Thanks for the heads up!
I've always liked the Catalyst's theme, even though it's associated with something crappy.
-
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 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow
- Thread starter Patryn
- Start date
Thanks for the heads up!
I've always liked the Catalyst's theme, even though it's associated with something crappy.
Genesis Knight
Member
I'm still playing through the game - just had a conversation with Liara in the Presidium Commons where we became a couple and I got the achievement for a romance.
So...dumb question, but am I locked into Liara now or is there any way to change to, say, Ashley - as there was in Mass Effect 2?
Thanks!
So...dumb question, but am I locked into Liara now or is there any way to change to, say, Ashley - as there was in Mass Effect 2?
Thanks!
I believe that's the lock-in point
This thread will cycle forever.
Booming reaper voice: "SO BE IT."
Locked in. I made that same mistake too in my first play-through... I was 'trying' to get it with Ashley, but talked too much with Liara.
Genesis Knight
Member
Whoops! Oh well - the conversations with Liara in ME3 have been some of the best so far. So no worries.
Team Tali represent.
Best of all the female romances. Particularly the shit she says to you during the attack on the cerberus base
#thatsmybitch
Genesis Knight
Member
I haven't even gotten Tali in my group yet. Only about 21 hours in. I romanced her in ME2 though.
I only played with Liara as my romance, but Tali's goodbye just after Harbinger attack was probably the best. Although she is missing the sad facial animations the others got,
her "I have a home." reply she said after Shepard told her "Go back to Rannoch, build yourself a home"
Poor players who picked a guy/girl who wasn't on the last mission as their romance... they sure missed something good.
I had Traynor romance. She showed up as I synthesised and later slapped a magnet on the board. As you said the facial animation does it.
Would have been great for animated tali face even if she was just a purple humanoid.
Genesis Knight
Member
Is Liara?
No. One of my playthroughs had her since ME1. After a good bit of time playing the game you are attached.
I never liked Tali until the thing in late ME3 where
she killed herself. It really didn't make sense.. but whatever.
It's probably for the best that your romance is Liara/Tali/Garrus/Ashley/Kaidan since you can bring them in the last mission, there is an extra scene from the extended cut where you have to bring your two injured crewmates on the Normandy before heading to the beam. If your romance is one of the 2, you get to say some heartbreaking goodbye. ;_; People who picked Traynor, Cortez, Miranda, etc. dont get to do that.
Melchiah
Member
I think I had that conversation as well, but got the trophy later on, when she came to my cabin. Weird.
lifa-cobex
Member
All the way though the game i kept thing "how can this have a bad ending. A few flaw's but its a pretty good series thus far".
Just finished ME3 and chose the "il become a reaper ending".
Bit of a dud to the whole thing. Don't think it was awful but it murdered the whole feeling of what was going on.
Why was i collecting things to help people out? Why bother bringing races together?
Why not just stick that ending right at the end of ME1?
Its like Biowear just couldn't be bothered to work out any of the details from what you have been doing for the entirety of the last two games.
I wouldn't even say it was due to writer's block or even not wanting it to be converluded. Just bloody lazy.
Played dragon age, great game. Stayed the hell away from DA2.
Played the ME series, Great aside from the overall outcome.
Biowear have slipped a great deal in my mind.
Just finished ME3 and chose the "il become a reaper ending".
Bit of a dud to the whole thing. Don't think it was awful but it murdered the whole feeling of what was going on.
Why was i collecting things to help people out? Why bother bringing races together?
Why not just stick that ending right at the end of ME1?
Its like Biowear just couldn't be bothered to work out any of the details from what you have been doing for the entirety of the last two games.
I wouldn't even say it was due to writer's block or even not wanting it to be converluded. Just bloody lazy.
Played dragon age, great game. Stayed the hell away from DA2.
Played the ME series, Great aside from the overall outcome.
Biowear have slipped a great deal in my mind.
They really need to do something about their writing staff and their QA stuff for the too many glitchs still present in the game. The rest of the game was good, gameplay is fun to play, the game is pretty to look at despite the low res textures, music is pretty nice too. They could finally try to use a better engine for their next games though(Please use Frostbite 2).
But they really need to get rid of their shitty writers, keep the good ones and please... do something about the glitchs before releasing your damn games. The ME1->ME2->ME3 face one at release was such a joke, no way they missed that.
lifa-cobex
Member
Absolutely.
The overall story is great. I guess the Reapers are kinda fringing on the Borg, but there is a much more diverse time-line and reason for it all.
All the races, characters, governmental issues and politics are great. But that ending......It feels like the whole prequel and edits to Star Wars arguments again
The glitches don't bother me overall. The only one that really annoyed me is when you get stuck in the cockpit. Happened a couple of times.
The music is fantastic. I could never fault the series on this.
Yes, there is good story bits like Tuchanka or Rannoch, even sidestories like the Ardat-Yakshi monastery(especially with Samara) or the Grunt rescue mission were pretty good(loved that part in the end when he fought Ravagers all by himself). They've got some good writers and they should keep them. But do something about the ones responsible for the most controversial parts of the game. If its really just Walters who is responsible, then put him in another role than main writer and take the guy who did the good parts of ME3 to replace him.
Melchiah
Member
Actually, the Reapers always reminded me of the Shadows in Babylon 5 (right down to the lore and the looks), and as far as I'm concerned, ME series owes a great deal to B5 series (Sheridan -> Shepard, the Minbari 1st contact war -> the Turian 1st contact war, Minbari -> Asari, Narn -> Krogan, collecting war assets and uniting the races...). They also copied the ending of B5 Shadow war (three different choices), but whereas in B5 the right choice was the refusal, in ME3 it was the choice that lead to extinction. I wish I could have said "Get the hell out of our galaxy!" to the starchild, like Sheridan said to the Shadows and Vorlons, and have an equally good outcome. It would have been a lot better ending than what Bioware gave to us.
GAF, wait, GAF
I... Just finished ME3. I'm confused. There's over 700 pages of spoiler discussion spread out over two massive topics. There's DLC that changes the ending? I know nothing, I'm getting Jon Snowe'ed here. Shit, the whole Stargazer monologue played out while I'm typing this. Hold me GAF, for I am lost.
I... Just finished ME3. I'm confused. There's over 700 pages of spoiler discussion spread out over two massive topics. There's DLC that changes the ending? I know nothing, I'm getting Jon Snowe'ed here. Shit, the whole Stargazer monologue played out while I'm typing this. Hold me GAF, for I am lost.
There new endings don't change anything. They only explain more.
My head is full of fuck
Have you downloaded the Extended Cut? Your head will have less full of fucks with it at least.
Worst withdrawal of your life incoming
Not yet. As said, I just finished the game today, without any DLC. I was travelling from december till april and didn't have my own place till two weeks ago. Then my ancient launch 360 RROD'ed on me so I borrowed a friend's 360. Played it over the last three weeks.
It's funny, I've avoided any spoilers but I did see many negative reactions just by reading headlines and topic titles and such. But coming just off the ending I'm not really pissed off about the ending, just confused
. I must admit it wasn't really clear to me what influenced what options I had, also I either missed something or it wasn't to clear which of the three paths did what. I walked left, Reapers seemed to retreat, mass relays destroyed (I think), Normandy crashes somewhere but survives. I think I chose to destroy synthetic life? I was wondering if Joker was trying to escape the blast to save EDI. Anyway, lots of questions, but also lots of reasons to play not only ME3 again, but 1/2 as well. And that whole 'what might've happened' element is still exactly why I love the series. Maybe I get pissed off by the ending too when I start to comprehend it better, right now I'm still cool with it. Don't rip me to pieces for saying that
I walked left, Reapers seemed to retreat, mass relays destroyed (I think), Normandy crashes somewhere but survives. I think I chose to destroy synthetic life? I was wondering if Joker was trying to escape the blast to save EDI. Anyway, lots of questions, but also lots of reasons to play not only ME3 again, but 1/2 as well. And that whole 'what might've happened' element is still exactly why I love the series. Maybe I get pissed off by the ending too when I start to comprehend it better, right now I'm still cool with it. Don't rip me to pieces for saying that
Left is Control. Shepard sacrifices himself to take control over the Reapers.
You should download the extended cut, it's completely free and you don't have to replay the whole game, just load up the Restart Citadel Mission save or something similar to that.
If you don't want to replay it, you can always just watch the 3(4 with the dlc) endings.
Thanks, will definitely do! I know what I'll be playing again tomorrow night
. I was wondering, if you start ME3 without a ME1/ME2 savefile, do you get to pick stuff like Wrex dead/alive, Rachni saved/not saved, how you dealt with Geth heretics, teammates that lived through ME2 ending, etc? I think I kinda botched the whole Quarian/Geth conflict partly due to choices made in ME2 - saving both groups wasn't an option for me (dialogue option not selectable).
Thanks, will definitely do! I know what I'll be playing again tomorrow night
I was wondering, if you start ME3 without a ME1/ME2 savefile, do you get to pick stuff like Wrex dead/alive, Rachni saved/not saved, how you dealt with Geth heretics, teammates that lived through ME2 ending, etc? I think I kinda botched the whole Quarian/Geth conflict partly due to choices made in ME2 - saving both groups wasn't an option for me (dialogue option not selectable).
I believe you get to pick those options but I don't know how the game does that because I never tried.
Kill Your Masters
Member
It's funny, I've avoided any spoilers but I did see many negative reactions just by reading headlines and topic titles and such. But coming just off the ending I'm not really pissed off about the ending, just confused
Don't worry it wont last long
before it gets replaced by much much worse feelings
Or maybe not. I was kinda the same in the beginning. Just confused. But then the confusion turns into anger, sadness etc.
The EC is just a fix for all the bad feelings towards it, really.
Remembering those parts, it just makes the ending so much more bad. I really loved most of the story arcs in ME3, hell it was even much better then most of ME2's stuff. Rannoch, Tuchanka, it was epic stuff really.
I think most people (at least around here) were always like "HOW CAN THE ENDING BREAK ALL OF THIS" till the very last seconds before driving up the elevator...that just speaks for itself.
ME1 still has the best endgame of the trilogy - very satisfying badassery wrapped up nicely in an epic space battle. And it was total sci fi cliche but damn it it was good cliche.
ME3 ending was bad "deep shit".
Kill Your Masters
Member
I think I have read somewhere that you start with "the worst outcomes possible" from the previous two games.
AlimNassor
Banned
I love the Mass Effect series, but, the ending to ME3 was terrible. Normally I wouldn't care much, but, this series is one of my top 10, I can try to hate it all i want, but, I adore this series. So much wasted potential.
Really? I always thought there would be some conversation or something of the sort where you'd answer some questions to decide those things.
IIRC, I think there are 3 or so options that vary with how many of your squadmates survive.
I think 1 is Kaiden survives, 1 is Ashley survives, and the 3rd is 'many people died' but it doesn't specify whom.
Wahey, at last I can dare poke my head into this thread.
Finished ME3 today for the first time, despite being a huge fan of the first two I really wanted to wait for the patches and new ending to hit before jumping in - and because the series has very much been about my (mostly evil) decisions I decided I'd go into the third one completely blind even if it meant I'd lose some of my team-mates along the way. I figured after the second game they wouldn't dare pull that 'oh by the way that was the point of no return' shit a second time.
I loved every bloody second of it! probably the best game (and series) I've played and I while I didn't know anything about the original ending other than 'it sucked' - I felt the ending I got (post patch) was pretty damn good, sure some of it felt a little tacked on but at least it made sense and wasn't full of holes (I'm looking at you Prometheus).
I guess the thing that strikes me the most about Mass Effect is that, for me, it hints at what video-games will eventually evolve into. While I played the entire series my other half sat and watched it, sometimes shouting at me to make a certain dialogue choice. I think it was the first videogame I've ever played with somebody else watching where I haven't been nervous every-time a cut-scene started that it would do some clichéd shit and confirm to her that videogames are for kids. Instead it had a story that stood on it's own two feet, but also had a kick ass game inter-weaved with it - being able to affect the story (or in most cases being given the illusion of affecting the story) I think pushed it above what a movie could have delivered in terms of emotional involvement.
I really felt like giving the development team a standing ovation by the end of it - as cheesy as it sounds. Still, I'm slightly worried by the ending hinting at new games in the mass effect universe. The series is done in my eyes - move on to something else, something even better
Now to catch up on 154 pages of discovering what I did wrong
Finished ME3 today for the first time, despite being a huge fan of the first two I really wanted to wait for the patches and new ending to hit before jumping in - and because the series has very much been about my (mostly evil) decisions I decided I'd go into the third one completely blind even if it meant I'd lose some of my team-mates along the way. I figured after the second game they wouldn't dare pull that 'oh by the way that was the point of no return' shit a second time.
I loved every bloody second of it! probably the best game (and series) I've played and I while I didn't know anything about the original ending other than 'it sucked' - I felt the ending I got (post patch) was pretty damn good, sure some of it felt a little tacked on but at least it made sense and wasn't full of holes (I'm looking at you Prometheus).
I guess the thing that strikes me the most about Mass Effect is that, for me, it hints at what video-games will eventually evolve into. While I played the entire series my other half sat and watched it, sometimes shouting at me to make a certain dialogue choice. I think it was the first videogame I've ever played with somebody else watching where I haven't been nervous every-time a cut-scene started that it would do some clichéd shit and confirm to her that videogames are for kids. Instead it had a story that stood on it's own two feet, but also had a kick ass game inter-weaved with it - being able to affect the story (or in most cases being given the illusion of affecting the story) I think pushed it above what a movie could have delivered in terms of emotional involvement.
I really felt like giving the development team a standing ovation by the end of it - as cheesy as it sounds. Still, I'm slightly worried by the ending hinting at new games in the mass effect universe. The series is done in my eyes - move on to something else, something even better
Now to catch up on 154 pages of discovering what I did wrong
Don't. Just, I dunno, play some games.Now to catch up on 154 pages of discovering what I did wrong
Orochinagis
Member
Thanks, will definitely do! I know what I'll be playing again tomorrow night
I was wondering, if you start ME3 without a ME1/ME2 savefile, do you get to pick stuff like Wrex dead/alive, Rachni saved/not saved, how you dealt with Geth heretics, teammates that lived through ME2 ending, etc? I think I kinda botched the whole Quarian/Geth conflict partly due to choices made in ME2 - saving both groups wasn't an option for me (dialogue option not selectable).
Tali/Miranda/Wrex/Grunt could die and lost some war assets
I thought the extended endings were meh. I guess I was looking for more specifics about how my squadmates lives turned out or being briefly reunited with my LI in the Destroy w/high EMS ending. I was also hoping for some clarification as to why StarChild didn't just open the relay from Dark Space in ME1 when the Keepers ignored Soverign's signal.
Saw the Dark Knight Rises yesterday and it's the complete antithesis to Mass Effect 3. The ending is incredibly well-made and completely cathartic. I'd definitely recommend anyone to watch the trilogy and see how the established themes and characters throughout the three films are consistent, well-realized and treated with respect in the end.
Not to act in Bioware/EA defense, but you do realize you're comparing movies where people have no interactions/decisions in the story, to video games where you do that almost all the time there is cutscenes? You're much less likely to fuck up a story of a movie than video games like that.
It's like comparing oranges and apples.
Oh, I do know about incompatibility between the two mediums - I wasn't saying they were identical in any way nor was I talking about player ergodicity versus viewer participation. I was merely referring to the qualities the two media objects have in common in regards to storytelling - e.g. character arcs, conflict, resolution, etc. in relation to the film in itself and in relation to its predecessors themes and principles.
Which the Dark Knight Rises does an excellent job with, while Mass Effect 3 is the polar opposite.
Yeah i guess when you put it that way, but Nolan is kinda an exception. He has been excellent these past years with Batman movies and Inception. There is a lot of movie trilogies story with the same quality as Mass Effect or even worse.
Genesis Knight
Member
Finished the Extended Cut last night - chose Destroy, but after watching the endings on YouTube it seems that Control would have been the best choice. Also forgot to bring my RI on the last mission (Liara), so I missed the added Evac scene - YouTube to the rescue again, lol.
ME2 > ME1 > ME3 IMO.
The ending just didn't impress me that much. Usually in Mass Effect there are choices that reflect how I feel about the scenario, and I choose those. But none of these seemed to really be choices for 'my' Shepard, hard to describe but I guess I'm not alone.
I think I'll start a NG+ to bag some of the achievements I missed, such as Weapon Level 10, Eden Prime (glitched for me), and Level 60. Anyone know how long it takes to get from 57 -> 60? Can I get to it before/during the From Ashes missions on Eden Prime?
ME2 > ME1 > ME3 IMO.
The ending just didn't impress me that much. Usually in Mass Effect there are choices that reflect how I feel about the scenario, and I choose those. But none of these seemed to really be choices for 'my' Shepard, hard to describe but I guess I'm not alone.
I think I'll start a NG+ to bag some of the achievements I missed, such as Weapon Level 10, Eden Prime (glitched for me), and Level 60. Anyone know how long it takes to get from 57 -> 60? Can I get to it before/during the From Ashes missions on Eden Prime?
Yeah i guess when you put it that way, but Nolan is kinda an exception. He has been excellent these past years with Batman movies and Inception. There is a lot of movie trilogies story with the same quality as Mass Effect or even worse.
Whether or not Nolan's accomplishment(s) is to be considered an exception in comparison to other narrative trilogies does not influence the notion that his final treatment of his Batman oeuvre stands in stark contrast to how Bioware have ended up treating their own body of work. In my opinion, of course
Yeah, I was a bit underwhelmed when I replayed my primary Shep from the Long Walk save. I just felt that I had come to the same conclusions that they clarified on my own, so it didn't really add anything to my experience.
However, just finished a fresh trilogy run on Friday, and the EC actually adds bits of dialogue throughout the game that really brings more focus to alot of the foreshadowing, especially TIM experiments with control (although I feel like if you didn't see that coming by the time you finished Sanctuary, you weren't paying attention), and illustrating that the Reapers really are just tools following a fairly simple programming directive.
Started a new FemShep character in ME1 and am running through the trilogy again. I've been paying close attention to try and pick up on the small details I've missed/forgotten over time. It's cool how different your perception is when you know the end to the trilogy. I also forgot how tedious planet exploration in the Mako is...
Will probably just choose Destroy ending when I get there again, though. I just can't see myself ever picking Control because TIM pushed so hard for it. Synthesis is what Saren was after, so that one isn't really an option for me either. I suppose I could always shoot the Starchild.
Genesis Knight
Member
I feel like Control is the obvious "Best Ending", though. Shepard was born to be sacrificed anyway, and that's the only ending that preserves the galaxy's status quo. With Destroy you lose EDI and the Geth, but with Control you keep both and also reconstruct the Citadel and Mass Effect Relays very quickly.
It depends on your trilogy playthrough though. In my last trilogy run, my Shepard immediately sold Legion in ME2(i know, spit on me if you want), so she never learned much from the Geth from their side. She always saw them as evil AIs. By the end of the Rannoch mission, that Geth VI lied to me twice and gave my Shepard no reason to choose them over the Quarians. At the end, it grabbed Shepard's throat saying they should have never trusted organics, Tali attacked it from behind to save me and i shot it in the face 3 times with Renegade buttons. I almost felt bad when i did that since he basically looks like Legion. Now i wonder what would have happened if i shot only once or twice.
When i had to choose the final decision, Destroy felt like the right choice if EDI was the only sacrifice. Reapers killed billions of people, no way i was going to let them live, even if they would have help us. It was my goal since ME1!