Mass Effect 3

[BreakABone]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Coffee is better than tea.

I think this conversation has revealed to me what I dislike most about Mass Effect. I should note that I haven't played ME 3 yet, but when I do I'm sure I'll enjoy it a lot.

My biggest gripe is that they had an opportunity to create the greatest game and game series of this generation, and they squandered it. What we're left with is still really good, but when I look at all the potential it had I can't help but be more critical of it than I would of any other game.

Mass Effect 1 started off extremely strong. It was the first game I had played in a long time that really sucked me in. I'd be thinking about it while in class, just waiting to get back home to re-enter the world. It did have some problems though. The Mako had horrendous controls, the inventory system was bad.

ME 2 rolls around and they have a chance to fix that stuff. But for some reason they completely remove the mako instead of fixing the controls and replace it with a boring as hell scan system. Instead of fixing the inventory they remove it and pretty much remove the gear aspect of RPG's, which is my favorite part.

So ME3 they have a chance to do everything right. Instead it's pretty obvious that the game is rushed out. Mass Effect is such an important series to the entire video game culture, and they rushed it out. It deserved so much better. Just from the outside looking in I can see areas where they cobbled together pieces from the previous two games to make some half-hearted attempt at a new system. The way space travel and reaper encounters work, the way side quests are picked up, the way the ending is handled. They invested in multiplayer when they should have invested in the single player.

Is it still a great, fun game? I'm sure it is. It looks good, I'm excited to play it.

But it won't be remembered as the greatest game of this generation, and the tragedy is that it could have been.

Probably its own thread.. but I'm curious as to what you think is the greatest game of this generation?

[Vampyr]

Originally Posted by BreakABone

Probably its own thread.. but I'm curious as to what you think is the greatest game of this generation?

Not sure off the top of my head - I could probably think for a while and come up with my personal favorite, but nothing comes to mind immediately.

I mean that Mass Effect 3 could have been as culturally significant to video games as Ocarina of Time was during that generation. Something universally praised by critics and users alike as a masterpiece representative of what games an art form mean.

But it isn't that. It's just another good game. I don't know if this generation has a game like that.

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Not sure off the top of my head - I could probably think for a while and come up with my personal favorite, but nothing comes to mind immediately.

I mean that Mass Effect 3 could have been as culturally significant to video games as Ocarina of Time was during that generation. Something universally praised by critics and users alike as a masterpiece representative of what games an art form mean.

But it isn't that. It's just another good game. I don't know if this generation has a game like that.

IMO, Bioshock. It turned the structure and implausible linear nature video games into the main plot device of the game. Makes you wonder why you accept the lack of real choice in the entire medium. Perhaps it's not popular enough for Ocarina of Time status, but artistically it fits the bill.

[Typhoid]

Dylan lent me the game, so I'll just post my feelings on wherever I am in it and what's going on, something to do. I'll post some of the decisions I make, maybe other people can riff off it with theirs, get some thread activity going.


The opening scene felt to me like it was meant for a movie, as opposed to part of a game, there's nothing wrong with that - just sayin'. Everyone just seemed to be talking more intensely, enunciating the important parts with deepening bellows, very theatrically spoken. I don't even like that over-the-top-stuff in gimmicky action movies.


So far it seems like a typical 3rd movie/game. The cast from the first game is (so far) re-introduced for the most part with some uplifting musical score behind them, everything has a more epic, darker, grittier, war-like feel to it (as it should) and just feels like it has nothing to do with conversation, but will be ___+ hours (I don't really want to know how long the game takes, I prefer not knowing) of combat, again - nothing wrong with that.


While I feel like every single decision I make on where to go and when to go there in this game has a negative effect on the rest of the game - I feel like I have vastly less actual choice, and I'm just watching things occur. I don't feel like I am affecting any mass. I feel like I have the illusion of choice, just like when I played MGS4 I had the illusion that it was really a video game and not a movie simply because I would occasionally have to tap X.


It feels like I'll never get time/to feel okay with doing side missions - but I suppose that is 100% the point, Galaxy at war and all - trying to make you feel horrible about taking your time for trivial shit when people everywhere are being decimated. Everything is an ultimatum, or seems to be. Simply by doing one quest before another, you can doom people to die.
That's some Alpha Protocol shit which I don't mind. It makes you think realistically, about 'Fuck, what's the best outcome' and not 'Fuck, I want to get 100% game completion on all of these sidequests in one playthrough" - because that possibility is almost entirely removed (if not entirely)

I like the fact EDI has a body. When I was saying all that AI-as-life-shit in the other thread I had no idea that happened. Immediate New favourite sidekick, she is by far the most interesting.

I rarely expel sound from my face when seeing something alone in a room while playing a video game, but when Joker said "Hey, I know I used to rag on Garrus for being all angry, but I'm glad he's back. There's a whole lot of crap out there that needs a bullet between the eyes. Plus, we might need something calibrated." I giggled like a little Asian schoolgirl.

I spent a lot of time late last night smoking a joint or two and just reading what I had so far of the journals/codex and re-immersing myself in the Universe. Soooo gooood. Time to go waste my today.

[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by Typhoid

I don't feel like I am affecting any mass.

Thats ok, it was never about affecting mass, its effecting mass thats important.

[Fox 6]

The only mission I know of that is time sensative is the Grissom Academy mission. If you're too late they all get ubducted and then ......... well ....... I wont ruin anything.

Also there is another multiplayer event this weekend. It involves porting over your level 20 multiplayer characters to the single player campaign, where they become war assets. if the community does 150,000 characters everyone will get a victory pack regardless if they participate or not. If you personally port over 2 characters you get a commendation pack. They didnt say what would be in them, but last time it was a rare N7 weapon that was only available in the single player if you pre-ordered that game.

Also its only available to PC and 360 owners. The Bioware blog said they are negotiating with Sony to extend these weekends to the PS3 tho.

Only problem is I dont know how to port over these characters.... and are they gone for good?

[Bond]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

Only problem is I dont know how to port over these characters.... and are they gone for good?

You just promote the level 20 characters. I believe it is the "X" or "Y" button, bro.

[Combine 017]

Originally Posted by Fox 6

The only mission I know of that is time sensative is the Grissom Academy mission. If you're too late they all get ubducted and then ......... well ....... I wont ruin anything.

I think he meant more in the sense that while youre doing these side missions, Earth is being more and more devastated, which I felt too. Like, this Volus is all like "hey, can you go to this planet and retrieve and ancient artifact so I can make some money while the rest of the galaxy is being destroyed." and im all wtf bro? But a lot of the side missions and planet scanning add to your fleet or the crucible, so doing them does help in the end.

Originally Posted by Fox 6

Easy peesy lemon squeezy. I already do have some level 20 characters. After some research I have found out that they do get reset to level 1 however. 150,000 total seems like a low number for the whole community to promote though...

Ill be contributing 6 characters to that, so prepare to do a lot of bronze missions. :P