Mass Effect 3

[IceBone]

Yeah, I haven't bought the game, because of Origin, so my effective readiness is stuck at 50%.

[PelicanHazard]

Readiness rating not necessary to get the best outcome.

Btw, I heard (haven't completed the game yet to see for myself), that if your effective military strength is over 5,000 before starting the final mission, there's an extra scene at the end regardless of what ending you pick.

[leviathan]

Readiness rating not necessary to get the best outcome.

Btw, I heard (haven't completed the game yet to see for myself), that if your effective military strength is over 5,000 before starting the final mission, there's an extra scene at the end regardless of what ending you pick.

There's an extra scene after the credits that you apparently get at the second playthrough, or at the first playthrough with an imported character. I had it, nothing much interesting tbh.

[MadCat360]

About Tali...

So apparently the picture she gives you after she dies or you re-romance her is a stock image of some unnamed woman.



D'oh.

Should've just had Liz Sroka pose for like 10 seconds.

[otispunkmeyer]

Just been reading about this game. I thought I wouldnt be able to play it becuase I chopped my 360 in some time ago (forgetting that the only game I had left to play on the 360 was this one). But then I see its on the PS3 too. Not sure why, but I was under the impression that ME was a 360 exclusive! guess not!

However, seems the PS3 version is a bit of a stuttering stanely, pushing out 20 or even sub 20 fps for significant periods. Bit of a shame really. Is this the game thats forcing the consoles to show their age? Its obviously pushing their envelopes because even the 360 isnt immune to slow downs either, its just not as bad as on the PS3.

[shad_68]

Question: is the From Ashes DLC worth it?
I know there's a new character and mission, but 800 MSP (~8€) seems a bit steep for that.
Not looking for (spoilery) specifics, but how well is he integrated with the rest of the game? Zaeed in ME2 for example was pretty poorly integrated and I could have very well lived without him.
But if the Ashes guy has proper extensive interactions with other characters or really influences stuff in the game, then I might be interested.

/edit:
No problem with slowdowns at all on my Xbox. Only the disc swapping even after installing both of them is quite annoying.

[P5138]

However, seems the PS3 version is a bit of a stuttering stanely, pushing out 20 or even sub 20 fps for significant periods. Bit of a shame really. Is this the game thats forcing the consoles to show their age? Its obviously pushing their envelopes because even the 360 isnt immune to slow downs either, its just not as bad as on the PS3.

The consoles have been showing their age since 2007. This game doesn't really push the envelope graphically in any way, it's just the hardware on both the PS3 and 360 is dated. On the PC the game is extremely smooth, even on my not very high-end rig.

Oh! And the From Ashes DLC is worth it. Definitely. I think the character adds a lot to the back story and gives a new plotline which is quite interesting. He's better integrated than Zaaed anyway.

[MadCat360]

Dev speaks on the end of the game...

So, something is coming that will reveal more about the ending.

Alrighty. I think the whole hallucination hypothesis is strong enough now to make a prediction, albeit a vague one.

On the 15th, BioWare is either going to announce, or release, some sort of new content for the game that will be related to the end of the main storyline. I think it will reveal everything after being hit by Harbinger's beam to be an indoctrination attempt by the Reapers.

[leviathan]

Alrighty. I think the whole hallucination hypothesis is strong enough now to make a prediction, albeit a vague one.

On the 15th, BioWare is either going to announce, or release, some sort of new content for the game that will be related to the end of the main storyline. I think it will reveal everything after being hit by Harbinger's beam to be an indoctrination attempt by the Reapers.

I do hope you're right on this one... I've read this hypothesis a few times worded by different people, and it does make sense from many points of view. It's also one of few paths Bioware could take without having to actually change the ending, but instead augmenting it, and going along with all 3 choices presented to the player.

[MadCat360]

Yeah. More hints:

Via Twitter:

Westley Hayes ‏ @WestleyHayes
@masseffect Do you think Shepard can become indoctrinated by the Reapers?

57m Mass Effect ‏ @masseffect
@westleyhayes Anything is possible

o rly?

[jedd_kenobi]

Question: is the From Ashes DLC worth it?
I know there's a new character and mission, but 800 MSP (~8€) seems a bit steep for that.
Not looking for (spoilery) specifics, but how well is he integrated with the rest of the game? Zaeed in ME2 for example was pretty poorly integrated and I could have very well lived without him.
But if the Ashes guy has proper extensive interactions with other characters or really influences stuff in the game, then I might be interested.

the DLC fits in quite well with the game. From a gamer aspect there isn't much there but from a Mass Effect nerd, the amount of background storytelling and questions answered is worth the price alone.
Some other thoughts.

Mordin: don't think I've blubbed like a girl so much in the final moments of Mordin's life. The music, Mordin singing his song and going out in a way that saves the Krogans and Turian races was such a good way to go.
Grunt: I honestly believed he was going to die allowing Shepard to get away. When he returned, all bloodied and covered in rachni bits. I was cheering away.
Now on my way to pay Udina a visit. I get the impression that with it all mostly going well. This is where something goes horribly wrong.

[leviathan]

Now on my way to pay Udina a visit. I get the impression that with it all mostly going well. This is where something goes horribly wrong.

I'm pretty sure a certain sequence should trigger for you now. If so, you won't be disappointed

[jedd_kenobi]

I'm pretty sure a certain sequence should trigger for you now. If so, you won't be disappointed

indeed, I always knew it was a matter of time until I put a round into that bastard.

[shad_68]

Just completed it, with doing everything possible before the end. Had over 6000 military strength.

About the ending:

What. The. Fuck.

I get what they were going for, I guess... but no matter what you choose, this has to be the least satisfying end to a game ever. I went for the synthethise choice, and then watched the two other endings on youtube.
For one, it's really poor that all three are basically copy/paste with color changes. And on top of that, none of them offer you an idea of what the actual real consequences of your choice are. You don't really know what effects it has at all, so for me it didn't feel like a real ending at all. Incredibly unsatisfying.

Add to that, that actually nothing, not a single thing you did over the course of all three things games ultimately has any real effect on the outcome. Up until the end the entire game was great, very rewarding to see all three games tie into each other. But the end really spoilt that, because with the wipe of a hand it's all rendered moot.

On the one hand, I applaud them for not doing a simple happy end, but on the other, being served three generic blanket endings is not at all what I wanted from a game series that seemed to be all about making the story your own. It really felt like it all the way, the story I experienced was my own, the way my Shepard found her path. But the end, that wasn't "mine" anymore.
Maybe they had to make the ending so generic to make it compatible to all the different ways players could have come to it, I don't know.

Another thing that probably made a lot of people unhappy with the end was that you were lead to expect something completely different. With the "Take back earth" trailer, the whole buildup throughout the game, everything, you're expecting to kick the reaper's ass and take back the galaxy. With that expectation, the actual end is very disappointing.
Of course one can argue whether that's misleading the player and building false hope, or a clever twist. I don't know, I just feel there's not enough fleshing out of the end you choose to make it a good twist. To be honest it feels more like a twist for the sake of it...


One last thing: Cerberus. Sorry, but their capabilities, powers, and ressources were just stupidly unbelieveable for me.
I know there's other media in the ME franchise that might explain this, but if you have to rely on that to make on of the main factions in the game plausible, then that's pretty bad.
That goes especially for Kai Leng. You can't just suddenly drop in a character like that and expect everyone to swallow it. Didn't work for me, at all.
Cerberus just feels like one giant ass pull.

[leviathan]

One last thing: Cerberus. Sorry, but their capabilities, powers, and ressources were just stupidly unbelieveable for me.
I know there's other media in the ME franchise that might explain this, but if you have to rely on that to make on of the main factions in the game plausible, then that's pretty bad.
That goes especially for Kai Leng. You can't just suddenly drop in a character like that and expect everyone to swallow it. Didn't work for me, at all.
Cerberus just feels like one giant ass pull.

Yeah, Kai Leng felt really badly executed in the game. He has a pretty good character development in the books (except Deception, but that's a huge fail anyway, even Bioware admitted that), and I actually expected him to be an interesting opponent in the game... instead he is a boring generic sword-wielding ninja with some cheesy lines and a very bad first boss fight - the second one was better, and featured the best Renegade interrupt ever in history of anything.

[shad_68]

Yeah, Kai Leng felt really badly executed in the game. He has a pretty good character development in the books (except Deception, but that's a huge fail anyway, even Bioware admitted that), and I actually expected him to be an interesting opponent in the game... instead he is a boring generic sword-wielding ninja with some cheesy lines and a very bad first boss fight - the second one was better, and featured the best Renegade interrupt ever in history of anything.

Bolded part in your post. Very true.
And giving a character that has never had any sort of appearance in the games themselves such ridiculous abilities (hurr durr I jump and the floor explodes) just doesn't work. Especially with the ME (game) universe, which to me has always been rather realistic. Even with biotics and the likes around, just suddenly having to accept a character with abilities like that, without any sort of background or explanation... no, sorry, couldn't do it. It only felt stupid, over the top, and completely unnecessary.
Come to think of it, same goes for "Dr. Eva" (the robot you encounter in the beginning on Mars).

[MadCat360]

More ending stuff...

Watch this. The kid's voice... has both Male Shep and Fem Shep in it!




FemShep is on the left channel. MaleShep is on the right channel... they are whispering, but you can hear them clearly in some bits.

[PelicanHazard]

Wow, the number of ending things being spoilered is making me think the final mission is more important than the homework I have due tomorrow.

[DarthBane22]

I bet Bioware is just trolling everyone right now

in a few weeks it will be "Sike!, heres the real ending lol"

still the best game ive ever played though

[shad_68]

Another minor ending-ish spoiler:

I played as Femshep and romanced Thane in ME2, and then nobody in 3.
So before I went to Earth I did one last round over the ship to talk to everyone, and when I entered Garrus' chamber, he was...