Zero Punctuation: Mass Effect 3

[boag]

Well I'm surprised about the fact that he didn't mention that not playing MP directly affects you in SP.

It doesnt, you get the same shitty endings if you play MP or not.

 

[Jimbo1212]

Sounds about right. The combat did become tedious, and the ending was bad for a bioware game, but not as dire as some endings eg. Deus Ex: HR.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

That was surprisingly...neutral. Seriously, it felt weird.

I miss the Mako too. It made the galaxy feel big.

 

[J Tyran]

Hmm I am surprised that the people who disliked this episode of ZP have not claimed that Yahtzee is indoctrinated or something.

 

[C14N]

I liked the ending but then in the last few years I've become a lot more into film than games and I've gotten quite used to writers expecting me to discuss and figure out what actually happened. Sure, I was a bit frustrated at the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey when I saw it first, but it really starts to grow on you. There are plenty of terrific movies out there that provide far less "closure" than Mass Effect 3 did so I was pretty surprised at all the fuss, although I was also jaded enough not to really expect your Paragon/Renegade choices to make much of a difference (it never really did before so I wasn't going to imagine it starting for the last 10 minutes).

I was just glad we didn't end up with a boring "and then Shepard blew up all the Reapers and everyone was friends and they all survived and lived happily ever after".

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Hmm I am surprised that the people who disliked this episode of ZP have not claimed that Yahtzee is indoctrinated or something.

The only way to properly dislike a ZP episode is if it isn't funny. I think we are all aware that Yahtzee's reviews are just his personal opinion on the worst aspects of the game, and most of the time people don't even agree with him. But that's not the point of his videos. His videos are entertaining regardless of differences of opinion.

 

[PinkiePyro]

I now demand someone make a game that has shrew cannons!

 

[Petromir]

Well I'm surprised about the fact that he didn't mention that not playing MP directly affects you in SP.

not really, the multiplayer is just an "alternative"
the war assets room has two meters exactly for that
war assets that you collect in the game and galactic readiness for your multiplayer stats basically do the same
so yeah, it's not necessary to play the MP, but it helps

Only helps if your choices sucked

Not done any MP (50% galactic readiness) and I've got so much strength I could actually afford to go under the min and still be over the max.

THey Don't really do the same thing. the MP stat modifies the SP stat to get the combined stat that matters represented by the green bar.

No matter how much MP you do, the SP will limit whether you can get the max, Doing no MP cannot prevent a SP campaign getting to the max.

 

[WanderingFool]

ZP and Mass Effect 3? Well, Escapist, say good by to your servers because this will cause some trouble.

Doomsday 2012 comes early to the Escapist...

I missed the Mako. Once you got the hang of it's counter-intuitive controls, it was a laugh. I liked the pioneer feeling of being on a world that was nearly empty or even never visited by humans before.

I liked the Mako too. Especially when riding on the moon.
I remember thinking "I'm driving on the mooooon!"
It was awesome.

I think if they fixed up the combat and maybe had a system of weapons and armor like ME3, Mass Effect 1 could have been GotY for the year it came out, and for the next three years fallowing.

 

[The Great JT]

I'm pissed with the ending because it gives no closure to anyone you meet other than Shepard, Yahtzee. That's it. Everything up to the last conversation with Admiral Keith David I have absolutely no problems with.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Ha! He admits it. He actually liked the driving sections in ME1!!

 

[AbstractStream]

Ah, I was waiting for this. I needed this laugh about ME3.

Captcha: Face the music.

I feel like captcha has been reading my mind lately.

 

[Limecake]

I liked the Mako too! In fact, to this day, I still can't understand what everyone was whining about. It's not any harder to control than any other vehicle in any other game that doesn't have a huge emphasis on driving. And there was only one planet where the terrain was so messed up that it was a pain to actually drive the Mako to where you needed to go, and that's not really the Mako's fault.

I too liked it, when I was saving salarian scientists from cerberus(or geth or whatever it was back then) it actually felt like I was there saving them I also really didn't mind collecting resources, it was step down but at least it was something.

I never had trouble controlling it, in fact after I had played through the first couple times I would actively try to flip the mako on planets (only succeeded twice) by going down a steep hill and hitting my rocket boosters

Nope, they took it away again. Really BioWare? Really? And the excuse is that it was away being retrofitted to get more armor and probably got blown up in the Reaper attack? Okay, fine, but surely you could have had us pick up a different vehicle somewhere. Instead we get this annoying scan from the Normandy where you push the left trigger one time and before you even have a chance to push it a second time, a million Reapers spawn to try and rape you. Lovely.

ehh, I can't really fault bioware for not including a vehicle section. Maybe they actually are listening to people because more often than not I hear complaints about vehicle sections and Quick time events.

and at least there is only one quick time event I've seen in combat.

Oh yeah, and I can't forget about how you HAVE to play the awful, terrible, dreadful, shitty multiplayer if you want the super best ending which contains an extra 9 second cutscene! Hurray! And that the MP doesn't let you purchase the upgrades you want, but instead makes you buy these stupid packs that give you things randomly and gives you tons of junk you don't need. Then they have the nerve to ask for REAL MONEY to buy these stupid things, so in your desperation to get something good so you won't have to take on Banshees with a water pistol anymore, you can spend real money to get lots of packs very quickly and still get no useful upgrades.

This doesn't really affect me since I really really enjoy the multiplayer, it gives a nice survival mode that can be fairly simple or incredibly difficult. It really helps that my little brother and a bunch of my friends are into the multiplayer though, killing brutes and banshee's are a lot more fun with your friends around.

I also think the packs need to be randomized, if not I would have already maxed out my black widow sniper with all the mods and would be 3-shotting brutes on silver. the drop system is only in place to keep people playing.

The 'need' to play multiplayer is where I think a lot of the hate is coming from. multiplayer isn't for everybody (especially those without live Gold) and would have bugged me if I had run out of time for xbox live.

No mention of Marauder Shields?!

Marauder Shields is easily the worst meme ever conceived. I'd rather hear about how Mass Effect 3 had a good ending but then it took an arrow to the knee than hear any more crap about "Marauder Shields".

Am I missing something? I have never noticed anything strange about marauder shields, although I usually play multiplayer and my black widow will take down most of them with 2 shots.

Edit: Ah, just looked it up. I thought it would have been something entertaining

 

[Abedeus]

Mass Effect 3

This week, Zero Punctuation review Mass Effect 3.

Watch Video

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on the next-to-last sequence, since it kind of rides that line between "taking control away" and "putting meaningful limitations on control."

Spoiler: I'm talking specifically about...

...when Shephard gets blasted, wakes up, and staggers toward the transport beam.

To me, best moment of the series. It was the first time I really felt that this whole "save the universe" business was really a challenge to Shepard. It was the only time during the whole ending sequence that I really felt any true sense of peril. I wish the ending had lived up to that lead-in.

You didn't find it illogical that he not only survived, but managed to walk and talk just fine after being hit by a stream of molten metal traveling at a fraction of the speed of light? Same stream of molten metal that can pierce through a dreadnought and obliterate 3 ships in one blow?

 

[DoomBlackDragon]

The only reassion he did not hate the ending was because he did not do all the side mission. How Bioware made the game sound. It would change and evolve based on your actions. Kinda like Crono triggers. The missions failing as a nice touch. Which game look like it was heading that way. Sadly no matter what your actions where the game was still on it semi rail shooter action. Everything good about the game was just thrown in the nearst air lock and fired out into deep space including Shepard.

The controlls where just plan garbage. The new stuff like turn around cover, flips and rolling from cover to cover was a good idea. It just did not work so well. Not to forget how the enemy AI got a massive buff while your allie got nerfed. I was shocked how my squad mates would ether charge forward and give a turret a hug. Run up and eat a gernade or just run away into the room we just left. Leaving me standind alone to fight all the enemies.

I am sure alot of people where expecting the game to go back to old school story writing bioware been know for. Just like in the good old days when the made good game like Baldur's gate 1 and 2. Sadly ever sence they sold out to EA. Their quality has started to slide down a rocky mountain super fast.

I not sure what game is worse DA2 or ME3. Even ToR was just WoW with lightsabers.

I hope more poeple decide not to buy another bioware game. I know I will never buy anything with a bioware logo on it.

 

[endtherapture]

I say all trilogy bashing is proven wrong simply by mentioning Toy Story, but outside of that if it's really so near impossibly hard to keep up a series past the first story, how do you explain TV shows, comics, and books then?

Lord of the Rings. The second film was the worst, first the best overall, and the third was the most emotional.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

LoL good one although I'm left stumped on how it could of been worse? I suppose instead of a poor Deus EX ending it could a poor Kane & Lynch ending although that still might have been better..

 

[Andaxay]

Haha, loved the loofah in the shower bit. I've not played ME3 and don't plan to, but I'm glad he didn't go insane over the ending. He seemed to enjoy it anyway, which is more than most games he reviews, haha.

 

[Erttheking]

I wonder if this will be the first time on ZP that nobody tries to defend the game...

I get the feeling there isn't going to be a lot of lost love over this myself...though frankly I'm surprised he didn't go into the ending more, he went completely batshit about samus being girled up in Other M. Seriously he has this bit juicy target and he just prattles on about cover based shooting and the silly but acceptable story sections.