Mass Effect 3 SPOILER THREAD: LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE

Status
Not open for further replies.
Am proud to be part of the 2% for space sim. Mass Effect: Freelancer.

The truly embarrassing part is that Freelancer even had a somewhat similar plot and succeeded a bit better with it.

Although I remember spending a lot of time on different things before quite suddenly being put back on the regular track of the ending, so it's probably not all that great.

Still: marvelous game.
 
It's also an issue with DLC inside the ME3 timeline. Why do I care about retaking Omega if it's 100% useless. What do I care about 200 War Assets if they actually don't matter.

:|
 
The problem with a prequel is the same thing as pre-ending DLC, who really cares when you know how it's going to end anyways.

That and you already know what happens in whatever time period they pick.

I mean even if they want to create a new previously undocumented war between the council races and some other thing (similar to the rachni situation), we already know who wins. That's why I hate prequels and find them to be a waste of time.
 
I finished the game this afternoon. I won't share too much of my distaste for the ending, as it mirrors most of what everyone else has said. I was pleased with the ending right up until the star child, where everything fell apart. I went with the blue ending, as it seemed to accomplish my mission, but it still didn't make much sense.

What was the most jarring for me--even more so than the poor voice acting of the grandpa scene--was what happened directly after that grandfather scene: the game returns with me on the Normandy, with everyone alive. Why do that? Why take an already poor ending that ruins all the efforts I made in fighting for global peace, and then suck the consequence from that by allowing me to continue to play as my character that should be dead?

A fuckton of games do this, especially RPGs. It brings you back in time before you attack Cerberus Headquarters, so you can do side missions or whatever else you want to do. I don't get why anyone would complain about it when so many other games do it. In fact, I'm preeetty sure in ME2, you keep playing after the end, and any dead party members are alive again. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But it's not like "LOL YOU SURVIVED!". I wouldn't want to be saving side missions for later (which, admittedly, is not very smart in this game since you'll be missing out on assets), only to find out that once you beat the game, you're done and can only start over.
 
It's also an issue with DLC inside the ME3 timeline. Why do I care about retaking Omega if it's 100% useless. What do I care about 200 War Assets if they actually don't matter.

:|

Yeah, that's the thing about ME3 DLC that will be a hard sell without a different ending. It'll be hard for them to do a DLC squadmate as well, having someone on zaeed/kasumi levels would be a pretty big detriment to some of the game since the squad members all talk a good amount now.
 
No option for 100% dating sim? No sale! I want to see the adventure of Shepard-kun.

Second this. Shepard and a harem of five chicks with wildly different stereotypical personalities living in one ship, Love Hina style.

It's also an issue with DLC inside the ME3 timeline. Why do I care about retaking Omega if it's 100% useless. What do I care about 200 War Assets if they actually don't matter.

:|

Yep, you're solely making the purchase for another pre-finale mission, because the end results mean dick. Plus... I never found Omega to be that interesting (I know). I'd rather see DLC that plays through the Codex entry detailing the battle to retake Palaven.
 
Second this. Shepard and a harem of five chicks with wildly different stereotypical personalities living in one ship, Love Hina style.

Would Tali be the socially awkward library girl?

Ashley would probably be the energetic athlete.

Liara would be the science nerd!

hmm.... this doesn't work. Too many 'smart folks' on the normandy to make a well balanced harem.
 
A fuckton of games do this, especially RPGs. It brings you back in time before you attack Cerberus Headquarters, so you can do side missions or whatever else you want to do. I don't get why anyone would complain about it when so many other games do it. In fact, I'm preeetty sure in ME2, you keep playing after the end, and any dead party members are alive again. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But it's not like "LOL YOU SURVIVED!". I wouldn't want to be saving side missions for later (which, admittedly, is not very smart in this game since you'll be missing out on assets), only to find out that once you beat the game, you're done and can only start over.

You continue after you beat ME2's Collector mission, you can complete side missions, dead squad members are still dead, and people comment on how the mission went.
 
That and you already know what happens in whatever time period they pick.

I mean even if they want to create a new previously undocumented war between the council races and some other thing (similar to the rachni situation), we already know who wins. That's why I hate prequels and find them to be a waste of time.

This was an inherent issue with Halo: Reach, but I still enjoyed that game. I know it retconed a lot of went on during the invasion, but you still knew that planet was getting glassed. I guess its a little different since ME3 is story driven. I will admit I have very little interest in ME3 pre-ending DLC, but i'm not going to right off anything that comes before Shepard's exploits. Seeing people react to a Turian during the First Contact War might be neat. I will admit that what I would rather have is a ME4 where the galaxy isn't fucked over though.
 
Would Tali be the socially awkward library girl?

Ashley would probably be the energetic athlete.

Liara would be the science nerd!

hmm.... this doesn't work. Too many 'smart folks' on the normandy to make a well balanced harem.

"loves makes erryone crazy"

Liara would be the clumsy schoolgirl again

Ashley would be the school slut

Tali would be the true route
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But it's not like "LOL YOU SURVIVED!". I wouldn't want to be saving side missions for later (which, admittedly, is not very smart in this game since you'll be missing out on assets), only to find out that once you beat the game, you're done and can only start over.

Nope you are wrong, in ME 2 after the suicide mission you are returned to the Omega system. Those that died during the suicide mission stay dead. The DLC that got released for ME 2 was done in such a way that you could play it before the suicide mission or after the suicide mission if you so wished
 
A fuckton of games do this, especially RPGs. It brings you back in time before you attack Cerberus Headquarters, so you can do side missions or whatever else you want to do. I don't get why anyone would complain about it when so many other games do it. In fact, I'm preeetty sure in ME2, you keep playing after the end, and any dead party members are alive again. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But it's not like "LOL YOU SURVIVED!". I wouldn't want to be saving side missions for later (which, admittedly, is not very smart in this game since you'll be missing out on assets), only to find out that once you beat the game, you're done and can only start over.

ur wrong
 
"loves makes erryone crazy"

Liara would be the clumsy schoolgirl again

Ashley would be the school slut

Tali would be the true route

Tali as Naru. I approve.

Jack as the tough tomboy who is really a big softie that just wants to be loved by someone.

I was going to write Miranda here before I realized the characters already fit into the damned archetypes already. Not sure if that's necessarily a good thing for ME, in retrospect. But hey, no work needed for Love Hina: The Normandy Edition besides exaggerating everything (EDIT: hell they already exaggerated the boobage) and adding more oversized sweatdrops and blushing.

Unlockable scene where Shepard comments on the scent of Tali's sweat
 
Oh, while I'm here reading this thread, I'd like to know how many others felt they experienced more bugs in Mass Effect 3 than the other two previous games. I encountered several instances of the following:

Close-up conversations:

  • Shepard won't stop looking away from the characters in front of him/her. It was very awkward to have Shepard try to prove a point by leaning toward the other character, all while staring to the far right.
  • Characters don't appear "on camera". I experienced many sequences where characters, including my own, would fail to stand in frame or would disappear completely, leaving instead an empty camera shot with a disembodied voice.
  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One memorable instance was with Dr. Chakwas in the medbay: she failed to turn around to face me in the conversation, so instead she spent the entire sequence bobbing her head to the right and to the left to try to face me.

(A) or (X) Conversations:

  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One Turian during the final Earth battle sequence had his head turned around completely because his body had switched to a conflicting casual pose.
  • Audio dropping out during conversations. Did anyone else get a bit confused about when a conversation was over, and accidentally interrupted a sequence with another request to talk? I repeatedly thought the conversation was over, but inadvertently disrupted the audio track, forcing it to quickly cycle to the next line.

Other bugs/complaints

  • Audio distortion during intense battle sequences. I noticed the audio sounded like it was slowed down during a lot of the battle sequences, and I have to assume this was due to lag. Did this happen to anyone else?
  • Character audio was interrupted because I ran too far ahead. I repeatedly ended up missing character voice audio because I moved to a point that triggered a different audio track. It felt weird to be walking casually through a devastated planet--or worse, stopping all movement--just to ensure I didn't move too far ahead and interrupt the conversation.
  • Lip syncing seemed pretty poor in this game. Mass Effect never was great with lip syncing, but this game seemed to have intense latency issues between video and audio: lips often moved with no audio, and lip movement often never seemed to really even try to emulate the audio when there was no delay.
  • Loading of audio caused frequent staring contests. It felt really weird to me how often I experienced loading issues in conversations, where the audio wasn't ready to play after I picked a response: the result was drawn out periods of silence from Shepard, as he/she stared off into space (usually not focusing on the other person). I installed both discs to the hard drive, yet I still seemed to not be able to react fast enough to prevent this loading bug--even choosing a response quickly seemed to have little effect.

I apologize for the long list, but I am really curious if my experiences with this game mirrors that of others here.
 
Oh, while I'm here reading this thread, I'd like to know how many others felt they experienced more bugs in Mass Effect 3 than the other two previous games. I encountered several instances of the following:

Two instances of getting Shep getting locked into place without the ability to move:
- Normandy cabin, after speaking to Joker and EDI
- Outside the Purgatory club, where the two Turians are chatting about how much everything has gone to shit. Somehow I wound up sandwiched between them and had to reload the game.
 
Oh, while I'm here reading this thread, I'd like to know how many others felt they experienced more bugs in Mass Effect 3 than the other two previous games. I encountered several instances of the following:

Close-up conversations:

  • Shepard won't stop looking away from the characters in front of him/her. It was very awkward to have Shepard try to prove a point by leaning toward the other character, all while staring to the far right.
  • Characters don't appear "on camera". I experienced many sequences where characters, including my own, would fail to stand in frame or would disappear completely, leaving instead an empty camera shot with a disembodied voice.
  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One memorable instance was with Dr. Chakwas in the medbay: she failed to turn around to face me in the conversation, so instead she spent the entire sequence bobbing her head to the right and to the left to try to face me.

(A) or (X) Conversations:

  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One Turian during the final Earth battle sequence had his head turned around completely because his body had switched to a conflicting casual pose.
  • Audio dropping out during conversations. Did anyone else get a bit confused about when a conversation was over, and accidentally interrupted a sequence with another request to talk? I repeatedly thought the conversation was over, but inadvertently disrupted the audio track, forcing it to quickly cycle to the next line.

Other bugs/complaints

  • Audio distortion during intense battle sequences. I noticed the audio sounded like it was slowed down during a lot of the battle sequences, and I have to assume this was due to lag. Did this happen to anyone else?
  • Character audio was interrupted because I ran too far ahead. I repeatedly ended up missing character voice audio because I moved to a point that triggered a different audio track. It felt weird to be walking casually through a devastated planet--or worse, stopping all movement--just to ensure I didn't move too far ahead and interrupt the conversation.
  • Lip syncing seemed pretty poor in this game. Mass Effect never was great with lip syncing, but this game seemed to have intense latency issues between video and audio: lips often moved with no audio, and lip movement often never seemed to really even try to emulate the audio when there was no delay.
  • Loading of audio caused frequent staring contests. It felt really weird to me how often I experienced loading issues in conversations, where the audio wasn't ready to play after I picked a response: the result was drawn out periods of silence from Shepard, as he/she stared off into space (usually not focusing on the other person). I installed both discs to the hard drive, yet I still seemed to not be able to react fast enough to prevent this loading bug--even choosing a response quickly seemed to have little effect.

I apologize for the long list, but I am really curious if my experiences with this game mirrors that of others here.

I had one instance in Liara's room where shep was actually focusing on glyph so his head kept turning in the direction it was, and I had the same thing happen with Chakwas.

One time I also had Liara become invisible when she spoke a line.

Aside from that I was fine though.
 
Garrus turned invisible for every cutscene in Thessia, it was rather awkward.

The second fight with Kai Leng bugged out for me when I killed his ass and he disappeared.

Of course the infamous invisible rock that Shep gives to Tali; perhaps Bioware was hinting at what a hollow victory it would be.
 
I don't get why anyone would complain about it when so many other games do it.

I don't play many RPGs, so I don't have experience with most games of that genre. I wasn't complaining that the ability to continue playing existed, but rather that placing me right back into the ship mildly deflated the impact of my character's very recent death, and certainly served to confuse me for a moment.

As for Mass Effect 2, I played the DLC after I completed the suicide mission, so I was pleased that I was given the option to continue. I see that others seem to have corrected you on the manner in which post-game playing is handled; I can't comment on that, as I saved all my squadmates in the suicide mission.

Seriously though, I'm not complaining that one can continue to play the game after the ending--though, I think it's a bit odd to do so in this game, as the finale is quite final--but rather I am complaining that they chose to dump me right back into the ship after the grandpa sequence, without needing to press "resume" on the menu.
 
When activating tactical cloak right before a cutscene, I'd become visible for the cutscene, obviously, but when it returned to gameplay, my head would be invisible and my body not. Also had Shepard looking off in strange directions during coversations, and audio issues at times.
 
I think it's a bit odd to do so in this game, as the finale is quite final--but rather I am complaining that they chose to dump me right back into the ship after the grandpa sequence, without needing to press "resume" on the menu.
THE SHEPARD IS LEGEND GO BUY DLC LOL
 
Oh, while I'm here reading this thread, I'd like to know how many others felt they experienced more bugs in Mass Effect 3 than the other two previous games. I encountered several instances of the following:

Close-up conversations:

  • Shepard won't stop looking away from the characters in front of him/her. It was very awkward to have Shepard try to prove a point by leaning toward the other character, all while staring to the far right.
  • Characters don't appear "on camera". I experienced many sequences where characters, including my own, would fail to stand in frame or would disappear completely, leaving instead an empty camera shot with a disembodied voice.
  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One memorable instance was with Dr. Chakwas in the medbay: she failed to turn around to face me in the conversation, so instead she spent the entire sequence bobbing her head to the right and to the left to try to face me.

(A) or (X) Conversations:

  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One Turian during the final Earth battle sequence had his head turned around completely because his body had switched to a conflicting casual pose.
  • Audio dropping out during conversations. Did anyone else get a bit confused about when a conversation was over, and accidentally interrupted a sequence with another request to talk? I repeatedly thought the conversation was over, but inadvertently disrupted the audio track, forcing it to quickly cycle to the next line.

Other bugs/complaints

  • Audio distortion during intense battle sequences. I noticed the audio sounded like it was slowed down during a lot of the battle sequences, and I have to assume this was due to lag. Did this happen to anyone else?
  • Character audio was interrupted because I ran too far ahead. I repeatedly ended up missing character voice audio because I moved to a point that triggered a different audio track. It felt weird to be walking casually through a devastated planet--or worse, stopping all movement--just to ensure I didn't move too far ahead and interrupt the conversation.
  • Lip syncing seemed pretty poor in this game. Mass Effect never was great with lip syncing, but this game seemed to have intense latency issues between video and audio: lips often moved with no audio, and lip movement often never seemed to really even try to emulate the audio when there was no delay.
  • Loading of audio caused frequent staring contests. It felt really weird to me how often I experienced loading issues in conversations, where the audio wasn't ready to play after I picked a response: the result was drawn out periods of silence from Shepard, as he/she stared off into space (usually not focusing on the other person). I installed both discs to the hard drive, yet I still seemed to not be able to react fast enough to prevent this loading bug--even choosing a response quickly seemed to have little effect.

I apologize for the long list, but I am really curious if my experiences with this game mirrors that of others here.

Don't forget about the clipping. The designer in me is appalled that a GOTY contender could have such bad clipping with pretty much everything.
 
"loves makes erryone crazy"

Liara would be the clumsy schoolgirl again

Ashley would be the school slut

Tali would be the true route

Miranda is spunky athletic girl.

Tali is the nerd girl/comedy option.

Ashley spoiled rich girl.

Liara is the young teacher. Also virgin.
 
Don't forget about the clipping. The designer in me is appalled that a GOTY contender could have such bad clipping with pretty much everything.
I did forget about the clipping, and I agree that it was pretty bad.

The more I think about the game, the more it feels like an expansion pack to Mass Effect 2 to me, like it's a giant DLC episode. The change in design between Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 was dramatic, while the quality seemed to dip a bit in Mass Effect 3. The lighting certainly seemed to have dropped in quality: the contrast was high and the black levels were crushed, at least for me.
 
Oh, while I'm here reading this thread, I'd like to know how many others felt they experienced more bugs in Mass Effect 3 than the other two previous games. I encountered several instances of the following:

Close-up conversations:

  • Shepard won't stop looking away from the characters in front of him/her. It was very awkward to have Shepard try to prove a point by leaning toward the other character, all while staring to the far right.
  • Characters don't appear "on camera". I experienced many sequences where characters, including my own, would fail to stand in frame or would disappear completely, leaving instead an empty camera shot with a disembodied voice.
  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One memorable instance was with Dr. Chakwas in the medbay: she failed to turn around to face me in the conversation, so instead she spent the entire sequence bobbing her head to the right and to the left to try to face me.

(A) or (X) Conversations:

  • Characters would cycle through the various casual poses during a conversation, sometimes to the detriment of their neck rotation. One Turian during the final Earth battle sequence had his head turned around completely because his body had switched to a conflicting casual pose.
  • Audio dropping out during conversations. Did anyone else get a bit confused about when a conversation was over, and accidentally interrupted a sequence with another request to talk? I repeatedly thought the conversation was over, but inadvertently disrupted the audio track, forcing it to quickly cycle to the next line.

Other bugs/complaints

  • Audio distortion during intense battle sequences. I noticed the audio sounded like it was slowed down during a lot of the battle sequences, and I have to assume this was due to lag. Did this happen to anyone else?
  • Character audio was interrupted because I ran too far ahead. I repeatedly ended up missing character voice audio because I moved to a point that triggered a different audio track. It felt weird to be walking casually through a devastated planet--or worse, stopping all movement--just to ensure I didn't move too far ahead and interrupt the conversation.
  • Lip syncing seemed pretty poor in this game. Mass Effect never was great with lip syncing, but this game seemed to have intense latency issues between video and audio: lips often moved with no audio, and lip movement often never seemed to really even try to emulate the audio when there was no delay.
  • Loading of audio caused frequent staring contests. It felt really weird to me how often I experienced loading issues in conversations, where the audio wasn't ready to play after I picked a response: the result was drawn out periods of silence from Shepard, as he/she stared off into space (usually not focusing on the other person). I installed both discs to the hard drive, yet I still seemed to not be able to react fast enough to prevent this loading bug--even choosing a response quickly seemed to have little effect.

I apologize for the long list, but I am really curious if my experiences with this game mirrors that of others here.
I've had all that happen to me on the PC version. The one that made me face palm was when I was in a dialog scene on the Palaven moon. The characters turned to face a Reaper and the GIANT towering Reaper blinked several blocks back to the beginning of his animation.
 
I've had all that happen to me on the PC version. The one that made me face palm was when I was in a dialog scene on the Palaven moon. The characters turned to face a Reaper and the GIANT towering Reaper blinked several blocks back to the beginning of his animation.
I forgot about that, too! Yes, the characters kept twitching through different animations. I definitely don't recall this happening so frequently in the previous two games.

This is what I get for compiling a list at 11:00 at night.
 
A living legend, apparently, since even molecular disintegration won't prevent him/her from returning to complete more DLC adventures.

A DLC where you play as a character who is shockingly looks like Shepard's dead ringer *gasp*, facilitated, of course, via import of your existing save file. The game is a mystery trying to find out why this guy looks so much like the original Shepard and why he can't remember his past. /cliche
 
There's over 300 pages, don't feel like reading all them.

Did anyone ever bring up that when Space Child is giving you the options, Anderson (your friend) is shown choosing to destroy. The Illusive Man (your enemy) is choosing to Control the Reapers.

This itself might not mean much on its own but when you factor in that Control is the blue side and Destroy is the red side, it does.

A lot of decisions are color coded in Mass Effect. Why would your enemy choosing to control the Reapers (what you were fighting against Cerberus for the whole game) be symbolized as the Paragon option? Why would your friend choosing to destroy the Reapers (what you've been trying to do for three games) and all synthetics be symbolized as the Renegade option?

Again. Other than just a massive troll from BioWare, the only other possible explanation to this is that you are in fact, indoctrinated.
 
Oh God the clipping. My female Shepard's eyes would clip all over the eyelid/eyelashes. It's freaky. Hands go through everything, like shep handing Tali that rock, lol. Armor as well, feet, people in general. One of the worst cases I've seen in a while.
 
There's over 300 pages, don't feel like reading all them.

Did anyone ever bring up that when Space Child is giving you the options, Anderson (your friend) is shown choosing to destroy. The Illusive Man (your enemy) is choosing to Control the Reapers.

This itself might not mean much on its own but when you factor in that Control is the blue side and Destroy is the red side, it does.

A lot of decisions are color coded in Mass Effect. Why would your enemy choosing to control the Reapers (what you were fighting against Cerberus for the whole game) be symbolized as the Paragon option? Why would your friend choosing to destroy the Reapers (what you've been trying to do for three games) and all synthetics be symbolized as the Renegade option?

Again. Other than just a massive troll from BioWare, the only other possible explanation to this is that you are in fact, indoctrinated.

It's all part of the process of Indoctrination...
 
A living legend, apparently, since even molecular disintegration won't prevent him/her from returning to complete more DLC adventures.

ShepardManhatten1.jpg
 
It would be tragic yet funny if the fourth option had been "All Reapers to finish their mission and go home" but they only destroy dangerous organic races- the quarians for creating the geth, the rachni and krogan for being rampaging horde races, and the turians for inventing the genophage. They mysteriously leave the geth alone. Also the Mass Relays still blow up. Call it the Ultimate Renegade ending because humanity wins the spoils.
 
Miranda is spunky athletic girl.

Tali is the nerd girl/comedy option.

Ashley spoiled rich girl.

Liara is the young teacher. Also virgin.

Dr. Chakwas as the wise, chill career woman whose still trying to mount Shepard despite the age gap and the pack of girlies around him.

I'd shamelessly buy this.
 
It would be tragic yet funny if the fourth option had been "All Reapers to finish their mission and go home" but they only destroy dangerous organic races- the quarians for creating the geth, the rachni and krogan for being rampaging horde races, and the turians for inventing the genophage. They mysteriously leave the geth alone. Also the Mass Relays still blow up. Call it the Ultimate Renegade ending because humanity wins the spoils.

Yes, but what COLOR would that ending be? How much of the original ending could they use?

You are asking too much man. Here take a lavender ending instead.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom