-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mass Effect 3: Citadel |OT| The best.
- Thread starter EatChildren
- Start date
CharmingCharlie
Member
It isn't about being "liked". The statistic is about the most popular SQUAD MATES (i.e who you choose to accompany you on missions. With that in mind it is obvious Vega and Liara are going to have an unfair advantage because for a couple of missions they are the only squad mates you have access too.
Tali's "unpopularity" is more down to the fact you only get access to her close to the end of the game. So by the time you can actually use Tali as a squad mate there are hardly any missions left to use her on. However Kaidans unpopularity is probably a result of .......... well it being Kaidan really.
Gozer the Gozerian
Member
She got turned into a meat slurry in ME2, ooooobviously
It's only a couple missions out of like 14 or so, and he's only fully there for one of them. It shouldn't be skewed that much. Plus people have to at least like him somewhat if they are bringing him around, especially since Ashley's power set is almost the same.
CharmingCharlie
Member
You have to remember though that most never actually finish Mass Effect 3. I believe the percentage of those that finish ME 3 is only around 42%. So you have 58% that probably never even the game long enough to get to Tali, hell some would probably quit around the first visit to the Citadel.
I honestly believe Vegas and Liara's popularity is down to the fact you access them very early on, whereas Kaidan/Ashley take a while to access.
Meanwhile on another note here is some info from PAX about the next ME. Nothing we haven't heard before though :-
http://kotaku.com/5992108/next-mass-effect-will-be-fresh-new-and-mostly-made-in-montreal
Only 18% of players played as a femshep. And yet, if you read any forum, bioware or other, people were militant in their choice to have her afforded equal representation in the game. Going so far as to create a new cover that could be reversed to show a female Shepard on the cover.
And it's surprising, because you think of the time, money, and other development hurdles faced trying to accommodate all users. I mean, if only 18% of users are going to experience something, what's the point? And yet, if they don't do it, they get shit on by the vocal minority no?
Jennifer Hale probably took a lot of the voice over budget, then factor in all the cgi work needed for femshep in the main campaign, all the dlc and less than 18% of people used her.
Thoughts? Makes you wonder if the next game will largely remove some of the player customization? I mean they hated that they put themselves in a corner with the mass effect 2 ending, and had to account for like 10 different scenarios if certain squad mates were dead, if the next game, they focus on a single character, single class etc. Thoughts?
And it's surprising, because you think of the time, money, and other development hurdles faced trying to accommodate all users. I mean, if only 18% of users are going to experience something, what's the point? And yet, if they don't do it, they get shit on by the vocal minority no?
Jennifer Hale probably took a lot of the voice over budget, then factor in all the cgi work needed for femshep in the main campaign, all the dlc and less than 18% of people used her.
Thoughts? Makes you wonder if the next game will largely remove some of the player customization? I mean they hated that they put themselves in a corner with the mass effect 2 ending, and had to account for like 10 different scenarios if certain squad mates were dead, if the next game, they focus on a single character, single class etc. Thoughts?
She
dead. Either goo in ME2, or during the Citadel attack in ME3.
CharmingCharlie
Member
Not surprising really, Maleshep is default and that gives the gender a huge boost. Not to mention for 2 games it was nothing but maleshep in the advertising (only made a big thing of femshep in ME 3).
Hell when I first started playing ME 1 I didn't have any idea you could play femshep. It wasn't till ME 2 that I discovered you could play femshep and so I went back to ME 1 and did the whole game again as a femshep.
As for the background of Shepard that was always pretty meaningless. It never really mattered whether Shepard was a colonist or a spacer or an orphan at best you got a brief acknowledgement of it that is all.
She can still survive the attack in ME3 though.
If you take time to listen to everything people has to say, be it your squadmates or random people, in your apartment or outside, it could take you a whole evening to do. I remember starting at 6pm the first time, and i was still not done with it at midnight, although i did stop a few times to read some things outside of the game.
But since you hate the game, i wouldnt say its absolutely worth it for you, even if its one(or even THE best) of the best DLC of the series.
Dacon
Banned
....How did you miss the option to play as a male or female. It was the first thing I noticed and changed.
The default character option is male soldier.
If you take time to listen to everything people has to say, be it your squadmates or random people, in your apartment or outside, it could take you a whole evening to do. I remember starting at 6pm the first time, and i was still not done with it at midnight, although i did stop a few times to read some things outside of the game.
But since you hate the game, i wouldnt say its absolutely worth it for you, even if its one(or even THE best) of the best DLC of the series.
I asked because probably the only thing that was done well in ME3 are some of the interactions with squad members. It was cool going back to the normandy after every mission and exploring the ship for new conversations or listening in on two people talking.
Since this DLC seems to mostly be more of that, and good apparently, it has my interest. The asking price is a little high though so I want to make sure I'm not going to walk in on another Omega, 2 hours of nothing but combat almost.
Necron
Member
I sometimes wonder this myself. It's a great feature in Bioware's titles to have both male and female characters. I hope they can keep it that way for their future games.
CharmingCharlie
Member
Just one of those peeps that go with the ole defaults. It's probably one of the reasons soldier is the most popular player class (it is the default one). Hell it never even entered my head you could play a different gender in the game. Nearly all the other games I played had little to no customization of the character.
I honestly believe one of the key reasons why femshep is not as "popular" is down to the fact the vast majority of gamers don't even know she exists. Obviously femshep is never going to be as popular as maleshep but if people knew she existed she would be doing better than 18%.
On another note, Chris Tweeted this mini-revelation :-
Chris Priestly said:
https://twitter.com/BioEvilChris/status/315526349076955136
I honestly believe certain people in charge of ME 3 really lost touch with the universe in the final game. I don't even like Tali that much but to not have her in a ME game is unthinkable.
Doublesith
Member
What he meant was that Tali wasn't going to be a squad member, not that she wasn't going to be in it at all.
Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
Okay, just beat through the missions, and stopped before the party to make a save.
First off, the whole thing is cheese, pure and simple.
But it's got that nostalgic Bioware back-and-forth between the party members that I really, really missed with the ramped-up urgency of ME3's main story. It does still have a fair amount of background or lite-dialogue, but it's there in leaps and droves.
Likewise, the story is pretty lol-worthy, but I did find myself missing those kind of moments that were found a lot more in ME and ME2, and enjoyed having them back.
Played around in the armax arena for a bit, it's got some decent cred rewards for single player version of the multi.
All in all, definitely helped get over the ending fiasco a bit for me. Still sad that Bioware didn't utilize this as a post-DLC ending, but with what constraints they had, I enjoyed the allusion to it being just that.
As long as you don't mind the party-cheese or Die Hard storyline, it's an awesome piece of content.
First off, the whole thing is cheese, pure and simple.
But it's got that nostalgic Bioware back-and-forth between the party members that I really, really missed with the ramped-up urgency of ME3's main story. It does still have a fair amount of background or lite-dialogue, but it's there in leaps and droves.
Likewise, the story is pretty lol-worthy, but I did find myself missing those kind of moments that were found a lot more in ME and ME2, and enjoyed having them back.
Played around in the armax arena for a bit, it's got some decent cred rewards for single player version of the multi.
All in all, definitely helped get over the ending fiasco a bit for me. Still sad that Bioware didn't utilize this as a post-DLC ending, but with what constraints they had, I enjoyed the allusion to it being just that.
As long as you don't mind the party-cheese or Die Hard storyline, it's an awesome piece of content.
Dacon
Banned
Ive never gone with character defaults in any game with customization options. It defeats the purpose having those options to begin with imo.
I just can't see how someone wouldnt at least notice that you had the option to change the sex. I also find it even harder to believe that anyone could be unaware of femsheps existence, especially at this point. She's been a big part of the fandom and Bioware did their part to get the word out about her in ME3. Just my opinion I guess.
Half, or maybe 60-70% of the DLC is about interacting with your crew and having fun with them, so i say go for it. Just... don't take the main story seriously, because the DLC never take itself seriously, there is a joke at almost every scene or two.
Lots of replay value though, hell, i'm on my 4th playthrough, and there is still some new things i've missed since there is differences depending if someone is missing or not, if you romanced someone, if you took a relaxing party or not, who you take during combat, etc.
CharmingCharlie
Member
The vast majority of games I play do not have a customization option. In reality the ability to customize the main protagonist is extremely rare. Generally you play the character that is presented in front of you. I know customization is big in the RPG world but I was never that big a fan of RPG games when I first started playing ME 1.
As for Bioware pushing femshep, no they didn't not really. Sure they did a nice couple of things, we got a couple of femshep trailers a few screenshots here and there. However when the casuals came across promotional stuff for ME it nearly always featured John Shepard (because he had become the face of Mass Effect).
Yes Femshep is a fan favourite (hell I love femshep to bits) but for the casuals that make up the bulk of the game playing public the sad truth is most probably don't even know that femshep exists.
Dacon
Banned
Character customization isn't a new thing or rare for WRPGs, MMOs and a few action games.
My point is they got the word out about her and it's not some big secret that she exists.
That's pure supposition. You have no actual basis for this conclusion other than your gut feeling. Is Mass effect even that popular among casuals? Anyone who visits a gaming board and has the faintest interest in Mass Effect is going to know about femshep simply because she gets talked about so much.
CharmingCharlie
Member
Yes I know that is why I said "I know customization is big in the RPG world" but it is still incredibly rare with mainstream titles that casuals play.
My point is they DIDN'T the only people that knew about the femshep trailer were femshep fans. The trailer and femshep stuff was fan service for those that already liked femshep. The main stream advertising was still done with male shep when Mass Effect 3 was advertised on telly it was Male Shep, advertisements in mags again maleshep.
You assume most casuals visit gaming boards. The vast majority that bought and played Mass Effect 3 will be from the "oh cool look a new mass effect is in stock in my games shop I must buy that" (naturally all the promotional gear in the store will have been Male shep).
We could ping pong this back and forth all night if you want. I personally believe the fact femshep is so under utilized is a direct result of the lack of promotion she was given throughout the series (hell ME 1 and 2 they did literally nothing for femshep).
Can you please stop spreading lies if you don't know the answer?
She's very much not that in my playthrough...
Uh what. If anything, femshep was hyped more than male Shepard. You can deny it all you want, but Jennifer Hale got the accolades and nominations for voice, not Mark Meer.
It's simple, this is now two games, both Mass Effect 2 and now Mass Effect 3, where 18% or less of players played as femshep. She was under utilized for a reason.
And you may have a point that it's a result of Mass effect 1, and it's to be expected. But then, why waste all that time and resources for something that ultimately didn't matter to a lot of players? Isn't it a chicken and the egg scenario?
And if the only people that knew about femshep were fans or people who visit IGN, kotaku or BSN, then what does that tell you about the people who really play the game?
Anyways, just thought it was interesting. Should make somewhat of a difference with how they approach Mass Effect 4.
Dacon
Banned
You assume they don't, you're also generalizing a huge audience without any sort of concrete support for that stance to begin with. So you're familiar with every person who bought Mass Effect 3 and their knowledge of the game beforehand? Right.
Your beliefs are based on faulty supposition. I played ME1 first playthrough as femshep WITHOUT needing anyone to point out the fact that she existed. It's kind of silly to assume that would be some sort of rare occurrence.
APZonerunner
Member
Isn't the first menu you see in all three games once you start a game asking you if you want male or female? It certainly is in ME1, which I just recently replayed. It's literally impossible to miss. In ME1 the buttons on start up read "Quick Start Male, Quick Start Female, Detailed Start Male, Detailed Start Female" - so Male had no advantage other than being on the box. And being on the box didn't stop some 80% of ME2 players customizing their Shepard's face.
The thing they've clearly got better at is class diversifying - the ME1 quick start was a Solider. That resulted in a lot of people going soldier. I think Bioware said in the past ME1 playthroughs were like 70%+ soldier - to see the other classes gaining as much as they have is great.
The Tali thing isn't much of a revelation. They said it before somewhere, maybe in Final Hours. It makes sense, really - the Quarian/Geth stuff is super late game, and I was surprised she joined the squad, really. I expected her to pull a Wrex and remain with her people as an expert. I think she's a great character, but I wouldn't have been upset if she hadn't made the cut.
The thing they've clearly got better at is class diversifying - the ME1 quick start was a Solider. That resulted in a lot of people going soldier. I think Bioware said in the past ME1 playthroughs were like 70%+ soldier - to see the other classes gaining as much as they have is great.
The Tali thing isn't much of a revelation. They said it before somewhere, maybe in Final Hours. It makes sense, really - the Quarian/Geth stuff is super late game, and I was surprised she joined the squad, really. I expected her to pull a Wrex and remain with her people as an expert. I think she's a great character, but I wouldn't have been upset if she hadn't made the cut.
The_Hitcher89
Member
I'm not sure where else to ask this without bumping, so here goes
1) Does the PS3 disc version of ME3 come with the Extended Edition on disc?
2) Is Citadel post-game, so can I complete ME3, wait for a price drop on Citadel and then jump straight in with my completed save-file?
3) Are Leviathon, From Ashes and Citadel the pieces of ME3 DLC worth paying for? (as apparently shady as the first two are)
4) If I went straight into Citadel after ME3, would I lose out on the sense of nostalgia and 'damn, I missed these guys'?
1) Does the PS3 disc version of ME3 come with the Extended Edition on disc?
2) Is Citadel post-game, so can I complete ME3, wait for a price drop on Citadel and then jump straight in with my completed save-file?
3) Are Leviathon, From Ashes and Citadel the pieces of ME3 DLC worth paying for? (as apparently shady as the first two are)
4) If I went straight into Citadel after ME3, would I lose out on the sense of nostalgia and 'damn, I missed these guys'?
1)I don't think the EC come with the disc, you can download it from free though.
2)Citadel DLC can be completed anytime after a certain major event happen there midgame. Once you complete the game, you get send back 2 missions prior to the end though, so it's not really "post-game" even if it acts like an epilogue.
3)Yes they're all worth it imo.
4)Um, not really i guess. Most of us played it after it completing ME3 since its release and we didnt lose any sense of nostalgia.
The_Hitcher89
Member
Cheers
You already answered question 3 when the collection was announced for PS3, was just double-checking
I hope they put him in charge as lead writer of the next one.
Irobot82
Member
Whuh. Tali is the best. How can she be unpopular?
Uno Venova
Banned
A lot of people really play mass effect wrong.
LightofRohan
Member
That's clearly a lie since 50% of gamers are females! (that's such bs...)
I think I would have been. Not because of having a fetish for Tali but just because I was used to having a Quarian as a possible teammate (in ME she was nearly an ever present due to my character being crap with electronics).
Same goes for Wrex/Grunt. I went from ME/ME2 with a Krogan in my squad for nearly half the games to just a DLC option for a couple of missions. That pissed me right off.
It just seems that Bioware just completely lost focus on what made the universe great to begin with. The DLC goes a little way to making up for that but it still leaves a bitter taste
Melchiah
Member
During ME3. I guess they chose wrong.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
thanks
WTH 64% didn't meet Wrex
I had
Mordin and Chakwas alive
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Tali is a bit surprising, but I figure that may have come down to development time or something. In the early days of ME3's development BioWare was noting that Tali and Garrus were the most popular series spanning characters.
FemShep doesn't surprise me in the slightest. We got similar data for ME2, I believe. Folk need to remember that news from the gaming world =/= news outside of forums and the internet. Doesn't really matter how well received Hale and FemShep have been. When the average consumer picks up their copy and goes home, there's probably a high chance they'll play as the dude on the front of all three games, and in all the screenshots and trailers. People like to think that because they feel FemShep is so much better, and people who like FemShep tend to be vocal about such things, that FemShep is very popular. I bet if you did a poll here on GAF you'd find a majority played as Sheploo.
FemShep doesn't surprise me in the slightest. We got similar data for ME2, I believe. Folk need to remember that news from the gaming world =/= news outside of forums and the internet. Doesn't really matter how well received Hale and FemShep have been. When the average consumer picks up their copy and goes home, there's probably a high chance they'll play as the dude on the front of all three games, and in all the screenshots and trailers. People like to think that because they feel FemShep is so much better, and people who like FemShep tend to be vocal about such things, that FemShep is very popular. I bet if you did a poll here on GAF you'd find a majority played as Sheploo.
thanks
WTH 64% didn't meet Wrex
I think it has to do with how most ppl started playing ME with ME2.
I just finished the Citadel. I'm honestly sitting here feeling pretty nostalgic and sad that it was the last time I'll see those characters.
What a fantastic piece of DLC. It's honestly my favorite DLC I've ever played. I would play a whole game like that. I laughed so many times. Some of the best parts of Bioware games are the characters and this brought them center stage. I've always wondered what things would be like just shooting the shit with RPG characters. This was like a dream come true.
What a wonderful way to say goodbye.
What a fantastic piece of DLC. It's honestly my favorite DLC I've ever played. I would play a whole game like that. I laughed so many times. Some of the best parts of Bioware games are the characters and this brought them center stage. I've always wondered what things would be like just shooting the shit with RPG characters. This was like a dream come true.
What a wonderful way to say goodbye.
Melchiah
Member
Yeah, soldier dude-bro for the win. I just can't understand today's gamers. The male voice actor is just so mediocre compared to the female one, and to think most of the players went with soldier with guns blazing. CoD generation in all its glory, I guess.
Perhaps it's just me, but I can't comprehend who can relate with the default male Shepard. The game would have been far worse for me, if I had been forced to play with him.
Yep just finished it too. Felt the same way. Really glad I played this. My impressions of the series had lowered after ME3's ending a bit. Though after AC3 it had risen a little.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I'm more or less the same. Mostly though I feel FemShep is (maybe even unintentionally) one of the most positively written female protagonists in the entire medium, one that remains relatively gender neutral and avoids the trappings of male fantasies and other tropes that tend to result from average male writers penning women.
The_Hitcher89
Member
I played as a customised male-Shep
I also went with Soldier because I thought the extra guns would be useful, and the game did nothing to tell you how useful biotics and tech would be
Melchiah
Member
She always seemed like a mix of Babylon 5's Sheridan and Delenn for me, and the game itself was the closest I could ever have hoped for being able to play in a universe like B5. (Oh, how I wish I could have said "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" to the starchild). I just wish there will be an opportunity to play as fem-whatever in the next Bioware game, considering her unpopularity.
I went with Vanguard myself, because it was recommended to me somewhere, I don't remember where, or by whom. I sometimes wished I had chosen Engineer or Sentinel, but Vanguard was pretty effective in certain occasions, excluding some boss battles, like in the end of ME2.
Metroidvania
People called Romanes they go the house?
Well, to be fair, she doesn't really have a whole lot tendencies/lines that I can think of off-hand that distinguish her from her male counterpart, as Shep is pretty gender-neutral to begin with. Been a while since my Sheploo run, so I'm probably missing some differences. Definitely enjoyed Hale's performance moreso than Meers' tho.
(One thing that does come to mind is man-strutting down the Normandy in that little black dress in ME2 and her running animation in ME3. Pretty lol-worthy at times)
Echo the curious lack of ending data sentiments, but since people replay those if anything to see what the 'differences' are, I'm sure that data is probably skewed with the whole no EC/EC/Leviathan and other modifiers to picking a 'final' ending, and the original ending pick has super limited info on what would actually happen, so players weren't informed, etc...in addition to salting old wounds, I suppose.
That's been one of Bioware's keystones since a looong while back. I'm pretty sure they won't be taking it out any time soon for one of their more traditional 'blank-slate' player characters. Maybe if they take a Bioshock Infinite route and give the protagonist a much more fleshed out story, but they haven't really shown signs of that yet.
Just finished the Citadel DLC. Simply worth the $15. So much bloody content packed into it, plus the majority of the content is chilling with my bros, instead of shooting at shit. I was in constant laughter throughout the DLC. All that lovely fanservice, particularly with the interaction between Shepard and Miranda (who I romanced in the prior title). This was the perfect sendoff to the Mass Effect trilogy.
This DLC gives me hope for the future of the franchise. If the quality of Mass Effect 4 can reach Citadel level, I will probably return to the franchise on day one.
This DLC gives me hope for the future of the franchise. If the quality of Mass Effect 4 can reach Citadel level, I will probably return to the franchise on day one.