[YT="Trailer 1"]vTo_9xyl1LA[/YT] [YT="Trailer 2"]q10u2SIQ4pw[/YT] [YT="Voice Cast"]Hfvo5ueKJY8[/YT] [YT="New Multiplayer"]nyy5fAFw6UM&feature=relmfu[/YT] Psyched!
I only just finished Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 at the end of last year. Yes, I am definitely looking forward to ME3.
Definitely my most anticipated game for 2012. If Bioware raise the bar again like they did with ME2 this is going to be one hell of a game. Demo is released on Valentines day too.
Count me in! I'm going to work on a run through of ME2 and try to save my teammates who died in the final battle. So excited!
[YT="Mass Effect 3 Launch trailer"]bG2mdZ23eP8[/YT] Fuck me, that looks good. Just a few more days, can't wait!
This is one franchise I have just not been able to get into, despite a couple tries. Excited for all the fans, though- I'm waiting to see what they come up with for DragonAge 3- I never did buy 2 because it was a pile of stink, but Origins is a game of the ages.
Picked it up on opening day and I haven't touched it yet. I'm doing a speed run of ME2 and trying to save my crew before I jump into ME3... The problem is that I keep finding missions I didn't do in my first playthrough. Mass Effect is a great series!! I can't wait to start ME3! Hopefully next weekend...
Finally finished ME2 and started ME3. Right off the bat, I have to say that I'm a little dissappointed. I spent a lot if time in ME2 making a Shepard that looked like me. The promise was that I'd be able to import my character to ME3 and continue his story. I was one of looking to the Mass Effect franchise as the first video game blu-ray boxed set. All of that was gone when a message popped up and said that I could not import my face. All of the details were the same, so the change was only cosmetic, but I spent 100 hours over 2 playthroughs with Shep in ME2 and this person with his voice in ME3 is kind of freaking me out. Also, ME2 was my first since I played it on PS3. I know that the relationship between The Alliance and Cerberus was shaky at best, but from my perspective, Cerberus spent billions of credits and years reassurecting me. I thought the world of Jacob and romanced Miranda. The very first mission of ME3 for me I was forced to bust some caps at Cerberus operatives and it felt weird. Other than that, the game looks and plays great! Much better than ME2 so far. Liara is on my team as is Ashley Williams and I have to say that the animations are uncannily realistic. Especially Liara. I know she's a blue alien with blue tendrils on her head, but she looks real and conveys emotions in her face. Wow!
Yeah Bioware dropped the ball on the face import thingy, it seems to be affecting most people. You'd think something like this was thoroughly tested first! I'm playing the game on Hardcore and it's much more difficult than ME2 on the same setting. I think I died on the Turian moon more times than I did in my entire run through ME2! But it's enjoyable so far. And I do like how so many little things have transferred across after importing my character. Lots of subtle nods to what I had done in ME2, the continuity is pretty impressive - apart from my characters face!
OK!!! So I dabbled in some multiplayer today. Pretty good. You play as other Alliance forces in the galaxy during the events of ME3. Your success in this mode effects the fleet readiness in the single player mode. Not bad! One gripe... There are micro transactions and that sucks ass.
On second playthrough. Im not completely convinced yet, so far I seem to be enjoying it less as something to play than ME2
I'm still on my first playthrough. There has been quite a bit if controversy over the ending and I've made great effort to remain spoiler free. I want to experience it for myself and make up my own mind as much as I can. In my haste to experience the ending, I guess I've neglected some of my team. I lost someone very dear to my Shepard and it seems that if I had spent more time engaging the character throughout the game, I could've avoided the incident. That's fucking awesome!! As I prepare to start my final mission that I suspect will lead to the final battle, I find myself making rounds in the Normandy and the Citadel and making sure the rest of my crew knows that my character values them. Much like one would in real life after loosing someone close. I obviously hadn't gotten as much out of this game as I could've up 'til now. I definitely will be giving this one another spin at some point. A lot more subtle than ME2 when it came to adding people to your crew and gaining their loyalty, but I think it's a little better.
I'm close to completing the game (1st play through), into the final battle now. I'm eagerly anticipating the terrible ending so many players have been complaining about. I've enjoyed the game though, although like Dan I don't think it quite hits the heights of ME2.
After 30 hours of labor, I can now report that the galaxy is once again, safe for your convenience.... You're welcome. Finished the game. The hoopla over the ending was totally blown out of proportion, but still a bit of a let down. While I can say that Mass Effect joins great sci fi epics like Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and Lost with terrible endings, that not necessarily bad company to be around.
30 hours was a bit quick. I took just over 40 hours. The game is a lot harder than ME2 on the 'hardcore' difficulty level, my poor Shep suffered many deaths before finally prevailing. In fact, I think I died more times in this run-through than I did in ME1 and ME2 combined! Maybe I'm just getting crapper at playing video games. And yes the ending does suck. The fanatics have kicked up a stink and fair play to Bioware, they look as if they will appease fans by providing alternate ending (no doubt the DLC will have to be paid for though. ) Think I'll finally try out the multiplayer over the next few days.
Let's discuss the Mass Effect 3 ending controversy. Much has been made of what Bioware put out there. Some have even gone as far as too demand that changes be made and one guy even filed a complaint with the FTC. I was initially disappointed with the ending and to some degree, I still am... but there is a new idea out there in the Internet that redeems the ending a little bit... But just a little bit. [spoilers] OK... At the end, Shepard and Anderson are beamed aboard the Citadel. They make their way to some sort of control panel when they bump into The Illusive Man. He makes arguments that the best way to handle the Reapers is the try and control them. Shep and Anderson realize that he's been Indoctrinated like Saren in ME1.- Now, on my first playthrough where I rushed through, I had to shoot The Illusive Man. On my most recent playthrough, my Paragon status was through the roof. I was able to get him to realize that he was the under control of the Reapers and I actually convinced him to shoot himself. At this point, it's worth mentioning that on my visit to Thessia, where we learned that the Asari had been hoarding Prothean technology for thousands of years, I took Liara and Javik, the Prothean that's made available in the From Ashes DLC. There is a lot of great conversation between Javik and Liara there that revealed that the ancient Asari religion was actually worshipping Protheans who had visited Thessia when they were primatives. Even though the Javik character was DLC and billed as though he was not essential to the plot, he was a great character and it made my playthrough that much better. I really don't know how I feel about that.- Well, on my Ultra Paragon playthrough, the Prothean VI appears and there was a totally different conversation. Shepard ask the VI why the Protheans failed to assemble the Crucible in their cycle... The VI responds that they didn't design it... That the Crucible, the Citadel, ME relays and everything the current space-faring races attributed to them we're technology made millions of years ago by races cycles ago... and we're passed on to them. He also said that there were those among them that sought to control the Reapers instead of destroy them and that those people were later found out to be Indoctrinated. Just then, the VI says "Indoctrinated presence detect. Initiating security protocols." and disappears. In walks Kai Lang, the evil Cerberus Space Ninja. Hmmmm.... OK... Now back to the Citadel. Shepard passes out as he tries to initiate The Crucible... A platform -lifts his unconscious body in the air where he bumps into an energy being that manifest itself as a kid Shep failed to save on Earth. It tells him that the Reapers assault on advanced civilizations were necessary to maintain order in the galaxy and now that Shep had completed the Crucible made it on the Citadel, their old approach won't work anymore. The energy kid gives him 3 ways to fix things and resolve the chaos that would ensue. The first option was to continue and destroy the Reapers. This would destroy all synthetic beings and thus the chaos introduced by advanced civilization. This choice was represented by a console in red light and a vision of Anderson blowing it up in red. The second was to try and control the Reapers. This way, Shepard could use the Reapers to stamp out the chaos of advanced civ as it appeared. He would no longer be ago to walk among mortal men as he would be a god, but this was the best solution. It was represented by a console in blue light and a vision of The Illusive Man at the console controlling it. Shepard says "... So The Illusive Man was right!!" The god child then says the last choice was a synthesis of all synthetic and organic life. There was no vision or console representing this, just a bright stream of light in front of you.- Now the entire game, the paragon choice is represented by blue and the renegade choice represented by red. Anderson and those guys who were always trying to destroy the Reapers were paragons and Cerberus and the Illusive Man were the renegades. At the end, everything was reversed. Anderson in red and IM in blue. OK... Choose to control the Reapers, and you see the Reapers leave Earth, the Mass Relays explode in blue and Joker and your girlfriend crash lands on a jungle planet have wild monkey sex. Roll credits. Choose synthesis and you see the Reapers leave Earth, the Mass Relays explode in green and Joker and your girlfriend crash lands on a jungle planet have wild monkey sex. Roll credits. Choose to destroy the Reapers, and you see the Reapers die on Earth, the Mass Relays explode in red and Joker and your girlfriend crash lands on a jungle planet have wild monkey sex.... but on my ultra paragon playthrough, someone among the rubble of the destroyed Crucible with N7 armor on, presumably Shepard, takes a breath and the credits roll. Someone put forth the idea that Shepard was Indoctrinated and manipulated into believing that the course of action he'd taken the entire franchise was misguided and that the Reapers and Cerberus was right all along. This certainly seems to align with the facts. The fact that Shep seems to survive the explosion from destroying the Reapers is enough for me. Is it possible that Bioware managed toIndoctrinate all of us? I think so and on one hand I think that's brilliant... but it kind of sucks that I have to ask the question when the story was supposed to be complete. Suffice to say, I think the Indoctrination Theory is real and I have enjoyed the vigorous conversation about it on the interwebs. However,-I totally understand how a game that was billed as a choose your own adventure and yields the exact same ending can trigger this sort of backlash. No matter what choices you've made throughout, they don't seem to matter in the end.- I'm disturbed for a different reason, however. This was supposed to be the end of Shepard's story. It clearly was not. In the coming months, I'm sure Bioware had planned to release DLC that would've explained the end in more detail and I have no doubt they intended to charge for it... on top of the $70 I paid for the game and DLC that I thought would complete the story. What does it mean if we as consumers allow developers and publishers put out incomplete games just to nickel and dime us for more money later in to complete the story? I know it's done all the time, but this was supposed to complete the trilogy... The other 2 we expected more to the story. This was sold to us as a conclusion and it quite literAlly left more questions than answers in the hopes of selling you more.- Bioware has since announced the coming of the "Extended Cut" RLC which will answer questions and it will be free, but wow. I was expecting a complete thought/story on the disc.[/spoilers] What do you think?-
Well, as you can probably tell from my new sig, I really loved this game. I don't think I have felt so bereaved for leaving behind fictional friends at the end of a story since I was a child, when I still allowed novels to swallow me up whole. This was an amazing experience. And the extent to which the ending disappointed me only makes sense as a reflection of how intensely I cared about the story and characters when I got there. How did the ending disappoint me? I have come to believe that the problem is neither in the plot choices, nor the narrative, nor the storytelling, but purely rhetorical. They are going for a version of the sublime style with the imagery, music, reduced speed, and changed and limited controls during the last 30 minutes, and most of that actually works. And an increased need for interpretation is a part of that; the various versions of the indoctrination theory are reactions to this. If this had all worked ideally, we could have the indoctrination view as a what if, never answered, and been happy with that. A need for interpretation doesn't have to be a disappointment; for instance, the ending of Portal 2 also elicited that same need, and players mostly adored it. But somewhere within the aesthetically deliberate confusion at ME3's end, basic communication seems to break down. Like many others, I suddenly find myself wondering, Why am I shooting at that? Why is that ship flying away? Why is this equipment exploding? Why does everyone seem to forget what we just learned about the geth? Those are not good 'let's interpret the ending' questions. They are more like 'let's figure out what the writers really wanted to do, and why they couldn't get their point across' questions. The clearest symptom of this is to see how many players write that they initially didn't recognize that there were three paths along the final bridge, or weren't sure which path leads where. Gameplay itself became unclear, and frustratingly so. So I don't think the story needed to be different, I don't think the plot needed to be different, I don't think the ME universe needed to end up with different solutions. Nor do I think the writers wanted to delay the real ending and release it as DLC. I think there was a purely rhetorical issue, a bit of craftsmanship gone wrong right at the end. So if they had caught that problem before publication, an extended cut would have been precisely the way to go. I still think it is likely to leave me with the perfect game for my personal taste. But I do wonder whether the arguments that have since grown out of that confusion, on the internet as well as in individual players' minds, can still be fixed. A story is usually not bad because it has plot holes, but because it fails to engage you, so that you start noticing them. Once the rhetorics have failed to the point where you're noticing plot holes, can you unsee the holes because a more engaging version comes along?
I find myself incapable of rendering judgement on these games until they are finished. The DLC's are coming out, we'll see what alterations that provides - but they haven't really finished their story, and they haven't finished getting your money. The two recent Fallout games are really a good example here - its hard to judge them until you get the full game. Especially 3.
That's sort of the point. If developers are going to start releasing games without proper endings and chargefull retail for them, only to charge you again for the proper ending DLC, then where does it end? Don't get me wrong... I loved Mass Effect and I don't see any other developers or franchises coming close to what Biowareacheived here, but I feel like they crossed a line. First with excluding Javik from the game for those who paid full retail and later without a proper ending. Gaming is cheaper today than at any point in it's history and yeilds a lot more entertainment tyan a trip to the movies, but $60 is still a lot of money. I really dont mind an extra $10-$15 to supplement a game that I thoroughly enjoyed in order to add to the story or gameplay. Mass Effect certainly fits the criteria for that, but i honestly feel like they didn't complete the story here.
I've tried to make sense of the endings, I've read about the indoctrination theory, but the bottom line is that the ending(s) absolutely suck. For a team like Bioware to drop the ball so badly is almost incomprehensible to me considering how good the game and its prequels were. Not to mention that Bioware are actually very good at producing satisfying endings to their games. Jade Empire had a fantastic ending, Kotor was pretty good for its time, ME1 and ME2 good too. But the best of the lot was the ending to Dragon Age:Origins. You get almost complete closure on most things including some minor characters. The end epilogue in DA:O is exactly what was needed for ME3. And that ending for DA:O was just the 1st of a trilogy. ME3 is the final game, the end to the story and we get no answers whatsoever! We have no idea what happened to the characters and protagonist we've gotten to know over the past 5 years. It was confusing and I was left wondering what the heck just happened. Where was Joker flying off to? And WHY was he leaving the battle? How did the ground team get onboard the Normandy? What will happen to the alliance fleet now that the mass relays are destroyed? Why has some character that we've never met before turned up in the shape of some god child to decide the fate of the game? Why must Shepard die for every single option the kid gives him? How does Shep 'control' the Reapers if he's dead (blue ending)? Why should all synthetics be destroyed and not just the Reapers (red ending). And how is "synthesis" a good thing (green ending)? The whole point of the Reapers is absolutely stupid. These synthetic machines wipe out organic species every 50,000 years... to stop other synthetics from destroying them! After 5 years of waiting I never expected to be blown away by the revelation of why the Reapers do what they do but this explanation was totally retarded and the entire focus of the kids/Reapers argument was man vs machine. That theme had already manifested itself quite nicely with the Geth/Quarian story but the Reapers angle was absurd and made little sense. Still, I will see what the 'new ending' DLC will be like. The developers have already said they won't change the ending but will just add to it, give more closure so the original ending will still be there. But while the ending was rubbish the game itself was very good. I prefer ME2 but this was another great game in the series. I look forward to Bioware's next big project. Btw, does anyone have the PC version of ME3? If so, interested in playing some multiplayer sometime?
In the middle of my third playthrough right now on Insanity difficulty. This should get me the Platinum trophy (1000 acheivment points for those on Xbox or PC) for Mass Effect 3... Something I've only done just twice before, which I guess speaks to how much this game held my attention.
So who has played the multiplayer DLCs? So far there are around 5-6 new characters and 8-10 new weapons.
It's almost September and I'm still playing this game. The multiplayer has evolved into my default choice when I have nothing else to play. It's taken the place of Call of Duty on that regard. Bioware has done a great job of supporting this game with new and free DLC in the form of new maps and weekend missions almost every month. Today, they release their new story based DLC named Leviathan. It's about Shepard's pursuit of a rogue Reaper that calls itself Leviathan. I'm actually really looking forward to it.
