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2012/03/07 21:15:44
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
There is a Hanar Diplomat quest on the Citadel that fired the triggers in the wrong order, and now I can't advance that quest.
There is a quest where you need to pick up some special omni-gel for aliens and bring it to the hospital. Upon doing so, I got XP but it stayed in my log as if I had not completed it.
Also, when Ashley becomes a Spectre, it positioned the camera out of the window, so all you could see was the very tops of our heads.
Obviously I love the characters, so I'll just soldier through the unimpressive gameplay.
One thing that seems like a bug is occasionally it started getting super jerky, like 5FPS. Closing the game and restarting it fixes this. My system is far in excess of the system requirements, and it runs fine the vast majority of the time. It seems to take about 2 hours for this to start happening, and it doesn't always.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
What the hell? Not since Star Ocean 3 has the ending to a game left such a sour taste in mouth. Only it's even worse since it's been all this building up of 3 direct sequels with the same characters only for it to end with a steaming pile of bs. I can only imagine the thought process that went into the ending was something like this:
Hey! You know what will make for an AWESOME ending. The Citadel was really this poorly explained sentient being all the time and totally pulling the strings behind everything! Also it appears as the Ghost of the little boy you say for 3 seconds at the start of the game! I mean that's what you want instead of a proper boss battle. There weren't even any entities around that would have made for a suitable final showdown, especially not harbinger. That's why we should explicitly mention he's around in the final battle and you never see him: So people know it would be totally pointless for him to actually show up on screen!
Instead what you need are three different endings you can choose by walking up to three different glowing things. I mean, everyone hated that in Dues Ex: Human Revolution, so it was the perfect choice here! And of course, we need to make all three of the endings unsatisfying, contrived feeling, catch-22s that don't actually allow you to save the galaxy in any meaningful fashion, no matter how well you did. That's gonna be fine cause we're going to explain it with the sound logic of "Organics and Synthetics can never come to terms" even though we spent a good amount of the game dismantling that with the whole Geth/Quarian storyline that you ended with them having a truce and the Geth helping them rebuilding.
Everyone will be totally satisfied that no matter what they do, all their actions from all 3 games are basically and made entirely pointless.
This message was edited 7 times. Last update was at 2012/03/08 07:07:40
I'm pretty well pleased with it so far, actually. I went with a Soldier in ME1, a Soldier in ME2, and I started a Soldier in ME3, but the new tweaks to assault rifles are...not good. Convinced me to restart as a Vanguard, and I'm honestly impressed with the combat now that I'm playing a class that can largely ignore the cover mechanics and just go bombing around slaughtering. ME2 was largely "sit in cover, destroy things with the Vindicator/Mattock" and thus quite tedious. This is quite an upgrade, though that may be due more to the class than the gameplay.
The "streamlining" of the conversations sucks, and I wouldn't be surprised if the next game in the franchise just eschewed dialogue options altogether in favor of non-interactive cut scenes. Bioware is steadily becoming less an RPG developer and more an action developer. They still have great writers, but I think it's pretty obvious they'd rather write novels than branching storylines.
Multiplayer's one of the aspects of the game I was quite venomous to when it was announced, but I've probably spent more time on it than the singleplayer so far. Which leads to the odd circumstance of barely being off Earth in the campaign, yet having 100% Galactic Readiness. Hope I'm not screwing myself there.
Not wild about the squad. Never been a fan of Liara, Tali, or even Ashley.
2012/03/08 09:03:33
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
So I watched the after-the-credits scene on Youtube...that was really awful. Really cheapens the impact of the entire series IMO. It's also not really that spoilerish if people are interested.
"Order. Unity. Obedience. We taught the galaxy these things, and we shall do so again."
"They are not your worst nightmare; they are your every nightmare."
"Let the galaxy burn!"
Bioware is steadily becoming less an RPG developer and more an action developer. They still have great writers, but I think it's pretty obvious they'd rather write novels than branching storylines.
Disappointing to hear.
Dman137 wrote:
goobs is all you guys will ever be
By 1-irt: Still as long as Hissy keeps showing up this is one of the most entertaining threads ever.
For reals? I've been playing almost nonstop since I got it tuesday, and I'm still in "act 1" according to the hint book the GameStop guy made me buy
Fo' Reals. Granted, I didn't do 100% completion just enough to fill that green "War Assets" bar and unlock all the endings. I think the total completion time was just shy of 20 hours for me. I don't know if that's fast or slow. I can imagine the game taking longer if I was playing a different class maybe? I found that I could pretty much beat everything very quickly in the game by taking 1 light weapon (keeping power recharge at 200%) and just spamming Charge + Nova over and over as Vanguard.
The only thing that was remotely close to a challenge were the enemies called "Banshees" and only because they had an unavoidable, non-telegraphed instant kill attack in melee.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2012/03/08 16:16:06
2012/03/08 17:13:39
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Oh.. yeah I play slow. I just now got my assets to the minimum line, but I'm doing a lot of exploring and checking out planets and running from reapers. Also doing all the side missions I can find, for extra XPs.
I'm doing a soldier with fire ammo and armor piercing ammo maxed for the whole squad.. armor I use the armor piercing and fire on everything else. Stuff dies real quick. I never order my group to do anything either, they just do their own thing and kill stuff for me. But stuff dies real easy, especially the cerebrus guys that think they're tough with those big metal that my bullets go right through.
I'm also taking my time. I read like everything that pops up and need to talk to everyone and all that stuff but I'm really enjoying it. The game is like a non-stop easter-egg for those who've played the previous two installments.
Minnesota, land of 10,000 Lakes and 10,000,000,000 Mosquitos
I've also been taking it slow. I've been hitting every side-mission I can, exploring the galaxy for artifacts and other random gubbins for people on the Citadel.
By the way, I gotta say that I love what they did with the Citadel. Not just the layout, but the fact that if you want to blow an hour after doing a lot of combat, you can just wander around and do talky side-quests for people.
My Armies:
Kal'reia Sept Tau - Farsight Sympathizers Da Great Looted Waaagh! The Court of the Wolf Lords
Well I'll be home in thirty minutes where ME3 is waiting for me, so will be able to join in the thread from tomorrow.
Sad face on the 360 bug, hope I get lucky, or I'll figure out what I am doing when it happens. If I can just re-edit the face, I won't be too bothered as I know what she looks like.
"That's not an Ork, its a girl.." - Last words of High General Daran Ul'tharem, battle of Ursha VII.
Two White Horses (Ipswich Town and Denver Broncos Supporter)
2012/03/09 00:35:09
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:Well I'll be home in thirty minutes where ME3 is waiting for me, so will be able to join in the thread from tomorrow.
Sad face on the 360 bug, hope I get lucky, or I'll figure out what I am doing when it happens. If I can just re-edit the face, I won't be too bothered as I know what she looks like.
Are you talking about how it doesn't properly carry over your guy's appearance? Ya, that happened to me. Turned me into some Indian guy. I was able to recreate my guy for the most part though.
I just beat the game as well. Fem Shep, Xbox 360, Infiltrator. Game Spoilers to follow.
Spoiler:
Ending is... Ok. The choice part is gak (That little kid has the worst voice actor ever), but the Citadel/Endings and score are striking sad.
The same can't be said for the gameplay. My game would freeze, have massive FPS drops, not allow me to continue, and not allow me to use a few acquired guns.
Worse yet are the enemies. Brutes are way harder to kill than Harvesters, and if a brute gets you in a corner, you're not making it out alive. Banshees in numbers are simply unfair. They're usually supported by Cannibals and Marauders. So, they're a massive pain in the ass as they wipe your health out.
Oh, and while I'm ranting, After the Credits and cutscene, you get suddenly forced back into the Normandy before you took on the Cerberus Main Base. It seemed to me like a bit of Whiplash, TBH.
All and all, Amazing close to a great story, but a mediocre close to what could have been a great gameplay franchise.
Every Normal Man Must Be Tempted At Times To Spit On His Hands, Hoist That Black Flag, And Begin Slitting Throats.
If you haven't yet gotten there, you eventually do a mission on a planet called "Thessia". One companion is preselected for you; for some really choice dialogue, your other companion should be the.... new addition to the team.
lord_blackfang wrote: Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.
Flinty wrote: The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
2012/03/09 08:35:04
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
I''ve played 5 or 6 hours by now. Got back from the Turian moon and back to the Citadel to visit Thane. Before I talk about anything else I have to say one thing:
That IGN woman who's playing that Alliance Action News Extreme reporter... that is one terrible character. Who's idea was it to put her in the game and in a role like that?!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also: Joker is creeeeeeepy...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/09 08:35:33
2012/03/09 11:01:56
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Are you talking about how it doesn't properly carry over your guy's appearance? Ya, that happened to me. Turned me into some Indian guy. I was able to recreate my guy for the most part though.
Aye, and yeah it happened. I decided to try and see if I could get her look, and surprisingly I was able to get a near spot on match, if fact I think I've toned done the cheeks a little better this time, so prefer her over the previous look I had.
About 3hrs in, couldn't wait to download my goodies, so didn't actually start the game till just after midnight, and stayed up to just before 3am, which was a bit daft as I had to get up for 6am to open the shop at 7am. I made it through though, a bit zombified, but generally okay. Due to the nature of this one and what I've seen so far, won't be able to play while the boys are up, so will have to wait till about 8pm to carry on.
Really enjoying it so far though, had to force myself to bed, even with the early start, also have so far avoided the ending spoiler, and not opening any spoilers in here either, keep it spoilered please as you have been so far, its much appreciated.
Spoiler:
The only thing that stands out for me so far in a negative sense, is the lack of Tali, she supposed to be on the Normandy, so I'd really like to see how shes left and under what circustamces, as with my Main girl Tali was fully exiled. I did kinda fear they might shoe horn the characters to fit the greater populations choices. Part of me did hope they would have it so certain members of the twelve could become full squad members for most of the game, and not just be seen in cameo missions, its obviously not going to be the case.
But its a minor grumble.
"That's not an Ork, its a girl.." - Last words of High General Daran Ul'tharem, battle of Ursha VII.
Two White Horses (Ipswich Town and Denver Broncos Supporter)
2012/03/09 14:16:11
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
On the main menu, I get a little news thing about a DLC mission, but I can't download it (on the PS3) .. Checked the PSN store and can't find it there.. or is it collectors edition only and all the other noobs just have to wait till EA gets greedier and wants everyone else to buy it?
2012/03/09 17:58:55
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
I am regretting not importing a character as I really don't care for the default decisions Shepherd made.
Spoiler:
Shepherd apparently killed Wrex and the Rachni queen in ME1. And he let the council die ... Also, LotSB never happened as far as default Shepherd is concerned. I'm beginning to think that default Shepherd never had a romantic attachment to any former or current crew member, either.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/09 17:59:18
You really need to play the second game at a minimum and import a character from that to maximize your options in ME3. Certain alliances are much easier to forge based on your actions in ME2.
I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet, but basically every female character has gotten noticeably curvier. The first time I saw Jack there was a definite double take, same with Liara. Its like they decided to make Miranda's model the standard for all the female characters, which of course lead to turning Miranda's already borderline impossible curves up to 11 (complete with the requisite dat ass shots).
Spoiler:
Oh, and then there's a weird Joker-EDI romance, which is oddly initiated by EDI. Its minor thing, relative to the whole game, but my God was my first thought ever "fanfic".
As for the combat, I've been relatively impressed. It took me a while to get used to the tighter camera, but once I did it was alright. My one complaint would be that, given the volume of enemies and how durable some of them are (try killing a Cerberus Guardian without a biotic, or a sniper rifle), there often ends up being a profound shortage of ammunition. The context sensitive space bar is also somewhat difficult to get used to, but has only really proven problematic when I try go into cover in a corner; which is easily solved by avoiding such attempts.
As for the story so far, I like the return to ME1 model where recruitment happens more organically, rather than being your direct objective. Though I'm finding more and more that I wish there were more variety in who your could actually recruit. Certain characters could easily be swapped on and off the Normandy with minimal impact to the story, at least so far.
Also, the Prothean from the DLC has some awesome lines.
Spoiler:
Prothean: The Asari, Humans, and Turians..It is strange to see the most primitive species from my time ruling the galaxy.
Liara: There's also the Salarians.
Prothean: The lizards evolved!?!
Liara: I believe they're amphibians.
Prothean (dismissively): They used to eat flies.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2012/03/09 20:15:27
Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.
2012/03/09 20:01:39
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
So I've never actually been sad after something happened in a video game.. but, last night I got to the part where
Spoiler:
Mordin died to cure the genophage
and I was actually pretty bummed. He was one of my favorites from ME2. I was gonna be pretty pissed earlier when I thought
Spoiler:
Grunt was gonna sacrifice himself to kill all those nids
but I'm glad that one worked out in the end.
I do kind of wish you could have more people to choose from on your team.. so far I've been stuck with James, EDI, Garrus and Liara. Guess I was used to ME2 when there were like 10 people to choose from.
2012/03/09 21:50:35
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Manchu wrote:I am regretting not importing a character as I really don't care for the default decisions Shepherd made.
Spoiler:
Shepherd apparently killed Wrex and the Rachni queen in ME1. And he let the council die ... Also, LotSB never happened as far as default Shepherd is concerned. I'm beginning to think that default Shepherd never had a romantic attachment to any former or current crew member, either.
He appoints Udina to the Council too I think. Default Shepard might be a jerk.
2012/03/09 22:05:23
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Manchu wrote:I am regretting not importing a character as I really don't care for the default decisions Shepherd made.
Spoiler:
Shepherd apparently killed Wrex and the Rachni queen in ME1. And he let the council die ... Also, LotSB never happened as far as default Shepherd is concerned. I'm beginning to think that default Shepherd never had a romantic attachment to any former or current crew member, either.
He appoints Udina to the Council too I think. Default Shepard might be a jerk.
Agreed. I actually went back and finished my mass effect 1 and ended it perfectly. Killed Ashley because I liked Kaiden more. (Also because I like Kaiden for his story line.)
I also saved wrex gave him hope got his family armor, also got every cerberus mission done and everything in mass effect completed with full on paragon. Mass Effect 2 that paid off XD. Apparently I accidently did something funny, as a paragon i sabatogaed the gunship when I was saving garrus. Hopefully that won't have an impact at all!
But all in all it is really good game. Plus I am in it for the story. Not the gameplay.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2012/03/10 12:56:38
Subject: Mass Effect 3 Gameplay & Storyline Discussion
Manchu wrote:Bought it tonight and have played it for a few hours.
The graphics are better but still nothing too special. The story so far is moving along well enough but I never like the early part of these games where my squad recruitment is absolutely limited by linear plot.
The controls are incredibly rigid and frustrating. Movement is like running through molasses. Combat is a fight against the cover system as much as the enemies. Good luck running through an area with low walls or rubble!
Crappy gameplay, bland graphics, and a mediocre story. Why did I buy this again?
... oh right.
I disagree.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2012/03/10 16:29:55
Starting Sons of Horus Legion
Starting Daughters of Khaine
2000pts Sisters of Silence
4000pts Fists Legion
Sylvaneth A forest
III Legion 5000pts
XIII Legion 9000pts
Hive Fleet Khadrim 5000pts
Kabal of the Torn Lotus .4000pts
Coalition of neo Sacea 5000pts
So I just completed the game and I am the only one who feels cheated? I mean damnit Bioware, you made me wait for this pice of steaming Ork droppings? And the main point of irritation.... The goddamned mid game thrue to the ending! And the fact that combat feels so dull, I am officaly cured for my love for Mass Effect
Game is absolutely lovely, I love it. About halfway through I believe, 17-hours or so IIRC.
Spoiler:
Really, really disappointed that you cannot have Jack as a companion. When I met her at the bar in Purgatory, I was seriously swearing because she said "If you would have had them be support people, I could join you"
I'm pretty sure she doesn't join you anyways, but I really wanted her as a companion. Such a unique character.
Pretty odd that unless you romance someone from ME1, you won't be able to take them along with you on missions in ME3.
That's really the only part I'm really frustrated about in this game, it deserves a 9 or 9.5/10 at the minimum.
"Order. Unity. Obedience. We taught the galaxy these things, and we shall do so again."
"They are not your worst nightmare; they are your every nightmare."
"Let the galaxy burn!"
Kal'reia Sept Tau - Farsight Sympathizers 
Da Great Looted Waaagh! 
The Court of the Wolf Lords 
Sylvaneth A forest
III Legion 5000pts
XIII Legion 9000pts
Hive Fleet Khadrim 5000pts
Coalition of neo Sacea 5000pts
