Mass Effect 3

So the little app that was released today kinda kills the theories out there.
 
So the little app that was released today kinda kills the theories out there.

Possible... however, as far as I see there isn't anything in there about upcoming DLCs, and Casey Hudson confirmed there are multiplayer and singleplayer DLCs coming up. If I was Bioware and had this plan to release an epilogue DLC explaining everything and providing decent closure in a few weeks/months, I wouldn't tell random reporters anything about it (note how the app isn't from Bioware/EA themselves, but very much from a third person).

But then, maybe I am grasping at emergency induction ports, and Bioware/EA simply really messed up and will leave it at this. In which case, sad, but too bad for themselves - lost customers (I hear the trade-in rate on ME3 is insane) and $$$ on potential DLC.
 
Yeah, I suppose there's always hope.

BioWare has closed the ME3 Story discussion board temporarily because the community is getting a bit out of hand.
 
Everyone's done already. :|

Anyways, I recently visited the Perseus Veil

I was rooting for the Quarians through all games as well, but I still have to admit that objectively, the Geth are the actual victims. So after killing the Reaper on Rannoch I tried to get their heads straight and stop their idiotic crusade against the Geth. It worked, and once the fighting stopped the Geth were actually offering to help the Quarians reclaim Rannoch. When you later talk to Tali about the situation, she tells you that Geth have been helping building housing, power supplies, and even uploading themselves to Quarian's suits, to simulate infections and help train their immune systems!

WHAT. You can do that?! I... I'm a monster. The game actually made me feel terrible. A video game! I'm responsible for the destruction of the Quarian race. I'm a monster. They just didn't stop, I told them to stop but they kept attacking the geth. :(

Is it just me or is this installment significantly easier? 90% of my deaths are from getting stuck in a corner and not being able to avoid grenades because they one hit kill me every time (I'm an adept FWIW, don't need ammo and don't need to stick my head out for very long). Insanity difficulty from the start. Also only one of my characters was importable for some reason, I could've sworn I had saves after the suicide mission on my ManShep playthrough but I guess maybe I didn't. And my femshep character was only importable on the saves that I played the DLC on, I swear I had another save after the suicide mission where legion didn't die. Might have been something to do with transferring saves between xboxes but that seems unlikely... *sigh* need to do some jiggerypokery and xbox->pc->xbox transferring to fix that since I don't have a 360 copy of ME2 ('twas my bros and he's out of here) but I do have the free origin one I got from having DA2. It's alright though, I wanted to play my FemShep first anyways because the guy is such an annoying robot and FemShep is such a badass, even when she's being paragonical (is that even a word?)
 
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So, the indoctrination theory suggests that Bioware basically fooled everyone thinking the ending sucks when it's actually great? Because I'm not sure what it means when it says that "Bioware has indoctrinated all the players"
 
But then, maybe I am grasping at emergency induction ports, and Bioware/EA simply really messed up and will leave it at this. In which case, sad, but too bad for themselves - lost customers (I hear the trade-in rate on ME3 is insane) and $$$ on potential DLC.
I honestly don't understand why people are trading them in already. I've already gone back to ME1 to do a complete play through. I have problems with the ending but it's not anything that makes me stop being a Mass Effect nerd or dramatically lose faith in BioWare. There are still far, far, far worse games out there.
Anyways, I recently visited the Perseus Veil
WHAT. You can do that?! I... I'm a monster. The game actually made me feel terrible. A video game! I'm responsible for the destruction of the Quarian race. I'm a monster. They just didn't stop, I told them to stop but they kept attacking the geth. :(

Is it just me or is this installment significantly easier? 90% of my deaths are from getting stuck in a corner and not being able to avoid grenades because they one hit kill me every time (I'm an adept FWIW, don't need ammo and don't need to stick my head out for very long). Insanity difficulty from the start. Also only one of my characters was importable for some reason, I could've sworn I had saves after the suicide mission on my ManShep playthrough but I guess maybe I didn't. And my femshep character was only importable on the saves that I played the DLC on, I swear I had another save after the suicide mission where legion didn't die. Might have been something to do with transferring saves between xboxes but that seems unlikely... *sigh* need to do some jiggerypokery and xbox->pc->xbox transferring to fix that since I don't have a 360 copy of ME2 ('twas my bros and he's out of here) but I do have the free origin one I got from having DA2. It's alright though, I wanted to play my FemShep first anyways because the guy is such an annoying robot and FemShep is such a badass, even when she's being paragonical (is that even a word?)
I had the Geth wiped out which literally made me feel like a monster. I had always hated the Geth and when given the opportunity to wipe them out. I took it. Only for it to not make me feel any better for doing it. Especially after I found out that there was possible peace between the Geth and the quarians.
Somehow I think the reason it didn't occur for me was because Legion had died in the suicide mission of ME2. Another reason for doing another play through.
I found the game slightly more difficult. I found the atlas mechs, brutes and banshees to be particularly troublesome as well.

So, the indoctrination theory suggests that Bioware basically fooled everyone thinking the ending sucks when it's actually great? Because I'm not sure what it means when it says that "Bioware has indoctrinated all the players"
so... The rEApers are real?
 
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So, the indoctrination theory suggests that Bioware basically fooled everyone thinking the ending sucks when it's actually great? Because I'm not sure what it means when it says that "Bioware has indoctrinated all the players"

The core of the theory is that everything that happened after you get hit by the Reaper running up to the Citadel Beam has happened inside Shepard's head as a result of Reaper indoctrination. Main arguments for this are:
  • Shepard loses his/her armor, and suddenly has a Carnifex with unlimited ammo (even if (s)he had no/other pistol in the scene).
  • The scene is the first time Harbinger appears in ME3, and the Codex says Harbinger is apparently the oldest and largest Reaper -> the only one who could successfully indoctrinate Shepard.
  • Some things in the scene make little to no sense, but could be a product of Shepard's mind - the internal workings being similar to the Collector ship ("they're building a reaper here"), TIM appearing out of nowhere, Anderson going through the Beam after Shepard but arriving at the console before, the Alliance thinking that everybody died ("- Did anyone make it through? - No, we lost everyone...") but Hackett contacting Shepard on the radio (also, which radio? He's got no helmet or any armor to speak of), squadmates from back in London suddenly being on the Normandy flying away from the battle instead of being dead or with Shepard...
  • The ending colors being "reversed" - Destroy should be the Paragon choice, and Anderson (an obvious Paragon) is shown in the brief cutscene; Control is Renegade, and TIM is shown with that one. The meaning being that the Destroy ending would not destroy the Reapers but their control of Shepard's mind, and they try to trick him into not choosing it.
  • If Shepard chooses the Destroy ending and has enough EMS before the battle, (s)he is shown waking up in rubble - adding to the previous argument. The rubble looks much more like London, after the Citadel explosion one wouldn't expect much rubble or Shepard surviving.

All in all, I think this does fit the ending rather well, and there are numerous ways Bioware could build on this. Little remains but to hope...
 
  • Some things in the scene make little to no sense, but could be a product of Shepard's mind - the internal workings being similar to the Collector ship ("they're building a reaper here"), TIM appearing out of nowhere, Anderson going through the Beam after Shepard but arriving at the console before, the Alliance thinking that everybody died ("- Did anyone make it through? - No, we lost everyone...") but Hackett contacting Shepard on the radio (also, which radio? He's got no helmet or any armor to speak of), squadmates from back in London suddenly being on the Normandy flying away from the battle instead of being dead or with Shepard...

All in all, I think this does fit the ending rather well, and there are numerous ways Bioware could build on this. Little remains but to hope...
the conversation between Shepard and the Illusive Man plays out pretty much exactly like Saren at the end of ME1. To the point I was expecting the Illusive Man to get back despite putting a gun to his head.
 
The core of the theory is that everything that happened after you get hit by the Reaper running up to the Citadel Beam has happened inside Shepard's head as a result of Reaper indoctrination. Main arguments for this are:
  • Shepard loses his/her armor, and suddenly has a Carnifex with unlimited ammo (even if (s)he had no/other pistol in the scene).
  • The scene is the first time Harbinger appears in ME3, and the Codex says Harbinger is apparently the oldest and largest Reaper -> the only one who could successfully indoctrinate Shepard.
  • Some things in the scene make little to no sense, but could be a product of Shepard's mind - the internal workings being similar to the Collector ship ("they're building a reaper here"), TIM appearing out of nowhere, Anderson going through the Beam after Shepard but arriving at the console before, the Alliance thinking that everybody died ("- Did anyone make it through? - No, we lost everyone...") but Hackett contacting Shepard on the radio (also, which radio? He's got no helmet or any armor to speak of), squadmates from back in London suddenly being on the Normandy flying away from the battle instead of being dead or with Shepard...
  • The ending colors being "reversed" - Destroy should be the Paragon choice, and Anderson (an obvious Paragon) is shown in the brief cutscene; Control is Renegade, and TIM is shown with that one. The meaning being that the Destroy ending would not destroy the Reapers but their control of Shepard's mind, and they try to trick him into not choosing it.
  • If Shepard chooses the Destroy ending and has enough EMS before the battle, (s)he is shown waking up in rubble - adding to the previous argument. The rubble looks much more like London, after the Citadel explosion one wouldn't expect much rubble or Shepard surviving.

All in all, I think this does fit the ending rather well, and there are numerous ways Bioware could build on this. Little remains but to hope...

Well, hmm ok.. I guess "The Truth" DLC would probably expand on this or debunk this theory
 
I found the atlas mechs, brutes and banshees to be particularly troublesome as well.

Banshees are true stuff of nightmares, not just because of their ghastly appearance and eerie wail - very tough, deal a lot of damage and incredibly mobile. Most annoying "boss" enemy in MP (Atlas / Prime / Banshee), too. Suddenly they're standing right next to you and ram their spindly arms through your stomach. :eek:

WHAT. You can do that?! I... I'm a monster. The game actually made me feel terrible. A video game! I'm responsible for the destruction of the Quarian race. I'm a monster. They just didn't stop, I told them to stop but they kept attacking the geth. :(
After you tell Legion to upload the reaper code, Tali begs you to stop. You then again have the choice between letting him continue, or telling him to stop. Or if you have enough paragon/renegade points you can shout the Quarian fleet into standing down, perhaps it's also related to how you deal with the admirals beforehand. I punched the heavy fleet admiral, Han Gerrel, in the nuts (he shot at the ship I was still in! What a dickhead...) and then threw him off my ship, and told the other general that basically wanted to disect legion to screw herself aswell.

edit:
Here's a video of the peace ending for the Quarian/Geth conflict, with the requirements explained in the description.
 
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Geth/Quarian cooperation is not about paragon/renegade, it is about choices you made in the last two games. Whether you saved Legion, resolved Tali and Legion's argument, re-wrote or destroyed the heretic Geth, etc.

PS, re-writing the Geth is why I was not able to unify the two races. You need to destroy them to get enough "choice points" to get them to make peace. I also saved the civilians instead of the admiral.
 
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Geth/Quarian cooperation is not about paragon/renegade, it is about choices you made in the last two games. Whether you saved Legion, resolved Tali and Legion's argument, re-wrote or destroyed the heretic Geth, etc.

PS, re-writing the Geth is why I was not able to unify the two races. You need to destroy them to get enough "choice points" to get them to make peace. I also saved the civilians instead of the admiral.

I guess the choices build up to it, but ultimately, there is a check for your Reputation score (sum of Para+Rene). I know that, because I actually didn't have enough rep the first time I did the Rannoch mission, and I couldn't select the final Paragon option. Result: Tali commited suicide. After that I reloaded a save, did a bunch of side missions to get my Rep above the highest mark on the bar, and did Rannoch again: voi-la, the Paragon option was blue instead of gray, peace achieved.

Also, I rewrote the geth and was still able to broker peace. I even think that the War Assets later stated that because I rewrote the heretics instead of destroying them, the Geth were altogether stronger than they'd be otherwise.
 
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Concerning the ending...

Well it seems that the ending in the game was more or less as originally planned, at least from info and deleted scenes from the newly released iPad app The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3. I feel more disbelief than anger at the ending(s), in fact I can even find it acceptable within the context of the game, it's just that its execution and exposition (plot and character holes galore) was disappointing to say the least. In fact, the entire last section of the game, after the final Cerberus mission and you head off to save Earth, really feels rushed and shoehorned in at the last minute (where can the player see the consequences of bringing together all the different species? ie. How does gaining support of the Geth fleet change vs. gaining support of the Quarian fleet when you arrive at Earth?). Which I wouldn't be surprised is what probably happened in the last weeks of development, they ran out of time to flesh out the ending before the release date.
 
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I'm going to be so general this won't need spoilers.

I knew I could count on EA making a mess of things. The ending is obviously rushed out the door to meet production target. Same feeling like KOTOR2 gave me. Underwhelming.
 
Don't know why those big publishers don't understand something call 'customer satisfaction'. Pfft
 
So I started a new game as a Renegade Femshep. Little did I know she would be a homicidal maniac. She shot Mordin in the back and blew out Kaidnes guts. What a bitch.
 
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So I started a new game as a Renegade Femshep. Little did I know she would be a homicidal maniac. She shot Mordin in the back and blew out Kaidnes guts. What a bitch.

Compare and contrast ME3's renegade with ME2's...

[video=youtube;-PjTuSQNLI4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PjTuSQNLI4[/video]






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Casey Hudson has given a reply to the fan reaction about ME3's ending. I've spoilered it regardless.
There?s been a lot of discussion and debate about the conclusion of Mass Effect 3, so I thought I?d share my ?perspective with you here. I?ll avoid outright spoilers, but I?d still recommend finishing the game and experiencing it for yourself before reading this.?

For the last eight years, Mass Effect? has been a labor of love for our team; love for the characters we?ve created, for the medium of video games, and for the fans that have supported us.? For us and for you, Mass Effect 3 had to live up to a lot of expectations, not only for a great gaming experience, but for a resolution to the countless storylines and decisions you?ve made as a player since the journey began in 2007. So we designed Mass Effect 3 to be a series of endings to key plots and storylines, each culminating in scenes that show you the consequences of your actions.? You then carry the knowledge of these consequences with you as you complete the final moments of your journey.

We always intended that the scale of the conflict and the underlying theme of sacrifice would lead to a bittersweet ending?to do otherwise would betray the agonizing decisions Shepard had to make along the way.? Still, we wanted to give players the chance to experience an inspiring and uplifting ending; in a story where you face a hopeless struggle for basic survival, we see the final moments and imagery as offering victory and hope in the context of sacrifice and reflection.

We've had some incredibly positive reactions to Mass Effect 3, from the New York Times declaring it ?a gripping, coherent triumph?, to Penny Arcade calling it ?an amazing accomplishment?, to emails and tweets from players who have given us the most profound words of appreciation we've ever received.??

But we also recognize that some of our most passionate fans needed more closure, more answers, and more time to say goodbye to their stories?and these comments are equally valid. Player feedback such as this has always been an essential ingredient in the development of the series.

I am extremely proud of what this team has accomplished, from the first art concepts for the Mass Effect universe to the final moments of Mass Effect 3.? But we didn't do it on our own.? Over the course of the series, Mass Effect has been a shared experience between the development team and our fans?not just a shared experience in playing the games, but in designing and developing them.? An outpouring of love for Garrus and Tali led to their inclusion as love interests in Mass Effect 2.? A request for deeper RPG systems led to key design changes in Mass Effect 3.? Your feedback has always mattered.? Mass Effect is a collaboration between developers and players, and we continue to listen.

So where do we go from here? Throughout the next year, we will support Mass Effect 3 by working on new? content.? And we?ll keep listening, because your insights and constructive feedback will help determine what that content should be. This is not the last you?ll hear of Commander Shepard.?

We look forward to your continued support and involvement as we work together to shape the remaining experiences in the story of the Mass Effect trilogy.

Thanks for taking this journey with us.
?
Casey Hudson
 
I have a feeling that's not going to go down so well with the community that has a problem with the end...
 
I have a feeling that's not going to go down so well with the community that has a problem with the end...

True, even on Facebook when there was a post made by the Mass Effect Facebook team about the games multiplayer. All the comments were about the ending. I can understand fans being frustrated but it's getting a little pathetic and silly.
 
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