Mass Effect 3

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Reaper vs Thresher Maw.

The victor?

Thresher Maw.

Then again, some of you might have saw that coming.

[Old Snake]

The userscore is... very good./sarcasm http://www.metacriti...0/mass-effect-3

[turbojet]

I'm angry about the DLC too, but that is just petty. Even the reviews are full of spite. I mean really.

[Conando]

I wouldn't knock a good game just because of the publisher. EA pulls this shit with everything, it's sad but, the game is still good. I mean, they pulled the same thing with SSX today. Mt. Fuji is exclusive to PSN while Eddie was a pre-order only bonus.

[Silencer226]

Oooooooh dat EDI!

EDI: I'm right here Jeff

Joker: Yes you are EDI, yes you are.

Scene cracked me up. Anyway, I just saved the Turian, um whatever guy with important title (moron moment can't rememberhis role (and no I did not forget Garrus)). Now I'm off to make peace with the Krogan's, ok, let's see if keeping Wrex alive in ME1 has any effect on this outcome (doubt it to be honest).

Edited March 8, 2012 by Silencer(Tsundere Edition)

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Be prepared to face some tougher choices. The last two games made the Paragon and Renegade options are somewhat black and white while still being heroic.

In this game, they're almost flat out gray. So far, some of the choices I made have a benefit and a consequence. I can't really go and spoil them for you, but you will find out pretty soon. Some of them you don't even have to think twice about depending on your previous decisions: if you support the Krogans getting cured from the genophage or keep them from being a potential threat to the galaxy once again. Some of them will feel so insulting that you'll go against offers out of sheer spite despite the benefits.

Here's something that I kinda felt sorry for this time. Sucker punching that annoying reporter Al-Jilani. In the last two games she was being a conniving bitch who was practically trying to smear you, and it felt so good to knock her on her ass. This time, punching her actually made me feel bad due to the events going on. I felt kinda sorry after Shepard told her (after knocking her on her ass once again) that he understood she felt scared of the Reapers finally invading; this time she had a legitimate reason for feeling the way she did...if only she paid attention to her track record and came off differently. Although she does kinda surprise you after you punch her this time around.

Edited March 8, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Detective Shadzter]

Thought I'd share this news for those in the UK looking to pick up this game.

Asda announces Mass Effect 3 midnight openings

by Ben Parfitt

about an hour ago

Supermarket chain Asda is to open over 200 stores at midnight tonight so gamers can get their hands on Mass Effect 3 the very moment it is released.

Furthermore, the retailer is charging just £37.97 for the game – no strings attached.

“Mass Effect 3 is set to be a huge hit with the gaming community so we want to make sure it is affordable and available to play as soon as the clock strikes twelve,” Asda’s head of games Andrew Thompson stated.

“We are not only stocking the game nine hours ahead of other retailers but we’ll also be selling it for the competitive price of £37.97. With stock not as widely spread for this big release, Asda really is the top destination for games enthusiasts this Friday and for future releases.”

http://www.mcvuk.com...openings/092459

[Stacy]

Luckly my sister works at Tesco hopefully she'll save us a copy.

[turbojet]

I wouldn't knock a good game just because of the publisher. EA pulls this shit with everything, it's sad but, the game is still good. I mean, they pulled the same thing with SSX today. Mt. Fuji is exclusive to PSN while Eddie was a pre-order only bonus.

MT. Fuji was not exclusively a PSN download as they changed it a month ago, I think. It was a pre-order along with Eddie.

[Yong]

Here's something that I kinda felt sorry for this time. Sucker punching that annoying reporter Al-Jilani. In the last two games she was being a conniving bitch who was practically trying to smear you, and it felt so good to knock her on her ass. This time, punching her actually made me feel bad due to the events going on. I felt kinda sorry after Shepard told her (after knocking her on her ass once again) that he understood she felt scared of the Reapers finally invading; this time she had a legitimate reason for feeling the way she did...if only she paid attention to her track record and came off differently. Although she does kinda surprise you after you punch her this time around.

I'm the opposite. The Shepard I'm playing right now is primarily Paragon (I just gut punched someone in ME3 who decided to make me a sacrifice to destroy the enemy without my consent, something I wasn't thrilled about after just barely escaping) but after 2 games of controling myself, this third time I could not hold back anymore with her unneccessary and inconsiderate accusations. Get a concusion, bitch.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

I'm the opposite. The Shepard I'm playing right now is primarily Paragon (I just gut punched someone in ME3 who decided to make me a sacrifice to destroy the enemy without my consent, something I wasn't thrilled about after just barely escaping)

Edited March 9, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Indigo Rush]

All I know about this game is that my apartment mate has been playing it almost non-stop since it came out (save for work and sleeping). He's always downstairs playing it, and it makes it awkward for me to go downstairs and fix lunch.

Based off of this information, I give this game 5 Penguinators...

...out of 5.

This has been an Official Indigo Review™.

Edited March 9, 2012 by Indigo Rush

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

So we all know the whole issue between the Geth and the Quarians. After hearing both sides of the story, I figured that the two could come to peace if they'd stop fighting each other, the Quarians especially. But fucking Han'Gerrel was the one who always wanted to go to war with the Geth to take back their homeworld.

So after a few string of events, there comes the choice to have Legion upload his core data with the reaper data to use so that the Geth can fully be intellegent. The data wouldn't pose any threat at all. So I decide to let Legion do it. Tali was frightened at what might happen, but I figured that things would go well so long as we could keep the Fleet above from attacking the Geth and they could finally come to peace.

The result? (Spoilers! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!)

Gerral's stupid ass decides to keep attacking the Geth, the Migrant Fleet ends up being destroyed, and Tali commits suicide! To add insult to injury, Legion also dies as a result of sacrificing himself for the Geth.

My response?

*restarts the game* - no seriously.

I know you can't save everyone, but Bioware was fucking cruel with that one. Even worse, I actually cheated on that one by spoiling myself on what the results were and got a bad result.

Edited March 10, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Candescence]

Stuff

And to make it worse?

Apparently, you can actually save both sides. I knew I should've done the other missions on that planet, first...

On the bright side, you get to fight a Reaper. One-on-one, using orbital strikes as your weapon.

[killemoff]

So... i just finished the game.

I don't what i feel right now.

I'm part in shock, part mindfucked. Not entirely satisfied on how they handled it the end...

Also it's the end of the trilogy. That dawned on me like a block of concrete to the face. Minor spoiler, you can continue the game after the credits, like in ME2. But i couldn't even look at the game after the ending... Wow. Not saying it was good or bad.

Like i said before, mind fucked.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

And to make it worse?

Apparently, you can actually save both sides. I knew I should've done the other missions on that planet, first...

On the bright side, you get to fight a Reaper. One-on-one, using orbital strikes as your weapon.

See that's exactly what I was going for, hence why I did what I did. Apparently I missed something because I did all the missions on the planet.

That fight was a huge pain in the ass tho. Took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong despite dying a lot.

[SuperStingray]

So I just finished this game yesterday. Unlike Mass Effect 2, the story felt like it was going somewhere rather than simply raising a party to take on the final boss and the actual game felt a lot more dynamic. I won't lie, killing the reaper with a space laser was awesome and the moral decisions actually carried a lot of weight. But I do have one complaint about this game, and it's the ending.

I did not care for it. And I say that after just watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. It couldn't have been as simple as push a kill switch and all the reapers die and everyone else lives, then Princess Leia ceremoniously gives Shepard and his crew medals? I'm serious, that would have been a more effective ending for this game, even if not as pressing on the player. Mass Effect isn't what I'd call soft science, but it's still particularly idealistic as far as science fiction goes. For god's sake, there's even an entire race of "hot alien babes," in general it portrays humanity's future very whimsically, if not in balance with dark war-related themes and political cynicism, but just ending it on this note, peace at the cost of the entire space faring civilization, is counter-intuitive to the tone of the whole series.

And what's more, the explanation for the reapers in itself is just stupid and redundant; they basically remove advanced races from the galaxy so the synthetic life created by them doesn't do so first.

Whatever the case, I'm really astonished by the amount of uproar surrounding this game. The DLC, Tali's photo, the male homosexual option, etc. Not that I don't see the reasoning behind most of the complaints, but it's still painful to watch the extent of it. The DLC is a completely separate entity in itself that adds nothing to the core experience but simply acts as a supplement to what's already there. It's not like you're paying $60 for an incomplete product and forking over another $10 for the rest. And Tali's photograph is an incredibly small minutia in the course of a game that already has about as much detail to it as Metroid Prime's scan log. It was nothing more than an easter egg; hastily thrown together maybe, but I don't see why it garnered as much backlash as it did. If the original stock photo was never found would it have made a difference?

Edited March 11, 2012 by SuperStingray

[Conando]

See that's exactly what I was going for, hence why I did what I did. Apparently I missed something because I did all the missions on the planet.

That fight was a huge pain in the ass tho. Took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong despite dying a lot.

Apparently it also depends on how things played out in ME 2.

Both Tali and Legion had to be loyal to Shepard, if not you're fucked. Beside that, if you rewrote the heretic Geth you need to do some more side missions, which isn't the case if you destroyed them.

Here's something I found on the BioWare forum, in fact.

Geth vs. Quarians

In order to achieve peace between the two races, you need to get 5 to 7 points. These points are based on your ME2 and ME3 decisions. If you have 4 points or below, you cannot achieve peace.

-Rewrote the Heretics (0 points)

-Destroyed the Heretics (+2 points)

-Tali is NOT exiled (+2 points)

-Tali has been exiled/You did not do the Loyalty Mission (0 points)

-Resolved Legion/Tali conflict either using the Paragon or Renegade options (+1 point)

-N7 Mission: Save the Admiral on Rannoch in ME3 (+1 point)

-N7 Mission: Destroy Geth Squadron on Rannoch in ME3 (+1 point)

-Completed Legion's Mission in ME3 (or no peace)

Edited March 11, 2012 by Crow T. Robot

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Apparently it also depends on how things played out in ME 2.

Both Tali and Legion had to be loyal to Shepard, if not you're fucked. Beside that, if you rewrote the heretic Geth you need to do some more side missions, which isn't the case if you destroyed them.

Here's something I found on the BioWare forum, in fact.

Geth vs. Quarians

In order to achieve peace between the two races, you need to get 5 to 7 points. These points are based on your ME2 and ME3 decisions. If you have 4 points or below, you cannot achieve peace.

-Rewrote the Heretics (0 points)

-Destroyed the Heretics (+2 points)

-Tali is NOT exiled (+2 points)

-Tali has been exiled/You did not do the Loyalty Mission (0 points)

-Resolved Legion/Tali conflict either using the Paragon or Renegade options (+1 point)

-N7 Mission: Save the Admiral on Rannoch in ME3 (+1 point)

-N7 Mission: Destroy Geth Squadron on Rannoch in ME3 (+1 point)

-Completed Legion's Mission in ME3 (or no peace)

Shit. You mean I have to re-do ALL of that to achieve peace?

Cruel is an understatement here. I was in the middle of doing Legions loyalty mission before the collectors came and took my crew, then I went straight for them instead...Well, looks like I got even more work to do.

Looks like Grumpy Old Guy got his wish. Paragon actions DO come to bite you in the ass.

Edited March 11, 2012 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[killemoff]

So I just finished this game yesterday. Unlike Mass Effect 2, the story felt like it was going somewhere rather than simply raising a party to take on the final boss and the actual game felt a lot more dynamic. I won't lie, killing the reaper with a space laser was awesome and the moral decisions actually carried a lot of weight. But I do have one complaint about this game, and it's the ending.

I did not care for it. And I say that after just watching Neon Genesis Evangelion. It couldn't have been as simple as push a kill switch and all the reapers die and everyone else lives, then Princess Leia ceremoniously gives Shepard and his crew medals? I'm serious, that would have been a more effective ending for this game, even if not as pressing on the player. Mass Effect isn't what I'd call soft science, but it's still particularly idealistic as far as science fiction goes. For god's sake, there's even an entire race of "hot alien babes," in general it portrays humanity's future very whimsically, if not in balance with dark war-related themes and political cynicism, but just ending it on this note, peace at the cost of the entire space faring civilization, is counter-intuitive to the tone of the whole series.

And what's more, the explanation for the reapers in itself is just stupid and redundant; they basically remove advanced races from the galaxy so the synthetic life created by them doesn't do so first.

Whatever the case, I'm really astonished by the amount of uproar surrounding this game. The DLC, Tali's photo, the male homosexual option, etc. Not that I don't see the reasoning behind most of the complaints, but it's still painful to watch the extent of it. The DLC is a completely separate entity in itself that adds nothing to the core experience but simply acts as a supplement to what's already there. It's not like you're paying $60 for an incomplete product and forking over another $10 for the rest. And Tali's photograph is an incredibly small minutia in the course of a game that already has about as much detail to it as Metroid Prime's scan log. It was nothing more than an easter egg; hastily thrown together maybe, but I don't see why it garnered as much backlash as it did. If the original stock photo was never found would it have made a difference?

[Emmett L. Brown]

Looks like Grumpy Old Guy got his wish. Paragon actions DO come to bite you in the ass.

I dunno. I played a saint through all three games, picking the paragon choices of every single decision and conversation path, and everything worked out pretty great with the Geth and Quarians. I do like that rewriting the Geth turned out to be a bad idea, but fortunately I was able to make up for it without even being aware of the factors listed above.

I just finished the game, and overall I'm very impressed with the overall trilogy.The way the game personalises the events and characters to fit each kind of Shepard really fits well with me. I look forward to seeing how MA3 would play out with a Renegade Shepard.

However...

Endgame spoiler:

I hate the ending. I really, completely hate it. With MA2 and MA3 doing such a great job of showing me the consequences of each choice I made in the prevous games, I was expecting the final ending of the trilogy to show me how my choices would shape the future of the galaxy. Instead, I get a choice of three different endings that are set in stone no matter what I did up to that point. Ultimate Asshole Shepard and Pristine Saint Shepard get the same choice of endings, and no matter which one you pick Shepard has to die. Fuck. Three games of letting me make Shepard my hero of choice, and s/he doesn't get a happy ending? I wanted blue babies, dammit!

And don't even get me started on The Catalyst kid. You're better than that, Bioware. For shame.

[Old dead account]

I wanna get into this series but first I need to know a few things. How story driven is this? Is it enough to where I should start from the first ME or is it safe to start off on 3? How drastic do the games improve on each other? What other games is it similar to, is it sandbox or linear? It looked to me, from the little bit of footage that I saw, like Vanquish in space but playing and seeing aren't always the same thing. Also,how are the side quests? I've heard somebody say that the side quests in ME2 and NPC interactions rival those of Zelda Majora's Mask so I'm setting my standards extremely high after being told that.

I wouldn't be asking so much but since I'm a bit tight on money I gotta make sure the series is worth my eventual investment

Edited March 12, 2012 by Prince Solaris

[Emmett L. Brown]

It's a fantastic series, Prince Solaris. Exceptionally story-driven, but you can start with Mass Effect 2 by downloading the DLC that let's you make all the major choices of the first game in a ten minute comic book sequence. Still, I recommend going for the entire series.

Now please don't click on this spoiler, because I'm going to rant a bit about the ending of the trilogy.

It just struck me how the three possible endings of the game so utterly invalidate so many of my major decisons up to that point.

I cured the Genophage - great! Except galactic community has shattered permanently, so it doesn't matter in the slightest whether the Krogan are able to coexist with other races. Heck, Wrex and a good portion of the races are stuck on Earth now. Will they outbreed all other species on Earth? Who cares, skip to distant finale.

I saved the Geth, and secured peace with the Quarians. That means the Geth will allow their creators to live without suits in just a few years. But oops! The Mass Relay network is gone, Tali is stranded with no means of ever seeing her homeworld again, and the Geth are either erradicated, possibly taking the Quarians with them since they started coexisting, or cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Will they find a peaceful future? Who cares, skip to distant finale.

All those people I saved on the Citadel? All those personal lives I improved? All dead. The Citadel blew up. Will the remains of the destroyed space station cause a cataclysm on Earth? Who cares, skip to distant finale.

And what about all those possible heart-warming romances? Well, throw them into the grieving widow category, because Shepard is dead no matter what.

Fuck this ending. I would honestly pay good money for a DLC that gives some better closure, or just completely removes the last ten minutes of the game. The final showdown with the Illusive Man was great - everything afterwards was like something out of the Matrix sequels.

I can't destroy the Reapers without also killing EDI? FUCK you guys, she was my favourite character. I have to either go along with the Illusive Man and try to control the Reapers, which my Paragon Shepard would never do, or pull some ascension bullshit pulled out of nowhere? This ending blows!

Edited March 12, 2012 by Grumpy Old Guy

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Looks like I'm doing a good job of keeping myself spoiler free so far, but it appears that the ending is a big gripe of many people who've played this game.

I wanna get into this series but first I need to know a few things. How story driven is this? Is it enough to where I should start from the first ME or is it safe to start off on 3? How drastic do the games improve on each other? What other games is it similar to, is it sandbox or linear? It looked to me, from the little bit of footage that I saw, like Vanquish in space but playing and seeing aren't always the same thing. Also,how are the side quests? I've heard somebody say that the side quests in ME2 and NPC interactions rival those of Zelda Majora's Mask so I'm setting my standards extremely high after being told that.

I wouldn't be asking so much but since I'm a bit tight on money I gotta make sure the series is worth my eventual investment

Honestly, I took it upon myself to start with ME1 just to see everything that went on in that game. I just played it on the easiest setting since the gameplay was the one that took a backseat to the plot.

ME2 is really great, and it's more immersive than the first one. But playing 3 and going back to 2 will feel awkward given to how much faster and the range of motion you can do in 3 that you can't do in 2.

[killemoff]

I wanna get into this series but first I need to know a few things. How story driven is this? Is it enough to where I should start from the first ME or is it safe to start off on 3? How drastic do the games improve on each other? What other games is it similar to, is it sandbox or linear? It looked to me, from the little bit of footage that I saw, like Vanquish in space but playing and seeing aren't always the same thing. Also,how are the side quests? I've heard somebody say that the side quests in ME2 and NPC interactions rival those of Zelda Majora's Mask so I'm setting my standards extremely high after being told that.

I wouldn't be asking so much but since I'm a bit tight on money I gotta make sure the series is worth my eventual investment