Mass Effect 3

[ATimson]

-Brett- wrote:

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The quality started to nosedive the instant EA took over.

Now, now. The original Dragon Age was pretty good, and that was still under the EA aegis for at least the tail end of development.

[Reverend]

Camren wrote:

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Well at least one of them was found at the Talon base camp and thanks Shepard. But there were a few others I revived and don't think I saw them again. Although they all look the same...

Maybe it's just for XP. I was playing a Lv60 character so I couldn't tell.

ATimson wrote:

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Now, now. The original Dragon Age was pretty good, and that was still under the EA aegis for at least the tail end of development.

I think some fans give EA a little too much credit for Bioware's decline in quality over the years. Don't get me wrong, they're a shitty company that seems to activly hate their own customers, but I think Bioware bares at least some responsibility. Largely I think EA has just served to put the games under a much shorter (read: more profitable) development cycle and mindlessly push for greater focus on social gaming.

They didn't write that awful ending to ME3, nor did they cripple DA2's story by making it impractical for decisions to have any real impact.

While the shorter dev cycle has apparantly lead to some pretty inconsistent levels of quality (ME3 is all over the place) and some inexcusably cheep tactics to get as much use out of assets as possible (the endlessly recycled maps in DA2) so far the social side hasn't been *that* bad. The ME3 multiplayer has been surprisingly good. It was developed in parallel by a separate division of Bioware, so claims that resources were diverted rings rather false. Additionally they've been supporting MP with several free DLCs that have genuinely enhanced the gameplay. They've even taken lessons learnt from watching players and fed that back into the Leviathan and Omega DLCs. I'd call that a net gain, overall.

Also, to be fair, I think some people put DAO up on a bit of a pedestal. It was not without flaws and many of the major ones were directly addressed in DA2...unfortunately they went and created all new ones. Hopefully, third times the charm!

[ATimson]

Reverend wrote:

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Also, to be fair, I think some people put DAO up on a bit of a pedestal. It was not without flaws and many of the major ones were directly addressed in DA2...unfortunately they went and created all new ones. Hopefully, third times the charm!

I agree that DA:O had flaws - but they were gameplay flaws, while it's story flaws where later games have come short. IMO.

[Skywalker]

Agreed. I can live with gameplay flaws as long as the story is good (the first ME game is by far my favorite in the series, for example).

[The Engineer]

Skywalker wrote:

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Agreed. I can live with gameplay flaws as long as the story is good (the first ME game is by far my favorite in the series, for example).

Mine is 2, even though the end boss was utterly stupid.

[Reverend]

The Engineer wrote:

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Mine is 2, even though the end boss was utterly stupid.

Yeah because the end boss for ME1 was so amazing! *keeping a straight face...*

At least by ME3 they got the message that their combat system just isn't well suited for boss battles...unfortunately the final combat section (not counting Marauder Shields) was a pretty uninspired "kill all the things" cluster f*ck.

On the positive side, the battle of wills with TIM was a wise move. I'm glad they abandoned the idea of turning him into a hulking monster.

Skywalker wrote:

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Agreed. I can live with gameplay flaws as long as the story is good (the first ME game is by far my favorite in the series, for example).

Agreed...to a point. I mean the fact is that gamplay is what you're going to spend most of the game doing (running, ducking, shooting all the things) so even the best story in the world isn't going to help if the gameplay is rubbish.

In the case of DAO I really did struggle at times. I suppose part of that had to do with my not being terribly familiar with previous Bioware titles, or even "traditional" western RPGs in general. I had a much easier time with ME1 because it was largely skill based and reminded me a lot of the original Deus Ex. If I missed an enemy, it was because *I* missed it, not because some dice roll told me I did.

[bullethead]

The Engineer wrote:

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Mine is 2, even though the end boss was utterly stupid.

Same here, although I would totally buy ME1 and 2 again if they were remade using ME3's engine. They got everything right mechanically with ME3... and used in a game where there wasn't much an opportunity to really have fun with some of the new systems, especially the gun leveling one. Loot never felt as unsatisfying as when you could buy it on demand from the store.

[The Engineer]

Reverend wrote:

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Yeah because the end boss for ME1 was so amazing! *keeping a straight face...*

Sorry but

a "human" Reaper was just plain dumb.

Not to mention it was hella easy.

[Reverend]

^Did I say otherwise?

[Camren]

ME1 didn't need a fabulous boss to fight, the story was so good that it simply made the ending rather epic without fighting some big, stupid human robot. Or Marauder Shields.

[The Engineer]

Reverend wrote:

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^Did I say otherwise?

Well I was meaning that it was lamer than

super Saren

.

[Reverend]

^That's debatable. I mean at least it was something new to fight and actually expanded our understanding of the reapers a little (whether that was something worth knowing is neither here nor there.) The ME1 end boss was just a reskinned geth hopper chucked into an enclosed space.

[Ood Sigma]

Finished Omega - it was pretty cool. Aria and Nyleen were pretty neat characters but I missed my regular squadmates.

So... I apparently failed to complete 2 of the 3 side quests. They are still in my quest log. Anyone know if there is a way to return to Omega and finish them, or am I locked out? I tried going back to the Citadel and flying around the galaxy but couldn't find a way back. That kind of sucks.

I'm at level 59 and about a half, so if I do another playthrough to the end I'll hit 60. Not feeling like it right now though.

[Crazy Eddie]

Reverend wrote:

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^That's debatable. I mean at least it was something new to fight and actually expanded our understanding of the reapers a little (whether that was something worth knowing is neither here nor there.) The ME1 end boss was just a reskinned geth hopper chucked into an enclosed space.

Actually, the human proto-reaper is only a lame boss in retrospect after you've had to fight it a dozen times and finally figured out how to Cain it to death in 30 seconds or less.

The FIRST time I saw it, I shat bricks.

[ATimson]

Ood Sigma wrote:

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So... I apparently failed to complete 2 of the 3 side quests. They are still in my quest log. Anyone know if there is a way to return to Omega and finish them, or am I locked out?

Unless you have a save file from before you went to Omega, you're locked out.

Ood Sigma wrote:

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I tried going back to the Citadel and flying around the galaxy but couldn't find a way back. That kind of sucks.

The "From Ashes" side quest was the same way.