Mass Effect 3

[Nix]

Note to self: if I ever make a series, never make it a trilogy.

This is why Valve never makes games with "3" in the title.

Edited September 19, 2012 by Pinkamina

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

Now, now. Just because Westwood mysteriously had a sudden drop in quality after they were acquired by EA and mysteriously turned the Command & Conquer franchise from a record-breaking quality series to a trainwreck of epic proportions doesn't mean the same thing is already happening to Bioware.

I mean...it's not like EA demanded they slap together a sequel to Dragon Age in nowhere near the required development time to make a worthy sequel to the greatest western RPG (that isn't Elder Scrolls) since Baldur's Gate... Or that Bioware gave in to pressure to push Mass Effect 3 out the door in about two-thirds of the time they were planning to invest on development...

Oh god, I can't even keep up the sarcasm. EA WHY MUST YOU DESTROY EVERYTHING I LOVE!?

There's actually a good Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage video on YouTube about the nature of BioWare and EA's relationship.

Now off to bed!

[Yong]

Don't know if anyone else here is a fan of the multiplayer (I am obviously). But Bioware today just launched the new Retaliation DLC pack, their biggest update to date. This is a massive update, though ironically enough there's no new maps with it. Instead new versions of the older maps have been added that now feature something call "hazzards." Some can be beneficial while most will make it more difficult for you to survive. These include acid rain on Firebase Ghost, and the reactor in Firebase Reactor actually being usable, sealing it and frying anything inside, friend or foe.

The biggest addition in this pack is a fourth faction to battle. The Collectors have returned.

It's not explained lore wise why N7 forces are suddenly having to contend with an enemy thought to have been completely wiped out. Gameplay wise the Collectors are being touted as the "anti-power" faction. Seeker swarms will ignore anything but damage from biotic and tech powers, and Praetorians can generate a power-immune barrier around themselves(similar to Phantoms) and given how large they are they can act as a giant wall to protect their other units.

The other big addition is the massive amount of new characters that can be obtained and used. Most of them should be familiar, although there are some new species and class mixups, like a Krogan Adept and Drell Infiltrator. Though the most amusing by far is the addition of VOLUS. 4 different classes in fact. Yes, there are volus that use biotics and yes Bioware does reference the scene from Mass Effect 2 in their description.

Another "major" addition (though minor in the grand scheme of things) are challenges. These are really just grindfests, tracking how many times you do things and giving you a checkmark when you reach a certain amount. Get enough checkmarks in a certain catagory and you can get a custom title card that's displayed in the lobby. That's the full extent of that.

It should be noted that most the features are actually locked right now. Bioware will unlock more hazzard maps and characters in the following weeks as to not overwhelm everyone right out the gate. As such it's recommended to try and unlock the new characters that are available now before the next set is made available, since the odds will be better. More details about the new pack can be found at the link below.

http://blog.bioware....ation-in-depth/

Edited October 10, 2012 by Yong

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Figured an update about this would be worthwhile. On Nov. 27, get ready to take back Omega from Cerberus with Aria finally making her assault.

Mass Effect 3 Omega Details

BioWare confirmed the upcoming single-player download content for Mass Effect 3 'Omega' launches on November 27 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

The content costs $14.99 or 1200 Microsoft Points and is one of the largest download content released for the game thus far. The story centers on Omega ruler Aria T'loak who's out to retake the station from Cerberus control, BioWare said to Eurogamer.

BioWare posted the following message on its website:

Soldiers of the Milky Way,

Disturbing reports from the Citadel suggest that something big is about to go down. If our Intel is accurate, Aria is on the move. This was anticipated, as we did not expect her to sit idly by while Cerberus ran roughshod over Omega. With her biotic capabilities and well-documented mean streak, what happens next won’t be pretty.

Our informants believe that Aria intends to seek out Commander Shepard for assistance. We are aware of the Commander’s ties to Aria, but are unclear about how deep they run. What we do know is that Aria will be relentless in her fight to take back Omega, and with the Commander at her side, she may very well be unstoppable.

We will be observing this situation closely as it develops. Continue to monitor this channel for further communication.

Earlier this week, BioWare released free multiplayer download content for Mass Effect 3.

Yeah, Aria definitely wasn't gonna just stay on the Citadel forever. Unlike the Leviathan DLC that I found underwhelming, I don't think this one will let me down.

Oh, and after 3 games, Female Turians:

Unsure if I would want to tap dat. Face is feminine enough to tap tho.

Edited November 7, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Emmett L. Brown]

Well...good thing I completely lost interest in this game after Leviathan, so I still have a mid-way save ready to go for this one.

I only found out about this new DLC yesterday. It's a strange feeling that nothing about Mass Effect excites me anymore. It'll probably be fun to play, and good four a couple of hours of enjoyement, but my "Squee!" is dead and buried.

[Rinzler]

This is rich:

Bioware Asks For Mass Effect 4 Suggestions

Bioware has requested the help of fans in deciding whether the next Mass Effect game takes place before or after the events of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Mass Effect executive producer Casey Hudson took to Twitter to ask gamers for their input about when they'd like to see the next title take place.

“

Would you be more interested in a game that takes place before the trilogy, or after?

"Parsing through your thoughts on the next #ME game," he revealed. "Would you be more interested in a game that takes place before the trilogy, or after?"

It's not the first time Hudson has asked for player feedback about the next Mass Effect title; earlier this month he revealed that a new Mass Effect game was in the early stages of development, though admitted the team was still uncertain regarding story specifics.

We also know that the next game will go somewhere new and won’t star a character similar to Shepard, but this latest tidbit of information raises quite an interesting dilemma. If the team decide to pursue a prequel, they need to be careful not to conflict with any of the series' already-established canon, while a sequel would need to be set sufficiently far in the future that the varying endings of Mass Effect 3 don't create continuity problems, unless of course previous choices are once again incorporated as was the case between the original games.

It seems the team are aware of this though; earlier this month BioWare Montreal studio director Yanick Roy revealed that the next Mass Effect title "will be very respectful of the heritage built over the course of the first three games."

What do you think? Would you prefer to see Mass Effect 4 take place before or after the events of the Mass Effect trilogy

"We realized our weird Synthesis ending completely screws the potential future timeline of the Mass Effect Universe and don't know what to do about it."

[Emmett L. Brown]

Casey Hudson, you fucking hack. You and Mack caused this problem with your legendarily arrogant and mentally retarded decision to veto your own fanfic-level trainwreck as the ending without any "help" from the writers that are actually competent. You have GOOD writers. Get the fuck out of the story department and let them do their job.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

After that insult of an ending, good luck getting any responses beyond more trollish suggestions. I'll be surprised if you could ever pull this off.

[Dr. Homem]

You know who needs to write the next Mass Effect if there is one? John Dombrow and Patrick Weekes.

John Dombrow wrote the characters for Garrus (in ME2 and 3, Mac Walters wrote Garrus for ME1) Wrex, and Javik. He was also responsible for the fantastic Rannoch arch in ME3. Patrick Weekes wrote Mordin, Tali, Jack, and was the main writer in the amazing Tuchanka plot.

These two arcs were the strongest points of ME3 and truly outstanding long sequences. The characters were some of the best in the series. Yeah, I support them coming back and not Hudson and Walters.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Omega DLC got released 2 days ago. My review is...

...it's good. Decent writing with no major plot holes, lots of that really good character development we used to be able to automatically associate with Bioware, and some enjoyable set pieces. The price, however, is articicially inflated, because while this is a good DLC, it doesn't rank higher than Lair of the Shadow Broker and doesn't deserve the price hike. At the end of the day, all you get is a fun adventure, a new bonus power, and a shit-load of credits and War Assets (which are utterly worthless now that the "best" ending is obtainable in the vanilla game for a completionist).

Buy hey! Female Turian, at last, and she's a really awesome character. I-wish-she-was-a-permanent-party-member kind of awesome.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Hey, who remembers this game?

 

The third and final single-player DLC for ME3 got released a few weeks ago, and if I can sum it up one sentence: It made me want to play the trilogy again.

 

The reason why is because this DLC isn't focused on the Reapers at all and it makes zero effort towards fixing the ending. Instead, it's wholy focused on your party members, from all three games combined. And because their characterisation and portrayal was always the best part of the series, it's pure gold all the way through.

 

The tone of the DLC is so light-hearted it really doesn't fit in the grim and depressing setting of the third game, but but with the excuse given that it's a mandatory shore leave and specifically intended to let the team blow off steam and chill out before getting back to the war I'm gonna overlook it. For all the comedy there's still some genuinely heartbreakingly beautiful drama like the memorial service for Thane and some lovely interactions with your chosen love interest.

 

The meat of the DLC's mission series concerns an evil clone of Shepard. That's a spoiler, but it's so lame you're better off going into it with that bit of information beforehand. I'll leave the more interesting spoiler alone. To its credit, the writing fully acknowledges how lame an evil clone is and lampshades the hell out of it with party member dialogue. What it all builds up to is one of the best boss fights in the series, where the boss's abilities change depending on your own character class. I've fought Evil Shepard as an Engineer where she was pretty easy and as a Vanguard where he was crazy hard (which makes sense, because I'd been just as cheap with Charge and Nova myself).

 

Also you get Wrex as a party member for the whole Evil Clone mission series. Which is awesome.

 

Like Lair of the Shadow Broker there's a ton of bonus stuff available after completing the missions, but there's like twenty times as much content. Theres's mutiple extra scenes for every single party member from all three games, culminating in a party that some of the funniest interactions in the series. Who'd have guessed that the one person Javik actually likes right off the bat would be Zaeed (actually that makes perfect sense).

 

There's also a battle arena which unlike Pinnacle Station in MA1 is actually really fun, and throws in tons of content from the Multiplayer, including the entire Collector faction. You can set enemy type, strength, optional handicaps, and even get to use your surviving MA2 party members in the arena.

 

This DLC is basically a metric-tonne of fanservice. I approve.

[Candescence]

Honestly, while that sounds nice, I've become completely apathetic when it comes to the entire Mass Effect series at this point, and I haven't touched the game since beating it. I mean, what's the point? The extended cut did nothing for me in that regard. Amazing how one craptastic ending sequence can soil my view of what is otherwise a superb series.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Honestly, while that sounds nice, I've become completely apathetic when it comes to the entire Mass Effect series at this point, and I haven't touched the game since beating it. I mean, what's the point? The extended cut did nothing for me in that regard. Amazing how one craptastic ending sequence can soil my view of what is otherwise a superb series.

I respect that. The MA3 ending should be in textbooks as an example of how to completely alienate your devoted audience in 10 minutes or less.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Just saw this topic get bumped and thought I'd see what's up.

 

I'm thinking about getting all the DLC for the game, if nothing more than just the development and characterization.

 

That ending will always get a middle finger back from me tho...

[Candescence]

I was chatting with a friend, and we briefly discussed what could've been much better rejection ending ideas based more on EMS:

 

Me: Well, after an extended conversation with the Catalyst, Shepard rejects the choices, and makes a grand 'The Reason You Suck' speech which also combines with a 'Kirk Summation'. Or a 'Patrick Stewart speech'. Whatever works. XD

Friend: k go on
Me: He/She lists why the choices and the Catalyst's motives are bullshit (especially if you saved both the Geth and the Quarians), and accuses the Catalyst of being defective.
Me: The Catalyst promptly goes /ballistic/.
Friend: k
Me: He decides to heal Shepard's wounds to fight Shepard personally with the express purpose of defeating him to drive his point home about how insignificant he/she is, vowing to "break him/her completely, make him watch the destruction of the entire galaxy, and the glassing of every planet so no life of any kind could ever exist in the galaxy ever again," for this insult.
Friend: k...
Me: Simultaneously, an epic space battle between the good guys and the Reapers ensues, and Joker moves in to drop off Shepard's squad on the Crucible, so they can fight with him to put down the Catalyst.
Me: Depending on the EMS, either the good guys lose, they sustain massive casualties but still win, or they tear the Reapers limb-from-limb, so to speak.
Me: Basically, an "earn your happy ending" sequence, with emphasis on earn.
Friend: I think the Catalyst fighting Shepard personally is...a bit much.
Me: Well, it doesn't have to be literal. It could be a battle of wills.
BlueLoneWolf: Personally I think it'd be better if Shepard, depending on his skills and his team, could do something about it.
Friend: The Catalyst booted the damn thing up, but he then has to go find a way to disconnect it again.
Friend: He would take over and use the mass relay to send the Reapers into a star somehow.
Friend: Or use the Mass Relays as gigantic cannons to shoot stuff at the reapers from afar using mass shadows.
Friend: Hook up EDI to the thing and target the reapers with miscellaneous crap.
Friend: WHATEVER IT IS
Friend: IT WOULD BE BETTER THAN WHAT EA THOUGHT UP
Me: XD
Friend: That's the key thing.
Me: Either way, the Catalyst would NOT be happy with Shepard defying him.
Friend: Nope.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Not bad. If you've got the PC version I highly recommend downloading the Happy Ending Mod. No ghost kid. Only destroy ending, and it DOES NOT wipe out all synthetic life for no reason, so you can keep your satisfaction of achieving the Geth/Quarian alliance. Also tons of pro-looking fan-made content.

 

I'm stuck with the 360 version, so I just settle for rapidly tapping the X button until the Catalyst stops talking. At least the Extended Cut made a Paragon Control ending emotionally satisfying for me. Synthesis just does not belong in what used to be a hard science fiction setting. Brain uploading into AI of near-god-like influence? I will accept that. The DNA of every living thing in the galaxy rewritted into being partly synthetic? ...I'm not sure you know what deoxyribonucleic acid IS, Starbrat.

[turbojet]

No offense, but that sounds like something straight out of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

 

I like it.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Today I watched the synthesis ending for the first time since I downloaded the extended cut. And I gotta correct myself: Apparently the dialogue with the Catalyst is unskippable...so I just muted the TV and read some comics until the brat was done talking. The sound of his voice makes me angry. I think it's a pavlovian response or something.

 

As for Synthesis...it's the most goddamn creepy stuff I've seen in ages. Seeing the familiar slideshows with glowy eyes and tron lines enters into creepypasta territory. The game is trying really, REALLY hard to convince me it's a super-happy rainbows-and-sunshine ending, but I can't get over how creepy it looks. Creepy.

 

The good news is that synthesis makes a Mass Effect 4 using that ending completely impossible. You can't have conflict in a utopia, no matter how creepy it looks, and without conflict you've got no story. So even though Casey Hudson is onboard, there's hope. We have to remember that he wrote a lot of content in Mass Effect 2 and 3 that wasn't the ending, and none of that alienated the fanbase. I do have some suspicion that he was involved in Kai Leng's Marty Stu cutscenes, though, because those fit his trademark level of stupid. But even the Kai Leng stuff wasn't story-breakingly offensive and at least led to some wonderful payoff when you get to brutally murder the guy at the end. Ain't nobody ever failed to press THAT Renegade interrupt, amirite?

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

You can't have conflict in a utopia, no matter how creepy it looks, and without conflict you've got no story. 

Not unless you're writing a slice of life story where the plot doesn't necessarily have to be the point. Would almost work for Mass Effect if it weren't for the fact that this is an action-RPG, of which action plots requires conflict by default.

 

Just figured I'd let that be known.

[UF8]

Well I gotta admit the main thing I would like to have seen in this game is more of Harbinger and not just the cameo appearance at the end. I wont even touch the ending.  

[Emmett L. Brown]

A final boss would've been nice, too. Believe it or not, the claim that having the Illusive Man turn into a giant nasty husk creature would be "too video gamey" is actually one I agree with. It would have been silly. Saren turning into a husk worked well because we'd already established him as a formidable warrior and fought him as a boss once or twice beforehand. But the Illusive Man is just a guy with a big brain, and defeating him through dialogue is appropriately climactic.

 

The Illusive Man being disqualified for final boss was a good idea. Completely forgetting to make a different final boss was idiotic. You could have gotten away with it if you claimed that MA3 didn't use traditional boss fights, but unfortunately you fought Kai Leng in the previous level and he was as stereotypically boss-like as you can get. You could also have gotten away with no final boss if you didn't make very classically video gamey final bosses for the two previous games in your trilogy. Saren goes One Winged Angel (extremely video gamey), and the Human Reaper is a gigantic monster with an obvious weak point who continuously summons mooks (super-excessively video gamey).

 

It's okay to be video gamey in a video game.

[SegaSuperStar]

I've played the entire series so far and have loved every minute of it. ME3 is no exception. I played ME3 when it first came out and i recently got it back to do some multiplayer with a friend of mine. But that lead to me buying all the DLC and other stuff which is awesome. I'm currently playing through the Omega DLC. Quite entertaining.

[Candescence]

A final boss would've been nice, too. Believe it or not, the claim that having the Illusive Man turn into a giant nasty husk creature would be "too video gamey" is actually one I agree with. It would have been silly. Saren turning into a husk worked well because we'd already established him as a formidable warrior and fought him as a boss once or twice beforehand. But the Illusive Man is just a guy with a big brain, and defeating him through dialogue is appropriately climactic.

 

The Illusive Man being disqualified for final boss was a good idea. Completely forgetting to make a different final boss was idiotic. You could have gotten away with it if you claimed that MA3 didn't use traditional boss fights, but unfortunately you fought Kai Leng in the previous level and he was as stereotypically boss-like as you can get. You could also have gotten away with no final boss if you didn't make very classically video gamey final bosses for the two previous games in your trilogy. Saren goes One Winged Angel (extremely video gamey), and the Human Reaper is a gigantic monster with an obvious weak point who continuously summons mooks (super-excessively video gamey).

 

It's okay to be video gamey in a video game.

Well, unless the boss fight in question is just stupid and underwhelming like Bioshock's was.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Well, unless the boss fight in question is just stupid and underwhelming like Bioshock's was.

I didn't actually mind the giant Atlas statue final boss, but I see your point. Bioshock could've gotten away without a final boss because there hadn't been any boss fights in the game. I don't count the Big Daddies - they're no more bosses than the mutated Metroids in Metroid II.

 

But when you're at the final installment of a trilogy and have used final bosses in the two previous games, then you're locked in for a FINAL final boss to surpass them all. Failing at it would've been bothersome, but foregoing the boss completely is just...dumb.

 

My first thought when I saw Shepard get pulled up to the big weird light in the ceiling after the Illusive Man confrontation was "Okay, finally! Final boss time. Hope I don't have to fight it solo. What...the fuck...is the kid from the pretentious dream sequences doing here?"

 

And the rest is history.