[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Kaelwryn]

I use the save editor to make it as though I imported from ME1 so it works for me. XD

Unfortunately I do not have the luxury of using save editor. Alas, the price one pays when you play on consoles. Aah well.


And I'm now very curious about the Leviathan DLC...Gah, need to save my money damnit. *grumbles about all these games/dlcs coming out around the same time*

[Deleted]

Having a reaper on your side is a bigger thing than ANY of those in the storyline.
Hell, the rachni were useless.
Releasing a DLC with such huge consequences HAVE to be reflected in the ending.

And your choices do matter in the endings, you get different stillimages that doesnt explain shit!

[Grizzly Willy]

I still consider the entirety of ME3 to be the ending of the trilogy, so when somebody says that their actions had no impact on the ending I point to every place where you see your actions impacting the story.

[Nerraw]

I still consider the entirety of ME3 to be the ending of the trilogy, so when somebody says that their actions had no impact on the ending I point to every place where you see your actions impacting the story.

Someone is actually in the same mindset as I am! \o/

[Deleted]

I can already see Shep riding his mighty loyal reaper towards the star fucking kid, reaping his head off with his omniblade!
Damn, I'm still trying to get my fucking save games back via data recovery programs. Been scanning my harddrive the entire day...

Or just get someone else's save file?

[Adam Jensen]

I still consider the entirety of ME3 to be the ending of the trilogy, so when somebody says that their actions had no impact on the ending I point to every place where you see your actions impacting the story.

Hmm, never really thought of it that was. Good point though.

[Grizzly Willy]

Never! I would rather start over from zipo.
Though, I'm not giving up that easily! I'll get them back and I'm not giving up until monday!

I'll be going through the entire series again pretty soon. I only really have one character that I play as, with the only difference between playthroughs being either the difficulty or the class I'm using. Going to have an engineer with Tali as his love interest, and then I'll probably make a femshep. Not sure if I want to have a renegade Shepard.

[Yuanrang]

I've never really understood the ME3 rage. I got it in early June, and I have no-lifed SP and MP ever since. 43-44 hour long storyline that was very entertaining and felt great, watching almost all your past decisions influence the game? Great fun, and hell, the Multiplayer was probably the greatest surprise with the game.

It is one of those games I just feel like I got my money's worth, and so much more. The entire ME3 is, as someone just posted, the end of the trilogy and whatever choice you make at the end can not really belittle that (besides, I still think the D-ending is a good one and one I expected).

[Adam Jensen]

I've never really understood the ME3 rage. I got it in early June, and I have no-lifed SP and MP ever since. 43-44 hour long storyline that was very entertaining and felt great, watching almost all your past decisions influence the game? Great fun, and hell, the Multiplayer was probably the greatest surprise with the game.

It is one of those games I just feel like I got my money's worth, and so much more. The entire ME3 is, as someone just posted, the end of the trilogy and whatever choice you make at the end can not really belittle that (besides, I still think the D-ending is a good one and one I expected).

Agreed. Never understood it myself. Before the EC, the ending sucked, but the rest of the game was bloody amazing. Now, with the EC, the endings are satisfying and the rest of the game is bloody amazing. Not as great as ME2, but still bloody amazing (and ME2 is my favorite only by a hair.)

[Yuanrang]

Well, I do have the benefit of not playing before the EC was out. I had to wait about 3 months to get ME3 because of 15-hour long work days, so gaming was not on my mind. When I did get it, I knew that the EC was right around the corner, so I decided to play Multiplayer to get my skills brushed up because I wanted to do my first playthrough on Insanity.

...after starting Multiplayer.... well I was hooked for about a month, then remembered that I should play Single Player, then I got hooked on that and... now it's back to Multiplayer.

For me, at least, it was a great experience. I can safely say that, for me, it was an epic conclusion (as a game) to an epic trilogy. The sheer satisfaction of dragging the same Shepard through over 120 hours of consecutive storytelling in a story which you could tailormake to fit your smallest decision... well, it was just a defining moment in nearly 20 years of personal gaming history. I loved it, even if I didn't agree with everything, but this is how I see it:

You will have millions of people playing the games THEIR ways. They get attached to THEIR characters, THEIR interactions and THEIR choices. People will just be disappointed, enraged and sad when things do not play out the way they thought it would, after they invested over 100 hours to see it to the end. I honestly do not think that is a loss for BioWare, because all that means is that they have managed to make all of these players involved in the story enough to react. They might not agree, but hell, I never agreed to Aeris dying in Final Fantasy 7, of having to choose who to save in Metal Gear Solid, or be forcibly sent to the Underdark during NWN: Hordes of the Underdark.

However... sometimes, that is just how things are, and even such situations create memorable moments.

[Grizzly Willy]

I got the game and finished it about a week before the EC came out, and I still found the endings satisfactory.

[Grizzly Willy]

I am well aware that I am in the minority on the internet.

[Glorious Leader]

I've never really understood the ME3 rage. I got it in early June, and I have no-lifed SP and MP ever since. 43-44 hour long storyline that was very entertaining and felt great, watching almost all your past decisions influence the game? Great fun, and hell, the Multiplayer was probably the greatest surprise with the game.

It is one of those games I just feel like I got my money's worth, and so much more. The entire ME3 is, as someone just posted, the end of the trilogy and whatever choice you make at the end can not really belittle that (besides, I still think the D-ending is a good one and one I expected).

It's all about the tribalism and factionalism of the human race. In the past people would align themselves with various institutions as a form of power worship. National pride, religious zealotry, political furor are all examples of this. People find a center of power and feel they want to be part of it so they join it. Part of this is the need to vilify that which isn't part of that center of power i.e communism, Islam and in Orwell Emanuel Goldstein. Bioware, Blizzard and any other company that has perceived to have done something against the best intentions of the gaming community is now factionalized as such and people build get into a furor over them. Hate week as it's called in 1984. It's cathartic to an extent for them and the annonimity of the internet provides them with a very easy way to do it.

As for being upset about the actual endings themselves I think it falls into two catagories one I understand and one I disagree with.

1. The actual ending ending left people with very little choice and meaning. That's fine, I think Bioware coudl have done a better job with that so I understand the complaint here.
2. Plot holes and loopholes and things not making sense. Example: how was joker flying thorugh a mass effect relay when it blew up? why is liara on that planet even though she was with you at the end? This I disagree with because it's more or less a function of peoples simple lack of imagination. I got into so many arguments with people on the BSN because it's obvious what happened. We don't know how long shep was out for. Joker picked them up and they were ordered to retreat which is more or less what happened in the EC. NOBODY could accept that they. They raged and fumed about it and then the EC came out and it turned out that's exactly what happened. A simple lack of imagination on the part of the community.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Atrahasis: you should start looking at the second category as less of a lack of imagination and more of a difference in how one appreciates a story. Not everyone appreciates art in the same way. You enjoy being able to fill in the blanks on your own, I enjoy the blanks being filled for me. I appreciate when the story is given to me as a whole, you appreciate a more open-ended "make up your own mind as to what happened after this" story. It doesn't have to be a positive and a negative.

[Glorious Leader]

Atrahasis: you should start looking at the second category as less of a lack of imagination and more of a difference in how one appreciates a story. Not everyone appreciates art in the same way. You enjoy being able to fill in the blanks on your own, I enjoy the blanks being filled for me. I appreciate when the story is given to me as a whole, you appreciate a more open-ended "make up your own mind as to what happened after this" story. It doesn't have to be a positive and a negative.

Sorry. I don't accept that people simply don't like to think. When you do it gives starts to give people licence to NEVER think and then the people who do have imaginations and like to think become a smaller and smaller minority. ALL OF THE GREATEST WORKS OF ART KNOWN TO MAN KIND ARE FILLED WITH AMBIGUITIES AND INCONSISTENCIES LIKE IN MASS EFFECT. That should be made extremely clear. Going through my study of Wagners opera and I fined it's filled inconsistencies and logical problems that are left up to the imagination of the listener. Truly great works of art do this and do it frequently. It takes the art and turns it from simply a story into a myth or a legend.

Put down the tv and the xbox, read a book and practice using your imagination again. Then things like Mass Effect take on a whole new level of wonder and amazement.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Sorry. I don't accept that people simply don't like to think. When you do it gives starts to give people licence to NEVER think and then the people who do have imaginations and like to think become a smaller and smaller majority.

Why do you insist on turning it into a negative?

I like to think. I do my thinking DURING the story. I try to figure out where the story is going to go, and then the ending either proves me wrong or right. I can't do that when I have information missing. That is why I did not like the original endings. I think, and I have an imagination. I just don't think in the same way you do.

[Deleted]

Mhauhahauhahaauhhau! I think I got them! The data recovery is yet to finish, but the files seem to be there!
Now I Just need to know if they actually work >.<! Might need some help for that though... since I don't have any of the games installed.

Any volunters ? =P

I can do that, lets see how you saved the galaxy...


And no EC is not good.
A step in the right direction to make it a proper ending for the trilogy since you just saved the entire fucking galaxy, but babysteps people!
And its still "Choose A, B or C"

Put down the tv and the xbox, read a book and practice using your imagination again. Then things like Mass Effect take on a whole new level of wonder and amazement.

Exactly, its a game not a book. Its a story being SHOWN to us.
Now stop putting them together.

[Glorious Leader]

Why do you insist on turning it into a negative?

I like to think. I do my thinking DURING the story. I try to figure out where the story is going to go, and then the ending either proves me wrong or right. I can't do that when I have information missing. That is why I did not like the original endings. I think, and I have an imagination. I just don't think in the same way you do.

Really? You can't think without having missing information? People do that all the time. Also why do you care if your proven right or wrong by what you thought about the ending? Again you can make reasonable conclusions without having all the information. It's called using your imagination. I had so many kids argue with me about space magic when it was fairly obvious that the Normandy was simply ordered to retreat. If they had spent at least a minute in thought or reflection they would have realized that.

---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 09:21 AM ----------

I can do that, lets see how you saved the galaxy...


And no EC is not good.
A step in the right direction to make it a proper ending for the trilogy since you just saved the entire fucking galaxy, but babysteps people!
And its still "Choose A, B or C"



Exactly, its a game not a book. Its a story being SHOWN to us.
Now stop putting them together.

Why? You can have a story shown to you (as I cited in my Wagner example) and STILL use your imagination to fill in inconsitencies and perceived plot holes. Seriously BSN kids would argue with me "DERP HOW DID LIARA GET ON THE NORMANDY WHILE SHE WAS ON THE PLANET? WAS IT DERP SPACE MAGIC HERP" and it's was very easy to respond and say "well presumably because Cortez fixed his ship and picked her up" See that's the thing, I could make that mental picture of what happened very easily without having it be shown to me on the boob tube. Those guys on the BSN and probably alot of others can't do that simple act of imagination anymore.

[Deleted]

Which makes for very poor storytelling.
"im gonna tell you a story, but i will leave out half of it so you have to do it yourselves."
Stop acting like you are some special person for creating fantasies wherever you can.

[Glorious Leader]

If were to use the history of western literature and art as examples of story telling than it's not very poor. Take the ending of Wagners ring cycle. Well it ends with Valhalla burning even though EVERY possible act of redemption has been fulfilled. Now if Wagner had wrote it today, you'd be scratching your heads wondering what the fuck is up. Actually many people did and their are many intrepetations on what exactly the ending means. The difference is people had the capacity to imagine an answer back then and think. It and it's how MYTH and LEGEND are made. Myths and legends are filled with plot holes, and logical inconsistencies and crazy shit that just doesn't make sense. In the past people would imagine ways to fill those things. Now they just get mad and troll forums.

Tell me why it's so hard for you to imagine that the Normandy was ordered to retreat. It literally took me 2 seconds to put 2 and 2 together.