[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Adam Jensen]

What's going on Wednesday?

The Higgs Boson was apparently discovered. The particle responsible for giving mass or something of that sort, I don't hope to understand physics at the quantum level.

[rhorle]

The Higgs Boson was apparently discovered. The particle responsible for giving mass or something of that sort, I don't hope to understand physics at the quantum level.

Yes and no. From information about the announcement it is only that they have found evidence that shows it almost certainly does exist. They don't seem to want to say they discovered it.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...dparticle.html

[Arkio]

The Higgs Boson was apparently discovered. The particle responsible for giving mass or something of that sort, I don't hope to understand physics at the quantum level.

Oh wow. That's interesting.

[Deleted]

The climax of a story isn't the end it is just the punch line. The climax of lord of the rings was frodo destroying the ring. But there are still many pages telling a story afterwards.

And thus we have Collector Base with Arrival afterwards.
Climax -> pages telling a story afterwards.

[Grizzly Willy]

And thus we have Collector Base with Arrival afterwards.
Climax -> pages telling a story afterwards.

Right. The climax doesn't mean the ending of a story. You have the introduction of characters, the problem, rising action, the climax, and then falling action. Arrival would constitute the falling action in this case.

Edit:

For those saying that Shepard dies at the end when you seem him breathing, I present this:

You may notice that in the “Shepard lives” ending, the love interest hesitates to place Shepard’s name on the wall, and instead looks up as though deep in thought. This is meant to suggest that the love interest is not ready to believe Shepard is dead, and the final scene reveals they are correct. As the Normandy lifts off, there is hope that the love interest and Shepard will again be together.

Posted here by Tully Ackland at the bottom of the thread.

[Nerraw]

Re-posting something from Memebase would probably get me in trouble normally, but I think this one should be allowed:

[Adam Jensen]

Re-posting something from Memebase would probably get me in trouble normally, but I think this one should be allowed:

Honestly, I was surprised by how expressive they made Legion.

[Gothicshark]

Moontalon and orissa, You can play Arrival before the collectors base, which will change the way Arrival works. Officially the Canonical play-though, Overlord and Arrival happen after the Collectors base, although with Overlord it doesn't change anything. Granted the official Shepard is John Shepard. Personally my head canon is Mariel Shepard.

You should start using the term 'Head Canon' this means a possible play-though which is different than the games creator says is official, but is your personal favorite way the game worked.

In the John Shepard Canon, aka Marketing Shepard, aka start with John Shepard with no import.

John Shepard is possibly a sentential. In N7 armor.(in the basic videos and Advertisements it seems most likely they used the Sentinel powers. with the standard assault riffle and the standard Heavy pistol) did no side quests nor loyalty missions. This Shepard only does one DLC, Arrival which he does after the collector base. Wrex and Kaidan die on Virmire. He killed the queen, he sacrifice the council. Ashley is his first love interest, no love interest in ME2. Udina is the first human councilor.

Which as most here would agree is a boring Shepard.


My Head canon, Mariel Shepard. She did all side quests, Saved the Queen, romanced Liara, Was a powerful Biotic, saved Ashley, Wrex and Kirrahe. Saved the council, talked Saren Arterius into suicide. (yes highest possible paragon in all 3 games) did all DLC saved the greatest amount of people possible. Did Arrival after the Collector base. and parked on Earth immediately afterwards.


So you have a different head canon compared to the basic John Shepard, most of us do, but officially John Shepard is the main bioware story.

[Deleted]

Re-posting something from Memebase would probably get me in trouble normally, but I think this one should be allowed:

It looks very much like a Pokemon. Pokemon: Mass Effect Edition. I would buy that.

[Deleted]

Tully Ackland at the bottom of the thread.

Tully have been spreading hope as opposed to his collegues.
Hes now my favourite Bioware employee.


I do endorse a pokemon edition of Mass Effect, it would be glorious.
Or digimon. Because pokemon never dies, and that would make it annoying to play as renegade.
Well apparently Gary manages it, but screw Gary.

Keltikone wrote...

Its wonderfull how my Shep managed to wait untill the Normandy was rebuilt, flying and was having a fine memorial service before taking a breath.

It takes a few months for the Lazarus Project's battery backup to start up.

There we have it good folks, myth busted.

So Starbrat said that synthesis couldnt be forced because then the organics wouldnt be ready and it wouldnt work.
Now im not entirly sure, but im sure that when choosing hippie ending, you just forced the entire galaxy to synthesis...

[Deleted]

Eat it Rhorle! Ah!

Why does that bring me such joy?

[Oerba Yun Fang]

Moontalon and orissa, You can play Arrival before the collectors base, which will change the way Arrival works. Officially the Canonical play-though, Overlord and Arrival happen after the Collectors base, although with Overlord it doesn't change anything. Granted the official Shepard is John Shepard. Personally my head canon is Mariel Shepard.

You should start using the term 'Head Canon' this means a possible play-though which is different than the games creator says is official, but is your personal favorite way the game worked.

In the John Shepard Canon, aka Marketing Shepard, aka start with John Shepard with no import.

John Shepard is possibly a sentential. In N7 armor.(in the basic videos and Advertisements it seems most likely they used the Sentinel powers. with the standard assault riffle and the standard Heavy pistol) did no side quests nor loyalty missions. This Shepard only does one DLC, Arrival which he does after the collector base. Wrex and Kaidan die on Virmire. He killed the queen, he sacrifice the council. Ashley is his first love interest, no love interest in ME2. Udina is the first human councilor.

Which as most here would agree is a boring Shepard.


My Head canon, Mariel Shepard. She did all side quests, Saved the Queen, romanced Liara, Was a powerful Biotic, saved Ashley, Wrex and Kirrahe. Saved the council, talked Saren Arterius into suicide. (yes highest possible paragon in all 3 games) did all DLC saved the greatest amount of people possible. Did Arrival after the Collector base. and parked on Earth immediately afterwards.


So you have a different head canon compared to the basic John Shepard, most of us do, but officially John Shepard is the main bioware story.

What?

I don't deny that Arrival happened after the Collector base in the timeline. That is quite clearly the case. I do deny, however, that that is the "real ending" to ME2. The "Real ending" to ME2, as far as I'm concerned, is the Collector base, with the DLC (which occurred after it in the timeline) being separate happenings between ME2 and ME3, that happened to be included in ME2. This would be a matter of convenience and common sense, really. They couldn't very well make an entirely separate game just for those events, and they wouldn't really fit well at the beginning of ME3, so ME2 is the only place left for them to really be put.

I'm not changing anything about the canon. All I'm doing is saying that I don't see Arrival and Overlord as part of ME2's storyline, but rather as events after ME2's storyline that needed to be included as ME2 DLC as a matter of mechanics. The fact that I play both of them before the Collector base is irrelevant.

Say you have events A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, and K.

Events A, B, and C - ME1

Events D, E, and F - ME2

Events G and H - between ME2 and ME3

Events I, J, and K - ME3.

The order of the events dooesn't change, just how they're grouped does. I'm not saying it went "D, E, G, H, F".

[Gothicshark]

"real ending" to ME2.

No one is saying that the Ending to ME2 is not the Collectors base. Almost all the DLC content is aimed for after the fact but it was meant to add to the story, and with Arrival it was really ME2.5 since it is the bridge story. I should also point out that the DLC for ME1 was all set to the middle of the game. Which I always felt was funny that in the first game it was during, the second game is after. And the last game has to be during.

[Oerba Yun Fang]

No one is saying that the Ending to ME2 is not the Collectors base. Almost all the DLC content is aimed for after the fact but it was meant to add to the story, and with Arrival it was really ME2.5 since it is the bridge story. I should also point out that the DLC for ME1 was all set to the middle of the game. Which I always felt was funny that in the first game it was during, the second game is after. And the last game has to be during.

This entire thing started because someone did say that Arrival was the real ending to ME2. Sekira, I believe it was, a few pages back.

[Adam Jensen]

Besides, we all know Shepard isn't alive at the end of the Destruction option.

Nope.

Just Chuck Testa.

[Deleted]

Besides, we all know Shepard isn't alive at the end of the Destruction option.

Nope.

Just Chuck Testa.

I was about to groan.
Then i saw what you did.
Now im just ashamed of you.

[Deleted]

My "canon" Infiltrator Shepard run went...

Saved Wrex
Saved Kirahee
Saved Kaidan
Killed Rachni Queen
No Romance (since Ash died).
Got Saren to off himself.
Killed the Council (Focus on Sovereign).

Destroyed Genophage Data
Kelly "romance" (kind of)
Killed Morinth.
All crew survived.
All squaddies survived.
Saved the Collector Base.
Saved David (Overlord)

Killed Mordin, sabotaged Genophage
Geth and Quarians made peace.
Spared Kaidan.
Miranda died.
Killed Wrex.
Saved Kelly.
Kaidan Romance (1st playthrough).
Kelly Romance (canon).
Chose Destroy.
Best Ending (6100+ EMS).

It's funny because almost all of my "major choices" have been Renegade, but I still end up with a majority share of Paragon for everything else.

[Deleted]

You could had saved Mordin if you just killed Wrex back on Virmire.
Unless you wanted both him and Wrex dead..
If thats the case, well done.

[Deleted]

The problem is that the major plot decisions don't give a lot of paragon or renegade points in comparison to the sidequests and general conversations. The lion's part comes from the latter really. On the other hand, it does allow you to play out the story as you want to without feeling constrained by the morality system (although ME2 can end up being like that if you're not careful).

Also, I wouldn't call many of the decisions you make evil by definition. Most of them are really grey, with only a few having clear good and evil choices. Destroying the Genophage Data is debatable for example, but you made the ethically correct choice there if nothing else, even if it can come back to haunt you. And letting the council die effectively means sacrificing few to save many, and that can be argued to be a decision made for the greater good.

[Deleted]

You could had saved Mordin if you just killed Wrex back on Virmire.
Unless you wanted both him and Wrex dead..
If thats the case, well done.

In my "final canon" run I played Mass Effect 1 & 2 a week before Mass Effect 3 released, thus I didn't know about the genophage choices and such.

---------- Post added 2012-07-03 at 04:43 PM ----------

The problem is that the major plot decisions don't give a lot of paragon or renegade points in comparison to the sidequests and general conversations. The lion's part comes from the latter really. On the other hand, it does allow you to play out the story as you want to without feeling constrained by the morality system (although ME2 can end up being like that if you're not careful).

Also, I wouldn't call many of the decisions you make evil by definition. Most of them are really grey, with only a few having clear good and evil choices. Destroying the Genophage Data is debatable for example, but you made the ethically correct choice there if nothing else, even if it can come back to haunt you. And letting the council die effectively means sacrificing few to save many, and that can be argued to be a decision made for the greater good.

I killed the Queen because I didn't trust a race of arachnids from Starship Troopers who had already threatened the galaxy once AND had shown they were liable to fall to Reaper indoctrination. Funnily enough it turned out I was right.

I chose to save Kaidan because A) He had the bomb and that was the objective. B) He's a technie and biotic and though it would have been nice to save them both Ash 'was' just a grunt at the end of the day. C) Hipster male Shepard who saves Kaidan.

The "Off the Council" was a genuine case of saving the many over the few, thus why I chose the middle ground of focusing on Sovereign instead of outright letting them die. I did like how in ME3 the overall number of War Assets you get from abandoning them tallies up more than if you saved them.

My Shepard supported Mordin on the genophage (his view in ME2 anyway), thus agreed to let him destroy the data so no nutjob gets a second crack at it.

Shepard understood the potential value of the Collector Base and that those colonists shouldn't have died for nothing in the end. Looking back, indoctrination should have set off warning signs but what the hoo-harr.

Saving David was easy. The only people I know who picked Renengade here were the people who redid the DLC just to see the outcome.

Sabotaged the Genophage because I really didn't trust the Krogan. IF Eve hadn't died I would most likely have agreed with Mordin and let him do it, but Wrex by himself? One lucky shot to the back of the head would let Wreav walk up and take his place and we all know what he wants. I wasn't going to take the chance and at least I could fake it until after the war... which is why the REAALLYY contrived "btw Wrex had another source in STG \0/!" thing pissed me off.

I managed to get the Geth and Quarians to make peace but if push came to shove I'd have picked to help the Quarians. Yeah, yeah, save me the whole "Unit has a soul" crap. I'd been gunning them down by the truck load for three games and they weren't even properly sentient until Legion completed the upload. Also, Reaper tech? Yeah, we know how well that's gone in the past.

Picked Destroy just because I wanted the Reapers well and truly gone for good. Synthesis was... just... what? Half-humanoid, half-robotic? What? And the Reapers would still be around? I don't trust that. Sounds almost like they want to husk-ify us. Control? It was tempting, but my Shepard was worried he'd go fruitloop with the power or The Catalyst was lying through his teeth. Destroy got rid of them, now and forever, with no other loop holes that could be exploited in the future. Bam. The end.