# The Mass Effect 3 Thread



## killarobot (Mar 12, 2012)

Since there are so many scattered threads about this game, figured will make a centralized one

so yea post all mass effect 3 stuff in here

Release date: March 6 2012
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware

Wikipedia Page



Trailer


I have been playing it for the past week and think it is a  great game

am playing it on Xbox 360


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 12, 2012)

I debated about making a thread like this not an hour ago but decided not to.


Anyway, I have a question for those that are pretty far into a ME2 save:


Spoiler



Does how you complete Tali: Treason have any impact on whether or not the Quarians are attacking the Geth in ME3?  I'm guessing you can't change the admiralty's point of view so war is inevitable but just want to be certain.


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## techtard (Mar 12, 2012)

Just a heads up for any ME3 PC owners, Alienware is doing a ME3 DLC giveaway for the Indra sniper rifle.
link below:
http://www.alienwarearena.com/giveaway/mass-effect-3-giveaway 

I posted this in another thread, but I think it's worth reposting for some free DLC.


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## Mussels (Mar 12, 2012)

this game is awesome for the first half, and now is showing its bugs... and i hear the ending is abysmal.


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## laszlo (Mar 12, 2012)

niceee game;works perfectly till now no bugs only roaches 

i used me2 gamesaves also


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## MilkyWay (Mar 12, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I debated about making a thread like this not an hour ago but decided not to.
> 
> 
> Anyway, I have a question for those that are pretty far into a ME2 save:
> ...






Spoiler



When i went to the veil the Quarian had been in a war with the Geth, i had choices to either retreat or counter attack, Tali is an Admiral. The Geth are under reaper influence so you have to do a few missions, also i told them to pull back instead of countering the Geth. Later you meet with Legion, btw i trusted him the whole way through both games and did his loyalty mission. Can end up in a few ways but i think i did it the way to get most war assets.



My outcome in that set of missions.


Spoiler



Peace was made between both Geth and Quarian when the reaper was killed. Quarians moved back to the home planet with the Geth. I had trusted Legion in ME2 and did his loyalty mission to rewrite heretic Geth to join the peaceful Geth. Tali survived and Legion died, Legion decided to join the hive mind in order to give the Geth some reaper AI tech upgrades (which you can stop). Geth promised to uphold Legions promise or something like that.



Yeah the game so far is amazing, i now have to track down Cerberus (isn't really a spoiler). I've started now to get some texture bugs where they would go missing like a character in a cutscene or their weapon. FORTUNATELY i didn't get any bugs when i run or any in combat.


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## Easo (Mar 12, 2012)

Road to ending was epicness of EPIC, but the endings, well, imho kinda failed to deliver.
At least, looking at Bioware forums, there may be a chance for DLC/patch/something other to give the "real" endings.


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## Crazykenny (Mar 12, 2012)

Hmm.... I'm no where near the end but I get the distinct feeling thats its gonna be a "you die... the end" kinda ending. (No need to confirm my suspiscions though)


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## Mussels (Mar 12, 2012)

MilkyWay said:


> My outcome in that set of missions.
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...





Spoiler



i had no save, so legion was called 'geth VI' which annoyed me. i chose the geth in that mission because tali was supposed to call off her forces (and i'd chosen all the peaceful options, saved their admiral from the civillian fleet, etc etc) and then they all died, and tali literally jumped off a bridge. and legion died anyway.



I'm commander shephard, and i endorse mass genocide.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 12, 2012)

I lost interest halfway through ME2 and have yet to get it back. Comments like Mussels' don't help.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 12, 2012)

Mussels said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler: About Legion



Same as you, it was "Geth VI."  I killed "Legion Assassin" on Cerberus's base though because I donated Legion's body to Cerberus.  Legion is the only geth on the base so he kind of stands out.  I killed him as he started to go down a ladder in the "lab."





Spoiler: About Quarians



So it sounds like what you do during Tali's loyalty mission doesn't really matter so long as you complete it.  That's good news for me. 






MilkyWay said:


> FORTUNATELY i didn't get any bugs when i run or any in combat.


I saw tons of bugs too and a few minor ones in combat like AI players crouching on top of a crouchable object like a table.  Made them easy targets for me but still, it shouldn't have happened.  The majority of bugs are in the cutscenes though.  I've seen everything from dislocated joints, to pulsing lighting on characters, to incorrect perspectives (looking at a wall or something during a conversation), to audio fading in/out at inappropriate times.  ME3 is definitely the most buggy out of the three.



I  Black Widow V!  On normal, it will kill most enemies dead hitting anywhere.  On tougher enemies, usually a single headshot with warp ammo will kill.  Three shots (mag size) it will kill just about everything.  The only downside is that it costs 250k credits.


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## phanbuey (Mar 12, 2012)

How is the COOP?  have you guys tried it?

My GF loves the mass effect series, and I was hoping to play it with her.


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## erocker (Mar 12, 2012)

Love the game so far. As far as the endings go, the haters are always going to be more vocal. If anyone remembers the ending to the remake of BSG, it's a lot like that... Many people screamed about it, many people liked it. Let the whiners whine.

*This game is someone's creation.. Their work of art. If I saw a painting, liked most of it but there was a part the painting that I didn't like I would find it inappropriate to tell the artist to grab a brush and change it, add to it.

It also reminds me of this:



			
				Willy Wonka said:
			
		

> [grabbing Veruca's mouth and pinching it a bit to hold it open] *We* are the music makers... and *we* are the dreamers of dreams.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 12, 2012)

^ Fair enough.


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## yogurt_21 (Mar 12, 2012)

techtard said:


> Just a heads up for any ME3 PC owners, Alienware is doing a ME3 DLC giveaway for the Indra sniper rifle.
> link below:
> http://www.alienwarearena.com/giveaway/mass-effect-3-giveaway
> 
> I posted this in another thread, but I think it's worth reposting for some free DLC.



its sad when you can pay for a game in installments. lol


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## techtard (Mar 12, 2012)

yogurt_21 said:


> its sad when you can pay for a game in installments. lol




Yes, paying for free DLC is sad.


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## PopcornMachine (Mar 12, 2012)

phanbuey said:


> How is the COOP?  have you guys tried it?
> 
> My GF loves the mass effect series, and I was hoping to play it with her.



Coop is a lot of fun.  Four people max, and 3 levels of difficulty.  I play bronze or silver so far.

It's fun working with a team.

As far as the real game goes, it is very good but kind of bumming me out so far.  Hope this is just the character I imported and not how all runs end up.


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## phanbuey (Mar 12, 2012)

PopcornMachine said:


> Coop is a lot of fun.  Four people max, and 3 levels of difficulty.  I play bronze or silver so far.
> 
> It's fun working with a team.
> 
> As far as the real game goes, it is very good but kind of bumming me out so far.  Hope this is just the character I imported and not how all runs end up.



Thanks for the reply!

Is the COOP for the campaign or is it just a 'mode' for select missions?  i.e. can we go through the entire game coop or is it like Modern Warfare?


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## Sinzia (Mar 12, 2012)

I'm sorry, but the ending sucks ass, and I cant seem to get the spoiler working so I won't post my frustrations right now.


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## douglatins (Mar 12, 2012)

I finished the game yesterday. I did all quests except a couple and got 6600 Military but with 50% not playing MP i didnt get the best ending, which sucks.

Playing with vanguard, totally invincible, could spam the biotic charge and get 100% shields all the time. Finished the game with 600k credits, didnt buy the spectre weapons, weren't good enought

About geth quarians


Spoiler



I got them to peace, Tali survived and Legion died since he upload or something.



Krogans


Spoiler



The female lived and grunt. Also wrex since the 1st game



Ashley/Dude


Spoiler



Liara killed her since i dodnt use the renegade option to shoot udina



But i kept mostly everyone alive, some ME2 characters had to die in the storyline.

Ending


Spoiler



Mad since i didnt get the best ending even i made 98% of quests. The worst part is destroying the mass relays, thats evil, species will be locked out of each other, even worse than shep dying. Also why a explosion to destroy the reapers? If the Catalyst controlled them, just broadcast a fucking self destroy signal, why destroy the citadel and the relays damn it.



And the DLC is completely inside the game, its too long and well though to be a post game insetion. The prothean is totally well designed. It wouldnt fit in 500Mb never.

Can anyone explain me the synthesis ending?


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## alexsubri (Mar 12, 2012)

GAME TIME!!!


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## erocker (Mar 12, 2012)

Btw, nobody said there wasn't going to be a Mass Effect 4. Mass Effect 3 is just the end of Shepards story.  There will be more Mass Effect I have no doubt.


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## PopcornMachine (Mar 12, 2012)

phanbuey said:


> Thanks for the reply!
> 
> Is the COOP for the campaign or is it just a 'mode' for select missions?  i.e. can we go through the entire game coop or is it like Modern Warfare?



The coop is completely separate from the single player game.

It uses locations from the game, and the four of you face cerberus, geth, or reaper minions.

You pick the species and class of character you want to be, and more opportunities open up as gain experience and purchase packages.

Purchases are done with in game earned cash.  Haven't spent a dime on anything in this game other than the initial purchase price.


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## erocker (Mar 12, 2012)

I just tried co-op last night and it was pretty fun! I need more/better weapons though. Some of the teams I was playing with were losing on Bronze difficulty handily. It can be pretty challenging which is great!


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## PopcornMachine (Mar 12, 2012)

erocker said:


> I just tried co-op last night and it was pretty fun! I need more/better weapons though. Some of the teams I was playing with were losing on Bronze difficulty handily. It can be pretty challenging which is great!



Like I said, silver is my limit so far.  Played the demo version, and could tell they ramped up the difficulty on silver as time went on. Hate playing the reaper creatures.  The big hulking things and the banshees are hard to deal with.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 12, 2012)

meh beat the game not impressed, 

gameplay 8 / 10
story 8 /10
Replayability 1 / 10
Ending 2 / 10
Prothean DLC 9 /10 hes a badass everyone knows this

Gameplay, itself was fun fantastic even, story up to the last 15 mins was pretty damn awesome,  those last 15mins killed Mass Effect for me,

for those wondering giant spoiler warning about the shitty endings lol


Spoiler



you will notice no matter what ending you pick the mass effect relays explode, when they explode they destroy the entire cluster its based in, this is according to information presented in Mass Effect 2 DLC Arrival where you destroy a relay to delay the invasion, this destruction destroys the star system its based in, this means no matter what ending you pick  Earth, Palaven, etc would have been destroyed along with Sur'kesh, Krogan DMZ etc etc, giant plot hole right there, in the end all choices you made in Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 are negated they mean nothing at all, best ending requires 5000+ Effective military strength, which requires Online play, even then its Shepard taking 1 breath thats it, doesnt matter because oh yea all mass relays got blown up remember? The only difference between any of the endings is the COLOR of the explosion yes thats right the COLOR thats it roflmao, regardless every other aspect of the game was fantastic. 
an example for those that dislike reading my posts


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 13, 2012)

erocker said:


> Btw, nobody said there wasn't going to be a Mass Effect 4. Mass Effect 3 is just the end of Shepards story.  There will be more Mass Effect I have no doubt.


Bioware said back when they released ME that it was going to be a trilogy.  Bioware/EA could have changed their minds though.  EA will always want to mine a profitable resource regardless if it should be buried or not.


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Mar 13, 2012)




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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 13, 2012)

the only way another ME game happens 



Spoiler



is if it takes place during the same timeline as Mass Effect Trilogy aka a nearly 4 year in game span OR a prequel something based on the first contact war maybe etc, after all bye bye mass relays means its gonna be 100s if not 1000s of years till galactic civilizations recover and have the ability to travel to each other regularly if they survived at all again boom mass effect relay explosions.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 13, 2012)

Heh, that might happen if you didn't complete the Shadowbroker DLC in ME2.


The thing that irks me the most is that on my entire play through, I only had one biotic (Liara).  I always had to take her with me for her singularity.  I wish they went back to ME's character development system where you choose what powers everyone has based on 3 basic categories.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 13, 2012)

I wish i could equip them with armors.... so they dont look all the same, i miss that from ME1 the full customization was fantastic,   

anyone else notice upgrading weapons in ME3 is worthless? damage etc doesnt increase at all, weight doesnt drop blah blah blah,


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## erocker (Mar 13, 2012)

Best ending for Mass Effect 3:



Spoiler



After a large explosion, the game cuts away to Columbo. Telling the story to a sickly Fred Savage in bed, finishes with the words "The End" and closes the book.


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## KainXS (Mar 13, 2012)

beat it, hated the endings, and thats that, its not a bad game but the endings are really really poor to me, first time through I had two choices, which were both bad endings(to me they were bad) with over 4000 fleet.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 13, 2012)

you need 5000+ Effective Military Strength for the best ending,

also find it hilarious started a new game+ and my paragon / renegade / reputation bar dosent move, because i was 75% paragon and 25% renegade i couldnt choose the paragon option, new game + beat it a second time also couldnt choice Paragon ending either, pretty BS honestly, with DLC info being leaked with further appearance and weapon packs etc coming Im not that impressed. most content is on the disk from the looks regardless.

eitherway doesnt matter i bet a DLC pack with different endings arrives later on. much like Fallout 3 etc


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## lilhasselhoffer (Mar 13, 2012)

So, what happened at Bioware?

They introduce a galaxy that is living.  Interesting races, unique story lines, and a reasonable quotient of disbelief.  The second game makes two steps forward, three right, and stumbles four back.  The atmosphere turned "gritty" (code for we're out of ideas), livened only by the occasional glimpses of good story and character in NPCs.  It was a good game, but didn't improve everywhere.

Now they give us this crap.  The best ending is 



Spoiler



a huge cock tease that Shepherd lived, which is only begging for another installment.



I can take the depressing endings, the happy endings, and even the WTF endings.  What I can't take is EA forcing Bioware to leave openings for a fourth game.  A trilogy, as Bioware stated this would be back when ME was an Xbox exclusive, needs to tie everything up.  This game left huge plot threads from 2 dangling, had enough ambiguity to create fan rage that is rarely seen without being from 13 year olds who just learned to swear, and doesn't fulfill the basic tenants of good writing.  All of these complaints are from the last 15 minutes of the game, so your mileage may vary.


On top of this travesty, EA tries to stick it to our wallets one last time.  Day 1 DLC, continuing the controversy about what can be locked onto a disc before it is no longer viably termed DLC, and forcing those who want a rich *single player* game to suddenly have a tacked on multi player experience crucial to the single player all make this game a failure in my book.  Even if they release a fixed ending that isn't so unfulfilling, my money is that EA will want $10 for it.  That insult is why I try all EA games before I buy.  $60 for a great game is a worthy price, but $60 for rote lather and repeat crap is why EA is garnering so much hate from people.  At least they have the NFL license to fall back on [sic].


To sum up my thoughts I need you to imagine something with me.  You have a nice ice cream sundae set in front of you.  You eat the cherry, take spoon full after spoon full of tasty ice cream.  This is good!  Then all of a sudden you get a funny taste in your mouth.  You look down, and there's a coating of human feces on the bottom of the bowl.  That tasty sundae is ruined, and you'll be wary of every subsequent sundae you get at that restaurant.  Thanks EA, for making my Bioware sundae taste like crap at what should have been a moment of triumph.


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## MilkyWay (Mar 13, 2012)

Seemed a lot like Deus Ex infact totally ripped it off more like. None of the endings really made sense and where all pretty much cut and paste jobs. Some plot holes, contradictions and nothing was tied up. All the endings are really the same thing in principle, same shit happens with a different colour.


Spoiler



LOL at the total bullshit ending where Shepard is under rubble suggesting he was in London the whole time.

Who and what is the kid/crucible AI? Where did it come from? How can synthetics theoretically end up killing everything when that is contradicted. How can the kid/catalyst AI be so sure that synthetics would end up destroying all organics?

Only option is apparently the cycle but then you are given multiple options? DUMB.

I dont really give a shit about Shepard dying to save the Galaxy but i just dont understand most of it. Needed more closure and answers rather than just everything you did makes no sense or was worth doing at all because any ending is the same in principle. None of the choices you make matter.



Those SLOW MO walking bits got annoying, ESPECIALLY at the ending. On the last mission i too was getting random AI bugs with my squadmates.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 13, 2012)

I just saw the ending and it made perfect sense to me.


Spoiler



The "child" is basically an ancient AI (interface for one at least) that doesn't want to be threatened and the only way for it to ensure its security is not allow any species (organic nor inorganic) to become powerful enough to threaten it.  So it slaughtered everyone that poses a threat every 50,000 years, learning from them as it goes in order to further guarentee their continued survival.

The only thing that doesn't make sense is why the AI would allow anyone to destroy it.  It's obvious from your options talking to the Illusive Man that there is no choice to save the Repears and let the cycle continue.  The AI may know that its doomed so it puts the options on the table of how to end it.



Virtually all games have a teaser for a sequel at the end but that doesn't mean it's coming.  Hell, it could just be a "happy-feely" thing so people don't feel sad Shepherd is dead.  No matter which choice you choose, the Reapers are gone so where's the antagonist?  I think that's the end of Mass Effect.  They'll move on to another project.




MilkyWay said:


> Those SLOW MO walking bits got annoying, ESPECIALLY at the ending. On the last mission i too was getting random AI bugs with my squadmates.


Agreed.  Those nighmares, even having seen the end of the game, still seem useless to me.


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## MilkyWay (Mar 13, 2012)

Nothing is ever really made clear.



Spoiler



The AI says the cycle was created to stop chaos, the chaos that synthetics might one day wipe out organics if organics where ever left unchecked.

If it was just repeating the cycle to maintain its survival in my mind it would be easier to kill all the organics, rather than merely maintain a cycle.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 13, 2012)

Spoiler



They need organics to build more Repears and maintain the ones they already got.  It's no different than agriculture for humans.  They let us multiply so they can feast.

If they wiped out all organics, they would eventual die off because they require DNA.

I believe the whole order/chaos BS is just the excuse the AI has for justifying its actions without exposing its real intent.


...listening to it again, the thing that doesn't make any sense at all is why the AI helps you.  It failed by proving organics are superior to the synthetics which leads me to believe that the Reapers, and this AI, is in multiple galaxies.  It has to get rid of the Repears and try something new because they're inadequate.  If this were the case though, there shouldn't be an option to take control of the Repears.


Yeah, I'll just stick with the authors had some lapses of judgment in this finale.  They should have just had you hit a button for "kill all Reapers" (since the plot dictated you can't side with Illusive Man) and get rid of the whole child/AI BS.


Edit: I just finished seeing all three main endings (symbiosis, control, and destroy).  As I stated above, I think all that BS should have been removed and have a button just to destroy all Repears.  This BS about that AI is unnecessary/poorly thought out and I guarentee you that most people are going to choose destroy anyway.  So what's the point?  It's like an after thought they tacked on at the last moment.






Spoiler: Endings



List here: http://www.justpushstart.com/2012/03/mass-effect-3-endings-guide/

There actually aren't that many major differences when it comes down to it.  Shepherd can only be saved with a readiness rating in excess of 4000 though.


I'm seeing a lot of people commenting that ME3 multiplayer is horrendous.  I think I'm going to break out the memory editor to set "readiness" to greater than 5000 on my next play.




MilkyWay said:


> Seemed a lot like Deus Ex infact totally ripped it off more like. None of the endings really made sense and where all pretty much cut and paste jobs. Some plot holes, contradictions and nothing was tied up. All the endings are really the same thing in principle, same shit happens with a different colour.


At first, I didn't agree with you.  Now I do having seen the endings.  Deus Ex at least lets you create a save before making the decision.  Bioware/EA, of course, aren't so kind.

Yeah, I loved Mass Effect but everything else out of Bioware has been crap in my book.  I don't get why people love them so much.


If there is a Mass Effect 4, it will likely be a prequel from before the Protheans that explains how the mass effect portals, and Repears came to be.  Though I still think it is unlikely.


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## techtard (Mar 13, 2012)

There will be more Mass Effect games. Some of the devs have talked about it, and EA sure as hell won't abandon such a profitable franchise.

EA and its investors call the shots, not Bioware. We're probably going to see a ME mmo or a dedicated FPS series. 

You have enough people paying for the all DLC and all the cross-promotional merchandisning to ensure they ride this until the wheels fall off.


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## Sir B. Fannybottom (Mar 13, 2012)

This explains a lot.


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## Prima.Vera (Mar 13, 2012)

Guys!!! How much are you playing/day that you were able to finish the game already????? Really, no school, work, social life at all???!?!?


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 13, 2012)

Three days in a row non-stop. XD

It was an ME1 -> ME2 -> ME3 renegade save though so most people ended up dead shortening the length of the game.





FordGT90Concept said:


> I'm seeing a lot of people commenting that ME3 multiplayer is horrendous.  I think I'm going to break out the memory editor to set "readiness" to greater than 5000 on my next play.





Spoiler: Memory Edit Tips



You can use a memory editor such as Cheat Engine or Artmoney.  I use Artmoney.

1) Create a separate save incase everything goes FUBAR.

2) I recommend doing this while on the Normandy so you can go back to the readiness console to get exact values.  You will need at least one "war asset" in the galaxy map.  The more the merrier because it will make editing values less risky.

3) Scan planets until you find one and note which group it belonged to.  Mine was "Special Ops Team Zeta" which is 103rd Marine Division, Alliance.  It is found in the Hades Gamma cluster, Plutus system, Nonuel planet.

4) Load the save you made prior to scanning the planet so that asset is still available, you know what the value of it was before (in my case 103rd Marine Division had 100 points), and the value after (Team Zeta is worth 20 so 120).  Search for the value before collecting the asset.  It will be a *4 byte integer*.  You'll get a ton of hits, don't worry (it was memory address 0x36xxxxxx for me both times but very doubtful it will remain that way for everyone).

5) Collect the asset and filter the new value (in my case, 120).  You should get less than a dozen hits now.  You can either play it risky and change each one to a unique value (e.g. 121, 122, 123, 124, and so on) or you can play it safe by finding another war asset that affects the same group (e.g. 103rd Marine Division) to further narrow down the list.

6) Once you have pinpointed the value and can verify it in the readiness console, add 10000 to it (assuming 50% readiness) to get your 5000 required to make the best endings available to you.  You can reopen the readiness console to verify the change is successful.

7) When you are satisfied, save the game and reload it to verify the change is still in place.

8) Continue saving the Milky Way.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Mar 13, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Bioware said back when they released ME that it was going to be a trilogy.  Bioware/EA could have changed their minds though.  EA will always want to mine a profitable resource regardless if it should be buried or not.



Perhaps one should look back at the comments from 2007: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/09/19/mass-effect-trilogy-aims-to-begin-and-end-on-xbox-360/.

For those that missed the wording:


> While he could not comment on exclusivity, BioWare president and co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk has told Games Radar that the developer's goal is to have all three installments of the planned Mass Effect trilogy to appear on the Xbox 360.



So for those that missed it, the TRILOGY is over.  The story lines should be wrapped up in a pretty little bow.  This is not the case.  Chalk it up to a new singular writer, EA pressure, or whatever you'd like.  This does not make the narrative failure any more acceptable.


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## catnipkiller (Mar 13, 2012)

My friend got shipped two copies and got billed for one so im down loading the game now. I have both ME1 and 2 looking forward to trying this one thou have seen bad reviews so im glad i dident buy it.


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## Vincy Boy (Mar 14, 2012)

I played and loved ME1 and ME2. Immediately after finishing the first two games I played them again and cranked up the difficulty, something I rarely do but the story was so enthralling I had to play again and try upping the ante. My ME3 experience was pretty much the same up to the last 10 minutes. Now I was not expecting some grand fairy tale ending but something that did not have me in WTF-mode for the last 2 days. As it became clear that the ending defied all logic that was built around the game and went totally against the theme of being able to shape your destiny with your choices, I was so incensed that I ended the process from task manager! It has been 2 days since I finished it and I have not been able to bring myself to launch the game again.

The more I think of this the more I feel this ending cannot be real. This ending creates so many holes that it just cannot be legit. There's no way that intelligent people who designed these games could so royally fu*k up. I'm trying to comfort myself with this I guess. But I would still be upset if this indeed is the case and there is DLC that "fixes" this ending. I feel insulted and cannot see myself purchasing DLC for ME3. Ah eff this, my head hurts. Serves me right though. I somewhat neglected my morning-sick wife for 2 days to play this thing.

So what do you guys think?


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## Sinzia (Mar 14, 2012)

Vincy Boy said:


> I played and loved ME1 and ME2. Immediately after finishing the first two games I played them again and cranked up the difficulty, something I rarely do but the story was so enthralling I had to play again and try upping the ante. My ME3 experience was pretty much the same up to the last 10 minutes. Now I was not expecting some grand fairy tale ending but something that did not have me in WTF-mode for the last 2 days. As it became clear that the ending defied all logic that was built around the game and went totally against the theme of being able to shape your destiny with your choices, I was so incensed that I ended the process from task manager! It has been 2 days since I finished it and I have not been able to bring myself to launch the game again.
> 
> The more I think of this the more I feel this ending cannot be real. This ending creates so many holes that it just cannot be legit. There's no way that intelligent people who designed these games could so royally fu*k up. I'm trying to comfort myself with this I guess. But I would still be upset if this indeed is the case and there is DLC that "fixes" this ending. I feel insulted and cannot see myself purchasing DLC for ME3. Ah eff this, my head hurts. Serves me right though. I somewhat neglected my morning-sick wife for 2 days to play this thing.
> 
> So what do you guys think?



I'm sure they'll put out some kind of DLC that'll have some kind of alternate ending to it.


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## Mussels (Mar 14, 2012)

yup, just finished it myself - cant help but wonder what the eff they were thinking.


its seriously like they didnt have an ending so they gave us some very vague bullshit so they can DLC the ending in later.


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## PopcornMachine (Mar 14, 2012)

Haven't finished my first run yet. But I feel worn out by this game.

Maybe due to using an early run of ME2, with Mordin and Garrus dead, and some bad decisions made.

But it just seems they made this one much darker and it feels grueling to get through. A lot more of running around and wearing down of bosses instead the fun skirmishes of ME2.

Perhaps I will like it better with a better game save.  The payoff would be a good ending, but from what I hear, that's not going to happen.

At this point I enjoy almost prefer the multiplayer.  I get more feeling of camaraderie that I got from ME2.


----------



## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Mar 14, 2012)

Even if they release the complete ending as DLC, I wont buy it.  Bioware


----------



## techtard (Mar 14, 2012)

It's not Bioware you should be angry at. EA has effectively killed them, just like they have many, many other great game development studios. 

EA forced them to rush out the abomination of a game that is Dragon Age 2. 

They forced them to rush out Star Wars : The Old Republic MMO. They even re-used the terrible game devs and programmers from Mythic Online, the guys who made the WAR mmo based on the Warhammer series. They even recycled many of the same broken game mechanics that basically killed WAR in 6 months.

They probably forced them to cut this game into chunks to sell as DLC, because the millionaire investors and shareholders who run EA don't understand that the average gamer isn't wealthy like they are.

I haven't played ME3 yet because my copy is in the mail and/or lost in the twilight zone. Haven't read any spoilers yet, but there is a lot of complaints about the ending, so I am lowering my expectations.


----------



## Vincy Boy (Mar 14, 2012)

techtard said:


> It's not Bioware you should be angry at. EA has effectively killed them, just like they have many, many other great game development studios.
> 
> EA forced them to rush out the abomination of a game that is Dragon Age 2.
> 
> ...



The game plays wonderfully up to the ending. Prepare for a depressive episode of about 2 days after finishing it. 

P.S. There was a poll put up on the official ME Facebook page (Tell us what you think) that lasted all of five minutes before being pulled. Bioware have given themselves an arrow to the knee.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

Mussels said:


> yup, just finished it myself - cant help but wonder what the eff they were thinking.
> 
> 
> its seriously like they didnt have an ending so they gave us some very vague bullshit so they can DLC the ending in later.


I dunno, the ending(s) they have now were probably pretty expensive to render.  I'm positive these ending were always their intent.



Spoiler



If you listened to what Soverign said on Virmire and what Harbinger said through the dead Reaper on Rannoch, the motives of the Reapers are "unknowable" to organics.



The ending emphasizes that but what use is telling a story if the player can't understand it.  This happened to me in ME2 and ME3 when dealing with the geth.  It doesn't matter how many times I hear it, it's still jibber jabber.  I don't think this is a consequence of bad plot elements but a consequence of not explaining it in plain enough terms.




PopcornMachine said:


> Haven't finished my first run yet. But I feel worn out by this game.
> 
> Maybe due to using an early run of ME2, with Mordin and Garrus dead, and some bad decisions made.
> 
> ...


A paragon save from ME, to ME2, to ME3 is the most fun.  Renegade was emotionally difficult to play in ME1 and especially ME3.


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## Kwod (Mar 15, 2012)

http://www.videogamessuck.com/review471.html

Oh.....hardcore opinion of ME3.....apply language filter, lol.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

I'd give it 5/10 too but if you load a ME1/ME2 save, that bumps up to 7/10 for character (the original 5 from ME1) story alone.

That review is spot on-though (excepting all the grammatical and spelling errors).


----------



## phanbuey (Mar 15, 2012)

i dont know... i think the game is actually pretty good...

Its not as original or novel as 1... but if you never played 1, and went straight for 2 and 3 most people would say that 2 and 3 are better.  Plus playing all 3 through is kind of awesome.

I've played some shitty games... such as:
Two Worlds II
Far Cry II
Kingdoms of Alamur or whatever... meh
Witcher 1...

This game is not BAD.. the gameplay is not revolutionary but it is decent.  I would give this game an 8/10 respective to the quality of games out right now... 

Respective to the class of games that the first one was in? 5/10 is about right.


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## Mussels (Mar 15, 2012)

the gameplay itself is good, but so much of it feels unfinished. i can handle average plots for the side missions (hell, they're side missions. some games randomly generate crap for these) but the main story was just full of holes.


reapers seem easy to kill (you can kill them on foot! if you shoot them in the right spot) yet massive space fleets cant touch them. so much of this makes no sense.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

phanbuey said:


> I've played some shitty games... such as:
> Two Worlds II
> Far Cry II
> Kingdoms of Alamur or whatever... meh
> Witcher 1...


I wouldn't call any of those "shitty."  An example of a "shitty" game is Restricted Area.  It's so shitty, it doesn't even have a Wikipedia article dedicated to it. 


I think ME2 and ME3 would be a 8/10 game if they used the original combat system and RPG elements (I would be ecstatic if you get a HMWSR X, HMWA X, etc.  ME3 could have moved up to 9/10 if they removed all the "child" stuff and put on a single happy ending (Reapers = dead).  It could have moved up to 10/10 if they crushed 90%+ of the bugs currently in the game before it released.

By "combat system," I meant:
-No thermal clips--back to the weapon overheating system.
-Spectre weapons like the HMWSR and HMWA.
-Original weapon mods (like pelonium and tungstun rounds).  Those mods were far more meaningful than the 5 for each weapon now and make you anticipate the kind of target you'll mostly be shooting.
-Get rid of the weight limit: why shouldn't a soldier be able to carry a shotgun, sniper rifle, assault riffle, and pistol without penalty?
-Bring back the crouch.  Most veteran gamers would prefer to crouch and look around a corner than completely expose themselves that the current cover system mandates.
-Grant key binding freedom: don't bind 10 different functions to one key (space bar).  PC gamers are used to having a different key to jump, crouch, sprint, cover, and interact.  I can understand why the controls have to be dumbified for the console audience but PC gamers are NOT console gamers; mice are NOT joysticks.


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## phanbuey (Mar 15, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I wouldn't call any of those "shitty."  An example of a "shitty" game is Restricted Area.  It's so shitty, it doesn't even have a Wikipedia article dedicated to it.



LOL ok, you're right there...

I do think that this game is pretty good for what i expected.  Might get all the DLC and play them through from 1 to 3.


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## Mussels (Mar 15, 2012)

how much happier would people have been, if an ending you could only get by using an ME1 and ME2 save and doing it all just right, got you one paragon and one renegade ending?

one where everyone lives cept the reapers (yay, paragon is a good guy!) and one where everyone dies, or nearly dies, because renegade shephard doesnt give a shit about you filthy nonhumans.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

Yeah, that would make more sense.  Something in between (Reapers dead but so are all major civilization's home planets) as well for those that went with neutral responses.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 15, 2012)

OR Renegade means reapers die and most everyone lives, think about it, renegade isnt so much the bad guy, you simple go from point a to point b and get the job done, might not be pretty but not really worthy of a bad ending either, where as paragon in reality would be the one to lose most things after all no one in real life likes a complete kiss ass, that said im full paragon cause its a game and being the good guy just seems right, then again im an asshole in the real world so go figure haha.

but yea just about anything is better then the current endings including no ending, id rather just have stopped just before you enter the light beam thing,

Also
http://retakemasseffect.chipin.com/retake-mass-effect-childs-play

didnt see this mentioned,  I find it funny that Bioware / EA calls there fans / customers whiny malcontents that have no idea about this or that, but these same people to put a positive spin on the demand for better endings has donated  $43,000 to the childsplay fund in just 48hrs, which helps put video games into the hands of children at hospitals.  Kinda sucks the winds out of EA / Bioware's sails that their angry customers are just pissy emo kids lol


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> OR Renegade means reapers die and most everyone lives, think about it, renegade isnt so much the bad guy, you simple go from point a to point b and get the job done, might not be pretty but not really worthy of a bad ending either, where as paragon in reality would be the one to lose most things after all no one in real life likes a complete kiss ass, that said im full paragon cause its a game and being the good guy just seems right, then again im an asshole in the real world so go figure haha.


I have to disagree.  As Hackette says, "there's always another way."


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## Bjorn_Of_Iceland (Mar 15, 2012)

techtard said:


> It's not Bioware you should be angry at. EA has effectively killed them, just like they have many, many other great game development studios.
> 
> EA forced them to rush out the abomination of a game that is Dragon Age 2.
> 
> ...


Bioware used to be cool.. but then they got indoctrinated by the money r*EA*pers


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## Kwod (Mar 15, 2012)

According to the internet, EA are a laughing stock these days, but the general public keep buying their crappy games and tolerating their grubby profit maximizing schemes.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

Yes, indoctrination is a good fit: "I know your products are crappy but I'll keep buying them." XD


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## NinkobEi (Mar 15, 2012)

They already got your money folks. Complain all you want EA already won. Maybe you'll boycott their next game, but I doubt it! You know why? Because their marketing system has you pinned down and will trick you into buying it.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 15, 2012)

So I saw the "best" ending with 8591 readiness rating score and boy was I disappointed by the sole change.


Spoiler



You see a battered body (head is never shown and the armor doesn't look like what Shepherd is wearing during the final sequence) lying in rubble with an N7 dog tag clearly visible and the body (appeared male) draws a quick breath.  It then cuts away to credits.

Edit: The armor you see in this pre-rendered ending matches the armor Shepherd is wearing in the trailers for the game.  Also, devs talked about that ending and said it was Shepherd.



I have to admit that the best part of any of the endings is the music (predominantly piano) playing.  The rest is pretty "meh."


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## MilkyWay (Mar 16, 2012)

Actually i was wondering why they didn't give a special ending for people who carried their character over and did paragon or renegade. Makes sense to do that as it fits in with the choices gameplay.
HERP A DERP everyone dies would have made more sense.


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## Lochban1088 (Mar 17, 2012)

Hi gents has anyone had problems loading there mass effect 2 saved games in to me 3 ?  or am i just beeing unusherally blond  im using the pc vershion will all dlc,s for all 3 games any help grately appreceated

Just finished the stand alone game as of 30 mins ago while i did enjoy the game i cant help wondering if it was worth the £40 or so i paid for it 1 it refuses to let me load old me2 saves 3 the ending is more or less the same regardless and id confess the mechanics are far from smooth me 2 took me the better part of 2 month to finish doing all the sub mishions and dlc,s  me 3 i compleated in two days cant help but feel a little disaponted with that truth be said.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 17, 2012)

I had no problems but I also installed Mass Effect + DLCs and Mass Effect 2 + DLCs and made sure the saves were good in both games before importing them into Mass Effect 3.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Mar 17, 2012)

Heres my quick opinion on the game



Spoiler



I just beat it today and I ultimately love the games, however I feel like the ending came way to fast and abrupt really with the 3 choices you have at the end that have no pros at all really. So i chose destroy reapers mainly because it was the mission all along and I was starting to hate the reapers, its what anderson would have done, and so i did it for anderson since he died. And if you control the reapers I didnt want to see my shephard die and then have the reapers till roaming which doesnt get rid of the issue from the beginning.


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## Jaffakeik (Mar 17, 2012)

Havent finished it yet, but am not far from it , loving every second of game.Is multiplayer playable?because I havnet even clicked on multiplayer option, till i beat game.


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## TheLaughingMan (Mar 17, 2012)

Arciks said:


> Havent finished it yet, but am not far from it , loving every second of game.Is multiplayer playable?because I havnet even clicked on multiplayer option, till i beat game.



It is actually pretty fun in short bursts. I would not play it myself for more than 30 minutes at a time, but that is me. It is like hoard mode, whatever the hell that is. The same as Moxxy's Area in Borderlands as well.

I just finished trying out the "Co-op" mode/Multiplayer. It is actually pretty fun. You fight out waves (11 total. 10 combat waves and 1 extraction wave) with one type of enemy. For example if you fight Reapers you get attacked by cannibals and husks as foot soldiers, turian hybrids as advanced guard, brutes as the heavy unit, racni mobile cannons as support, and banshee as special unit. You can fight the reapers, Cerberus, or the Geth. I played on unknown enemy and fought 3 rounds of Reapers and 1 round of Cerberus.

The maps are places from the game. Some are diverse and interesting with multiple attack vectors. Others are small claustrophobic areas with only 1 to 3 ways to attack a given position.

To shake up the monotony of just killing, the game will random give you specialized mission goals to accomplish. I am not sure how many but I experienced kill commander unit (time limit), hack single terminal to steal info.(random could give good or terrible position to defend), and hack multiple locations to gain foothold in area (short but terminal you hack is random).

The fun comes in the fact you are limited to a single class with a single set of skills. This means given your class and fighting style, you will not be well suited to fight at least 2 types of enemies. You have to depend on your squad to take care of what they are good at while you do the same. Beyond built in biotic abilities, everything else is a consumable system. You may only have 5 health packs period. Not per wave or per round, period. It brings a dynamic to it as you may want to give up on the mission and save your good shit for later or honestly believe using your 1 shot missile on the banshee will give you enough breathing room to win the wave and save the match. 

For those who plan don't care, I played 4 matches, failed 2 in wave 7 and 10. I am already level 6 or 7 in multiplayer and the galaxy readiness is up to 64%. So for about 30 minutes of my time I gained 14%. So you only need to play multiplayer for about 1:45 (about 15 matches) to get 100% readiness if your skill is about the same as mine. Results may vary.


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## Jaffakeik (Mar 17, 2012)

Finished ME3 with 2 endings, played a bit of multiplayer to lvl10 was quite fun, but thats it for me deleted game.


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## TheLaughingMan (Mar 18, 2012)

Galactic readiness is not permanent. It will fall gradually as you don't play the game.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

And it doesn't need to be 100% to get the best ending.  I had over 7000 on my paragon save so only needed galatic readiness to be around 70% to get the 5000 points necessary for the best ending.


The Falcon "assault rifle" is awesome because it shoots grenades.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

M-99 Saber for me with Clip upgrade and damage upgrade,

13 rounds semi auto that hit like the Black Widow Anti-Material Rifle 2 rounds to kill most targets all about precision shooting for me on ME3


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

Yeah, that's good too.  Advantage of the Falcon is the grenades are proximity so you can hit guys hiding around a corner.

I really need to play more with the Saber though.  The real advantage of the snipers is the Concentration Mod that allows headshot after headshot.  The Widow will kill most enemies with two hits on Insanity (shot one removes shield/barrier, shot two kills).


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

yup Widow is awesome problem was the 3 shots,  the M99 Saber fixes that its I use the Black Widow and Saber, together,  Widow for long range Saber for precision mid range fighting, damn this is so accurate it cant be beat, i used it to replace the M-96 Mattock which used extensively in ME2 and ME3,  same principle but the M-99 just hits far harder,


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

Same with the Mattock.  A damn shame you don't get the Sabre and Falcon until the end of the game. 

Mattock is a middle-ground: faster than Sabre but not as fast as the Avenger.


Oh ME2 on insanity, everything had a shield or barrier.  ME3 on insanity, it doesn't change.  There's also no mechs on ME3.  The worst enemies on ME2 were those big mechs that had a shield, armor, and health on insanity (not to mention pushing you away from your position and exploding on headshot).


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

yup but i prefer accuracy over spray and pray in ME,  mostly because the spray and pray weapons just feel ridiculously weak when it comes to damage,  aka fast firing assualt rifles feel weaker then the SMGs which means id rather have an SMG backup with an accurate rifle.


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## Depth (Mar 18, 2012)

Keep in mind once you've played a fair bit of multiplayer and gotten a high percentage, if you stop playing multiplayer after a few days it will drop by one point per day back down to 50%.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

crazyeyesreaper said:


> yup but i prefer accuracy over spray and pray in ME,  mostly because the spray and pray weapons just feel ridiculously weak when it comes to damage,  aka fast firing assualt rifles feel weaker then the SMGs which means id rather have an SMG backup with an accurate rifle.


Yeah, which is bull.  On ME, the HMWA X could go full auto and get no spread with a weapon mod.  ME2 and ME3, you gotta put up with huge trade-offs.

I don't bother with SMG on ME3.  They just don't hit hard enough.  The Locust is the most accurate but even full auto on insanity, it took freak'in forever to bring those Screamer barrier down.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

i have no issues with the SMGs i use power over accuracy, and mostly for close range, again at close range damage doesnt matter much

just need faster fire rate to stun husks etc, if i need power thats what the Saber is for, pick them off from a distance before i need to pray and spray,  then again my whole squad uses M 99 saber so.... most enemies dont make it any further then mid range lol


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

You must be playing on normal. 

Mattock is probably the best for husks.  The bullets do enough damage it makes quick work of them and with 16 shots, it's okay if you miss a few times.

Husks are probably the hardest to hit because their movement is rather irratic.  Everything is pretty easy to hit in the head with the snipers and concentration mod except husks.  Their heads bob so much and they are constantly changing their trajectory.  It's best just to hit them in the body and, with virtually all snipers, it's a one-hit-kill proposition any way so it doesn't really matter.  The Viper is the best sniper rifle for husks.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

nah im on insanity its still no big deal, then again i use armor piercing rounds etc any kind of ammo bonus i use, never stop using it i cycle between each character using the bonuses where it gets added 50% to all squad members,   makes the SMGs viable and usefull for close range fighting,   again mid to long range its Saber  long range black widow primarily,  I just have ammo abilities hot keyed to my mouse makes life alot easier. and to bypass needing multiplayer, I simply broke into the coalesced.bin file and edited all war asset bonuses to be just enough that if you play a perfect game youll hit just over 5000 EMS at 50%


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

There's your problem.  AP rounds substantially reduce damage to everything except armor.


I mem hacked (I gave detailed instructions a few posts back) one of the Alliance resources to add 10000 points so with 50% readiness rating, it was guarenteed to hit 5000+.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Mar 18, 2012)

yea i rebalanced the entire game in terms of war assets so no collect 1 auto win, you still need to do everything right 

like i said AP or ANY OTHER AMMO that works

so Armor Piercing, Warp, etc etc whatevers needed i just click the hotkey i set for it, as my squad members all have said ammo set to give the entire squad that ability at 50% when triggered so if i use Warp Ammo with Liara me and say Garrus get it at 50%, etc etc by doing this i can make up for the lack of punch an SMG has at close range,  

Saber dosent need any bonus really at mid range or if im not swarmed its perfect,  only time insanity is a problem is at end game with the massive number of brutes, they banged me up a few times.


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## FordGT90Concept (Mar 18, 2012)

I meant the armor peicing weapon mod, not the effect.  The mod can't be enabled/disabled while in combat.

I never took the squad effect because the NPCs are rarely shooting at the same thing I am so it puts them at a disadvantage.  I always shoot at the heaviest target in the area and let them take care of the closer enemies that I let past.

I was using disruptor ammo with a Locust against the big Cerberus mech.  It took 30-60 seconds of firing to wear the shield off.

I never have problems with brutes--just got to stay mobile and warp helps a ton (weakens the armor to further hits).  Those Screamers are the ones I always have problems with (seems like they have a lot more armor than brutes are and a whole lot smaller of a target to hit).


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## MilkyWay (Mar 19, 2012)

LOL This video pretty much summed up my thoughts on the ending.


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## KainXS (Mar 20, 2012)

yup, I got so pissed off when I saw the first 2 ending choices, joker gets ur girl no matter what and you die


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## Depth (Mar 20, 2012)

Singularity + warp all the way

Bring EDI for overload and Ashley for disruptor rounds once you run into shielded opponents


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## Wrigleyvillain (Mar 20, 2012)

Party on The Normandy:


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## Yukikaze (Mar 30, 2012)

I just finished the game. I have one thing to say: WHAT. THE. FUCK?!



Spoiler



I knew that we're going to get a Battlestar Galactica ending ever since I heard that the ending was bad. I just didn't realize how much of a Battlestar Galactica ending we're going to get, and how much the ending would actually suck.

Not only the ending appears completely torn away from the rest of the games and makes absolutely zero sense. It provides zero closure. It resolves nothing as to the future of the characters. It is an ending to force an ending.

Shepard might be dead or alive, but who cares, really? Nothing he ever did ever mattered in any of those endings. What happens to everyone else? What happens to Tali (my romantic interest)? What is that weird-ass skyline over where ever it is the Normandy ends up at? What the fuck is going on?

Where is the final confrontation with Harbinger? Where is the heroic last stand of Shepard as he dies to save the galaxy (These endings really don't count)? Where are the short stories of the characters that survive and where they go on from here? Where is the memorial video of those who did not? Where is some foretelling as to what the future holds?

Seriously? Bioware? THIS? Argh.


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## techtard (Mar 30, 2012)

Personally I didnt think the ending was too bad. I thought it was a bit brief, and I also thought it was a possible fake-out and that they were either releaseing some free DLC to really finish the game, or paid DLC.



Spoiler



I picked the renegade option at the end and lived, when that freaky space ghost kid said I was going to die. I thought it was either a hallucination or possible indoctrination.

It wouldn't be the first time Bioware messed with their players. The whole KOTOR and Revan thing was pretty nice. If they are pulling off another fake-out then it is epic. That could just be wishful thinking on my part, though.


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## KainXS (Mar 30, 2012)

the ending was a disgrace, it was basically a thrown together incomplete ending where they pretty much have decided, "hey lets charge for what really happens" or "hey, f**k it". whenever you have a ending and you need to convince yourself it wasn't that bad or you need to try to figure out what happened, . . . . . . thats a bad ending.

and DLC ending i say screw that, I don't want to buy a ending for a game I already bought, thats an "add on", what bioware did was pretty much make it so the ending is hyped with a terrible ending to me so they can turn around and charge for one that is actually decent to me and thats a pathetic way to make money off DLC.

but it wasn't a bad game, just a dissapointing ending.


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## techtard (Apr 3, 2012)

I didn't need to convince myself that the ending wasn't bad. My playthrough and the choices I made and the ending I chose went together pretty well. 
I will admit that the last 10 minutes jumped the shark, and they re-used one of the major moments from the original Mass Effect. 

The one thing I noticed was that a lot of players were fine with the ending until reading about it on the internet, and watched the endings on youtube. Then they started to rage. I personally saw this play out with a few of my friends and aquantinces.
This is just mass hysteria in the internet age.


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## Mussels (Apr 3, 2012)

techtard said:


> I didn't need to convince myself that the ending wasn't bad. My playthrough and the choices I made and the ending I chose went together pretty well.
> I will admit that the last 10 minutes jumped the shark, and they re-used one of the major moments from the original Mass Effect.
> 
> The one thing I noticed was that a lot of players were fine with the ending until reading about it on the internet, and watched the endings on youtube. Then they started to rage. I personally saw this play out with a few of my friends and aquantinces.
> This is just mass hysteria in the internet age.



thats because people were ready to replay the game, assuming they got the worst ending.

then they found out the alternate endings were the same.


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## FordGT90Concept (Apr 3, 2012)

techtard said:


> I will admit that the last 10 minutes jumped the shark, and they re-used one of the major moments from the original Mass Effect.


What "moments" was that?




techtard said:


> The one thing I noticed was that a lot of players were fine with the ending until reading about it on the internet, and watched the endings on youtube.


They went to the internet to find an explaination of what they saw only to discover there really isn't one.  Then they rage with disappointment.  It would be like seeing Tinkerbell pop up in the middle of a Terminator action scene.  First reaction is, "okay?"  Second reaction is, "that ruined the movie!"




Mussels said:


> thats because people were ready to replay the game, assuming they got the worst ending.
> 
> then they found out the alternate endings were the same.


This too.  The difference between endings is minor and to add insult to injury, you have to replay 30-60 minutes worth of the game just to see the other endings.


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## techtard (Apr 3, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> What "moments" was that?
> 
> 
> 
> They went to the internet to find an explaination of what they saw only to discover there really isn't one.  Then they rage with disappointment.  It's like seeing Tinkbell pop up in the middle of a Terminator action scene.  First reaction is, "okay?"  Second reaction is, "that ruined the movie!"





Spoiler



When you tell the Illusive man that he is Indoctrinated and he kills himself. Saren did the same thing at the end of the original game. The fact that they re-used that scene and the fact that everything is so surreal makes me think that the ending was a fake-out or maybe just pt. 1 of the 'real' ending. Then again, that could be the end of the game and they are just trying to gouge us with DLC now. We'll see.


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## FordGT90Concept (Apr 3, 2012)

techtard said:


> Spoiler
> 
> 
> 
> When you tell the Illusive man that he is Indoctrinated and he kills himself. Saren did the same thing at the end of the original game. The fact that they re-used that scene and the fact that everything is so surreal makes me think that the ending was a fake-out or maybe just pt. 1 of the 'real' ending. Then again, that could be the end of the game and they are just trying to gouge us with DLC now. We'll see.


That actually made sense.  It was everything that happened after that point that didn't make sense.

I don't think their original intent was to change the ending with DLC (e.g. ME2's nor ME's ending is changed by DLC).  They're going to release an alternate ending via DLC though because of the huge demand for it.  EA smells money there and once they get the scent of money, they don't let it go.

The DLCs are (excepting the alternate ending) most likely aimed at increasing your readiness rating so you don't have to play multiplayer in order to get the "best" ending (N7 suit).  I'm gonna guess that the best, alternate ending will require 6000+ readiness rating forcing a lot of players to buy DLC just to get a base-readiness rating high enough to get it.


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## Kwod (Apr 6, 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8_j-ebfaI

Gamers are the problem, not the big corps and review sites.....wake up to yourselves at once!!!!!!


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## FordGT90Concept (Apr 6, 2012)

Do I smell sarcasm?  Because if I don't, you linked the wrong video. XD


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## Kwod (Apr 6, 2012)

Video is correct!!


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## Yukikaze (Apr 6, 2012)

Right. The customer is the problem. In most fields of business, that very statement would sound outright insane. Probably sounds very logical in the eyes of EA brass, though


----------



## KainXS (Apr 6, 2012)

EA and insane ideas, thats something new?


----------



## Kwod (Apr 7, 2012)

Yukikaze said:


> Right. The customer is the problem. In most fields of business, that very statement would sound outright insane. Probably sounds very logical in the eyes of EA brass, though



These scumbags are disconnected from the "people", and like Don Draper, sleep on a bed of money.


----------



## Kwod (Apr 7, 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_9LTcwYic&feature=g-u-u&context=G28e0360FUAAAAAAABAA

Angry Joe gives EA the ass.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 8, 2012)

Your link made me search for the "Indoctrination Theory:"
*DO NOT WATCH UNLESS YOU PLAYED THROUGH ALL THREE GAMES*


Spoiler: CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED














That actually makes a lot of sense.  BiowEAr should have taken that explaination and ran with it.  The Extended Cut DLC should have the Normandy's crew picking your sorry ass off the ground (if you made the right decisions) for a round of beers and a lot of council ass-kissing (assuming they aren't dead). XD


Screw BiowEAr! I'll just pretend that conclusion was actually their intent.


----------



## MilkyWay (Apr 8, 2012)

The more i think about it the more it confuses me.



Spoiler



Even if its all turned out to be Reaper indoctrination it still doesn't really make sense, if you make the Geth live with the Quarians then choosing to destroy synthetics makes no sense nether does the theory that all tech and synthetics can never live with organics (because eventually organics will create tech and thus recreate the cycle and eventually kill all organics), unless you assume that the Geth and Quarian peace will never last. Choosing the kill all synthetic and tech option in his mind its like hes thinking what the reapers thought all along.



TBH i dont really care anymore, i wish they had one ending that made sense and just rolled with it.


----------



## Kwod (Apr 8, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Your link made me search for the "Indoctrination Theory:"
> .



I'm glad this fiasco's had the uproar, otherwise they'll think they can bait and switch us indefinitely....certainly EA at least.
EA=games destroyer


----------



## Deleted member 67555 (Apr 8, 2012)

How to have the perfect ME3 ending
ME1


Spoiler



Save the council



ME2


Spoiler



Have sex with Miranda, everyone survives but Thane doesn't matter, Tali must not be exiled, Legion is a must!



ME3


Spoiler



need 100% Galactic readiness



super ME3 spoiler


Spoiler



The war between the Geth and the Quarians must end and it only happens if Tali isn't exiled and legion survives and you destroy the geth server and do all the other Quarian missions first with the destroy the Reaper base last and let Legion upload...Tali must be an Admiral which only happens if she isn't exiled in ME2



Extra Super Spoiler


Spoiler



If you finish the game with 100% Galactic battle readiness you get 3 endings to choose from 1) Control the Reapers...This is the route The Illusive man took 2)Synthesize....This is the route Saren took 3) Destroy the Reapers...This is the renegade choice and the only choice where there is a hint that Shepard survives



Extra Super Duper Spoiler


Spoiler



The kid in the beginning that you see die and that you have dreams about is a form of indoctrination....He is also the catalyst imo this is no coincidence....of all the endings the only one that destroys this child and the only one in which he doesn't smirk/smile is Destroy the Reapers...


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 8, 2012)

MilkyWay said:


> The more i think about it the more it confuses me.
> 
> 
> 
> ...





Spoiler



It's a ruse.  You're either giving into indoctrination or you're destroying the Reapers.  The indoctrination is attempting to make you believe that the mass relays and all technology will be destroyed along with them in order to convince you not to destroy them.  If you were the Reapers, wouldn't you try to convince humans that destroying them will have bad and lasting unintended consequences?


----------



## Frizz (Apr 9, 2012)

Wow I feel like I've wasted my time and money on this game after watching the ending... possibly the worse way to end a trilogy. The even more crappy part is that all 3 endings are very similar whether its control, synthetic or synthesis. 

It is like all the choices I made in the game until now didn't matter as it was going to have the same ending anyway and it didn't matter who I romanced, who I reunited etc... lame Bioware lame...


----------



## Mussels (Apr 9, 2012)

random said:


> Wow I feel like I've wasted my time and money on this game after watching the ending... possibly the worse way to end a trilogy. The even more crappy part is that all 3 endings are very similar whether its control, synthetic or synthesis.
> 
> It is like all the choices I made in the game until now didn't matter as it was going to have the same ending anyway and it didn't matter who I romanced, who I reunited etc... lame Bioware lame...



watch the youtube video above. it makes more sense that way.


----------



## techtard (Apr 9, 2012)

NO! They are different... they have different color lights!


----------



## KainXS (Apr 9, 2012)

the ending that solves everthing 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffj_IJ6FWac

skittles anyone


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 9, 2012)

Ha! Rainbow! XD


----------



## KainXS (Apr 16, 2012)

someone actually contacted the better business bureau and they responded(they almost never respond to much more serious things)

http://www.bbb.org/blog/2012/04/mas...-effect-on-its-consumers-for-better-or-worse/



> The issue at stake here is, did Bio Ware falsely advertise?  Technically, yes, they did.  In the first bullet point, where it states “the decisions you make completely shape your experience”, there is no indecision in that statement.  It is an absolute.  The next statement is not so absolute.  It states “your choices drive powerful outcomes”.  A consumer would have to very carefully analyze this statement to come to a conclusion that the game’s outcome is not “wholly” determined by one’s choices.  This statement, really though, is very subject to interpretation.  Also this is just a small example of their advertising and does not take into account anything that might have been said, as far as their public relations and other advertising campaigns.



they make a odd determination, basically "hey someone can sue you now"  which is pretty useless, they need to redirect the attention to something more serious, kinda like the charity they mentioned that I never even heard of:shadedshu I would've donated if I knew it existed before it closed.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 16, 2012)

You can still donate to Child's Play.


----------



## TheLaughingMan (Apr 16, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> You can still donate to Child's Play.



Those were terrible movies and I want no part of bringing them back.


----------



## RevengE (Apr 17, 2012)

So, I've played through the series. From reading some of this thread it seems its not worth the money. Should I just wait until it reaches the bargain bin? That's what I did with ME2, lol.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (Apr 17, 2012)

yea bargin bin + w.e DLC they take on would be the best bet.


----------



## MilkyWay (Apr 17, 2012)

Yeah, i also recommend to wait till it's a cheap price. It's good for 1 playthrough.


----------



## RevengE (Apr 17, 2012)

Well, looks like I will wait.


----------



## techtard (Apr 18, 2012)

They may never release a bargain bin version that has all the DLC. Mass Effect 2 is 2 years old and they still make you buy the DLCs seperately.

EA has taken greed and predatory practices to a new level.

There's also a rumor floating around that they intended to release the game broken and unfinished, and were going to sell the 'real' ending as DLC.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 18, 2012)

Mass Effect as well.  EA is not one for bundling and if they do (like The Sims), it is always incomplete.


Considering how well the Indoctrination Theory fits, I wouldn't be surprised at all if that is the case.  There's a lot of design elements that are pointed out within the Indoctrination Theory that were either very intentional or very shoddy.  Bioware is capable of both so only time will tell.


----------



## RevengE (Apr 18, 2012)

Never got the DLC for ME2. Prolly won't for ME3 when the price drops to "worth it" status.


----------



## techtard (Apr 18, 2012)

Overlord was Ok for ME2. Lair of the Shadow Broker was pretty badass.
I had leftover Bioware points from Dragon Age Origins, so I got the DLC for Mass Effect.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 19, 2012)

Lair of the Shadow Broker was the only one that was worth it for ME2.


----------



## RevengE (Apr 20, 2012)

I may have to check that out. I actually liked ME1 & 2. I had a feeling 3 would be a let down.


----------



## lyndonguitar (Apr 20, 2012)

I got one thing to say if you think the ending suck.



Spoiler



GOOGLE "SHEPARD'S INDOCTRINATION THEORY"

or watch this, its long but good explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck


----------



## techtard (Apr 20, 2012)

Indoc. Theory already brought up in this thread. Might be in a spoiler tag though.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 20, 2012)

lyndonguitar said:


> I got one thing to say if you think the ending suck.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's not what sucks, it is the fact Bioware outright said it wasn't true.  They basically upheld their crappy ending.  Not long after (and lots of boos/bad reviews/bad publicity), they announced a free DLC (until 2014) that will "extend" the ending with more cutscenes.


----------



## lyndonguitar (Apr 20, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> That's not what sucks, it is the fact Bioware outright said it wasn't true.  They basically upheld their crappy ending.  Not long after (and lots of boos/bad reviews/bad publicity), they announced a free DLC (until 2014) that will "extend" the ending with more cutscenes.



maybe they didn't want people believing in it yet so they could still surprise us with the DLC. If they say it now, theres no point making an explanation DLC. 

maybe they planned this theory all along with a surprise DLC in the end, and planned to mindfuck us like inception did but they didnt anticipate the fans hating on the game because of the ending so plan got messed up.

all this is a maybe, Im keeping my hopes up for this game.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Apr 20, 2012)

But making people pay for the real ending, that's going to annoy them even more than that POS ending being the true ending.  If that was truly intent, hopefully BiowEAr learned their lesson from that experiment.


----------



## RevengE (Apr 20, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> But making people pay for the real ending, that's going to annoy them even more than that POS ending being the true ending.  If that was truly intent, hopefully BiowEAr learned their lesson from that experiment.



That's insane. From a consumers standpoint  I paid 60.00 for this game, Why should I have to pay more for DLC/Alternate endings? That is the #1 reason I never get DLC. It should be included for free.


----------



## KainXS (Apr 20, 2012)

what we got is the real ending and they said they would make the dlc free for a long time after its release basically they made a pile of poop ending and need to patch it up to satisfy people and the indoctrination theory is a theory and its only that, its probably all bs(who knows) and bioware has said no to it already, but they can always use it to save their asses in the long run because people want something positive to believe in.

The Pay for a decent ending thing has been going on for a while now though, after I realized that I calmed down and just said who cares myself, this is how games are evolving, we get less and less content and thats that, can't blame the developers either really, if you have ever worked in developing anything, you know what I mean.


----------



## techtard (Apr 20, 2012)

You need to look up John Riccitiello on Youtube, there are videos out there that explain his views on DLC and gouging his customers. He is one of the head guys at EA, and he is a greedy, greedy man.

EA is going to push the DLC boundry as far as it will go until people finally stand up for their rights as paying customers. Their games are already rushed, and shorter, with more and more content cut to sell as DLC.

Too many mindless consumer-whores buy DLC without thinking about the consquences.


----------



## lyndonguitar (Apr 21, 2012)

techtard said:


> You need to look up John Riccitiello on Youtube, there are videos out there that explain his views on DLC and gouging his customers. He is one of the head guys at EA, and he is a greedy, greedy man.
> 
> EA is going to push the DLC boundry as far as it will go until people finally stand up for their rights as paying customers. Their games are already rushed, and shorter, with more and more content cut to sell as DLC.
> 
> Too many mindless consumer-whores buy DLC without thinking about the consquences.



just saw his wiki the other day. it was edited with reapers and insults and shit.

I saved the page, goes like this 


Spoiler



Nationality	Reaper
Education	Bachelor of Science
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley
Occupation	CEO
Employer	Star Kid
Known for	CEO of Electronic Arts
Salary	$800,000.00
Net worth	$10 million
Predecessor	Sovereign

John Riccitiello is the oldest rEAper of Electronic Arts (EA).

He received his Reaping Degree degree from the Catalyst School of Colors at the University of Space Magic, Berkeley.


I laughed my ass off when I saw it, now its gone.


----------



## D007 (May 7, 2012)

lyndonguitar said:


> I laughed my ass off when I saw it, now its gone.



All I know, is I felt kinda shafted, at the end of ME 3.. Maybe I expected too much.. But I usually don't.. Idk.. It seemed to fast and it seemed like everything I did, in the previous games, amounted to pretty much nothing but text lines.. It seemed very anti-climactic..


----------



## lyndonguitar (May 7, 2012)

D007 said:


> All I know, is I felt kinda shafted, at the end of ME 3.. Maybe I expected too much.. But I usually don't.. Idk.. It seemed to fast and it seemed like everything I did, in the previous games, amounted to pretty much nothing but text lines.. It seemed very anti-climactic..



The Games/Series is awesome overall except for that ending, I nearly cried at some points of the last game, 

First game was about welcoming you into the world of mass effect, what is this?, what is that?, what are the reapers? 

Second game was about questioning "can we defeat the Reapers?, About what they can do".

Third game was about "Can we survive?, How can we defeat them?"

all is good until the ending which was OKAY, but wasn't able to close the epicness of the whole series together properly. maybe its just indoc. theory and its a fake ending, maybe its the true ending they fcked up at the very end. I dunno..

if they could only translate the epicness of this game into a movie and not lose a single epicness. + good ending = IMO will be one of the greatest movies ever, can even surpass Star Wars or LOTR in my list.(in fact it is right there in the top even though its just a game!)


----------



## FordGT90Concept (May 7, 2012)

I thought Mass Effect was 9/10, Mass Effect 2 was 4/10, Mass Effect 3 was 6/10.  The game went straight off a cliff after the original.



Spoiler



The first game you explored really interesting planets and mysteries from Feros to Virmire.  You had a boss: Saren, and a super-boss: Soverign.  At many points, there were huge decisions players had to make with far-reaching consequences.

In the second game, it was almost entirely about expanding your crew and indebting you to Cerberus.  There was no super-boss, just a human form of what you already defeated.  There was no other boss.  The entire game felt like off-topic filler.  They also dumbed down the combat to a point the game went from excellent to play on PC to boring.  And thermal clips?  WTF?  I thought the infinite ammo with cooldown was awesome from the original.

The third game's only redeeming factors were seeing Tali's and Wrex's story coming full circle as well as bringing more weapon variety back to the game.  Except for those two plots that started in the original game, the story felt mostly dead.  How they ended it merely confirmed the suspicion.


----------



## Akrian (May 8, 2012)

Well I've finally bought the game ( found a cheap 20$ copy, couldn't pass on that).
Still playing it. My impressions so far : well it's Mass Effect alright, and dialog is as usual pretty awesome, cinematics are top notch, graphics are ok (somehow I thought that ME2 looked better 0_o), kicked catalyst profile to edge detect and 24xEQ, maxed everything I can, so it looks semi-sharp most of the time.
Now about the game and the story so far ( still havn't beaten it yet): I personally think that this has got to be probably the most boring one out of all MEs.
First one was all about exploration and discovery, the establishment of the universe etc, pretty awesome game.
I looooved the second one even more,  because the intro was so damn epic, the improved combat, awesome and INTERESTING crew, and their loyalty missions, liked the new worlds to explore etc, it was great ( except for the humanoid reaper, that was prly the lamest moment in the game).
And so now I'm playing third one, and the story doesnt sound all that great, in fact it's pretty boring, after all that "holy shit reapers are "ze ancient evil of untold strength"" we get them invading earth, and.. you get to go all around the galaxy, and I don't care how fast normandy is, you get to travel back and forth 100500 times, and the earth is still there. For some bad-ass super race they are pretty damn slow at trying to wipe one single planet of least developed beings in the galaxy. 
Next : this kid flashbacks ( considering the current official ending) are pretty pointless. Crew : boring crew ( except for EDI and Joker). 
Third: this is flipping WAR, why sheppard decided that it is illigal to carry portable termo-nuclear rocket launcher ? why such a useful tool was put away on the shelf and forgotten?
Why do I have to go and play multiplayer to pump the readiness level to get best ending ? Why multiplayer basically interfearing with my single-player experience ? this is frustrating, if I want good multi, I play BF3, if I want console-fest I get Gears 3 or Uncharted 3. =\ 

Oh and this is also got the be one of the easiest games I ever played in my life - pimped chakram rifle that you get from Kingdoms of Amalur has got to be the most overpowered rifle ever thanks to AOE damage its basically a sniper-rifle with faster rate of fire, aoe explosions and 57+7 ammo capacity, takes tanks and anything except for banshies in less then one clip =\ combined with insta-recharge that makes you pretty much a god in this game since first self-deployed mission.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (May 8, 2012)

Akrian said:


> why such a useful tool was put away on the shelf and forgotten?


My guess?  EA wants your money.  Buy it in a DLC.


----------



## Akrian (May 12, 2012)

Well I've finished it couple of days ago. Endings are indeed crappy. I guess by the end of the development cycle Bioware decided to unleash that rabid Dragon Age 2 team, and their writers. Well let's hope that this "free till 2014 dlc ending" will be better


----------



## techtard (May 12, 2012)

I haven't plyed the single player game again since I finished it shortly after launch. There's no word yet on when they are releaseing the DLC, but I have lowered my expectations. 

Mass Effect looked like it was going to be this generation's Star Wars.
And instead of releasing Return of the Jedi as part 3, they gave us The Phantom Menace.
I can't believe they ended a 5 year epic trilogy with such a whimper, and not a roar.


----------



## GreiverBlade (May 12, 2012)

i have ME 1 2 3 collector on xbox360 ME 1 2 collector on pc and unfortunatelly ME 3not collector on PC 
(nope im not a fanatic ... im worse... )

ME3 on Pc so far no bugs or glitch on my specs (even run on a C60 netbook when im on pause at job xD, history amazing, did 1st one raw run no save imported i got a Tali suicide ... wich bugged me beyond resucitation... so i redid ME 1 and 2 importing my save re doing the plot at my taste did the right end (right not right ... you know the oposit to left xD ) i keep redoing ME 1 2 3 toying with the story to see all faces ... pretty entertaining.

opinion on End ... well will its quite a surprise ... its kinda Cute since its a old story telling of "the Shepard" hero, might not suits everyones tastes but its like that.

(i own also Reckoning : Kingdom of Amalur ... well my R:KoA in shepard armor xD is good looking but the Omniscient blade are rather weak (dont care) but... HELL in ME3 Chakram launcher once on V mark its ... HUGE if not : totally OP ... i use it when i rerun 1st run i prefered the Galarian Scorpion as a "sniper handgun" )



Akrian said:


> Well I've finished it couple of days ago. Endings are indeed crappy. I guess by the end of the development cycle Bioware decided to unleash that rabid Dragon Age 2 team, and their writers. Well let's hope that this "free till 2014 dlc ending" will be better



nope its not a new end but some explanation on the current end and links with the story to make the end less blury



Akrian said:


> Third: this is flipping WAR, why sheppard decided that it is illigal to carry portable termo-nuclear rocket launcher ? why such a useful tool was put away on the shelf and forgotten?



funny for the M-920 Cain "portable nuke" was a nickname for a non nuclear weapon since its a "LMAC" firing "HVER":  
Normandy's scientists have prototyped a modified version of traditional high-explosive rounds that is applied to a 25-gram slug. When accelerated to 5 km/s, the round is devastating. Though a technically inaccurate label, this prototype weapon is nicknamed the "Nuke Launcher," and its high-explosive matrix generates an archetypical mushroom cloud on impact. 

as said despit his name it isnt a nuclear weapon but rather a "HVER" launcher

and yes it is in ME3 ... but on "last misson" altho many other weapon are allready OP to use before the return of the Cain

The Mass Effect 3 Cain model is considerably smaller than its Mass Effect 2 iteration.

(i cant say that EA didnt fucked up ME ... since im a fanatic (or worse...) i hate them for that (tho i also have DA:O DAII ...) i allways say you will never get me twice but i allways fall for it ... stoopid me )


----------



## CMetaphor (May 26, 2012)

Hello fellow ME3'ers! Anyone round here playing MP? I ask because i saw this "operation shieldwall" thing last night, so I tried doing what it said and "promoting" 3 of my guys to the SP campaign as war assests... the only problem is nothing happened after that? I thought I'd get something special by doing that (which is the requirement for the operation) but nadda.... anyone know whats going on?


----------



## techtard (May 26, 2012)

You get the reward after the event is done. If the overall goal is achieved too, you get free Victory and Commendation packs.
Sometimes it takes a few days after the event is over. I had one that took until the following Thursday after one of the ME3 events.

There is a new multiplayer DLC coming out on the 29th, it is free if you have an online pass for this game. 
Play a lot this weekend, and save your money until the DLC comes out to buy Spectre and Premium Spectre packs from the shop. Then you might be able to snag the new classes or weapons.


----------



## crazyeyesreaper (May 26, 2012)

nobody really cares at this point sadly ME3 is dead for most TPUers now lol everyone gave up caring awhile back.


----------



## pr0n Inspector (Jul 10, 2012)

EC is ok, not great, but okay. But the best part is that it shuts those overanalyzing NGE-fanboyish IT nut jobs up.


----------



## Frag_Maniac (Jul 11, 2012)

pr0n Inspector said:


> ..the best part is that it shuts those overanalyzing NGE-fanboyish IT nut jobs up.


So true, I was getting so sick of the intellectual wanna be comments about indoctrination theory. So many were certain Shepard was indoctrinated and just imagining everything leading up to and including the ending. 

One in particular is this young player that was hired as mod on one forum I used to hang out on. He acts like he knows everything about the game, yet is oblivious to the fact that there's no clear indication that you have to do certain missions in a specific order to avoid getting locked out of some. He kept insisting I just didn't know how to play the game, yet admitted he lacked the skill to play most shooters on anything but the default difficulty.

Why is it hybrid RPG/Shooter games always bring out the lunatic fanboys that invariably always make up excuses for every major flaw in the games they obsess over?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 11, 2012)

Indoctrination Theory got a lot of support because it made sense.  The official ending, Extended Cut included, really doesn't.  It's a cop-out, a nuke-the-story, disenfranchise everyone but worshipers of Bioware ending.

For me, Mass Effect effectively ended when Shepherd killed Soverign.  Everything that came after that was trash.


----------



## techtard (Jul 11, 2012)

The EC ending was far better than the original, but the ending to the game was still pretty lame. The fact that the lead writer was shifted over to SW:TOR really showed.

If you look into the ending though, there could be some subtle context with the the Reapers and Catalyst. But it's not really worth examining. EA has turned Mass Effect into just another cash grab with their endless DLC and rushed development cycles.


----------



## BumbleBee (Jul 11, 2012)

techtard said:


> The EC ending was far better than the original, but the ending to the game was still pretty lame. The fact that the lead writer was shifted over to SW:TOR really showed.
> 
> If you look into the ending though, there could be some subtle context with the the Reapers and Catalyst. But it's not really worth examining. EA has turned Mass Effect into just another cash grab with their endless DLC and rushed development cycles.



Mass Effect was penned to be a trilogy from the very beginning. Drew Karpyshyn joined Star Wars: The Old Republic because he penned Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic and was probably no longer needed. the franchise has sold 10.2 million copies including PC which isn't a lot. I think it's the money EA spends on marketing and people who are emotionally attached to the series that make it bigger than it really is.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 11, 2012)

"10.2 million isn't a lot?" It was more than enough for EA to make spin-offs, sequels, and bring it to PlayStation 3.  Only ME3 was heavily marketed.


----------



## BumbleBee (Jul 11, 2012)

EA isn't Activision. Mass Effect is made out to be this larger than life IP like a Gears of War, Halo, The Elder Scrolls, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, etc but it doesn't sell anywhere close to those properties.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 12, 2012)

Mass Effect sold about 3 million copies for each title.  That's pretty close to TES (better than some like Oblivion and worse than others like Skyrim).  Nothing to scoff at, regardless.  That's actually exceptional for being a young IP.


----------



## BumbleBee (Jul 12, 2012)

Oblivion sold over 6 million copies on X360/PS3 worldwide. not even counting PC.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 12, 2012)

The link I was looking at must have been for one platform.  Morrowind sold over 4 million copies so that's a closer comparison.  Mass Effect 2 sold over 4 million copies too.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises
It sold more than Rock Band, Hitman, The Lord of the Rings, Bomberman, Colin McRae Rally, EA Sports NASCAR series, RollerCoaster Tycoon, BioShock, Ninja Gaiden, Doom, etc.


----------



## BumbleBee (Jul 12, 2012)

would you agree that Assassin's Creed feels like a smaller IP compared to Mass Effect?


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 12, 2012)

Of course not but it also has 5 cores games (4 already out) and 7 spin-offs of the franchise.  Mass Effect only has 3 games and 3 spin-offs.  Assassin's Creed was also heavily advertised from the beginning. e.g. (this one got a lot of air time)
[yt]b-mHVs5gJng[/yt]


----------



## BumbleBee (Jul 12, 2012)

I feel Assassin's Creed is a smaller IP despite the first game selling more copies than Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3. Mass Effect is the most ambitious game I have ever played. lots of games have shitty endings. all the hate is because people are emotionally attached to it. if EA announced a sequel tomorrow the internet would go crazy but Assassin's Creed.. not so much



> Assassin's Creed (X360) - 5.11m
> Assassin's Creed (PS3) - 4.39m
> Assassin's Creed II (X360) - 4.79m
> Assassin's Creed II (PS3) - 4.97m
> ...


----------



## Frag_Maniac (Jul 12, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Indoctrination Theory got a lot of support because it made sense.  The official ending, Extended Cut included, really doesn't.  It's a cop-out, a nuke-the-story, disenfranchise everyone but worshipers of Bioware ending.


I wasn't arguing whether it made sense so much as whether there was any credibility to the mass assumption of it being what the devs were conveying. There was simply no evidence to support it. 

That said, I also feel those buying into that "theory", which is really a misnomer itself, were misrepresenting what indoctrination really is as portrayed in the actual parts of the game that do mention it. It's more like mind/body control, akin to what the Combine were doing on the Citadel in HL2, not a hypnotic VR dream state where what you imagine seems real.

Basically the intellectual wanna be fanboys created there own version of indoctrination, and I'm willing to bet that if the devs were to reveal some of their biggest reasons for the EC, that would be one of the main ones given for them deciding to explain things further. The only difference is they wouldn't dare call some of their most avid fans intellectual wanna be fanboys, even if it's the truth.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (Jul 12, 2012)

BumbleBee said:


> I feel Assassin's Creed is a smaller IP despite the first game selling more copies than Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3. Mass Effect is the most ambitious game I have ever played. lots of games have shitty endings. all the hate is because people are emotionally attached to it. if EA announced a sequel tomorrow the internet would go crazy but Assassin's Creed.. not so much


I agree.  I would rather play Mass Effect (original) than Assassin's Creed (orginal).

I disagree about the emotional attachment.  There are a lot of people as emotionally attached to Assassin's Creed as they are to Mass Effect.  The difference is, Ubisoft hasn't done anything major to alienate that attachment where Bioware did.

That extends to the mention of the sequel.  The dismal experience of Mass Effect 3 will make them leary and vocal about Mass Effect 4 (or whatever).  A trust was betrayed.


Also keep in mind that Mass Effect got a lot of bad publicity that Assassin's Creed largely dodged.




Frag Maniac said:


> I wasn't arguing whether it made sense so much as whether there was any credibility to the mass assumption of it being what the devs were conveying. There was simply no evidence to support it.


There wasn't "mass assumption of it being what the devs were conveying."  There was hope that it is what the devs were conveying.  It wasn't long after the indoctrination theory got attention that the devs said they weren't going that way.  Hopeful fans simply got another dose of disappointment.




Frag Maniac said:


> That said, I also feel those buying into that "theory", which is really a misnomer itself, were misrepresenting what indoctrination really is as portrayed in the actual parts of the game that do mention it. It's more like mind/body control, akin to what the Combine were doing on the Citadel in HL2, not a hypnotic VR dream state where what you imagine seems real.


At no point in any of the games do they describe how, specifically, indoctrination works.  All we know is that it happens when exposed to Reaper tech for long periods of time (scientist logs during the Reaper IFF mission, discussion with Saren), that people realize they are losing control of their mental faculties (Saren, T'soni's mother), people can fight back temporarily (Saren, T'soni's mother), and eventually, the Reapers make all the decisions (Arrival).




Frag Maniac said:


> Basically the intellectual wanna be fanboys created there own version of indoctrination, and I'm willing to bet that if the devs were to reveal some of their biggest reasons for the EC, that would be one of the main ones given for them deciding to explain things further. The only difference is they wouldn't dare call some of their most avid fans intellectual wanna be fanboys, even if it's the truth.


Fans filled in the holes the devs didn't want to.  They didn't change what indoctrination meant.

The fact of the matter is that even if Bioware deemed indoctrination theory true, it gained so much attention that there could have easily been a legal battle as a result of it.  So, EA made the business decision to add more cutscenes (relatively inexpensive; no chance of legal battle) and wash their hands clean of it.


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## crazyeyesreaper (Jul 12, 2012)

yea the BBB essentially said EA / Bioware could be sued they essentially said X X X was in the game blah blah they made those promises with their marketing, essentially something most companies are smart enough to avoid. By releasing the Extended Cut they get to wash their hands clean turn a rabid angry fan base into just a dissapointed one and avoid a potential lawsuit that according to the BBB they would pretty much lose. so there you go.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jul 13, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> There wasn't "mass assumption of it being what the devs were conveying."  There was hope that it is what the devs were conveying.  It wasn't long after the indoctrination theory got attention that the devs said they weren't going that way.  Hopeful fans simply got another dose of disappointment.


The very fact that they claimed it a theory, which like a hypothesis involves an educated guess, indicates they were in fact trying to postulate as to what the devs were conveying. The reason I call it a misnomer is there's nothing to go on to lead one to believe the ending was imagined, or that such a scenario is indoctrination at all.





> At no point in any of the games do they describe how, specifically, indoctrination works.


Technically they do. They don't really need to tell you, because they SHOW you. We can clearly see how the Harbinger controls the Collectors for instance as far as how indoctrination works. They are like puppets under the mental and physical control of their hosts. To assume that one could on there own completely fantasize an extraneous existence via a dream state is an unsupported leap of the imagination. Unlike a theory, it is more of conjecture than fact based on what we've actually SEEN in game.





> Fans filled in the holes the devs didn't want to.  They didn't change what indoctrination meant.


More conjecture and opinion. The fans, as always, see what they WANT to see when there's something about a story they don't like, esp one that goes on through 3 installments. Again, there's nothing whatsoever to support that indoctrination can involve a detached dream state, and the devs have in fact shown in the EC that those believing in a so called indoctrination "theory" were in fact wrong. Though I do see many flaws in the story, I can also understand the frustration of a writer being told his version of something is wrong. You either accept it as written and amended, or you don't. There's no sense in being a writer wanna be and trying to change the story though.





> The fact of the matter is that even if Bioware deemed indoctrination theory true, it gained so much attention that there could have easily been a legal battle as a result of it.  So, EA made the business decision to add more cutscenes (relatively inexpensive; no chance of legal battle) and wash their hands clean of it.


I don't buy that at all. That's about as silly as the talk about what the BBB had to say about the game, which, let's face it, is a business like any other that will say what people want to hear to get subscribers.

The outcomes may have been cookie cutter and very subtle, esp in the stock ending, but they only promised differences without giving away specif details. They didn't offer the EC to avoid a mass lawsuit, they did it to please what in many cases appear to be insatiable fans. Any attempted lawsuit would have been a waste of time, though still could have tarnished their rep further even coming out on the winning end. The EC was more of a PR thing than a legal thing.


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## pr0n Inspector (Jul 19, 2012)

Actually, ME 2 and 3 never happened, Shepard was indoctrinated when he boarded Citadel to fight Sovereign. It's all in his head.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 19, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> Technically they do. They don't really need to tell you, because they SHOW you. We can clearly see how the Harbinger controls the Collectors for instance as far as how indoctrination works. They are like puppets under the mental and physical control of their hosts. To assume that one could on there own completely fantasize an extraneous existence via a dream state is an unsupported leap of the imagination. Unlike a theory, it is more of conjecture than fact based on what we've actually SEEN in game.


Collectors is what the Reapers turned the Prothean race into after thousands of years of servitude.  Indoctrination doesn't really apply to them anymore as they said in Mass Effect 2.  The Collectors are a servant species just like the 4-legged green creatures on Citadel.  Indoctrination, in the context of the games, only applies to species that can resist (Krogan, Asari, Salarian, Human, etc.).




Frag Maniac said:


> The outcomes may have been cookie cutter and very subtle, esp in the stock ending, but they only promised differences without giving away specif details. They didn't offer the EC to avoid a mass lawsuit, they did it to please what in many cases appear to be insatiable fans. Any attempted lawsuit would have been a waste of time, though still could have tarnished their rep further even coming out on the winning end. The EC was more of a PR thing than a legal thing.


EA only responds to money.  EA saw a massive class-action lawsuit over false advertising coming if they didn't do something.

EC didn't "please" anyone but the mere promise of it coming calmed the drumbeats calling for a lawsuit.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jul 19, 2012)

pr0n Inspector said:


> Actually, ME 2 and 3 never happened, Shepard was indoctrinated when he boarded Citadel to fight Sovereign. It's all in his head.



That was merely a so called "theory" that the devs verbally refuted. There was never anything in any of the ME games to suggest that indoctrination was anything more than the Reapers mentally and physical controlling various species for use as ground troops while being directly overseen by them. 

The whole idea of using indoctrination for elaborate brainwash was quite a leap of the imagination, and one that doesn't even make sense. Why would they go to all that trouble only to have Shepard choosing for himself whether to control, destroy or join with the Reapers? If they wanted to brainwash him, don't you think they'd convince him that all organics needed to be controlled by the Reapers?

@FordGT,
I'm not sure you're grasping what indoctrinate even means. It means to instruct and/or imbue with a partisan or biased belief or point of view. That has to be done before a state of control is achieved. The instructing part can still be done AFTER control is achieved. To imply indoctrination doesn't apply to the Collectors is rather missing the point, because they would have to be susceptible to indoctrination to even BE controlled in the first place, and part of indoctrination can be instruction too. Also, Husks are former Humans, so to suggest Humans are resistant to indoctrination is not true either.

I'm not recalling exactly what part of ME2 you're implying says indoctrination no longer applies to the Protheans, but I'm sure you probably misinterpreted what was said. Like I said, you don't get to a state of control without first using indoctrination, so to imply a controlled race is not indoctrinated is like saying a cultist hasn't been brainwashed. Harbinger clearly continues to instruct the Collectors too. And Husks do tend to disprove your Humans aren't susceptible claim.

Honestly, I don't know why some are STILL clinging to this so called "theory" which hasn't enough facts behind it to even qualify as one, ESP after the devs themselves have already refuted it.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 19, 2012)

Indoctrination only happened when directly exposed to Reaper tech.  Specifically, it was talked about inside of Soverign, inside the derelict Reaper, and the Arrival DLC with the pulsing Reaper beacon.

Husks are not indoctrinated.  They are effectively minature, expendable Reapers (attack everything that isn't a Reaper).

I think you really need to play through Mass Effect again, specifically the main plot (where Saren keeps talking about indoctrination) and Noveria (where Liara's mother talks about being indoctrinated).




Frag Maniac said:


> Honestly, I don't know why some are STILL clinging to this so called "theory" which hasn't enough facts behind it to even qualify as one, ESP after the devs themselves have already refuted it.


You do realize you're arguing about a work of fiction, right?  There are no facts--only previous fiction.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jul 19, 2012)

What you're not getting is there's a difference between initial and ongoing indoctrination. If all the Reapers needed to do to turn a given species into their minions was the initial lab based indoctrination, why would Harbinger need to at any given time swoop down and posses a Collector to take direct control of one? Again, check the definition of indoctrinate. It's not just about imbuing, it's about instructing too, and clearly Harbinger is instructing out in the field vs just in a lab.

The Geth got the tech from the Reapers to reanimate Humans into Husks, so it's not entirely true that Humans would be resistant to indoctrination, which again is just an ME way of saying Reaper control.

I find it odd those that were wrong about their whole indoctrination "theory", which was more of a concocted idea of theirs, would continue to try and lecture others on what indoctrination itself is, when obviously they got some major story points about it wrong.

The ME universe and story is what it is. It's not necessarily what some WANT it to be, but I don't see anyone claiming they've got better ideas putting out enough good ones of their own to string an entire story together that has any more sense to it than what Bioware have done.

My bigger complaint is the need to coddle the series gameplay wise. If you want the best ending outcomes, skills, squad effectiveness and mission access, you have to be extremely careful what choices you make and import from an already fairly buffed profile to play on Insanity. I just tried the mission to rescue the Primearc in ME3 from an ME 2 import and even though I had a fair amount of squad upgrade points to work with I had to reduce the difficulty due to such craptastic weapon access. 

Then there's the need to do certain missions in the right order to avoid missing some. I quit my session last night just being fed up with the game. I can't even import the Shepard look I want into ME3. ME 2 has some great profile looks, but you can't import them to ME3. There's just so many little things about this game that add up to one big disappointment.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 19, 2012)

Harbringer was not in the Milky Way Galaxy for the entire duration of Mass Effect 2.  He was in the dark space between galaxies heading towards Milky Way, leading the Reaper swarm.

All Collectors are basically advanced husks.  Because they are all Reapers, it's possible for Harbringer to remotely possess them and put them through the same metamorphasis we saw Saren (whom got Reaper tech installed in him) undergo at the conclusion of Mass Effect when Soverign "assumed control."  Think of Collectors as robots--that's effectively what they are.

Harbringer didn't need to "swoop down and posses a Collector" but he did because he was fascinated by Shepherd.  Shepherd also posed a direct threat to the Reaper's goals.


The Geth were never Reapers--they were never indoctrinated like organics are.  Soverign introduced a computational error that made them side with the Reapers.  This was the case in Mass Effect 1 & 2.  In Mass Effect 3, Legion (or the Legion-is-dead stand-in) got Reaper tech/code installed in him to give them more computational power.  Legion was acting as a super computer amplifying the intelligence of the geth.  At the end of that quest, you decide between destroying that code inside of Legion or sharing that code with all geth.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jul 20, 2012)

I'll add one more response then sign off. I appreciate your comments, but I think they're more of opinion than fact.

Husks are Husks, plain and simple. They're Human corpses reanimated by the Geths using Reaper tech, specifically using a kind of impalement. There's not enough said about how Collectors are made to support that their origin is anything like Husks. Harbinger only possesses Collectors. I would think if Husks were so similar he'd once in a while possess them too. Protheans are a much smarter race to start with. Also, you started out saying Husks are not indoctrinated. Now you're lumping Collectors in with them saying they're like a form of Husk. Can't really have it both ways.

As with indoctrination, you seem to be interjecting a lot of your own assumptions when it comes to the reasons for Harbinger's actions. Just because he admires Shepard's tenacity and ingenuity doesn't mean he's there merely because he's fascinated by him. A strange romance possibility and something about giant bedbugs comes to mind. LOL

At the end of ME 2 and even before Shepard escapes the asteroid before destroying the alpha relay Harbinger makes it clear he's there to destroy the Humans (asteroid) and that the Collectors had failed him (ending). That sounds all too much like a war bent general to be there just spectating. 

Clearly he's there overseeing what the Collectors are doing. Although I do find huge flaw in him saying to Shepard on the asteroid that Humanity must be destroyed. Kinda throws the whole harvest the smart, let the rest go mission statement right out the hypocritical window. 

So yeah, lots of flaws in the game, but there's every bit as many flaws and ideas in what some of the fans want (and try to creatively interpret). Speaking of the asteroid, I had one guy refute what I said about it not making sense that the endings showing all the relays being blown up didn't in turn wipe out the systems they were in, using the supernova created by the asteroid hitting the alpha relay as an example.

He claimed it was explained by Dr Kenson that "a mass relay blowing up by itself won't cause a mini supernova but rather its because the size of the object they slam into the relay causes the mini supernova effect due to sheer force". Well no she didn't. I showed that conversation to him and nowhere in it does she say or even imply that. She only said the asteroid would probably be enough to destroy it. 

Furthermore, you'd think something as powerful as the Crucible would create just as much force, causing a supernova and in turn destroying the systems the relays are in. Whether it's an intelligent Prothean ray beam or not, it's still using a shit load of energy to destroy THAT many relays one after the other, yet no supernovas, no destroyed systems.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jul 20, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> At the end of ME 2 and even before Shepard escapes the asteroid before destroying the alpha relay Harbinger makes it clear he's there to destroy the Humans (asteroid) and that the Collectors had failed him (ending). That sounds all too much like a war bent general to be there just spectating.


The Collector's primary purpose is to facilitate the return of the Reapers should indoctrinated agents (for sure Saren, Matriarch Benezia, the Illusive Man, and Dr. Amanda Kenson) fail to do so.  By being wiped out by Shepherd, they failed in their objective.  The Collector's secondary purpose is to study the sentient species for weaknesses and technology the Repears could potentially use (I recall discussion about this with Mordin Solus on Omega in ME3--I believe it was in books leading up to ME2 as well).

Those are the only four named characters I can recall, at this time, that were explicitly said to be indoctrinated (you witnessed them experiencing/fighting it).


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## pr0n Inspector (Jul 20, 2012)

Frag Maniac said:


> That was merely a so called "theory" that the devs verbally refuted. There was never anything in any of the ME games to suggest that indoctrination was anything more than the Reapers mentally and physical controlling various species for use as ground troops while being directly overseen by them.
> 
> The whole idea of using indoctrination for elaborate brainwash was quite a leap of the imagination, and one that doesn't even make sense. Why would they go to all that trouble only to have Shepard choosing for himself whether to control, destroy or join with the Reapers? If they wanted to brainwash him, don't you think they'd convince him that all organics needed to be controlled by the Reapers?




YOU DON'T GET IT. Bioware is infallible. It's fundamentally impossible for Bioware to fuck up the endings like the Battlestar Galactica staff did. They planned it all along, period.
Also I'm immue to your facts and logic.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jul 20, 2012)

pr0n Inspector said:


> Also I'm immue to your facts and logic.



At least you admit what you're up against. 

Seriously though, I get the angst toward Bioware's way of doing things, I'm just not convinced a lot of the ones making the most common gripes are even on the same page with what they were trying to do/say, regardless what kind of ending they want. Some of that can be blamed on Bio's vagueness, but certainly not all of it.


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## entropy13 (Jul 20, 2012)

I just got this today. Just finished rescuing the female. LOL


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 12, 2012)

I just finished the Leviathan DLC and the official ending finally makes sense.  I won't spoil it but it is definitely worth playing.

Shame on Bioware.  If Leviathan was included in the game instead of a DLC, the whole ending-sucks fiasco wouldn't have happened.  Well, it probably would have (3-color bursts aren't very exciting) but it wouldn't have created the mass outcry.

One can only hope EA learned their lesson on moving major plot elements to DLCs.  Everyone else in the industry should take heed too.


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## D007 (Sep 12, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I just finished the Leviathan DLC and the official ending finally makes sense.  I won't spoil it but it is definitely worth playing.
> 
> Shame on Bioware.  If Leviathan was included in the game instead of a DLC, the whole ending-sucks fiasco wouldn't have happened.  Well, it probably would have (3-color bursts aren't very exciting) but it wouldn't have created the mass outcry.
> 
> One can only hope EA learned their lesson on moving major plot elements to DLCs.  Everyone else in the industry should take heed too.



So I finally have a reason to play ME 3 again..


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 13, 2012)

The endings now make sense with Leviathan and Extended Cut DLCs.

Do not read these if you intend to play them.  MEGA SPOILERS:


Spoiler: Leviathan



The Leviathan are massive organic creatures that created the AI (aka Catalyst) that created the Reapers (Harbinger was the first).  Every cycle, Reapers would harvest the dominent speices and create synthetic creatures in their image.  Harbinger was made from Leviathan so it looks like a Leviathan.  The Reaper killed in Mass Effect 2 was made from humans so it looked like a human.

Leviathan created Reapers because they bore witness to cycles of destruction where organics would create synthetics and synthetics would kill off their creators.  Leviathan then intervened wiping out the synthetics so organics would be able to rise again.  To break the cycle, they created an AI in order to solve the problem.  The AI decided the only way to end the cycle is for the Reapers to harvest (preserve) all synthetic  and advanced organic life.  Organics could rise again to later be wiped out.  Basically, Reapers are limited synthetic forms that are forbidden to kill all organics which, supposedly, synthetic life forms would be driven to do.

Reapers communicate via something like quantum entanglement.   Indoctrination works through extended exposure to Reaper tech.  Leviathan can do something similar to indoctrination but it apparently it doesn't require extended exposure to succeed where Reapers do.  Reapers fear Leviathan because Levithan can destroy Reapers but Reapers do not yet know how to destroy Levitthan without literally killing them (like any other organic).

If Extended Cut and Leviathan is installed, during the end sequence, Shepherd can ask Catalyst about the Leviathan.  It admits it was created by them and that the very solution they seek required their destruction.





Spoiler: Extended Cut



I didn't see anything different in the final Cerberus mission or any of the Earth mission except in the final charge to the Citadel.

Extended Cut added a scene before reaching the Citdadel where your two squadmates get hit, Normandy comes in (without getting destroyed is anyone's guess), picks them up, then it resumes with you shooting three husks and one of those Turan husks as normal.

*NOTE:* This effectively starts a new mission.  If you want to see other endings, "Restart Mission" after the credits scroll will take you back here.

Next, they added a video which shows Admiral Hackette announcing that someone made it inside the Citadel.

Next, it's the same hallway you do a long, slow walk down but they changed the voice overs between Anderson and Shepherd to be more in sync; therefore, making sense.  It is now clear that Anderson is walking the same path as you but ahead of you a ways.

In the exchange with the Illusive Man and Anderson, as well as the start of the meeting with Catalyst, I saw no changes.

With the Catalyst, there is a lot more Q&A explaining what exactly happened.  You can question him about each choice as well.

The same ending videos remain where you see alliance forces fighting, a burst of green, blue, or orange/red color bursts over everything but, in addition to that, they added shots of Krogan on Tuchunka and Asari on Thessia cheering.  If you choose to control the Reapers, it shows the Citadel closing and moving (previously, it blew up too).

Catalyst explicitly says the Illusive Man was indoctrinated and Shepherd is not.

*NOTE:* They added an autosave point here.  If you want to see all the endings with minimal sitting through cutscenes, go to _Documents\BioWare\Mass Effect 3\Save\CHARACTER_FOLDER_ and move _AutoSave.pcsav_ out of this directory.  To get back to decision making time, copy the file back, overwriting the old one, then load the autosave.

All three have the same conclusion as previously where leaves show on a planet with the Normandy on it with the same people walking out as previously shown.  For me, it was:
Control - Joker, Ashley (lover), Jarvik (was in squad on final attack)
Synthesis - Joker, EDI, Ashley (lover)
Destroy - Joker, Ashley (lover), Jarvik (was in squad on final attack)

After all these endings, they added new videos--all of them positive.  Control is voiced by Shephered, Destory is voiced by Hackett, and Synthesis is voiced by EDI.  Throughout the video, they show the aftermath of Shepherd's choice including still shots of who died.  At the very end of the new videos, they show the memorial wall inside the Normady with all surviving crew (from ME3) looking at it.  I think the only one that changes is EDI depending on your choice.  On all three endings, it shows Anderson's name and then someone (it was the lover for me) places Shepherd's name just above Anderson's.  Credits start rolling except:
-Synthetic: lover consuls EDI who is now "alive."
-Destroy: the video of what is presumably Shepherd in N7 armor inhales (sames as pre-DLC; seeing it based on readiness).

All three scroll credits then show the same video with gramps and the child as it did without DLC.  You can now hit escape and skip the credits video (takes two attempts) and still see the gramps & child ending.

They also added a fourth possible ending: shoot Catalyst.  He says "so be it" then it cuts to a video of Liara as a VI, warning future races about the Reapers (aka, mission failed).  Credits scroll, but I didn't watch the end so I don't know if the gramps and child video shows on this one.  I suspect it doesn't.

*Edit:* Wikipedia says that the ending video of the fourth option (kill/refuse Catalyst) says Liara's beacons allow the next cycle to defeat the Reapers.


Opinion: The fact they kept the readiness video continues to suggest to me that destroy is the solution the devs most want you to take; however, the synthesize solution is powerful as well because of EDI.  Synthesize is far less repulsive to me than it was without DLC.





Spoiler: For those that have beat the game and interested in these DLC



The autosave the game creates after beating it (before launching the assault on the Cerberus base) is sufficient to launch the Leviathon DLC, then go into the final mission which leads to the Extended Cut content.  There's no reason to replay the whole game if you adequately remember what happened throughout the game.


In conclusion, you must play the Leviathon and Extended Cut DLCs to see the intending ending.  Without the DLCs, the ending is a bunch of gobbly gook.


At the very end of all endings, a pop up comes up from "The Mass Effect Team" which suggests more titles in the "Mass Effect universe" are to come.  I tend to believe them because the next title is often started before the last comes out.  This might be why EA and Bioware went into full damage-control mode with the uproar over the ending--they got an investment to protect.

If there is a continuation of Mass Effect, I suspect they'll wipe the slate clean, pick one of the endings, add new conflict, and go from there.  They might or they might not have characters return (the most likely candidate is Liara because no matter what, she is non-optional, can't die, and is in every game).


Edit: A future Mass Effect game could make Aria T'Lok playable with the objective to retake Omega from Cerberus as was was suggested in the Invasion comic.


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## techtard (Sep 14, 2012)

Leviathan wasn't that good. In fact it was a lame attempt to retroactively validate the terrible ending to the game. 
If they had spent the time, effort and manpower to rewrite the ending sequence properly instead of doing the EC DLC + Leviathan, then ME3 might have ended on a high note.

Retaking Omega with Aria is supposedly going to be DLC for ME3.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 14, 2012)

I think it was the other way around.  Leviathan was started before the game launched and the reason why they couldn't vastly change the ending (they'd be throwing away the money they already invested into it).


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## newconroer (Oct 8, 2012)

FordGT90Concept said:


> I just finished the Leviathan DLC and the official ending finally makes sense.  I won't spoil it but it is definitely worth playing.
> 
> Shame on Bioware.  If Leviathan was included in the game instead of a DLC, the whole ending-sucks fiasco wouldn't have happened.  Well, it probably would have (3-color bursts aren't very exciting) but it wouldn't have created the mass outcry.
> 
> One can only hope EA learned their lesson on moving major plot elements to DLCs.  Everyone else in the industry should take heed too.




Strangely..I noticed Leviathan was mentioned in passing before the DLC was released. After getting the DLC and playing it, it was even *more* enjoyable.

Although I did witness the original non extend ending with a very low score, I wasn't phased either way - knowing the game/series was ending anyways.

However, glad I waited so many months to finally hunker down and play the game properly. Between Extended, Leviathan and some reading online, I got the most out of the game.

Oddly found myself saving the save file... habit I guess : )


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## trickson (Oct 30, 2012)

Man this game is really cool looking. A bit slow and a bit long winded. But it looks great. I just got the game today from my son. I like it Nothing really great just okay.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 30, 2012)

newconroer said:


> Strangely..I noticed Leviathan was mentioned in passing before the DLC was released. After getting the DLC and playing it, it was even *more* enjoyable.
> 
> Although I did witness the original non extend ending with a very low score, I wasn't phased either way - knowing the game/series was ending anyways.
> 
> ...


EA has already been talking about Mass Effect 4 like it was in the works.  Mass Effect 3 was supposedly the end of Shepherd's saga but they said there would be more games in the same universe.


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 21, 2013)

I didn't see The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3 until now but Mac Walters definitively answered the question about the ending: it was left vague intentionally.  He said "we" (meaning the Bioware team) knew what the real ending was but Casey Hudson (directory) didn't want to put it in the game because they wanted the players to decide for themselves.

Edit: Someone uploaded the video so I might as well post it:
[yt]W2E69ZbSE-8[/yt]

In hindsight, I bet Hudson regrets that decision and Walters wish he insisted on explaining more to the player.


I recommend fans of the game get The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3.  I bought it on sale for $1.49 which is still available at the time of posting on Origin.




newconroer said:


> Strangely..I noticed Leviathan was mentioned in passing before the DLC was released. After getting the DLC and playing it, it was even *more* enjoyable.


Also from The Final Hours, the name Leviathan was originally supposed to be the name of the ship Cerberus built for Commander Shepherd.  People inside of Bioware insisted the Normandy returned so the Leviathan idea was scraped and Normandy SR-2 was born.   Leviathan resurfaced in the DLC (obviously completely different except in name)--likely not merely a coincidence.




Spoiler: About the end...the very, very end



The old man talking to the child was voiced by none other than Buzz Aldrin himself.



The Final Hours ends by saying: "While there will definitely be more Mass Effect games and other stories told in the future, Commander Shepard's story has concluded."  It continues, quoting Hudson directly, "whatever we do would likely happen before or during the events of Mass Effect 3, not after."


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## spectatorx (Jan 26, 2014)

Does digital deluxe edition contain all dlcs for game?
It is nicely discounted now and i wonder if it is worth to buy and the game is worth to buy to me only with all dlcs.


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## pigulici (Jan 26, 2014)

No, only From Ashes and some weapons...


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 28, 2014)

Only way to get them all is via Bioware Points and, before you ask, they have never gone on sale yet.  Deluxe Edition, while discounted, is the cheapest way to get some of the DLC, but not all.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jan 28, 2014)

I think it's kinda strange that they didn't offer a special edition of the Mass Effect Trilogy with all DLC. Just charge an appropriate price for it, but to get the trilogy cheap, then have to add all that DLC piecemeal gets so expensive it somewhat offsets what you save.


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## BumbleBee (Jan 28, 2014)

Frag Maniac said:


> I think it's kinda strange that they didn't offer a special edition of the Mass Effect *Trilogy* with all DLC. Just charge an appropriate price for it, but to get the trilogy cheap, then have to add all that DLC piecemeal gets so expensive it somewhat offsets what you save.



new one is in the works using Frostbite engine and has nothing to do with Shepard.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 28, 2014)

*cough*


> On PC, Mass Effect will include Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station. For Mass Effect 2, Cerberus Network will be included which features Zaeed – The Price of Revenge, The Firewalker Pack, Cerberus Assault Gear, Arc Projector heavy weapon, and Normandy Crash site mission. For Mass Effect 3, Online Pass will be included granting players access to co-op multiplayer.


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## BumbleBee (Jan 28, 2014)

it's missing too much DLC. every version of the Trilogy is different. the PS3 version has Lair of the Shadow Broker but the PC version doesn't.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jan 28, 2014)

BumbleBee said:


> it's missing too much DLC. every version of the Trilogy is different. the PS3 version has Lair of the Shadow Broker but the PC version doesn't.


LOL, I don't get your previous post Bee, should have replied with this instead. The new FB ME has nothing to do with ME3 or the trilogy.

Anyways, I agree with this post and that was my point. Every trilogy package I've seen doesn't include all the best DLC. For me that would be Shadow Broker, Omega, and Citadel.

I'd be hard pressed to even pick a fave. Shadow Broker has great level design with unique ship exterior battles, Citadel has brutally challenging battles, but I also fell in love with Aria's battle toughness, and Omega too has some tough battles, though not as tough as the fight against Shepard's clone.


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## techtard (Jan 28, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Only way to get them all is via Bioware Points and, before you ask, they have never gone on sale yet.  Deluxe Edition, while discounted, is the cheapest way to get some of the DLC, but not all.



Bioware points have been on sale a few times, but it's pretty rare and brief when it does happen. I snagged some on sale a long time ago.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 28, 2014)

Shadow Broker, Leviathan, Citadel, Omega, and From Ashes were the best.  Citadel is undeniably the best of the best.

I attached a spreadsheet which shows the cost of all the DLCs assuming you have Deluxe Edition for ME2 (includes Cerberus Network which includes Zaeed among others) and ME3 (includes From Ashes which is 800 BP if you don't get Deluxe).



techtard said:


> Bioware points have been on sale a few times, but it's pretty rare and brief when it does happen. I snagged some on sale a long time ago.


Three years ago is the best they can come up with (DAO Witch Hunt release):
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/16147219/3

I'm hoping they put BP on sale just before or when Mass Effect 4 (or whatever it is called) or Dragon Age Inquisition goes on sale.


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## Frag_Maniac (Jan 28, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> Shadow Broker, Leviathan, Citadel, Omega, and From Ashes were the best.  Citadel is undeniably the best of the best.



Yeah I agree Leviathan and From Ashes should be included in a comprehensive Trilogy + DLC edition, I only mentioned my faves. I also agree Citadel is probably the best, though playing on Insane gets annoying as Vanguard or Adept.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 28, 2014)

It gets annoying on all classes. XD


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## Frag_Maniac (Jan 29, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> It gets annoying on all classes. XD


Clearly Vanguard and Adept are far harder though, since the clone can easily insta kill you with the powers he has.


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## BumbleBee (Jan 29, 2014)

Bioware Montreal (made the awesome ME3 Multiplayer) is making it with Casey Hudson overlooking it. when EA takes the stage at E3 there will probably be a trailer and release date. maybe Q1 2015? development started Nov 2012.


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 29, 2014)

I presume Bioware Edmonton is working on Dragon Age: Inquisition then?  I hope Mac Walters went with Casey Hudson to Montreal.


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## BumbleBee (Jan 29, 2014)

Bioware Edmonton is working on Dragon Age: Inquisition and a new IP. Bioware Montreal is working on Mass Effect. Bioware Austin has several projects going.


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