Mass Effect 3: Origin QQ

[NightFantom]

stuff

one thing i'd like to add, then all of you can go on QQing about ME3:

tf2: (except the set bonuses, those were retarded imo but valve stopped making sets like that afaik) all items in the game are balanced (actually, forcing you to use exactly those items is kind of a balancing factor in set bonuses too), and most don't make that much of a difference
the drop system gets you enough items if you play regularly to be able to craft / trade them for the items you want, and most vanilla / achievement items are pretty good too so you're not at a disadvantage at all
then there's the fact that if you REALLY REALLY REAALLYY NEED an item you can get it for not much money
and don't forget that you get tf2 for free now, and buying anything gets you a premium account or whatever it's called

there are also other games with microtransactions, which are afaik rarely things you can't get for free or that change the game
e.g skins in league of legends (skin != skill), basically everything in tribes:ascend (though i think the prices there are a bit over the top right now, but it's still a beta and the prices are supposed to drop in a while)

DLC: adds stuff to the game you could not otherwise have
consider it a different game (if extra levels / longer storyline) or count them together (if just added functionality etc) and decide for yourself if it's worth it

how are these two comparable?

and the rage about allowing/not allowing custom textures & models is useless, those are never going to be allowed on official servers just because how easy they are to exploit


shit, adding a quick note turned into a wall of text
oh well

[NIPPER]

DLC sucks and so do "deluxe editions" but the easy solution is to not buy them. I haven't beaten ME3 yet but so far I've seen no indication that they held back anything from the base game for the sake of DLC.

ME3 has been incredible so far. They improved my two major complaints with ME2- they added a ton of new guns and armor options, and brought back the presidium with its music

[Blathersby]

From Ashes is such a big deal yet you only have to explain who Varik is like 2 times.
Everyones just oh hey a prothean anyway blah sheprard my dog is black with brown spots.

[tehENEMY]

what is so terrible about the ending? does he fuck the wrong alien or something?

[Zeno]

[Blathersby]

Implying they haven't been doing this sense Dragon Age: Origins.
I thought EA games were known for doing this.

[bh :)]

They did it in BC2 where the map packs were on the original game files if I remember right.

[Neelpos]

I just played this game for 13 hours straight to get a solid impression on what it's actually worth, I can start off by saying yeah, it's not worth $60, and if you pay that you're an asshole.
However I think with proper price reductions in the future this game could be a potential buy, it has problems, but overall if you go into it for the writing and characters it can be fairly satisfying, at least to the point I've gotten, I'm certain we're all aware that there's an outcry over the ending from everyone who's gotten to that point.

These are all the impressions I bothered to type up while I played, I tried my best to add spoiler tags to the proper items:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Half and Half: The animations are on par with Mass Effect 2, but at times are horribly done, especially the glitches (example: Shepards head snapping back a few inches while he says "no" like a sassy black girl)
Bad: The game is attempting to force a relationship with Ashley, I specifically turned her down in ME1 because I didn't want that option but the save recorded me as successfully romancing her anyways, ME3 is continuing the gambit by forcing me into being all romantic towards her when the dialogue option does not display that to be the intention ('You did fine' turns in to 'marry me')
Bad: There's two dialogue options. Two. this isn't a tree this is a game of yes's and nos.
Half and Half: "Let me give you a tour of the ship" the specialist said, immediately pulling out a tablet and showing me pictures, rather than I don't know, having us walk around the god damn ship we're currently standing in?
Good: (Minor spoiler in that it's a good line from Joker)(In reference to the council) "Well let me know if you want to get them on the channel and then hang up on them again, y'know, for old times sake" - Joker. One of the good additions.
Bad: My Shepard is an alcoholic, yet I can no longer pour myself endless drinks in the Normandy bar, fuck you EA.
Bad: So everyone abandoned ship and the alliance confiscated all my weapons and armor or something? There's no explanation as to why everything's gone yet (Just completed second mission and now have free reign of the Normandy) if this plot holes isn't filled I'm gonna be fairly annoyed.
Mostly Irrelevant quip:(Minor and vague spoiler concerning an item retrieved during the second mission, right after leaving Earth) They love storing deactivated AI platforms in EDI's AI core don't they? first Legion and now this thing.
Bad: The two engineers from ME2 are gone. What the fuck.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: Who stored my models in Jack's former quarters? you left the Neema in the display case! These ones you just packed them up again, maaan I'm gonna have to glue them back together and EVERYTHING.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: Great they threw out my formal wear from the Kasumi DLC in ME2, that shit was slick.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: Shuttle pilot cracks a joke about Vega drinking too much cerveza, racist.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: "Keep up the hard work, but don't kill yourself" These two statements are directly opposed to my entire ideology, god dammit Shepard.
Good: I'm a fan of how they modified the weapons system, it's like a blend of the first two games, you get the base weapons like in ME2, but the upgrades like in ME1
Half and Half: FROM ASHES: You'd think getting to the prothean would be the focus, rather you land and immediately it's like "WELP, HERE HE IS, OOP NOW CERBERUS WANT TO KILL YOU" it's weird pacing.
Bad: Call of Duty hit markers, didn't notice that before.
Bad: Bypass frogger or connect the dots minigames? Naw, you just press spacebar and wait a couple seconds, eat a bag of dicks to pass the time.
Half and Half: FROM ASHES: The collectors were exactly the same 50K years ago with exactly the same weapons.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: FROM ASHES: The protheans were jamaican mon.
Half and Half: The health system is a bit more akin to Halo Reach now, once shields go down you have a few bars of health, if one is depleted you don't get it back.
Good: FROM ASHES: level pacing got better, this whole level is basically free roam, it's pretty fun.
Half and Half: I am currently taking cover behind james who is taking cover behind a wall, nice job Bioware.
Bad: FROM ASHES: The conversation when you get Javik on to the Normandy is major story content, it may not be entirely neccessary for the rest of the game, but the fact that they locked this content on the disc for DLC is fucking unacceptable.
Good: The vistas are beautiful.
Half and Half: "Press S to enter the turret" you have to press spacebar to enter the turret, just like every other action ever. Spacebar spacebar spacebar.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: Garrus is busy doing calibrations still, good ol' Garrus.
Half and Half: If you move the mouse too fast while in a mech, you clip out of the HUD for it, although "too fast" is very easy to achieve
Half and Half: If a character doesn't have any special conversation to have with you for the moment, instead of the dialogue tree opening with only "investigate" and "goodbye" being the options, they take the route they did with Kasumi and Zaeed, have a few lines for them to spout off, if you exhaust the three or four lines they just say "Commander."
Good: Wrex is just as awesome as always.
Good: The lighting engine is nice.
Bad: Jessica fucking Chobot, what the fuck.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: A cannibal moonwalked 20 feet in the air shooting me while in cover, that's a nice glitch
Bad: All combat scenarios are unfortunately easy on Normal, whereas hardcore mode at times poses situations with instant kill enemies, the difference in moving the difficulty up one level is ridiculous.
Bad: pacing is pretty fucked in terms of weaponry, you just find a weapon you like and keep buying the better versions until you get the best one, because they're all so cheap and all available one after the other, it's highly unlikely you will be unable to afford the best possible weapon at that time with just a few clicks. I've been using the same assault rifle since mission three and am fairly far into the game with no better alternative.
Bad: (Around mid-game spoiler, do not know how this character will play out later in the game but his existence just irks me) Of course they added a cyber ninja.
Bad: This blood spatter is so low res it's just a bunch of maroon squares, very shoddy work.
Half and Half: It's become fairly obvious at this point that all ME2 DLC was really just advance content of ME3, while this isn't a bad thing it somehow cheapens the experience for me a little, all the paid weapons and armor are present in this game.
Mostly Irrelevant quip: I just realized: where the FUCK is my FUCKING SPACE HAMSTER.
Bad: It's fairly common to come across scenes where half the textures are jarringly low res, for example a cliff face being very low poly and blurry, while Shepard and the rest of his hi-res crew walk past creating an unfortunate and impossible to ignore contrast.
Good: There's a pretty wonderful exchange between Shepard and a hungover Williams if you choose the sarcastic option.
Half and Half: Shepard picks up a rock, and motions to hand it to Tali, the rock disappears the moment he starts giving it to her, because fuck proper rendering for cinematics.
Bad: (Tali's Face) The Quarians are entirely humanoid in facial structure, you find this out with a picture Tali leaves in your quarters (don't know if she doees it if you didn't romance her) and it's basically just a photoshop of a woman who looks a lot like Olivia Wilde, the eyes are pure white, theres these strange vein things on the neck, and obviously the fingers are different, but apart from that she looks exactly human, because we totally need another one of those in this game. Fuck you Bioware, you fucking cop out.


At the moment I'd pay $30 MAX, and that's with From Ashes included, we'll see how this price point changes as I progress later.
...I'm going to bed.

[a1dan]

Holy shit the ending is terrible. Fuck this game.

[Blathersby]

I like the hit markers the smoke is the worst thing ever.
Also yeah what I said b4 the prothean guy is just like here I am k thnx.

[bh :)]

holy shit wall of text jesus christ

adding on:
Bad: The two engineers from ME2 are gone. What the fuck.
They come on board later (i dont remember when.)

Bad: Call of Duty hit markers, didn't notice that before.
Bad: Bypass frogger or connect the dots minigames? Naw, you just press spacebar and wait a couple seconds, eat a bag of dicks to pass the time.
These are what is killing gaming, I agree. I miss hacking.

Bad: FROM ASHES: The conversation when you get Javik on to the Normandy is major story content, it may not be entirely neccessary for the rest of the game, but the fact that they locked this content on the disc for DLC is fucking unacceptable.
It's more like optional lore, if you remember, Javik has no fucking clue about the crucible, as he even tells you he was born near the end of the cycle, hell he didn't even know if the Citadel was real or not. The content on the disc was from what I understand, not even all the content. Oh well. http://www.twitlonger.com/show/gcijat

Half and Half: "Press S to enter the turret" you have to press spacebar to enter the turret, just like every other action ever. Spacebar spacebar spacebar.
It's about the same as it was in mass effect 2, i didn't have a problem with it.

Bad: pacing is pretty fucked in terms of weaponry, you just find a weapon you like and keep buying the better versions until you get the best one, because they're all so cheap and all available one after the other, it's highly unlikely you will be unable to afford the best possible weapon at that time with just a few clicks. I've been using the same assault rifle since mission three and am fairly far into the game with no better alternative.
I had the same problem, I just used the Avenger the entire game until I got the Phaestorm, then I got the Geth Pulse, then the mattock, then the saber and it was all gg for enemies.

Bad: It's fairly common to come across scenes where half the textures are jarringly low res, for example a cliff face being very low poly and blurry, while Shepard and the rest of his hi-res crew walk past creating an unfortunate and impossible to ignore contrast.
Yup, wait till end game on the citadel, dem body piles

Half and Half: Shepard picks up a rock, and motions to hand it to Tali, the rock disappears the moment he starts giving it to her, because fuck proper rendering for cinematics.
I've had ones like these, I'm not too sure, it's sometimes a hit or a miss as to when they work and don't work, i've retried missions and the anims worked fine, other times it didn't.

I like the hit markers the smoke is the worst thing ever.
Also yeah what I said b4 the prothean guy is just like here I am k thnx.

People really don't understand who Javik was, he wasn't some Prothean god and shit, he was a fucking soldier for the Prothean army on the verge the end of a cycle, all the protheans had to remember their civilizations were memory shards, and even then they doubted the existence of many landmark items, like the Citadel. I don't want to be a biodrone but the fact is, Javik doesn't know shit, and if you play the game till later on, you meet a prothean who does know what the hell he's talking about. I mean sure they were more advanced, but do you think a grunt knows anything about remaking the technology they used? i doubt it, the guy for all practical purposes is just a vengeful bastard anyway.

anyway, EVERYTHING leading up to the end game was absolutely fucking incredible, i was pumped when the initial battle begins and everything is booming, until the ending. this is where i dont know what the fuck to think anymore. i really don't. my gut instinct really wants me to believe that the entire thing was indoctrination by the reapers (hence why destruction was labeled a renegade option), and why the kid showed up as the reaper controller, think about it, the entire game was plagued with shepard feeling terrible about what had happened to the kid, and symbolically, the kid represented what he did on earth, which was abandon the human race as they all progressively were wiped out, the recurring dreams were clearly a sign as the kid lit up in flames, it showed he felt guilty for what had happened. and think of it, the reapers use this as a weakness to shep and to get him to stop the destruction of the reapers. also note how the kid really fucking doesn't like the renegade option in it all, which is destruction of the reaper fleet.
anyway, it cuold just be rambling in hopes of how i can secure this ending as not a complete shit storm of terribleness or somehting, i dont know. but the indoctrination thing sure beats the hell out of the ending where its "press buttan to pik choce"


also REALLY cool tidbit the kid asks his grandpa to tell him another story about "the shepherd" (it's shepherd in the captions). get it? the organic races are his flock, and he brings them all together. i found that kind of neat. but dear god that grandpa's voice acting. boy oh boy terrible.

edit: i lied, he does spell it shepard. but im just going to keep believing shepherd is what he meant dammit :[

[Blathersby]

But only like main characters ask who Jarvik is and the normal response is just like k.
and no one brings it up after even if he doesn't know much about his races history or w/e

[Neelpos]

I was saying Javiks information is less story content specific to ME3, and more to the entire series, it's legitimately fascinating stuff that should have definitely been in the core game.

[WOZZA]

Mostly Irrelevant quip: I just realized: where the FUCK is my FUCKING SPACE HAMSTER.

It is in engineering running around on the floor. You have to chase the little bugger down.

[Neelpos]

Mostly Irrelevant quip: I just realized: where the FUCK is my FUCKING SPACE HAMSTER.

It is in engineering running around on the floor. You have to chase the little bugger down.

Game of the year.