Mass Effect 3

[ATimson]

John Clark wrote:

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I'm not sure what level my Shep is at off hand but for the one who has gone through the citadel, I guess she'd be around that mark
ME1 + bring down the Sky main missions completed
ME2 (all dlc and except for Firewalker all missions complete)
ME3 (completed - then New Game+ with all the DLC in).

ME2 resets your progreses. You were probably in the high 20s at the end of ME2 (if not 30). So you're probably indeed at 60 at this point.

[Angel4576]

Zaeed & Garrus - Absolutely loved this skit during the 'quiet' party!

[Reverend]

John Clark wrote:

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Presuming I'm actually any good at the game.

I'm not sure what level my Shep is at off hand but for the one who has gone through the citadel, I guess she'd be around that mark
ME1 + bring down the Sky main missions completed
ME2 (all dlc and except for Firewalker all missions complete)
ME3 (completed - then New Game+ with all the DLC in).

For the party, I started off loud and just got louder so I missed the Shep/Grunt/Wrex conversation

@Angel4576 - Just got the soundtrack too. Thanks for the info

Yeah, you should have hit the level cap ages ago with that character. If you did all the ME2 missions & DLC your character should have easily been Lv30 when you imported it to ME3. The XP gap between 50 & 60 isn't anywhere near as huge as it was in ME1 (which required at least 3 playthroughs without the unlocked bonuses) and you should have gotten to 50 in your first playthough. With the new game +, I'd be very surprised if you didn't hit the cap before the coup attempt. Rannoch at the latest.

Of course the difficulty varies depending on your class too (depending on playstyle) but to be honest, any Lv60 should be *very* powerful.


Anyway, loving the soundtrack. It's nice to get that piano rendition of Vigil's theme from ME1. Speaking of which; I couldn't help but wonder if Liara's story about how she learnt it was a TNG reference, or if it was just a coincidence. Given the number of in-jokes, pop culture/sci-fi references and general silliness elsewhere in the DLC, I'd say it's most likely the former.

[Kestrel]

^ Oh, nice catch!

[Steven]

Angel4576 wrote:

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Zaeed & Garrus - Absolutely loved this skit during the 'quiet' party!

Nice! During the loud party (the 2nd segment), I found Zaeed, Wrex, and Javik in the bar area behind "cover" (couch and wall) facing off against their mortal enemies... the shot glasses lined up on the bar.

[Angel4576]

Given the whole 'artistic integrity/vision' sh1tstorm around the game's ending I thought it was nice to see that BW could laugh at itself over that issue - there are a couple of scenes during the party (although I can't remember if it was in the quiet or loud party, or which section) - one where Garrus and Zaeed are looking over some of the art in Shepard's apartment and basically come to the conclusion that art's sh1t. And another between Samara and Zaeed, again observing a painting in Shepard's apartment, both saying that they like it before admitting that they have absolutely no idea what it's supposed to represent.

I also loved the little jibe during the Blasto movie where you could question the Director about "Who wrote this sh1t?!"

[Evil Twin]

Had some extra cash on hand so I finally broke down and bought Omega and Citadel. Don't really have much to say about Omega, horribly mediocre. Carrie-Anne Moss was just phoning it in (not that Aria was terribly expressive to begin with...) As for Citadel, Fan. Fucking. TASTIC. Won't rehash everything discussed here already, but suffice it to say I loved every second of it. Best DLC of any game I've ever played, and also the hardest a video game has ever made me laugh.

I think my personal canon on all future playthroughs shall be to play through all of ME3, including the ending, and then play Citadel, pretending that it's Shep's own personal, happy slice of the afterlife because a) it's so tonally different from the rest of the game and b), seriously who wants to slog through Cerberus HQ and Earth AFTER playing this masterpiece?

[Angel4576]

The irritating thing is that they could so easily have set up the Citadel DLC to play out as post-ending content if they'd wanted to.

If you play through the ending and go with high EMS destroy - Shepard lives, and then the Citadel DLC launches from your legend save. You get left Anderson's apartment after he dies, and you remove the odd remark about the Reapers and the war in the present tense. Done.

[Evil Twin]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, watching (and listening to) FemShep doing 183 pull-ups in her skintight little black dress was incredibly hot. I think the only time I changed out of the dress for this DLC was for the Thane memorial. Rather bummed we didn't get any new casualwear.

Oh, and where's the Mordin content? Completely missed it (I did the completely quiet party if that matters.)

[Kestrel]

Angel4576 wrote:

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The irritating thing is that they could so easily have set up the Citadel DLC to play out as post-ending content if they'd wanted to.

If you play through the ending and go with high EMS destroy - Shepard lives, and then the Citadel DLC launches from your legend save. You get left Anderson's apartment after he dies, and you remove the odd remark about the Reapers and the war in the present tense. Done.

Er... Destroy wrecks the Citadel - Destroys it, pretty much. Plus no EDI and I don't Joker's gonna be in a partying mood. Not to mention allllll the bodies and destruction, how are you gonna make that sync up?

Plus, why should you have to pick Destroy to get to play it?

Evil Twin wrote:

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Rather bummed we didn't get any new casualwear.

Oh, and where's the Mordin content? Completely missed it (I did the completely quiet party if that matters.)

Speaking of casualwear, I wish Miranda had kept that nice red dress on throughout. Or, hey make it an optional casualwear for FemShep and bring back the tux for MalShep. Though really, the leather jacket look should be available for both.

When you wake up the morning after, there's a padd lying in the bedroom with Mordin content. All recordings, but some hilarious and touching stuff.

[Angel4576]

Kestrel wrote:

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Er... Destroy wrecks the Citadel - Destroys it, pretty much. Plus no EDI and I don't Joker's gonna be in a partying mood. Not to mention allllll the bodies and destruction, how are you gonna make that sync up?

Hackett confirms in the destroy epilogue that the Citadel is rebuilt. It goes from this;



to this;



Re EDI, we have no idea how the Crucible beam works in relation to synthetics other than it doesn't outright physically destroy them. From the Citadel DLC we know that EDI can be shut down. If EDI shuts herself down as the Normandy's being chased by the beam, what happens? Besides, this is on the basis that the Catalyst is even telling the truth to begin with. When presenting the choices to you, and from his reactions when you choose, it's clear that it wants you to pick either Control or Synthesis. It mentions the destroy option because it knows that you already know about this anyway, but then tries to put a blocker on it by saying that there's a downside, ie. ALL synthetics die. That might be true, but he's hardly going to sugarcoat it either way. "Yes, here's this option to destroy us, and there's no downside at all....wait, don't you even want to hear the other options? No? stop! Wait!"

I can mentally justify EDI surviving the destroy ending, either by shutting down, or by the Catalyst talking b*llocks.

Plus, why should you have to pick Destroy to get to play it?

It's your reward for choosing wisely.....

Or seriously, the first half of the mission can be completed in-game prior to Cronos Station - the latter half, particularly the party, can be after the end of the game. If Shepard survives via Destroy then it's set after the rebuilding some time later. If you pick control or synthesis then it's like the Church scene at the end of Lost - Shepard's final thoughts playing out as a final goodbye with his/her friends.

[Reverend]

Nah, it works fine where it is. Tonally, having a fun humorous romp just makes no sense in the immediate aftermath of all that death and destruction. Soldiers having fun on shore leave in the middle of a long war is much more true to life. Also, just from a logical standpoint, it probably took YEARS to restore the citadel to full working order and that's assuming the Keepers were still around and didn't die with their masters.

[Angel4576]

Well it's a moot point I guess.

Luckily, I suppose everyone's happy given that you can complete the party section after Cronos and Priority: Earth if you play it through your legend save. Of course you've got to suspend disbelief slightly when people talk about the Reaper war in the present tense, but that's do-able, for me at least.

[LeadHead]

I finally got the chance to play the Citadel Dlc and had an absolute blast. So funny, so much fan service, so many great things to do after the mission.

I hadn't thought about making a personal canon due to the dlc until I read through this thread. I love the idea, I think doing that might actually make the endings playable for me. Doing the mission before Cronos, but the party after the legend save. Maybe it took a long time to fix the citadel, but it may have taken a long time to get the Normandy flying again, to find Shepard too. The keepers may have survived and fixed things even faster than the last time and if you reject the idea of all synthetic life being destroyed, the Geth may have been intact and would probably be very quick and effective at fixing the mass relays and the citadel.

I wonder if they meant for people to do this, probably not, but given the mess that was made of the endings, I very much like this idea. It gives the game and the trilogy a sense of completeness.

It's not a new thing for me, choosing a different spot for the ending of a Mass Effect game. In ME2, I made the end point for myself when you invite Liara to the Normandy for a drink. If I've romanced her, we reconnect, if not, we talk of what's to come. Either way after that, I take the Normandy into Earth orbit, save, then import to Mass Effect 3.

[The Mirrorball Man]

Yeah! And everything turns out alright in the end! Everyone is saved, everyone is alive, and our heroes spend some quality time on the Citadel. It's as if nothing's happened. It's almost like a fairytale. A war story with a fairytale ending.

And people ask me why I like Mass Effect 3's ending!