderson and move on.

I figured as much. The stragety guide was rather vague on that point. I just thought that everyone was before the turrent minigame (which is a blast, I have to say, too bad there are no consequenses to it, though; if you let too many husks pass, it's game over), and that i missed something. Good to see that I didn't miss anything. Thanks.

Oh, and I let the sabne Rachni Queen die in my paragon playthough, thinking her indoctrinated and saving Grunt in the process. My brother comes along after all is said and done and tells me that a loyal Grunt from Mass Effect 2 survives the Ravager onslought if you save the queen and sacrifice his squad at the end of the mission. Oh, well, I'll take the 5 point Renegade boost in this playthough, and I'll save her in my New Game + playthough.

Oh and I heard a rumor that Bioware is giving the ending a major overhaul because so many people flooded not only their mailbox but EA's with complaints. I don't know if it's been confirmed yet or not.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Wanzerfan

[eugimon]

it's not a rumor. It's confirmed by bioware. They're releasing an extended cut to the ending this summer that will have some new scenes incorporated into the end... you know, for people who weren't paying attention and need to have their hands held.

Edited April 25, 2012 by eugimon

[Lynx7725]

Oh, and I let the sabne Rachni Queen die in my paragon playthough, thinking her indoctrinated and saving Grunt in the process. My brother comes along after all is said and done and tells me that a loyal Grunt from Mass Effect 2 survives the Ravager onslought if you save the queen and sacrifice his squad at the end of the mission. Oh, well, I'll take the 5 point Renegade boost in this playthough, and I'll save her in my New Game + playthough.

Uhh.

I kept the faux Rachni. Grunt survived because I bothered to Loyal him in ME2 (didn't know it made a difference), so he came back asking for lunch instead of kicking the bucket like Zaeed. I won't suggest saving her though, I did and there were.. consequences. Not too major, but still.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Lynx7725

[Ghost Train]

It'd be hilarious if the extended ending gave us even more ending choices! Tired of Blue, Red, and Green .... ?

Try Maroon, Fucscia, and Teal!

[Shadow]

I went right into ME2 and never played ME1 though really should at some point. Played through it twice with the second playthrough on Insanity just to get the Gold trophy. The extended ending sounds like Bioware applying a bandaid to a severed arm. The hardcore fans have pretty much already made up their minds from what I've read.

[Freiflug88]

The Fucsica ending has already been done:

[BeyondTheGrave]

There's the modin lives ending.

[Wanzerfan]

I meant to say that I let the true Rachni queen die in Mass Effect 3, thinking she was indoctrinated, Lynx7725.

I see what a lot of people meant about the ending being a real letdown (I saw 2 of the three endings).

Well, at least Shepard Lived in my playthough when I destoyed the Reapers (too bad about EDI in that ending, nice to see the rest of the crew survived). The Synthesis Ending looked like it was tacked on as an afterthought (Seeing Joker with Illusive Man-style eyes was a nice touch, though; also seeing him arm-in-arm with EDI was good, too). I have yet to see the ending where Shepard gets to control the Reapers.

It looks like Shepard is going to need to have a hell of a lot of fuel to reunite with the Normandy SR2 crew since the Mass Relays have all been destroyed. I would like the expanded ending to reveal that Shepard finds his crew and he finds his love intrest either pregnant or child in tow (I romanced Tali in my campaign).

My only problem with the game is that after finishing the game, I got kicked back to my last quicksave that I made right before the final assault on the Cerberus base. It would've been nice to traipse around the galaxy afterward, like you did in Mass Effect 2, but after seening the ending of 3, sadly, that's not the case.

I also liked the nod Bioware gave when they chose who to do the voice of Stargazer.

Buzz Aldrin.

I have to say that one of my favorite parts of the game is when you see Tali getting totally ripped after the events on Horizon. I like it that Bioware made her a funny drunk. She does have some funny things to say during that part if you're romancing her.

[Lynx7725]

The Jusitar bubble can also be used offensively as a trap. Enemies that walk in the bubble take 10% more damage by default. Fully upgraded it will cast warp on them and become biotic detonate-able.

FWIW I finally got around to levelling the Justicar. She's.. strange. Overall, she's working out ok -- note that I usually play Bronze. Once I worked out that the Justicar is a "Pull" Adept it became easier -- spec'ed to maximize the Pull field, would get the Detonation evolution.

SOP is now to use Pull as first response; the CD is less than 2 seconds and that should have been a big clue. Pull makes the floaters harder targets but is a crowd control tool, quite useful if the Adept can get good sightlines and start floating whole gardens. Reave in to get the DR and Biotic Explosion, plus Reave is great against Phantoms, works through their Barrier -- seems like Asaris are natural predators of Phantoms, what with Stasis Bubbles and Reave.

Biotic Sphere is spec'ed to be protective; 40% DR IIRC. I don't use the Sphere that much as it's a highly defensive power in my evolution. Don't consider it as very useful offensively since it's hard to set up properly, hard to get the enemy to cooperate through it. Got to try to see if I can "throw" the Bubble further -- I usually set it up on the ground I'm on. If I have to run all the way into the enemy to set it, It's a bit too awkward to use properly IMO.

[Freiflug88]

I just unlocked the Jusitcar myself yesterday., before I could only watch other players use her. Now the Justicar is my new favorite character to use on gold thanks to Biotic Sphere and reave. Personally I usually only use pull to expose cerberus guardians because I never got the hang of creating biotic explosions and I prefer to just headshot enemies after "poisoning" them with reave.

I got my biotic sphere spec'd to the max for damage reduction and shield recharge. As shields get wiped out very easily in gold its very nice to be able to barrier up in a moments notice for a quick recharge before jumping back into the fray.

Also want to add that I found that when it comes to laying bubbles and proximity mines narrow doorways and stairways are your best friend..

Edited April 29, 2012 by Freiflug88

[Ghost Train]

Finally did it. Had 5,000+ EMS before the final showdown.

- Earth is relatively unscathed.

- Jeff and a few of my other dudes exit the Normandy.

- Breather at the end.

- Chose the Red Ending, I am not going to go green and help Joker fulfill his sick Robot-Waifu Synthesis fantasies.

... and Huerta Memorial calls in after the credits: Liara, Ashley, Miranda, EDI (sorry Jeff ), and Kahlisah Al-Jalani, are all pregnant.

[David Hingtgen]

Shepard indoctrinated? Yup, watching ponies:

(on a serious note, it seems Mark Meer is a fan)

[CoryHolmes]

... and Huerta Memorial calls in after the credits: Liara, Ashley, Miranda, EDI (sorry Jeff ), and Kahlisah Al-Jalani, are all pregnant.

o.O Did I miss something there?

[Knight26]

Shepard indoctrinated? Yup, watching ponies:

(on a serious note, it seems Mark Meer is a fan)

DH quit outing yourself we all know now that you're one of these:

Edited May 2, 2012 by Knight26

[Knight26]

I was reading something recently, on TV-tropes I think, that mentioned that in the original script for ME3 that the reason for the cycle was continued usage of the Mass Relays was actually causing their companion stars to accelerate their aging, like in the Tali recruitment mission in ME2. That got me thinking that if they kept that reasoning behind it, and the star child told you that was the reason behind the reapers that maybe people would not be so shot in the rear about the ending. Think about it, it better explains why the mass relays need to be destroyed, or moved, and even then the three choices are not so egregious because they are just a byproduct of what ultimately needs to be done to save the galaxy, instead of the other way around. Also since it has been established that the other races have learned how to build mass relays, and knowing the danger inherint in their long term use they could redesign them to prevent that from happening, or design them to be moved around every few centuries, millenia, whatever to preserve the host stars. What do people think of that?

[Freiflug88]

Personally I always thought the dark energy that damaged Haestrom's sun was from a Heretic Geth/Reaper weapon test or something. Cause manipulating suns into frying organics on their own planet is an evil and ingenious tactic that I could imagine the Reapers and their cult followers of Geth using.

[Vic Mancini]

I know everyone is fixated on the ending of ME3, but something that bothered me almost as much as the ending was how they totally glossed over the method of how the Reapers made it to the Milky Way so quickly. I've played through the game twice, and I think the only time when it's ever referenced is in a brief conversation between Shepard and Hackett on the vidcom. Shepard asks Hackett how it happened, and his reply is something along the lines of "they just flooded through the mass relays." No other explanation.

The whole concept of the Reapers is that they are this unstoppable synthetic/alien threat just beyond the horizon, but they can only get into the Milky Way if they have an inside man to let them in through the backdoor. What the hell were we doing in the first two games if the Reapers had the ability to bring themselves through the Mass Relays all along? Why were we out stopping Saren, Sovereign, the Illusive Man, the Collectors, Doctor Kenson, etc, if it didn't matter in the end? In the Arrival DLC alone we sacrificed a few hundred million Batarians, and for what? The time gap between the end of ME2 and the beginning of ME3 was six months. So we sacrificed millions of Batarians to delay the Reapers for six months? And in those six months nothing was accomplished. Still nobody believed Shepard about the Reaper threat. No time or resources were put towards preparing for the war.

And it's not even just the ArrivalDLC/Batarian thing specifically, but all of the victories and battles and sacrifices of the first two games. The mental investment we all made into stopping those indoctrinated inside men who wanted to let the Reapers in. It's all a wasted effort, and the significance of those victories felt counterfeited to me by the way ME3 handled their explanation of how the Reapers get here. The Reapers catch us with our pants down just as much as if all the victories and sacrifices made in ME1 and ME2 never happened.

I understand that the Reapers have to get here. There is no epic conclusion to the trilogy unless we have a huge villain to battle. But (unless I missed it) they didn't provide a very good plot device to achieve that. In fact, I didn't see one at all. It's like they just glossed over it and expected nobody to notice. At least that's how I felt.

Edited June 1, 2012 by Vic Mancini

[Knight26]

The answer to that lies in how fast do reapers move through FTL. That is the big question to determine how far out they were to begin with. Also Mass Relays seem to have an absolute range limitation, otherwise you could take a mass relay to the other end of the galaxy, instead you have to jump between them like nodes. So it probably works something like this. The Reapers could take whatever relay they were slinking around in dark space straight to the citadel but the citadel had to be prepped first. They then had a back door, but had to reach a standard mass relay on the edge of the galaxy that could reach it, that back door was destroyed in the Arrival. So in the intervening six months the reapers stayed in FTL and went straight into Batarian space where they encountered another relay that allowed them to begin the invasion.

[Vic Mancini]

@Knight26:

I don't buy it. If the difference between coming through the backdoors and just FTLing their way to the nearest relay was only six months, then they would have no need for a backdoor in the first place. Six months is a blink of an eye in galactic terms. The Reapers hibernate for 50,000 years between cycles. They could just set their "alarm clock" six months earlier and skip the entire backdoor method all together.

[Ghost Train]

I am inclined to think that the original inside-man Reaper plan involving a direct jump to the Citadel was meant to quickly take out the leadership of whatever civilization was in charge at the time, which would make their task of wiping out the rest of the galaxy easier. They must have reasoned that this decapitation attack woud make the rest of their galactic tour easier... though in the case of the Protheans it still took a few centuries.

So the Reapers did not really need the back door and could have easily just crossed into the milky way from dark space... but that would be too lame, they needed to pop up in style .

However, all this contradicts Vigil, who specifically states that the Reapers are "trapped" in dark space. It is possible though that Vigil is really just "hypothesizing" like everyone else, and also admits that the Reaper's motivations are unknown.

[CoryHolmes]

The Reapers were trapped in dark space... for a while. Remember, being artificial lifeforms that don't have a set lifespan as we know it, they could just use conventional FTL drives to come from dark space the old fashioned way.

Which explains the time gap from Harbinger waking the rest of the Reapers up at the end of ME 2 and their eventual arrival in ME3. If they could use their Relay, it would've instantanious and they'd have popped in at the Citadel. Instead they had to hump it to the nearest relay at the edge of the galaxy and zip around from there.

And yes, I'm a bit upset at the plot point about Haestrom's sun prematurely aging being up and dropped. I expect better than that from BioWare.

[Graham]

Just bought downloaded the EA Mass Effect Android game, but haven't tried it yet.

No idea about Mass Effect, beyond it's a sci-fi FPS about aliens invading Earth (that's the grand sum total of my knowledge......LOL!)

Graham

[David Hingtgen]

The short version is that their goal is not to enslave/capture the Earth, but to literally kill/vaporize/extinguish every sentient being and all their technology in the galaxy, leaving no trace that any advanced civilization ever existed.

[Ghost Train]

Just bought downloaded the EA Mass Effect Android game, but haven't tried it yet.

No idea about Mass Effect, beyond it's a sci-fi FPS about aliens invading Earth (that's the grand sum total of my knowledge......LOL!)

Graham

It's not a FPS, Mass Effect is a dating sim with some third person shooter elements.

[Kanedas Bike]

It's not a FPS, Mass Effect is a dating sim with some third person shooter elements.

lol, awesome

-b.