|
 Mass Effect 3 is a 2012 science fiction action role-playing third-person shooter created by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts.  But you know what Mass Effect 3 is. You wouldn't have clicked on this link if you didn't. The basic premise is that in the 22nd century, humanity is one of many great galactic powers in an age of peace and prosperity. In 2185, however, the Reapers - impossibly advanced genocidal robots from the dawn of time, the true terrible secret of space - have returned to the galaxy to destroy everything. In one swift attack Earth is captured and its spacefleet crippled. It is up to the player, in the guise of soldier and hero Commander Shepard, to unite the galaxy, muster a counterattack and end the Reaper threat once and for all. The reception to Mass Effect 3 was mixed, to say the least. With two previous games and an Expanded Universe full of fiction behind it, expectations for Mass Effect 3 were high. The storyline, and especially the ending, came under a lot of fire from the fanbase for not living up to their hopes. In the end, Bioware actually released several pieces of DLC - one gratis - to address the outcry. Unlike most people, I think Mass Effect 3 is really good - it's about as underappreciated as a game can be when it's a AAA title. This LP is gonna be all about me trying to re-sell Mass Effect 3 to you. God, this was a bad idea.  I've got two favours to ask the thread. Favour One: Favour Two: It's possible you may have some preconceived opinions about the game/this thread. These may include:
If so, congratulations!  All of these things are true. But in the interest of keeping the thread readable, I'd rather you didn't post these.I don't want to censor free speech, however, so instead please consider posting the following pro forma: quote:In my opinion, Mass Effect 3 is a bad game. Along with many other fans, I was disappointed with the conclusion of this trilogy. Mass Effect 1 and/or 2 were far superior. And then you can sign it or whatever. This way, though, you can register your dissent without making anyone feel like they have to get into a protracted argument about it, saving us all a lot of grief in the long run.  I can't make you do any of the above but it'd be very much appreciated! Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Aug 14, 2014 |
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:33 |
|
|
Contents Click the images to watch videos on Youtube.  Part 1: Introductions  Part 2: Tutorials  Part 3: Space  Part 4: Class  Part 5: Form  Part 6: Challenge  Part 7: Patterns  Part 8: Intertext  Part 9: Criticism  Part 10: Focus  Part 11: Choice  Part 12: Religion  Part 13: Writing  Part 14: Setting  Part 15: Criticism 2  Part 16: Orientalism Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Nov 3, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
Synopsis Like you haven't played all of these games already.  Mass Effect 1 is the first game in the series. In 2183, a rogue agent of the intergalactic Citadel Council attacks the human colony of Eden Prime. Player character Commander Shepard is hastily inducted into the Spectres, an elite order of black ops commandos that answer only to the Council, and assigned to track down the renegade responsible for the attack, Saren Arterius. Key to the conflict is the imminent return of the Reapers, an ancient machine race that wipes out all advanced organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years. With the aid of an unlikely band of misfits, including turian officer Garrus Vakarian, asari professor Liara T'Soni and itinerant mechanic Tali'Zorah nar Rayya, Shepard tracks Saren down and stops him, moments before Saren could open the way for the Reapers to return. There are casualties along the way, though: krogan mercenary Urdnot Wrex is killed during a tense stand-off on the planet Virmire, and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko gives his life ensuring the destruction of Saren's stronghold shortly afterwards. Shepard's victory guarantees humanity's rise to galactic power, but he is sure the Reapers will find another way to return.  Mass Effect 2 is the second, and best, game in the series. Despite his success in hunting down Saren, Shepard is sidelined and isolated after his warnings of the coming Reaper apocalypse become politically inconvenient. Shipped off to fight geth insurgents on the fringes of civilised space, Shepard is ambushed and killed by the Collectors - a servitor race in thrall to the Reapers. Two years later, Shepard is resurrected by Cerberus, a paramilitary organisation dedicated to human supremacy at all costs. Driven by the Collector plot to abduct and transform human colonists into horrific monsters, Shepard must gather an even unlikelier band of misfits to assault and destroy the Collector home base beyond the mysterious Omega-4 Relay. This time around, his allies are criminals, assassins and mercenaries, and Cerberus seems intent on manipulating Shepard for their own selfish ends. Ultimately, though, Shepard succeeds in destroying the Collectors - though not without the loss of salarian bioscientist Mordin Solus and the geth emissary Legion. When he discovers that the Reapers have almost arrived at the edge of the galaxy, though, Shepard is forced to detonate a mass relay, killing hundreds of thousands of innocents in an attempt to hold off the inevitable. Returning to Earth, Shepard submits himself to the Systems Alliance for judgement.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 17:26
|
|
|
I liked ME3. It felt like a game that was written and released on a very tight time schedule and that it would've been a lot better if the studio had given it another year to 18 months to tighten up the writing and pull all of the various threads together. Still, the combat was pretty fun, and I played the poo poo out of the multiplayer, so all things considered I was pretty happy with it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 17:32
|
|
|
Part 1: Introductions Further Reading ME2 Intro: http://youtu.be/XBtVWS4J1o8 Quake 2 Intro: http://youtu.be/GwKspxVu7Lc Earth Civilians Discovery: http://www.clevernoob.com/forums/index.php?/topic/2235-earth-civilian-2d-sprites-aka-jack/ Open question: what introductions are good? Which games do you think have memorable openings? This is my first video so let me know if there's anything I should do to improve it. At one point I ask you to listen to what the characters say, but keep on talking over most of it. I can't help it, they keep talking when I need to talk! So here's the transcript. quote:SHEPARD and ANDERSON are walking-and-talking, just like in The West Wing Lt. Danger fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Aug 2, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 17:32
|
|
|
I liked mass effect 3, and will most likely play it for a third time as soon as I forget all the details from my last playthrough.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:08
|
|
|
Confession, I never actually saw the end of this game, or indeed the vast majority of the second half. I kept on restarting 'cos of dissatisfaction with my Shepard class and alignment choice. Some call it decision paralysis, others call it altitis, I call it irritating and stupid of me to get so wrapped up in it. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:16
|
|
|
i have fond memories of playing through the game punching everything to death. Every boss, every giant mech, guns were for the weak. a real shepard solves his problems through punching. Sometimes charging, in order to punch some more.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:20
|
|
|
I had 1 and 2, and would probably have gotten 3, but all the backlash scared me off. Bad endings aside, it would be interesting to see what kind of game I missed listening to the antihype, and after your last LPs, I believe you can do this game justice.  A question, though. Are you using DLCs?
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
Mordin, Wrex and Legion are dead.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:45
|
|
|
Very few grand scale sci-fi stories end satisfyingly, and those that do tend to be celebrated as masterworks of the genre. David Brin's Uplift saga springs to mind. Dan Simmons' Hyperion novels have a great and touching ending. Then there's Dune, and all the books that shouldn't have been written after the first one. My point is that the story that the Mass Effect series tells is above and beyond most stories in the medium. Even if the ending was a bit lackluster, it's still rubbing shoulders in a genre that very few even attempt. For me, the actual ending of the series is the Citadel DLC, where you kick back with your space friends, drink a lot of space booze, and talk about that time you saved the space galaxy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:53
|
|
|
I have Citadel, but probably won't show it.Gharbad the Weak posted:Mordin, Wrex and Legion are dead. This is canon.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:55
|
|
|
Lt. Danger posted:This is canon. Good. gently caress them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 18:59
|
|
|
A sincere thank you for playing this so I don't have to give EA any of my money. I'm eager to see what I've missed from Bioware's finest.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 19:00
|
|
|
Gharbad the Weak posted:Mordin, Wrex and Legion are dead. Unfortunate, but I've never played a game or seen a playthrough where they died yet. So seeing how this changes things in the third game should be pretty interesting for me...
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
Oh the 3 best characters are dead going into it. That's gonna make this an interesting, much shittier story. This could be fun.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 20:37
|
|
|
The Steak Justice posted:Oh the 3 best characters are dead going into it. That's gonna make this an interesting, much shittier story. This could be fun. None of those characters are named Garrus, so you are completely wrong.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 20:41
|
|
|
ME3 has by far the best gameplay in the series and there are some individual moments that are definitely the best written moments in the series. It just suffers from also having the worst individual moments.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 20:43
|
|
|
Lt. Danger posted:This is canon. If that's canon, it would've been nice for them to emphasize that a bit more. Makes having them alive mean something, as opposed to having them dead mean something.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 21:08
|
|
|
To be honest, if you're approaching ME3 as a game on its own merits, as presumably most people watching an LP who haven't played it are, I don't think it's a bad game at all. The real problem it has is the same one that Command & Conquer 4 had, where it just feels like somebody made a completely different game and slapped a few labels on it (for C&C4, that was actually the case, though). You get the sense that EA decided after the first two games did well that they were going to put a huge amount of money behind marketing this, but that they needed ME3 to have "mass market appeal", which basically means stomping out any of the bits that made the first two games different and instead making something far more analogous to a Gears Of War-style title where you run through linear rubble environments shooting zombies with a bunch of cool mil-tech. There's no issue with that as a game, but for people who'd been waiting however long to finish the story, they obviously weren't best pleased.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 22:04
|
|
|
FullLeatherJacket posted:run through linear rubble environments shooting zombies with a bunch of cool mil-tech. I thought these were cover shooters where you're always shooting from behind chest-high stuff at other guys who are shooting but not quite behind chest high stuff (so you can kill them)
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 22:37
|
|
|
Alavaria posted:An interesting way to characterize that sort of gameplay. Oh yeah, that's not particularly changed since the first game. Don't get me wrong, the combat is not hugely different to what it was in ME2, the difference is that it's now largely a game where the plot exists to drive the combat instead of the other way around, with a lot of the stuff that happened in the first two games getting handwaved away in the process.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 23:15
|
|
|
Huh. This is not the kind of LP I expected from the guy who LPed the poo poo out of Neverwinter Nights 2. Bioshock: Infinite had a good intro. Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Witcher 2, even World of Warcraft these days all have good intros. They do a good job rapidly establishing the setting, the story, and teaching the player about the gameplay. Lt. Danger posted:This is canon. You're a monster.
|
|
#
?
Jul 20, 2014 23:43
|
|
|
Oh sweet. Disregarding the last five or ten minutes, which could be replaced with an alt-f4 qte and a prompt to make up your own ending, I really love this game. It's really fun to play, the writing/story are generally quite good and I keep finding new things to like after a couple hundred hours in the single player alone (I've actually not touched the multiplayer, I should do that). I'm honestly having trouble thinking of anything I don't like about it. All the way through, I had fun doing cool stuff in interesting places with entertaining companions, and that's really all I could ever ask of it. I'm kind of disappointed you're going in with some characters dead, particularly given that these ones produce some of my favourite moments, but I'm interested to see what that means. I've never actually gone in with some people already out, having just assumed all it does it cut out options if and when they are plot relevant again.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 00:06
|
|
|
Zeroisanumber posted:None of those characters are named Garrus, so you are completely wrong. They're the best characters that aren't Garrus. I thought this was a decent game overall, barring the ending, but ME2 is by far the better game, even with its constrained storyline.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 00:36
|
|
|
It was brought up in the video, but I can expand on it; KOTOR2 had an astoundingly great opening. With the actual gameplay training relegated to a completely optional pre-prologue, the actual opening act goes completely Survival Horror, starting you out basically naked and unarmed in an asteroid-mining station which has been thoroughly and comprehensively sabotaged by a ruthless assassin droid, with your short term memory hazy, everyone dead, and too many things trying to kill you. And then the Sith show up. Besides the well executed survival horror premise, my favourite thing about that opening is that a game that frequently lectures you on the possibility of small, seemingly insignificant acts causing knock-on effects with galactic repercussions happens to begin with a single assassin - well, bounty hunter, really - efficiently and ruthlessly slaughtering the entire population of the station with minimal structural damage by arranging a few well-placed and coincidental "accidents". Then, in escaping, the place is totalled anyway, and over the rest of the game it slowly becomes apparent that this tiny asteroid may have been the only thing keeping the ailing Galactic Republic afloat. In a genre practically characterized by the paying of empty lip service to the notion of action and consequence, KOTOR2 shows us a real story about a personal pursuit with much bigger implications. On top of that it lets you do things like retcon Revan's gender/alignment and features a boss fight that takes place entirely through conversation.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 00:40
|
|
|
Lt. Danger posted:This is canon. Fail Shep is canon Shep? Man that's super depressing  However glad to see an LP being done, it'll bring another place to talk about Mass Effect instead of the Games threads  edit: wait you don't have From Ashes? Aww we're gonna miss out on one of the good characters introduced in ME3 Aces High fucked around with this message at 01:16 on Jul 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:05
|
|
|
I can't imagine playing ME3 without bringing a character up through the games.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:19
|
|
|
Fedule posted:It was brought up in the video, but I can expand on it; KOTOR2 had an astoundingly great opening. A important distinction here is that KOTOR2 was not done by Bioware, but rather by the fine folks at Obsidian... and a third-party group which finished the game by adding in restored content. I thought the group was Team Gizka, but apparently I was wrong?
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:20
|
|
|
I like ME3 as well. (Then again I have no taste and like everything anyways, but my point stands.) I'm absolutely loving this and will be following it- I adore LPs defending controversial games! Will you be doing  e: Oops. Nevermind! DumbRodent fucked around with this message at 03:08 on Jul 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:34
|
|
|
I like ME3, though I wasn't too fond of its conclusion (which is a far from uncommon sentiment) and a few other parts. The beginning we just saw is probably one of the bigger ones, for the reasons Lt. Danger outlined; it doesn't do a good job of serving as an introduction for a new player, it's rushed and feels like it's in a hurry to just do the tutorial and get you out of there, and it lacks real resonance or a human feel to it. The game gets better swiftly, though. Though we've also already encountered my least favorite part of the whole series! The way the word politician is used as a sneering curse, something contrasted against the noble soldier. I don't think an elected official does a single thing right or well the entire game; they exist solely to get in your way and cause you problems, while warriors are noble heroes and all that. The soldier worship stuff just gets to feeling a bit uncomfortable after awhile, even though I suspect it's more a function of genre (the story's about space opera warrior heroes, after all) and less of being creepy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 01:50
|
|
|
I want to go into a bit of detail about something you talked about towards the end of the video, talking about the choice of Vancouver as the place where Shepard's tribunal is taking place. You talk about how it doesn't have the same emotional effect nor does it communicate that Earth is under attack the way Independence Day does or the mention of other more publicly known major cities in the Quake 2 intro. I can understand how if Shepard is in Washington DC and the White House is destroyed that the player would think "holy poo poo, they're really here on Earth, it's actually happening" but I feel that I prefer the decor and background to be a little more unknown for a few reasons. 1) I actually would've rolled my eyes if this scene were taking place in New York or Washington DC or London or Paris and there was a slight bit of time devoted to, say watching the Eiffel Tower be destroyed or Buckingham Palace because that is more emotionally manipulative. In fact I would go so far as to say that the inclusion of a scene like that is deliberately emotionally manipulative and I feel that the Mass Effect series is above that. 2) One of the main points about Mass Effect as a series is that you are a human but you are never on Earth. You always hear about things going on back there and you can visit Sol and check out little blurbs written for all the planets (also scan and probe Uranus for shits and giggles) but you never visit Earth proper in Mass Effect 1 and 2 because there are bigger problems in the galaxy. Mass Effect can be played in a way that communicates that in the years following First Contact humanity has learned that there is a whole wide galaxy to explore, new planets to colonize, new races to communicate with and try to get along with, or butt heads with. The main focus of these games has been about how Earth is not the centre of the galaxy and that humanity is new to it. To show landmarks would take away that feeling of being a small fish in a big pond. Again, I understand how maybe having this opening scene take place in a more known city may have more emotion but you should already be pretty freaked out by the mentions such as that the council lost contact with the moon. Considering we are in a setting where you can travel from one side of a solar system to another within minutes, the idea that an armada of genocidal killbots are at our doorstep should instill the fear of God in everyone regardless of what city or village you happen to be in at that exact time.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 02:19
|
|
|
Lt. Danger posted:I have Citadel, but probably won't show it. By 'canon' do you just mean "this is the default setting for people who start ME3 without prior saves," or do you mean "this is canon for all future mass effect games"?
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 02:27
|
|
|
well my guess is it's half "canon for this thread" and half "mocking the entire idea of canon" but hey. as for the choices - I bet I understand why, too, and it'll probably make a better LP for it despite making every series veteran cringe  that said, good luck, Danger! I've seen you beat your head against the wall for literally years now in the ME3 threads. I don't always agree but I want to see what you do with this. e: obviously this thread will just turn into the ME3 thread again, proving the cyclical nature of the Reapers. Just saying that, since this is a page one post. Psion fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Jul 21, 2014 |
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 03:21
|
|
|
All I'll say is, 'gently caress default canon' and that the 'real' way to play ME3 is to go in with whatever choices you made and with everyone alive. But if you want to show the default stuff, then I'm game.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 03:31
|
|
|
Zeroisanumber posted:None of those characters are named Garrus, so you are completely wrong. ViggyNash posted:They're the best characters that aren't Garrus. Garrus is overrated.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 03:33
|
|
|
Aces High posted:In fact I would go so far as to say that the inclusion of a scene like that is deliberately emotionally manipulative and I feel that the Mass Effect series is above that. Except that is exactly what they do with the little kid and the shuttles that get shot down. That one scene is in my opinion one of the worst parts of this game, because it feels so insanely forced, like the destruction that goes on around it wasn't enough already to make the player realize that poo poo is going real bad, real fast.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 04:04
|
|
|
aidenyx posted:Except that is exactly what they do with the little kid and the shuttles that get shot down. That one scene is in my opinion one of the worst parts of this game, because it feels so insanely forced, like the destruction that goes on around it wasn't enough already to make the player realize that poo poo is going real bad, real fast. Every big Hollywood movie, the kid survives. By having him shot down in the first 15 minutes Bioware is effectively telling you that poo poo is in fact About To Get Real. It's still hugely manipulative - did anyone really feel bad at the weird-looking kid getting chunked? - but in simple terms, it's as much a statement of intent as anything else in the intro: you can't save everyone, and not everyone is walking away alive.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 04:12
|
|
|
aidenyx posted:Except that is exactly what they do with the little kid and the shuttles that get shot down. That one scene is in my opinion one of the worst parts of this game, because it feels so insanely forced, like the destruction that goes on around it wasn't enough already to make the player realize that poo poo is going real bad, real fast. hey I didn't say that Bioware doesn't still make stupid decisions and I will also agree that when I first played I was like "oh God please tell me this loving kid is just a one off" and then his shuttle went and got shot down, then *spoilers* Alls I was trying to say was that I didn't even know until OP pointed it out that the opening took place in Vancouver, I thought it just took place in some Future MegaCity and I didn't think that, thematically, any more information was required for the player to know that they were on Earth, I thought that the dialogue more than handled that. But that kid, that loving kid. I probably wouldn't mind it as much if the kid didn't look gently caress ugly, and not in an endearing way that all of the characters and models in this series always have. In a series with broken dialogue scenes and  this kid stands out like a giant mole on someone's face
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 04:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 26, 2024 00:33 |
|
|
aidenyx posted:Except that is exactly what they do with the little kid and the shuttles that get shot down. That one scene is in my opinion one of the worst parts of this game, because it feels so insanely forced, like the destruction that goes on around it wasn't enough already to make the player realize that poo poo is going real bad, real fast. I agree. It felt so hamfisted to have the kid run away from Shepard to start with, then get exploded by a Reaper. It's just laying it on so thick when there's clearly enough devastation going on to make it clear that Earth is totally boned.
|
|
#
?
Jul 21, 2014 04:17
|
|
