Mass Effect 3

[Qalbert]

THE STAKES HAVE NEVER BEEN HIGHER

[vrumpt]

So I decided tonight that I was try out my new Claymore that I got the other day with my Krogan sentinal that I unlocked the other day as well...

... lets just say I think I may have discouraged some people to the point where they actually left the group lol. That setup is just ridiculous, though I was only doing it on bronze since I was level 5.

[Rhyis.]

Widow/Claymore combo is the only combination of weapons I use for solider/sentinel now. Fuck all assault rifles. It's great for leveling up other low level classes when you got no powers too.

[-Zer0-]

The Claymore alone is pretty ridiculous. Was just duoing Bronze with a friend who used it on his level 1 Adept and we just breezed through it to power level him. Anyone have the Saber yet? I've only seen maybe two people with it...Not sure whether it's just super rare for an N7 weapon, or it just sucks dinosaur dick.

[Rhyis.]

Black Widow/Talon/Saber/Paladin/Wraith/Javelin/Scorpion are all 'ultra rares'. I've never seen anybody use the Saber personally, but the stats look pretty damned sweet.

[Kiarax]

So I decided tonight that I was try out my new Claymore that I got the other day with my Krogan sentinal that I unlocked the other day as well...

... lets just say I think I may have discouraged some people to the point where they actually left the group lol. That setup is just ridiculous, though I was only doing it on bronze since I was level 5.

Yeah I fucking loved that shit in the demo. Poppin' dudes heads off from halfway across the map with the accuracy mod on it, shit was bananas and they just buffed it yesterday too. Really want to get another one to mess with 'cause it's the most fun/satisfying shotgun imo.

[Talint]

Incoherent rambling ahead, like I do.

Beat Mass Effect 3. I had no problem with the ending(s).

Spoiler: show

Really, the bigger problem as far as I can tell is just the writing overall was just pretty mediocre, and the endings are just symptomatic of said writing. The series made a dramatic shift into Generic Space Marine HOOHA Man War is Hell mode that has been way overdone and is completely boring. The new characters were dull and uninteresting (generic marine, the token fag, and EDI now has a body, yippie), and fan favorites were systematically written off for "noble sacrifices". The new characters are pretty unsatisfactorily fleshed out (outside of possibly EDI, who in reality is just a recasting of Legion), which winds up putting an unbearable weight on the returning cast that doesn't actually die off. Garrus is my #1 space bro and all, but even his "We're the bestest of pals, insert witty repartee here!" shtick gets tiresome when it's all you have to look forward to. You run to Liara and Tali in hopes of haivng triggered some new conversation, but it doesn't happen as often as it should.

Mordin, Legion, and Thane all had poetic, if cliche, endings. Did they really all need to die in the same game? What service to the plot and story did that serve?

The final showdown takes place in... London, England? Seriously? The whole galaxy to have a final showdown of epic proportions, and we're going to a place where I've actually been?

Like I said, I feel like the endings are just a symptom of the bad writing. Shep's sudden traumatic flashbacks to a kid's death (as well as former squad mates) is completely abnormal for Mass Effect as a whole; it's pretty transparent it was done to give quite literally The Deus Ex Machina a kind of amusing impact; which is completely lost. He seemed never to care about Ashley/Kaiden, or Wrex, and so on. The kid shouldn't matter, and yet for some reason does. This says nothing of the actual pointlessness of The Final Choice itself; two outcomes are what the reapers wanted anyway (death of shepard, synthesis), and the third is... The Slippery Slope argument? If those are really the three choices, then who cares?

I don't know what happened. I think hubris, since 1 and 2 had some really amazing writing that did wonders to tap into the collective imaginations of video gamers. I believe that's what's going on here; video gamers have suffered utter whiplash as to what happened with ME3, and they don't really know or can't articulate why. They focus on the ending because it seems to be the most glaring and easy to spot insult.

I don't think they should rework the endings. They need to stand on their own merits and (lots and lots of) flaws. Nor is Bioware now the worst video game company on the planet and death should come as swiftly as it has been vociferous. They simply swung and missed, and the Mighty Casey has struck out.

[Plow]

Not sure why you dislike Vanguards for golds - they're disgusting if you abuse Nova evade + dodge dancing on the mobs that can 1 shot you (banshees, brutes, atlas, etc) - guaranteed high score in every gold game, even over the Asari Adept.

Believe it or not, some people aren't big fans of exploiting.

Especially when said exploiting turns your entire game into an aim-free cycle of triangle > r2 > x > triangle > r2 > x.

[Kyo]

As far as endings go, Borderlands 1 is a fine example, the ending is fucking horrendous but people still love the game and cant wait for the second. Oh how the internets go.

[BadKarma]

As far as endings go, Borderlands 1 is a fine example, the ending is fucking horrendous but people still love the game and cant wait for the second. Oh how the internets go.

Borderlands wasnt the end of a trilogy that emphasized how much our choices affected everything.

[Kuya]

Plus Borderlands had awesome non day one DLC. Kyo, why you gotta suck bioware EA dick?

[Thunder]

This is like comparing mario 64 and a comic book

or apples and oranges.

[BadKarma]

I forgot Borderlands had a story lol

[Ragnus]

So, is the Claymore's damage calculated at 191-206 per pellet or for the full blast? I got it in Single Player and couldn't see the advantage of having a shotgun that has 9 shells and a 1.5-2 second downtime between trigger pulls.

[Rhyis.]

The advantage is everything dies in one shot.

[Meresgi]

Spoiler: show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoVnvJ4OxRg

Simple edit out of parts of the ending make it so much better.

[Rhyis.]

Upon further review, the Crucible looks a whole lot like a penis.

[Meresgi]

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to.../2195#10448248

Link is to a guys post who apparently tested one of the releases of ME3 before official release and goes on to talk about all the scenes, dialogue and side missions that were cut out, including this

Spoiler: show

so many cut-scenes and the extended battle scene when the "retake the earth" battle was movie grade kick ass, how often do you see a heavy damaged sword ship ramming a reaper while shooting its cannons then cut to inside where the camera pans round to show primark victus standing proud and injured shouting "if were going down, were taking these bastards with us" then it cuts to the outside where his ship impacts the reaper and explodes taking the reaper with it.

Would have been such a badass scene.

I can see Bioware releasing a "directors cut" or some shit version of this game in a few months.


Full quote since it's down the thread a little

Spoiler: show

dear bioware

i am a 37 year old network engineer and i am also an avid gamer, i have bought games on developer promises and good previews.

i have gotten all of the other bioware rpg-type games such as the dragon age series and all of the downloadable content, and also the other mass effect 1 and mass effect 2 games along with all of the other DLC (some how 2 of the other dlc has NOT turned up on my account for mass effect 2).

i pre-ordered the collectors edtion of mass effect 3 because of 3 reasons which are listed here

1)- i have the other 2 games and dlc with them

2)- it is the final of the series (which has now been debunked due to patent and copyright registrations under the bioware / electronic arts name)

3)- the biggest reason by far on why i pre-ordered the game was based on the promises made by bioware staff in interviews guaranteeing things.

"As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly
different conclusions based on the player's actions in the first two chapters."
--Casey Hudson

"We wouldn't do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can't say any more than that..."
--Mike Gamble

"Whether you're happy or angry at the ending, know this: it is an ending. Bioware will not do a 'Lost' and leave fans with more questions than answers after finishing the game."
--Mike Gamble

"Pretty much everything that people want to see wrapped up, or to be given answers, will be."
--Dr. Ray Muzyka

"I’m always leery of saying there are 'optimal' endings, because I think one of the things we do try to do is make different endings that are optimal for different people."
--Mike Gamble

“For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the universe and everything, all of these things come to a resolution in Mass Effect 3. And they are resolved in a way that's very different based on what you would do in those situations.”
--Casey Hudson

"[The presence of the rachni] has huge consequences in Mass Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers."
--Mac Walters

"You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide some answers to these people."
--Casey Hudson

"Of course you don’t have to play
multiplayer, you can choose to play all the side-quests in
single-player and do all that stuff you’ll still get all the same endings and
same information, it’s just a totally different way of playing."
--Casey Hudson

"Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end.”
--Caseuy Hudson

these were printed in everything from newspapers, gaming magazines even in live interviews these promises were made.

it is these that we purchased mass effect.

i have also been lucky enough to work part time at CVG in the uk who got a preview version of mass effect 3 and due to an NDA i could not discuss what i had played and what i had seen.

i would want an answer to this, why was the prothean removed from the game and made into day-one DLC when the edtion we recived had it already part of the full version preview game on xbox360.

why was there a 3rd disc for the xbox version which was inacessable without a developer xbox360 console, once installed the disc used 7.4gig of space, that is 7.4 = disc 1, 7.0 gig = disc 2 and the 3rd was 7.4 = gig thats a total of 20.8 gig.

why was there weapons that were only avalible on pc and ps3 in the xbox360 version.

why was a lot of dialog's and cut scenes cut from the retail version and the biggest of all, why is there a lot of side missions removed, some of these side missions were really intresting, such as the asarii and human female who were having an affair, a side mission to either expose them to the human females husband and the assari's life partner, convincing the vol whos talking about sanctuary where you can convince them to go there or to avoid it.

and the one side mission that had me laughing was an interactive game of poker with james in dock with the refugee's, the dialog was funny and a breath of freshair, the other side mission was with the 2 c-sec guards outside purgatory.

the extended dialog narratives at the start, the extended council dialogs in the citidel, the extended dialog with anderson at the end was tear jerking and would have been pivotal.

so many cut-scenes and the extended battle scene when the "retake the earth" battle was movie grade kick ass, how often do you see a heavy damaged sword ship ramming a reaper while shooting its cannons then cut to inside where the camera pans round to show primark victus standing proud and injured shouting "if were going down, were taking these bastards with us" then it cuts to the outside where his ship impacts the reaper and explodes taking the reaper with it.

the normandy doing manuvers that is just pure unadultirated awesomness, joker going hell for leather, garrus in the cockpit on the weapons seat shooting the upgraded thanx cannons, the normandy taking a direct hit from the flying orbs and shakes it off due to the heavy upgraded kinetic shielding (which was exposed by talking to engineer adams),
tali literly ripping parts out of the walls to shut off plasma leaks.
liara using her shadow broker database to hack some of the orbs to fight for them.

the geth fleet taking a pounding and a geth prime standing n the bridge of a dreadnought screaming "FOR LEGION".

the extended battle scene should have been kept in as it would have made the endings have some meaning, also where did the 3rd option come in, the version CVG recived in january 2012 dident even have that option, even with maxed out war readyness, and when did multiplayer play be required to increase the war readyness, i know its a preview version but a single line of coding changed that in retail which i found was bizar and un-needed.

bioware if you removed the content which i have seen from the full game ONLY to sell it at a later date then this is by far the WORST EVER PR STUNT for DLC ever thought of.

not a single game company would remove and entire section of a NECESSARY INTEGRAL part of the game to sell later on.

thats like cutting the last 60 minutes of terminator 2 then telling people "oh yeah you need to pay more to see the ending which you wont see for 2 months"

this has been a PR nightmare for bioware and EA as this has actually effected the fiscal year profits due to the refunds from most of the well known outlets even from EA themself are giving refunds,

this has damaged the reputation of bioware and EA in a really bad way as the "retake mass effect" gains support due to the removal of integral missions and broken promises,

its gotten as far as raising $80,000 for the childs play charity which has gotten a LOT of positive support from stars and other game developers.

we have been called brats, attention ****s, greedy ****s and then be classed as needy spoiled brats by BIOWARE PR STAFF.

just because we are VERY vocal about what we feel about what we know is wrong only to be told "this is art".

as i said i have kept most information of what i have played / seen at CVG offices in the uk about mass effect 3 and the mystery 3rd disc has gotten me annoyied

[Ikarys]

Black Widow/Talon/Saber/Paladin/Wraith/Javelin/Scorpion are all 'ultra rares'. I've never seen anybody use the Saber personally, but the stats look pretty damned sweet.

The saber is in the same category as the Scorpion, Talon and Paladin? Color be shocked, I wish I could trade both the Talon and Saber back for a Paladin and Scorpion in MP. I had marginally better luck with the Talon as a hand-cannon sniping tool with scope on, but the Saber doesn't really do it for me (unlike the Talon, which is fun to hip fire in close, then aim for the scope when sniping).

[BadKarma]

That extended battle scene sounds like it would be better than the 2nd coming of Jesus.