Mass Effect 3

[John Clark]

I'll probably finish ME3 with my second Shepard this week. Currently, I'm heading towards Sanctuary with about 1350 on the EMS.

While it hasn't been a massacre play through, things are going to get messy

 

[STR]

Firewalker and Arrival weren't all that spectacular, though, but I wouldn't trade my experiences with them each file to get my money back or anything.

Arrival was kind of awesome. It was interesting trying to stealth your way through the prison and beating the 5 waves of troops was probably the single craziest challenge in all of ME's 3 games (at least on Hardcore, my personal setting). Killing what's-her-face with the renegade interrupt was deeply satisfying, as was blowing up the relay.

Not as good as LotSB (I'm not sure any DLC is as good as that ep), or Overlord (easily the most shocking moment in the series, possibly aside from the things you can do to Mordin and Wrex in ME3), but a solid segue piece.

IMO: Shadow Broker > Overlord > Arrival > Kasumi

Looking forward to Leviathan and Omega DLC's. Should be solid installments.

 

[Reverend]

Huh, I forgot about that. Well, in that case I wouldn't even have mentioned it. It's like saying "oh, Normandy Crash Site didn't have a memorable boss battle." Well, it was free!

...and it was kinda cool, anyway.

Would you believe I actually heard that complaint about the crash site DLC? I forget where I read the comment, but I saw someone saying they were disappointed that there wasn't any combat, like he expected to have to fight off waves of pirates amidst the wreckage. I think he missed the point.

Firewalker and Arrival weren't all that spectacular, though, but I wouldn't trade my experiences with them each file to get my money back or anything.

Arrival was kind of awesome. It was interesting trying to stealth your way through the prison and beating the 5 waves of troops was probably the single craziest challenge in all of ME's 3 games (at least on Hardcore, my personal setting). Killing what's-her-face with the renegade interrupt was deeply satisfying, as was blowing up the relay.

Not as good as LotSB (I'm not sure any DLC is as good as that ep), or Overlord (easily the most shocking moment in the series, possibly aside from the things you can do to Mordin and Wrex in ME3), but a solid segue piece.

IMO: Shadow Broker > Overlord > Arrival > Kasumi

Looking forward to Leviathan and Omega DLC's. Should be solid installments.

Agreed. I just hope they don't revert back to the standards of the ME1 DLC...I mean, did anyone actually buy Pinnacle Station? I'm shocked that they're still charging money for it.

 

[PsychoPere]

I don't remember buying it, but I do have it so I must have...

I've only ever completed the scenarios on one character, though, and have never even visited the station on any other characters.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Pinnacle Station was really lame, but I'm such a Mass Effect nerd I enjoy having a bit more graphical representation of the Mass Effect world at relative peacetime. When I replayed ME1 again recently, it was nice walking around that... er, OK, like, two-room space station and seeing that pretty space scene on the screen and whatnot. I felt like I was on some Babylon 5-esque star cruiser.

The gameplay itself though... yeah, really not worth the price. And the less said on the "story" the better there. "I'm a bully! A big turian bully! Shepard, you ain't nothing! Hah! Oh, you did well. Uh. Well still, screw you!" The end.

I'd love to know what that turian jackass is thinking post-ME3 if he survived the war. "Uh. Well. Uh. Yeah well. The human got lucky, that's all."

Anyway, my beef with Arrival is its subpar storyline by Mass Effect standards. At least, that's how I feel. Some complain about the level of auto-dialogue in ME3, but for the most part I think it works for the big climax. You still get plenty more input than most games. With Arrival, though, I really felt like Shepard was being much more idiotic than any other noteworthy event in the trilogy.

I mean, I know time was of the essence, but once Shepard learned of the artifact, I really would have expected him/her to take a few more precautions. When Kenson's like, "I assure you, Commander, we gravy, we gravy", Shepard just sorta begrudgingly goes along with that, despite their history with indoctrination.

The whole story from thereon out just feels really, really predictable and goofy to me, but I do like the Shepard/Harbinger confrontation at the end. That's my one and only real complaint about ME3 -- I think they missed a trick by relegating Harbinger to silent endgame party crasher. I like what they did with Cerberus, unlike many... but I think they could have juggled the Reapers and Cerberus a bit better.

Still, making the Reapers more of a "force of nature"-style antagonist during the war is sensible enough, and Shep did have that one (albeit somewhat brief) conversation with the Rannoch Destroyer.

Normandy Crash Site complaints, Reverend... man, if I didn't know the Mass Effect fandom so well, I'd have a hard time believing it. Well, actually... no I wouldn't. I know fandoms in general. XD

Also, shallow point: Kenson is the second most hideous human in the series. Ethan Jeong from ME1 is the worst offender, for the record.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Oh, and I would say ME1's other DLC, Bring Down The Sky, was pretty cool. Really did the best it could with ME1's gameplay, spicing things up with those mines and that shootout in the compound at the end. Really fun stuff. Also, batarians with depth. <3

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Also, batarians with depth. <3

Heck having Batarians in Mass Effect 1 at all is a plus.

I have a question about Mass Effect 3 exactly what do I need to get the final renegade/paragon conversation options for the final talk with the Illusive Man In the Citadel control room thingy?

Because I don't think its a higher EMS score because I had enough to get all 3 final choices and the Shepard breath scene at the end.

 

[STR]

Also, batarians with depth. <3

Heck having Batarians in Mass Effect 1 at all is a plus.

I have a question about Mass Effect 3 exactly what do I need to get the final renegade/paragon conversation options for the final talk with the Illusive Man In the Citadel control room thingy?

Because I don't think its a higher EMS score because I had enough to get all 3 final choices and the Shepard breath scene at the end.

I think you need a high enough paragon/renegade score. A single playthrough isn't enough, you have to import an ME2 or ME3 character (or hack the savegame). Even with an ME2 import, you will only be able to get one of the options. The only playthrough I could get both options was a ME3 import of a ME2 import. You might also have had to pick paragon/renegade responses in each of the 3 other times you talk to illusive man.

 

[ATimson]

I have a question about Mass Effect 3 exactly what do I need to get the final renegade/paragon conversation options for the final talk with the Illusive Man In the Citadel control room thingy?

My understanding is that it's not stats related; it's tied to your dialogue choices with the IM throughout the entire game. You need to always pick the renegade option, or always take the paragon option, during the earlier dialogues.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I have a question about Mass Effect 3 exactly what do I need to get the final renegade/paragon conversation options for the final talk with the Illusive Man In the Citadel control room thingy?

My understanding is that it's not stats related; it's tied to your dialogue choices with the IM throughout the entire game. You need to always pick the renegade option, or always take the paragon option, during the earlier dialogues.

Oh okay I used the renegade conversation option on Mars so that may have had something to do with it.

Well the renegade interupt still worked so that was good enough for that playthrough

 

[STR]

Just had a very sad realization.

Spoiler: Plot

After Thessia, Joker talks about how his father and teenage sister Hilary live on Tiptree.

In the Cital Hospital, the PTSD Asari talks about how she went to Tiptree, met a 15 year old name Hilary who wanted to be a pilot. Hilary's entire village was indoctrinated (and later killed) and the Asari killed Hilary to keep from getting discovered by Reaper forces.

Between that and the stories about the indoctrinated Earth leadership, and Emily Wong, it seems the deeper you dig into the subplots, the more depressing the story gets.

 

[Reverend]

^Well what did you expect in a (space) opera? A happy ending? [/bugs bunny]

But yeah, that little detail was definitely an *oh bugger* moment of revelation. Especially so considering it's not directly addressed, but just left out there for anyone who' paying attention to the details. Kinda snuck up on me when I put the pieces together.

 

[STR]

Given that most people pick the destroy ending (something like 60%), that's just a triple kick in the quad for you-know-who.

 

[Reverend]

Well, this is interesting. Looks like it might be a screen-shot from the Leviathan DLC. That or you can get some funky new toys for your fish tank...

 

[PsychoPere]

Ah, cool. I had seen references to the underwater Atlas mech in some of the ME panel coverage, but that's the first article I've seen that actually had a picture to share.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

If they want me to buy it, they should release something better than a blurry picture.

 

[Reverend]

^They didn't *release* anything yet. That's a photo taken by someone in the crowd at SDCC. I'm sure the image will show up on the official site before too long.

[EDIT]
They have however, just released this: -
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bkKPqOUvsE[/yt]

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

Well, this is interesting. Looks like it might be a screen-shot from the Leviathan DLC. That or you can get some funky new toys for your fish tank...

Almost certainly going to be the Leviathan DLC. Between the mined data files from the Extended Cut script having plenty on it (including references to an underwater portion of a mission) and the Leviathan's VA outing the project, and then now this, I'd say it's a safe bet we're getting this first.

 

[Reverend]

Just played a few rounds of MP and managed to unlock the new 'N7 Shadow' infiltrator class. I don't mind saying, she's a LOT of fun! It's especially satisfying to give one of those bloody annoying phantoms a taste of her own medicine.

 

[Quinton O'Connor]

I hadn't touched MP since the demo phase; my girlfriend raised a few characters, but I just didn't feel like going near it. While ME3's gunplay is quite fun, online shooters just aren't my thing.

I decided to give it another whirl for a while the other day, though, and I'm in the process of bringing my Soldier up to 20 again. (Had one there during the demo.) It's pretty darn fun, even if I know it won't be my cup of tea for long. The amount of maps, classes, weapons and powers really adds quite a bit of replay value.