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Fag Boy Jim posted:there's a part in the Quarian mission where you walk in zero-G through a docking tube, it's just a really slow boring walk that takes way too long. It's only one part, don't worry about it. jcp982 posted:I thought there was one at the beginning - there's definitely another one somewhere in the middle. They're not bad - they're just... you walking. Slowly. From one end of a tube to the other. Oh. Maybe there was one near the beginning. I don't know. If there was, it was pretty forgettable because I can't even remember it 
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Mar 8, 2012 23:08
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jcp982 posted:Ohhh right. Yeah that was a weird segment. Clearly some snipping was done here or something. It actually seemed more like padding than snipping. Ditto the sections with shitloads of waves that take forever on any difficulty above normal. It's weird if they felt the need to pad the game, I rushed through it (didn't listen to any side convos, only did about half the side missions) and got 18 hours played, that's a ton these days.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:09
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Fag Boy Jim posted:(ending spoilers) This was my initial reaction when I read about the endings before the game came out. Having played through it, I now think more that they made a mistake not providing the option of a reunion of some sort at the end. Or an option closer to a bad rear end action flick. Because I think Mass Effect was really strong at emulating that style - I think they set up certain expectations with the last 2 games - and I can definitely see why some players were like genuinely creeped out once Shepard woke up on the Citadel. A lot of the stuff - with Shepard bloody and burned - was genuinely unnerving to me. It was a genre switch for sure.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:10
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jcp982 posted:This was my initial reaction when I read about the endings before the game came out. Having played through it, I now think more that they made a mistake not providing the option of a reunion of some sort at the end. Or an option closer to a bad rear end action flick. Because I think Mass Effect was really strong at emulating that style - I think they set up certain expectations with the last 2 games - and I can definitely see why some players were like genuinely creeped out once Shepard woke up on the Citadel. A lot of the stuff - with Shepard bloody and burned - was genuinely unnerving to me. It was a genre switch for sure. (ending spoilers)The real bother to me is that the rest of the game is so good at keeping up with your consequences - hell, the whole Galacitc War Asset thing could've been a hidden variable, but they went through the effort to record everything going into the war with text. I appreciated the hell out of that, and I couldn't help but think a similar thing to tell you about the post-war galaxy was missing. People have compared the ending to Deus Ex, (spoilers for that ahead) either the first or Human Revolution, and it's an apt comparison, but also underlies the weakness of this ending style for Mass Effect 3. In Deus Ex the main character rarely expresses their personal opinion on the big themes of the story, because it's a story driven by themes and they want to maintain player freedom. The ending choice then is the player's opportunity to definitively express what their opinion is on the theme. You don't get big character endings or anything flashy because that's not what the story was really about, it was about what makes a human being a human being. Mass Effect 3 is not a game about themes. There are themes, sure, but the driving point of the plot is not to explore them. Characters are more than vehicles for ideas, in fact characters are the reason for the story. Trying to make the ending a choice between different philosophies is jarring - did people really define Shepard by their opinion on transhumanism and technology above all else? No, they defined Shepard in terms of relationships to their crew, to the nations and races of the galaxy, to their commitment to justice or their determination to get the job done. The endings offered don't explore these, that's why they're unsatisfactory, not simply because they're unhappy. On a lighter note, Conrad Verner's appearance was the highlight of the game. I just know they were laughing and laughing when they were sitting there trying to cram in as many references as possible. Asari Matriarch writings? Elkoss License? Gavin? Jenna? Hah!
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Mar 8, 2012 23:21
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Well I am THOROUGHLY enjoying myself with this game, it just feels so good to be Commander Shepard again and meet the gang and everything. Loving it. EA's marketing dept tried its best to make me doubt my love for Mass Effect, though.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:25
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I'm enjoying my playthrough as a sentinel. I'm a lot more mobile than I was as a soldier. Took armor piercing ammo as a bonus ability and really enjoy how the shield the guardians carry around are basically non-existant. Very satisfying to just walk up to them and shotgun blast their heads off. Anyway, about the ending: It seemed like ME3 wanted all the trappings of some big 2001 Space Odyssey transcendental ending but didn't want to do the legwork to get you there. I can see an ending like this work, some kind of Everyman stripping away of your material self as you ascend to a position equal to the Reapers where you can decide their fate, but that requires a hell of a lot more setup than what you are given. Instead the transition is so jarring that it's absurd. For a game where the theme is survival against impossible odds and maintaining some semblance of humanity in the face of an incomprehensible evil, Shepard being reduced to a charred, shaky near-corpse who can't think of anything to say and can only be led around by a holographic child seems like a defeat. That could have been overlooked if there were any closure. Instead there's just a hell of a lot of poo poo that isn't explained. The cycle that gets mentioned barely gets mentioned, and sounds like a ridiculous contrivance as a result, and the endings themselves are not explored in any meaningful way. It's just a different colored laser beam happens and then Normandy is in trouble and whatever whatever blah here's your credit screen now go away. People have brought up the Fallout endings to contrast and the Deus Ex endings to compare and it really works. Fallout's endings have generally been "here are the results of your work. Here are the lives and communities you have encountered. How they have thrived and how they have suffered as a result of you." while Deus Ex was all "make a choice that will decide the course of all humanity. Because these choices are fundamental changes in life and society we can only conjecture what it would mean for everyone involved, so just imagine an ending." Mass Effect should have gone for the Fallout style, but it went for the Deus Ex ending, and it did so without laying down a philosophical foundation upon which to build on providing no context by which to explore any of the possibilities beforehand. It's simply heaped upon you from out of nowhere. The only person looking towards a future of any kind was the Illusive Man and your only interaction is "Shepard I am so in love with myself, do you agree?" "No TIM you are indoctrinated and dumb" "Dang so that's what all this Reaper poo poo on my face is". Ultimately I feel that ME3 tries to aspire to tell a story beyond the immediate survival of the characters in its world, but it tries only in the last fifteen minutes of the game. I'm not one to go "heh they were rushing to get this out of the door and slapped some bullshit at the end to cover it up", but they really seemed to be rushing to get this out of the door and slapped some bullshit at the end to cover it up. Mr. Pumroy fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 23:26
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I'm finding it easier just to let the Reapers catch me during S&R because it just reloads me into the system. Its handy when you just need to find a stupid fuel depot to get 100% on a system. Though sometimes it seems they show up literally after one scan.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:28
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Mr. Pumroy posted:I'm enjoying my playthrough as a sentinel. I'm a lot more mobile than I was as a soldier. Took armor piercing ammo as a bonus ability and really enjoy how the shield the guardians carry around are basically non-existant. Very satisfying to just walk up to them and shotgun blast their heads off. Yeah, not having beat this game myself but reading the spoilers, a New Vegas styled ending card would been perfect, with the party and important NPCs narrating, like Tali talking about the fate of the quarian, Wrex and Grunt for krograns, etc. It would did the closeure and they still could used the ohter option at the end in reaction to the final fate of Shepard. Oh well, knowing EA there will be a post ending dlc in the future due to negative reaction, ala Fallout 3/Prince of Persia.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:30
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Can you take Ashley to Eden Prime? If so, does she have special dialog?
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Mar 8, 2012 23:32
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[quote="Dolash"] (ending spoilers)The real bother to me is that the rest of the game is so good at keeping up with your consequences - hell, the whole Galacitc War Asset thing could've been a hidden variable, but they went through the effort to record everything going into the war with text. I appreciated the hell out of that, and I couldn't help but think a similar thing to tell you about the post-war galaxy was missing. People have compared the ending to Deus Ex, (spoilers for that ahead) either the first or Human Revolution, and it's an apt comparison, but also underlies the weakness of this ending style for Mass Effect 3. In Deus Ex the main character rarely expresses their personal opinion on the big themes of the story, because it's a story driven by themes and they want to maintain player freedom. The ending choice then is the player's opportunity to definitively express what their opinion is on the theme. You don't get big character endings or anything flashy because that's not what the story was really about, it was about what makes a human being a human being. (ending spoilers) I definitely agree, though while I do think the games do have a theme (something closer to 24's fighting evil at a cost), it certainly wasn't exclusive to singularity. That only felt like it was a piece of the story - mainly Tali and Legion's - and it did feel a little jarring to be told that was core motive behind everything. But I definitely think we needed less of a Deus Ex ending, and more of a Final Fantasy 6 ending. Hell, even something closer to Dragon Age Origins - with you walking around the room saying bye to everyone. I definitely don't think the ending needed to be a set of choices - I don't think it's the worst idea - but I think a stronger ending would have been a pretty straight ending with the variations coming in who survived and where they'll be going from here. Alpha Protocol is a good example of a pretty straight ending with lots of room for variation in the little details like who's side you're on and who's with you at the end.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:33
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This thread sure moves fast.  I basically binged through two days that I had requested off work, and so far I'm loving it for the most part. I do have a couple random gripes.1) Spoilers for Rannoch: I had seen glimpses of the on rails turret thing fighting the reaper from trailers, and I was pumped for an awesome sequence of blasting away while frantically trying to escape, while Quarian ships pound the hell out if it with orbital bombardments and had an expectation that it would be :metal: as gently caress. Total letdown because "Oh no we're running; oops, now we're done!" Like, not even a minute long. 2) ME2 character spoiler: Jacob why are you on the Citadel but not getting loud and spilling drinks YOU PROMISED Oh, and Tuchanka was amazing. Just, amazing. Wrex's brograb before we went our seperate ways and the Thresher Maw takedown of the Reaper. I was basically  that whole time.I've already had some ending stuff spoiled so I'm prepared for a bit of a letdown in that department, but what a wild ride it's going to be.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:33
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Rirse posted:Yeah, not having beat this game myself but reading the spoilers, a New Vegas styled ending card would been perfect, with the party and important NPCs narrating, like Tali talking about the fate of the quarian, Wrex and Grunt for krograns, etc. It would did the closeure and they still could used the ohter option at the end in reaction to the final fate of Shepard. Oh well, knowing EA there will be a post ending dlc in the future due to negative reaction, ala Fallout 3/Prince of Persia. I don't know if it would have been PERFECT. I can't be the only one who finds the Fallout endings a little lacking? I think it would have worked better here because we knew all the characters a lot better, but honestly I think they needed more of a Return of the Jedi ending, where everyone is around the fire celebrating and commemorating the dead.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:35
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Imma say this straight up: the mix of male-Shep's not quite perfect voice acting, in addition to the uncanny-valley effect of imperfect facial movements, has had me loving rolling. It's like looking at a actor who either plays it over-the-top or not at all.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:38
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jcp982 posted:I don't know if it would have been PERFECT. I can't be the only one who finds the Fallout endings a little lacking? I think it would have worked better here because we knew all the characters a lot better, but honestly I think they needed more of a Return of the Jedi ending, where everyone is around the fire celebrating and commemorating the dead. Basically, almost any kind of ending other than the one we got would have been better.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:38
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3Romeo posted:Imma say this straight up: the mix of male-Shep's not quite perfect voice acting, in addition to the uncanny-valley effect of imperfect facial movements, has had me loving rolling. It's like looking at a actor who either plays it over-the-top or not at all. So Male-shep is Nick Cage?
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Mar 8, 2012 23:39
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Rincewind posted:I've been wondering about this too. I don't see why anybody would want to kill Armin Shimmerman, but since the individual council members are playing important roles (instead of just being an amorphous blob of ah yes reapers), I'm curious about what happens if they're dead. I hated the ever-loving gently caress out of the council on my first ME1 play-through, so I never updated them on anything, and let them die. What changes? Nothing. There's still three council members, turian, asari and salarian, voiced the same way. The only thing that's different is the dialogue changes a bit, when you initially ask for help they're all like "Maybe we'd help, but you kinda left the council to die. Yeah, you're on your own." Which is bullshit, all you need to do is rescue the equivalent of Turian John McCain, exactly the same.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:40
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jcp982 posted:I don't know if it would have been PERFECT. I can't be the only one who finds the Fallout endings a little lacking? I think it would have worked better here because we knew all the characters a lot better, but honestly I think they needed more of a Return of the Jedi ending, where everyone is around the fire celebrating and commemorating the dead. I wouldn't say no to such an ending, if only because the "your video game character is going to die so that all may live" is the kind of ending that I really, really don't like. Nothing says "we don't know what we're doing!" more than reaching for the Jesus ending. Still, I've kind of come to expect it. Especially from Bioware games.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:40
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Male Shep's blank stare loving kills me in most cutscenes that show it even semi close-up. Some of the other characters always look like they're expressing different emotions, but with Male Shep at least, it looks like he always feels the same way, even when he's talking about kids dying back on Earth or whatever. It's goddamn hilarious.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:43
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Mr. Pumroy posted:I wouldn't say no to such an ending, if only because the "your video game character is going to die so that all may live" is the kind of ending that I really, really don't like. Nothing says "we don't know what we're doing!" more than reaching for the Jesus ending. Still, I've kind of come to expect it. Especially from Bioware games. I think it works as an option in games like these. Dragon Age had potential for the main character to live or die at the end, based on what you chose. Both endings were satisfying, which I think may be what's certainly missing here. But in a game of choice - with survival on the line - I would definitely include self-sacrifice as a no brainer. I do recognize that it's done a lot, but still.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:45
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Rageaholic Monkey posted:Male Shep's blank stare loving kills me in most cutscenes that show it even semi close-up. I found the fem shep (custom model) to be pretty expressive in this game - especially in the eyes. But they did go a bit overboard with her angry brow.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:45
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jcp982 posted:I found the fem shep (custom model) to be pretty expressive in this game - especially in the eyes. But they did go a bit overboard with her angry brow. More evidence that Femshep is realshep.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:46
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CaptainCarrot posted:Can you take Ashley to Eden Prime? If so, does she have special dialog? Yes, she does. In the shuttle trip down to the planet she recounts how her squad was wiped out and she ran into Shepard's team.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:49
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Has anyone else found the Shepard VI in the docks? It's pretty funny just talking to it.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:49
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What exactly determines the "Galactic Readiness"? It's been 50% across the board for the entire game for me so far despite my "Effective Military Strength" meter being completely full.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:50
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hunted by a freak posted:What exactly determines the "Galactic Readiness"? It's been 50% across the board for the entire game for me so far despite my "Effective Military Strength" meter being completely full. It's filled by playing Multiplayer.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:50
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hunted by a freak posted:What exactly determines the "Galactic Readiness"? It's been 50% across the board for the entire game for me so far despite my "Effective Military Strength" meter being completely full. How much multiplayer you've done.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:50
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My readiness seems to have gotten worse since doing multiplayer.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:51
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Gaseous Snake posted:My readiness seems to have gotten worse since doing multiplayer. It dropped one point for me for some reason, I'm not sure why.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:51
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Hey cool Origin just gave me a pop-up ad for Mass Effect 3!  Maybe I can buy it twice.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:51
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Ending stuff; Personally I just wanted everything to fail at the end and humanity and the rest of the species realizing that they aren't special and that it's the end of the cycle and it's going to repeat again. But then again I know most people probably would have hated that as well Fag Boy Jim posted:It dropped one point for me for some reason, I'm not sure why. Does it degrade overtime if you don't play MP?
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Mar 8, 2012 23:51
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I guess me not playing multiplayer at all explains why it hadn't changed then! Thanks for the fast replies.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:52
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Fag Boy Jim posted:It dropped one point for me for some reason, I'm not sure why. If it's above 50% it drops one point every day to force you to play multiplayer.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:53
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jcp982 posted:more of a Return of the Jedi ending, where everyone is around the fire celebrating and commemorating the dead. That is what I was looking for in an ending. With the emphasis on character in the ME games we really needed to have some scene with the survivors even if Shepherd is dead. After so much build up and so many "so this is the end" conversations it feels so weird to just have a quick cinema screen like this is ending a Halo game and not an rpg. I didn't like Deus Ex HR's ending but it's way more jarring here because I wasn't that invested in anyone or gravely voiced protagonist man in HR. As lame as it is (and holy crap does EA not need any more microtransaction ideas) I really would pay money for a super extra do over DLC ending.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:54
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So now that trash enemies don't have defenses on insanity, an adept with Liara is hilarious. We both have barely any cool downs on singularity and warp so it is a nonstop parade of warsplosions resulting in a hurricane of shiny blue murder. Even shields aren't so bad after I discovered you can combo warp then throw and still get an explosion. Will be even easier when I can get energy drain as a bonus power. Someone a few pages back said adept seemed like a support role, we this is far from the case, adepts in ME3 are really aggressive. Does anyone else find the DLC character not very useful? His DoT is kind of weak even when fully specced for damage and slam continues the tradition of sucking even as part of a combo. He is kind of neat to take along though if only for the reactions of everyone else. That and Liara being disappointed at discovering the species she admired so much used to be a bunch of space Hitlers
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Mar 8, 2012 23:55
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Zomodok posted:Does it degrade overtime if you don't play MP?
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Mar 8, 2012 23:55
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hunted by a freak posted:I guess me not playing multiplayer at all explains why it hadn't changed then! Thanks for the fast replies. It's been strongly debated in this thread that the max WA score you can accrue is 7000ish, and since you need a score of 5000 for the best(?) ending, you might want to do an hour or so of multiplayer to raise up the % just before you do the endgame. Especially if you've made a number of suboptimal decisions over the last 120 hours of gameplay. e: fb Edit2: Sentinels are also walking deathmachines when paired with Liara (and her just for singularity). Was a much refreshing change of pace from the ME2 sentinel playstyle of "find cover, wear down enemies, wait for krogan/guddamn merc to kill off everyone." OAquinas fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Mar 8, 2012 |
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Mar 8, 2012 23:55
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fyi the "magic number" (unless you really, really want to see one second of teaser footage) is 2800, not 5000, which is pretty reasonable to attain with 50% readiness.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:56
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jcp982 posted:I don't know if it would have been PERFECT. I can't be the only one who finds the Fallout endings a little lacking? I think it would have worked better here because we knew all the characters a lot better, but honestly I think they needed more of a Return of the Jedi ending, where everyone is around the fire celebrating and commemorating the dead. Ending Spoilers: Agreed. The entire game was about sacrifice and struggle. In the end, every race is decimated by losses. There is no easy or completely happy ending. poo poo is bad and no matter what, some of your friends are dead. The ending is so bad because it completely glosses over that. The only thing the ending cares about is the philosophical organic v. Synthetic issue. An issue that you already explored fully and answered with the Geths and Quarians. But that wasn't enough. Instead of that issue being the basis of a very strong and well fleshed out side story, it had to be the final point of the ending too. It would be nice to hear an honest developer account of how this came to be the ending. It wasn't what they had planned when they made ME2. And it wasn't even what was planned earlier in the development cycle of ME3. At what point did they decide to throw out the backstory of the other games and do a DX ending? The ending just doesn't fit with the game in relation to tone, theme, character development, or anything. It's this strange thing is just tacked on at the end. Ah well, maybe we'll get a new ending as part of some DLC.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:56
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Did BioWare state a reason for not including film grain in this game? The game just doesn't feel the same without it.
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Mar 8, 2012 23:57
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Add me to the "binged this poo poo" crew. Overall, the game is awesome, right up until the last 15 minutes. (ending spoilers) What the HELL man? The ending is just so ridiculously out of character and unsatisfying it's just... holy poo poo. I can kind of see where they were going with it, but seriously, that was bad. As someone said before, the whole trilogy centers on characters and their development/their interactions with the world, and it end on a "choose your own laser" thing? I did everything in the game, as near as I could tell, and aside from the little chat with Legion about machine souls, there was really zero build-up to the choice. Most of the game is an awesome scramble for the final battle. Getting the fleets together, getting all these random factions like Kirrahee and other small STG groups, and all that.... which you never really see aside from the two shots of the armada. I was looking forward to Kirrahee coming in and loving things up by my side, I was looking forward to seeing Grunt/Wrex tear the gently caress out of some husks, etc etc etc. Instead what I got was a still-awesome, but completely solo battle to the ending, and then the child/cycle/choice message. After all the buildup, I was seriously expecting a superweapon. The idea that the weapon would destroy all the relays was pretty much set in stone, but I expected a... weapon. Not a transhumanist discussion thrown in at the last minute. I honestly don't think it was a "ran out of budget" issue so much as someone higher up looking at the script and going "but games are ART! we need some kind of deep choice at the end! ARRRT" and throwing in the transhumanism/control/utter destruction ending as a way to make it have a message or whatever. Then they didn't get enough time to rewrite the whole thing for the ending to make sense. Will buy an alternative-ending DLC where  smacks the big red button and insta-fucks every reaper in the universe. Followed by what Lawlicaust mentioned-some kind of celebration/bitter victory scene.Great game overall, aside from the MP tie-in that I personally thought was utterly stupid. Same as Fallout 3, needs an alt ending DLC. Naturally Selected fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Mar 9, 2012 |
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Mar 9, 2012 00:01
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