Mass Effect 3 [Spoiler Alert!]

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

So apparently an early beta version of ME3 was leaked on Xbox Live this morning and there is a 13 minute video on youtube going through the first part of the game. I'm debating whether or not to watch it since I've read it's kind of spoilerey(is that a word?) Anyways it's been taken down, and deactivated now, but its interesting that this big of a screw up happened.

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You can still find that video, I'm pretty sure.

It's not really much of a spoiler; just the beginning portion of the introduction of the game.

Re: Mass Effect 3

So it's the 6th, and I've played it for 4 hours already, and OMG!!!! Seriously already amazed, by the story, by the combat, by pretty much everything. Can't wait to delve further into it, and kick some Reaper ass!!

Oh, and just so you know, the two reviews I've read so far basically echoed what I wrote. G4 gave it a perfect score, and IGN gave it a 9.5

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

So it's the 6th, and I've played it for 4 hours already, and OMG!!!! Seriously already amazed, by the story, by the combat, by pretty much everything. Can't wait to delve further into it, and kick some Reaper ass!!

Oh, and just so you know, the two reviews I've read so far basically echoed what I wrote. G4 gave it a perfect score, and IGN gave it a 9.5

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Auggh. I got it last night, and had issues importing my face. I could not dedicate myself into actually delving in very far without my Shepard looking like my Shepard from the previous 2 games - so I went to bed.

I loaded up my ME2 save in ME2 to try to get the code and there was no code?? I then tried loading my ME1 save in ME2, there was a code for this; however when I put that code in ME3 it was not my Shepard. I am confused and frustrated.. I do not want to have to convince myself that she had went under the knife again for more facial reconstruction surgery.

And yes, I am really that attached to how she looks.. that is all part of the submersion and the verisimilitude. I want the same familiar shepard for the entire series, with a different face it feels like I am playing a different character, and not the one that I have grown so attached to - plus the voice does not fit anymore it belongs to the old shepard face dammit!!!.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Yeah, I had that problem too, though I really didn't have a problem making her look like my old Sheperd. Hopefully they will patch it, because I feel the same way you do, thankfully I was able to get her to look the same manually.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

So it's the 6th, and I've played it for 4 hours already, and OMG!!!! Seriously already amazed, by the story, by the combat, by pretty much everything. Can't wait to delve further into it, and kick some Reaper ass!!

Oh, and just so you know, the two reviews I've read so far basically echoed what I wrote. G4 gave it a perfect score, and IGN gave it a 9.5

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I feel weird buying the game knowing I take 30x's longer than most of the players in finishing the game. By the time I get 4 hours, you will have 90.

Got it at midnight and got no sleep before work. Totally worth it.

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Oh, and lets try to keep this thread spoiler free, especially with this game.

Re: Mass Effect 3

cpgrad08 said:

Got it at midnight and got no sleep before work. Totally worth it.

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

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I took like an hour nap before school, but yeah, it was worth it!

Re: Mass Effect 3

I am loving it. I was weary after Bioware's DA2 debacle, but they got this one right - if its not broke don't fix it.

The story so far has been great, and I am just getting into it, and there have been a few "oh **** no way!!" moments already, and quite a few amused chuckles at the interactions. I just got finished with one of them.

I will keep it spoiler free, because going into this blind and not knowing what turns are ahead of you is awesome. For those who have made it this far (and I am not really that far into the game) it was when the lights flickered on the Normandy after a mission and there was an issue aboard ship - I love how that played out once the smoke cleared. I cannot wait to see what other surprises are in store going forward.

I confess I was nervous about the release, and if the game would meet expectations (admittedly lowered), but hats off Boiware.. you may have actually redeemed yourself, the bad taste from DA2 has almost went away.. so far this game is fantastic!

Im glad I stuck with Tali.

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Finished it... I will now officially boycott EA and Bioware.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Got as far as The mission on Tunchuka to rescue the Turians from the crashed ship. Entered an area where there's spose to be a big battle (The one with the first black star gun) and no enemies come, and I'm trapped in it with no way out.

My thoughts so far:

Dialogue is largely clunky and lame. Really hit me just how bad it was during the mission to mars. The elusive man appears as a hologram towards the end of the mission and Liara says "Great, now we know why Cerberus is here" and I was like... what? How the hell does him appearing tell us anything at all?

Love the Normandy the way it is now.

Love the idea of gathering forces to retake Earth, love the counter and the breakdown of each individual fleet, force and army.

The idea that the universe is under siege should be made more apperent, perhaps it changes later in the game but you really don't get a sense of urgency from a single person (especially on the citadel) in the game besides the ****ty "Things will be bad if the Reapers win". Everyone else is like, oh no my... world... is... burning... shall we spend days trying to find a single platoon halfway across the galaxy! Yes WE CAN!

Good to see Garrus return (my favourite character).

Love the customization of the weapons and armor this time around.

That's all for now.

Re: Mass Effect 3

**** that ending.

I don't know what to think right now. I don't want to spoil anything, but damn.

Your Star said:

**** that ending.

I don't know what to think right now. I don't want to spoil anything, but damn.

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I know your pain.

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

Re: Mass Effect 3

cpgrad08 said:

I know your pain.

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

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The rest of the game was brilliant, best game I've ever played, I didn't ****ing spend 300+ hours in this world to have it end this way. I want DLC to fix this ****.

Your Star said:

The rest of the game was brilliant, best game I've ever played, I didn't ****ing spend 300+ hours in this world to have it end this way. I want DLC to fix this ****.

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Me too

Cpl USMC MILITARY POLICE K-9 Unit. VIA taptalk.

Re: Mass Effect 3

I have unsubscribed from Swtor because of this ending.

Hundreds of dollars and man hours and a bigger emotional stake than I've had in a story since I was a child watching Star Wars and reading Lord of the Rings. Wow.

I shouldn't have defended Bioware from DAII.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Re: Mass Effect 3

I just finished my first playthrough, and I'm kinda, sorta with you guys re: the ending sucking all the dicks in the world simultaneously (although it was a valid creative choice, sort of). However, everything leading up to the ending - especially the last few hours of the game - was ****ing amazing. I'm reserving judgment until I've seen to what extent playing a different Shephard will change things (not, presumably, the very end of the game obviously).

At the end of the day, this game and the trilogy in general have been a remarkable accomplishment by Bioware. No one else has even come close to creating such an engaging, layered, dramatic epic of a video game. I'm perfectly happy to have given them staggering amounts of my time and money. They've earned it.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Aderleth said:

I just finished my first playthrough, and I'm kinda, sorta with you guys re: the ending sucking all the dicks in the world simultaneously (although it was a valid creative choice, sort of). However, everything leading up to the ending - especially the last few hours of the game - was ****ing amazing. I'm reserving judgment until I've seen to what extent playing a different Shephard will change things (not, presumably, the very end of the game obviously).

At the end of the day, this game and the trilogy in general have been a remarkable accomplishment by Bioware. No one else has even come close to creating such an engaging, layered, dramatic epic of a video game. I'm perfectly happy to have given them staggering amounts of my time and money. They've earned it.

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I don't know, the ending kind of invalidated all of the previous decisions for me though, I mean, what's the point if no matter what your going to end up having the same 3 crappy choices, which really aren't that different from each other? It doesn't matter who survives Virmire, it doesn't matter if you killed Wrex or not, it doesn't matter if you saved the Council or not, it doesn't matter who survived the suicide mission, it doesn't matter if you destroyed the collector base, it doesn't matter who you romanced, nothing matters, because your going to get pigeonholed into the same crappy decision.

I hope they come out with a DLC to fix it, something along the lines of it being an indoctrinated hallucination, which is why the kid was there(who during the whole game I had sympathy for, and got that he was representing all the lost souls on Earth, and throughout the rest of the galaxy, but after that ending I just ended up feeling contempt for the little **** for being the messenger that brought on that horrible ending.) and that the Catalyst does something else, and we can beat the Reapers, and not have to bring back the galaxy to just a few years ahead of us technologically. That doesn't mean I want every ending to be happy rainbows and sunshine, but I want your choices to matter in the ending, if you took your time and did everything right, and had the galaxy on your side, you should be able to win, and not take out the Reapers while screwing over the galaxy, and killing off Sheperd in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of every second of the first two games, and everything except the last five minutes of the third. Hell right at the end with Anderson had me in tears, in a good way, unlike a few minutes later, which was in a bad way. And the third, up until that point was the best game I've ever played, every moment with your crew, with your love interest, the combat, everything was pitch perfect. Everything I ever hoped it to be. Which I guess is why the ending feels so wrong.

I feel kind of silly for being so upset about this, I mean it is just a game after all, but I've never put so much emotional capital in any other piece of fiction before, I played 1 & 2 so much, and waited for this game with bated breath, and I think part of the reason it does feel so bad, is that my Sheperd wasn't just another character in a game, or movie, or TV show, but she is a small representation of me, which makes these games have a greater impact. And to feel like I was robbed of the proper ending just well, sucks. I hope they fix this so I can look at, and play these games with the same wonderment I had for them just 2 days ago, and not the bitter disappointment of the last 5 minutes of the series.

I guess to sum up this blob, I'm praying for DLC, and pretending that the ending never happened.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

I don't know, the ending kind of invalidated all of the previous decisions for me though, I mean, what's the point if no matter what your going to end up having the same 3 crappy choices, which really aren't that different from each other? It doesn't matter who survives Virmire, it doesn't matter if you killed Wrex or not, it doesn't matter if you saved the Council or not, it doesn't matter who survived the suicide mission, it doesn't matter if you destroyed the collector base, it doesn't matter who you romanced, nothing matters, because your going to get pigeonholed into the same crappy decision.

I hope they come out with a DLC to fix it, something along the lines of it being an indoctrinated hallucination, which is why the kid was there(who during the whole game I had sympathy for, and got that he was representing all the lost souls on Earth, and throughout the rest of the galaxy, but after that ending I just ended up feeling contempt for the little **** for being the messenger that brought on that horrible ending.) and that the Catalyst does something else, and we can beat the Reapers, and not have to bring back the galaxy to just a few years ahead of us technologically. That doesn't mean I want every ending to be happy rainbows and sunshine, but I want your choices to matter in the ending, if you took your time and did everything right, and had the galaxy on your side, you should be able to win, and not take out the Reapers while screwing over the galaxy, and killing off Sheperd in the process.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of every second of the first two games, and everything except the last five minutes of the third. Hell right at the end with Anderson had me in tears, in a good way, unlike a few minutes later, which was in a bad way. And the third, up until that point was the best game I've ever played, every moment with your crew, with your love interest, the combat, everything was pitch perfect. Everything I ever hoped it to be. Which I guess is why the ending feels so wrong.

I feel kind of silly for being so upset about this, I mean it is just a game after all, but I've never put so much emotional capital in any other piece of fiction before, I played 1 & 2 so much, and waited for this game with bated breath, and I think part of the reason it does feel so bad, is that my Sheperd wasn't just another character in a game, or movie, or TV show, but she is a small representation of me, which makes these games have a greater impact. And to feel like I was robbed of the proper ending just well, sucks. I hope they fix this so I can look at, and play these games with the same wonderment I had for them just 2 days ago, and not the bitter disappointment of the last 5 minutes of the series.

I guess to sum up this blob, I'm praying for DLC, and pretending that the ending never happened.

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I've been thinking about what precisely I found so troubling about the ending, and I think you've hit the nail on the head. All of the choices I've made - not to mention laboriously putting together numerous characters who have made other choices, just so I could see how they would impact the plotline - culminate in the same phyrric decision. I would also hope that there'll be a DLC fix for this. My other big problem (which you've alluded to) is that it doesn't just invalidate all of your previous choices, it invalidates everything your character has been fighting for for three entire games: the galaxy as it has been. With this ending, no matter what you've done, the galaxy you've fought for will inevitably be changed in some seriously fundamental and basically bad ways.

I completely agree with you about the rest of the game(s). BTW, I also played a (female) Shepherd with a Liara fixation (for this playthrough - I have like six more characters ready to go). I was really looking forward to seeing what their life together would have looked like.

*edit* The thing that I find so baffling about all this is that there's absolutely no good reason Bioware had to railroad us in this manner. Unlike the first two games, where things pretty much had to end in more or less the same way so as to continue the plot into the next game, the third game could potentially have had a ****load of possible endings, based on all the factors you'd expect (e.g. giving the Illusive Man the Collector base, saving the council, etc). They could have diverged in all kinds of ways, and Bioware wouldn't have to worry about making all various endings tie into any future plot. So, why the hell didn't they just do that? We're talking about 5-10 minutes of screen time. Why not make four or five variations rather than giving every single character the same three crap choices?

Re: Mass Effect 3

Aderleth said:

I've been thinking about what precisely I found so troubling about the ending, and I think you've hit the nail on the head. All of the choices I've made - not to mention laboriously putting together numerous characters who have made other choices, just so I could see how they would impact the plotline - culminate in the same phyrric decision. I would also hope that there'll be a DLC fix for this. My other big problem (which you've alluded to) is that it doesn't just invalidate all of your previous choices, it invalidates everything your character has been fighting for for three entire games: the galaxy as it has been. With this ending, no matter what you've done, the galaxy you've fought for will inevitably be changed in some seriously fundamental and basically bad ways.

I completely agree with you about the rest of the game(s). BTW, I also played a (female) Shepherd with a Liara fixation (for this playthrough - I have like six more characters ready to go). I was really looking forward to seeing what their life together would have looked like.

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Yeah, femShep is awesome, Jennifer Hale is such a good voice actor, and brings her A game in all three games. And I romanced Liara also, every moment with her was pure awesome, the romance was fleshed out beautifully. I stayed faithful to her, and wanted an ending with me and her, on some garden world with a little blue baby or two running around, my Shep earned it. Also the friendship with Garrus, was one of the best things about the game IMO, he's one of the only ones to stay with you during all three games, and when he takes you up to the the Citadel, was so touching, and right before the big battle, when talking about the bar in heaven was also another tear jerking moment.

Like you I have several other characters with different decisions from my "canon" Sheperd, that I was dying to go through, and I don't know if I can, considering the ending. Knowing that it all ends up in the same scenario. And considering how much in awe I was with Garrus's character in this game I was looking forward to seeing how the romance played out. But knowing that it ends, I don't know if I have the capacity. And your right, it destroys the universe, you don't win, you fail, you don't save the galaxy, the galactic community is destroyed. So while the Reapers don't get what they want, we don't either, no one wins. And in a game that has always been about overcoming odds, heck you can survive a suicide mission with no causalities, and yet you can't beat the Reapers with everything in tact. It seemed like the writer was trying to make some convoluted point, and forgot about making a satisfying ending for the fans.
It just sucks because the game pulls you in, and is damn near flawless, and then pulls the rug out from under you. It's rather sad. Especially since the premise of the whole need for those crappy choices is that organic life and synthetics can't get along, and you disprove this in the game if you broker peace between the Geth and the Quarians. Makes no sense.

And the fact that overall the Mass Effect trilogy is amazing, it is a shining example of what I think the artform of gaming could be, and to completely jump the shark in the last 5 minutes is disheartening.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

And the fact that overall the Mass Effect trilogy is amazing, it is a shining example of what I think the artform of gaming could be, and to completely jump the shark in the last 5 minutes is disheartening.

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I think that's it in a nutshell. I've played a lot of RPG's - The Dragon Age series, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Vampire: Bloodlines, Arcanum, KOTOR, more recently Skyrim, etc. The Mass Effect trilogy has really been far and away the most compelling. There are great dramatic moments in all the games above, but ME games - and particularly this last one - are the only games that have ever genuinely drawn me in and gotten me invested in the outcome of their world - not just in the welfare of my character - in ways comparable to, and in many ways superior to, the sort of investment I put into a really great TV show or movie. That's one hell of an accomplishment.

Precisely because they've done such an incredible job with the ME series it's extremely unfortunate that they so completely screwed up the ending. Having said that, I'm not going to let the ending ruin my enjoyment of the journey. I've actually already started a second character (male, renegade, Ashley/Miranda romance).

Re: Mass Effect 3

Aderleth said:

I think that's it in a nutshell. I've played a lot of RPG's - The Dragon Age series, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter, Vampire: Bloodlines, Arcanum, KOTOR, more recently Skyrim, etc. The Mass Effect trilogy has really been far and away the most compelling. There are great dramatic moments in all the games above, but ME games - and particularly this last one - are the only games that have ever genuinely drawn me in and gotten me invested in the outcome of their world - not just in the welfare of my character - in ways comparable to, and in many ways superior to, the sort of investment I put into a really great TV show or movie. That's one hell of an accomplishment.

Precisely because they've done such an incredible job with the ME series it's extremely unfortunate that they so completely screwed up the ending. Having said that, I'm not going to let the ending ruin my enjoyment of the journey. I've actually already started a second character (male, renegade, Ashley/Miranda romance).

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And it's a testament to Bioware that most of the games you mentioned are from them. It's just really sad, that there opus ends on a sour note. Oh, and BTW I just reloaded the ending and replayed it, and choose to destroy all synthetic life, instead of the synthesis option, and it was slightly better, while I really sympathized with the geth, and loved EDI, and hated destroying her, at least Sheperd lives, and it's reasonable to assume the planet that the Normandy landed on was Earth, somewhere in the jungle, and that Shep will meet her crew and love again. Still, it leaves too much up in the air, where's the big celebration, what happened to explaining what happened to everyone? Not to mention that every ending destroys the freaking mass relays, so the galactic community is still decimated, and with a world, and lore so compelling, whoever thought it was a good idea to destroy that should stop smoking whatever the hell they're on.

Re: Mass Effect 3

Your Star said:

And it's a testament to Bioware that most of the games you mentioned are from them. It's just really sad, that there opus ends on a sour note. Oh, and BTW I just reloaded the ending and replayed it, and choose to destroy all synthetic life, instead of the synthesis option, and it was slightly better, while I really sympathized with the geth, and loved EDI, and hated destroying her, at least Shepard lives, and it's reasonable to assume the planet that the Normandy landed on was Earth, somewhere in the jungle, and that Shep will meet her crew and love again. Still, it leaves too much up in the air, where's the big celebration, what happened to explaining what happened to everyone? Not to mention that every ending destroys the freaking mass relays, so the galactic community is still decimated, and with a world, and lore so compelling, whoever thought it was a good idea to destroy that should stop smoking whatever the hell they're on.

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Interesting. The ending I picked was the kill synthetics ending. I haven't tried the other two. I'm pretty sure Shepard dies with that one as well, unless I misheard the kid-image. He mentions that Shepard has synthetic components almost immediately after saying that all synthetics will die. I might be over-thinking this, though.

But, yeah. I agree about the other stuff. I kind of assumed they'd be doing more Mass Effect games at some point in the future. I don't see how that's possible if the ME universe no longer allows for a galactic society. And yeah, where's the denouement? I want to know what everyone is up to. What does the galactic government look like? How are the various species getting along? How many schools are named after Shepard? These are important things to know.