The Ending Was Not ME3's Only Problem

[Vault101]

anip.

yeah..but its not some big revelation that people need to be told a million times over

considering the hype, the expectations and the potential to be so much worse sans ending Id say they did a pretty good job

I mean why not let people like their game? shit theres enough bioware/ME3 hate on the internet to power a reaper...

 

[Vault101]

Honestly I wouldn't be in any way shocked to find out that we're getting Jack/Samara/Jacob/Miranda etc as future DLC squadmates. That would be a classic EA move, although with the current backlash against the game can't see it doing well.

I doubt that..it would clash with the story

plus I think those charachters roles in the story were well done

 

[Emiscary]

Honestly I wouldn't be in any way shocked to find out that we're getting Jack/Samara/Jacob/Miranda etc as future DLC squadmates. That would be a classic EA move, although with the current backlash against the game can't see it doing well.

It's certainly possible. And I invite everyone who's told me that the squad selection in ME3 is fantastic because it consisted of the characters they themselves like best to kindly shut up.

"It's better to have a smaller squad that you're closer to!"

Sure, sounds good. So let me compose my own squad. Claiming that they cut the squad size in half in order to have "deeper relationships" would only hold weight if they were actually concerned with who you were close to. But no. *Everyone* gets saddled with Liara/Garrus/Tali. And since when does deepening existing relationships involve tacking on a new character so 1 dimensional he risks collapsing string theory under the weight of his lameness? And that goes double for Jessica Chobot's cgi puppet.

And why the fuck did I bother paying for the DLC squadmates in ME2 for that matter? They show up once, nod, and walk off stage. That was in no way worth 20 bucks.

 

[pure.Wasted]

NO. STOP. SHUT UP.

weve had this exact thread before

ME3 is not perfect...people know this

I dunno, the common trend is to say it was "perfect up until the last 5 minutes" or that it is just simply perfect. I agree with the OP that this game is being held in regards it doesn't deserve. Despite anyone's feelings of the ending, this game was no perfect 10 which it scored a lot of. (I know reviews don't count for much on these forums but they do count for something in the real world.) The word I see used the most often for this game is perfect even when talking about how bad the end was.

Seeing this game described as "brilliant" is pretty hilarious.

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other ones."

It's like that.

The key question here is whether our ten scale is the same one used by game journalists or not. If it is, if we're using the same scale that gives games like MW3 a nine out of ten, then ten out of ten is the least ME3 deserves. If not, if we're going by a system that is even remotely reasonable by standards outside of the gaming industry, the kind of standards that a respectable film or literary critic might apply, then no, perhaps it only deserves a 6/10. But then, as before, MW3 wouldn't score a 2. The lack of clarity on this issue is, I think, contributing to the problem you see.

Take the "perfect" as short-hand, which I firmly believe it to be. It's not that the game is flawless, it's that in many ways it is as close to flawless as we've come so far. It's easier to say "10/10" than it is to say "6/10, but you have to understand that I absolutely loathe 99% of the video games that have ever come out in the history of video games."

 

[Blade_125]

All good points, but I could ignore them as they are not game breaking.

As for the mulitplayer, it is only there to make more money for EA.

I was playing as a sniper, and saved enough credits to buy the 60k booster pack, and I got a few items, a shot gun and a sub machine gun mod. Not exactly going to do much for my sniper. Of course I am free to spend $1-$3 buying more until I got the items I wanted....

Or I was free to stop playing it, as the MP is pretty bland, and doesn't even do anything.

And this was my biggest question for EA. IF they wanted to drive mroe people to play MP and spend money, when why not make the war assets actually do something. My first playthrough I didn't play M at all, and still had the three "options" at the end. The only thing I didn't get was the 5 seconds with Shepard breathing at the end. I'm sorry, but I am not wasting my time with the MP to get that when I can watching it online. They seriously missed out on making more money by no investing in more options for the war assets.

 

[4173]

Snip

I agree almost with every point you've made OP. Also despite importing my character from ME1 to ME2, then ME2 to ME3- I still get a ton of bullcrap from the Alliance and from the Council.

ME1 Council: "Oh saved us from the Reaper have you? We'll just ignore you completely and debate about politics that only involve the Citedal, nothing further then that."

ME2 Council: "Saved colonies from the Collectors have you? That is cool- wait you blew up a Mass Relay so the Reapers couldn't invade us?! We're stripping you of everything Shepard!!."
(Oh yeah, you need to buy the DLC to know why Shepard was grounded, because in ME3's opening he is on Earth without the player knowing what's going on and why Shepard isn't a Commander anymore.)

Such bullcrap. I may be an all out Paragon type of guy, but I felt like punching the Council at times for being completely useless. They have done nothing for me, if just giving me a title to do whatever I want around the galaxy. That's it while I have to work my butt off saving everyone.

Besides that, ME3 has more flaws then what the OP has addressed so far. For instance, you need to buy very expensive cargo in order to unlock decent stuff on multiplayer. Rather then unlocking everything by leveling up, you just have to spend money on cargo that's always random and for the most part- you don't get what you wanted unless you're willing to pay real microsoft points to achieve stuff.

Overall ME3 is a great game, but why can't I have all my squad mates with me? I did everything in ME2 to save them and when I met them again in ME3, they only became war assets. Ugh, luckily I didn't romance any of them but I did feel sad that Jack couldn't be with me. She was a very interesting character who became a better person thanks to me from the Paragon influence.

.. The biggest flaw is ME3's ending but everyone knows that already. It's probably the worst ending I have ever came across and honestly it left a scar on my heart- which is a very bad thing to do to your customers who've invested over 200 hours of gameplay into a series Bioware.

I was more upset with the Alliance leaders than the Council. Honestly, my first response to their "what do we do sheperd" in the opening was just to shrug and leave the room.


Anyone else get massive cognitive dissonance from the conflicting "band together, life itself is at risk, your grudges are petty right now" stuff in most of the game, with the "Earth is teh awesome, racism is cool" bits.

 

[Vault101]

7. Bioware explained this choice, and to me their logic is sound. Its better to have a few well-developed characters than many shallow ones. Sure, some people will lose their favourites but hey, if you're gonna make an omelete...
.

the presance of Allers does make you wonder though...

but yeah I thourght the previous charachters role's were done REALLY well, they werent all just "oh hi shepard..yeah Im doing great" and then left...a few were but it fit

they did say that femshep gets stiffed on romance opions...I mean I romanced thane and you know that it would come to that (him dying)

. *Everyone* gets saddled with Liara/Garrus/Tali. And since when does deepening existing relationships involve tacking on a new character so 1 dimensional he risks collapsing string theory under the weight of his lameness?

.

James was no Jacob at least

mbaye it would have been nice to have a couple from ME2 on your team, but they couldnt have all of them, it would get too crowded

 

[Vault101]

Anyone else get massive cognitive dissonance from the conflicting "band together, life itself is at risk, your grudges are petty right now" stuff in most of the game, with the "Earth is teh awesome, racism is cool" bits.

where did you get that impression from?

it was frustrating that everyone was off being petty "WE R GONNA FIGHT DA GETH!!! YEEEAH QUARIANS RULE!!!" <- did you guys catch an infection that makes you retarded?

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I agree with the grand majority of those. I fucking DESPISE the new quest log, it doesn't even update itself as you do the quest. And it's so damn general. It'll just be something like "Help Person A do a thing". Then I'll go talk to Person A and they'll tell me to talk to Person B. But if I happen to shelf that quest for a while then come back to it, I'm screwed, because the quest log will STILL say "Help Person A do a thing". So if I forgot the random name they told me (and refuse to tell me again) now I have to scroll through the maps looking for a name that wasn't there before, and just HOPE it's Person B. That sucks.

The Rachni thing sucks as well. It's not even a different model, the Rachni queen looks exactly the same to matter what you did in ME1. (Not a re-skin would've solved the problem) The dialog just changes a little, and that's IT. How the hell did that choice have any consequences whatsoever?


Finally, I don't think combining single and multiplayer modes will EVER be a good idea, and it does bug me that it happened in ME3. I'm pretty sure it has a big effect too, as two of my friends put the exact same amount of time into the game as I did, and we chose the same endings, but they got shitty version and I didn't. The only difference being that I played a few rounds of multiplayer. That also sucks.

ADDENDUM TO THE LIST: This is actually somewhat true for the whole series, but sometimes choices are not explained very well.(NO SHUT UP, NOT THE ENDING, SHUT UP) For example, at the conclusion of the Geth-Quarian bit, I chose to give the Geth the upgrades, because I was under the impression that they would use their advantage to STOP the fighting. I thought Tali was just upset because she had a bit of Geth-racism left in her. So yeah, I was a bit pissed off when the Geth proceeded to fucking WIPE THE QUARIANS OUT. I had no idea that's what I was choosing! And...say it with me now...THAT FUCKING SUCKS.

 

[Scow2]

I mean why not let people like their game? shit theres enough bioware/ME3 hate on the internet to power a reaper...

Oh god... EA and the Bioware Development Team have been indoctrinated! WE'RE ALL DOOMED!

On topic... why did they have to introduce a new bland character instead of let Jacob get another shot at character development?

 

[Vault101]

ADDENDUM TO THE LIST: This is actually somewhat true for the whole series, but sometimes choices are not explained very well.(NO SHUT UP, NOT THE ENDING, SHUT UP) For example, at the conclusion of the Geth-Quarian bit, I chose to give the Geth the upgrades, because I was under the impression that they would use their advantage to STOP the fighting. I thought Tali was just upset because she had a bit of Geth-racism left in her. So yeah, I was a bit pissed off when the Geth proceeded to fucking WIPE THE QUARIANS OUT. I had no idea that's what I was choosing! And...say it with me now...THAT FUCKING SUCKS.

I managed to get the Quarians and Geth to work together in peace..."coom-bi-ya my lord" and all

don't know how I did it...think it was paragon points (not sure if romance tali changes anything)

 

[Vault101]

I mean why not let people like their game? shit theres enough bioware/ME3 hate on the internet to power a reaper...

Oh god... EA and the Bioware Development Team have been indoctrinated! WE'RE ALL DOOMED!

On topic... why did they have to introduce a new bland character instead of let Jacob get another shot at character development?

theyre indoctrinating them...then they'll indoctrinate me!..OH MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

because it would have seemed odd "why is jacob on the squad and not the others?" plus I would call vega bland..at least not jacob levels of bland

 

[pure.Wasted]

Claiming that they cut the squad size in half in order to have "deeper relationships" would only hold weight if they were actually concerned with who you were close to. But no. *Everyone* gets saddled with Liara/Garrus/Tali.

There's a reason for that. *Nearly everyone* loves Liara/Garrus/Tali. There was demand. Bioware supplied.

Does it suck for those who happen to not love Liara/Garrus/Tali? Yes, it does. Was it reasonable for Bioware to not go completely out of their way to appeal to these people? Yes, it was.

It's not going to make your opinion less valid, but it will make it less relevant.

And why the fuck did I bother paying for the DLC squadmates in ME2 for that matter? They show up once, nod, and walk off stage. That was in no way worth 20 bucks.

You paid for them in ME2... to have them in ME2? Doesn't seem very complicated. Unless the DLC explicitly said "get a crapton of new content in ME3 that no one else will have access to!" - which I don't believe it did - everything you got from them in ME3 was a flat-out bonus.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

and who on Earth was judging ME3 to be "objectively perfect" that made you so mad as to post this? Just like all the other threads you seem to be straining to set yourself apart from, there's nothing you've said here that hasn't already been said quite a few times before now. Yes, people talk about the ending the most because it was the thing that stuck in their minds the most. I don't think anybody seriously claimed that everything else was perfect. Damn close, and still way above average, but not perfect.

May I ask what in this world is?

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Now then, here are the main reasons that ME3 (while still being a good game all things considered) does not deserve to be rated as objectively perfect:

Whooa there nelly, hang on a minute, ein minuten bitte, who the hell is saying ME3 is objectively perfect? I've never heard anyone say that, and only a few minor review sites have given it 10/10 scores, according to metacritic, which happens with most major AAA games.

Now I do think its an excellent game, and it's going to be difficult not to consider it my game of the year despite it's problems. I do agree with some of your points though.

But there's so many threads lately about Mass Effect 3 filled with people whinging about it, and we've seen all these same points already. There's nothing new here.

 

[AlmostEvil664]

10/10 doesn't mean perfect, because nothing's perfect. 10/10 means fantastic and amazing but not flawless. My biggest complaint about the game is that nothing that you do changes the endgame. Not the "ending" options (which I consider pretty abysmal) but I would have liked to have seen the fight for Earth be more of a mission hub, to see your war assets at work, to have the volus bombers save me from a reaper heavy, or to have to help the drell infiltrate some sort of reaper complex or anything really to have my actions or lack thereof affect the ending in some way other that having Shepard draw a breath at the end.

I was also kind of disappointed that your ME2 team, the one that you carefully built, did favours for in order for them to be willing and able to follow you into hell without distractions IMMEDIATELY become distracted upon returning from hell.

 

[AD-Stu]

and I dont think the decision to court martial shepard in ME3 was the councils, rather alliance, beside the mass relay thing working with cerberus might have been reason enough for a court martial (and I doubt they would have really punished shepard anyway)

At the start of ME3 Shepard has been grounded for working with Cerberus - destroying a mass relay and killing hundreds of thousands of batarians is just something they add on top of that if your imported character played the Arrival DLC.

If you didn't import a save that played the DLC, the game assumes it was a team of Alliance operatives that blew up the relay, not Shepard.

As for all the other points in the OP, I agree with most of them. The quest log was annoying as hell, particularly since they'd gotten it right in the previous two games, there were some visual bugs and I was definitely disappointed by how little the rachni figured into the grand scheme of things. None of them bothered me that much though, and they're inconsequential blips compared to the ending snafu