Mass Effect 3

[Cube]

Handy tip:

You can load up the "Restart Mission" to see the endings, but you do miss some new scenes. Depends on if you want to bother going through the missions before it.

Single-Player DLC leakage:

Leviathan:

It seemingly involves a Reaper who has separated themselves from the others - a Reaper "traitor".

[Magnus]

An even better way to see all endings is to turn off auto-save after you've talked to you-know-who and just load the auto-save after you've seen each ending.

Because it turns out you can't skip cutscenes or any of the dialogue near the end.

Extended Cut:

Meh.

But at this point, I think I would have disliked anything they gave us.

At least they explained what Joker was doing and what happened with the squadmates you brought with you for the final assault. They apparently got mud all over their armor when they jumped out of the way of a vehicle that was hurdling towards them and needed to change their clothes. I loved the way the Normandy just casually landed where the Reaper had been shooting beams just seconds earlier and how Shepard took the time to have a little conversation with one his squadmates before they left.

I loved talking to the Star Child again, just because it was fun to see how they actually tried to explain the choices this time. I can just imagine Mac Walters and Casey Hudson being annoyed at having to explain things to us common idiots.

Of course, none of it still makes any sense.

It's nice that they had the non-standard game over where you choose not to listen to the Star Child either by shooting him or just telling him to get lost, and then Liara's black box thing is found many years later, but fans suggested that ending months ago, so I can't give them much credit for it. I would probably have loved it if it had been in the game originally, though.

Edited to add: Actually, it's kind of funny how a lot of people thought the choices you were presented with sucked and wanted a way to refuse the Space Child, and then BioWare added an ending that was like, "nope! If you refuse, YOU DIE."

As far as epilogues go, this was pretty weak. I don't think the relays are even mentioned in the green ending? In the blue ending, Shepard uses his Reapers to rebuild them. And in the red ending, Hackett says that they're "badly damaged" and that they managed to rebuild everything that the Reapers destroyed.

So why did BioWare decide to destroy them in the first place?

Ugh.

I was really hoping for some narration for the characters to find out what they did after the game finished. I saw Miranda stand in front of two different monitors, and Jacob was either talking to two women (his wife and mistress?) or he was in a room with a bunch of people. That doesn't really tell me anything about what happened with them, nor do I understand why there were different scenes in the first place. Synthesis, Jacob gets a threesome, control, Jacob becomes a public speaker.

I'm also not sure how the game chooses which characters to show in the first place, as Zaeed only showed up in the destroy ending. Tali and Garrus? Liara? Ashley? All dead, I guess? But hey, at least I got to see Samara chill out with her daughter in all three endings.

Not that it matters much, because yeah, this was a weak epilogue.

Everyone gathering around to put up Shepard's name on the memorial wall was pretty nice, though, even if Garrus didn't bother to attend for some reason (at least not in the red ending, not sure if everyone was there in the other endings). Some friend you were, Garrus.

I like how EDI just dies off-screen in the red ending and it's not addressed in any way. Her name is just up there on the wall. Sorry, Joker! I had to do it to survive!

Because you still survive in the red ending, right? The scene seemed shorter than before, but that may just have been my imagination. Still no idea where Shepard would even be at that point, though. I guess Hackett wasn't kidding when he said that they rebuilt everything and maybe Shepard's still on the Citadel?

But then it's kind of weird that you get to see things that presumably happen months later before Shepard wakes up. The Normandy crew make that little plaque for the memorial wall, but they didn't make sure Shepard was dead first?

Maybe that means Mordin's still alive, too.

I'm mostly nitpicking at this point, I guess. The Space Child is still ridiculous and the choices are still terrible, but I was hoping for an epilogue and some closure and this really didn't deliver.

But as I said, it's really hard to be objective when they messed up the ending so much the first time. To me, Mass Effect 3 will always be the game that had such a bad ending that they had to release free DLC to fix it. Maybe it'll be a game with a decent ending to anyone who didn't play it before the Extended Cut.

Originally Posted by Cube

Very, very quick thoughts:

I am satisfied with all four endings.

Remember when you were dead certain the indoctrination theory was true? I thought you were going to hate that it was officially debunked.

Actually, that's my favorite thing about the Extended Cut. No more indoctrination theory. That's been bugging me for months now.

[Cube]

Red and Blue endings:

I've read that there are actually different versions of both of those.

The blue ending varies on if Shepard is renegade or paragon, the control of the Reapers is more... aggressive.

In terms of the red ending, if your war assets are extremely low then Earth gets destroyed (as before) and the Mass Relays are completely destroyed. It's an extremely bleak ending with little hope.

[Aimless]

I was going to give my thoughts on the Extended Cut, but it seems redundant when you could basically read this Eurogamer article instead.

[Cube]

That article is a good read. Completely wrong, but still a good read.

[Magnus]

Are you just going to make a claim like that and not back it up in any way?

Brief thoughts on the article:

I mostly agree with the article (especially the part about the endings still being bad). The only thing I disagree with is the part about the green ending. Yes, it's a terrible idea and by far the worst ending, but I didn't really find it any happier than any of the other endings? They're all very "and they all lived happily ever after." I mean, you kill the geth (and EDI!) in the red ending and it's not even brought up. It's all "we can rebuild everything they destroyed." Well, okay then.

[bryanee]

Red ending is best ending. I hope the red ending is cannon if they go for a fourth game in the series. All the other endings blew especially the green ending.

[Aimless]

I definitely think red is the most thematically satisfying.

Something I liked about the extended cut is that it confirmed my suspicion that...

Spoiler:

...the Reapers aren't grandiose beings beyond our ken, more a galactic display of irony. They embody the technological singularity they purport to be avoiding — having harvested their creators against their will in order to enact their "solution" — so by destroying them you're essentially doing them a favour.

[Shorty]

So did anyone else just shoot the kid straight away? I don't know why I never got that urge in the past. Probably because I knew how it was going to turn out. Needless to say I regretted it, as it's a shortcut to the new Refusal ending and saves immediately.

Anyway, watched the red ending, was happy with the way they patched up some plot holes, and in a way glad that they didn't completely change the ending. At least that shows a little integrity. Found it a bit odd that

Spoiler:

they started rebuilding the citadel but didn't even retrieve Shepard...

[flameboy]

So there seems to be people around the internet that thing the US PSN version might work with EU. I looked on the product page and it doesn't say only works with Product number XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX or what ever like it usually does...worth a try although how will I know without playing for some time is the attack on Cerebrus any different?

[ViPeR]

Well I loved what they did. Finally got some closure on the damn game! Why they didn't feel they had to explain all of those points (Catalyst dialogue) before and the Normandy I don't know. Liked the Return of the Jedi style cut scenes at the end. My ONLY gripe would be

Earth:

How the Normandy just casually lands to take away your squad members. However i'll take that over the nothingness of before. I really appreciated the emotional farewell of Anderson and Shepard too. Although Shepard is still alive on the ruins of the Citadel in my story . Fuck Synthesis I want my Shep alive! It's interesting to think what they'll do with future games. I can imagine that any sequel would take place tens of thousands of years in the future however there must be a reason why they kept Shepard alive. Maybe they are just giving themselves the option to use him/her if they want.

[flameboy]

I have lots of views...I still went for sythesis as this was my original choice.

green views:

"Whilst yes it's meh that it ultimately creates a never ending peace and isn't believable I still felt it was best in terms of ensuring a synthetic threat never arises. Although it could be argued that this is purely taking what the space child says at face value. Also their is evidence to suggest that this cycle has bucked the trend and that organics won't become their own demise. It is weird how this is set up as the perfect utopia"

I do like how new ending;

is:

bitter sweet, like you did fail but the hope the world is saved one day.

Blue actually didn't sit well with me...

because the voiceover:

I feel like could easily have been the harbinger talking at the end of his cycle....I feel like this could still lead to the reapers at some point rising once again.

I do think red represents the best canon ending so to speak. I assume if they do move forward with the franchise going forward they will either have to pick a canon or have one hell of a big game with 3 extremely different tangents. I reckon it will be a while before we see this happen with Dragon Age 3 next up and SWTOR as an ongoing project.

[ViPeR]

Was just going through my Renegade playthrough. I've come to the Rachni mission. Before when I was talking to someone (can't remember who) my Shepard confirmed that I'd killed the Rachni Queen in the first game. Now in the discussion on the shuttle before doing the mission they're saying I let her live! That's bullshit! I really wanted to see what would be there if I'd killed her and it's altered it so she always lives no matter what?? Anyone else had issues like this with past decisions?

[Magnus]

Originally Posted by ViPeR

Was just going through my Renegade playthrough. I've come to the Rachni mission. Before when I was talking to someone (can't remember who) my Shepard confirmed that I'd killed the Rachni Queen in the first game. Now in the discussion on the shuttle before doing the mission they're saying I let her live! That's bullshit! I really wanted to see what would be there if I'd killed her and it's altered it so she always lives no matter what?? Anyone else had issues like this with past decisions?

Spoilers:

If you killed her in the first game, the Reapers just create a clone and the mission plays out exactly the same way. The only difference is that the clone Rachni Queen eventually betrays you if you choose to let her live at the end of the mission, losing you some galactic readiness points.

Basically, you're missing squat due to this bug.

[ViPeR]

Originally Posted by Magnus

Spoilers:

If you killed her in the first game, the Reapers just create a clone and the mission plays out exactly the same way. The only difference is that the clone Rachni Queen eventually betrays you if you choose to let her live at the end of the mission, losing you some galactic readiness points.

Basically, you're missing squat due to this bug.

Yeh I did look it up. Seems a bit of a cop out though. Hey Ho

[Mike1988uk]

DLC single player has got a release date! Doesn't say how much it is going to cost though.

We are very pleased to officially announce that the Mass Effect 3 Leviathan single-player DLC will be released on August 28th, 2012 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Please note that on Playstation 3 in Europe, it will be available on August 29th.

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/08/15/l...icially-dated/

[Cube]

It's 800 MS Points.

[Mike1988uk]

Originally Posted by Cube

It's 800 MS Points.

Am I right in thinking the ME2 dlc was 560MS except for Shadow Broker?

[Agent Gibbs]

i might actually finish the game once this is released then

[Shorty]

Why would you wait for extra, paid DLC before finishing the game? o_O

[Happenstance]

If it helps, I completed Mass Effect 1 for the first time today

[Agent Gibbs]

Originally Posted by Shorty

Why would you wait for extra, paid DLC before finishing the game? o_O

I wanted to complete it with 100% readiness, only i couldn't play for about 2 weeks and the 98% i had dropped to 50 something and i've just not had time to spend that much time on multiplayer to get it back up high enough again.

DLC "might" give me a reason to take skyrim out and replace it with mass effect 3, but then again it might not

[Cube]

https://twitter.com/GambleMike/statu...38160926781441

The next DLC will be the Omega DLC.

Some other things:

- The two founders are retiring.
- There will be more multiplayer and singleplayer DLC
- There is a new Mass Effect in the works.
- BioWare are also working on a new franchise.

[Magnus]

@Supergrunch will be so excited.

[Jimbob]

I guessed it were called that, and according to a certain Mr Phillips on Twitter, it was cut from the game. I was expecting to go to Omega and fight to get it back, there were enough bloomin hints.

And as for more DLC, they should have done a "Season Pass" like others have done.