Mass Effect 3

[Jukeman]

Is the DLC really 15 hours?


-Juke

[The 24th Letter]

I just beat ME3 just now. I have no idea why fans were mad at the ending!!!

Like WTF do the angries want? The ending was epic, made you think and brought closure.

That's because you played the Extended Cut, lol

[pietasterp]

Re: Mass Effect 3

I just beat ME3 just now. I have no idea why fans were mad at the ending!!!

Like WTF do the angries want? The ending was epic, made you think and brought closure.

ME3 ended up having a few tough choices just like the first game.

I think there are 2 reasons why people were a bit miffed at the ending (at least from my standpoint):

1. The original ending was extremely inconclusive, and about 1/3 the length of the subsequent "extended cut" ending

2.

Spoiler

The entire series was predicated on the fact that your decisions throughout the 3 games would result in significant consequences to the universe, and we were led to believe that your actions had all this galactic weight, but then at the ultimate moment, it turns out that none of that was true. Your decision boiled down to "red explosion", "blue explosion", or "green explosion", and nothing you did before that point in any of the 3 games changed anything. That seems like kind of a rip-off to me.

It's weird, ME2 had more "places" than 3, but 3's decisions were much more like the first game, where ME2's were more like "good" vs "evil" ... 1 & 3 had much more grey and not so cut and dry.

I still think ME1 was my favourite. It was the most unique and had a bunch of little touches. For example: you can land on more planets, and dependnig on the atmosphere you have to wear a helmet or not, and if you do you can take it off with a dpad press. You could draw weapons and holster them, and sigularity caused debris to move and you could destruct some objects. I found the journal more necessary, and you could engage enemies at great distance if you wanted. Not to mention you could go almost anywhere you wanted and could also drive the MACO.

Interesting that you liked ME1 the best. Definitely the most "RPG" of the series, before it became pretty much a 3rd-person shooter with some RPG elements. Not that that is a bad thing, IMO - I actually liked the series better when the combat was less clunky. But it also gave up a lot, and as you stated, it seemd that the powers mattered much less as the gunplay improved. Singularity was definitely never as good as in the first one. Oh, and you view being able to drive the tank as a good thing???

3 was easily my 2nd favorite and told a great story and really put a stamp on the series.

I actually like 3 the least of the bunch, to be honest...I just felt like your crewmate options are so limited, you really don't meet any new people (or aliens), and there weren't many new game mechanics brought to the table. And to make things worse, some of the best characters from the series aren't brought back in playable form, and the 1 new character that may have brought something fresh to the table was DLC (so 90% of players never even knew he was in the game). And then the lack of a real "end boss" or any kind of denouement to the story, coupled with the original ending....I dunno, I just felt like the game was more of an obligation than a great experience. But I'm glad I went through the triology - it was fun on the whole for sure. But I still think ME2 is the best one for my money.

[Vice]

Re: Mass Effect 3

But I still think ME2 is the best one for my money.

Agreed. I will always love the first one, and do have some regrets that really, decisions made along they don't affect the transition into ME2 too horribly. ME3 seemed too short to me, and a bit forced for me as well. ME2, though... I got the impression that what I did mattered, I fell in love with the story, and this really was the game that clinched this trilogy for me.

[mrclutch]

Re: Mass Effect 3

If the new DLC is really 15 hours I'll stop complaining about the price and pick it up after I finish up Xcom. Btw Xcom is "almost" as good as ME.

[TracerBullet]

Re: Mass Effect 3

This DLC is hilarious and I'm barely into it.

[Eman5805]

Re: Mass Effect 3

Now, I know it's pure fanservice, but it is AMAZING fanservice. Best Mass Effect DLC ever.

I haven't laughed and had so much fun while playing this game. Just...perfect.

"I should go."
"I should go."
"I should go."
"I should go."

[mattsb84]

Re: Mass Effect 3

Yeah..by far and away the best of the dlc for the series. Great jokes all over.

[jmood88]

Re: Mass Effect 3

I just finished the DLC and now I'm sad. At least I have two other Shepard's to go through it again.

[allBthere]

Re: Mass Effect 3

That's because you played the Extended Cut, lol

I assumed I did because of your comment, but I never downloaded it... I can see it on the market place and it's almost 2 gig's! I have the old crap 1st gen 360 with a 20gig HD and just can't do it. My ending was good to me, but now I'm curious what else they would put in there... maybe I'll just youtube the extended ending.

So my comment stands lol I didn't think there was anything to inherently bet pissed off about - it made perfect sense to me. Aside the points the poster below you made (some of which I agree with) but overall I can honestly say I was satisfied with the series as a whole and I'm glad they put a stamp on it instead of just extending for game after game. We can still enjoy the ME universe, but the whole shepard thing is over and done with.

[allBthere]

Re: Mass Effect 3

I think there are 2 reasons why people were a bit miffed at the ending (at least from my standpoint):

1. The original ending was extremely inconclusive, and about 1/3 the length of the subsequent "extended cut" ending

2.

Spoiler

The entire series was predicated on the fact that your decisions throughout the 3 games would result in significant consequences to the universe, and we were led to believe that your actions had all this galactic weight, but then at the ultimate moment, it turns out that none of that was true. Your decision boiled down to "red explosion", "blue explosion", or "green explosion", and nothing you did before that point in any of the 3 games changed anything. That seems like kind of a rip-off to me.

Interesting that you liked ME1 the best. Definitely the most "RPG" of the series, before it became pretty much a 3rd-person shooter with some RPG elements. Not that that is a bad thing, IMO - I actually liked the series better when the combat was less clunky. But it also gave up a lot, and as you stated, it seemd that the powers mattered much less as the gunplay improved. Singularity was definitely never as good as in the first one. Oh, and you view being able to drive the tank as a good thing???




I actually like 3 the least of the bunch, to be honest...I just felt like your crewmate options are so limited, you really don't meet any new people (or aliens), and there weren't many new game mechanics brought to the table. And to make things worse, some of the best characters from the series aren't brought back in playable form, and the 1 new character that may have brought something fresh to the table was DLC (so 90% of players never even knew he was in the game). And then the lack of a real "end boss" or any kind of denouement to the story, coupled with the original ending....I dunno, I just felt like the game was more of an obligation than a great experience. But I'm glad I went through the triology - it was fun on the whole for sure. But I still think ME2 is the best one for my money.

1. so as I said I guess my ending was the original one.

Spoiler

ending the reapers and destroying the relays was a tough choice, but after I made it, that's exactly what I saw, and joker crashing on earth, somewhere, and way later a man sharing a story with a boy in the woods lol but I'm not sure what else I would want. My character died saving the galaxy and wiped out the reapers, saving earth and all biotic life.

2. well about the decisions, in the end it was about the journey getting to the end, - the decisions along the way mattered to me AT THE TIME, as they would have every other player, but in the end the goal was to save the universe - and you either did that or did not do that. So I guess what I'm saying is the big decisions supersedes all others, and who really cares if you killed the arachnids in ME1 or killed REX? Those decisions wouldn't (and shouldn't) alter the end result. The fact that in ME1 and ME3 I had to pause the game and pace to really think about what I wanted to do is a credit to the games - 1&3 really gave you genuine DILEMMA's which is amazing! 2 failed to do that imo because it was A-hole move vs goody-2-shoes move but I'm getting off topic. Your 'readiness' does alter the endings pretty significantly though -


re: rpg, yes I really did enjoy the first one the most. Even the MACO lol ... driving around moutains and killing thresher mahls, it was true exploration of planets. ME3 was the worst reducing 99% of the planets to totally irrelevant. Nothing more than a bit of art on the screen. I'd take the clunkiness for the freedom in return. Getting in and out of the maco and deciding when you want to return to the normandy was a good thing. (to me) Even the guns would overheat and no ammo which makes total sense, then they brought in ammo!?!? super weird, the game worked fine with no ammo and was more 'futuresque' If I'm not mistaken since you could draw weapons etc. you'd see the guns animate and extend, which I think they also ditched.

ME1 was everything cool about a new console coming out - a few developers always think outside the box, strive for impossible goals, break the rules and get creative - even a game like condemned criminal origins lol, fighting crazy bums with 2X4's in dark stinky buildings was somehow very 'new' ... ME1 was totally bold and new and innovative, and they felt they had to pull back and simplify everything which many liked, but how awesome would it have been if they improved everything in ME1 each game (probably less than the extent they improved the shooting in subsequent games) and kept the freedom? It would be like skyrim in space with better characters. The creativity found in ME1 is unrivaled to me just thinking off the top of my head in any game. Elcor anyone? lol

But yeah, 1&3 remind me of choose your own adventure books from the 80s in many ways, 2 although still very good was just cheesy to me story-wise because of the black and white decisions - I don't remember pausing the game for 15 minutes straining over what I should do. I'm not at all saying you shouldn't like 2 the best, but I will be left wondering if the developers kept pushing and chasing their original dream for the ME games - what would have they been like...

[Eman5805]

Re: Mass Effect 3

Jesus. Even the post mission knock around bits are hilarious.

The kung fu theater eye zoom thing was so abruptly out of nowhere I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

[jmood88]

Re: Mass Effect 3

Jesus. Even the post mission knock around bits are hilarious.

The kung fu theater eye zoom thing was so abruptly out of nowhere I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Traynor, kick her ***"

[pietasterp]

Re: Mass Effect 3

2. well about the decisions, in the end it was about the journey getting to the end, - the decisions along the way mattered to me AT THE TIME, as they would have every other player, but in the end the goal was to save the universe - and you either did that or did not do that.

I can see that point of view. I just thought that there would be major repercussions from your decisions along the way, and to me that was the exciting part about finishing the trilogy. I envisioned that maybe you wouldn't be able to do certain things or have the outcome go a certain way in the end depending on what you did prior - I mean, one can imagine all sorts of ways that certain decisions along the way (

Spoiler

saving the council or not, letting the rachni queen live or not, curing the genophage, etc.

) could have manifested itself in your ultimate options re: the fate of the universe - maybe some decisions would even prevent you from saving anything at all - but they just didn't. And to me, that was disappointing, because it just seemed like the decisions you made along the way ultimately were irrelevant, in which case....why have them?

re: rpg, yes I really did enjoy the first one the most. Even the MACO lol ... driving around moutains and killing thresher mahls, it was true exploration of planets. ME3 was the worst reducing 99% of the planets to totally irrelevant. Nothing more than a bit of art on the screen.

I can see that; I wish they would have kept the RPG aspects but just refined the combat. I do think that the latter 2 games really just became Gears of War with a better story and more dialogue, and I wish they would've held to the vision from the first game. Not sure if EA taking over had anything to do with it or not, who knows?

ME1 was everything cool about a new console coming out - a few developers always think outside the box, strive for impossible goals, break the rules and get creative - even a game like condemned criminal origins lol, fighting crazy bums with 2X4's in dark stinky buildings was somehow very 'new' ... ME1 was totally bold and new and innovative, and they felt they had to pull back and simplify everything which many liked, but how awesome would it have been if they improved everything in ME1 each game (probably less than the extent they improved the shooting in subsequent games) and kept the freedom?

I agree, and I think that's why in the end, the lack of your decisions meaning anything in the 3rd game was all the more disappointing. I mean, the anticipation had built up over like 4-5 years, and the developers from the get-go were saying how impactful your decisions would be, and it seemed like this new age of games where anything was possible, but then ME3 came out and....to me it was just a regular game, in the end. Maybe it was a victim of too much promise based on ME1.

But yeah, 1&3 remind me of choose your own adventure books from the 80s in many ways, 2 although still very good was just cheesy to me story-wise because of the black and white decisions - I don't remember pausing the game for 15 minutes straining over what I should do. I'm not at all saying you shouldn't like 2 the best, but I will be left wondering if the developers kept pushing and chasing their original dream for the ME games - what would have they been like...

I guess I didn't see the decisions as being more superficial in 2 than in 3; clearly, ME1 had the most impactful decision-making in the entire series. I really didn't like ME3 when it's all said-and-done (it seemed like a weaker version of 2 that was way too streamlined - as you mentioned prior - with no significant decisions that impacted anything), as it just didn't seem "big" enough in scope for me. I think the best part of ME2 was meeting and recruiting all the new characters, and that was totally lacking in ME3. I'm still irritated that most of the ME2 characters couldn't be re-recruited back onto your team for ME3 (none, actually, unless I remember wrong). Especially since some characters (like Jack) were so much more interesting in ME3.

But I guess it just depends on what is important to you or what you like the best about the games that makes the decision for each person. I'll tell you, I never get DLC, but it sounds like this most recent one is pretty awesome...

[The 24th Letter]

Brooks is sexay