Mass Effect III

[CoryHolmes]

The Leviathon was Soverign? Yuck. I had built this theory in my head where the Leviathan was a Reaper prototype built by the Keepers (builders of the Reapers themselves) which didn't live up to expectations, so they went on to the Metallic Space Cuttlefish we all know and love. Which were so powerful they turned on their creators and repurposed them into the Keepers of today's Citadel

Why is it fanon is sometimes better than the actual story?

[Scream Man]

i shall spoil nothing, but the new endings all feel MUCH more complete. There ae now 4 main endings that I have seen, and while all have similarities, there are definitely differences, which is cool. One is dramatically different.

bravo Mass Effect team, you've brought me back.

[David Hingtgen]

Can you give some non-spoiler hints as to how to GET the "very different" ending? Be renegade, save the "blank", etc?

[Freiflug88]

I have a feeling this "different ending" is the Renegade Red ending.

EDIT:

Just saw the the 4th and "very different" ending. You get it by refusing the 3 colored options

.

Edited June 26, 2012 by Freiflug88

[Ghost Train]

I saw all the 3 revamped endings, and the extra one, don't think I'm going to bother replaying or redoing anything just for those. The extra content (if you could even call it that) was nice but not groundbreaking.

... so where to next, Mass Effect IV: The Krogan Rebellions II ?

[Shadow]

If these endings were part of their original intent then my faith really hasn't been restored. Still plenty of plot loopholes that went unanswered though I'm sure Bioware will be happy to answer them at a premium in whatever future DLC or even full game they come up with next.

[Freiflug88]

Mass Effect: Do You Remember the Fallen? DLC:

After finding the lyrics for the Sucide Mission choir in an ancient Atlantean city Shepard's crew find a way to UN-indoctrinate Reaper forces through the power of music.

[Shadow]

I'm still loling over Marauder Shields and the three Huskateers as the final fight. That said, I still think the Indoctrination Theory has some validity to it as parts of the extended ending did leave the door open to that possibility still.

[Freiflug88]

Personally I think the final fight should have been against a Shepard clone possessed by Harbringer. After all the Illusive Man collected plenty of Shepard's blood and we did see that "Shepard" in the final dream sequence.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Still haven't started the main game. But watched a few of the endings. more explanation good. so far the fourth ending is the best and worse.

[Lynx7725]

Starting on my ME3 Insanity run. Doing as a Level 1 Adept, so it's a bit easier. Right now starting on the Mars Archive, so I've got a ways to go.

Truth be told, a Biotic, at level 1, doing a Insanity run on ME3, might be just a bit too easy. It's amusingly annoying that I could clear all the Cannibals back on Earth before the "Cavalry arrives".. eh Joker, nothing for you to clean up already.

So far, Bioplosions are my weapon of choice... Warp/ Throw aren't high level enough, but the "BOOM" is still satisfying. 200% CD makes it relatively quick. And If I meet shielded enemies... I have Energy Drain from the Bonus Power to handle that.

As far as I can remember, ME3 Biotics are not as restrictive as ME2 Biotics. ME2 had Shielded/ Armoured/ Health units, which prevented you from touching these until only the Health is left. That made a high-difficulty run more dangerous, as you get hit by mulitple and improved units -- Biotics felt a bit crimped then.

Now, in ME3, a lot more powers can affect or go through armour, and there's a lot more ways to get rid of shields. If memory serves, no ME3 units get improved protection, which makes it a lot easier -- I won't care about the basic Cerbie Troopie, because he's going to go away with a Bioplosion.

I have to say, having gamed the Multiplayer portion obessively, I got to understand the combat mechanics decently. It helps a lot in tactics. I don't expect the Insanity run to be too difficult, but might be grindy getting through the enemies again.

[Shadow]

I was thinking of doing an Insanity run with the Sentinel but also considering the Adept. Not sure which would be better for the difficulty level.

[Lynx7725]

I was thinking of doing an Insanity run with the Sentinel but also considering the Adept. Not sure which would be better for the difficulty level.

I'm personally having a lot of issues with the Sentinel class on Multiplayer. Prefer the pure Adept class due primarily to the better CD. Sentinel's quite good in that it can handle everything, Biotic, Tech, Armour, Shield, Barrier -- but it's a tad bit too flexible, IMO, and has too slow a CD for my taste even at 200%. SP might be better, of course.

Tonight, did the Mars mission. basically only had one bad spot. Otherwise Cerberus Troopers packed into narrow corridors is just Bioplosions waiting to happen. Clearance was easy, and the one bad spot was the last defense before getting to your goal. That had one too many grenades and on Insanity that's tough.

The bad part is the last defense line that Cerberus tossed up before the Archives. The tram car's lousy for defense.. I died 3 or 4 times there because of a stray grenade I couldn't dodge. Ended up accidentally vaulting out and that turned out to be useful, as it distracted the enemy -- they concentrated on Ashley and Liara rather than me. That gave me room to set up Bioplosion to clear the lot, and by happenstance lured the Guardians into a pit that they could neither move out of or shoot out of.

Still pretty hairy since both Ashley and Liara got taken down -- I nearly bought the farm reviving them, but backed off to ED both Centurions dead first. Once I got Liara back up, Singularity messed the pitted Guardians up and we mopped up.

Managed to accidentally bull through -- should really use Ashley's Infernos more. So far, Insanity run's fairly tame. (I'm going to regret saying that...)

[Keith]

Personally I think the final fight should have been against a Shepard clone possessed by Harbringer. After all the Illusive Man collected plenty of Shepard's blood and we did see that "Shepard" in the final dream sequence.

I think they should have gone the Chirico Quevie route, and have the whole mess be a behind the scenes plot to create a new Overman.

[Ghost Train]

Tricia Helfer has now delivered the epilogue for two of the "greatest" sci-fi epics of our time.

[Lynx7725]

Continued my Insanity run.

Really, Insanity is much, much simplier in ME3 than ME2 at this stage. The ability to do Biotic Explosion off many combinations (rather than the restricted set in ME2, the ability for Biotic Explosion to happen off non-shielded enemies (perhaps even shielded enemies -- got to test), even armoured ones like Brute, and the scaling factor of Biotic Explosions means.. as an Adept I was kicking Reapers around.

Some spoiler-ish talk.

Was doing Priority: Menae. Turian homeworld is where you really see the heavies of Reapers. Brutes are annoying to take out but once I realised the BE is going to blow anyway, it quickly reduced them to cinders. Husks aren't fast enough to get to you before you BE them too. Overall the mission was simple. I did die a few times, at the airfield -- stupid, disoriented, and forgot Marauders are carrying big pieces; once is on the wall -- wasn't using the turret guns, a bit too gung-ho. Another time was when I got to Victus, and the triple Brutes there was a bit hard to take out. Only the triple Brutes fight is of major concern, really.

I've also managed to pick up in MP the Reactor Gold part of the achievement, so with the Gold-Reaper event this weekend, it becomes a race to see whether I'd get that achievement from SP or MP.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Lynx7725

[Freiflug88]

. The ability to do Biotic Explosion off many combinations (rather than the restricted set in ME2, the ability for Biotic Explosion to happen off non-shielded enemies (perhaps even shielded enemies -- got to test), even armoured ones like Brute, and the scaling factor of Biotic Explosions means.. as an Adept I was kicking Reapers around.

Discovering a number of Biotic explosions could be triggered on shielded enemies was a complete game changer for me.

warp - shockwave

warp - throw

warp - reave

reave - warp

reave - shockwave

reave - cluster grenades

pull - reave

[David Hingtgen]

Yup, time to sell my Tali figure and await Square's Play Arts Kai version:

And I was thinking about the "Bishoujo" FemShep statue, but I think this is better:

More pics here: http://www.toyark.com/news/san-diego-comic-con-58/sdcc-12-friday-pics-for-square-enix-display-6136/ (it almost looks like Tali may actually have a sculpted face under a semi-transparent mask) Still----no asari figs YET? How is Liara not in wave 1? And Samara/Morinth is the ultimate easy repaint/remold opportunity.

[Lynx7725]

Ooo that FemShep is better. And with a Valiant too! Should be on my buy-list.

Freiflug88: If some Bioplosion can be triggered off shielded enemies, then most likely can.. so long the primer can stick. Warp seems to stick on everything, so Boom.

The new human Adept coming on next week looks a bit strange. Two warp-like ability. appears to be close-combat related. One other power, pull or throw, looks to be. Not sure if she can trigger BE on her own though.

[Kanedas Bike]

...drool over the new Square Enix Play Arts Kai figures.

Just inspired me to place an order with Ami Ami for Shepard, Garrus and Ashley.

Re: game, doing another play-thru of ME3 with my Soldier. Will do my Vanguard play-thru on PS3. I waited until the new endings came out before finishing the game and I'm SO happy that I did. The longer cut help to flesh out what happened to your crew and other civilizations after the end.

-b.

[Freiflug88]

The new human Adept coming on next week looks a bit strange. Two warp-like ability. appears to be close-combat related. One other power, pull or throw, looks to be. Not sure if she can trigger BE on her own though.

The abilities are dark channel and biotic sphere. On top of that the N7 adept and vanguard can "go banshee" with their heavy melees: short teleport dash (even through solid walls) followed by asari-like biotic shockwave

Their are also some more very interesting abilities from the N7 crew.

Demolisher Engineer has an Ammo drop ability for moar dakka and grenades.

Paladin Sentinel has a cryo-thrower and an immobile guardian-esque stance.

Destroyer solider has a missile launcher ability. Probably no where as powerful as the limited cobra missiles, but probably still very useful..

[Lynx7725]

The abilities are dark channel and biotic sphere. On top of that the N7 adept and vanguard can "go banshee" with their heavy melees: short teleport dash (even through solid walls) followed by asari-like biotic shockwave

Their are also some more very interesting abilities from the N7 crew.

Demolisher Engineer has an Ammo drop ability for moar dakka and grenades.

Paladin Sentinel has a cryo-thrower and an immobile guardian-esque stance.

Destroyer solider has a missile launcher ability. Probably no where as powerful as the limited cobra missiles, but probably still very useful..

I'm in no hurry. Usually, the abiltiies are a bit overhyped. You are supposedly still vulnerable during the teleport, so a sprayer can still tag you -- the disappearing is a animation effect. It's good, especially as an objective grabber (as you can phase right through walls to get to the objective), but without a tacscan effect, doing that is at your own risk -- if you run into a Geth Prime on the other side of the wall it'll be over very quickly.

Generally Bioware are quite decent with balancing, so I don't expect these classes to be so powerful as to obsolete the older classes. I'm kinda sick of using "heavy", unrollable classes, so hopefully the heavier new classes doesn't lose the human roll ability. To be honest, from the Destroyer and Fury's demo trailer, I find both a bit slow at taking down Bronze level mooks (which was what the clip was about). The Fury didn't really trigger any Bioplosion as far as I can recall; Destroyer was more traditional, just the AR taking its own sweet time killing things. I'm more keen to see what the infiltrator brings to the table. Looks to be cloaked melee build, not my favourite but we can see how it goes.

[Knight26]

Man I want some more storyline DLCs. Leviathan sounds interesting, but what I would love to see... Aria Taking Back Omega from Cerberus. Even if its just one mission, imagine the huge freaking battle that would be.

Of course that was honestly my biggest disappointment with ME3, I wanted to see that giant land battle they showed in the cinematic trailer. Makos Hammerheads and hundreds of troops mixing it up on a battlefield. Of course system limitations probably killed that in the end, but I wanted an epic ground battle.

[Ghost Train]

I'm still waiting for the DLC where Wrex (or the other guy) embarks on a quest with Shepard to make the best damm Fish sandwich in the Citadel.

[Lynx7725]

Man I want some more storyline DLCs. Leviathan sounds interesting, but what I would love to see... Aria Taking Back Omega from Cerberus. Even if its just one mission, imagine the huge freaking battle that would be.

It won't be one mission. Omega was lost because Cerberus had a base literally right next door -- the Omega-4 relay. To secure Omega, you need to take the Cerberus base in the Collector's system.. given the enormous amount of debri surrounding the exit, and the need for an Reaper-style IFF, it's likely a big effort.

It'll be an interesting plot to follow, to be sure. Somehow though, I don't think Shepard would be involved. We might be looking at ME4 for this one.

EDIT: Having said that... I think the Alliance and probably the entire (ex-)Citadel Council will be kind of nervious about Aria T'loak possibly gaining access to Reaper technology if she ever goes through the Omega-4 relay in force. That will probably be something that's high on somebody's list to take care of.

Edited July 17, 2012 by Lynx7725

[Knight26]

I can see that being an issue sure, but do you really see Aria wanting that much power, she always just seemed to want Omega and that was it. How about this for another DLC, and one that could make the ending truly badass... you go to the Elcor homeworld, recruit the Elcor for the earth fight, and in the final push, ride the freaking Elcor into battle. Ok maybe that would be silly, but I want to see Elcor "walking tanks" fighting. Though I don't think they ever actually rigged the Elcor to move, at least we never see one move.

[Lynx7725]

I can see that being an issue sure, but do you really see Aria wanting that much power, she always just seemed to want Omega and that was it. How about this for another DLC, and one that could make the ending truly badass... you go to the Elcor homeworld, recruit the Elcor for the earth fight, and in the final push, ride the freaking Elcor into battle. Ok maybe that would be silly, but I want to see Elcor "walking tanks" fighting. Though I don't think they ever actually rigged the Elcor to move, at least we never see one move.

Aria doesn't come across as a power-hungry Asari, but she does want security for Omega, and she can't leave the Cerberus-controlled Omega-4 relay alone. In the comics, she was shown to have gone across, so she is aware of the potential and risks for Omega there. End of day, she will have to cross over to take the facility. Or at least destroy it.

Problem for the Alliance and Citadel Council is that they can't rely on Aria's word for things. It's a potential source for a Reaper indoctrination and really, nobody needs Reaper tech floating around in Aria's underworld connections. It's a plot point that can escalate into a major game by itself, since, if Aria T'loak plays her cards right, she is practically the one "civilian" person with the most fleet and military asset, potentially even more so than the Alliance and almost certainly the Asari and Krogan fleets. (The Turian possibly still have enough ships wandering around -- having more of them to begin with, and the Salarian seems to have survived fairly intact). Empress Aria, anyone?

As for Elcor, I need to find the reference, but yes, I do believe the rigging for Elcor animation was too difficult for the engine that ME works off. So we might never see them. As it is, in lore, the Elcor didn't have many colonies and their homeworld was badly hit by the Reapers. You get 2 side-missions in SP for that, and it sounded pretty bleak.

[Lynx7725]

For those of you still following, the Play Arts Kai FemShep has became available for pre-orders at my local, with a street date of November.

As for the game, I'm still shooting things in MP, but things are winding down. SP's Insanity run is stalled, since I find it more fun to shoot things in MP than in SP.

[CoryHolmes]

This new Leviathan DLC has caught my attention. It just might well be my first ME DLC that I buy.

[BeyondTheGrave]

Still haven't started the main story.

[David Hingtgen]

This new Leviathan DLC has caught my attention. It just might well be my first ME DLC that I buy.

You didn't buy Shadow Broker, the best DLC ever period?

[CoryHolmes]

You didn't buy Shadow Broker, the best DLC ever period?

I did not. I'm not big into DLC to start with, plus *dons fireproof suit* I'm really not fond of Liara to start with...

[Lynx7725]

... And Leviathan's announced for Aug 28.

http://blog.bioware....ficially-dated/

EDIT: I wonder... Leviathan looks to be mostly underwater. Would we get swimwear for our teammates?

Edited August 15, 2012 by Lynx7725

[CoryHolmes]

... And Leviathan's announced for Aug 28.

http://blog.bioware....ficially-dated/

EDIT: I wonder... Leviathan looks to be mostly underwater. Would we get swimwear for our teammates?

Great. Now I'll never get that image out of my mind

[Phalanix]

Dunno if I wanna even bother with DLCs... Sheperd's dead at the end anyway, everything's blown up - just makes you feel like "why bother".

Yup, still bitter.

LOL