Mass Effect 3: Open Thread w/spoilers mass effect

[Flitterkill]

Spoilers will abound, all be warned.

 

Note 1: Keybind / Scan bug is annoying as hell.

 

Note 2: I do not care a damn about what people are saying about the ending (not fully informed myself, just can't miss the raged blitherings). That said, doesn't matter. All is forgiven for Blasto 6: Partners in Crime.

 

Once I figure out how to do screenshots I'll include those as well.

 

Turning this into an open thread instead; never got around to fixing/finding the keybind or installing fraps.

[TheFirstMonk]

I added the Mass Effect 3 demo to Steam as a non-Steam game and was able to use the F12 screenshot function.

 

The catch is that the first session you use the screenshots, they go to one folder. When you do it a second time, it creates another folder with the screenshots. At least that is the way it has been acting for non-Steam games that I use F12 with. In short, I have 2 separate folders for 1 game that contains screenshots.

 

Dunno if this helps you.

[boiler]

Blasto 6 was awesome. As is the whole game in general.

 

Which class are you playing? I finished my first playthrough with my soldier (first ME character ever), and am going through again as my vanguard. Loved the vanguard combat in ME2, but holy crap is it awesome in ME3. Especially if you shed a whole bunch of weapon weight and get roughly 193% recharge bonus.

[Peckles]

I wish the journal would actually give you all the information that you pick up. I can't be bothered to remember all the details about who I've talked to pertaining to various missions. Or is there some way to actually expand the missions in the journal that I just don't know about? Drives me crazy. The rest of it is pretty awesome. I replayed through ME 1 and 2 over the past couple of weeks just to keep it all together, been an infiltrator the whole time. It's great.

 

Also I punched that reporter wench. Very satisfying.

[VooDooPC]

I wish the journal would actually give you all the information that you pick up. I can't be bothered to remember all the details about who I've talked to pertaining to various missions. Or is there some way to actually expand the missions in the journal that I just don't know about? Drives me crazy. The rest of it is pretty awesome. I replayed through ME 1 and 2 over the past couple of weeks just to keep it all together, been an infiltrator the whole time. It's great.

 

Also I punched that reporter wench. Very satisfying.

The journal tells you what things people need after you've talked to them or overheard their conversations. It doesn't always tell you where the items are or if you have them though. In the second 1/2 of the game I just played some multiplayer and didn't do any of the side stuff, there was WAYY to much. I'm trying to save the galaxy over here, find your own damn power couplings.

Edited March 23, 2012 by VooDooPC

[Flitterkill]

That was a step back I thought as well, not having pointers to what's next to be done in the journal. A loss from ME2. That and all the entries just stay piled up there and can't be moved to an archive/whatever like in ME2.

[boiler]

Tool that I found invaluable when dealing with the Citadel side fetch quests: checking the map when I entered each area of the citadel. If there was someone quest-related I could talk to/turn in an object to, they were listed on the map along with their location. Also, and I don't think this is a spoiler, most of the requested items that aren't given a specific location are actually obtained during the N7 missions against cerberus. If you miss them during their respective missions, you can get them from the Spectre terminal on the citadel.

 

Side note: by FAR my favorite thing they did with ME3 was the heavy melee attack. biotic charge > heavy melee > shotgun-to-the-face = I WIN. Coupled with huge recharge bonuses, I can clear a room of cerberus with this technique in no time.

[Flitterkill]

Well, finished this afternoon.

 

Just finished eating, got a coffee, gonna check out alternate ending spoilers.

 

Baldur's Gate 2 now shares the pedestal alongside ME2/3 for the best games I've ever played.

 

I have no idea where the level of rage about the ending is coming from. The only thing I can think is that they are all idiots and I hope to hell they never pick up a pen to write any fiction ever. Too harsh?

 

The indoctrination theory is complete BS. It happened, it's done.

 

The only thing that maybe, maybe, would have been nice is a glimpse at some of the other homeworlds afterwards.

 

I actually hope that DLC will take place afterwards, exploring the rebuilding but we'll never see it.

 

So, what'd I end up with?

 

3600+ effective, did everything under the sun, only side bit I missed that I know of was the Alliance ambassador wanting to know what happened to his son. I assumed the guys outside Purgatory were the ones I needed to over hear but I think I overheard them before I met with the ambassador so I never was able to get it to trip. That and I had no chance after the Citadel coup stuff.

 

Garrus and Liara on the final team. Liara was practically every mission. That wonderful black hole, my sniper rifle... Good times.

 

Plenty of seminal moments throughout; a bunch of movie callbacks (the end missions on Earth could also be called Lifeforce 2 and the end credits music was remarkably similar to Vangelis' Blade Runner end credits theme). Loved the hell out of this.

 

Reputation was pinned after 2/3 of the game was over. Probably 90% Paragon and the requisite splash of Renegade (including Udina and Kai of course)

 

Had Paragon options all throughout the final moments, synthesis ending (which was being telegraphed/led to for a hell of a *long* time).

 

Oddly enough, besides Joker and Edi coming out of the Normandy was Liara which was strange as she was on the final team with me. Chalk that up to a glitch. There were a few including Kaidan apparently coming on to me in the Cafe... Miranda all the way, who never died unlike other playthroughs I've read about. But not there coming off the ship. Oh well, not sure that "matters".

[VooDooPC]

Liara was practically every mission. That wonderful black hole, my sniper rifle... Good times.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa! I know she's Asari and probably gets around, but jeez!

 

For Thessia!

[Flitterkill]

Yep. Importing over from ME2 @ level 30 meant she had a maxed singularity right from the start. Very nice.

 

Spent the last hour or two on YouTube looking at stuff I missed, paths not taken. Some nice stuff, but I'm glad my ME3 was practically perfect unlike the raging hordes that abound on the interwebs.

 

A DLC that is almost certain to be in play would be Aria retaking Omega; probably involving a jump through the O4 relay to play with Cerberus on the other side. It was a curious ommission that's pretty telling.

 

A DLC I'd like to see is afters with no Shepard to wrap up a few loose ends, but they would have to craft it, litterally, in three different packs - meaning depending upon your ending choice, what you get for the DLC. *That* would be pretty ballsy though not sure economically feasible.

 

For those complaining about choices not mattering from the previous entries; again they are nutz.. Tons of options carried over and impacted the third game.

 

EX. Rachni.

 

Save queen in ME1 = redeemable in ME3.

Do not save queen in ME1 = Reaper cloned Queen, betrays Alliance @ Crucible if you do not put her down in ME3.

 

I'd say that matters.

 

Plenty of other examples as well (Maelon's data being a biggie of course)

[Peckles]

I too just finished. I was ok with the ending, except for the Illusive Man. I felt they could've done better with him. Also chose synthesis. Was pretty much all paragon, but I also dealt with Udina and Kai. And punched that snarky reporter harlot on the citadel (she'd been bugging me throughout the series). Completed every quest I could find, scanned every system. Good times. I'll probably play through the whole series again fairly soon, explore new options. And be a renegade. Tired of being the good guy now.

[boiler]

I chose destruction (side note: I like the idea of the Indoctrination Theory, even if it's not what Bioware intended). I had just spent 2.9 games and probably 300 hours (over several characters) hating the reapers and plotting their destruction, this wasn't the time to wuss out!

 

Also,

I liked that it was the only possible ending that allowed for my Shepard to live. Too much badassery to keep him down!

 

I do wish there was a little more "aftermath" stuff shown at the end, something to tie up the fates of all those that helped me and were counting on me. Otherwise the ending didn't bother me too much, especially since the rest of the game was brilliant.

 

Best gaming series, start to finish, I think I have ever played. Once I finish my second (renegade) playthrough with my vanguard, I'll be putting it down for a while. I do plan on starting a brand new character in ME1 though and going through the journey all over again!

 

 

*ETA:

 

Anyone else deceive the Krogans to get Salarian support? I didn't on my first, "true to my taste" playthrough, but did with my renegade character just to see the difference. Holy crap, I felt like complete and utter dog crap the whole time, especially due to the aftermath/collateral damage.

Edited March 28, 2012 by boiler