Mass Effect 3

[Kraus]

Launch Trailer

[duncan_idaho]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I'm about 20 hours in now. I'm guessing halfway through maybe, judging by the missions in my log (no idea really, though). It's crazy-good so far. Mordin died in the suicide mission in ME2 so I haven't seen him obviously, but virtually everybody else (from both games) has shown up in one form or another. A lot of great moments. A lot of unexpected references to ME1, like people I helped at Zhu's Hope or Feros, stuff that make me glad I'm playing a character that went through the original, and actually makes me want to play through all three of them again sometime. I was telling someone earlier it's basically like they took the best aspects of ME1 and the best aspects of ME2 and made just a hell of a game. So far.

Agreed 100 percent.

A hint, for your second playthrough... if you're having trouble getting Mordin through the suicide mission and want to ensure his survival (which, honestly, is worth it. His final scenes are incredible - some of the best of the series.), there's an easy way to do it.

When you're going through the suicide mission, you reach the point where you save some of the crew (though perky redhead Kelly Chambers always seems to disintegrate before my eyes). At that point, choose to send a member of your squad to escort the crew back to the Normandy, and send Mordin. For some reason, he randomly tends to die if left behind to "hold off the Collectors" while you travel to the core to take down the Terminator (I mean, human-form reaper).

I will admit to getting a little teary eyed with Mordin's end scene.

[Frazod]

Differences for me between importing ME2 character and playing without it:

Spoiler!

Responding to asari distress call:

With - Samara is there, and two survivors are her daughters. If you talk her down from killing herself at the end, she shows up later at the Citadel.
Without - No mention of Samara, Shepard doesn't know what an ardat-yakshi is.

Cerberus attacks the Citidel:

With - Thane is killed by the ninja assassin guy, but the Salarian counselor is saved.
Without - ninja assassin guy kills Salarian counselor, later sends Shepard taunting e-mail.

Krogan-Turian alliance:

With - Wrex is Krogan leader, has good rapport with Shepard, some of the best cut scenes and dialogue. Female Krogan survives.
Without - annoying douche is Krogan leader, female Krogan dies.

Grissom Academy:

With - Jack is an instructor, has turned her life around, seems annoyed to be dull and domestic but happy taking care of her students. Dances with Shepard at Purgatory club.
Without - don't know - couldn't find it on the map (I think just because it's at the bottom of the screen and I didn't notice it - duh).

Volus ambassador:
With - Zaeed beats him up to secure information - you get Volus fleet and location of planet being attacked, and Zaeed pledges some of his thug friends to your cause.
Without - you have to choose between getting the fleet or saving the planet.

Quarians:
With - Legion is the geth you ultimately **** over.
Without - another geth is the geth you ultimately **** over.

That's all I've got so far - I'm midway though the Quarian retaking their homeworld quest. Haven't gone to the Asari homeworld yet, so I don't know if Samara will be there or not.

I don't know if anything different would have happened with Kaiden. I had the option to take him as a crew member or tell him to **** off, and I took the **** off option. I absolutely despise his character, just like I despised Carth in KOTOR. I really wish I'd had the option to shoot him at the Citidel (believe me, I tried), just as I wished I could have killed Carth in KOTOR (same voice actor, for those who don't know, and same whiney eternally butthurt character in both games). Don't care if this is a spoiler. Kaiden/Carth sucks. Should have saved Ashley in ME1. If she'd looked as good in ME1 as she does in ME3, I would have.

[veist]

Originally Posted by frazod

Differences for me between importing ME2 character and playing without it:

Spoiler!

Responding to asari distress call:

With - Samara is there, and two survivors are her daughters. If you talk her down from killing herself at the end, she shows up later at the Citadel.
Without - No mention of Samara, Shepard doesn't know what an ardat-yakshi is.

Cerberus attacks the Citidel:

With - Thane is killed by the ninja assassin guy, but the Salarian counselor is saved.
Without - ninja assassin guy kills Salarian counselor, later sends Shepard taunting e-mail.

Krogan-Turian alliance:

With - Wrex is Krogan leader, has good rapport with Shepard, some of the best cut scenes and dialogue. Female Krogan survives.
Without - annoying douche is Krogan leader, female Krogan dies.

Grissom Academy:

With - Jack is an instructor, has turned her life around, seems annoyed to be dull and domestic but happy taking care of her students. Dances with Shepard at Purgatory club.
Without - don't know - couldn't find it on the map (I think just because it's at the bottom of the screen and I didn't notice it - duh).

Volus ambassador:
With - Zaeed beats him up to secure information - you get Volus fleet and location of planet being attacked, and Zaeed pledges some of his thug friends to your cause.
Without - you have to choose between getting the fleet or saving the planet.

Quarians:
With - Legion is the geth you ultimately **** over.
Without - another geth is the geth you ultimately **** over.

That's all I've got so far - I'm midway though the Quarian retaking their homeworld quest. Haven't gone to the Asari homeworld yet, so I don't know if Samara will be there or not.

I don't know if anything different would have happened with Kaiden. I had the option to take him as a crew member or tell him to **** off, and I took the **** off option. I absolutely despise his character, just like I despised Carth in KOTOR. I really wish I'd had the option to shoot him at the Citidel (believe me, I tried), just as I wished I could have killed Carth in KOTOR (same voice actor, for those who don't know, and same whiney eternally butthurt character in both games). Don't care if this is a spoiler. Kaiden/Carth sucks. Should have saved Ashley in ME1. If she'd looked as good in ME1 as she does in ME3, I would have.

Spoiler!

You can actually settle that Geth/Quarian conflict without screwing over either side.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by veist

Spoiler!

You can actually settle that Geth/Quarian conflict without screwing over either side.

I don't know - haven't got that far yet. My imported Shepard (who I'm mainly playing as a renegade) seems to have more options available than my generic Shepard did. I should get to that point this evening.

[duncan_idaho]

Re: the ending...

I would like to see more of what happened to everyone when it was over (for example, I assumed Garrus and Liara bought it in the charge to the transport beam, but then they show in the crash landing), but maybe that's left that way for future games in the world (gotta leave that open)...

I had no problems, really, with the choices presented at the end. I feel like the major payoff in all the choices Shepard made in ME1 and ME2 and the beginning of ME3 comes in how prepared you are for the final showdown (which apparently affects exactly WHAT you see after the ending).

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Re: the ending...

I would like to see more of what happened to everyone when it was over (for example, I assumed Garrus and Liara bought it in the charge to the transport beam, but then they show in the crash landing), but maybe that's left that way for future games in the world (gotta leave that open)...

I had no problems, really, with the choices presented at the end. I feel like the major payoff in all the choices Shepard made in ME1 and ME2 and the beginning of ME3 comes in how prepared you are for the final showdown (which apparently affects exactly WHAT you see after the ending).

The shitty ending implied that everybody died but Shepard and Anderson, but then the people that were with you show up on the Normandy. Made no sense and just served to heighten the suck factor. Even if they survived, what reason would they have to board the Normandy at all? Why would the Normandy leave the fight against the Reapers to pick them up? Horrible, shitty, stupid ending. Nuthooks and flaming AIDS tree antifreeze to whoever thought that was a good idea.

[veist]

Originally Posted by frazod

The shitty ending implied that everybody died but Shepard and Anderson, but then the people that were with you show up on the Normandy. Made no sense and just served to heighten the suck factor. Even if they survived, what reason would they have to board the Normandy at all? Why would the Normandy leave the fight against the Reapers to pick them up? Horrible, shitty, stupid ending. Nuthooks and flaming AIDS tree antifreeze to whoever thought that was a good idea.

Yeah, that is the part where it really goes off the rails. Its impressive how bad that scene was just in terms of "lets make a bad choice and then compound it with more bad choices!" Everyone involved in writing that scene deserves some serious shaming for not having the balls to say "this is bad, we need to fix this" because its really bad no matter how you feel about the rest of the ending.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by veist

Yeah, that is the part where it really goes off the rails. Its impressive how bad that scene was just in terms of "lets make a bad choice and then compound it with more bad choices!" Everyone involved in writing that scene deserves some serious shaming for not having the balls to say "this is bad, we need to fix this" because its really bad no matter how you feel about the rest of the ending.

And it's not like this is some dark indy movie - it's a ****ing video game. Shepard deserves to ride off into the sunset with Liara, live in peace and make a bunch of smurfy babies.

[veist]

Originally Posted by frazod

And it's not like this is some dark indy movie - it's a ****ing video game. Shepard deserves to ride off into the sunset with Liara, live in peace and make a bunch of smurfy babies.

I really do not care if the end for Shep is tragedy or rainbows and unicorns so much as I want it to pick an ending type and stick with it. I mean what ultimately bothered me about that scene specifically is the most kind thing you could say about it is that its completely superfluous. Because it hedges between "surprise ending" and denouement you are stuck with a scene that really does nothing to move the narrative forward and leaves you wondering a) what you just saw, b) why it was so important that its the only thing you get by way of denouement and c) why a scene that leaves you wondering both these things managed to not be removed or improved. And really the most frustrating thing is we know they're better than that because people wouldn't be this bothered if they actually sucked this much at writing. Or from the damning it with faint praise column at least the ending wasn't as bad as the ending to Battlestar Galactica or Neon Genesis Evangelion.

[Frazod]

I hated the way Battlestar Galatica ended, but it was great compared to this turd.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by frazod

The shitty ending implied that everybody died but Shepard and Anderson, but then the people that were with you show up on the Normandy. Made no sense and just served to heighten the suck factor. Even if they survived, what reason would they have to board the Normandy at all? Why would the Normandy leave the fight against the Reapers to pick them up? Horrible, shitty, stupid ending. Nuthooks and flaming AIDS tree antifreeze to whoever thought that was a good idea.

Part of the confusion over the ending is that, if you have enough war assets and destroy the reapers (i.e. choose the red option), Shepard wakes up. In London.

Spoiler!

So it's completely vague as to who lives, who dies, or whether the end actually happened at all.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by veist

Spoiler!

You can actually settle that Geth/Quarian conflict without screwing over either side.

Yes.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Agreed 100 percent.

A hint, for your second playthrough... if you're having trouble getting Mordin through the suicide mission and want to ensure his survival (which, honestly, is worth it. His final scenes are incredible - some of the best of the series.), there's an easy way to do it.

Mordin was dead in that play because I'd neglected to upgrade the medical bay and didn't feel like going all the way back through the suicide mission. So I just decided that would be my "Shepard lost some friends" save, since half the Normandy's crew died as well, including Chambers.

Mordin's still around on my current ME3 play, my femshep infiltrator. She's my Insanity run, at least so far. Haven't gotten to him yet, but I can imagine that the scenes with the random Salarian doctor will be much more moving with Mordin.

[Frazod]

Oh, when you go to the Asari homeworld, take the Prothean with you, and when you get back to the Normandy, be sure to swing by his location for a nice little confrontation between him and Liana.

[keg in kc]

I've somehow gone from not wanting to play the multiplayer at all the first week to being completely addicted to it.