Ditto. The single player story is epic but multiplayer still sucks. What blows is that it looks like you have to do the multiplayer to build up your Galactic Readiness level for the final fight. And that is utter bullshit.
from what ive heard you can build it up some in multiplayer but you can beat the game without having to.
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
And I'd reap the ass of every Asari in the galaxy!
i'll start with samara.
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard
....I dunno. The feel just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe I'm being unfair, but I wish it were more like ME2's. It feels like it's trying to be an action game while still trying to retain it's RPG qualities--and failing.
None of the characters are likable so far. The script is pissing me off. The story.....*sigh* It's just off to a bad start. We'll see what happens.
Why on earth did I bother myself with trying to save the original crew in ME2 just to get stuck with an entirely new and uninteresting crew that I am not compelled in the least to interact with. Ashley and Lt "Loco musclehead" James have all the intrique of a door knob--and don't even get me started on Williams' ridiculous dramatic gazes in Shepherd's direction. Just allow me to avoid these individuals altogether if you don't mind....You do? Crap.
Oh look, the Protheans had an ace up their sleeve that we can now obsess over and *SHOCK* the Illusive Man has turned on Shepherd! Jebus, could they not have at least tried to be original.
I'm kinda regretting doing the Shadow Broker storyline in ME2 now. T'Soni and her Broker status have only served to make her more irritating it seemed. Then again, knowing the track record for Bioware so far, they probably just force her character in the game regardless of whether or not I cared about helping her in the previous game.
Why do they feel they need to tokenly change the Normandy's layout? Seriously, it's not even remotely intuitive the way it's set up. It's a friggin' eyesore with disastrous lighting.
Okay, so...Wait. Normandy SR2 is an Alliance ship now? Why? Because the sequel says so? For all intents and purposes, if it doesn't belong to Illusive Man any longer, then Shepherd has ownership. What was the point of allowing Shepherd to bad mouth the Alliance in ME2 if this installment was just going to make concessions for it anyway?
Oh FFS--I'm not even allowed to access all the aspects of the main story without multiplayer!? I don't LIKE multiplayer. Why in the hell is EA forcing me to use it? Oh, that's right. DRM. Peachy.
And of course we have the "DLC:" i.e. a piece of the original full game that they sliced up into a parcel to serve separately and call it an add on.
ME3 just seems to be a cash in on the success of the previous two games. Bioware's started taking out the RPG elements in ME2 and further hacked them out in this one. Less chances to choose your path. Fewer side missions. Less wandering around and interacting with the environment and characters. You're put more on a path in this game than anything else. The missions are shorter and repetitive. A lot of the plot points seem trite and contrived.
Also, I haven't tried multiplayer yet (because I generally don't like that function); but it seems I need to start now since I'm already at the final battle. First, what the fuck? I spent about two weeks on the first two games (round about the fifty hour mark, more or less, without DLC). A little over thirty hours in, with the From Ashes DLC; and I'm ready for the big battle. I call bullshit. Secondly, though I'm glad there is some more RPG elements that, from what I've read, comes with the multiplayer (choose an alien race and class), I would have had more fun doing that shit in game. Let me take over Anderson as he leads the Earth resistance. I could play Grunt as he fights to defend Krogan and Turian space, Kirrahe in Salarian space, Samara in Asari. It's bullshit to shoehorn in multiplayer.
All in all, I've become quite disappointed in this game.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
I think the biggest offense I take from ME3 is that I can see exactly where and why it diverged so much from the premise of ME2. While the previous game was already making an effort to include more shooter elements as a means of complementing the RPG aspects, you could tell they were trying not to cross an invisible threshold that ME3 most certainly has. The storyline, while adopting a run/gun/cover approach, still allowed for character building, which was accomodated by the leeway of being in Cerberus employment. It's clear that they were going to try and use the precedent established by Shepherd's association with Illusive Man to either keep her as a Cerberus operative or give her a springboard from which to obtain freelance status. This would allow the third game to have a similar approach in terms of story and character building even though it was definitely going to have a faster pace what with the Reapers' arrival.
However, EA steps in and says, "Yeeeeaaahhh--we're gonna have to ask you to make this a much more shooter-centric game with a heavy multiplayer element. So if you could just find the time to do that, that'd be greeeeeat. Okay?"
No. Not okay. In light of this development, Bioware would have to completely defeat the purpose of the second game and make massive retcons to accomodate ME3 "developments." Further, there has to be a more complex hand to hand system that's reminescent of twitch gameplay--which makes attempting to include RPG elements meaningless.
So yeah. Bioware definitely has blame here. But EA is the biggest contributor to its mediocrity.
I think the biggest offense I take from ME3 is that I can see exactly where and why it diverged so much from the premise of ME2. While the previous game was already making an effort to include more shooter elements as a means of complementing the RPG aspects, you could tell they were trying not to cross an invisible threshold that ME3 most certainly has. The storyline, while adopting a run/gun/cover approach, still allowed for character building, which was accomodated by the leeway of being in Cerberus employment. It's clear that they were going to try and use the precedent established by Shepherd's association with Illusive Man to either keep her as a Cerberus operative or give her a springboard from which to obtain freelance status. This would allow the third game to have a similar approach in terms of story and character building even though it was definitely going to have a faster pace what with the Reapers' arrival.
However, EA steps in and says, "Yeeeeaaahhh--we're gonna have to ask you to make this a much more shooter-centric game with a heavy multiplayer element. So if you could just find the time to do that, that'd be greeeeeat. Okay?"
No. Not okay. In light of this development, Bioware would have to completely defeat the purpose of the second game and make massive retcons to accommodate ME3 "developments." Further, there has to be a more complex hand to hand system that's reminiscent of twitch gameplay--which makes attempting to include RPG elements meaningless.
So yeah. Bioware definitely has blame here. But EA is the biggest contributor to its mediocrity.
November 6th, 2012: Americas new Independence Day.
How exactly did Cerberus go from being a shadow organization with isolated cells and agents to being a full blown army with enough resources to raid the Citadel?
Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
The Illusive Man was established as a human-sentiments activist/terrorist and an information broker. Not a fucking warlord.
Mass Effect was a boring pile of wank, so I'm not surprised that Mass Effect 3 sucks as well.
Frame rate drops (stuttering, whatever) during battles, terrible load times, easy as fuck even on the "toughest" difficulty, dumbfuck teammates that walked directly in front of you when you're trying to shoot, cruising all over the galaxy just to talk to some asshole about a missing artifact (or whatever that nonsense was).
How exactly did Cerberus go from being a shadow organization with isolated cells and agents to being a full blown army with enough resources to raid the Citadel?
Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
The Illusive Man was established as a human-sentiments activist/terrorist and an information broker. Not a fucking warlord.
Yeah that pissed me off! The Shepherd I started the game with was a full blown "fuck the Alliance with Cerberus' metal dildo" Renegade, but now I'm allies with them again? And I'm anti-Cerberus? If there was shit in the books that they're using as game canon then why bother giving us the choices or allowing game imports?
I'm pretty sure though that they knew that from the start. It's obviously a marketing tactic for a fourth fucking Mass Effect game.
That's right fuckers. We just got served a healthy dose of Mass Effect: The New and Improved Formula. Then, after EA's reaped the benefits of the outrage, we get to suck their tits dry of Mass Effect: Classic.
Oh....Oh dear lord....Oh for fuck's sake. Insult to motherfucking injury. The parting message at the end of the game:
"Commander Shepard has become a legend by ending the Reaper threat. Now you can continue to build that legend through further gameplay and downloadable content."
No more Fountainheads. No more Illiads. No more Crime and Punishments. No more Citizen Kanes. No more Fight Clubs.
From now on, all visual and literary media is subject to serialization and financial investments. Every story--beginning, middle, and end--will be micromanaged. The state of each development and plot twist will only play out depending upon approval of a production force that acts solely on fiduciary grounds. Hollywood, comicbooks, and now videogames. Mediocrity prevails in the name of excessive milking.
I suppose it was inevitable. But I didn't want to believe it.
This is the reason why the Mayans stopped their calendar on 2012. It is the year in which the principle behind Pariah's Seal of Disapproval will finally be broken.
Honestly, the overall game was good. Cerberus's flip to full evil was explained and my shepherd sacrificed his life to save the galaxy like I wanted but they fucked up the execution of the finale. There should have been 3 choices with options based on your Effective Military Force and Paragon/Renegade score.
First off, change Crucible from a kid with a speech impediment to an VI orb. Shepherd is the key to stopping the Reapers so he is the Crucible. Based on how you played the game...
1. FAILURE OPTION - low of p/r score, low ems:
Anderson dies. Shepherd is told the only way to stop the Reapers is to attempt to have his consciousness uploaded to the Reapers as a virus to overwrite their programming. The attempt fails, Shepherd virus is deleted and we're given a cut scene of Earth and the resistance being wiped out.
2. 3500-4000 EMF, up to 75% P/R score:
A) Paragon ending. Anderson dies. Shepherd sacrifices himself to control the Reapers, succeeds. Flies the Reapers and Citadel into the sun to end the cycle once and for all. he dies.
B. Renegade. Anderson dies. Shepherd destroys the Citadel, the resulting emp wipes out the Reapers, causes the mass effect relays to self destruct, and kills all life in the Sol system and any solar system that has a relay. He dies.
3. Over 5000 EMS, 75-100% P/R
A. Paragon. Anderson lives. Shepherd takes control of the Reapers and shuts them down allowing the fleets to blow them to fuck. He lives. Happy ending for all.
B. Renegade. Anderson lives. Shepherd takes control of the Reapers and uses them to wipe out all the aliens. Anderson tries to stop him but hold on, The Illusive Man is alive! He kills Anderson, he and shepherd team up to make humanity the dominant life in the galaxy, mirroring the Protheans.
Everything--EVERYTHING is eligible to become DLC. That is the EA mentality. And gamers will eat it up because they need their fix.
If I had the time and resources, I'd organize a class action lawsuit against EA over DLC for false advertising.
Quote:
Honestly, the overall game was good. Cerberus's flip to full evil was explained
Sure, they made an exit clause after the fact, but it didn't really make sense. Just because they made sure to write it off doesn't mean it was good writing. It was still a gargantuan departure from Mass Effect 2--which had an overall better experience albeit with less developed mechanics than the third game.
Then there's all the other shit they tried to write off with just a few lines: Shepherd's entire Cerberus crew was either against her or just a strategic plant (which completely ignores the conversations you could listen to throughout the ship), the Human reaper and its form of reproduction, the 'crafting your own future' business, or the reapers characterizing themselves as gods.
I can admit the handling and gamplay was fun--even if it's still less than an RPG--but they marketed this game almost entirely with its story in mind. Its too prevalent to ignore.
Quote:
and my shepherd sacrificed his life to save the galaxy like I wanted but they fucked up the execution of the finale.
He's not dead. If you get the super awesome-o ending, then he survives--which is probably why your friends get stranded on some planet. If and when Mass Effect 4 rolls out, it's probably going to revolve around Shepherd coming back and tracking them down.
Shepherd's entire Cerberus crew was either against her or just a strategic plant
That's the second time you've used that. You've been playing Fem-Shep this whole time, haven't you? Honestly, I'm not surprised that would be your chosen surrogate in a game where your character has sex.
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
Finally the rule of "pariah hates it. It must be good." has met its exception.
I never thought it could be but...he's right damnit!
big_pimp_tim-made it cool to roll in the first damn place! Mon Jun 11 2007 09:27 PM-harley finally rolled with me "I'm working with him...he's young but, there is much potential. He can apprentice with me and then he's yours for final training. He will remember the face of his father...
Some day, Knutreturns just may be the greatest of us all...."-THE bastard