Mass Effect 3

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by PsychoPere, Dec 10, 2010.

  1. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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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.
     
  2. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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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).
     
  5. The Engineer

    The Engineer Commander

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

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    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.

    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.
     
  7. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    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.
     
  8. The Engineer

    The Engineer Commander

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    Sorry but
    a "human" Reaper was just plain dumb.
    Not to mention it was hella easy. :lol:
     
  9. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    ^Did I say otherwise?
     
  10. Camren

    Camren Commodore Commodore

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    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.
     
  11. The Engineer

    The Engineer Commander

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    Well I was meaning that it was lamer than
    super Saren
    .
     
  12. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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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.
     
  13. Ood Sigma

    Ood Sigma Commander Red Shirt

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    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.
     
  14. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    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.
     
  15. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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

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

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    ^Yeah, I don't know how they managed it, but the journal on ME3 was really botched all to hell. It still baffles me how they could mess up something that worked perfectly fine the first two times.
     
  17. Jeyl

    Jeyl Commodore Commodore

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    The problem with the human reaper was that it changed the overall tone of Mass Effect into a more condensed and quite honestly, contrived storyline that slowly got worse. It essentially all boiled down to "Humans are special" and that we are the Reapers #1 threat and target. I hate it when we have an entire universe full of diverse aliens with their own unique strengths and weaknesses that the franchise all of a sudden resorts to having humans be the cream of the crop. This is why I like the first Mass Effect game over 2 and 3 because it didn't portray humanity like that. Humanity wasn't the center of the galaxy, they were, like everyone else, just a part of it. Shepard isn't awesome because (S)he's human. (S)he's just the hero who happens to be human. I don't see why an Asari, Turian or even a Krogan couldn't accomplish what Shepard set out to do.

    It's like Gene Roddenberry took over writing duties for the series after the first game and brought his "If we aren't telling a story about humans, what's the point in telling a story?" ego with him.
     
  18. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    I never took it as "Shepard wins because humans are special", rather I saw it as "the reapers are after humans because one of them offed Sovereign." If an asari had been commanding the Normandy, I'm sure the reapers would have made a bee-line for Thessia.

    Still, there is that bit about humanity being more diverse (socially and genetically) than most of the other races, but again, I don't think that was meant to say we're special so much as it was just to highlight our defining trait (according to the writers.) Not intrinsically "better" than any of the other races, but possessing a trait that appears to bring out the best in others.
     
  19. Angel4576

    Angel4576 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    In the original 'Dark Energy' storyline, Humans WERE special. From memory, the ultimate choice was to either sacrifice humanity to save the rest of the galaxy, or save humanity and everyone takes their chances.

    The 'Dark Energy' plot was ditched towards the end of the development of ME2. It was so late in the day that there are still a few references throughout the game. I think I read a while ago that the Human Reaper came about because the Reapers discovered that humans were special. Note, in this plot the Reapers were actually misunderstood good guys trying to prevent dark energy from destroying everything.
     
  20. bullethead

    bullethead Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Dude, did you not read the Codex entries relating to the System Alliance's rise to power? Humanity went from "we're stuck in our solar system" to "up and coming galactic power" in the span of decades. Hell, the volus and hanar (or was it elcor) are pissed in ME1 because humans either got an embassy on the Citadel quickly, might be made Council members before they are, or both. Humanity being special has always been part of Mass Effect.