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Mass Effect 3 SPOILER THREAD: LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE

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Flipyap

Member
really happy that despite living in sealed suits and tight-fitting helmets for most of their lives, quarians still like to grow long flowing locks of hair, which they maintain and clean regularly
Actually, those beautiful manes completely fill the suit during a Quarian's lifetime. Suffocating on one's hair is the second most common cause of death in the flotilla, right after the common cold.
Trust me on this, I'm a space doctor.
I'm not really a space doctor.
 
really happy that despite living in sealed suits and tight-fitting helmets for most of their lives, quarians still like to grow long flowing locks of hair, which they maintain and clean regularly

we all knew it was going to be waifu or bust. We also don't know when this occurs exactly. She may have taken it on
Rannoch
, after that section of the game is done.

Spoilertags for the unlucky ones.


On a different note: I am pleased to see that acquiring squad members is more in line with ME1 than ME2. Fast in the early game and a short list, that is.
 
The asari looking like humans is already cliche enough. Well, it's fine, they can fulfill the "rubber forehead aliens" and "sexy humanoid aliens" tropes in one species. But now we find out that the Quarians, who have been a mystery for the longest time, looks almost exactly like humans except with chicken-like features, and Tali, who is the subject of a lot of drooling fandom, looks exactly like a human girl, instead of something more alien.

This is the most beautiful cop out.

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Quarian

Quarians are generally shorter and of slighter build than humans. Quarians have an endoskeleton, lips, teeth, and two eyes with eyelids and tear ducts; they also have three thick fingers on both hands which include a thumb and an index finger, as well as three toes on each foot. Their lower legs are bowed backwards significantly, compared to asari or humans. Aside from hands and legs, their general body shape and sexual dimorphism is similar to humans. Their ears or ear analogues differ in a noticeable fashion from those of humans, with references made to "what [passes] for the quarian version of an ear".
So it's been established they looked like humans except for the ear thing going on before. It wasn't really a cop out because all along they were intended to look like people. The Asari may look something like humans, but they're blue, bald and have ridged heads. They might as well be Na'vi.

If this were real science/Michio Kaku hour, none of the aliens would probably look humanoid and would probably resemble more like Hanar but this is traditional science fiction.
 
Does Tali even have freaking elf ears? So Quarians are space elfs?


Its like BioWare's art team just tossed up their hands and said "Eh, fuck it. Just make Tali some hot chick."
 
Yeah, but it's still cop out in that

1. You have a mysteriously obscured race that three games later you find out are basically space humans.

2. This was almost certainly done so that Talimancers won't be creeped out by Tali being a bug alien or something more alien and exotic.

At least they're not anthropomorphic cat people.
 
I have laughed for three games.

Mass Effect held on a pedestal as quality game writing (It's generally more coherent than your average game story, but I never thought it was quality) ME2 universally loved and then when the after-sex glow disappeared predominantly disliked (It's about as coherent as your average games story, but with really likable characters) and now ME3. I haven't played it, but a lot of stuff seems to be a panderfest.

Which I'm perfectly okay with. I did watch Smallville for ten seasons. And that shows big pay off is less than ten minutes of the guy flying and wearing a CG supersuit.

Hey! I have pretty low standards on scifi stuff. If it makes as much sense as a comic book I'm pretty much okay with it. I can see quality when it's there, but overall I let the people doing it tell the story. At worst you can get flashes of genius among a sea of doldrums.

I take it where I can get it. The legitimately entertaining Mordin, or the... interesting EDI/Joker relationship.
 
Jennifer Hepler gets a bad rap and has become a scapegoat and easy target for intrusive, indefensible trolls that are way too cruel and wrong towards her. That said, it's funny how in that interview that caused all of the controversy she talks about how she and her husband (also a writer, who writes EDI's romance and dialogue) really got into gaming because Deus Ex. And now we find out the ME3 endings are very very similar in concept to Deus Ex's. And she's not even involved with this game!
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Out of curiosity, who is the lesbian romance in the game? Is it still Liara since she's a woman even if she isn't a woman? lol
 
I don't know

therefore Space Magic!


The horrific writing and deus ex machina cop-out finale (which ignores sizable chunks of lore established as far back as ME1) wouldn't be so bad if the characters at least got a happy ending. But no. Bioware couldn't have that. Shepard had to be a martyr so that grandpa could talk to his grandson about him in the most bewildering/disconcerting ending sequence since Eternal Sonata's Mr Worm and Mr Snail. Why even bother saving your characters (whom you may indeed have become emotionally attached to during the course of these three games) when they all get screwed in the end anyway?

While playing, moreso than you get the impression you want to stop the Reapers, you get the impression you want to stop Bioware. You can't. They are the real masters of your destiny. The confines they have placed you within are no less tight than any other RPG that has ever existed. That would be fine if it all wasn't so dumb and in the end horribly tragic/pointless. The game is very enjoyable, but you really have to switch off your brain to make it so.
 
I don't know

therefore Space Magic!


The horrific writing and deus ex machina cop-out finale (which ignores sizable chunks of lore established as far back as ME1) wouldn't be so bad if the characters at least got a happy ending. But no. Bioware couldn't have that. Shepard had to be a martyr so that grandpa could talk to his grandson about him in the most bewildering/disconcerting ending sequence since Eternal Sonata's Mr Worm and Mr Snail. Why even bother saving your characters (whom you may indeed have become emotionally attached to during the course of these three games) when they all get screwed in the end anyway?

While playing, moreso than you get the impression you want to stop the Reapers, you get the impression you want to stop Bioware. You can't. They are the real masters of your destiny. The confines they have placed you within are no more tight than any other RPG that has ever existed. That would be fine if it all wasn't so dumb and in the end horribly tragic/pointless. The game is very enjoyable, but you really have to switch off your brain to make it so.

The very beginning and very end of the game are really bad bookends to an otherwise awesome game. I really don't know what they were thinking. Does Bioware do table reads? Treatments? The whole ending just felt rushed and melodramatic for melodrama's sake.

Also, winter space
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
My femshep got it the hell on with Traynor.
Is that one of the new crew members? I don't know anything about the cast of this game.

Also, just watched all three ending videos. I can't believe they're all exactly the same except the changed the colour of the laser beams. Why even bother at that point?
 
Is that one of the new crew members? I don't know anything about the cast of this game.

Samantha (Traynor) is the Normandy's new Yeoman/Kelly Chambers.

Also, just watched all three ending videos. I can't believe they're all exactly the same except the changed the colour of the laser beams. Why even bother at that point?

Precisely. It's all forced down your throat with little to no variation at all. As I said, that would be fine if it wasn't such a horrific ending.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Samantha (Traynor) is the Normandy's new Yeoman/Kelly Chambers.
Oh, of course. I just assumed that only the party members were Love Plus-able.

Precisely. It's all forced down your throat with little to no variation at all. As I said, that would be fine if it wasn't such a horrific ending.
It felt like a way to give choice to the player, but then someone decided it'd be cheaper to just have the same ending video play.

I can't believe Binary Domain had a better way of handling variation in the ending videos. Geez.
 
Bioware just seems so incredibly lazy with so many things from not every showing the Quarian faces, only to reveal there's nothing surprising- then why always keep them hidden? Why not think of something more creative to surprise people? - to not creating female models for more races. Why Bioware you're a multibillion dollar studio with numerous teams whyyy
 
I'm glad I watched the endings... oh man. I think I'll just pretend the last few minutes of this game don't exist. I expected a Deus Ex Machina ending even before the leaks and spoilers, but those were spectacularly bad. And how the fuck does that Synthesis ending make any sense? Even suspension of disbelief can't save that one.

Bioware are so hit and miss with the writing. I don't think I've seen anyone else able to write both extremely well and extremely badly at the same time and to consistently pull off this bizarre mixture of the two.
 
Pray they fix (read: retcon) the whole mess via DLC. Or maybe there's a NG+ ending that actually makes sense. I'm struggling to go find out, especially as the beginning is quite a slog too.
 
Now we just need someone to put up a Google document with the millions of plotholes and for someone to draw an awesome comic mocking the ending!

Then bam, bring out the Bioware retcon machine.
 
I also love the "you can continue the legend with multiplayer and downloadable content" screen that pops up after the credits. Talk about a mood killer.
 

Petrichor

Member
I really liked the ending. The only thing I dont understand is how turning all life in the galaxy into cyborgs is a solution to the problem the reapers were created to prevent. Surely all organics being partly synthetic doesn't preclude them from building synthetics that could potentially wipe them out? :/

Hell, it made more sense in the context of the series than the ending to LOST did...

The only thing I found disappointing was the roster of squadmates. EDI is a completely pointless addition because if you haven't selected her as a part of your squad she'll just talk over the intercom anyway (though her being the Luna VI from ME1 was a nice touch!), and James isn't particularly inspiring either. The prothean squadmate should have been a major part of the story imo. It also would have been nice for some of the ME2 characters to join your squad at some point (miranda, legion, mordin, samara in particular).

I know the excuse they used was that they wanted the squad to feel more intimate but honestly there's as little squad interaction as there was in ME2. Seems like they just cut corners.
 

Jenga

Banned
everything they've done with the plot is an hilarious mess

I shouldn't be surprised anyways, but damn they screwed this up. i mean true, the original wasn't award winning but it was at the least fairly competent
 
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