Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
It had issues (like all Obsidian games), but it's a far better game
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Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut is coming next week [Up: Out now, my sweet]
- Thread starter Hypertrooper
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It had issues (like all Obsidian games), but it's a far better game
a Master Ninja
Member
I just beat Mass Effect 3 for the first time.
voodoopanda
Member
Has there been any mention or rumor from Bioware/EA of a Mass Effect 2 Ultimate Edition with all the DLC coming out? I grabbed Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition during the Steam sale and it reminded me I've been waiting a while for a ME2 one.
I liked the first one better. It seemed weak and cheesy that every member of your party (except for the droids) could be magically turned into Jedi in the sequel.
And, of course, Kotor 2's issues had issues.
EmCeeGramr
Member
I just beat Mass Effect 3 for the first time.
So do you know what the original ending(s) was/were?
I am about to finish ME3 for the first time. I downloaded the patch before reaching Cerberus so i guess i don't have to repeat the last sector of the game in order to see the additional content of the patch, do i?
enjoying the game so far but i expected more. Maybe the ending will be awesome and change my opinion.
btw, maybe this is not the correct thread but are ME novels worth regarding main plot or are those just 'side stories' about the ME universe?
enjoying the game so far but i expected more. Maybe the ending will be awesome and change my opinion.
btw, maybe this is not the correct thread but are ME novels worth regarding main plot or are those just 'side stories' about the ME universe?
No. A pretty big majority liked the game a lot before the ending.
A pretty big majority of gamers would eat their own shit if it was wrapped up nicely enough, but that's not really news.
Canis lupus
Member
Wth, so I downloaded the extended cut on ps3. Haven't installed it for a week and letting it stay in its bubble, I started my ps3 today and the bubble is gone. What happened? Did it delete itself?
I can't believe you think the game was shit. Funny how opinions work.
The series has been going downhill since ME1, bioware included.
Reinstatement of features ME1 had, jersey shore type characters included, the fact they keep trying to make it a better third person shooter when that is not where Bioware's strength lies, a horrible ending that has nothing to do with the subplot ME has had for two games, trying to make it more cinematic but relying on cliches like the inception horn to try and create tension/drama where there was none, some very on rails content.
I mean the voice acting was fine, that's never changed. The script is childishly bioware in themes and deployment, but those are easily ignorable faults. The art design has always been decent, the sound design has been decent. Those are things that don't really matter though in terms of playing a videogame.
But where it really matters, the combat and the rpg mechanics, other games have done them so much better (though not with the theme or mechanics together) that it's just sad and disappointing as a whole that fans keep buying into this beaten horse, and will probably continue to buy into this.
It really shows that Bioware's strength lies in rpg mechanics and (generally) storytelling, not combat. The further from real time combat they go, the better the game ends up being (DA:O, KOTOR, etc) because the combat is never really exceptional because it serves as a means of a minigame in between story elements. Now they're trying too hard and failing, which makes it harder to ignore the shitty elements they keep trying to implement.
To diverge off ME a second, it also shows that either someone up top is calling the shots that has a total disconnect from what fans really want from bioware, or they keep trying to include things they think will work (because it works in other games) instead of what they know works. An example of this is how DA3 will have coop/multiplayer. Sure, a bunch of fans have asked for multiplayer, it would be fine as a sort of F2P side component but not something the base game needs to pick the IP back up off the ground after they had their way with DA2. DA needs a fundamentally different approach than other games because the whole fucking reason that people bought into it because it was a callback to older isometric games. That's what the fans wanted. Those same fans generally hated DA2 and the story/mechanics. Sure the combat was improved, the stat tree was improved. But the theme, the entire story, and the characters were ruined beyond repair (see: Anders). What the series doesn't need multiplayer in order to raise sales and love for the game, it needs a totally different approach than the one they tried to do on DA2, simply because most of the fans who want a DA game want nothing to do with what they tried to push.
tl;dr bioware is out of touch with themselves and their fans (not counting listening to the cesspool that is bioware social forums.)
In other words, you dont like what they did with the franchise, so it automatically turned to shit because its not what you want, no matter how good or bad some of the things are. The combat is actually better and more fun than in ME1, and im sure others feels the same, but because it plays more like a 3rd person shooter than before, its shit for you.
Edit : And what exactly was on-rail other than two very short turret moments on Rannoch?
Edit : And what exactly was on-rail other than two very short turret moments on Rannoch?
There are much better 3rd person shooters. I'm saying they shouldn't have bothered because it was a poor attempt. It started off being an rpg with clunky 3rd person shooter elements that could be ignored, and evolved into a poor man's 3rd person shooter with a lack of rpg elements. If I wanted a 3rd person shooter with good gameplay I'd play Binary Domain, not mass effect.
Again, they should keep to their strengths, and "action" isn't one of them.
No one says "I play mass effect for the combat" they say "I play mass effect to see what happens to commander shepard and crew, and to customize my shepard to tailor me"
Ein Bear
Member
Did you leave the console on 'Turn off after background download completes'? The PS3 classes installing the bubbles as part of 'downloading', so it'll install any you have before turning off.
BattleMonkey
Member
ME1 was barely an RPG either. They at least with each release improved the actual gameplay. People have major rose tinted goggles of ME1 with how bad the RPG element was. The only thing ME1 did better was in the sense of feeling less linear as you had more exploration options such as the large citadel, but even then the game followed Biowares little hub design mentality. It wasn't the best shooting mechanics and action, but they still improved with each game at least.
And RPG mechanics was never Biowares strength either. Their best games used systems they didn't invent, they simply copied the licenses pen and paper sibling. All their original games have had mediocre to shitty game mechanics that often could easily be broken. KOTOR had awful gameplay that merely dumbed down original D20 mechanics
What exactly is ME3 lacking in RPG elements compared to ME1? Weapon stats? Still there. Weapon mods? Still there. Armor stats? Still there. Special abilities to use depending on your situation and enemies? Still there. Customized skill points to improve your character? Still there. Lvls and XP? Still there, even if you get XP at specific points rather than every kills now.
The only RPG elements lacking from ME1 are item drops and ammo powers were transfered into skill points.
And ME3 is still "I play Mass Effect to see what happens to Shepard and customize him/her to tailor me". Except now it has better combat than in ME1. I wish there was as much choices in dialogues than before sure, but its still there.
WrenchNinja
Member
Reads like Call of Duty.
Typographenia
Member
I like the Vanguard charge, but I want my unlimited ammo guns back. My OCD about having full ammo all the time sucks, since I'm always left wandering around the areas looking for glowsticks. : (
It was an issue in ME2, where i was always out(or nearly out) of ammo when playing Infiltrator with a Widow, even when looking all over the place for thermal clips, but they must have improved its droprate in ME3 because i never had that problem and dont have to look all around the map for them.
But Conrad Verner agree with you.
It's not that hard to see. It's a decent first play like most ultra linear games but then you see how little choice there really was and how little dialog there is, not to mention the shit main story.
Like ME2 it's mostly a dating simulator and friend simulator. It's the only upside to the entire last 2 games.
Not going to argue with your other points (though I think DAO was terrible all round, and had a very poor clicheridden story, especially compared with ME), but this juxtaposed is pretty hilarious. If the combat is where it really matters, then ME3 is infinitely better than ME1.
One of the things that made me laugh was the fact (I dont remember right now exactly what) but how they had to remove something to make room for the rolling animation. Nice priorities.
When do you ever have to roll?
First ME1 had clunky combat as I said, but because it was functional it wasn't too bad. In ME2 it was a little better but still functionally clunky like the first, and ME3 even more so. The biotics are fine, though I don't agree with the cooldown change at all because all it does is inflate combat time, not really address combat itself.
That's kind of a mainstay with bioware games though, they don't know how to fix something, so they throw it out or redesign it in the wrong way.
People liked exploring but the main complaints were the vehicle used to explore, and the content in exploring. So instead of the obvious like giving us a vehicle we could use that is better, and more explorable content, they took exploration out entirely, the exact opposite. What.
Regardless, ME3 combat is still even for a TPS clunky as shit and the gunplay isn't really that fluid compared to other "pure" tps games. However to me, what matters more to me is the rpg mechanics, which were almost removed in ME2 and reinstated from ME3. Why did it have to be removed in the first place? It's like they didn't know what ME was yet.
As an aside, I fucking loved DAO.
BattleMonkey
Member
You roll all the time in ME3, it's primary method of fighting brutes, dodging grenade, and and in general was a great addition to the combat. Rolling was very helpful and especially in MP.
The reason why the combat is clunky is because of it being a RPG hybrid system. Enemies have large amounts of hit points and other status elements that never works well for making fluid shooting combat. All shooter/rpg hybrids have this same clunky/slow feel to them since your weapons don't kill fast and your left plinking enemies do death. The only way they could have made the combat feel less clunky would by removing more rpg elements and making it a twitch based shooter. This would have probably been a even bigger shit storm if they did that. The other alternate would have been to switch to a more turn based style slow gameplay system, which would have also been awkward.
Not really they got rid of it when you could do headshots, though not all the enemies you can headshot like the big guys are kind of hard to do because it's a part of their body or whatever.
I mean clunky like movement, cover systems, moving around felt very much like you were a dude running inside of a box who only rarely moved on the y axis. That kind of shit doesn't fly with me.
I'm okay with the enemies having hitpoints like a normal fps just not in the way they did it.
Another thing was the fact higher difficulties didn't really change ai tactics, just inflated health pools/damage. That's not challenging, that's just tedious. Then again, all bioware games are like that, including a lot of non-bioware games.
I mean clunky like movement, cover systems, moving around felt very much like you were a dude running inside of a box who only rarely moved on the y axis. That kind of shit doesn't fly with me.
I'm okay with the enemies having hitpoints like a normal fps just not in the way they did it.
Another thing was the fact higher difficulties didn't really change ai tactics, just inflated health pools/damage. That's not challenging, that's just tedious. Then again, all bioware games are like that, including a lot of non-bioware games.
The inventory system from ME1 was pretty horrible as well. No cancel button when you scroll through your equipment upgrades really sucked. Don't know how many times I installed an upgrade by accident. As you said above, they didn't try to improve the inventory system, they just trashed it. Even though I couldn't get into DA:O, the inventory system worked really well in that game. Why they couldn't just use something like that for ME2 is crazy to me. I like to loot and pillage and then sell stuff at stores to buy upgrades, etc. All that went out the window in ME2. Really dumbed down the RPG elements, imo.
The combat did get better as the games went on, but it wasn't what drew me into the series in the first place. The combat improved but the story got worse. The main plot of the second game felt like it never really went anywhere. Although the extended cut makes the ending of ME3 more palatable, it leaves a lot to be desired.
This post I agree with 150%. Every single word said here.
a Master Ninja
Member
Afterwards I saw them via that "10 reasons the ending sucks" video, and I'm glad I didn't experience the original endings even though they aren't that different.
So yeah, my choices throughout the trilogy barely impacted the final ending but overall I felt I got closure for the Mass Effect universe. Shepard got to unite the galaxy, say goodbye to his friends, and go out with a bang.
Second game felt like a pokemon game. The 3rd installment does better but after the nice plot presented in the first game almost everything has been a let down. Maybe hype makes us expect to much, but all the mistery related to reapers and what are and they do and such disappears in ME2 and feels rushed in ME3. While the ending (i never saw the ending pre extended cut) felt predictable it wasn't as bad as i thought it was. But expected more.
In hindsight the second game would be better without the Collectors plot as whole and a meaty Cerebus story of some sort.
lol, why would you expect something new and interesting from a weeks old thread about a months old game?
lol, why would you expect something new and interesting from a weeks old thread about a months old game?
It would be better if ME and ME2 switched positions, plot-wise. A lot of things would have to be fixed, still (the Turian ambassodor's "Reapers" would actually make sense if it were the first game and a Reaper hadn't crashed into the Citadel yet), but at least it wouldn't feel as redundant any more.
Don't play Bioware games any longer?
Thread resurrection? Hah.
The large majority of gamers enjoyed ME3 up until the point where you
. I'd make an argument that up until that point, it was one of the best games of the generation in terms of depth and story.
The series as a whole, to me, is still one of the best around, and one of my all-time favorites. It's just a shame the last 5 minutes almost was enough to kill all the love that the first 200+ hours I put into the series gave me.
The large majority of gamers enjoyed ME3 up until the point where you
fight the stupid space ninja
The series as a whole, to me, is still one of the best around, and one of my all-time favorites. It's just a shame the last 5 minutes almost was enough to kill all the love that the first 200+ hours I put into the series gave me.
WrenchNinja
Member
Last five minutes, suuuuure.
Galactic Fork
A little fluff between the ears never did any harm...
I hate Cerberus. I was pissed that 3 devoted so much time to them. So annoying. You have a big war with the reapers and the game is mostly you fighting a bunch of bigoted humans. So I'm sorry if I'm glad the second game of the sci fi space alien soap opera series wasn't more about bigoted humans.
What I find awesome is that some of my favorite moments are the results of choices I made in the previous games, even if it is simply the choice of having recruited certain characters. Grunt emerging victorious when freeing the Rachni queen again, Thane's death where he prayed for you, Jack's moments at Grissom Academy... Amazing moments that wouldn't even be there without my imported save game, that's just nuts.
I did a run of ME3 where the only survivors were Garrus and Tali... its not nearly as good when you dont have Wrex and all those ME2 characters around. And Wreav is such an asshole, he's the only reason why i sabotaged the Genophage. All he cares about is vengeance.
Like Garrus said if you bring him on Sur'kesh : "I don't care about this guy. I miss Wrex."
eot
Banned
Mechanically it's very similar to the first game so I don't understand why you say that.
The plotting isn't as good in KotOR 2 but the dialogue and the characters blow KotOR 1 out of the water. Being a bit reductionist I think KotOR 1 feels like a fairy tale of good vs evil whereas KotOR 2 is a game for people who like to engage with the writing, think about the themes and the characters' motivations. For as similar as they are mechanically I don't think they could be more different in terms of their writing.
I'd kinda agree with this. I'm not really sure if it's quite one of the best this gen but it certainly created a bunch of awesome moments. For starters I think the Leaving Earth Scene was one of my favourite openings this gen and really did a good job of establishing the context and the stakes of the whole game. Even though I was never really a fan of Bioware trying to force that kid onto the players this opening bit with Shepard staring at the destruction, glassy eyed, and having to leave with the great music playing was really, really well done.
I also thought Grunt sacrificing himself was pretty touching and also really well done. Him emerging alive after all that was also a nice surprise.
Everything else that people have brought up since you've made the comment I really liked too. So yeah, overall I do say that ME3 could have been one of my favourite games if the ending was more satisfactory.
Impressive setpieces with call of duty layouts. Thessia's background was awesome, the linear corridor followed by some relatively empty temple wasn't so awesome.
ME3 has some really brilliant, well thought and genuinely awesome moments. I mean, the entire Tutchanka arc is god damn amazing. It ties everything and changes depending on what you imported.
Rannoch is ambitious and while it might fall short in a few ways, having the Geth and the Quarian reconcile is exactly what I wanted out of ME3.
You feel the care and the attention to detail in most of ME3. Then, the ending comes along and smacks you in the face.
I guess the thing that bothered me was how
sounded like any typical monologue-infested JRPG/Anime villain spewing a lot of bullshit (most recent example for comparison, the final boss of Xenoblade). I actually think BioWare screwed up trying to come up with explanations to everything. But I have no idea why they felt giving him the ghost kid form would be a good idea. It made no sense to me, but then again none of Shepherds "dreams" made sense.
The Catalyst
It's funny how Cerberus all of a sudden becomes a force that is seemingly capable of taking on several military's, even with the Reapers going around.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
2 out of 4 isn't it? But those 2 choices aren't available depending on various choices you've made throughout ME2 and ME3. So there's a bit more to it.
These are the two things I want to see addressed most in the next campaign.
1.) A variety of sizable explorable areas with less of a combat focus. I don't mind having combat heavy zones, or for said combat heavy zones to be linear assuming the base combat mechanics are varied, but it really shouldn't be the entire game.
2.) They're now out of the scope of the trilogy, so I really hope they completely redo the choice system to something that at least seems more meaningful within the scope of a single game. Even The Witcher 1 had this implemented in an excellent way, and did so without putting a huge strain on their resources, so there's really no reason BioWare shouldn't be able to let you make choices that at least give a significant illusion of things changing and reacting to you notably. I didn't feel the amount of changes that went between games was that bad, but I really feel they could do a lot more within the scope of a single game.