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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow

Galactic Fork

A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
The fresh reactions never get old...lol

Welcome aboard

I liked earlier in the thread when they'd first say, "It wasn't good but I don't get all the hate... Well, I'm off to see the other endings." Then they come back with the correct reaction.
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I liked earlier in the thread when they'd first say, "It wasn't good but I don't get all the hate... Well, I'm off to see the other endings." Then they come back with the correct reaction.

Or seeing them in the other ME3 saying "haters gonna hate" until they reach the end. Some simply just stop posting. Most ended up here going "my bad."
 

RDreamer

Member
The ME3 ending seems to have had an unforeseen consequence. Every time I boot up anything story driven I go why bother and just shut it off. I'm staring at my steam list of 200 games and I don't want to start any of them.

ME3 has me saying "Why bother," to some other games, too, but it's more like "Why bother, this probably won't be as awesome as ME3 was."

Oh well, I need to press on. I did start Nier, and that's going well so far.
 
The ME3 ending seems to have had an unforeseen consequence. Every time I boot up anything story driven I go why bother and just shut it off. I'm staring at my steam list of 200 games and I don't want to start any of them.

Play The Witcher 2. Your choices have actual *gasp* consequences!

DA3's already announced.

Wiki:

On March 19, 2012, nearly two weeks after BioWare released its latest game Mass Effect 3 and the first anniversary of Dragon Age II, Executive Producer Mark Darrah officially confirmed the game's development on the BioWare forums. On the post, Darrah said that the team is focusing their attention towards Dragon Age III, asking fans to give their opinions on what they want to see in the next installment.[3]

I guess they're already ahead with the feeback.

Oh, I know, but if you read the actual forum post Darrah never flat out says its Dragon Age 3. I mean, thats what they're working on of course, but they haven't officially announced it or officially revealed anything on it yet. They're in the idiotic stage of game development where everybody knows what they're working on but for some stupid reason they won't just say that they're working on DA3, they're just saying "The Next Big Thing" and acting all coy.
 
My Shep's reaction to the ending:
qSbHe.jpg


I think one of the things I hate hearing about the most is that people didn't want the "sad" ending and that by killing Shep is way more artsy and whatnot.

I don't have any problem with Shep kicking the bucket, but I have a problem with HOW it was done. If Shep sacrificed himself in a way I understood I would be totally cool with it.

-Becoming one with the Reapers and burning up his body? Sure, that makes sense.
-Blowing up Reapers + Synthetics? Sure, explosions are a satisfying way to go (except he survives or something, lol)
-Combining Synthetics and organics (the one I chose)? I'm way less clear about why this should kill him. What is the process that's going to do this synthesis? Why do I need to completely vaporize Shep to activate it? Couldn't he cut a finger off and throw it in if it needs DNA? LOTS OF SPECULATION!
 

Moaradin

Member
Eh, Witcher 2's ending didn't really matter much either, but at least it didn't fuck up the whole series. ME3 has a ton of consequences also. The Geth vs. Quarians was probably the biggest choice in the ME series. Everything prior to the ending played out great and you could feel your choices making an impact. Problem is they threw away everything during the last 10 minutes.
 

- J - D -

Member
The ME3 ending seems to have had an unforeseen consequence. Every time I boot up anything story driven I go why bother and just shut it off. I'm staring at my steam list of 200 games and I don't want to start any of them.

It's actually had an opposite effect on me. I'm diving into the series again, books, comics, anything to reaffirm to myself that I can still love this franchise.

I think my brain is regressing to 2007.

...the wait for Binary Domain pc is going to be hard. Don't have anything else to play atm.
 

RDreamer

Member
You can't comprehend how someone could love the game? Say what you will about the ending, but the game was pretty magnificent throughout. I honestly had a ton of fun playing it, and it was an experience I won't forget. I honestly do think a lot of other games will fail to live up to the experience of fulfilling some of those story arcs at some of those points throughout ME3. It'll likely be one of my favorite games of all time.

Sorry the ending ruined the game for you, but I still love it despite plot holes an such.
 
You can't comprehend how someone could love the game? Say what you will about the ending, but the game was pretty magnificent throughout. I honestly had a ton of fun playing it, and it was an experience I won't forget. I honestly do think a lot of other games will fail to live up to the experience of fulfilling some of those story arcs at some of those points throughout ME3. It'll likely be one of my favorite games of all time.

Sorry the ending ruined the game for you, but I still love it despite plot holes an such.
The entire time I played, I thought ME3 was pretty mediocre, and not as good as either ME1 or 2. The only thing that could have salvaged it would have been a satisfying endgame (and by this, I don't just mean ending).

FAIL
 
You can't comprehend how someone could love the game? Say what you will about the ending, but the game was pretty magnificent throughout. I honestly had a ton of fun playing it, and it was an experience I won't forget. I honestly do think a lot of other games will fail to live up to the experience of fulfilling some of those story arcs at some of those points throughout ME3. It'll likely be one of my favorite games of all time.

Sorry the ending ruined the game for you, but I still love it despite plot holes an such.

It fulfilled the story arcs, then killed everyone involved in the story arcs.

I'd have a much better opinion of the game if they just left the "oh btw, relays are gone" thing out of the ending. It'd drop the ending from "killed franchise" to just "really stupid".
 
The entire time I played, I thought ME3 was pretty mediocre, and not as good as either ME1 or 2. The only thing that could have salvaged it would have been a satisfying endgame (and by this, I don't just mean ending).

FAIL

But that doesn't mean that other people couldn't like it. Please don't be melodramatic when writing your opinion. Words have meanings.

I thought the ending was horrible, too, but that doesn't mean only my opinion is correct.
 
I thought ME3 was my least favorite game in the series even before the ending. This whole ending controversy has kind of given the game a free pass for all its other flaws.
 

Karl2177

Member
My Shep's reaction to the ending:
qSbHe.jpg


I think one of the things I hate hearing about the most is that people didn't want the "sad" ending and that by killing Shep is way more artsy and whatnot.

I don't have any problem with Shep kicking the bucket, but I have a problem with HOW it was done. If Shep sacrificed himself in a way I understood I would be totally cool with it.

-Becoming one with the Reapers and burning up his body? Sure, that makes sense.
-Blowing up Reapers + Synthetics? Sure, explosions are a satisfying way to go (except he survives or something, lol)
-Combining Synthetics and organics (the one I chose)? I'm way less clear about why this should kill him. What is the process that's going to do this synthesis? Why do I need to completely vaporize Shep to activate it? Couldn't he cut a finger off and throw it in if it needs DNA? LOTS OF SPECULATION!

Shepard thinks his Asari lover Liara was cheating on him with his pilot, Jeff. Well, the tests are in!
irX4flm4x2ka1.jpg
 
I thought Mass Effect 3 was a letdown too, even if I forgive the ending. The only hub in the game was an annoying timesink with hardly any fully-interactive NPCs. Overall, far too much dialog is conveyed ambiently with no input from the player. And with very few exceptions, sidequests were stripped down to eavesdropping on random characters, then fetching an item through the most tedious mechanic from ME2, planet scanning. Most other sidequests were taken directly from the multiplayer maps. The game just feels rushed to me.

Honestly, I've seen more glitches in Mass Effect 3 than in either of the previous games. I got stuck in the Normandy bridge and had to reload my save at least 3 or 4 times.
 
Honestly, I've seen more glitches in Mass Effect 3 than in either of the previous games. I got stuck in the Normandy bridge and had to reload my save at least 3 or 4 times.

That happened to me in all three games. Probably most often in ME1.

I liked the way it happened to me in ME3 though, cause I didn't get stuck "in" anything, just behind the counter in the embassy. As if Shepard gave up his quest to stop the reapers to be a receptionist.
 
I thought ME3 was my least favorite game in the series even before the ending. This whole ending controversy has kind of given the game a free pass for all its other flaws.

Winner right here.

The ending is so catastrophically bad that people have glossed over serious flaws such as the near complete removal of player agency with the heavy automation of dialogue, how every quest in the game involves shooting a gun (nothing like Thane or Samara's loyalty quest at all in ME3), the lulzworthy journal system, ME2 characters being limited to cameo roles at best, etc.

Funny in retrospect how BioWare hyped the return of RPG elements in ME3 when it turns out ME2 featured more opportunities for player input after all.
 
Winner right here.

The ending is so catastrophically bad that people have glossed over serious flaws such as the near complete removal of player agency with the heavy automation of dialogue, how every quest in the game involves shooting a gun (nothing like Thane or Samara's loyalty quest at all in ME3), the lulzworthy journal system, ME2 characters being limited to cameo roles at best, etc.

Funny in retrospect how BioWare hyped the return of RPG elements in ME3 when it turns out ME2 featured more opportunities for player input after all.

Even though I still like ME3, this is all true. The departures from the norm in Thane's and Samara's loyalty missions felt like a breath of fresh air. And the lack of dialogue options was annoying and was heightened in the "conversation" with the Catalyst. And then journal was pretty useless in this game.
 
You can't comprehend how someone could love the game? Say what you will about the ending, but the game was pretty magnificent throughout. I honestly had a ton of fun playing it, and it was an experience I won't forget. I honestly do think a lot of other games will fail to live up to the experience of fulfilling some of those story arcs at some of those points throughout ME3. It'll likely be one of my favorite games of all time.

I love it too! In fact, I'm a very forgiving ME player, and was more than able to overlook the problems with the plot and gameplay that crept up in ME1 and ME2. Nothing is perfect, as they say. I still rank this series as one of my favourite all time.

I'm not sure about your speculative point though. How many other games have actually failed to do fulfil story lines? Mass Effect's story arcs were not complex or convoluted by any means - completing them would have been a cinch.
 
Winner right here.

The ending is so catastrophically bad that people have glossed over serious flaws such as the near complete removal of player agency with the heavy automation of dialogue, how every quest in the game involves shooting a gun (nothing like Thane or Samara's loyalty quest at all in ME3), the lulzworthy journal system, ME2 characters being limited to cameo roles at best, etc.

Funny in retrospect how BioWare hyped the return of RPG elements in ME3 when it turns out ME2 featured more opportunities for player input after all.
+1

Additionally, ME3 tries to be mostly an action game (partially because of the tacked on multiplayer mode), and so "improved" its combat mechanics. They are perhaps "improved" by Mass Effect standards, but still mediocre at best.
 

Omega

Banned
Mass Effect was never an RPG. I'm probably one of the biggest fans of this series and I've known this since the first game.

It's been a shooter with RPG elements since the first game. Shooting mechanics were always mediocre, but this game has always felt like a shooter with RPG elements instead of an RPG with shooter elements. This is coming from someone that played adept every game.

Sidequests in every ME have flaws. Even though on all 20+ of my playthroughs, I did almost 70+ assignments in ME1, they were all extremely boring and repetitive. There were only three different types of quests with just different enemies. ME2 sidequests were pointless "scan this planet, do some 10 minute mission" and every mission was just flat out boring anyway. I didn't enjoy one mission..epecially the loyalty missions. Thane and Samara's loyalty quests are pretty much the only two missions in the first two MEs that don't involve shooting a gun, but you want to give ME3 shit for that?

Each game has flaws and you can nitpick the shit out of all of them. I can sit here for days nitpicking ME2 and explain why it's such a piece of shit game.
 

Zeal

Banned
The ending really has messed with my ability to enjoy new games, too. I find myself turning on newer and even older games and trying to play them, only to let them sit a while and then eventually turn them off.

I just feel the ending of ME3 is a 'wrong' that needs to be 'righted' and I can't really enjoy anything until that happens. Never really been affected by a game like this before and it's kinda embarrassing.

Sigh.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Winner right here.

The ending is so catastrophically bad that people have glossed over serious flaws such as the near complete removal of player agency with the heavy automation of dialogue, how every quest in the game involves shooting a gun (nothing like Thane or Samara's loyalty quest at all in ME3), the lulzworthy journal system, ME2 characters being limited to cameo roles at best, etc.

Funny in retrospect how BioWare hyped the return of RPG elements in ME3 when it turns out ME2 featured more opportunities for player input after all.

Went into Mass Effect 3 expecting an action orientated third person shooter with an RPG stat/upgrade system bolted on, a hub or two, and a handful of optional non-story missions.

I figure a lot of people did too. And still enjoyed it.

This "everybody is glossing over the real problems because of the ending" shit is absurd.
 

Zomba13

Member
Went into Mass Effect 3 expecting an action orientated third person shooter with an RPG stat/upgrade system bolted on, a hub or two, and a handful of optional non-story missions.

I figure a lot of people did too. And still enjoyed it.


This "everybody is glossing over the real problems because of the ending" shit is absurd.

Same. I was disappointed by the side missions though. I didn't mind them in ME2 because they were still missions. The ones in ME3 were either fetch quests you completed by scanning a planet or multiplayer map like missions (find the thingies and hold out for evac).

The rest of the game though was very enjoyable, especially the increased RPGness from ME2. The main problem apart from the ending is the opening. I expected that something would have been added at the start going by the demo. I thought we'd get a trial or something explaining why Shep was grounded or have a chance to defend our actions in ME2/Arrival.
 

thetechkid

Member
Same. I was disappointed by the side missions though. I didn't mind them in ME2 because they were still missions. The ones in ME3 were either fetch quests you completed by scanning a planet or multiplayer map like missions (find the thingies and hold out for evac).

The rest of the game though was very enjoyable, especially the increased RPGness from ME2. The main problem apart from the ending is the opening. I expected that something would have been added at the start going by the demo. I thought we'd get a trial or something explaining why Shep was grounded or have a chance to defend our actions in ME2/Arrival.

They felt bad, the fetch quests that made you scan a world were even less enjoyable than mining for me. And the multiplayer map quests felt like they didn't even try, they just took the map and used it twice, added 2 seconds of dialog, and called it a day.
 

NZNova

Member
I was kinda pissed about the ending too, until I listened to the latest PC Gamer podcast. I kinda like the points that they made.

Sure, the galaxy is pretty much fucked following the ending, the Mass Relays are fucked out, the victory fleet is stranded in Sol, a tenuous alliance between previously hostile factions was brokered by someone who is now dead, and they have to find a way to work together to either repair the mass relay network, build a replacement, or develop some other form of technology to remove the need for it.

All of this is incentivised by the fact that the fleet can't last forever in Sol due to crowding, tension between the factions, and a lack of food and supplies. So, someone has to step up and get the fleet to work together to resolve this immediate, pressing problem, hold back the inevitable splinter factions that will push against this delicate status quo, and stop the war that is coming before it starts. Shepard the great uniter is dead, and the threat of the Reapers is gone, as is the alliance of necessity that defeating them required, what's going to stop everything from falling apart and descending into chaos and war?

Sounds like a really cool setup for the next trilogy to me... the Krogans decide they want to make Mars the next Tuchanka, settle on there and start breeding like crazy. The Salarians start work on a ship that can travel between systems without the need for a mass relay, and the Quarians want a piece of it to get back to their newly claimed homeworld. The human population is pushing for some breathing room to recover their devastated world from the Reaper onslaught, the Turians are getting twitchy on the trigger with the Krogans breeding on Mars...

Meanwhile the various elements still out in other parts of the galaxy have started to bond together in interesting ways given that everyone is stranded, and in your travels to find a solution to this huge problem you come across colonies where racial divisions have disappeared through necessity alone and differences in ideology instead have become the new dividing line. Gosh, there's a whole lot of potential for "OK, what happens now? How does the galaxy move on in the post-reaper era?"
 
Went into Mass Effect 3 expecting an action orientated third person shooter with an RPG stat/upgrade system bolted on, a hub or two, and a handful of optional non-story missions.

I figure a lot of people did too. And still enjoyed it.

I went into Mass Effect 3 thinking things wouldn't be scaled back any further than Mass Effect 2 and I was wrong.
 
I kinda like the point that they made in the latest PC Gamer podcast. Sure, the galaxy is pretty much fucked following the ending, the Mass Relays are fucked out, the victory fleet is stranded in Sol, a tenuous alliance between previously hostile factions was brokered by someone who is now dead, and they have to find a way to work together to either repair the mass relay network, build a replacement, or develop some other form of technology to remove the need for it.

All of this is incentivised by the fact that the fleet can't last forever in Sol due to crowding, tension between the factions, and a lack of food and supplies. So, someone has to step up and get the fleet to work together to resolve this immediate, pressing problem, hold back the inevitable splinter factions that will push against this delicate status quo, and stop the war that is coming before it starts.

Sounds like a really cool setup for the next trilogy to me... the Krogans decide they want to make Mars the next Tuchanka, settle on there and start breeding like crazy. The Salarians start work on a ship that can travel between systems without the need for a mass relay, and the Quarians want a piece of it to get back to their newly claimed homeworld. The human population is pushing for some breathing room to recover their devastated world from the Reaper onslaught, the Turians are getting twitchy on the trigger with the Krogans breeding on Mars... Meanwhile the various elements still out in other parts of the galaxy have started to bond together in interesting ways given that everyone is stranded, and in your travels to find a solution to this huge problem you come across colonies where racial divisions have disappeared through necessity alone and differences in ideology instead have become the new dividing line. Gosh, there's a whole lot of potential for "OK, what happens now? How does the galaxy move on in the post-reaper era?"

Only problem I'd have with it, is there's no way they could do that without saying "ok, these people survived/died/etc no matter what you did in ME2 or 3" about a lot of Shepards allies and entire races.

Not that they had any problem doing that from DA:O to DA2, so, yeah...
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
^ That's such a loaded term.

The ending really has messed with my ability to enjoy new games, too. I find myself turning on newer and even older games and trying to play them, only to let them sit a while and then eventually turn them off.

I just feel the ending of ME3 is a 'wrong' that needs to be 'righted' and I can't really enjoy anything until that happens. Never really been affected by a game like this before and it's kinda embarrassing.

Sigh.
I've felt a bit similar. However, days have passed, and I've tried to play some other games -- Deus Ex to be precise. However, I think I'm burned out. I played ME3 exhaustively for a week, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I hadn't played anything else before it, except for Alan Wake, which I would consider a mysterious and strange series of events. That, while entertaining, are also frustrating and uninteresting. The DLC-entitled ending didn't help matters.

I guess I've been falling out of gaming for a while. After this, I think I'm going to play less and less. I still want to finish The Witcher, but I get bored.

Only problem I'd have with it, is there's no way they could do that without saying "ok, these people survived/died/etc no matter what you did in ME2 or 3" about a lot of Shepards allies and entire races.

Not that they had any problem doing that from DA:O to DA2, so, yeah...
Mass Shafted, motherfuckers! Hold on to your butts!
 
"But if one part of the Bible isn't true, it all must not be true!"

Bad analogy, I know.



Watch out, fellas, Internet Badass over here.



What game did you play?

People having rock bottom expectations isn't my problem. I'm sure there are some who went into Final Fantasy 13 expecting a 30-hour corridor with occasional battles thrown in and had a great time. It's not like my expectations were crazy unreasonable either.

And I played Mass Effect 3, the game with slightly improved combat mechanics at the expense of a lot of other things.
 

Coxswain

Member
ME3 felt like a Bioware game.

Pretty much.

The complaint about auto-advancing dialogue in particular kind of makes me laugh, especially when it's contrasted against the rest of the franchise. That's been in the series since the first game, only instead of the conversation just flowing naturally, they would make you choose between three options on the dialogue wheel that all resulted in Shepard saying the same line.


You can go back to Baldur's Gate 1, and you'll never find a Bioware RPG with non-combat RPG elements that are worth talking about. Mechanically-speaking, Bioware games are their combat systems, and ME3 is a vast improvement over both of the previous games in the franchise.
 

dominuece

Member
I know it has mentioned to death, but Bioware ruined that ending. I thought they were going to show so much more. I could list off things, but like I said, it all has been mentioned. Also, how come the Reapers couldn't take an island? Also, also, I think destroying all of those mass relays does more damage than the Reapers could ever do.
 
So what did everyone else think of the remaining 98% of the game? I.e. the bits BEFORE the last 10 minutes?

I thought the game was excellent but i had a few small bugs glitches which really needed to be fixed

1) the Journal Screen - tell me which part ive done and when ive done it. Fallout's/Skyrim's system is a lot better than this. There were so many times when ive forgotten if i have picked up the item needed and if it was fine to return now.

2) The randomness of bringing up the journal screen - sometimes its all the way down, half way down, sometimes its two tabs across - it changes which order ive viewed things in.

3) MP Glitches - had quite a few MP glitches so far. Ammo not picking up, not being able to resuscitate people.

Thought the rest was excellent however. Really enjoying my 2nd playthrough (insanity run) right now.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
People having rock bottom expectations isn't my problem. I'm sure there are some who went into Final Fantasy 13 expecting a 30-hour corridor with occasional battles thrown in and had a great time. It's not like my expectations were crazy unreasonable either.

And I played Mass Effect 3, the game with slightly improved combat mechanics at the expense of a lot of other things.

What you call rock bottom expectations, I call shaped, or accurate, expectations. I went in expecting the experience I've come to like from Mass Effect, and I got it. I don't play the franchise because I want to play Baldur's Gate: Space Adventures. I play it because it's a sloshy action shooter with minimalistic RPG elements bolted on, with enjoyable characters and dialogue. I got what I wanted.
 
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