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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
You buy a shiny new foil pack of items you don't need and probably don't get that shiny new sword. It's the EA Ultimate Team system.

Grind tomb/find unique monster to find chest/corpse that may or may not drop a useful weapon/armour/trinket.

ME3's booster packs are clearly designed around exploiting addictive play, exactly like booster packs for card games, and in typical EA fashion they tether real monetary value to the packs to milk as much cash from wilfully paying users as possible. But the actual system itself? I don't really see anything wrong with it, no more than Valve's item/hat store, nor random loot drops in an RPG.
 

dmg04

#DEADWRONG
J1lcn.jpg

Credit to Butane123
 
If you see the "best" ending, he DOES wake up on earth.

People always say this, that he's waking up at London, but I had absolutely no reaction in that direction. It's just a bunch of rubble as far as I can tell, are we just assuming that he has to be on Earth since it appeared that the Citadel blew up? Or am I missing some key rubble imagery that signifies he's supposedly on Earth?
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Grind tomb/find unique monster to find chest/corpse that may or may not drop a useful weapon/armour/trinket.

ME3's booster packs are clearly designed around exploiting addictive play, exactly like booster packs for card games, and in typical EA fashion they tether real monetary value to the packs to milk as much cash from wilfully paying users as possible. But the actual system itself? I don't really see anything wrong with it, no more than Valve's item/hat store, nor random loot drops in an RPG.
The problem is that there's not enough gameplay to support it. You can play a sports game forever (I guess), but these ME3 maps have boiled down to being played a specific way in order to maximize Gold gain. It's just farming now.

People always say this, that he's waking up at London, but I had absolutely no reaction in that direction. It's just a bunch of rubble as far as I can tell, are we just assuming that he has to be on Earth since it appeared that the Citadel blew up? Or am I missing some key rubble imagery that signifies he's supposedly on Earth?
Where else would she land that would allow her to take a breath?
 
Where else would she land that would allow her to take a breath?

At the time I had just assumed it was in the Catalyst room after things started blowing up, as part of the larger debris from the central chamber and Citadel blowing up (but not disintegrating). Things fell on him, but the surrounding glass bubble or mass effect field stayed intact. Falling back down to Earth, and then being crushed by what would have to be falling debris from space since no buildings would still be falling over is just ridiculous.

That said, I see why people then step to saying indoctrination, but there were no buildings near Shepard when he got zapped running toward the beam, so I see no way he could have been covered up in that scenario either.

Seems far more likely to just be a fan service "Or is he?" treat with no regard to the logic of the situation than a real thing.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
At the time I had just assumed it was in the Catalyst room after things started blowing up, as part of the larger debris from the central chamber and Citadel blowing up (but not disintegrating). Things fell on him, but the surrounding glass bubble or mass effect field stayed intact. Falling back down to Earth, and then being crushed by what would have to be falling debris from space since no buildings would still be falling over is just ridiculous.

That said, I see why people then step to saying indoctrination, but there were no buildings near Shepard when he got zapped running toward the beam, so I see no way he could have been covered up in that scenario either.

Seems far more likely to just be a fan service "Or is he?" treat with no regard to the logic of the situation than a real thing.

That's the problem with the entire ending, so at least that's consistent!
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
That said, I see why people then step to saying indoctrination, but there were no buildings near Shepard when he got zapped running toward the beam, so I see no way he could have been covered up in that scenario either.

Seems far more likely to just be a fan service "Or is he?" treat with no regard to the logic of the situation than a real thing.
That's what I think as well. It's just a small teaser, but at the end of the game.
 
I dont know if its the multiplayer satisfying my thirst/scratching an itch or the ending that punched my enthusiasm for the series in the balls, which has prevented me from replaying SP. The last two i immediately started again twice (uping the diff each time) after my first run through.

While the fun hate train of the past month compels me to say the latter, getting to constantly build characters different from my SP Shep is probably the heart of it. But again, that ending!
 

rozay

Banned
I dont know if its the multiplayer satisfying my thirst/scratching an itch or the ending that killed my enthusiasm, which has prevented me from replaying SP. The last two i immediately started again twice after my first run through.

While the fun hate train of the past month compels me to say the latter, getting to constantly build characters different from my SP Shep is probably the heart of it. But again, that ending!
It's both of those for me.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
ME2 at least works as a series of short stories in the ME universe, 3 replaced that shining light with shooting things in a war zone.

Tbh, thats how ME should have always been. Lots of short stories and encounters across a galaxy. That way its almost impossible to write yourself into a corner like the impending doom plot.
 

Galactic Fork

A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
People always say this, that he's waking up at London, but I had absolutely no reaction in that direction. It's just a bunch of rubble as far as I can tell, are we just assuming that he has to be on Earth since it appeared that the Citadel blew up? Or am I missing some key rubble imagery that signifies he's supposedly on Earth?

The main reason people say it is because the citadel isn't made of concrete and rebar. Plus the texture is the same rubble you see in London.
 
So playing through it again after importing a file where I was partially renegade, I'm kind of surprised by the referencing going on, such as Joker talking about me hanging up on the council and telling Liara this where she's surprised by this fact. Then there Kalisa referencing me punching her out in the first game but not in the second.

Also ended up dumping Chakwas into asset hell and taking Michel with me instead. Wonder how her conversations play out. I remember Chakwas talking to Adams a lot.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
So playing through it again after importing a file where I was partially renegade, I'm kind of surprised by the referencing going on, such as Joker talking about me hanging up on the council and telling Liara this where she's surprised by this fact. Then there Kalisa referencing me punching her out in the first game but not in the second.

Also ended up dumping Chakwas into asset hell and taking Michel with me instead. Wonder how her conversations play out. I remember Chakwas talking to Adams a lot.

I am... extremely saddened by this post.

Extremely saddened.

Why? Why so much details like this... why so much attention like this and then they had the ball to pull off such a shitty ending?
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
So playing through it again after importing a file where I was partially renegade, I'm kind of surprised by the referencing going on, such as Joker talking about me hanging up on the council and telling Liara this where she's surprised by this fact. Then there Kalisa referencing me punching her out in the first game but not in the second.

Also ended up dumping Chakwas into asset hell and taking Michel with me instead. Wonder how her conversations play out. I remember Chakwas talking to Adams a lot.

They have pretty much the same conversations.
 

spekkeh

Banned
So we have the everything is real shitty ending and the indoctrination theory maybe there is no ending. Here's a third one. Shepard actually dies at the hands of Harbinger (or well is mortally wounded) and the last twenty minutes are his death throes.

It begins with Shepard trying to regain control of his own situation and the fight with the reapers, which is personified in the struggle over control with TIM. There's a momentary recovery (he defeats TIM) but then the hopelessness of the situation hits him again. He looks up at the citadel and back at the earth ("it's so.. perfect"). He tries to stay alive talking to Anderson but really to himself ("stay with me, we're almost through this", Anderson tells him "you did good"). Then the crucible doesn't work. Now it could be that this is the last thing he hears over his comm chatter, but personally I always thought the crucible was a metaphor for Shepard himself; the last hope and secret weapon of the galaxy. Then at the end it doesn't deliver on its promise ("I don't see, I'm not sure how to.."). The crucible does nothing, Shepard dies. After his death we get an ascension scene and Shepard meets god. This gives him an hypothetical 'this is how it could have played out', Shepard chooses one, imagines some of his friends may have survived, rests in peace.

I like this ending, I think it will be my canon. Up until friday when Bioware fucks it up of course.
 
I can already do that with my PC. 30FPS. :lol

A Mako with better controls would be nice, however.

Cute.

But I'm thinking a locked 30fps helps give these sort of titles the film like look.

The Mako needs to be heavier, thats about it.
And increase the shield capacity + aiming range. Firing that canon precisely at times is a test of patience.


I played it, there wasn't enough there for me to want to continue playing it.

And my "complaining" was a joke response about how I feel Bioware didn't nail any of those four important aspects.
I thought they handled the Multiplayer really well so far. And those packs that you can EASILY unlock with in game currency, yet also provided a pay for option, really helps alleviate a lot of the production cost (yet not being intrusive). I hope more games stick with this model instead of pay for weapons/characters ect.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
The Mako was excellent. Controlled like a dream.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
One of the best parts of ME2 was the Normandy blowing up, because I knew the Mako was a fiery piece of space rubble.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Cute.

But I'm thinking a locked 30fps helps give these sort of titles the film like look.
48FPS is the future.

So we have the everything is real shitty ending and the indoctrination theory maybe there is no ending. Here's a third one. Shepard actually dies at the hands of Harbinger (or well is mortally wounded) and the last twenty minutes are his death throes.

It begins with Shepard trying to regain control of his own situation and the fight with the reapers, which is personified in the struggle over control with TIM. There's a momentary recovery (he defeats TIM) but then the hopelessness of the situation hits him again. He looks up at the citadel and back at the earth ("it's so.. perfect"). He tries to stay alive talking to Anderson but really to himself ("stay with me, we're almost through this", Anderson tells him "you did good"). Then the crucible doesn't work. Now it could be that this is the last thing he hears over his comm chatter, but personally I always thought the crucible was a metaphor for Shepard himself; the last hope and secret weapon of the galaxy. Then at the end it doesn't deliver on its promise ("I don't see, I'm not sure how to.."). The crucible does nothing, Shepard dies. After his death we get an ascension scene and Shepard meets god. This gives him an hypothetical 'this is how it could have played out', Shepard chooses one, imagines some of his friends may have survived, rests in peace.

I like this ending, I think it will be my canon. Up until friday when Bioware fucks it up of course.
Oh man. This sends me back to the first spoiler thread.

I DON'T WANT YOUR FANFICTION!
 
Tbh, thats how ME should have always been. Lots of short stories and encounters across a galaxy. That way its almost impossible to write yourself into a corner like the impending doom plot.

Yeah, I always wanted the Mass Effect series to use a structure similar to what KOTOR and (to a lesser degree) Dragon Age Origins had.

-Have an overarching, general story (Malak getting a big ass fleet, Darkspawn returning)
-Go to various places, each with it's own contained storyline and sidequests. (planets in KOTOR, races in DA)
-Eventually tie everything back together at the end. (beacons lead to Starforge, races ban together to fight the darkspawn)

This is pretty much the Bioware formula, but the ME series has distilled the various places you go down to pretty much a single action level with some talking and occasionally picking up or reading something that solves a sidequest.

The Citadel and Noveria in Mass Effect 1 was the closest Bioware came to getting it right. I actually do like how the structure of ME2 allowed them to make a TON of different little stories (even if most of them boiled down to shooting lots and lots of dudes).

Hell, I even think Dragon Age 2's method of story telling had potential (same area, different times/events), but the execution was lacking to put it kindly.


They kinda shot themselves in in the foot by having the Reapers invade IMMEDIATELY in ME3. It made all the side stuff you do feel less important in the grand scheme of things, and also forced almost all of the story to be about the Reaper's invading. I did like the somewhat separate Cerberus storyline (why are they super evil now?), but I didn't think that was handled that perfectly either.
 
I absolutely loved the Mako missions/explorations. And my favorite mission in the series is Bring Down the Skies (in terms of layout). But dat bitch needs some tweaking. It was never as apparent until I played ME1 on a harder difficulty just recently... yeesh!
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Fuck you guys!

Hammerhead was okay, but I like the more grounded feel of the Mako over the floaty Hammerhead. Though the Hammerhead does have the worst damage feedback and collision ever programmed into a vehicle. So I guess that's something.

EDIT: ME3 pretty much was a bunch of self contained stories that ultimately tied together (poorly). ME1 too. ME2 had a whole bunch of completely disconnected stories. BioWare used the same structure for all three Mass Effect games that they've been using since KOTOR.
 

Rezbit

Member
Man they had SUCH a good fucking idea going with the Mako and planet exploration. All they needed to do was make it a bit more Star Control-y in terms of finding more minerals, having some alien life on the planet, and just have some more assets to use with randomly generating bases/caves etc. Then write in simple objective scenarios and bam.
 
Grind tomb/find unique monster to find chest/corpse that may or may not drop a useful weapon/armour/trinket.

ME3's booster packs are clearly designed around exploiting addictive play, exactly like booster packs for card games, and in typical EA fashion they tether real monetary value to the packs to milk as much cash from wilfully paying users as possible. But the actual system itself? I don't really see anything wrong with it, no more than Valve's item/hat store, nor random loot drops in an RPG.

I don't feel the comparison is fair, simply because it's more random than the MMOs and other RPGs.

In WoW for instance, not only do they offer purchasable items using currencies from bosses to avoid the RNG extensively screwing you over, but a boss will have a loot table of say 10 items, and drop 2/4 based on the number of players. There's some further RNG if it does drop (do I win the item out of the players who want it?) but it's orders of magnitude less than in ME3.

In Skyrim, loot is levelled and in terms of what I can get for my hours of time I get stuff much faster.

In ME3, there are so many items and the system so bad that you can literally sink hours of time into it and get nothing to show for it (great, so my hours of play netted me useless XP cards for characters I have all unlocks for, yay!). It is the most grind-tastic system I have ever played, and that says an awful lot.

At the end of the day, it's just a way to get fools addicted to the dopamine-inducing slot machine because oooh shiny, and about EA convincing such morons to part with their cash. The only people I've seen who actually like the system are those who like the randomness... at which point I'd tell them to get to a fucking casino and stop being mindless slaves of a misfiring reward system. At least with a casino you can win actual money.

It's even more infuriating because the system in SP is not that bad. Some items are quite expensive, but I still have control over the process. If MP used the same system, I don't think I'd have any complaints. Hell EA could even monetise it by allowing players to purchase credits.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
Fuck you guys!

Hammerhead was okay, but I like the more grounded feel of the Mako over the floaty Hammerhead. Though the Hammerhead does have the worst damage feedback and collision ever programmed into a vehicle. So I guess that's something.

EDIT: ME3 pretty much was a bunch of self contained stories that ultimately tied together (poorly). ME1 too. ME2 had a whole bunch of completely disconnected stories. BioWare used the same structure for all three Mass Effect games that they've been using since KOTOR.

All of their games have an epic overarching plot. I'm saying it shouldnt have had this. It should have been Bebop/Firefly style, except instead of bounties or jobs, its Spectre missions.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
That's such a broad statement, it could be about anything. I actually enjoy the thread, since I actually get to talk about ME. And while I don't talk about the ending, because I'm indifferent towards it, it's fun to hear people complain and voice their opinion. I know I was depressed about it, so maybe that's why I linger on. I know that feel, etc.

edit: I see it was about the slots, so nvm.

Man they had SUCH a good fucking idea going with the Mako and planet exploration. All they needed to do was make it a bit more Star Control-y in terms of finding more minerals, having some alien life on the planet, and just have some more assets to use with randomly generating bases/caves etc. Then write in simple objective scenarios and bam.
I want to know who had the idea to remove the Mako. It was disappointing that there were no planets. The sense of exploration was grand when you had a planet to explore, even if all it had were three points of interest. If they had elaborated on it, as you stated, it would have been awesometastic.
 

def sim

Member
Internet hate machine!

But yeah I'm not really sure why I come here even more.

I was talking about the hate for the slot machine rewards system and the people who like it. I don't think people have been dumping on you for liking the ending; that's a bummer if they have.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I was talking about the hate for the slot machine rewards system and the people who like it. I don't think people have been dumping on you for liking the ending; that's a bummer if they have.

Anybody who likes the unlock system in MP deserves to be hated. Such a shitty system.
 
Man they had SUCH a good fucking idea going with the Mako and planet exploration. All they needed to do was make it a bit more Star Control-y in terms of finding more minerals, having some alien life on the planet, and just have some more assets to use with randomly generating bases/caves etc. Then write in simple objective scenarios and bam.

Please. Don't start with the beautiful posibilites of the Mako. So many hopes and dreams crushed in ME2. I still think (i'll say it every day) Bring Down the Sky did the Mako amazingly! There was plenty of cool story elements to discover through exploration, interesting combat scenarios, mixture of driving/on foot throughout, it did it so well! I really wished ME2 would have expanded on that even further... Overlord came sort of close, but made it too gamey.
 
I want to know who had the idea to remove the Mako. It was disappointing that there were no planets. The sense of exploration was grand when you had a planet to explore, even if all it had were three points of interest. If they had elaborated on it, as you stated, it would have been awesometastic.

As the last geth falls, you hear music from across the room. On the monitor, a quarian stands before a hushed crowd, warbling a mournful a capella of words and innocence lost. The recorded song is dispatched to the geth worlds behind the Perseus Veil. The transmitter shuts down.

Missed the cheesy flavor text.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Now we offer the $5.99 pack with a possible chance at hug. Who will take a dozen?

PS: I'll give a single hug to the needy, for charity.
 
Now we offer the $5.99 pack with a possible chance at hug. Who will take a dozen?

PS: I'll give a single hug to the needy, for charity.

We should take 400 Childs Play kids, dress them in rgb shirts and make them go to Bioware and give out hugs. Bioware will then donate them to the local child hospital and it will go full circle. Heads will explode.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
We should take 400 Childs Play kids, dress them in rgb shirts and make them go to Bioware and give out hugs. Bioware will then donate them to the local child hospital and it will go full circle. Heads will explode.
That's horrible, and by that I mean genius.

I'm adding it to the tumblr.
 
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