[Joanne]

Yay, got past that fight. That was a strange place to have a renegade interrupt though, which was a nice one - but I don't understand why they didn't just make it a cut scene.

Anyway, I have a spoiler question - Just about to start the

Spoiler

Earth sequence. I've gotten enough hints about how this can end, so I have to pick my crew.  Does whoever I take end up dead, even if I have a good effectiveness score? I don't mind the spoiler, I've decided to take Javik, but I dithering over the second choice.

[Robert Jr]

Yay, got past that fight. That was a strange place to have a renegade interrupt though, which was a nice one - but I don't understand why they didn't just make it a cut scene.

Anyway, I have a spoiler question - Just about to start the

Spoiler

Earth sequence. I've gotten enough hints about how this can end, so I have to pick my crew.  Does whoever I take end up dead, even if I have a good effectiveness score? I don't mind the spoiler, I've decided to take Javik, but I dithering over the second choice.

Spoiler

Well they don't really go into any detail on that at the end. At one point it seems like your entire squad gets wiped out and then during the ending cutscene there is reason to believe some if not all of them live. Which has caused some controversy over the ending.

[LuBiE LoU]

I always say I am going to play different, but most of the time, I make the same choices. Other than character gender and class, which I have mixed up. The only class I never played was Soldier.

I'm exactly the same. Its so frustrating. I always try for a renegade player but can't stand being an ass to everyone so generally 'nice up' and end up being paragon. And I get really sick of the male Shep voice acting so end up playing female...

[NAkeshIa BENNETT]

Yay, got past that fight. That was a strange place to have a renegade interrupt though, which was a nice one - but I don't understand why they didn't just make it a cut scene.

Anyway, I have a spoiler question - Just about to start the

Spoiler

Earth sequence. I've gotten enough hints about how this can end, so I have to pick my crew.  Does whoever I take end up dead, even if I have a good effectiveness score? I don't mind the spoiler, I've decided to take Javik, but I dithering over the second choice.

Spoiler

I wouldn't say so. The ending is so discombobulated that none of it really makes a lot of sense. Like the fact that you get a radio transmission basically saying that it appears that everyone making that final push dies, but there you are picking yourself up off the ground slowly. Not only that, but at that prior point in the game, you don't really HAVE a team you are working with.

Now that I've had some time to sleep on it, the more dissatisfied I am with the ending.

For me, it comes down to a few little points:

Spoiler

1- For some reason, you survive a blast that disintegrates your armor so you are wearing your regular clothes.
2- There is no reason given as to why the Normandy is running from the mass relay blast.
3- There is no reason given as to why members of your squad, who you clearly can talk to on earth to say your goodbyes like in DA2, are suddenly on the Normandy as it is fleeing.

As I see it, if you threw in two or three little cut scenes in all that to explain those, it'd easily smooth the ending out to be MUCH more satisfactory.

[Jade Barnes-Mackey]

Hmm. Okay. Finished. I have to say I am sad the series is over. On balance, I really enjoyed all three games. This one was the most flawed in some ways tho, story-wise. Spoileriffic comments and question:
Comments:

Spoiler

I had three choices at the end. I chose the one that made the most sense for the character I had taken through two other games, who was all about allowing people to be what they were, and believed that sentient machines had the right to live as well. Not sure what I think about the ending. I didn't hate it with the heat of a 1000 suns like some people did, but I didn't love it either. I chose Synthesis. I'm not bothered about the relays. If the various races understood the technology, they can probably figure it out again, though that might take many generations for the shorter-lived races. But, on the other hand, if they are part synthetic now, maybe they will be able to figure out stuff more easily. It was satisfying to shoot the Illusive Man, of course. And I liked that they gave him a great last line.

But I guess Shepard is dead, which is a bummer. But I suppose if they one day want to continue it (doubtful), the ambiguity means she (or he) could come back in some form. In my game, her last memories were of Joker, Anderson and last Kaidan, who she romanced in 1, stayed true to in 2 and was with in 3, so that was nice.

I agree, I sort of didn't understand how the Normandy was outrunning the blastwave, and then at the end Joker and EDI came out - Joker had green tracking on him, as did EDI, so I assume that was genetic code re-writing itself. The last person to come out was Kaidan, so that was WTF... I had him and Garrus with me at the end, because that was how I ended ME1, with those two. So after the credits, there is that little scene with the grandfather and a child, talking about The Shepard, so I wondered if the Normandy stuff was just a mythical part of the story.

I am glad they gave me a chance to say good-bye to characters, both my current crew and the ME2 folks. I was amused, the only one I couldn't find was Kaidan, and he was the one that probably had the sappiest dialog too.

Questions:

Spoiler

The last scene my female Shepard had with Liara (she never romanced her or anything, but was always really nice to her.) It gave me the distinct impression that Liara did a little Asari DNA swap thing they say they do to mate.  Was that the general idea?

For the ending, which saved Earth and everything else, there are all sorts of races on and near earth... so I do kind of like the idea of society rebuilding itself from all these mixed races. (Because the space-faring races aren't going to be able to make it back to their home worlds anytime soon without the relays.) Do you think that was the idea of bringing them all together?  Fun times on earth. Heh. Oh well, plenty of people to fill the gaping holes in the population.

[Lynne Hinton]

Spoiler

I agree, I sort of didn't understand how the Normandy was outrunning the blastwave, and then at the end Joker and EDI came out - Joker had green tracking on him, as did EDI, so I assume that was genetic code re-writing itself. The last person to come out was Kaidan, so that was WTF... I had him and Garrus with me at the end, because that was how I ended ME1, with those two.

Spoiler

Yeah, I found that scene a bit odd, too. I destroyed the Reapers (and Geth/EDI ), and the three people who came out were Joker, Ashley, and Liara (my romance). Who, again, should be smeared across the London pavement since I took her on the final attack. I agree, WTF?


The "tell me another story of the Shepard!" bit at the end is kind of a creative way to let people still be able to play more DLC without having to start a new game, while still having a pretty definitive "end" to the game.

Questions:

Spoiler

The last scene my female Shepard had with Liara (she never romanced her or anything, but was always really nice to her.) It gave me the distinct impression that Liara did a little Asari DNA swap thing they say they do to mate. Was that the general idea?

Spoiler

Ah, interesting. I had that scene, too, but thought it was due to Liara being my romance. I had a similar thought as you.... which made me even more sad at the idea that she bought it during our charge for the teleporter.

[Jennifer May]

I really don't wanna

Spoiler

cry at the end of this game... I want to go "aha! I did it! We are safe now!" not "I... I love you tali, forgive me but I have to kill myself to save you!!! GRAAA!!! (shep dies)"

[Sarah Knight]

Spoiler

I really don't wanna cry at the end of this game... I want to go "aha! I did it! We are safe now!" not "I... I love you tali, forgive me but I have to kill myself to save you!!! GRAAA!!! (shep dies)"

Spoiler that [censored].

[Blackdrak]

Spoiler that [censored].

Seconded. If I'd read that before completing the game I'd have been very angry.

[MISS KEEP UR]

Okay, I'm enjoying ME3 a lot more than I expected to. The combat is actually kind of compelling, even though there are waves, you can't control your character properly, and the level design is off. Three more good characters have appeared -- the Admiral, Samantha Traynor and

Spoiler

EDI (quite surprised I like her).

Along with Liara, they carry a large chunk of the game (i.e. character interaction) for me. The story has tugged at the SAD! part of my brain a few times.
I really like the Normandy and the Citadel. They feel like properly fleshed out areas. Something does still feel wrong about them, but I can't put my finger on it yet; still, the wrongness isn't enough of an issue that it turns me off of the rightness. Most other locations?
I like the new hoarding mini-game, kind of. I think they could have done a bit more with it, but it's good enough. I'm sad to see the terminal hacking gone, though. That was a well-designed mini-game.

Question: Miranda. She's voiced by a different person than in ME2, yes?

[Laura-Lee Gerwing]

Question: Miranda. She's voiced by a different person than in ME2, yes?

I don't know about Miranda, but Mordin definitely is.

[Mariaa EM.]

I don't know about Miranda, but Mordin definitely is.

Miranda was again voice by Yvonne Strahovski and Mordin was voiced by a different actor according to the wiki. It was pretty close, whoever it was.

I am still feeling a bit... I dunno, sad about finishing the game/story. It was a really good run, across three games - quite an accomplishment. We can pick apart flaws and stuff until the cows come home, but I gotta hand it to them for the three game-story arc. It was pretty solid and a lot of fun. I'm just not sure how I feel about the ending.

Spoiler

I think part of it is that I am kind of bummed saying "goodbye" to characters I liked. But I think the bigger issue is even though I chose a "good" ending in keeping with my character, I didn't feel a sense of victory, like I did at the end of 1 and 2.

This whole third game had a very elegiac and sad tone to it.

[Jaki Birch]

Miranda was again voice by Yvonne Strahovski and Mordin was voiced by a different actor according to the wiki. It was pretty close, whoever it was.

I knew about Mordin but it didn't even "click" for me while I was interacting with the character. Miranda sounds totally different. She wasn't so English in ME2, was she? I remember a strictly American accent.

[Natasha Biss]

Well, finished my Soldier Shepard, or ignore-enemy-fire-and-fill-it-with-a-full-clip-of-the-Revenant Shepard (i love that gun ), the "blue" ending this time. I have to say, the diffrences between it and the "green" ending were pretty much non-existant. So i think i'll be considering them the " " feature of ME3 from now on. (Other such features include DA2's dungeon recycling, Oblivion's level scaling, and Skyrim user interface )

Anyway, went all the way back ME1 to play my Infiltrator Renegade. Problem is i always fail to play Renegade. So far so good, but i only left the Citadel No doubt Feros will again fill that pesky Paragon bar

Spoiler

I just can't kill all those colonists, and there's no neutral option However, i can let the hostages die at Bring Down the Sky

[Laura Simmonds]

I knew about Mordin but it didn't even "click" for me while I was interacting with the character. Miranda sounds totally different. She wasn't so English in ME2, was she? I remember a strictly American accent.

Pretty sure the actress is either Aussie or Kiwi. She's certainly never sounded American or English to me at all...

[Penny Flame]

I just took out the last two posts - as I did in the prior thread - just really really tired of people trying to derail the thread to yet again [censored] about EA and/or Bioware, publicity, developers svck and whatnot. Start your own thread if you want to. This is a discussion about the game itself. Thanks.

Back to the general game discussion.

Strahovski is Australian, irrc.

I am still thinking about the ending, and... well... the more I think about it, the less it hangs together. Spoilerrific ending stuff, read at your own risk.

Spoiler

The catalyst is all "we do this to keep the non-organics from taking over", but... at this point in time of the various races history, other than the Geth, they appear to be in no danger of AIs taking over the world. And the Geth and Quarian conflict could have got resolved at some point, except the freaking reaper tech corrupted a bunch of Geth, thus making them more dangerous. The scene in the Geth collective tells you the Geth retreated as the Quarian's left their homeworld 300 years earlier. They were not inclined to fight. Legion gains individuality and free will, as does EDI. So machines are basically "humanizing" themselves and liable to make the same good and bad decisions as any organic thinking race.
Not only that, the reapers supposedly deliberately left technology for races to find, so they force the chaos to grow by uplifting civilizations before they might otherwise find anything and then come in and are all "we're just cleaning up. You, race/civilization over there-you are too stupid yet for us to bother with, carry on. When you get smarter, we'll be baaaack!"
I really hope the ending was not "all a dream" - was Shepard just being processed into the reapers and the cycle continues? I don't know. Guess I liked the game, am a bit gobsmacked and not at all sure how I feel about the ending and will just have to leave it at that.

[kasia]

I just took out the last two posts - as I did in the prior thread - just really really tired of people trying to derail the thread to yet again [censored] about EA and/or Bioware, publicity, developers svck and whatnot. Start your own thread if you want to. This is a discussion about the game itself. Thanks.

Back to the general game discussion.

Strahovski is Australian, irrc.

I am still thinking about the ending, and... well... the more I think about it, the less it hangs together. Spoilerrific ending stuff, read at your own risk.

Spoiler

The catalyst is all "we do this to keep the non-organics from taking over", but... at this point in time of the various races history, other than the Geth, they appear to be in no danger of AIs taking over the world. And the Geth and Quarian conflict could have got resolved at some point, except the freaking reaper tech corrupted a bunch of Geth, thus making them more dangerous. The scene in the Geth collective tells you the Geth retreated as the Quarian's left their homeworld 300 years earlier. They were not inclined to fight. Legion gains individuality and free will, as does EDI. So machines are basically "humanizing" themselves and liable to make the same good and bad decisions as any organic thinking race.
Not only that, the reapers supposedly deliberately left technology for races to find, so they force the chaos to grow by uplifting civilizations before they might otherwise find anything and then come in and are all "we're just cleaning up. You, race/civilization over there-you are too stupid yet for us to bother with, carry on. When you get smarter, we'll be baaaack!"
I really hope the ending was not "all a dream" - was Shepard just being processed into the reapers and the cycle continues? I don't know. Guess I liked the game, am a bit gobsmacked and not at all sure how I feel about the ending and will just have to leave it at that.

Spoiler

I see that the fact of the inevitable starvation and of course death, of the dexrto-protein eaters (ie.Turains and Quarians). Since there is nothing that they can actually eat on Earth, or for probably that matter, anything in the Local Cluster - all they have is what they brought with them. I can see that leading to cannibalism, or otherwise eating of the other race. Makes you wonder if turian tastes like chicken....

[Tammie Flint]

I just took out the last two posts - as I did in the prior thread - just really really tired of people trying to derail the thread to yet again [censored] about EA and/or Bioware, publicity, developers svck and whatnot. Start your own thread if you want to. This is a discussion about the game itself. Thanks.

Back to the general game discussion.

Strahovski is Australian, irrc.

I am still thinking about the ending, and... well... the more I think about it, the less it hangs together. Spoilerrific ending stuff, read at your own risk.

Spoiler

The catalyst is all "we do this to keep the non-organics from taking over", but... at this point in time of the various races history, other than the Geth, they appear to be in no danger of AIs taking over the world. And the Geth and Quarian conflict could have got resolved at some point, except the freaking reaper tech corrupted a bunch of Geth, thus making them more dangerous. The scene in the Geth collective tells you the Geth retreated as the Quarian's left their homeworld 300 years earlier. They were not inclined to fight. Legion gains individuality and free will, as does EDI. So machines are basically "humanizing" themselves and liable to make the same good and bad decisions as any organic thinking race.
Not only that, the reapers supposedly deliberately left technology for races to find, so they force the chaos to grow by uplifting civilizations before they might otherwise find anything and then come in and are all "we're just cleaning up. You, race/civilization over there-you are too stupid yet for us to bother with, carry on. When you get smarter, we'll be baaaack!"
I really hope the ending was not "all a dream" - was Shepard just being processed into the reapers and the cycle continues? I don't know. Guess I liked the game, am a bit gobsmacked and not at all sure how I feel about the ending and will just have to leave it at that.

Spoiler

I hate to say it, but the whole thing just makes me hope Bioware pulls a Broken Steel and releases a DLC that fixes their horrible ending. A series like Mass Effect deserves better than that.

[Gracie Dugdale]

I've been playing ME all day, about 9 hours, and I can't shake the feeling that this game is very empty in terms of content like sidequests compared to ME3 or even ME2. Still I sort of like the barren feeling of the universe a bit more at times. One thing I didn't miss are the damn elevators and the Mako.

[alyssa ALYSSA]

Finally got started with my Import character for ME3, huge difference between standard, much more content. The combat is really good, I like the guns and I love the fact that each gun is different. Graphics look outstanding although I think my Fem Shep's face looked a lot better in ME1/2 then it did in ME3. It still looks good in ME3 which I'm very happy about, although I had to change the Hairstyle as a majority of them are outright terrible. I regret Killing Wrex, dumb decision, Wreav is trash without giving away too many spoilers. Music rivals ME1 although I'll give the edge to ME1 right now.

My biggest problem with the game is the lack of Mass Effect 3 being an RPG, at least a good one. If it is an RPG or a partial one that's news to me because I see nothing that would convince me that it's an RPG, it's just a TPS with minor RPG elements. The amount of Autodialoge in conversations is a huge problem, I didn't see anything wrong with ME1's system and ME2's was fine as well with Autodialoge added in during times that it made sense. ME3 90-95% of the conversations is autodialoge with maybe one or two choices within the whole sequence. The interactions with a certain individual feel forced, dumb and incredibly cheesy (The Cheesy word should give you a hint as to who I'm talking about). The Plot's ok although I'm not happy about some parts of it being changed inbetween ME2-ME3. It was originally suppose to be about Dark Energy, which got mentioned a lot in ME2. Instead it's about something else which leads to the horrible endings and I'm going to dread getting there after seeing the awesome endings from both ME1 and ME2.

So far I'd rate it a 9.5/10 although that's basing it as a game overall and not as an RPG, basing it as an RPG, it gets a 3.5/10. This definitely will be my last Bioware game until they get there act together. The From Ashes issue is another oil can being thrown on a fire that's already out of control after the DA2 disastor. Terrible decision and the fact that they lied about it makes it worse, much worse. As they always say, "The Coverup is worse then the crime".

[Minako]

I've been playing ME all day, about 9 hours, and I can't shake the feeling that this game is very empty in terms of content like sidequests compared to ME3 or even ME2. Still I sort of like the barren feeling of the universe a bit more at times. One thing I didn't miss are the damn elevators and the Mako.

I thought ME had plenty of sidequests, though many of them didn't involve killing things. You get a lot of the sidequests just by exploring the galaxy and landing on planets, which i liked better than getting random emails telling me to go to places I've never heard of.

[Becky Cox]

Is anyone else finding it tough to join a multiplayer game? I'm setting it to any map, any enemy, any location and bronze and nothing. Its sitting for about 10 minutes trying to find a team.

This is the exact problem I'm having at the moment. PC, btw. You didn't happen to find a solution, did you?

Also, Leydenne is indeed correct. Yvonne Strahovski is indeed Aussie despite the name. She actually has a really strong Australian accent in my opinion, not even close to English. I'm actually sort of curious as to which part of Australia she came from now - my bet is on Western Australia, but I'll have to look it up.

Edit: That's somewhat surprising - she was actually born in the same suburb as me. Her accent isn't the typical Sydney accent, that's for sure.

[Laura Richards]

Spoiler

I see that the fact of the inevitable starvation and of course death, of the dexrto-protein eaters (ie.Turains and Quarians). Since there is nothing that they can actually eat on Earth, or for probably that matter, anything in the Local Cluster - all they have is what they brought with them. I can see that leading to cannibalism, or otherwise eating of the other race. Makes you wonder if turian tastes like chicken....

Spoiler

Wonder if the Quarians have any farm / hydroponic ships in their fleet, that also didn't get destroyed. I mean, yeah - it talks about the fleet getting supplies & young Quarians bringing back things that'll help from their Pilgrimages, but they must have some way of supporting themselves in at least a partial way.

[Ludivine Poussineau]

Spoiler

Wonder if the Quarians have any farm / hydroponic ships in their fleet, that also didn't get destroyed. I mean, yeah - it talks about the fleet getting supplies & young Quarians bringing back things that'll help from their Pilgrimages, but they must have some way of supporting themselves in at least a partial way.

Spoiler

Unfortunately, that only postpones the inevitable. Turian and Quarian Space is just too far away to reach by non-relay travel. I mean, Bioware could pull a Tite Kubo and say "Oh, just outside the Sol system is a planet that happens to have all the food and resources the turians and Quarians need to survive".

Also, Leydenne is indeed correct. Yvonne Strahovski is indeed Aussie despite the name. She actually has a really strong Australian accent in my opinion, not even close to English. I'm actually sort of curious as to which part of Australia she came from now - my bet is on Western Australia, but I'll have to look it up.

I wonder why Bioware tried to have her hide her accent for Miranda's voice acting. I mean for the most part she does an alright job, but there are just some words (like "commander") that just stick out.

Spoiler

I personally find it very sixy.

[Micah Judaeah]

I just took out the last two posts - as I did in the prior thread - just really really tired of people trying to derail the thread to yet again [censored] about EA and/or Bioware, publicity, developers svck and whatnot. Start your own thread if you want to. This is a discussion about the game itself. Thanks.

Back to the general game discussion.

Strahovski is Australian, irrc.

I am still thinking about the ending, and... well... the more I think about it, the less it hangs together. Spoilerrific ending stuff, read at your own risk.

Spoiler

The catalyst is all "we do this to keep the non-organics from taking over", but... at this point in time of the various races history, other than the Geth, they appear to be in no danger of AIs taking over the world. And the Geth and Quarian conflict could have got resolved at some point, except the freaking reaper tech corrupted a bunch of Geth, thus making them more dangerous. The scene in the Geth collective tells you the Geth retreated as the Quarian's left their homeworld 300 years earlier. They were not inclined to fight. Legion gains individuality and free will, as does EDI. So machines are basically "humanizing" themselves and liable to make the same good and bad decisions as any organic thinking race.
Not only that, the reapers supposedly deliberately left technology for races to find, so they force the chaos to grow by uplifting civilizations before they might otherwise find anything and then come in and are all "we're just cleaning up. You, race/civilization over there-you are too stupid yet for us to bother with, carry on. When you get smarter, we'll be baaaack!"
I really hope the ending was not "all a dream" - was Shepard just being processed into the reapers and the cycle continues? I don't know. Guess I liked the game, am a bit gobsmacked and not at all sure how I feel about the ending and will just have to leave it at that.

Now you know how I feel.

Anyways finally beat the game. Resounding meh from the ending. They tried to go philosoraptor on us, but it was like philosophy for pre-schoolers. To put it in the words the Reapers might use. "Works infinitely older and longer have told this story. They have come before, and asked these questions. This plot is nothing but a cycle of authors attempting to revitalize it and put their own twists on it. In the end, it is inevitable it is the same story as told from ages past." Dune comes to mind, it's thousands upon thousands of times better. Though I doubt it ever started the use of these plots and tropes.

Spoiler

I think Mass Effect 3 would have greatly benefgited from a more structured ending instead of an obvious asspull. Only the barest minimum of hinting was done in the first game that there could be a larger thing working behind them all. It wasn't foreshadowed enough, so I'm calling it a Deus Ex Machina. At the end of the day I chose synthesis. The other options solve nothing. The real manipulator must be destroyed. The only way to do this is to ascend to his level to combat him. I imagine Shepard as his rival now. Trying to find someway to reverse what he's done. It would be possible with such vast amounts of time. Cataclyst the energy being AI will pay for his manipulation. It's a self fulfilling prophesy. These cycles are only repeating because it's the only thing allowed to happen, it's all he worked towards. The fact that the Geth and Quarians were able to set aside their difference refutes his claims. Not to mention some of the stuff the ai said is contradictory.

Not mad just disappointed Though my brain feels like poor http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHvROsfu5SY here. I wonder if it will ever recover form the asspull/deus ex machina. At least the series if over, I never have to go back to Bioware/EA/Origin again. Whew.