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I beat it! I had a good time! And that ending... sure did come at the end of the game. Re: that ending: the choices were triply arbitrary: they have nothing to do with what came before them, there's no reason for them to be what they are, and they never reveal their consequences. Consequently, I'm just going to imagine my own ending instead. I'm imagining it right now. Oh wow this is so cool. I think the main reason it rung so hollow for me is because at no point in the trilogy did it compellingly establish (what it wanted to be) the central theme of the setting, namely that there's any drat difference between organics and synthetics. It was asking me to make the final decision based on a premise which it failed to convince me was not bogus, and that's something of an accomplishment considering how much ink it spilled on related topics. Had me rolling my eyes a bit. I went back after beating it and picked a different one, and it showed the same cutscene with some slightly different visual effects, and a different character with Joker at the end. It was a great journey. Shame about the destination. Being an Infiltrator was way more fun this time around, on account of how it gives you enough ammunition to use the most powerful sniper rifle for everything. Bongo Bill fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Mar 9, 2012 |
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Mar 9, 2012 17:03
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If they were to do a DLC pack that changes the ending, I'd want them to at least add something else. A new mission or something.
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Mar 10, 2012 09:35
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Spacebump posted:So I have a question about the Quarians When did they start wearing their suits and why?Because in the game we see them wearing them before the Geth took over their planet They started wearing the suits after they started living on the ships. You see the suits because they're being represented based on Shepard's memories and Shepard has never seen under their suits. Legion explains this.
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Mar 10, 2012 09:48
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Heliotic posted:I'm not sure how much of this is spoilers, jesus christ this thread. Such an ending should at least be possible, is what I think.
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Mar 10, 2012 11:13
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I'm gonna speak out in defense of this ending. For all the ways it was bad, at least it didn't make anything else retroactively dumber. And there are a lot of crummy endings out there that do just that.
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Mar 10, 2012 11:37
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Well, there is a charitable explanation for it. Ignore for a moment the plot holes and lack of explanation of the nature of the choice presented. The situation revealed at the end essentially means that the (creators of the?) Reapers were trying to prevent technological singularity by culling every species that became advanced enough to risk triggering it, and turning them into new Reapers instead of just destroying them outright in order to ensure their unique perspective isn't lost. The fact that galactic civilization had reached a point where it was possible to resist the Reapers proved that they needed to switch to a different tactic, and Shepard was offered a choice of how to kick things off. (Again, we're ignoring that the options presented didn't make any drat sense in terms of how they could happen or why they had to come with the drawbacks they did.) That's a pretty decent revelation to end a science fiction saga with! The problem is that there's a lot more than that one central dilemma to Mass Effect. And, in fact, that central dilemma hadn't ever been touched on in the entire trilogy, and in fact the exact opposite theme - namely that the rise of machine intelligence need not lead to disaster - had been demonstrated repeatedly. At the very least, it would have been far more thematically consistent if Shepard, who united the Geth and Quarians and oversaw the awakening of EDI, had been given the choice to call bullshit on that VI's disingenuous assertion. Furthermore, the greater emphasis of the series has always been about the very personal stories along the way - Shepard's struggles and the unique stories of his/her allies. To simply end as it does, without any closure for the survivors and their dramas that we've participated in for over a hundred hours, means there's an incredible lack of catharsis (which also explains the emotionally charged response that a lot of people have had to it). It might have worked as the answer to a mystery, but as the end of a story it clearly falls short.
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Mar 10, 2012 14:07
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AlternateAccount posted:No, gently caress that, "preservation" is not getting Reaper-ified. If that were the case, then they should have gone through efforts to show that the Reapers bore more than a vague internal resemblance to their parent races. At no point in ME1 or ME2(except vaguely at the very end) do you get any sort of idea that a Reaper=the sum consciousness and culture of a civilization. In ME2, there's a rather obscure conversation you can have with Legion on that topic. Sovereign's line in ME1 about each of them being a nation also foreshadows it. Though I agree it needed more.
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Mar 10, 2012 14:17
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A bittersweet ending would be expected. A whole spectrum of endings ranging from "martyrdom to attain Pyrrhic victory" to "nearly everybody survives" would be better. But any ending that relates to decision made during the game, is based on information discovered during the game, involves characters whose stories were told during the game, and concludes the events of the game would be better than the ones (or "one") we got.
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Mar 10, 2012 17:23
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CommanderCoffee posted:Tell him to upload. About halfway through, you should get a second chat wheel with a "Side with Tali/Legion" on the right and a Paragon/Renegade response on the right which has the Quarian fleet not try to kill the Geth as soon as they are sentient. Note that this only works if you have already done the other missions on that planet.
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Mar 10, 2012 18:13
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PunkBoy posted:Just received the Dreadnought mission. Is it the same as the Citadel mission where you'll get locked out of side stuff if you do it right away? Or can I do that first and still have everything be active still? There is one more mission that locks you out of all sidequests once you start it. The mission you named is not that mission, and nothing else between your current position in the story and that mission causes sidequests to time out, to my knowledge.
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Mar 10, 2012 18:24
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User0015 posted:Couple questions to you guys: You will meet Tali soon, and she will join your party at that time. It is possible for her to leave the party at a certain point if you gently caress something up. If you purchased the From Ashes DLC pack, that provides a character. Finally, Kaidan or Ashley can optionally join your party after your current mission, depending on various circumstances including whether or not you ask them to. The final number of possible party members at present is 7: James, Liara, Garrus, EDI, Kaidan or Ashley, Javik, and Tali.
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Mar 10, 2012 18:33
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Davincie posted:So what are the recommended squad mates for each main mission? For instance, I've been taking Garrus along with anything Turian related and Liara with anything Asari related. Any other recommendations for unique content/dialogue? Bring Javik, if you have him, to Thessia. That's the only one I can think of where there's a huge difference. It's hard to predict, but missions that involve ME2 party members tend to have slight changes if you bring someone who was in that game.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:00
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Merry Magpie posted:Is a good rule of thumb to save before the mission and swap out people before committing? I'm going to assume Bioware frontloaded the squad commentary. You don't even have to; if you go to the Load menu, in the list is a "Restart Mission" option that takes you back to squad selection. It's also handy if you mess up your loadout.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:03
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General Battuta posted:I'm thinking about starting a thread just to discuss the ending backlash -- not the endings themselves, necessarily, but to keep tabs on how fans and Bioware handle this. I predict that the divisiveness will not be whether the ending is bad (it is), but whether it retroactively diminishes what leads up to it (I, personally, will respond decisively in the negative). Others will disagree, but I say, in the final tally, different-colored explosions and inexplicable crash landings can't take away the fact that Tali got drunk and teased Javik over the intercom and the guy on the citadel finally got his refund. Or maybe different things happened in your game and they were cool too.
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Mar 10, 2012 20:17
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If I were Bioware, I'd make an epilogue DLC, then release it for free on the same day as a paid DLC pack. That'd avoid the perception of needing to pay for a decent ending, while still pleasing the suits that you're not giving away content.
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Mar 10, 2012 21:48
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AndyElusive posted:So I was a soldier in ME1 and a Vanguard in ME2, but when I imported my character to ME3 I thought I'd give Infiltrator a whirl. So now I'm an Infiltrator. You can use the cloak to get in close behind enemies and heavy melee them to death, but that's not really a sustainable option. If you need to go to a different location, whether to get a better view of the enemy or to escape them being up in your grill, cloaking gets you there, and there are a few missions where it's really great to be able to go invisible and just sprint straight through a horde of enemies. Most of the time, though, it's just there to give you the damage boost, which can get very substantial at high levels.
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Mar 10, 2012 21:54
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Are we writing our own endings? Sounds fun! Here's my take on it. The Illusive Man dies, and Shepard takes something he had on him, which was the source of his reverse-engineered indoctrination. The Citadel got to Earth because it was basically a big mass relay of its own, and this matters. The Crucible attaches to it. Harbinger took off after Shepard once they made it into the beam, and broadcasts a holographic presence to the Citadel. Says you don't know what you're doing. Shepard says enlighten me. Harbinger explains that the Crucible has taken control of the entire mass relay network. Too much power for an imperfect species to have. Only created (I use "created" rather than "synthetic" to escape the arbitrary distinction) life can be trusted with the fate of the galaxy. They nearly destroyed their civilization, and to put a stop to it they turn themselves into Reapers. And now, any time a species is proving itself capable of unleashing the same destruction they did, they swoop in and Reaperize them as well. Obviously primitive races can't understand how awesome it is to be a Reaper until they've experienced it. The Citadel VI conveniently explains that you can discharge all the energy of the Crucible to weaken the Reapers, and it would propagate through the mass relay network and be amplified by it - maybe enough to turn the tide based on effective military strength and decisions made during the final mission. Or you can order the fleet to stand down, and you use that energy to broadcast the Illusive Man's indoctrination signal to take control of the reapers (after which presumably more choices will follow). Or you order the fleet to stand down and submit to Reaperization, for the evil/indoctrinated option. If your military strength is high enough they'll send a shuttle to rescue you. Fairly similar to what they were going for, but far more consistent. Most importantly, it must actually show what becomes of all the characters. And I do mean all of them. I don't care how dumb the final decision is if it does that.
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Mar 11, 2012 06:10
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I don't think Kai Leng was supposed to be particularly intimidating, at least not to you. Thane kicks his rear end the first time you encounter him; the second time, you've got him on the ropes but then he calls in a gunship, and then when you actually finish him off he goes down like a chump and can't even sneak up on you afterward. All he's really good at is running away, and I thought that was a perfectly acceptable thing for a minor antagonist to constantly do.
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Mar 11, 2012 07:23
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I forgot about his incredibly weaksauce taunt that he emails you. It's like, this is supposed to get me down? Shepard keeps things in perspective.
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Mar 11, 2012 07:30
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TheJoker138 posted:Ok so I just finished it. Is that it? Really? What happens doesn't even make sense with the choice I made. I decided to control the Reapers, as it was the only way not to kill all synthetics, and the Geth and EDI were my bros. So I figured that Shep would either take them back where they came from, or have them all crash into the sun, or shut them down, or something. Instead, it acts like I picked the synthesis ending, and shows Joker crash landing out of the Mass Relays being destroyed (why was he in a Mass Relay during a giant fight?) and then him and Liara and Liara (why were they on the ship in a Mass Relay with Joker when they were both in my ground squad on earth?) on some planet. Did they forget to render out the proper ending for that choice or something? What happens if I pick the other ones? And why was there a blue filter over everything that made it almost impossible to see what was happening? What the gently caress did I just watch? What the gently caress is this poo poo? The other choices are exactly the same, except with a red filter for the destroy ending and a green one for the synthesis ending. Just remember that you aren't alone in thinking that it's the dumbest thing ever.
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Mar 11, 2012 07:31
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Afro-Caribbean accents are the best kind of accent. You can't deny it.
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Mar 11, 2012 08:31
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dkj posted:And the more I think about the ending, the less I like it. Am I missing something or are there numerous, massive holes in it? Did anyone like it? All three choices seem to be the same outcome. Feels like a huge cop out. This thread is full of people who hate it. I have encountered one person who is willing to go so far as to say "Well, it's not that bad," and he is a person of suspect tastes.
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Mar 11, 2012 08:36
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"Best" is shorthand for "most difficult to attain."
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Mar 11, 2012 09:45
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Strange Matter posted:Just finished the Geth Arc. This story continues to top itself. I'm really conflicted about whether or not to tell you that it is possible for you to broker a lasting peace at that point, depending on things you could have done earlier. Highlight if you want to know about something that apparently won't be happening in your playthrough, and if you don't expect to be driven mad by the knowledge of what could have happened.
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Mar 11, 2012 22:18
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El Tortuga posted:So, popping in for a quick question before I get myself spoiled. I have an EMS score of 5806. Is that a high enough score to get the best ending? The rating gained from MP is at 86%. Should I just get it up to 100% to make sure, or is what I have now good enough? The ending that is the most difficult to receive - your mileage may vary as to whether it is "best," as it simply modifies the outcome of one of several choices, all of which are unlocked by having about 3000 - requires an EMS of 5000 or higher in the worst case. So yes, good enough.
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Mar 11, 2012 23:16
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El Tortuga posted:Thanks. What do you mean by "5000 or higher in the worst case", though? Is that a roundabout way of saying that 5000 will get me the best, most difficult to receive ending? I mean that there are some actions you can take that allow you to see that ending with only 4000 EMS.
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Mar 11, 2012 23:33
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Lord of Laughton posted:Alright. I'm at the part where Mordin is about to go up the elevator on Tuchanka at the Shroud and I'm given the decision to say 'I'm not stopping you' or 'I'll stop you if i have to'. I must have missed what came just before that but I have no idea what I'm responding to. Can someone help me out? The salarian dalatrass told you that it was possible to sabotage the genophage cure (or, more accurately, to neglect to fix the pre-existing sabotage) in such a way that there's a good chance the krogans won't notice for a few years. Mordin, of course, intends to ensure that the cure works. If you want to cure the genophage, don't stop him.
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Mar 11, 2012 23:54
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A Hollywood ending wasn't necessary. I'd have liked a giant gently caress-off MGS4 cutscene ending, or the option to have an impossibly happy outcome if I busted my balls for it even if it's not canon. When your character's name is a homophone for "shepherd," then a martyrdom ending is always on the table, so it has nothing to do with the fact that Shepard dies. Complaints don't need to be based on what it could have been when you can just look at what it was: a non-sequitur followed by a plot hole, then the credits roll.
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Mar 12, 2012 00:07
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:No more mass effect fields. You mean no more mass relays.
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Mar 12, 2012 00:45
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Scarf Ace posted:Just a quick question that I'm sure has been asked a billion times, but there's alot of spoilers over the last few pages so I'm afraid to look too carefully: My total military strength is at 6398, and my effective at 3582. Am I right in reading the OP that I need my effective strength to be 5000+? It's sort of confusing because the bar is completely green. If your EMS is over 2800 (I think is the exact number, but you easily pass it), you have access to all the endings. One of the endings can be slightly modified by having more EMS: depending on certain actions you've taken throughout the game and will perform during the ending, either 4000 or 5000 is the threshold for the change. I recommend you proceed boldly to the endgame.
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Mar 12, 2012 03:03
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68k posted:Is it when you're about to assault TIM? Because he makes a point to say, "make sure you're definitely ready before heading out," but this doesn't quite feel like the end. That's not the end, but it is the point of no return.
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Mar 12, 2012 03:11
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Call me crazy, but I liked the elevators in ME1. Though I also found ME3's loading times were so short that nothing of the sort was necessary this time.
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Mar 12, 2012 03:42
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Monday Averted posted:I don't think I will play it again at all, and it killed my interest in playing the previous games from start to do a full 'canon' run. What's the point? The point would presumably be to see the character scenes you liked again and the ones you haven't seen before for the first time.
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Mar 12, 2012 04:02
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twistedmentat posted:Though honestly, the thing I'm most upset is Not seeing what Quarians look like without their suits. Seriously, if only to stop all the space elf fan art If you romance Tali and she dies, then you get to see an incredibly disappointing photograph of her. Trust me when I say you're better off not knowing.
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Mar 12, 2012 04:21
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Umph posted:The reviews seem to gloss over the rpg elements of the game. Would you guys say it returned to the first games depth at all or is it even more streamlined then the second? I was one of the people who liked the firsts inventory, leveling, and planet exploring. I'd say it combines the best elements of both, or rather that it brings the best elements of ME1 back into the structure of ME2. You've got plenty options for customizing your weaponry and build; there are many different weapons, each of which can be modified in several different ways, with real ramifications for choosing which ones to bring (the lighter your weapons, the faster your powers recharge), and the power trees give you more choices for customizing your loadout without being too finely-grained. It accomplishes this all with an interface that is even more fluid than it was in Mass Effect 2, proving that "more streamlined" does not have to mean "fewer options."
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Mar 12, 2012 04:34
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DerDestroyer posted:I really would like to know how they plan to continue the franchise after this sort of ending. There's always the possibility of expanded universe material taking place before the Reaper invasion.
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Mar 12, 2012 05:31
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MadRhetoric posted:Enjoying the gameplay and the little moments in the game, even if the big picture is starting to get on my nerves. So how much more of this silly bullshit do I have left to go through? I just put a bullet in that rear end in a top hat, Udina. That's about two-thirds of the way through, right? About halfway. Farther if you've been doing lots of sidequests; not as far if you've been putting them off.
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Mar 12, 2012 05:57
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Dolphin Fetus posted:So..I'm about to do the assault on the Cerberus base/Illusive Man's HQ , whats the point of no return? Also I've religiously scanned planets in clusters and tried to do every sidequest but my EMS is still only 3435. Does it go up later on or am I essentially screwed out of the good ending? If so that's just bullshit. I imported a file from ME2, granted I didn't do overlord or arrival but everyone survived and I made the "right" decisions. Assets are only found on planets. ~2800 is enough EMS to see every ending; 4000 or 5000 (depending on choices you can make and have already made) will alter one of those endings to be slightly different. It's impossible to get to 4000 without multiplayer or New Game+. Embarking on that mission will send you past the point of no return. After that point, you can still increase EMS by doing multiplayer to raise your Galactic Readiness, but with respect to singleplayer content you're as prepared as you're ever going to be.
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Mar 12, 2012 07:27
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BobTheSpy posted:I never saved the admiral. Do you think I should go back, do his mission, then do the Geth mission? My ultimate goal was peace between the Geth and the Quarians. Definitely do this. If possible, choose to save the admiral. The outcome of Rannoch is based on several points in ME2 and ME3; if you do enough of them correctly, then a lasting peace is possible by following these instructions: allow Legion to begin the upload, then pass a Paragon check to convince the quarians to stand down.
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Mar 13, 2012 03:54
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Batham posted:I have to say, I usually am not that emotionally invested into video games, but I justcouldn't get it over my heart to shoot Mordin. I wanted to avoid curing the Krogans, especially after Wrex told his expansion plans (showing that he wasn't the exception that he was told to be), but I just couldn't kill Mordin. I simply love the character. If Eve survives the process of developing the cure (which happens if you chose to save Maelon's data), then she acts as a moderating influence on whoever the krogan chieftain is. Later on, there are lines from Wrex or Wreav that indicate just how seriously they're planning to take this whole "allies" thing.
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Mar 13, 2012 04:16
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