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Mass Effect 3

If I am more positive about this series, sometimes I think of this series in the same way I do about the Alien Quadrology. For me, the Alien series ended with the second movie. The third and fourth movies I don't regard as my own personal canon. For me, in my own personal canon, I would have only the first two Mass Effect games. Aside from the brilliance of the Tuchanka and Rannoch segments, the rest of Mass Effect 3 is blah.

On a lighter note, the Tampa Bay Times rates the ending of Mass Effect 3 as one of the low points of video game history, ranking it with the Great Crash of 1983, the Super Mario Brothers movie, the Atari Jaguar, and the Playstation Home. Here is the article:

http://www.tampabay.com/features/po...ale-is-now-a-low-point-in-video-games/1222399

The writer sums up Bioware's mission thusly,

It won't however, repair what is easily a dark moment in gaming. Whether EA forced a change in the storyline to milk DLC sales or BioWare truly packaged and published such a lackluster resolution, the makers of Mass Effect 3 have their own suicide mission to undertake: Either change the ending and admit the game as released was only 99 percent complete, or accept the fact that your core audience thinks you're a pack of idiots.

Well, there's probably nothing they can do about that last one, in any case.
 
Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut DLC is incoming this summer for free.
BioWare has announced Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, a free downloadable update that adds "additional cinematic sequences and epilogue sequences" to the game's controversial ending.

It's out this summer, and will give players "seeking further clarity to the ending of Mass Effect 3 deeper insights into how their personal journey concludes."

"With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team's artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe." [Ray Muzyka]

"We have reprioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player," executive producer Casey Hudson elaborates.
For those of us who purchased Geoff Keighley's Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, he says he'll have "more details soon" in an update for the app.
 
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Has anyone tried out the new MP content yet? I've only unlocked a few things so far but I thought the Batarian soldier is a fun class to play and the Krogan vanguard is hilarious. The new maps are surprisingly good too.
 
I haven't yet, I've been dedicating all gaming time to making a new character in ME1 and taking it all the way to the end in ME3. Well, almost the end of ME3.
 
Has anyone tried out the new MP content yet? I've only unlocked a few things so far but I thought the Batarian soldier is a fun class to play and the Krogan vanguard is hilarious. The new maps are surprisingly good too.
Condor and Hydra are pretty difficult the first time through, since they're a lot longer than most other MP maps.
 
Has anyone tried out the new MP content yet? I've only unlocked a few things so far but I thought the Batarian soldier is a fun class to play and the Krogan vanguard is hilarious. The new maps are surprisingly good too.
Condor and Hydra are pretty difficult the first time through, since they're a lot longer than most other MP maps.

Haha, I can generally hold my own in silver on the maps, but I got DESTORYED on hydra. I had fun, but I'm sure my team-mates hated me (even when I stuck with the group, it just seemed tough. It felt so open and exposed)

By the way, unlocking the new characters (you got the Batarian and Krogan already?), it's just a matter of purchasing the different packs and hoping for the random chances?
 
Well, I finished my engineer playthrough last night and started a new "fail" playthrough tonight, downloading a save where only Kasumi and Morinth survived ME2... and then I killed both of them via the save editor. :lol: Actually, Morinth apparently survived my hacking attempts as I got the email from her, but seeing as how she only appears as a banshee she's as good as dead anyway. Legion is missing from the board as apparently he was given over to Cerberus rather than activated, but Kaidan will wind up there as soon as I have the opportunity. :evil: Eager to see how all the squad related missions play out with their generic stand-ins. And I guess the Salarian counselor will as good as dead with both Thane and Kirahee dead already.

Here's the board at the start of the game. Normandy's gonna be pretty quiet this game. Already refused Allers, and Javik can rot in stasis. Well Liara, James, and EDI, I guess it's just up to us! :p

ME3-dead.jpg
 
^Looks like we both had the same idea. I've been taking that screenshot of all my Sheps so far as a twisted way of keeping score. And yes, I still have my "loserShep" save ready to import, but I probably won't get around to it for a while yet.
Has anyone tried out the new MP content yet? I've only unlocked a few things so far but I thought the Batarian soldier is a fun class to play and the Krogan vanguard is hilarious. The new maps are surprisingly good too.
Condor and Hydra are pretty difficult the first time through, since they're a lot longer than most other MP maps.

This to me is a good thing! ;)

Has anyone tried out the new MP content yet? I've only unlocked a few things so far but I thought the Batarian soldier is a fun class to play and the Krogan vanguard is hilarious. The new maps are surprisingly good too.
Condor and Hydra are pretty difficult the first time through, since they're a lot longer than most other MP maps.

Haha, I can generally hold my own in silver on the maps, but I got DESTORYED on hydra. I had fun, but I'm sure my team-mates hated me (even when I stuck with the group, it just seemed tough. It felt so open and exposed)

By the way, unlocking the new characters (you got the Batarian and Krogan already?), it's just a matter of purchasing the different packs and hoping for the random chances?

Yeah, I'd been hoarding credits since the DLC was announced so when it came out I had enough to buy several premium spectre pack, which has twice as many "rare" items as the normal spectre pack at 1.5 times the price.

I've only played Hydra once and it was a bit funny because the whole team spent 99% of the time camped up near the extraction zone. I was playing as a battlemaster vanguard so I had the run of the place. :D
 
Continuing my fail playthrough... Jack's stand-in was a totally bland loser (thanks for killing him, Cerberus!) however Mordin dying in ME2 turned out to be almost worth it, as this bit here had me laughing my ass off.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvvBLnOTD4[/yt]

Oh, and Joker decides to call him "Not-Mordin". :lol:
 
OK, am I just completely dense or did anyone else miss that the squadmate's alternate appearances each have a specific "armour bonus" attached to them? I ask because I only figure this out now, two thirds of the way through my THIRD playthrough... :shifty:

Not that I'm big on minmaxing (I rather loath it if I'm being honest) but it would have been nice to know is all...
 
OK, am I just completely dense or did anyone else miss that the squadmate's alternate appearances each have a specific "armour bonus" attached to them? I ask because I only figure this out now, two thirds of the way through my THIRD playthrough... :shifty:
I noticed fairly early on in my first playthrough, but it was well-hidden, I must admit.
 
I didn't notice that, either. I just changed up their appearances after each "Priority" mission for a little visual variety, and didn't pay much attention other than that.
 
Yeah, I only found out about it this week myself. Was reading the Cerberus Headquarters section on the wiki and see the line: "Consider putting EDI in her "Power Recharge Time -25%" outfit. You may find you'll be using EDI's Overload a lot." And I'm like wait what...? So I load up the squad screen and sure enough.... /facepalm
 
I didn't notice it either. :shrug: Frankly, I was disappointed that they only wore their alternate costume on missions, in ME2 they wore it on the ship as well. It felt like regression as ME1 had the same problem with armour (particularly noticeable on Virmire).
 
So yeah, it's not just me? I suddenly feel like less of a derp.

I didn't notice it either. :shrug: Frankly, I was disappointed that they only wore their alternate costume on missions, in ME2 they wore it on the ship as well. It felt like regression as ME1 had the same problem with armour (particularly noticeable on Virmire).

I didn't mind that so much. Indeed I think it would have been better if, like Shepard, most of them had "casual" outfits that the *only* wore on the Normandy or in visits to the Citadel.

What does bother me though is that they still do that thing where certain characters will wear nothing but a piddly little plastic breath mask in hard vacuum (or nothing at all in the case of Jarvik.) I mean that can't me good for you, can it?
I mean Liara wore a full helmet and armour at the start of ME2, so why not now?

Also, anyone notice that the thing in cut-scenes with the magically appearing Avenger rifle has actually gotten worse? Not only does it appear when you and/or your squad mates are not carrying Assault rifles at all, but now it will also occasionally appear even if you are carrying one of your own. I noticed the same thing with the pistol a few times too. The basic predator (?) model would show up regardless of what I had equipped.
 
GameTrailers has an interesting mini documentary series about the soundtracks for all three games if anyone is interested.

Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 3

Sadly, there's no interview with Clint Mansell and no discussion at all about what went on there, and Jack Wall is still saying that it was his decision not to return for ME3. I'm sceptical, but given how proud he clearly was of the Suicide Mission track maybe he really did choose to go out on a high note. :shrug:
 
Yeah, I noticed Mansell's absence too, but then looking at the soundtrack he's only credited for two tracks; 'Leaving Earth' & 'An End, Once and For All'. Makes sense though as those two basically bookend the game, but the latter has a co-credit with Hulick, so...yeah. He's more of a guest contributor really.

I noted in part two one of them mentions how the music wasn't always used as intended in ME1. I'm assuming the main culprit would be the Benezia death scene. To this day I'm not sure if that was ineptitude or just some glitch they never got around to fixing. If it's the latter I'd really like to see that scene with the intended track.
 
Yeah, I noticed Mansell's absence too, but then looking at the soundtrack he's only credited for two tracks; 'Leaving Earth' & 'An End, Once and For All'. Makes sense though as those two basically bookend the game, but the latter has a co-credit with Hulick, so...yeah. He's more of a guest contributor really.
Yeah, it really irritated me that Mansell only did two tracks, given how much they hyped his participation (Crysis 2 did a similar thing with Hans Zimmer). It's even worse than what Crysis 2 pulled because Mansell's tracks are pretty much the only ones that have any sort of staying power, although Das Malefitz is a pretty catchy track.
 
Yeah, it really irritated me that Mansell only did two tracks, given how much they hyped his participation (Crysis 2 did a similar thing with Hans Zimmer). It's even worse than what Crysis 2 pulled because Mansell's tracks are pretty much the only ones that have any sort of staying power, although Das Malefitz is a pretty catchy track.
At least Hans Zimmer wrote themes that the other composers ended up using. Mansell's track-and-a-half weren't picked up in the rest of the score.

(Though I would have said that his were the ones with the least staying power - I much preferred Sam Hulick's work, and the other composers at least worked in a similar style.)
 
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