ME3 - let's discuss stuff OTHER than the ending (probably spoilers)

[AD-Stu]

Thought it might be interesting to take a step back from discussion of the ending and take a look at the other 99% of the game that, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, most people liked quite a lot.

What do people think about all of the issues that were raised pre-release now that they've had a chance to actually see them in-game, for example? I can think of a few:

- The whole Jessica Chobot/Diana Allers controversy
- The "it's a freaking prothean, of course it's important" controversy
- The introducing multiplayer controversy
- The action/story/RPG mode controversy

For me, the Chobot/Allers thing turned out to be a total non-issue. You have like three conversations with her for the whole game, she didn't look anywhere near as uncanny valley when she was animated, and her *ahem* outfit is explained by the fact that she reports on a tawdry-sounding tabloid news show, not an official Alliance one.

Skirting around the day one DLC issue and just focusing on the plot, I'm not sure where I stand on the Javik issue. For the most part I can see how the game works just as well without him, but there's a few scenes I just can't imagine working any other way. I took him with me to Thessia, for example and... yeah, I can't picture the sequence in the temple without him, with the revelations he imparts about the protheans' involvement with the asari before the end of the previous cycle.

Having seen what he contributes, I certainly think the game would feel incomplete if I played it without him. Much as I enjoyed their content, I wouldn't say the same about Zaeed or Kasumi in ME2. So yeah, I think we probably got held to ransom a bit on that one. Guess that means I do know where I stand on it

Multiplayer as well turned out to be a bit of a non-issue for me. Now we all know the magic EMS score is 5000 and that it's easily achievable without touching the multiplayer, so it's not being forced on us to get the "best" ending (I'm using that term soooooooo loosely). The other criticism was that it would have taken away resources that should have been directed to making the single-player campaign: I'm wondering, is anybody actually feeling short-changed in that area? Personally I've got no complaints (I don't see how it's conceivable to blame the multiplayer for the ending) but other people's milage may vary.

Action/story/RPG mode was another non-issue for me. The choice was prominent in the demo, but in the game proper I didn't notice it at all - correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it just a single toggle switch in the options screen that was set to RPG mode by default?

What are your thoughts on the above issues? What did you really enjoy about the game? What (other than the ending) did you think could have been done better?

 

[omega 616]

None of those things where an issue for me, I had more problems with the ship.

Why did they have to change the layout? It's basically the same ship, why move stuff around?

Why oh why did they put that stupid blue scanner in between the war room and the galaxy map room? It just slows your ass down for no reason.

The room with the army resource thing, showing how many people were helping with the war, had a screen that was had different sections marked off all with 50% next to them and it was never used for anything. I was thinking it must be used as like risk, you put all the geth ships in one section to attack from one direction or put the Asari ships defending a planet but it never changed or was used once.

 

[AD-Stu]

None of those things where an issue for me, I had more problems with the ship.

Why did they have to change the layout? It's basically the same ship, why move stuff around?

Why oh why did they put that stupid blue scanner in between the war room and the galaxy map room? It just slows your ass down for no reason.

The room with the army resource thing, showing how many people were helping with the war, had a screen that was had different sections marked off all with 50% next to them and it was never used for anything. I was thinking it must be used as like risk, you put all the geth ships in one section to attack from one direction or put the Asari ships defending a planet but it never changed or was used once.

I didn't mind the changes to the ship so much - in fact, I really liked the "half-finished" look of a lot of the spaces and the way it reinforced that the Reapers hit sooner than anyone expected. And the layout didn't change too much, aside from the stuff on the CIC deck that obviously needed to be done to make room for the war room. I like that they kept the original meeting table and just moved it to one side.

I agree the security scanner was a pain in the arse though. I'm assuming it was there to cover a loading delay or something, like the elevators in ME1. Plot-wise it makes sense for it to be there, given that space gives you access to all sorts of need-to-know information that the rank and file crew maybe shouldn't know about but in practical terms yeah, it was irritating.

 

[42]

well i don't get the whole action/story/rpg mode thing. i mean does that mean we were all playing it wrong the first 2 times that it warranted these modes?

as for the multiplayer did Mass Effect really need it? i mean for a single-player story game that has many ways it can play out i thought that would extend its longevity in the library by that point alone. and i don't think it would require tagging on a multiplayer.

 

[AD-Stu]

Yeah, I never really understood the whole action/story/RPG thing either - I think the reason it's such a non-event for me is that Bioware seems to have pretty much abandoned the idea themselves. Unless I missed something, in the full game it actually got cut down to action/RPG because the only option I could see was the one hidden away that gave you the option to automate the conversations if you chose to.

On the multiplayer, no I don't think the game needed it but I don't think it hurt that it was there either. Do you think you lost anything as a result of its inclusion, did it make ME3 a worse game in any way?

Oh, here's another fun one: before the release, a lot of people were raging over the fact that no matter who they chose to be the human Councilor at the end of ME1, by the start of ME3 Udina would have been slipped into the job.

Having seen how that whole thing played out, how many people still wanted Anderson to be in the Councilor's chair for ME3?

 

[SpaceBat]

Thought it might be interesting to take a step back from discussion of the ending and take a look at the other 99% of the game that, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, most people liked quite a lot.

Yeah, but people won't talk about that, because they had their eye on bashing Bioware from the very beginning. It doesn't have anything to do with games being generally great or not (Skyrim is flawed as fuck, but is praised to death because people love Bethesda here. ME3 is excellent all around, except for the endings and guess what's the only thing that people talk about). People here like to whine about things and even though the rest of ME3 was excellent, the endings weren't.

I appreciate that you're trying to be reasonable, but you'd better just steer clear from this site until people stop acting like children.

Just to stay OT, I loved nearly everything else about the game, except for the endings and Diana Allers. The possibility of the ending being a indoctrination test makes it a lot better though.

As you may have figured it out, most of the "controversies" surrounding the game really weren't actual controversies. The game is complete and the multiplayer is surprisingly fun. The modes don't hinder me in any way and pandering to different crowds has no downside, so that's out as well.

The Prothean team member was an interesting add-on for sure (although not crucial) and we're simply lucky that Diana doesn't have a significant role in the game and we can tell her to fuck off you ship at any given moment (you don't even have to recruit her).

So yeah, loved the game. I'm a bit disappointed with the ending, but it really isn't worth the outcry. Just imagine that it was a test and carry on.

 

[synobal]

I'm sorry but what is the problem with Diana Allers?

 

[Dr. Paine]

I'm sorry but what is the problem with Diana Allers?

There's no option to punch her (as far as I know), there's your problem.

... joking aside, I really don't mind her that much. -shrug- I actually kind of enjoy listening to her little reports and all

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I remember when they said how multiplayer won't influence the single player development. Then why are animations so lousy, and why is the texture quality and lightning worse than in ME2. And why is the ending half-assed and illogical?

I have to blame something. And since ME1 and ME2 didn't have MP, and introduction of MP has been known to hamper SP development (call of duty), I can only come to one conclusion.

 

[AD-Stu]

Diana Allers character or Jessica Chobot tanks. Her voice acting sucks so badly I couldn't even believe it.

Agreed, she's definitely not a great voice acting talent.

As far as her being in the game potentially affecting review scores, which was another pre-launch concern...

Her site (IGN) gave it 9.5/10
Game Informer, Eurogamer and the UK Official Xbox Magazine all gave it a perfect 10
G4 gave it a perfect 5/5
There are a bunch of other major publications giving it 90%+ scores

I guess with everyone else scoring it so high as well, we'll never know if her being included in the game resulted in IGN's score being artificially inflated or not. Their reviews don't seem out of line with everyone else's at any rate. Though discussion of the ending (in the video at least, for spoiler or whatever other reasons) is conspicuously absent: http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/121/1219446p1.html

I remember when they said how multiplayer won't influence the single player development. Then why are animations so lousy, and why is the texture quality and lightning worse than in ME2. And why is the ending half-assed and illogical?

I have to blame something. And since ME1 and ME2 didn't have MP, and introduction of MP has been known to hamper SP development (call of duty), I can only come to one conclusion.

Out of interest, what platform did you play it on?

I played it on PC and it certainly wasn't issue-free - Shepard's bow-legged running animation in particular ground my gears, and there were occasional graphical glitches - but on the whole I thought it was pretty good.

My brother played it on Xbox though, and was nowhere near as complimentary. Apparently he had a lot of issues with low-res textures and other stuff that I either didn't notice or just didn't have on PC.

 

[synobal]

My brother played it on Xbox though, and was nowhere near as complimentary. Apparently he had a lot of issues with low-res textures and other stuff that I either didn't notice or just didn't have on PC.

The problem with the xbox is a lot of mission areas are a lot more active than they were in Mass Effect 2. With things like reapers running around in the background etc etc. So something had to take a hit some place and it looks like the textures took the hit. It's just one of thing the things you have to suffer through if you're playing on a console really.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Out of interest, what platform did you play it on?

I played it on PC and it certainly wasn't issue-free - Shepard's bow-legged running animation in particular ground my gears, and there were occasional graphical glitches - but on the whole I thought it was pretty good.

My brother played it on Xbox though, and was nowhere near as complimentary. Apparently he had a lot of issues with low-res textures and other stuff that I either didn't notice or just didn't have on PC.

I play on PC as well. I thought textures could be better. They were in ME2.

 

[CommanderL]

I loved the game till the ending but it was filled with so many out standing moments that the ending can easily be forgoten under all the good

I loved the ship i hated the blue scaner but the people posted there often had nice conversations
I loved the citadel and that you could meet your crew on it

 

[boag]

Thought it might be interesting to take a step back from discussion of the ending and take a look at the other 99% of the game that, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, most people liked quite a lot.

What do people think about all of the issues that were raised pre-release now that they've had a chance to actually see them in-game, for example? I can think of a few:

- The whole Jessica Chobot/Diana Allers controversy
- The "it's a freaking prothean, of course it's important" controversy
- The introducing multiplayer controversy
- The action/story/RPG mode controversy

For me, the Chobot/Allers thing turned out to be a total non-issue. You have like three conversations with her for the whole game, she didn't look anywhere near as uncanny valley when she was animated, and her *ahem* outfit is explained by the fact that she reports on a tawdry-sounding tabloid news show, not an official Alliance one.

Skirting around the day one DLC issue and just focusing on the plot, I'm not sure where I stand on the Javik issue. For the most part I can see how the game works just as well without him, but there's a few scenes I just can't imagine working any other way. I took him with me to Thessia, for example and... yeah, I can't picture the sequence in the temple without him, with the revelations he imparts about the protheans' involvement with the asari before the end of the previous cycle.

Having seen what he contributes, I certainly think the game would feel incomplete if I played it without him. Much as I enjoyed their content, I wouldn't say the same about Zaeed or Kasumi in ME2. So yeah, I think we probably got held to ransom a bit on that one. Guess that means I do know where I stand on it

Multiplayer as well turned out to be a bit of a non-issue for me. Now we all know the magic EMS score is 5000 and that it's easily achievable without touching the multiplayer, so it's not being forced on us to get the "best" ending (I'm using that term soooooooo loosely). The other criticism was that it would have taken away resources that should have been directed to making the single-player campaign: I'm wondering, is anybody actually feeling short-changed in that area? Personally I've got no complaints (I don't see how it's conceivable to blame the multiplayer for the ending) but other people's milage may vary.

Action/story/RPG mode was another non-issue for me. The choice was prominent in the demo, but in the game proper I didn't notice it at all - correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it just a single toggle switch in the options screen that was set to RPG mode by default?

What are your thoughts on the above issues? What did you really enjoy about the game? What (other than the ending) did you think could have been done better?

the chobot incident was a non issue from the beginning, people jumped on a bandwagon because who doesnt love a good bashing of IGN?

javik does make the THessia mission more interesting, but any character you take will start grilling Liara about what a bunch of dicks the Asari were for not noticing they were being handheld by protheans and for keeping all the info to themselves and doing jack shit with it.

Multiplayer has been one of the best parts of the game, I was initially in the camp of "im not going to touch it", but after playing it, I found that it provided with many exciting exercises in strategy.

The final most hilarious thing, the rpg/story/action system turned out to be just a simple set of predefined options, I dont understand why people even begun to get angry about this in the first place.

 

[RJ 17]

Thought it might be interesting to take a step back from discussion of the ending and take a look at the other 99% of the game that, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, most people liked quite a lot.

What do people think about all of the issues that were raised pre-release now that they've had a chance to actually see them in-game, for example? I can think of a few:

- The whole Jessica Chobot/Diana Allers controversy
- The "it's a freaking prothean, of course it's important" controversy
- The introducing multiplayer controversy
- The action/story/RPG mode controversy

For me, the Chobot/Allers thing turned out to be a total non-issue. You have like three conversations with her for the whole game, she didn't look anywhere near as uncanny valley when she was animated, and her *ahem* outfit is explained by the fact that she reports on a tawdry-sounding tabloid news show, not an official Alliance one.

Skirting around the day one DLC issue and just focusing on the plot, I'm not sure where I stand on the Javik issue. For the most part I can see how the game works just as well without him, but there's a few scenes I just can't imagine working any other way. I took him with me to Thessia, for example and... yeah, I can't picture the sequence in the temple without him, with the revelations he imparts about the protheans' involvement with the asari before the end of the previous cycle.

Having seen what he contributes, I certainly think the game would feel incomplete if I played it without him. Much as I enjoyed their content, I wouldn't say the same about Zaeed or Kasumi in ME2. So yeah, I think we probably got held to ransom a bit on that one. Guess that means I do know where I stand on it

Multiplayer as well turned out to be a bit of a non-issue for me. Now we all know the magic EMS score is 5000 and that it's easily achievable without touching the multiplayer, so it's not being forced on us to get the "best" ending (I'm using that term soooooooo loosely). The other criticism was that it would have taken away resources that should have been directed to making the single-player campaign: I'm wondering, is anybody actually feeling short-changed in that area? Personally I've got no complaints (I don't see how it's conceivable to blame the multiplayer for the ending) but other people's milage may vary.

Action/story/RPG mode was another non-issue for me. The choice was prominent in the demo, but in the game proper I didn't notice it at all - correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it just a single toggle switch in the options screen that was set to RPG mode by default?

What are your thoughts on the above issues? What did you really enjoy about the game? What (other than the ending) did you think could have been done better?

In reverse order:

Seriously, anyone complaining about the fact that you can change how the story is told was just pissin' in the wind. The game starts out defaulted to the standard format, then it gives people the option to focus on combat or focus on story...how is this a bad thing?

Multiplayer is pretty much what I expected it to be: a fun way to mess around with your friends in the ME universe. Though my understanding is that the biggest complaint was that it would take resources away from the rest of the game during development. I don't know if this true or not, but if it is it definitely came out of the ending NO! NO NO NO! We're not talking about that here!

Javik was indeed VERY interesting to take on the Thessia mission. A friend of mine didn't have him at all during his first playthrough but picked him up afterwords, I made certain to tell him "Make sure you take him to Thessia" because you're right: you get a lot of great lore from him in the temple. However, that's all still just extra information. Extra lore. It doesn't add to the story so much as give you a better understanding of the story's history.

Personally I think the Particle Beam alone is probably worth 800 Microsoft Points, but I got him for free without getting the N7 edition so I really can't say much on that matter (apparently a glitch with the GameStop receipt printer...my receipt came with the code printed on it as though I had gotten the N7 edition).

And finally, on the Chobot thing, I honestly couldn't believe people were making a huge deal about that in the first place, and sure enough it turned out to be a complete non-issue. For starters you can tell her to piss off and either not take her along or kick her off your ship at any given time. Her outfit is the exact same dress that FemShep can wear, just a different color, and as you said: you only have like 3 real conversations with her, the rest of the time it's just walking into her room to hear her finishing up a story.

All that said, allow me to bring up another issue: the gay guy down in the shuttle bay. First and foremost I was not offended by him, I didn't mind at all that my shuttle pilot was gay. What I did find odd was the fact that him being gay seems to be his entire defining characteristic. If his "story" had just been him mentioning that he had a husband back on Earth when you first meet the guy, I would have been fine. But it just seemed to me that EVERY conversation you have with him revolves around "By the way, I've got a husband. Did I mention I have a husband? Yeah, I miss my husband. I was just listening to a message from my husband." Like I said, I've got no problem with him being gay, but all I could think about every time I spoke to him was the opening sentence to one of the Family Guy parodies of Star Wars: "A long time ago, before the gays were all up in your face about it..." Yes, we get it, we've all lost loved ones in the war...do we really need to hear about your dead husband EVERY time we talk?

And one last note: every time I pull out the Black Widow I get a super mega nerd-boner.

 

[omega 616]

None of those things where an issue for me, I had more problems with the ship.

Why did they have to change the layout? It's basically the same ship, why move stuff around?

Why oh why did they put that stupid blue scanner in between the war room and the galaxy map room? It just slows your ass down for no reason.

The room with the army resource thing, showing how many people were helping with the war, had a screen that was had different sections marked off all with 50% next to them and it was never used for anything. I was thinking it must be used as like risk, you put all the geth ships in one section to attack from one direction or put the Asari ships defending a planet but it never changed or was used once.

I didn't mind the changes to the ship so much - in fact, I really liked the "half-finished" look of a lot of the spaces and the way it reinforced that the Reapers hit sooner than anyone expected. And the layout didn't change too much, aside from the stuff on the CIC deck that obviously needed to be done to make room for the war room. I like that they kept the original meeting table and just moved it to one side.

I agree the security scanner was a pain in the arse though. I'm assuming it was there to cover a loading delay or something, like the elevators in ME1. Plot-wise it makes sense for it to be there, given that space gives you access to all sorts of need-to-know information that the rank and file crew maybe shouldn't know about but in practical terms yeah, it was irritating.

The only change I liked was the wall of the dead, it's on the same level as the med bay when you first walk out the elevator, it was even kept up to date with Thane and others.

There should be no excuse for that scanner, they can generate entire levels on planets with no loading, so why should one dinky little level need a small pause to load either 90% or 10% of the ships floor? Isn't the engineering floor bigger than the scanner floor?

As for that reporter woman the only way I am pissed at it is, I wanted to answer more questions! You answer two, the screen fades to black with a trailing voice, fades back to Shep with a vocal build up, then the interview is over! I wanted to answer 5 or 6 then end the interview.

If you play through a second time either alter the questions to suit your choices or not allow her on the ship.

 

[Megalodon]

Multiplayer as well turned out to be a bit of a non-issue for me. Now we all know the magic EMS score is 5000 and that it's easily achievable without touching the multiplayer, so it's not being forced on us to get the "best" ending (I'm using that term soooooooo loosely). The other criticism was that it would have taken away resources that should have been directed to making the single-player campaign: I'm wondering, is anybody actually feeling short-changed in that area? Personally I've got no complaints (I don't see how it's conceivable to blame the multiplayer for the ending) but other people's milage may vary.

Is this really true? How does it correspond to the bar of galatic readiness?
I must admit the reduction in affect of mmy assests becuase I wasn't playing multiplayer was kinda annoying, but far from a deal breaker, especially if what you say is true.

On topic, until the ending, almost everything about the game was perfect. Whcih was why the last 10-15 minutes were such a kick in the teeth.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

Diana Allers character or Jessica Chobot tanks. Her voice acting sucks so badly I couldn't even believe it. I was willing to defend her but not after that performance.

you know what, zeel? you are right. 100% right. i never thought i would say that.

 

[Karthik Reddy]

I really wanted to see free roaming at places other than the citadel. Like in ME1 you get side missions and get to roam around in places like Illium, and in ME2 you have Omega.

I hated the ending not because it was sad but it told me nothing about what happened in the future because of all the decisions that I had made prior to that point.