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Oh. Oh my. http://trendygamers.com/2012/03/10/mass-effect-3-metacritics-helpful-user-reviews/meta8/ http://trendygamers.com/2012/03/10/mass-effect-3-metacritics-helpful-user-reviews/meta12/ I wouldnt want to be raped by my nice preacher 
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Mar 10, 2012 19:42
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Any word on the effect of the Kasumi DLC from ME2? I'm curious if it has any effect whatsoever.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:44
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Merry Magpie posted:Any word on the effect of the Kasumi DLC from ME2? I'm curious if it has any effect whatsoever. She does show up and does a mission with you on the Citadel.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:45
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oswald ownenstein posted:Playing this game made me realize that ME is actually not very fun to play. It's really more about the story & RPG elements (which have been stripped considerably since the first game.)
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Mar 10, 2012 19:46
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ImpAtom posted:Yeah, there is no problem with Shepard dying. Frankly, I think it was pretty much inevitable. The problem is that it makes no sense for the themes of the game. Ending Shepherd dying would be perfectly acceptable if the rest of the ending was good. But that's not the case. Personally, I think there should have been several drastically different endings for how you used the weapon (kind of like what we got but way less lovely: Destroy all Synthetics, Control the Reapers, Use as a precision weapon, Shutdown the Reapers, etc.). Then assets and choices should have affected who lived, who died, and what happened to the galaxy. Lots of assets would save Earth and other planets. Few assets would result in near extinction. I really just wanted an ending that actually represented the choices you made. I'd bet the endings were designed like they were not for a thematic reason but because it was easy. Instead of making complex endings tailored to all possible variants, Bioware made three universal endings for every situation. With the care they took in designing the rest of the game, it's really surprising that they copped out of the last 5 minutes
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Mar 10, 2012 19:46
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Count Choculitis posted:She does show up and does a mission with you on the Citadel. Which nets you Hanar and Drell war assets, if I'm not mistaken.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:47
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Shroomie posted:Which nets you Hanar and Drell war assets, if I'm not mistaken. More specifically, I was referring to the Macguffin she wants in ME2. Does obtaining it have any effect?
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Mar 10, 2012 19:48
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I'm sorry. If you don't end the drat game with the same theme so that you can play the ending music of mass effect, you loving failed. I like the slow piano thingy in ME3. Its beautiful. But poo poo. I won. right? can i feel like I won? starting at 1:12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_6yQwHJ4tU Just a reminder of what poo poo should be like. It all feels lovely now.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:49
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Merry Magpie posted:More specifically, I was referring to the Macguffin she wants in ME2. Does obtaining it have any effect? The mission is actually ABOUT that. If Kasumi is dead or you didn't recruit her, the Salarian Spectre says he stole the information from Donovan Hock
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Mar 10, 2012 19:49
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CaptainCarrot posted:Yes, getting an incrementally better pistol is far more exciting than the handgun that shoots sticky grenades or the shotgun that shoots spikes, to say nothing of the shotgun revolver. I will grant that not being able to switch out mods on the fly is a bit annoying, but seriously. Also, I think you're the only one who liked seventy thousand games of Frogger. The RPG elements aren't gone just because you don't put lots of points in different skills over the course of the game and see tiny changes each time. The combat in ME blows and no 'sticky grenades' or 'revolver shotgun' can change that. The only thing ME brings to the table is the RPG elements - story, interaction, etc. Also, I think the loot system could have been streamlined, and the hacking system done away with completely in place of just a check, but I cared an awful lot more about the balance of people I brought in my party on ME1 than I do in ME2 or M3. In fact the squadmates are more or less just there and don't really provide much assistance at all.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:52
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I know ending chat is kinda worn out, but goddamnit. I think maybe specifically where the ending fails is in how it changes scope, style and theme so abruptly. You basically go from a character driven story like the works of Heinlein, Pohl, or Brin and end up in some fairly grand, idea-driven SF like Clarke or Asimov that is totally willing to sacrifice anyone at any time for a big SF idea. The best analogy I could come up with is that you start with Starship Troopers and follow Rico around killing aliens and hanging out with his Mobile Infantry buddies only instead of getting ready to drop to Klendathu at the end, he takes a ship back to Earth to meet Clarke's Overlords from Childhood's End and must make the choice between humanity moving to evolutionarily-stagnant technological mastery like the Overlords or allowing them to form a group mind and go to join the galactic Overmind. The choices themselves are reasonable SF concepts. And when you examine them as such, they have a lot of potential. But the context is wrong and we were unprepared for the shift of scope. It was like you thought you were swimming around your little fishbowl only to find out you were actually in the middle of the ocean. Up until that point, you're fighting for concrete things: your crew, your planet and to preserve the galactic unity you've just spent the entire game building. You fight for the galaxy because you brought the krogan and turians together; you resolved the centuries-long war between the quarians and the geth. The ending should have been driven by these forces; you should have had the geth make feats of impossible piloting on a human-turian rescue ship enhanced by quarian machinists and full of krogan marines save the day, or something similar. Instead, you end up playing god. Furthermore, and I won't really delve into the subject because it has been talked about quite a bit, the reapers' thesis regarding the necessity of the cycles is absurd. The reapers are evil and that was established throughout all three games. In ME1, Sovereign was a villain that kidnapped and brainwashed important members of the galactic cast to bring about the destruction of life. It never expressed good intentions. In ME2, Harbinger taunted you and mocked you. You watched your crew get liquefied and die. Harbinger laid traps to capture you. And worst of all, the Collectors were revealed to be a twisted perversion of the protheans. And in ME3, those exact themes were carried forward. Now TIM, arguably the most powerful man in the galaxy, had been indoctrinated and, as Garrus remarked, the reapers just produced one horrible nightmare after another through their twisted, demoralizing perversion of various species. The creatures that produce nightmares like banshees and brutes are NOT possessed of good intentions. But lay all that aside and just go with the flow, right? Maybe this kid knows better and I need to solve a problem that I had no clue existed. Okay, fine. The choices you are given are actually interesting, if unrelated to the story. If you decide to make the best of what you've been given, you have a chance to meaningfully and positively alter the future of the galaxy. First, you can destroy all synthetics and throw the galaxy into a dark age without destroying the culture. Galactic civilization could be built from the ground-up in a better way. We would be accepting of machine intelligence when it arose because we learned from the geth. Secondly, you can control the reapers and fulfill TIM's dream of a galactic golden age where you are basically an omnipotent technological god. You can keep the peace and enforce peaceful existence between synthetics and organics. Finally, you can accept that cultural singularity of some sort is inevitable and choose to have a biological-technological singularity event occur and instead of a galactic golden age. Who knows what that looks like, but it brings peace and throws us into a bright new future. Instead, none of those ideas are explored in the least and we have no conclusion. The characters saying goodbye to Shepard before the final fight isn't enough. There is no resolution to the conflict. We need to see how the characters react to the new universe we shape. We made a choice and we need to see its impact to determine if it was valid. You can't change everything and not know what happens. What does bio-tech singularity look like and how does our crew fit in? How does ReaperShep behave? How does everyone handle a galactic dark age? Instead, we learn that a) EDI dies and Shepard lives, b) everyone lives, or c) there's circuits and stuff and Joker and EDI can snuggle. That brings no conclusion at the conclusion of an epic trilogy. It's not a let-down, it's traumatic. People are processing this like a trauma and going through the stages of grieving. We were jolted out of a narrative that had captured our emotions with amazing success and the expressed collective shock is unlike any reaction I have ever seen to a game. And finally, and in a somewhat unrelated note, the idea of singularity being exclusive to technological forms of life is invalid. Iain M. Banks' idea of sublimation wherein entire cultures exit the galaxy for an existence of pure thought in hyperspace is basically organic singularity. It's not rigorous as far as SF is concerned, but the thesis that synthetic life will always exceed organic life doesn't really have the traction it once did. Hell, Herbert's Dune series toys with the idea of organic life evolving to exceed synthetics, and although that battle doesn't play out, it is certainly an idea that's hinted at. Alright, that was an awful wall of text, but I think I'm done processing this now.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:52
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Nucular Carmul posted:The mission is actually ABOUT that. If Kasumi is dead or you didn't recruit her, the Salarian Spectre says he stole the information from Donovan Hock So the choice at the end of the DLC, matters tangentially? Does it lock me out of anything? I am sorry for speaking so obliquely, but the black spoiler bars are starting to nag at me.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:54
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Quick question... roughly how many hours do I have left? I think I may be blazing through the game a bit quick. I have scanned every planet and cleared up every sidequest that I can do, I am in the middle of the Geth/Quarian mission, where I have just met Legion. I'm really enjoying it, I hope that I'm not near the end!
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Mar 10, 2012 19:56
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Merry Magpie posted:So the choice at the end of the DLC, matters tangentially? I don't think the actual choice matters, the information seems to come to light anyway, but if Kasumi isn't loyal, a bad thing happens, and if Kasumi isn't there at all an even worse thing happens.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:56
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oswald ownenstein posted:The combat in ME blows and no 'sticky grenades' or 'revolver shotgun' can change that. The only thing ME brings to the table is the RPG elements - story, interaction, etc. I could not disagree with you more strongly, and I suspect this argument isn't going to go anywhere.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:56
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So what are the recommended squad mates for each main mission? For instance, I've been taking Garrus along with anything Turian related and Liara with anything Asari related. Any other recommendations for unique content/dialogue?
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Mar 10, 2012 19:56
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My character has now reset to level one after about 4 hours into the game. I'm so loving done with this piece of poo poo game gently caress this poo poo. I mean I can restore to an earlier point in the game, but this is just stupid.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:56
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Eejit posted:I know ending chat is kinda worn out, but goddamnit. Its like Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull all over again, though in this case if the whole movie was magnificent, and then the whole pivoting conclusion of the ending hinged on that goddamn fridge scene. You raped my enjoyment. In the rear end. with a loving train and no lube.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:58
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ImpAtom posted:Tali, Garrus. There ya go! Seriously?  wtf bioware.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:59
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Nucular Carmul posted:I don't think the actual choice matters, the information seems to come to light anyway, but if Kasumi isn't loyal, a bad thing happens, and if Kasumi isn't there at all an even worse thing happens. Thank you! I wish I could say I was surprised. I know most people wouldn't notice either way, but it still chafes to know that the developers opted not to do anything to reflect a major piece of dlc.
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Mar 10, 2012 19:59
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tadashi posted:My character has now reset to level one after about 4 hours into the game. I'm so loving done with this piece of poo poo game gently caress this poo poo. I mean I can restore to an earlier point in the game, but this is just stupid. Try reloading to last auto save. Edit: nevermind, disregard. I'm stupid. pepperburg fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Mar 10, 2012 |
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Mar 10, 2012 20:00
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Davincie posted:So what are the recommended squad mates for each main mission? For instance, I've been taking Garrus along with anything Turian related and Liara with anything Asari related. Any other recommendations for unique content/dialogue? Bring Javik, if you have him, to Thessia. That's the only one I can think of where there's a huge difference. It's hard to predict, but missions that involve ME2 party members tend to have slight changes if you bring someone who was in that game.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:00
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nthalp posted:I'm sorry. Exactly this. Seeing Shepard emerge from the rubble was one of the best moments of the series. Even if I can't live this time at least let me feel like everything I did paid off. Man, it does feel a lot less heroic now. Same with 2's intro. ...did 3's ending really sour the whole series for me?
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Mar 10, 2012 20:01
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Bongo Bill posted:Bring Javik, if you have him, to Thessia. That's the only one I can think of where there's a huge difference. It's hard to predict, but missions that involve ME2 party members tend to have slight changes if you bring someone who was in that game. Is a good rule of thumb to save before the mission and swap out people before committing? I'm going to assume Bioware frontloaded the squad commentary. Edit: VVV Why does this bug even occur?
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Mar 10, 2012 20:02
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tadashi posted:My character has now reset to level one after about 4 hours into the game. I'm so loving done with this piece of poo poo game gently caress this poo poo. I mean I can restore to an earlier point in the game, but this is just stupid. If you reload a previous save it should be ok, I think.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:03
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Merry Magpie posted:Is a good rule of thumb to save before the mission and swap out people before committing? I'm going to assume Bioware frontloaded the squad commentary. You don't even have to; if you go to the Load menu, in the list is a "Restart Mission" option that takes you back to squad selection. It's also handy if you mess up your loadout.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:03
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Count Choculitis posted:This is exactly what I came in to post. They give us this ending and expect us to be satisfied with NO closure for the rest of the galaxy. We don't just care about how Shepard went out (dying like a hero to save everybody), we care about the rest of the galaxy and our squaddies, and no matter the ending you choose, everyone is basically hosed. Without the relays, galactic civilization is gone. Too many people are stuck near Earth, which will have a hell of a time rebuilding anyway, even without all these fleets trapped here. It's just... everything is gone. The people we worked so hard to protect are screwed, no matter what, and that is a really lovely feeling to leave the game with after so many hours of being told we can save people if we sacrifice enough. This, but with some differing points of view All of galactic civ is near Earth anyway, a depopulated Earth. Co-existance anyone? I can enjoy that, kinda. But I think they can rebuild Mass Relays anyway, the Geth survived in mine with Quarians and so forth...but eh, considering the post ending ending maybe? The poo poo with the Normandy was just loving dumb, as was the Synthesis ending, all of it. Humans ARE Synthetic, that's the point. Jesus, making them one race is loving dumb. How did they just magically land on Eden. What the gently caress Synthesis ending. Jeez. But other than that the Reapers actions make sense to me. They existed to stop Organic life from eventually being replaced by wiping out Technology and preserving the people that created it. Leaving the non-evolved species alone to begin life. But 50,000 years? They left the one race of people introduced in Shadow Broker DLC, the council visited them already and they killed their people. Will they really take 50,000 years? Eh. Also they never really explained the reapers in any clear way, and the ending came out of nowhere. Lotsa bad poo poo here. We will get a follow up prologue at some point, but wow this was dumb.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:04
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Bongo Bill posted:You don't even have to; if you go to the Load menu, in the list is a "Restart Mission" option that takes you back to squad selection. It's also handy if you mess up your loadout. I forgot about that. Thank you. I suppose I'll just do that and take whoever sounds like they will have additional lines.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:05
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People say sacrifice was a big theme in the game, but Renegade-Shep specialized in sacrificing EVERYONE ELSE, not himself. The crazy renegade choice would have been like: Detonating all reapers and basically shredding every occupied planet to dust. You get to live while untold millions die. You warp the closed Citadel out, Joker docks, and you proceed to gently caress bitches like there's no tomorrow. Repopulate EVERY race with Shepard babies. Sintor fucked around with this message at 20:20 on Mar 10, 2012 |
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Mar 10, 2012 20:06
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I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. I think the backlash is a pretty remarkable phenomenon. I've never seen such total agreement on the idea that one particular ten-minute segment could ruin five years of entertainment. BSG and Lost had divisive endings, sure, but this doesn't seem divisive at all. Would that be dumb?
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Mar 10, 2012 20:09
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General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. The thing here is that Lost and BSG are passive entertainment. You can watch them, you can discuss them, but the viewer has no direct control over the actions. ME3 is the culmination of five years of player choice. Even compared to other triologies (like Assassin's Creed or whatnot), ME3 is a lot more about player choice. Not only because there are choices in the game but because each choice carried over to a new game thanks to the save carryover. ME3 is the end result of hours upon hours upon hours of time spent making choices and doing quests and in general interacting with the universe. So making GBS threads the bed in the last five minutes is going to make people a lot angrier than anything else because ME was all about the player's choices and the consequences of those choices. This may be an almost unique problem. Even other games that had save carry-over (like Suikoden) were a lot less focused on player choice.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:11
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Pladdicus posted:This, but with some differing points of view Unfortunately no. Earth already had population and resource problems in the Mass Effect setting before the Reapers came and hosed it up. Now there are a ton of aliens stranded in that system with nowhere near enough resources to support them all. If they don't find a way to get back to other systems soon, there's going to be war. A lot of it, as everyone fights to take control of what few resources remain. With the way the endings are, the Sol system is going to become one of the worst places in the galaxy.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:13
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General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. I'm cool with this but def ask a mod first - we already have two ME3 threads and I'm not sure if they want another one.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:13
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Westen posted:Exactly this. Seeing Shepard emerge from the rubble was one of the best moments of the series. Even if I can't live this time at least let me feel like everything I did paid off. I was hoping for an ending similar to that one but on a grander scale. Westen posted:...did 3's ending really sour the whole series for me? yes General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. Personally, I'd find it quite entertaining but..
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Mar 10, 2012 20:14
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General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. Someone started a Class discussion thread a day or two back and it got closed.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:14
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Internet Kraken posted:Unfortunately no. Damnit. Also ImpAtom has hit the nail as far as I'm concerned. Also Suikoden had great endings.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:15
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CaptainCarrot posted:I could not disagree with you more strongly, and I suspect this argument isn't going to go anywhere. These kings of sentiments will always occur when sequels take radical changes. DA2 was a very extreme example, but even ME2 was radically different from ME1 - many mechanics and gameplay elements were completely removed, rather than simply improved upon.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:15
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For clarity: this was the thread http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3471048quote:I didn't realize we have three ME3 threads going, so I'm going to recommend we consolidate class discussion in the regular discussion thread. And that was Louisgod's post. So I doubt another thread would be allowed.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:16
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I, too, think discussion about Mass Effect 3 should be given its own thread, separate from the thread used for discussion about Mass Effect 3.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:17
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General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. I predict that the divisiveness will not be whether the ending is bad (it is), but whether it retroactively diminishes what leads up to it (I, personally, will respond decisively in the negative). Others will disagree, but I say, in the final tally, different-colored explosions and inexplicable crash landings can't take away the fact that Tali got drunk and teased Javik over the intercom and the guy on the citadel finally got his refund. Or maybe different things happened in your game and they were cool too.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:17
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