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Was really bugging me who voiced Aria, looked it up, major load off my mind.

Agree with certain Issues with the Gameplay. The amount of times Shepherd comes unstuck from cover or fails to stick to it altogether is frequent, also the animation for a 'Sprint Vault' only Happened about twice in the entire game for me. I remember doing it or the first time and trying about 15 times to re-anct it to no avail. I was dreading when the enemies became a challenge as it would all come tumbling down into frustration.

Fortunately it only happened in the last Combat encounter of the game, i literally couldn't do it, Tried twenty odd times then just switched the diffculty to 'Narrative' (It was still far from easy). The 3(and a 4th after finishing the group) Banshees and 8 Marauders (Plus another wave) moved to flush me with an alacrity i had not seen in previous encounters and somehow i had used ~15 medi gel during the mission as i had 0 for the battle, and to add insult to injury it switched off my AP rounds. Now everyone has their sticking points in videogames, just as you will laugh in my face about this i am sure i would laugh in yours about some random challenge you found difficult in whatever videogame.

I am not a power gamer but i am far from a scrub, though i'll admit i am better against humans than AI (I had a 1.2 K/D in Reach but have never completed a Halo game on Legendary). So i cant be totally at fault. i'll admit I had made some rash decisions regarding my shepherd's resilience; only a couple points into fitness and purely focusing on power damage/recharge speed along with Inferno armour which has no protection bonus. I also Only used ever used the cerberus SMG and that funny stick goo pistol.

One other reason could be my experience from Mass Effect 2, In 2 i was initially an Infiltrator, because i found it to be too easy i re-rolled as a Sentinel. I found this class equally OP but more satisfying to play. So it was my initial choice in 3, now Bioware had obviously realized this OP and Nerfed the 'racial power', 'Tech Armour' for number 3. I eventually got used to this but what i didnt get used to was the change to 'Warp', although it can be used for 'Devastating Combos', in ME2 i am pretty sure i had warp to Bust barriers; Overload for Shields, Warp for barriers. I realized far too late into 3 that warp no longer served this purpose, it was now a bit of a dud.

I am now playing through as an infiltrator and can do whole sections without being hit more than a few times, not that i am particulary good just that it is now super easy. For reference i am using the viper sniper rifle, i dont even need the 'One hit' to kill them all, 2 super slow mo bullets are as good as 1. I have also found that oddly disruptor ammo is good against barriers which doesnt really hold to the nice little rock/paper/scissors they had in 2.

Completed the game about an hour or two ago, dived around on google for ending related stuff and read 2 or 3 pages of this thread

My thoughts:

Good:

Better story than ME2 - Spending 80% of the main story getting a team is not a story!
Weapon Customization - Thanks Bioware! Still not as good as ME1
Pretty nice looking aswell.
Provoking emotions - I was pretty upset at 3 parts of the game, and more so drove me to use 2 renegade options on a full paragon character)
Difficulty - One of the more challenging games I have played in a while. Doesn't help when they swarm you with brutes XD
Tali - That is all


Indifferent:
Weapon allowances - Really hard to say whether its good or bad, ME1 allowed use of any weapon but limited aim depending on the class, ME2 locked you out of certain weapons and ME3 allows free use of any weapon regardless, I did get used to the new system.
Ending - I can see why people despise it as I myself don't like it much. However given rumours it may not be the end has me placing it here.

Bad:

Heavy Weapons - What the hell happened to the heavy weapons?? Specific mission heavy weapons are lame.
Controls - Seriously...who puts activate, sprint and get into cover all to one button?? The amount of times I rolled into a wall when I wanted to open a Medi-pack is awful...
From Ashes DLC - I would pay £10 for this why?? Granted the squadmate does become likeable after being a bit of a donkeycave...
Readiness Rating - I seriously have to play MP to get this higher to get the best ending for my character?? Lame...

Bugs Encountered:

Cutting of all audio during cutscene, the one with Mordin and the genopage.
Various camera glitches - Am I supposed to be looking at a wall when clearly a character should be there??
Non-opening of doors - The academy door glitched so I gave up and went to sleep.

Overall thoughts:

Very well put together game, even though some aspects did annoy me. Iv enjoyed the 30 hours or so I put into the game. I really didn't make use of the class I was, it was purely a choice for all the decryption and bypass stuff in ME1. I will probably start another story from ME1 again but going all out Renegade soldier with Garrus/Tali in my team the entire time.

Multiplayer - Haven't touched it other than the demo which tbh was pretty good.

EDIT: Added another item to the Bad section.

dogma wrote:There's nothing left to achieve, nothing to feel rewarded by, just the burden of expectation..

So you act out by slumming it with a pervy dweeb like Shepherd. YEEEEAH!

So...whatever happened to the dismemberment mechanic from ME2 anyway? Thought it was odd that it's missing in this one.

There's certainly still a Beheading mechanic.

Yes, but hardly what I meant and you know that.

Was just joshing.

They still kept some localized damage. But it seems they just went to 'stun' damage rather than part specific stuff.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Was just joshing.

They still kept some localized damage. But it seems they just went to 'stun' damage rather than part specific stuff.

I should have put a after my comment.

Yeah, came off a little more

No worries!

I think I like the weapon mods rather than the body hits. Punching through cover or adding Melee attachments is just damn cool.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Yeah, came off a little more

No worries!

I think I like the weapon mods rather than the body hits. Punching through cover or adding Melee attachments is just damn cool.

Ya, I do like the weapon mods as well. I just wish the shotguns didn't weigh so damn much or that ANY other gun got the weight reduction mod similar to the SMG (the lightest EFFING guns in the game). Oh, keep in mind, this is on my biotic femshep, I'm sure the weight problem is largely mitigated on a class that is more weapon friendly.

And to everyone talking about who they sexed up...liara in the first game, garrus in the next two

Though for some reason, my import save didn't show liara being my romantic interest in the first game. But I KNOW it was her...because, well, you know...

I've had a couple of bugs relating to previous actions.

I find the Asari to be aesthetically off-putting.

Am I the only one?

I think it's because of the different faces they use. Some of them are great and fit fine, but a lot of the less important ones look a little off.

I think Liara looks fine, and I loooooove Aria T'lok. I think she looks fine as well.

And she only has one rule...

But Samara seems a tad off, but Lillith looked fine. I dunno. Because they were closest to the humans in term of expression and structure, I think when it didn't work it really really didn't work.

Manchu wrote:I find the Asari to be aesthetically off-putting.

Am I the only one?

I think their heads are kind of creepy. However, I'm biased as I hate everything about the Asari. Until Mass Effect 3's ending, they were the thing I hated most about the series. Seriously they're everything I hate about elves in fantasy settings plus the "Blue-Skinned Space Babe" factor.

They dont have ears, to me it looks weird, so i will join you Manchu.

On the subject, a couple other aesthetic/canoney things that got on my nerves:
-Why do Salarians all have straps across their chests? it looks dumb.

-Why do humans wear such goofy looking clothes? Only Illusive man is dressed well, and he would still look better in a suit. The rest are wearing garments with far too many seams, straps, layers and fastenings. I am sorry but fashion only changes so much and i cannot see why the people of the future would wear such impractical clothes.

-Where are the female Turians? Admittedly they must be munters as most Turians seemed to be shacked up with Asari.

-Krogan do not look strong, their limbs are puny and they are just a massive head on a scrawny body.

-[More personal taste]: The guns are too big! Think how much cooler the cutscenes/inevitable renegade interrupts would look if Shep pulled out a FiveSeven sized/looking pistol instead of that giant Supersoaker.

- Miranda's Improbable Breasts look strangely gross on her skinny body with its spidery arms.

-Why do Turians have such Obviously Roman Names. I mean Adrian Victus? Come on Bioware.

Infact apart from the Reapers, the Kodiak, The Normandy, the Hover cars, the Mantis rifle, the Geth, the Turian's faces and the 'Honda Armour' the art is pretty unimpressive in Mass effect.

I just don't know how the same people who designed the Turians (one of the best looking Alien Races i have seen (Lion-Eagle-Lizards)) came up with the ridiculous looking Krogan.

I found Liara to be the only real attractive looking one .. Tali, I dunno, gotta see what's under the hat first. Ashley, just annoying looking and you can she was hand crafted to make teenage boys drool. Miranda, just felt like the designers said "OMG it's the girl from Chuck, we gotta make her hot" and they just tried too hard and her whole body ended up looking strange in the end. Or maybe they just needed better motion capture.. I dunno.

Necros wrote:I found Liara to be the only real attractive looking one .. Tali, I dunno, gotta see what's under the hat first.

I'll just say it now...

Hey, Krogan seem to be Native American inspired. (nothing wrong with that, just brought it up since you mentioned the turians).

As for the clothing, how do you know that constant space travel doesn't require specific wear? Maybe the new space fabrics are far more resilient (considering no one EVER rips anything at any time ever, even after getting blown up. It's like it's superman clothing) and they have lost the desire for oddly different clothing (except in the bar...and the high society party in the expansion pack in 2).

I agree on the guns.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

dogma wrote:

Necros wrote:I found Liara to be the only real attractive looking one .. Tali, I dunno, gotta see what's under the hat first.

I'll just say it now...

Spoiler:

...far too human.

Well...

Kevin949 wrote:

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Yeah, came off a little more

No worries!

I think I like the weapon mods rather than the body hits. Punching through cover or adding Melee attachments is just damn cool.

Ya, I do like the weapon mods as well. I just wish the shotguns didn't weigh so damn much or that ANY other gun got the weight reduction mod similar to the SMG (the lightest EFFING guns in the game). Oh, keep in mind, this is on my biotic femshep, I'm sure the weight problem is largely mitigated on a class that is more weapon friendly.

And to everyone talking about who they sexed up...liara in the first game, garrus in the next two

Though for some reason, my import save didn't show liara being my romantic interest in the first game. But I KNOW it was her...because, well, you know...

Go Team Garrus!

The fact that you never see female Turians bothered me as well.

And it's sad that al the "minor" races got so little screen time. You have two conversations with a Hannar, meet a handful of Volus and only one Elcor :(

Where are the female Turians? Admittedly they must be munters as most Turians seemed to be shacked up with Asari.

How would you feel if someone told you that there were tons of female Turians in the ME series but none had speaking roles?

...far too human.

Yeah, very true. But then again, I am capable of finding this attractive:so it's probably best that BioWare isn't catering to my preferences.

Anung Un Rama wrote:The fact that you never see female Turians bothered me as well.

And it's sad that al the "minor" races got so little screen time. You have two conversations with a Hannar, meet a handful of Volus and only one Elcor :(

Everyone is off fighting...They can't all chill at the citadel anymore.

But I get what you're saying.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

A Town Called Malus wrote:

Kevin949 wrote:

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Yeah, came off a little more

No worries!

I think I like the weapon mods rather than the body hits. Punching through cover or adding Melee attachments is just damn cool.

Ya, I do like the weapon mods as well. I just wish the shotguns didn't weigh so damn much or that ANY other gun got the weight reduction mod similar to the SMG (the lightest EFFING guns in the game). Oh, keep in mind, this is on my biotic femshep, I'm sure the weight problem is largely mitigated on a class that is more weapon friendly.

And to everyone talking about who they sexed up...liara in the first game, garrus in the next two

Though for some reason, my import save didn't show liara being my romantic interest in the first game. But I KNOW it was her...because, well, you know...

Go Team Garrus!

Hell yes, Garrus seemed to be the only genuine bad ass in the group.

I personally think the Krogans body proportions look WAAAY off, with those scrawny arms and legs attached to a squat torso and HUGE heads. As a new player to ME, I think the Turinas look similar in some ways to "the Prawns" from "District 9".

Although not directly related, I believe this has to be shared; its hilarious.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/29768571/Name%20Generator.html

Kevin949 wrote:

Anung Un Rama wrote:The fact that you never see female Turians bothered me as well.

And it's sad that al the "minor" races got so little screen time. You have two conversations with a Hannar, meet a handful of Volus and only one Elcor :(

Everyone is off fighting...They can't all chill at the citadel anymore.

But I get what you're saying.

But it's not like you saw a lot of them in the previous games. ME2 had maybe 3 Elcor and I can't remember any Hannar.

Man, I wish they would've actually made that Blasto movie instead of just giving us sound snippets.

Blasto is full of win. I laugh every time.

And Manchu's vote for the next cover of Fornax terrifies me a little.

Something tells me Predators don't kiss much.

Thats about as scary as a vorcha going... ... I'm not going to finish that...

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:And Manchu's vote for the next cover of Fornax terrifies me a little.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

Manchu wrote:Yeah, very true. But then again, I am capable of finding this attractive:

Spoiler:

so it's probably best that BioWare isn't catering to my preferences.

No wonder you like redheads...

Manchu wrote:

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:And Manchu's vote for the next cover of Fornax terrifies me a little.

I'd buy that for a dollar.

Of all the missed opportunity. I'm sure fans would snap that up.

When I was playing through with my girlfriend, (I was controlling the shooting, she was making all the decisions... sounds familiar...), and we came across that in one of the stores she was all, "What's that?"

"Basically an alien porno mag." I replied, "It's like 5 credits, I'm gonna buy it."

"No you're not! My Shepard doesn't want that!"

Hilarious.

I'd read to Fornax ... for the articles.