Mass Effect (1)

[PsychoPere]

Even though I disliked and distrusted Udina as much as anyone else, he did make sense from a pragmatic perspective. My main Shep chose Anderson out of loyalty, trust, and respect, but my more pragmatic / ruthless Sheps haven't had a problem choosing Udina.

 

[Reverend]

Though, at bare minimum, I hope they don't go MMO next round. MMO's are always about grinding for the next thing, and that cheapens the story.

Given that it looks like TOR is already struggling, I doubt they'd even try putting another sci-fi MMO on the market. Especially not one that doesn't even have one tenth the brand recognition that Star Wars commands.

 

[STR]

Though, at bare minimum, I hope they don't go MMO next round. MMO's are always about grinding for the next thing, and that cheapens the story.

I think the next Mass Effect game is going to be a free Facebook or browser game.

Those don't count as games.

 

[TheGodBen]

Yeah, in the original ending, they just magically teleported aboard the ship without any explanation. Nor were we given any idea how or why the Normandy was in FTL during the finale.

I know that some people considered that point a minor complaint and that if you used your imagination you could explain what happened there, and while there's some truth in that, it doesn't change the fact that it mentally tore me out of the game when I saw the Normandy trying to outrun the shockwave because there was no context given. Exposition isn't always a sin, sometimes it's necessary to allow the story to flow properly.


Another major difference between the original and EC endings, Ood, is that the conversation with the Catalyst is about 2-3 times longer. The original conversation was bare-bones, the Catalyst explained what it was and why it created the Reapers, it presented the three choices and that was it. There was only one dialogue choice, and that didn't affect the conversation at all. Things were so vague that some players thought that the Catalyst was supernatural in some way, which lead to him being nicknamed the God/Star child. The new ending makes it clear that it's an AI that killed its makers, and it goes into much more detail about the three options it presents so that you can make more of an informed decision.

 

[Harbinger]

Definitely play and then import to ME2. However, if you're able to you should probably play ME1 on PC. The 360 version has HORRIBLE framerate issues. There's at least one part I can remember that was practically unplayable because the framerate dipped so low. And depending how much you know, you'll love hearing voice overs from certain actors from TNG in ME1 and ME2.

Edit: Okay, I'm realizing I'm seriously late to this thread as we're already discussing the ending of ME3.

On that note, I'd like to add that the upcoming single-player DLC that deals with Leviathan might be adding more explanation regarding the Reapers. Apparently, the Leviathan is a rogue Reaper who can side with Shepard. I'm really looking forward to this especially if we can learn more about the Reapers.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Though, at bare minimum, I hope they don't go MMO next round. MMO's are always about grinding for the next thing, and that cheapens the story.

I think the next Mass Effect game is going to be a free Facebook or browser game.

Those don't count as games.

Says who?

 

[Reverend]

^Anyone with a brain? Browser games are little more than marketing tools, hence the "free" part.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

^Anyone with a brain? Browser games are little more than marketing tools, hence the "free" part.

Anyone with a brain recognize that browser games are games, hence the "game" name. You may not like them, but "game" is not a quality label.

 

[Ood Sigma]

Ah, ok. I looked at the original "ending" on YouTube and it just looked like the they tacked on an epilogue about how things turned out (in my case, the one narrated by EDI). Didn't realize so much of the conversation with the AI kid was enhanced.

Quite honestly, once I was given the final choice I wasn't sure which color led to what. I knew I didn't want to pick the one where all AI was destroyed because I didn't want to kill EDI or the Geth. So it was down to the control or synthesis endings. I figured throwing myself into the beam was the synthesis so I just went with that. If I play it over again, I may choose the blue ending.

Indeed I may do that, as I wasn't able to complete the ending to get that special save. I still have my save from before the point of no return so I may branch off that one and try again. Hopefully a different ending won't have that disc error.

 

[STR]

^Blue ending is awesomely creepy. Red ending is least fascist. Refusal comes with an awesome speech about free will and living life without compromising.

If you replay the last autosave, I believe it will take you back to the Citadel rather than make you start over from Earth. At least, that's how it was pre-DLC on the PC.

 

[ATimson]

If you replay the last autosave, I believe it will take you back to the Citadel rather than make you start over from Earth. At least, that's how it was pre-DLC on the PC.

That's where the last Replay Mission mark is, but the last autosave is back before the Cerberus station. If you do anything else in the game, you'll lose that Replay Mission save (and there's no way to manually save after that point).

 

[Ood Sigma]

Well, when I choose "Resume" from the main menu, it takes me immediately to Shepard throwing himself into the beam, so I have no ability to alter my choice. I guess I will try to chose "Load" and see if there's a way using Replay Mission or Autosave to get me closer to the end so I can try picking a different ending, just to see if my disc will let me finish one of the endings.

BTW, that bit about The Illusive Man becoming a boss sounds much worse than what we got. Glad that didn't happen.

 

[Reverend]

Don't know if it works differently on XBox (I can't see why it would) but with my PC version there was definitely a "replay mission" save in the load menu. It should basically drop you back in the keeper tunnels with all the bodies. It's how I viewed all the "alternate" endings. Experiencing the ending the first time round was confusing and disappointing. The second the third times was supremely irritating, annoying, left me almost numb and with a much larger sense of disappointment. Not disappointment in the ending so much as in Bioware for letting such a great game down.

The EC does fix a lot of things and while I have a ton of problems with almost everything that happens after Kai Leng dies, I can now at least play the game again without feeling like it's an utterly pointless exercise.

...still, that first impression is never going to go away. I tend to equate the experience to going to a restaurant you've enjoyed twice before, having a very satisfying and enjoyable meal, then being served a bowel of faeces swarming with cockroaches for dessert. It doesn't matter how good the other courses were, it's the dessert that stays with you, even after they took it away and brought back one without the roaches (but only then after half the planet complained.)

 

[Ood Sigma]

Cool, I'll probably do that then.

Knowing before even starting the trilogy that Shepard dies at the end, I was pretty much cool with anything except defeat to the Reapers. (When that radio transmission comes on and says the entire team was wiped out, I was like "HELL NO" until it cut to Shepard waking up). Not *that* would have been pointless. Oh, or Shepard actually being a Cerberus VI since ME2, that would have pissed me off too. Shepard sacrificing himself to save the galaxy... I'm OK with. A happily-ever-after ending would probably have been too pat.

Just wondering, I was looking at some YouTube videos and you can see the memorial wall with all the names on the wall, and of course I saw some names of people who lived in my playthrough. I was wondering... what is the minimum number of people who could be alive at the end of ME3? I know almost everyone could die in ME2, so that leaves, what, Joker, James, and Javik? If you choose the red ending EDI dies too (right?)

EDIT: Oh and if you never downloaded "From Ashes" then even Javik wouldn't be there.

 

[Evil Twin]

Liara, James, and Joker are unkillable. EDI technically dies if you pick the destroy ending. Everyone else can be killed at one point or another. (And yeah, you can simply avoid waking up Javik.)

Oh, I guess Traynor is unkillable too (unlike her predecessor) but Cortez dies when his shuttle gets shot down on Earth if you never helped him get over his husband's death.

 

[STR]

^Anyone with a brain? Browser games are little more than marketing tools, hence the "free" part.

Anyone with a brain recognize that browser games are games, hence the "game" name. You may not like them, but "game" is not a quality label.

Farmville isn't a game. Unfortunately, Farmville is the model for 90% of the browser games out there. BSG Online seems like a game, but it's the exception to the rule.

Either way, Mass Effect 4 isn't going to be a browser game.

Well, when I choose "Resume" from the main menu, it takes me immediately to Shepard throwing himself into the beam, so I have no ability to alter my choice.

Then they changed it. Oh well.

 

[Reverend]

Liara, James, and Joker are unkillable. EDI technically dies if you pick the destroy ending. Everyone else can be killed at one point or another. (And yeah, you can simply avoid waking up Javik.)

Oh, I guess Traynor is unkillable too (unlike her predecessor) but Cortez dies when his shuttle gets shot down on Earth if you never helped him get over his husband's death.

^Not quite. Your two squadmates can both be killed in the beam run, though I'm not clear on exactly what triggers it (I'm guessing low EMS?) So *anyone* can die, it's just that (low EMS destroy not withstanding) you can't kill everyone. So to answer Ood's question; the minimum number of survivors is any two out of Javik, EDI, Jame & Liara, plus Joker & Traynor.

But yeah, anyone from ME2 can die either in the suicide mission or in their ME3 appearance, one way or another. You can even kill Wrex if you choose not to cure the genophage as well as the Virmire survivor during the Ceberus coup. That just leaves those I mentioned above.

I'm not sure if Dr. Michel only shows up if you helped her in ME1, so I don't know if she counts. Not sure about Engineer Adams either. Has anyone not bothered with the thermal pipe quest? Does not doing it get him fried at some point?

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm not sure if Dr. Michel only shows up if you helped her in ME1,

She shows up in the PS3 version so I would say she does show up regardless, which makes since seeing as she's the replacement character for Chakwas if she dies during the suicide mission.

Not sure about Engineer Adams either. Has anyone not bothered with the thermal pipe quest? Does not doing it get him fried at some point?

They did mention that the ship would be close to blowing up already if the frying thing occurred so I don't think that would happen.

 

[Reverend]

^Except that's exactly what happens in ME2, killing Kasumi/Tali/Legion etc. if you don't upgrade the shields. I've not imported a save yet where that happened so I don't know if Adamas says something different along the lines of "we don't want that happening again" as opposed to talking about it theoretically.

As for the PS3 version: unlike in ME2 where a new game just had all the ME1 plot flags sett to null, this time round they went to the trouble of selecting a purposely designed default set of plot flags for a non-imported Shepard. So I'm not sure if Dr. Michel is a part of that, or as you say, she shows up regardless. It's not as if she or indeed Chakwas fulfil some vital plot role. You have the option of simply not even speaking to either of them.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Just a heads-up since I think there may have been some confusion on the matter: the memorial scene never even triggers during a Low EMS Destroy, because the Normandy is visibly beaten-up more after the landing (think vanilla, basically) and no one exits the hatch. That's the end of that as far as your crew is concerned. You just get a few moments of Hackett mulling over the heavy losses -- no epilogue slideshow, either.

It's truly the worst.