Multiplat Mass Effect 3

[Chezzalenko Reborn]

If anyone has a lazy $22 bucks and enjoy comics, go out and get Mass Effect: Invasion. An excellent read leading into Omega next week

 

[Spudregus_87]

 

[HBK619]

Is ME1 available on PS3 yet?

inb4googlesearch

Available now on PSN for $23.95 (on it's own, not a part of the trilogy pack).

 

[Spudregus_87]

Available now on PSN for $23.95 (on it's own, not a part of the trilogy pack).

Cheers Legend

 

[gaskin]

So has anyone played Omega? Is it any good?

It has been heavily slammed in some reviews but the one thing I wish they had in ME3 is taking back Omega. That should have won you the mercs.

 

[scaryness]

So has anyone played Omega? Is it any good?

It has been heavily slammed in some reviews but the one thing I wish they had in ME3 is taking back Omega. That should have won you the mercs.

I played it and it was nothing special.

It's basically straightforward shooting throughout huge rooms for 4 hoursn. I thought there would be a lot of story attached to Omega and conflict with Aria, and while you get some conflict regarding paragon and renegade with Aria, it doesn't expand anything story wise about Omega or Aria, or anything really. It's basically a 4 hour multiplayer mission. They don't introduce any new gameplay features and you can't take any of your squad with you. Also you get nothing out of it but war assets. In short it's not worth 1200 points or $15.

 

[Spudregus_87]

I played it and it was nothing special.

It's basically straightforward shooting throughout huge rooms for 4 hoursn. I thought there would be a lot of story attached to Omega and conflict with Aria, and while you get some conflict regarding paragon and renegade with Aria, it doesn't expand anything story wise about Omega or Aria, or anything really. It's basically a 4 hour multiplayer mission. They don't introduce any new gameplay features and you can't take any of your squad with you. Also you get nothing out of it but war assets. In short it's not worth 1200 points or $15.

Yeah, this.

Was expecting some really juicy stuff with Aria, but was ultimately disappointed.

Downloaded both Omega and Leviathan at the same time, and I really preferred the latter.

 

[gaskin]

Thanks fellas. Looks like I may give it a miss.

 

[scaryness]

Apparently the next single player DLC is currently being developed, and it sounds big. The only details are that it has something to do with the Citadel (found in Omegas files). Every single Mass Effect writer is working on it, and three of the four main music composers are confirmed to be working on it through Twitter, Sascha Dikiciyan, Cris Velasco and Sam Hulick (who apparently has a 'very emotional song').

Apparently nearly every squad members voice actor has returned to do voice work, including Seth Green who hasn't done ANY Mass Effect DLC in the past (Extended Cut excluded). Rumors are that this is BioWare's final single player DLC for Mass Effect 3 and they want to go out with a bang.

 

[scaryness]

BioWare have released two promo pics for the upcoming DLC:

This one was tweeted by Casey Hudson:

This looks a lot like Zakera Ward from Mass Effect 2. And it looks like Wrex is apart of the mission although it could be a random Krogan (doubt it).

This one was tweeted by Mike Gamble:

 

[Lethal]

Final DLC has been announced.

Citadel

When a sinister conspiracy targets Commander Shepard, you and your team must uncover the truth, through battles and intrigue that range from the glamour of the Citadel’s Wards to the top-secret Council Archives. Uncover the truth and fight alongside your squad – as well as the cast from the original Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2., including Urdnot Wrex.



Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. No Wii U.
$15 or 1200 points.
Mike Gamble tweeted that the xbox version is split in 2 and is 4gig in size.

 

[pantskyle]

How many DLC's is that now?

 

[Lethal]

5 if you include the extended cut.
From ashes
Leviathan
Omega
Citadel

Plus multiplayer DLC. There was also a multiplayer DLC announced as well.

 

[gaskin]

Did they give a release date?

 

[Lethal]

Forgot to put that in my earlier post.
March 5th is the release date.

 

[SwampCreature]

4 gig is huge for DLC

 

[The Speaker]

I've now played through ME3, including all DLC, and spent plenty of time in multiplayer.

Story:

Starting in Vancouver was very Canadian of BioWare. The attempt at manufacturing emotion with the little boy was laughable.
Mars set the scene for the Cerberus storyline. Didn't paint Ashley/Kaidan in a very good light though...should've just shot the mysterious person.
The Palaven-Sur'Kesh-Tuchanka arc was excellent. I consider it one arc, because that's really how it was treated. I suspect this was the quality BioWare would've given the whole game if they had the time. The whole alliance deal was treated well, the leaders were all on board, it felt like you were genuinely saving the galaxy. Nice to have Wrex and Mordin on board too.
Was nice to see the Citadel being attacked on the inside. Allowed them to have some fun, I think, even if the storyline reason was a bit meh.
The Rannoch arc was terrible. Genuinely awful. Someone at BioWare did not understand the Geth at all. More likely, they started running out of time here. There was no reason for the Quarians to start attacking, yet here we are. Legion's apparently poignant question (does this unit have a soul) is stupid and nonsensical. Applying it to all the geth is worse. Bashing into our skull across the entire story is just flat out terrible.
They clearly ran out of time when they got to Thessia. I imagine the Volus and Elcor were meant to feature at some point here, but then they got the hurry up, so we ended up with no leaders on board the Normandy and a quick and ultimately pointless detour to the Asari homeworld. yay
Horizon can't take a trick. How convenient that Traynor finds it again.
Cerberus should not have been able to salvage anything from the Omega-4 relay, because it defeats the purpose of making the decision earlier. Much like Udina being made councillor. Much like the Rachni appearing as enemies again regardless of what you did to the Queen. We don't ever get to see them as allies either.
The end was whatever. Didn't really care - as long as Shepard suvived. I didn't trust the Synthesis or Control endings anyway.

Characters:

James. Why is he there? I mean, as a character he's fine, I guess. But he has no real reason to exist.
Cortez and Traynor are almost Mary Sue esque. Crowbarred homosexuality for the sake of it. Cortez shines when bantering with Vega, Traynor when doing something silly. Outside of that, not so good.
Joker keeps getting bigger roles, which is nice. He's been with Shepard from start to finish, after all.
Ashley's characterisation is a bit wut. I killed Kaidan in the Virmire Moral Dilemma 2.0, so can't comment on him.
Liara is still BioWare's pet. An overall well done character that they really, really want you to romance.
EDI...really did not need to be put in a body. Allows for some more synthetic shenanigans without Legion to provide them, but still.
Garrus has come a long way from ME1 - from token turian to closest friend. Not quite the pet status of Liara, but also fairly well done.
Tali - see Garrus.
Javik is a fantastic character. Probably the single best character in ME3, arguably the best in the whole series. I find it difficult to believe BioWare only got started on his character after they completed the main game. Should not have been DLC at all. Pretty much a necessary character on Thessia.

WREX was WREX. Naturally this meant he was excellent, although he seems to have become happier and happier as the series goes on. I have to say, at no point in the entire series did I think he was a threat...
Jacob gained some actual characterisation, which was nice. He fits the role of family man to a tee.
Miranda also gained some characterisation, which allowed us to sympathise with her, which was nice. Even if her constant appearance and disappearance was annoying.
Samara didn't get any good treatment until the Citadel DLC. She was herself, but there was too little interaction.
Kasumi just flat out didn't get enough interaction, which was odd considering she is a fan favourite. Especially odd as Zaeed, the other DLC character in ME2, got quite a bit.
Grunt was eminently enjoyable as always.
The small amount of interaction with Jack was a shame, because the growth in her character is enormous over the series. Some really excellent voice acting too.
On the other end of the voice acting scale was Aria, who speaks like a female Hackett. Was a better character in 2.
Nyreen's entire character seemed a bit pointless.
Shame about Mordin, new voice actor did well enough though. Shame about Thane too.

Anderson was himself, although a proper explanation about why he's not the human Councillor would've been nice, rather than just going along with it for the sake of their story.
Donnelly and Daniels seemed to have less dialogue than ME2, which is a shame.
Adams was comfortably bland enough to be himself.
Chakwas barely said anything! Disappointing.
Allers should not have existed. I get the feeling BW actually forgot about a certain Emily Wong that Shepard helped out on the Citadel in ME1...or EA told them to get someone from IGN in.
Hackett's 'inspirational' speech near the end confirmed that he has no idea how to speak like a human. But I still reckon he's a decent character.
Bailey is a good character. Seems a bit overworked though, in that single office with no staff nearby...
Poor old Kelly Chambers. Glad I told her to get a haircut.
Chloe Michel had more characterisation in that one email in ME2 than she did in your interactions with her in ME3.
Eve gets a thumbs up. Clever work from BioWare to get the female krogan seeming feminine.
Primarch Victus was fairly well done, even if his supposed breaking from the norm was essentially an informed quality.
They ruined the Quarian admirals. They turned complex individuals into paper-thin characters. Dismal.

Props to Martin Sheen for his performance as TIM. Did not seem bothered one iota by the quality of his dialogue, which varied between good and terrible.
Kai Leng is actually a worse character than Diana Allers. A badly written pantomime villain. Here's an idea BioWare - Leng clones. That way we get the satisfaction of killing him multiple times, instead of having you create bad cutscenes which make no in-universe sense.
Henry Lawson...well it was nice to have a real Australian accent in a game (something about Strahovski's accent seems off).
Udina is actually okay sometimes.
Brooks is whatever.

Gameplay:

Certainly more streamlined, but let's not pretend this is an RPG like 1.
Lack of heavy weapons is a shame.
Weight limits are flat out annoying in single player.
Dialogue seemed to be a result of time constraints. Couldn't just go up to a squadmate whenever and get a good conversation out of them.
Side missions were incredibly dull, aside from anything heavily plot related (eg. Grissom Academy).
"I'll just randomly mentioned this convenient thing while Shepard passes by and hope he sends a probe."

DLC:

From Ashes, as I said, should not have been DLC. Too closely connected with the main game to see it as anything other than a moneygrab. Mission is okay, character is brilliant.
Leviathan likewise should not have been DLC. It explains the origins of the thing that controls the plot. Why would you not have that in the story?
Omega was okay. Story didn't grab me, Aria wasn't well done, but it was a nice distraction.
Citadel was excellent. I would've liked even more interaction, but you can't get everything. A great way to bring you back into the universe.

Multiplayer:

Overall decent.
It's a slog to get your weapons and characters though - why make it so difficult?
Great variety in the characters, caters for plenty of different styles.
Autokills are flat out annoying.
Maps are fine overall, but some are better than others (Goddess is probably my favourite).
EA's servers are terrible. I have lost count of the amount of times I've lost connection in the last wave having spent twenty minutes playing. If you're going to make it a slog to achieve anything, make sure your servers don't fall apart thus removing the reward for playing.

 

[scaryness]

I'm replaying the series at the moment after a year and a half break. In ME2 at the moment.

I remember ME3 being quite fun on Insanity difficulty because it was challenging, but not impossible or cheap.

 

[nameless]

Great post Speaker.

I've replayed 1 and 2 maybe there times each.
But for some reason I have not had as much of an inkling to do 3 again. I do remember really enjoying it, I think I was just a bit flat after finishing it.
Best game series I've ever played, never really wanted it to end.

 

[edgie]

Best part of 3 is definitely the krogan planet

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

 

[gaskin]

Best part of 3 is definitely the krogan planet

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

Not that run through the Reapers and reaper forces to summon Kalros. That was a bastard before I realised you didn't have to fight and that you could just make a run for the overly large cymbals.

 

[The Speaker]

Best part of 3 is definitely the krogan planet

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

Tuchanka felt like a labour of love from BW.

Which is nice considering we STILL haven't seen the Turian homeworld, and we were stuck in a building for all of Sur'Kesh.

 

[edgie]

Especially the small adjustments made to the Mass Effect music theme, everything felt so polished, from the audio and visual presentation, to the story and dialogue, to the actual gaming and gameplay. I am yet to do a full replay, but have replayed that section more than any other in the trilogy

Sent from my Lumia 800 using Tapatalk

 

[gaskin]

I love replaying 3 and have done so many times. It is unfairly criticised because of the ending but other than that small screw up from Bio Ware the game is excellent.

 

[The Speaker]

I love replaying 3 and have done so many times. It is unfairly criticised because of the ending but other than that small screw up from Bio Ware the game is excellent.

There are bigger problems than the ending.