Mass Effect 3

[PsychoPere]

On the heels of rumors that Mass Effect 3 will be unveiled at the VGAs (and that multiplayer will be announced too), the first synopsis for the game has accidentally been leaked via EA's online store.

Earth is burning. Striking from beyond known space, a race of terrifying machines have begun their destruction of the human race. As Commander Shepard, an Alliance Marine, your only hope for saving mankind is to rally the civilizations of the galaxy and launch one final mission to take back the Earth.

I, for one, cannot wait to lead an interstellar taskforce comprised of turians, salarians, asari, geth, krogan, quarians, and rachni in a bid to defend Earth.

[Assimilated Tom]

Well, this would certainly fuck me over for what I did in Mass Effect 1.

'Bout fucking time. Didn't seriously expect to get away with that scot-free.

[Skywalker]

I was hoping we'd get to see Earth in ME3.

I'm curious to find out how exactly the Reapers managed to sneak back into the galaxy without being detected. Hopefully it's because they had another Citadel-type mass relay hidden somewhere. It seems silly that they wouldn't have built a backup.

[PsychoPere]

Since the synopsis says we'll have to take back Earth, maybe the Reapers do have another hidden mass relay - that just so happens to be very near Earth. Goodbye, Pluto?

[Skywalker]

But there's already a regular mass relay orbiting Pluto--it was frozen over until it became an ice ball humanity named Charon. Seems silly to put two mass relays in such close proximity to one another. Then again, I tried to argue the same thing about the Omega-4 Relay being in the same system as another relay and being made to look so different and unique from every other relay, which would only make people more curious about where it goes, rather than less curious, but nobody agreed with me on that one.

I don't see the Reapers putting another huge relay like the Citadel, especially one that's meant to be a backup in the event of the Citadel failing, in a star system containing a habitable planet that might spawn a sentient, spacefaring species one day. It'd make more sense for them to build it in another defensible location like the Widow Nebula, where they built the Citadel, in some corner of the galaxy where organics aren't likely to find it.

[PsychoPere]

Damn, good point. I had forgotten where humanity first discovered the mass relays.

[TheGodBen]

I can't wait. Ever since reading the codex entry for Earth and driving the mako on the Moon, I've wanted to visit Earth. It's a pity that by the time I finally get there it will be a war-torn wasteland.

I just finished off a third playthrough of ME1/2 with an all-Paragon FemShep that saved the whole team... except for the crew, they all died. I plan to do one more before ME3 comes with an all-Renegade ManShep that gets almost all of his crew killed.

PsychoPere wrote:

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I, for one, cannot wait to lead an interstellar taskforce comprised of turians, salarians, asari, geth, krogan, quarians, and rachni in a bid to defend Earth.

Hmm. In my main game I let the council die, so I probably can't count on the Asari, Turians or Salarians. And I took a neutral stance on the Quarian/Geth conflict, so they might be busy killing one another by the time of ME3. I did save the Rachni Queen and the genophage cure, so I might be able to count on the Rachni and Krogan. So I'll be saving Earth with the support of a small group of nearly extinct aliens, and aliens that enjoy killing each other.

Earth is doomed.

[Skywalker]

It's going to be fun playing out all the scenarios. I've got five different Shepards:

One who was full Paragon, saved the Council, spared the rachni queen, spared Wrex and saved the genophage research, rewrote the geth heretics, supported peace between the quarians and geth, and destroyed the Collector base.

One who was full Renegade who sacrificed the Council, killed the rachni queen, spared Wrex but destroyed the genophage research, destroyed the geth heretics, supported the quarians retaking their homeworld, and kept the Collector base.

One who was a Paragon/Renegade mix who sacrificed the Council, spared the rachni queen, spared Wrex and saved the genophage research, rewrote the geth heretics, supported peace between the quarians and the geth, and kept the Collector base.

One who was a Renegade/Paragon mix who saved the Council, killed the rachni queen, spared Wrex but destroyed the genophage research, destroyed the geth heretics, supported the quarians retaking their homeworld, and destroyed the Collector base.

And one who was a Paragon/Renegade mix who ended up mostly the same as the full Paragon, except he sacrificed the Council and generally did things in a much more neutral fashion. He also ended up with the highest number of casualties in the Suicide Mission.

[Hartzilla2007]

Hanukkah Solo wrote:

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But there's already a regular mass relay orbiting Pluto--it was frozen over until it became an ice ball humanity named Charon. Seems silly to put two mass relays in such close proximity to one another. Then again, I tried to argue the same thing about the Omega-4 Relay being in the same system as another relay and being made to look so different and unique from every other relay, which would only make people more curious about where it goes, rather than less curious, but nobody agreed with me on that one.

Well if anyone did get curious enough to use the Omega Relay, without a Reaper IFS they would likely die the moment they came through as the would be spit out of the safe zone, and all those people going through and never returning might scare others into avoiding it.

[Skywalker]

True, but it's still too big a risk for the Reapers to take. Anyone paying attention would have wondered why nobody ever returns from the Omega-4 Relay, and would have started researching why it kept happening. Eventually someone would have theorized that the relay might lead to someplace where the standard drift of several thousand kilometers could prove fatal, such as an asteroid field or a highly dangerous area like the galactic core. Then maybe they would have sent some sort of unmanned ship with a mass effect drive to traverse the relay and send back data before it was inevitably destroyed.

The basic point being: it makes no sense if you look at it from an in-universe perspective, leaving the only rational explanation for why the Omega-4 Relay looked so different being "it looks cool."

[Reverend]

I rather suspect the Reapers' sudden return might have something to do with those stars behaving strangely and emitting dark energy readings. Perhaps an ad hoc version of a Mass Relay or some other even more advanced technology they left behind as a redundancy.

Not sure if I like the idea of multi-player being tacked on.

[Hartzilla2007]

Hanukkah Solo wrote:

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True, but it's still too big a risk for the Reapers to take. Anyone paying attention would have wondered why nobody ever returns from the Omega-4 Relay, and would have started researching why it kept happening. Eventually someone would have theorized that the relay might lead to someplace where the standard drift of several thousand kilometers could prove fatal, such as an asteroid field or a highly dangerous area like the galactic core. Then maybe they would have sent some sort of unmanned ship with a mass effect drive to traverse the relay and send back data before it was inevitably destroyed.

The basic point being: it makes no sense if you look at it from an in-universe perspective, leaving the only rational explanation for why the Omega-4 Relay looked so different being "it looks cool."

True, also I think another reason for the Omega Relay's look might be to make it look kinf of sinister, I mean to me it kind of gives off a portal to hell kind of vibe.

[Skywalker]

Reverend wrote:

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I rather suspect the Reapers' sudden return might have something to do with those stars behaving strangely and emitting dark energy readings. Perhaps an ad hoc version of a Mass Relay or some other even more advanced technology they left behind as a redundancy.

Not sure if I like the idea of multi-player being tacked on.

That's my assumption, as well. All the talk about dark energy and stars aging faster than they should sounded like setup for ME3.

And I hate the possibility of multiplayer in ME3. If they want to make a multiplayer game in the ME universe, fine, but leave it out of the main games.

[TheGodBen]

Competitive multiplayer wouldn't be something I'd be interested in, but the game is almost screaming out for a co-op mode. One person could play as Shepard and make all the decisions, while I could play as Garrus. I'd stop playing singleplayer altogether and I'd just stick to being Garrus 100% of the time.

[firehawk12]

As mentioned elsewhere, BioWare needs to get out of the "recruitathon" style of storytelling, especially when this was basically the plot of Dragon Age.