Support NeoGAF

[EatChildren]

I haven't played it in a while, but the idea that humanity is special has been a trope that's been fairly well handled by Bioware. They made humanity unique without making them really better than other races. They gave a legitimate reason for Reapers wanting humanity over other species (in story legitimate, not scientifically legitimate), but the other races are hardly overshadowed by humanity.

Not really. Other races in ME2 were practically falling over for humans. Mordin (or someone else) calls them more genetically diverse or some other meaningless shit, and Harbinger's quotes when you fight Collectors point out all the supposed flaws in the other reces ("Turian you are too primitive!" etc).

Again I repeat, it was there from the very first game. People seem to forget Liara telling Shepard, towards the end of the first game, something like "People think humans are brash and impatient, but now I realise your species gets things done and has courage bla bla bla".

I can completely understand the feeling of meh on where the story has gone, but I dont see how people can put ME1 on such a huge pedestal. It was far superior in story-telling, but the themes were always sloshy sci-fi tropes and hardly unique or special in the slightest.

 

[Ponn]

you say while ignoring the fact that sovereign basically destroys the citadel fleet in direct combat.

Because he appeared out of fucking nowhere in the middle of the fleet AFTER Saren had activated the relay, took over the citadel and destroyed their communication sending them into "WTF is happening! mode"

Then they regrouped, shot his ass down and The Normandy finished him with one shot to his weak spot causing massive damage. I'm not ignoring anything. Seriously people, go replay the game. Take in everything that was said, their takeover of the galaxies was not about brute all powerful strength. People are ignoring the entire plot of ME1 and what the reapers were doing.

It's pretty blatant this is going to be what ME3 is about, that the reapers lost that element of surprise and now they are forced to try and complete their cycle without that advantage and that will be how the races of the galaxies can win this time. By rallying together like the Reapers didn't want them to do and they no longer have the advantage of taking over the relays. All of that makes ME1 completely important to the outcome of ME3. I'm simply baffled by the conclusions some of you are coming to given all this.

 

[Lafiel]

I'm quite sure Mass Effect 3 will be the Mass Effect we'll all want to play. Christina Norman (The lead systems designer for Mass Effect 2) said at GDC 2010 that Mass Effect 2's lack of traditional RPG mechanics is something they need to definitely fix for Mass Effect 3. I'm quite confident that Bioware will deliver.

Bah, it's not like the "traditional" rpg elements were ever done well in any ME game. Let's hope they get it right in ME3 this time.

 

[vodka-bull]

So, any word about a multiplayer?

 

[Fimbulvetr]

I'm not ignoring anything.

You mean the one that stuck its mind in someone else's body while its real body was stationary and defenseless?

Uuuhh....

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Because he appeared out of fucking nowhere in the middle of the fleet AFTER Saren had activated the relay, took over the citadel and destroyed their communication sending them into "WTF is happening! mode"

Then they regrouped, shot his ass down and The Normandy finished him with one shot to his weak spot causing massive damage. I'm not ignoring anything. Seriously people, go replay the game. Take in everything that was said, their takeover of the galaxies was not about brute all powerful strength. People are ignoring the entire plot of ME1 and what the reapers were doing.

It's pretty blatant this is going to be what ME3 is about, that the reapers lost that element of surprise and now they are forced to try and complete their cycle without that advantage and that will be how the races of the galaxies can win this time. By rallying together like the Reapers didn't want them to do and they no longer have the advantage of taking over the relays. All of that makes ME1 completely important to the outcome of ME3. I'm simply baffled by the conclusions some of you are coming to given all this.

They were only able to take down Sovereign when Shepard killed zombie Saren.

"Its shields are down! Hit him with all we got!" Remember that?

 

[Dennis]

Shittrailers wont load

Need Ytube stat

 

[itxaka]

Demonstrates that they can be destroyed nonetheless, now they just need the right tools/firepower, fortunately they have 28 years to find it

Dude, it wiped the citadel fleet. It was incredibly powerful.

Then on ME2 you can fuck an evolutioned version (which is supposed to be better becasue humans are better yadda yadda, let's invade earth) with just your shitty guns. Okay the thing was incomplete but holy fuck, from wiping an army to shooting it with your pistold there is quite a lot.

It shows that they already thought of the human invasion adn wanted to make them less powerful so there could be earth missions of you shooting a reaper with your pistol and such, while if going with the first Mass Effect portraying of the Reapers, the almost 300 that appear at the end of ME2 will fuck every planet they find in a mere seconds.

 

[HK-47]

So he's not aloud to have a negative opinion about the insane amount of pessimism on GAF?

Oh he is allowed to have it. I didnt say he couldnt.

 

[a Master Ninja]

Mass Effect on Earth.


Lame.

"Saving Earth" appears to be just the driving plot device to get Shepard to travel to the main homeworlds of the important alien races in the Mass Effect universe. I would imagine time spent on Earth would be little more than the intro and possibly a finale.

 

[mescalineeyes]

crossing my fingers so hard for this one.
trailer was cute.

 

[HK-47]

Shittrailers wont load

Need Ytube stat

Ask and ye shall recieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTD0gWh8w0

 

[Chinner]

Because he appeared out of fucking nowhere in the middle of the fleet AFTER Saren had activated the relay, took over the citadel and destroyed their communication sending them into "WTF is happening! mode"

Then they regrouped, shot his ass down and The Normandy finished him with one shot to his weak spot causing massive damage. I'm not ignoring anything. Seriously people, go replay the game. Take in everything that was said, their takeover of the galaxies was not about brute all powerful strength. People are ignoring the entire plot of ME1 and what the reapers were doing.

It's pretty blatant this is going to be what ME3 is about, that the reapers lost that element of surprise and now they are forced to try and complete their cycle without that advantage and that will be how the races of the galaxies can win this time. By rallying together like the Reapers didn't want them to do and they no longer have the advantage of taking over the relays. All of that makes ME1 completely important to the outcome of ME3. I'm simply baffled by the conclusions some of you are coming to given all this.

the entire fleet was sitting outside of the citadel. admittedly they were prepared for saren, but there was no exact element of surprise. the only reason why the fleet managed to destroy saren was because he cut himself off from the geth and he made himself defenseless while controlling saren. putting aside that he was preoccupied trying to take over the citadel also.

 

[Dennis]

Ask and ye shall recieve.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTD0gWh8w0

HK-47 woohoo

 

[Ponn]

Uuuhh....

You mean the one that you don't know was truly stationary or defenseless yet hiding in a secluded sector behind the Mass Relay everyone was scared shitless to go through because it was a death trap and that was why they called it a suicide mission they weren't coming back from because of the defenses on the other side? That reaper who then ran the fuck away instead of taking out shepard and the Normandy even though they were right there? That one?

They were only able to take down Sovereign when Shepard killed zombie Saren.

"Its shields are down! Hit him with all we got!" Remember that?

He put a large part of himself in Saren to take out Shepard, when Shepard took out Saren that disrupted Sovereign. They were still damaging Sovereign before that. And even if we were going the other way you want to lead to, what kind of all powerful being can be taken out headshotting their avatar they took over?

 

[neojubei]

Well I know i am going to buy mass effect regardless of what happens with the story, I just love the series. Didn't like the trailer but hopefully there is more to the game than save Earth.

 

[FStop7]

Unless they pull off something special this is going to be somewhat lame, story wise.

In ME1 and ME2 they went out of their way to divest the player from caring about Earth. In the Codex it basically says "Yep, Earth is still around and things are pretty much the same. Some cities are big and pretty, others are complete shitholes, there is still a lot of disparity and bad stuff there."

That's it. We don't see Earth, we don't visit Earth, shit... when we visit the Moon, the bitmap of the Earth in the skybox is reversed! Earth is so insignificant the developers didn't even bother to fix that.

Now we're suddenly supposed to care about a planet that isn't even worth more than a passing mention in the previous two games? It may as well be Planet XxYXyXyZYzyzYZ.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

You mean the one that you don't know was truly stationary or defenseless yet hiding in a secluded sector behind the Mass Relay everyone was scared shitless to go through because it was a death trap and that was why they called it a suicide mission they weren't coming back from because of the defenses on the other side? That reaper who then ran the fuck away instead of taking out shepard and the Normandy even though they were right there? That one?

Harbinger wasn't physically at the collector base....

And no. I'm referring to Sovereign's possession of Saren.

 

[HK-47]

"Saving Earth" appears to be just the driving plot device to get Shepard to travel to the main homeworlds of the important alien races in the Mass Effect universe. I would imagine time spent on Earth would be little more than the intro and possibly a finale.

Plus it been established that Reapers actually suck at killing planets, contrary to previous opinions. Only 7 million people in a week?

 

[dralla]

don't like the direction it seems they are going. i hope it is not essentially save earth, it's just so...boring

 

[firehawk12]

I can completely understand the feeling of meh on where the story has gone, but I dont see how people can put ME1 on such a huge pedestal. It was far superior in story-telling, but the themes were always sloshy sci-fi tropes and hardly unique or special in the slightest.

ME1 was a love letter to SF, ME2 was a reproduction of SF.

It's really like the Original Trilogy vs the Prequel Trilogy. Really, both don't do anything new, but one feels more genuine than the other for most people.

 

[Veelk]

Not really. Other races in ME2 were practically falling over for humans. Mordin (or someone else) calls them more genetically diverse or some other meaningless shit, and Harbinger's quotes when you fight Collectors point out all the supposed flaws in the other reces ("Turian you are too primitive!" etc).

Again I repeat, it was there from the very first game. People seem to forget Liara telling Shepard, towards the end of the first game, something like "People think humans are brash and impatient, but now I realise your species gets things done and has courage bla bla bla".

I can completely understand the feeling of meh on where the story has gone, but I dont see how people can put ME1 on such a huge pedestal. It was far superior in story-telling, but the themes were always sloshy sci-fi tropes and hardly unique or special in the slightest.

What the fuck does being the most genetically diverse even mean? It's the reason the reapers are after them, yes, but in just various exchanges of any kind between most other races, how often is that going to give them the edge? That Harbinger points out those flaws is just his perspective. He's looking for the best components to make reaper babies, and that happens to be humans, so that's why they are going after humanity. Like I said, it's more like each race is portrayed with it's own unique traits, and humans just have the traits the reapers are looking for. That's not making humans better than others, just separating them from the pack.

As for Liara's comment, she knows the prejudice humans get for being the new kids on the block, so she's just saying that they are validating their purpose by having those things. It's not like the other species, especially the asari, haven't gotten shit done or had courage or whatever.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Well I know i am going to buy mass effect regardless of what happens with the story, I just love the series. Didn't like the trailer but hopefully there is more to the game than save Earth.

There will be. Thank God.

I still can't believe that in a game about space aliens the climactic moment is that we have to go back to earf.

 

[Solo]

I can completely understand the feeling of meh on where the story has gone, but I dont see how people can put ME1 on such a huge pedestal. It was far superior in story-telling, but the themes were always sloshy sci-fi tropes and hardly unique or special in the slightest.

Its not about being unique or special (or else barely any book, film, piece of music or game would be worthwhile). Its about execution. Yes, ME1 plays to a buttload of tropes but it handled them very well and felt fresh and innovative in spite of the fact that it wasn't. Execution is the key.

 

[kaiwing]

What I want to know is if it's a simultaneous release for both ps3 and xb360 since ME2 is coming out in January for ps3. Also, Earth had better be the last mission after exploring the rest of the galaxy. It seems that having multiple reapers appear, each one capable of crippling a fleet, on one planet means that you can't go around exploring the galaxy for quests.

 

[dimb]

People claim that ME2 was not an RPG because it took away the inventory management component and reduced the number of character stats.

Well...it's not an RPG. ME2 is just a good shooter with a lot of talkey segments.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

You mean the one that you don't know was truly stationary or defenseless yet hiding in a secluded sector behind the Mass Relay everyone was scared shitless to go through because it was a death trap and that was why they called it a suicide mission they weren't coming back from because of the defenses on the other side? That reaper who then ran the fuck away instead of taking out shepard and the Normandy even though they were right there? That one?

Sovereign and Harbinger are different Reapers from different games. Maybe you need to replay the games bro!

 

[a Master Ninja]

Plus it been established that Reapers actually suck at killing planets, contrary to previous opinions. Only 7 million people in a week?

On a second viewing of the trailer it appears he means London alone had 2 million killed the first day, 7 million in a week.

 

[Coldsnap]

Yes! time to give it to the reavers

 

[HK-47]

On a second viewing of the trailer it appears he means London alone had 2 million killed the first day, 7 million in a week.

That would make more sense. But then I cant imagine Earth holding out for a whole game.

 

[Chinner]

Sovereign and Harbinger are different Reapers from different games. Maybe you need to replay the games bro!

i see you chose the renegade option.

 

[dimb]

On a second viewing of the trailer it appears he means London alone had 2 million killed the first day, 7 million in a week.

How would they track this? Are there like census inspectors strolling between the space ships taking a body count?

 

[EatChildren]

Its not about being unique or special (or else barely any book, film, piece of music or game would be worthless). Its about execution. Yes, ME1 plays to a buttload of tropes but it handled them very well and felt fresh and innovative in spite of the fact that it wasn't. Execution is the key.

And not you nor I nor anyone knows how ME3's story will be executed. Expectations that it will be weak based on ME2 are fair, but calling it out as a disaster based on a short CGI teaser is very silly.

On paper ME1 sounds like crap as well; "The first human superhero must single handedly stop a race of god machines from destroying the universe". Its cheesy, but was executed very well.

ME3 might be a total disaster, or it might not be. None of us know.

 

[Prothero]

"Saving Earth" appears to be just the driving plot device to get Shepard to travel to the main homeworlds of the important alien races in the Mass Effect universe. I would imagine time spent on Earth would be little more than the intro and possibly a finale.

I think you're on the right track there. Tali's loyalty mission and the emphasis on Wrex being a figurehead for the Krogan clans seems to hint at a need for Shepard to rally the races against the Reaper threat. Earth seems likely to be the conclusion of ME3, where everyone comes together to save Earth from falling to the Reapers (for whatever reason).

 

[Forkball]

Why do aliens always attack big famous cities? Shouldn't they focus on taking out military bases in the middle of nowhere first? I mean it's not like London has nukes under it or anything.

 

[Solo]

If Jack Wall doesn't ditch that generic blockbuster movie score shit from ME2 in ME3 and get back to aping Vangelis like he did in ME1, then heads will roll.

 

[Skilotonn]

Fucking NeoGAF, way to be Debbie Downers. All this from the first fucking teaser?

Thank goodness I watched this on TV away from the laptop. I was so happy that it didn't turn out to be some spin-off BS with the teaser shot of the Brit some week(s) back - when I saw Big Ben, Reapers I said alright, but then when I saw Sheperd, then the ME3 logo I was so damn hyped.

Earth was on the plate from the beginning of Mass Effect - they purposely drop breadcrumbs to it, and you all get pissed when you get what they've been hinting at for years?

The game has been a trilogy from the start, with your Sheperd as the main, and you're disappointed when it happens for the finale?

I thought there were actual Mass Effect fans on here, looks like I was sorely mistaken.

I'd bet that knowing how BioWare cuts their teasers/trailers, Earth is probably right in the very beginning of the game, and you all were like this for nothing, as usual.

 

[kuYuri]

While I'm glad to be getting more Mass Effect, I was hoping Bioware would take more time to make this game awesome. Although I'm expecting a delay.

 

[Ponn]

Sovereign and Harbinger are different Reapers from different games. Maybe you need to replay the games bro!

Thats ok, the way he wrote that I thought he was talking about Harbinger, since you know Harbinger was taking over the Collector spider commander and elites during the final mission then flew off at the last moment. You know, because I played both games, several times.

Which still proves my point that people in this thread are again really over estimating their power based on nothing.

 

[Plasma]

How would they track this? Are there like census inspectors strolling between the space ships taking a body count?

Knowing our government that's precisely the sort of thing they'd be doing in a crisis.

 

[Dennis]

Its not about being unique or special (or else barely any book, film, piece of music or game would be worthwhile). Its about execution. Yes, ME1 plays to a buttload of tropes but it handled them very well and felt fresh and innovative in spite of the fact that it wasn't. Execution is the key.

I think I will just co-sign this post.

DennisK4

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Yes! time to give it to the reavers

Greatest crossover ever.

 

[scarybore]

Edit: I also forgot to mentioned that the Reaper Vanguard they left behind in ME1 was probably one of their strongest, it would make sense to leave behind one of their most powerful to call them when it's time to start the purge again, so that's why Sovereign could take so much damage from the alliance. I think that other reapers would be much weaker.

I don't see any evidence for that. In the end, all Sovereign was meant to do was send a signal to the keepers on the Citadel when the time was deemed right, not something you would need the most powerful Reaper to do if such a thing exists. Sounds like a pretty shit job to be honest, made even worse by those pesky Protheans.

Plus it been established that Reapers actually suck at killing planets, contrary to previous opinions. Only 7 million people in a week?

Probably refers to just London but it took centuries for the Reapers to deal with all the Protheans, they obviously ain't in much of a rush.

 

[Mindlog]

i do really hate the whole "humanity in super special" trope that was prevalent in ME2. But you could argue that was present in ME1 as well, it just felt more prevalent in ME2.:lol

Nearly every scene in ME1 was, "Filthy humans are taking over."

What is this? Someone actually remembers the story?

neat

you say while ignoring the fact that sovereign basically destroys the citadel fleet in direct combat.

Sovereign spent the time before Mass Effect pretending to be Sheppard and rallied allies. He would have been killed rather quickly without his crab toaster fleet.

It's all explained in ME1.
Vigil
Stupid Vigil and his stupid long speech.

everyone in the shuttle
space goo is the new omni-gel
inventory is coming back on a massive scale
we're going to need a ton of Batarian goo

Bah, it's not like the "traditional" rpg elements were ever done well in any ME game. Let's hope they get it right in ME3 this time.

Yup. Most of the 'traditional' RPG elements in ME1 were awful. I'd rather see Bioware take influences from Alpha Protocol. Except the way AP handled weapon skills.

pants

 

[HK-47]

Yes! time to give it to the reavers

?

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

Greatest crossover ever.

Get that Joss Whedon shit outta my Mass Effect, yo!

 

[Chairman Yang]

I think you people are overreacting to the Earth thing.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Thats ok, the way he wrote that I thought he was talking about Harbinger, since you know Harbinger was taking over the Collector spider commander and elites during the final mission then flew off at the last moment. You know, because I played both games, several times.

Which still proves my point that people in this thread are again really over estimating their power based on nothing.

You mean even though we were talking about ME1?

All it proves is that if a Reaper is fuck stupid enough to directly control someone and then get that person killed while still in control they may be knocked out long enough that they can be hit directly.

then flew off at the last moment.

He didn't fly anywhere because he wasn't in the physical location, he was just using mind control.

 

[Lo-Volt]

How would they track this? Are there like census inspectors strolling between the space ships taking a body count?

The denizens of the Mass Effect universe have Citizen ID chips implanted if memory serves. I guess those are linked to a data center, feeding information? This is Britain, after all.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

I think you people are overreacting to the Earth thing.

A bit. This is kind of based on the assumption of the eventual "man humans are awesome" thing.