Mass Effect 3

[Reverend]

^In a word? Time. It's pretty self evident that they ran out of time on this game and a lot of it was rushed or unfinished. We know for a fact that the pre-beam bit where the Normandy picks up your squadmates was in there originally, but cut out for time and it's a fair bet that certain other elements are restored content.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I have a question about the Asari Matriarch Writings mission.

Do I have to track down all 16 of them to get Conrad's war asset or do I just need the 10 needed to complete the side quest?

 

[Reverend]

I'm pretty sure getting the minimum required to complete the side mission is sufficient, since that's what toggles the plot flag.

 

[Jono]

Finally finished it. Went Synth and then destroy and watched the others on Youtube (Bioware's disabling of skipping in the last section made my mind up).

The is a bit more explanation, which was mainly okay and some nice new cutscenes. I liked that instead of just having the same 3 people appear when you make your choice it varies and my romance option now actually got to appear. That said I'm still a bit miffed about how kind of second hand it all is if you stick with a ME2 companion.

I do wish they added back in Anderson's cut dialogue before he dies, it makes the moment so much bigger.

I do like that we got to see how the squad mates escaped. But Joker is off my Christmas card list for not even attempting to provide support fire for Hammer's efforts. As someone mentioned it is odd that Harbinger just looks at the Normandy and doesn't do anything.

The scene where they put Sheps name on the list of the dead is good, but the fact it says "Commander Shepard" made me shake my head. Apparently they liked me but not enough to know my first name.

Finally, I like that the breath scene stayed. Throw in the fact they didn't do anything to make Anderson's appearance on the Citadel make any sense and I'm still doubtful about whether it was actually real. That said, I am quite happy with the destroy ending now there is some context as to what you actually got for your actions.

I also noticed an funny coincidence. In the slideshow at the end when you see Coats and co looking over plans for rebuilding the guy on the left looks a lot like my Shep. Even more proof that my Shep is not dead!

 

[Reverend]

While I agree, the Normandy being able to land in the middle of all that feels very odd, I think it can be (barely) justified. Right at the moment, Harbinger was too busy keeping everyone away from the beam, so there was no reason for it to attack Normandy, unless it posed a direct threat (like say, if it took a pot shot with the thanix cannons.) It might also be worth noting that other wounded soldiers were being brought up the ramp, so it's not as if it landed *just* to pick up Shepard's squadmates.

It still could have been handled better though. Like say a mention in the mission briefing that it'd be on station for med-evac. The theory being that it's the only ship small enough to land in close and tough enough to take a direct hit from a reaper beam weapon and live.

Of course, just about everything from killing Kai Leng onwards could have been handled better. I'm also still having a hard time figuring out how the EC managed to take up more memory than LotSB. I was half expecting to see new additions in the for of support based on past decisions (rachni, elcor, Jack's students etc.) Until the beam, I was getting a little worried that the DLC hadn't installed properly.

 

[Jono]

This response over at the Bioware forums on the size of the DLC made me laugh.

They needed the extra space to hold their egos and bullsh*t.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm pretty sure getting the minimum required to complete the side mission is sufficient, since that's what toggles the plot flag.

Oh good so i only need one more then.

 

[TheGodBen]

It wouldn't solve a damn thing anyway. People may accept the new fusion, but that doesn't mean it will change what their priorities will be on Monday.

That's something I'm curious about, in my play-through where Wreav was preparing an army of Krogan, would I still see those images if I had chosen synthesis? I can't test this out because that Shep's EMS was too low and I was only given the choice of destroy or control, and it's an unusual combination of variables anyway (most people that killed Wrex in ME1 probably didn't cure the genophage in ME3) so I haven't seen a video of it on Youtube. But if it does show that image then it does prove that synthesis doesn't bring peace.

Which is the cool thing about Mass Effect, isn't it? Shepard can be a paragon of virtue or a complete asshole who just happens to get things done.

Which is why I like my primary Shep, he was neither of those things, he was a mostly good man that did some morally questionable things because of the pressure of trying to achieve the impossible.

I've been thinking over the last few days about why I find the new endings much better than the original, and my Shepard's moral ambiguity is a big part of it. After everything I had been through, all the moral sacrifices I made, all those things which weighed on my conscience (murdering Mordin and Wrex being the main ones), I needed to know those sacrifices meant something. I needed an affirmation of victory, and Joker and co. staring into the distance on that jungle planet didn't cut it. When I think of the new (destroy) ending, the first thing that comes to mind is the shot of the fleet heading home with Hackett saying "we won", and that brief moment made a world of difference for me. The funeral scene was nice and emotional, the slide-show was a reasonable way of reflecting the outcome of my decisions, but it was that simple line from Hackett that provided me with the closure I needed.

It may not be a great ending, but it is a proper ending this time.

And I'm not talking about the plus few minutes of video, but the fact that
a. the mass relays don't explode
b. joker doesn't run off
c. normandy doesn't crash...

Unless you have a low EMS score, in which case the relays explode, wiping out most life in the galaxy, and the Normandy is left stranded on that planet.

It's funny, the worst achievable ending in the extended cut appears to be the same as what was implied in the best possible endings of the original version.

I'm also still having a hard time figuring out how the EC managed to take up more memory than LotSB.

Apparently, pre-rendered cutscenes take up a lot of room. I've seen it suggested that the slides used in the epilogue were supposed to be proper footage, but they couldn't fit them within Xbox Live's 2GB DLC limit, so they used artwork instead. No idea if that's true or not, but it sounds believable.

 

[Evil Twin]

Apparently, pre-rendered cutscenes take up a lot of room. I've seen it suggested that the slides used in the epilogue were supposed to be proper footage, but they couldn't fit them within Xbox Live's 2GB DLC limit, so they used artwork instead. No idea if that's true or not, but it sounds believable.

*sigh* I'm really getting sick and tired of consoles being the cause of PC games not living up to their full technical potential. Likewise, ME3's texture quality looks like shit on the PC because they didn't bother to improve the console textures for the PC version this time around, which they DID do for ME2.

 

[Reverend]

I'm also still having a hard time figuring out how the EC managed to take up more memory than LotSB.

Apparently, pre-rendered cutscenes take up a lot of room. I've seen it suggested that the slides used in the epilogue were supposed to be proper footage, but they couldn't fit them within Xbox Live's 2GB DLC limit, so they used artwork instead. No idea if that's true or not, but it sounds believable.

You know, from an artistic POV I think I like the idea of the slides better than pre-rendered cutscenes. It gives the epilogue an almost storybook quaity, which is quite appropriate given the post credits scene.

I could have done with some more pre-rendered scenes during the Londo missions. It would have been a good place to show the Rachi, Elcor, Geth etc...actually, for some reason I don't think *any* Geth showed up in my ending at all. Not even in the "fleets reporting in" scene. While vexing, the absence of a reminder that they were there at all did make the destroy decision a little easier.

Speaking of the post credits scene; anyone notice that the new pair you get in that scene after the "refusal" ending aren't Yahg? So much for them running the next cycle.

 

[USS Mariner]

Honestly? I would have preferred the original endings, given that the extended cut definitively canonizes the "space magic" of the whole Catalyst/Crucible plot, which for me is the biggest problem.

Reaper tech + organics = Husks. You spent two games explaining this, BioWare.

 

[Reverend]

Depends on how you interpret it, but to me "synthesis" is by far the most sinister of the three options. In my mind, that ending means that the entire galaxy is homogenised into a single collective consciousness, totally wiping out any individuality. That maybe EDI's voice, but it's not her speaking, it's the catalyst.

That was my second thought at least. My first impression was much more horrific. Remember the "green" version of that scene with the human marine fighting off the husk? When the wave hit, for a second there I had the horrifying thought that it had suddenly regained it's former identity...

As for the space magic...yeah, that's just bad story telling no matter which way you cut it--which is why I picked destroy as at least it makes some sense. I suspect they had these different endings in mind but couldn't/wouldn't take the time to come up for an organic way to weave them unto the narrative and instead resorted to a very literal DEUS EX machina (see what I did there? )

 

[TheGodBen]

You know, from an artistic POV I think I like the idea of the slides better than pre-rendered cutscenes. It gives the epilogue an almost storybook quaity, which is quite appropriate given the post credits scene.

I kinda agree. For the slides showing the rebuilt London, repaired Citadel, and baby Krogan, those work well as artwork as they're aspirational, they're the future that the characters want yet not necessarily the future they will have. The galaxy could slide back into conflict, but in the days following the victory they are dreaming of a better tomorrow.

But some of the character-centric slides, such as Samara with her daughter on Thessia and Jack with her students, I think those moments would have been best represented by actual cinematics as that's how we remember the characters.

I could have done with some more pre-rendered scenes during the Londo missions. It would have been a good place to show the Rachi, Elcor, Geth etc...actually, for some reason I don't think *any* Geth showed up in my ending at all. Not even in the "fleets reporting in" scene. While vexing, the absence of a reminder that they were there at all did make the destroy decision a little easier.

The Geth didn't show up in London for me either, but for different reasons. But yeah, I'm disappointed that the London mission wasn't restructured to include cutscenes showing your war assets in battle, that's the one big thing that Bioware failed to deliver with the extended cut.

Depends on how you interpret it, but to me "synthesis" is by far the most sinister of the three options. In my mind, that ending means that the entire galaxy is homogenised into a single collective consciousness, totally wiping out any individuality. That maybe EDI's voice, but it's not her speaking, it's the catalyst.

The new galactic consciousness even has a penchant for green lights, just like another organic/synthetic collective I could name.

 

[STR]

I kinda agree. For the slides showing the rebuilt London, repaired Citadel, and baby Krogan, those work well as artwork as they're aspirational, they're the future that the characters want yet not necessarily the future they will have. The galaxy could slide back into conflict, but in the days following the victory they are dreaming of a better tomorrow.

By personal favorite was Zaeed sitting on a beach chair with a drink in his hand. He hadn't dropped the armor, which tells you he probably wasn't retired.

In fact, my cutscenes pretty much showed everyone from ME2. Which was fine by me, I liked them more than the original group (aside from the ones that stuck with me through the end). That was the destruct ending with enough points to get the "Not Actually Dead" ending. I saw no Geth after the fleet roll call. Which is also okay. All you need, with the upgrade Legion disseminated himself for, is for one platform to survive. What are the odds that none of them were able to jump away from Earth?

You still probably wipe EDI, but that's the least evil ending of the three, IMO. As a CO, I have the authority to sacrifice those under my command (with the obligation to avoid that if at all possible). I do not have the right to make a decision for everyone in the universe. I do not think it is a good idea for one being to control all the power of the whole Reaper race.

Likewise, ME3's texture quality looks like shit on the PC because they didn't bother to improve the console textures for the PC version this time around, which they DID do for ME2.

I noticed how bad ME3 textures looked. Didn't realize this was why. There is TexMod, though.

 

[Evil Twin]

By personal favorite was Zaeed sitting on a beach chair with a drink in his hand. He hadn't dropped the armor, which tells you he probably wasn't retired.

Plus it looked like he had "Jessie" with him too.

I noticed how bad ME3 textures looked. Didn't realize this was why. There is TexMod, though.

Problem is, TexMod is a pain in the ass since you have to load up the custom textures with it every time you start the game. Can't just dump them into an override folder and be done with it. As such, I haven't bothered.

 

[Skywalker]

The only way to truly fix the endings is to replace them completely, but at least now they're endings with some differences and not a bunch of "one color fits all" bullcrap. They're still terrible choices, but I think we all knew BioWare wasn't going to change things that much.

At least they got rid of that idiotic "all the relays are destroyed and the Normandy is stranded on an uncharted planet" idea.

 

[Kruezerman]

I kinda agree. For the slides showing the rebuilt London, repaired Citadel, and baby Krogan, those work well as artwork as they're aspirational, they're the future that the characters want yet not necessarily the future they will have. The galaxy could slide back into conflict, but in the days following the victory they are dreaming of a better tomorrow.

By personal favorite was Zaeed sitting on a beach chair with a drink in his hand. He hadn't dropped the armor, which tells you he probably wasn't retired.

In fact, my cutscenes pretty much showed everyone from ME2. Which was fine by me, I liked them more than the original group (aside from the ones that stuck with me through the end). That was the destruct ending with enough points to get the "Not Actually Dead" ending. I saw no Geth after the fleet roll call. Which is also okay. All you need, with the upgrade Legion disseminated himself for, is for one platform to survive. What are the odds that none of them were able to jump away from Earth?

You still probably wipe EDI, but that's the least evil ending of the three, IMO. As a CO, I have the authority to sacrifice those under my command (with the obligation to avoid that if at all possible). I do not have the right to make a decision for everyone in the universe. I do not think it is a good idea for one being to control all the power of the whole Reaper race.

Still, I suppose it's just a sucky choice. I went with synthesis because it offered the least amount of loss compared to the amount gained.

 

[Reverend]

Hey, remember that survey on that German fansite a few months back? Well I just today remembered it existed and went looking to see if the results were in yet. They are (click "Survey Data" at the top of the page.)

Some interesting statistics. Of course it only really applies to mostly die-hard fans (i.e. those that were even aware of the survey) so it's not truly representative of the entire player base, but in a way I think that makes it more valuable. I mean these are the loyal fans that will stick with a franchise and/or a developer in the long rung, these are the one's most likely to stick around if treated right...and the ones hardest to win back if treated poorly.

Of particular note; I thought the LI results were interesting. I didn't expect Liara to have such a huge lead, but then I suppose she has her mono-gender working in her favour. That aside, I was also interested to see that Tali beat out Ashley and Garrus (by the skin of his pointy teeth) beat out Kaiden. What really astonished me though, is that 61 people admitted to romancing Allers! I'm embarrassed to admit that I even bother interacting with the useless bint at all.

 

[PsychoPere]

Did Allers even have her own personality? I only bothered talking to her for War Assets.

 

[Skywalker]

I think it's incredibly telling just how preferred the Destroy option seems to be. 12,072 people (69.1%) out of 17,482 chose Destroy over the other two, and 14,065 (80.1%) out of 17,482 think that Destroy is the best choice for the galaxy.