Solo, you're better off for it. Save yourself from the heartache that ME2 starts and ME3 turns into cardiac arrest.
e3 2014 mass effect 4 trailer
- Thread starter Wes R
- Start date
If anything i wish they'd have made the Citadel DLC a standalone or found a way to wedge it into ME2 before the suicide run as it would have worked perfectly there. Then again knowing Bioware it was probably meant for ME2 but cut out for being entertaining. It turns out there's actually a really really bad mass effect ending where you pick your sucky ending and when the ship crashes nobody survived impact and it just sits there as opposed to having folks come out of it.
As a bona fide fan of Mass Effect, I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't recommend Mass Effect 2 at least in some fashion. Sure, the writing doesn't cary the same weight as the first game did. I played and beaten ME2 a couple of times before I even got to original game and it still delivers thematic elements that haven't been matched. But when ME2 is good, it really is good. It doesn't conform to the "broad appeal" that ME3 drowns itself in and it's got clever bonus missions that aren't simply recycled multiplayer maps (How the heck did they get away with that one?). I think my favorite one is where you have to navigate Shepard on a crashed ship that is tipping over the edge of a massive drop and the closer you get to your objective, the steeper the area gets. It's not essential, but it brings back some of that adventure quality from the Mako missions from the first.
While DLC is not the most well liked term in the gaming industry, the DLC that was made for ME2 spared no expense. The "Stolen Memory" scenario that introduces Kasumi Goto as a squad member and even outside her unique mission there is a lot of quality work done here. Kasumi Goto is not restricted to this one DLC specific scenario either. She has unique dialogue options for every mission that you can go on after you reach the Citadel. And did I mention she's one of my favorite squad mates?
And I cannot talk about DLC without mentioning "Lair of the Shadow Broker". A DLC so awesome that it helped expose BioWare's lazier than lazy writing for ME3. What makes Lair of the Shadow Broker fantastic is not that you can continue your relationship with Liara, investigate a crime scene, fight another Spector, fight your way on top of an atmospherically powered juggernaut of a ship AND fight a boss that is 100x more than the TERMINATOR boss. What makes it so worth while is that you can play it after the main story AND IT WILL ACKNOWLEDGE IT. So instead of having a weak cliffhanger ending that the un-DLC'd ME2 has, you can actually pick up from that point and give your ME2 play through a much better ending. It may be billed as a set up for ME3 (which never even paid off), but if you romanced Liara in the original game, it will make ME2 worth the hassle.
If there's one DLC you should avoid at all cost is "The Arrival". It's story is stupid, the game play is boring, you can't bring any squad members (Shepard still yells like they're there) and everything it was meant to build up was abandoned late in ME3's development. In fact, there is a vocal confrontation in the end between Shepard and the Reaper leader Harbinger that is pure "WE WILL MEET AGAIN!" set up fodder that never happens. Avoid it!
I liked ME2. The only downside is the enemy at the end (no spoiler just in case). That was LAME!
For the most part I enjoyed all three games. The parts I did not like were scanning (I'm a highly trained spectre agent and you're making me wave a mouse over a planet?) And the last five to ten minutes of ME3. All the stuff I did in three games only to maybe get a third, equally lame option?
I found a video of it on youtube and it actually would fit in with the "secret" ending you get if you have your resources maxed out in the destroy choice. I wish they'd added one more choice in the extended cut: a choice where you beat the reapers but at the same time they fulfill their mission so that only the next cycle would enjoy the benefits of not having the reapers around and it would even tie in to the capsules Liara seeded on planets and you could even have mixed it up with the control ending where the reapers repair everything to be ready for the next cycle and then destroy themselves.
Looks like some info has leaked that spills the details on just how this new game will fit in with the rest of the series.
Probing the latest Mass Effect 4 leak
Here's the breakdown.
What do you think? Despite my feelings towards the endings in Mass Effect 3, it is pretty clever that you're playing a character who's charge of a group of humans/aliens who may or may not be the last remaining members of their entire species.
Probing the latest Mass Effect 4 leak
Here's the breakdown.
- The game is set in the Andromeda Galaxy where the player character (referred to as the Pathfinder) is part of an expedition to find a new home for humanity. Basically BioWare is going with the KOTOR approach by having the setting be so far detached from the trilogy (This case distance instead of time) that any of the four endings could still have occurred. (Basically BioWare is still proud of intentionally shooting themselves in the foot but still desire to walk)
- This galaxy will contain a forgotten race known as the remnants and an evil race known as the Khet. (I really hope the Remnants is the name the exploration team gives them, otherwise Mass Effect is dipping into "Destiny" levels of lazy name choices)
- Despite the given premise, the game may still feature aliens from the original trilogy. One species that's most likely to return are the Krogen since one was clearly featured in the trailer. (This is a big one for me because I loved the aliens from Mass Effect and it would be dumb to not include most of the signature races. One thing you can count on is that if the Asari aren't in the game I'm going to be very upset)
- Elements clearly inspired from Dragon Age: Inquisition will be featured in this game, such as sending groups out on missions to other worlds that you won't take part in. One element in particular is a real time defense mission that was originally going to be a part of Inquisition but removed due to previous generation restrictions. (Inquisition's war table was a great idea that was fairly well executed. Incorporating it into Mass Effect would probably feel more appropriate for Mass Effect than Dragon Age)
- Multiplayer will weave into Single Player, but not be mandatory. Some missions you can take part with friends or go at it solo. (This one will be tricky because the idea of greater rewards for going the multiplayer route feels like the game is penalizing you for wanting to play on your own which should never be the case. Also curious how the game's story will acknowledge other PC Pathfinders when your PC is supposed to be the leader in your game)
- There will be a seperate Horde Multiplayer Mode (Yay!) that will give you in-game currency for single-player (Boo!)
- No more probing. When it comes to gathering resources, you will be able to establish settlements on planets that you can assign roles to like be focused on mining certain minerals or research that will clear out 'fog of war' areas (I must confess, I always had a soft spot for the probe scanning in Mass Effect 2. The way the interface looked, the animated graphics, the great sound design and the rumbling on the controller really made me feel like I was working on a starship. Still, I understand and agree it was tedious for general players and this sounds like a great alternative)
- During conversations with other characters, there will be a lot more options on how to manipulate, interrupt and through action affect how a conversation progresses. Just the choice in how you converse with characters will affect how they respond to you later in the game. (Good idea on this one and it sounds like they're going to extend this out to a lot more NPCs. Having characters react to you the same way regardless of what you say to them was one of the replay ability killers in the original Mass Effect games.)
What do you think? Despite my feelings towards the endings in Mass Effect 3, it is pretty clever that you're playing a character who's charge of a group of humans/aliens who may or may not be the last remaining members of their entire species.
Paul Andrew
Master Member
Eventually they've got to pick a canonical ending to 3, otherwise they're going to have a bitch of a time folding this into the universe (whenever that happens, down the line).
I wonder if they will ever think the dust settled enough on 3 for them to do that. Personally, I didn't have a problem with 3. Thought it was a lot of fun, and appreciated the multiple endings rather than folding all of your choices to a single ending. Granted, all those choices didn't amount to much when it came to the end, but logistically that couldn't have actually happened. I once heard multiple path games described as diamond shaped. Starts at a point, widens towards the middle, then tapers back to a point and the end. My expectations were not beaten into the ground like so many were.
I wonder if they will ever think the dust settled enough on 3 for them to do that. Personally, I didn't have a problem with 3. Thought it was a lot of fun, and appreciated the multiple endings rather than folding all of your choices to a single ending. Granted, all those choices didn't amount to much when it came to the end, but logistically that couldn't have actually happened. I once heard multiple path games described as diamond shaped. Starts at a point, widens towards the middle, then tapers back to a point and the end. My expectations were not beaten into the ground like so many were.
What happened in those endings wasn't so much that they didn't take player choice into account. It created plot holes, contradictions to established lore and reduced your Shepard to an unquestioning onlooker who doesn't have any significant say in anything despite the setting. This is why introducing brand new, never before established elements into a story that resolves everything is story telling at it's worst. It's one thing to make it up as the writers went along, it's completely another to have what you made up spit in the face of the previous two installments.
For example. This 'Catalyst' claims to be the reason why these cycles occur and controls pretty much everything from behind the scenes. Here's where things get problematic when you bring the first game into account. Where the heck was the Catalyst when Sovereign invaded? Remember, Sovereign's entire plan was to activate the Citadel so it could act as a portal that would bring all the Reapers back into this galaxy. Throughout the story the Citadel is revealed to be a trap where all space faring races would gather, set up shot and do their galactic business. Having the Reapers take over the Citadel at the start of their invasion would not only wipe out all the galaxy's leaders (The Council), it would also give the Reapers vast amounts of data on how much these races have progressed and give them locations on where their home worlds and colonies were located. It made sense and explained why the Reapers had such an advantage on the previous cycles. Yet the Catalyst who is established in ME3 to have always resided on the Citadel.... did nothing to ensure this plan was carried out. That's almost as bad as Picard choosing not to go further back in time to stop Soran when he was on the Enterprise. No reason, it just is.
When you boil the endings down to this...
Refusal = Everyone dies
Green = Shepard dies
Blue = Shepard dies
Red (Bad) = Shepard dies
Red (Good) = Shepard lives
There's really no doubt which ending they'll go with.
I hope they just ignore the ending like it didn't happen. The Reapers are not a threat, yay let's go on. Have everyone fixing the Mass Relays, repositioning the Citadel, repairing damage to the various planets, etc. You would need the Relays back up pretty quickly because of all the separated people. I think the Krogans were on another (Turian planet?) planet at the end. I can't remember, I only played it once when it was released.
Did you check out the leak from the previous page? The game will be set in a completely different galaxy away form the Milky Way one. This is BioWare's way of ignoring the endings by simply making them too far away to affect what will transpire in the Andromeda Galaxy.
There is one huge and epic advantage to having the next game take place in a different galaxy. No more-
TAKE BACK EARTH!
You're drunk Mass Effect. No one cares about Earth!
DuneMuadDib
Sr Member
Only if they do more games set after ME3 featuring Shepard. Honestly, with as hard as they push the Green Instagram Filter ending throughout the game I'd be surprised if they didn't make that one canon if/when the time comes they have to pick on officially.
I think they can go frak themselves.
The so called ending"s" is one of the smaller issues with the CRAPware known as Mass Defect 3, sorry I mean Mass Effect 3. They even managed to frak it all up even before the actual game was released.
How? Well for starters, killings characters from the previous games by announcing their death..... on twitter. WTF :wacko
Then when the game was actually released you find out they had been lying for quite some time.
You know that character that you created when the first game came out? The one you played through the original ME with a dozen or so times... the one they said you would be able to use through out the game series, yeah that one. You can't use it....
And you know all them choices that you made... who lived, who died and so on, which Casey Hudson for example said: all them choices you made will be have a great impact on the ending: big fat lie, huge fat lie.
I could deal with EA/Bioware wanting to Call of Duty-fy the game, I even liked a lot of the actual gameplay. But as far as story goes and stuff like it, they frakked it up all of these things and oh, about 100-150 other things as well.
So yeah, I think they can go frak themselves. Seriously.
Or how about the art team spending a lot of time designing the Earth Kid with pages of sketches that went all the way to in-game completion, yet when it came to Tali'Zorah's face, a mystery that many fans have been aching to see since the tease in ME2, is shown in a picture frame as a poorly photoshopped image of model Hammasa Kohistani, that was purchased as a stock photo. They would render real life chipmunk/console licker Jessica Chobat in the game but not make one sketch of Tali'Zorah's face. Ugh. Having Diana Allers be a fling was one of those instances where I actually felt sorry for Jennifer Hale having to act out scenes where she makes out with her.
And Casey is gone. I think the only contribution he will have in the next ME game is that he was interviewed in the trailer for it. He is gee oh en ee gone.
For me, it wasn't the endings. It wasn't the neutered gameplay. It wasn't the drastic changes in character arcs. It was none of these things. It was the audacity, the indecency, the utter lack of respect for the people buying these games that EA had, a clear and obvious reveal f what they thought of you, the player, the fan: sheep.
If you recall, had you played it on release, and got to the end, after sitting through what was tricking you was a decent game; it ends with pop up message that read something like, "THANKS FOR PLAYING MASS EFFECT 3, FOR FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHEPARD AND TEAM, BE SURE TO PURCHASE ALL FUTURE DLC!"
That. Was. Ballsy. That is something I cannot forget and forgive. The sheer betrayal I felt from just seeing that only reinforced the idea in me that the game should've died with the ending of the first one because it's just been a slow-mo ride to an extremely devastating head-on collision from there.
If you recall, had you played it on release, and got to the end, after sitting through what was tricking you was a decent game; it ends with pop up message that read something like, "THANKS FOR PLAYING MASS EFFECT 3, FOR FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHEPARD AND TEAM, BE SURE TO PURCHASE ALL FUTURE DLC!"
That. Was. Ballsy. That is something I cannot forget and forgive. The sheer betrayal I felt from just seeing that only reinforced the idea in me that the game should've died with the ending of the first one because it's just been a slow-mo ride to an extremely devastating head-on collision from there.
Yeah, I prefer to just think it all ended at the end of the first game.
Jennifer Hale.... easily the best Shepard by the way
I know Casey is gone, good riddance. However, too little and too late.
Jennifer Hale.... easily the best Shepard by the way
I know Casey is gone, good riddance. However, too little and too late.
