[Garak]

There's one thing I've noticed in regards to the ME3 endings and what I pick. With my male Shep I picked without batting an eyelash synthesis since it's the one that saves basically everyone but Shepard - heroic sacrifice and so on. However with FemShep I always pick the destroy ending since it's the only one were she survives - I can't bring myself to let her make the sacrifice.

[Morgoth]

 Loki, on 23 June 2012 - 04:08 PM, said:

DA2 had no problems. Not being what people expected and recycling environments are not problems. DA2 is an awesome game.


Woot....unneeded ending DLC....yea....
I suppose any extra Garrus-time is time well spent XD

You keep bringing up this reason as to why people didn't like DA2. Maybe someone somewhere else saw it this way, but most people knew exactly what kind of game DA2 was before we played it. It was heavily advertised after all.

Not being DA:O is not why people didn't like DA2. People didn't like DA2 because the writing was absolute shit. My at the time 12 year old brother was bothered by the quality of the dialogue! I found myself unwilling to play the game when my gf was in the house because I felt embarassed by how utterly infantile the attempts at adult conversation were.

Not to mention how poor the story was to begin with. Playing as a mage made the entire premise of the story feel moronic.

And finally, recycling environments can certainly be done without causing problems. ME did it with bunkers and warehouses on sidemissions, which is fine. After all, it would make sense that pre-made units look about the same no matter where you are. DA2 on the other hand couldn't even be bothered to make cosmetic changes to the cave system they reused again and again. The same fireplace with the exact same clutter. The same little shantytown with the same location for the boss battle every time.

That's not to say DA2 didn't have it's positive aspects. It certainly did. But it was a poorly written, rushed and unpolished game definitly not worth the price they made me pay for it.

[Defiance]

Possible hint at the next Mass Effect 3 DLC in the extended cut's files:

http://www.pastemaga...tended-cut.html

Sounds interesting as it definitely has the potential to flesh out the Reapers a bit more. Plus, more Shepard-Reaper dialogue/interaction is always a plus, it was sorely lacking from the 3rd game. Seriously, need more Harbinger!

[Garak]

Man I hope the Leviathan thing will be a dlc and it's not just some random stuff that was left there (we also need a retake Omega dlc).

So I watched a compilation of all the flashbacks you can get and ..... I started to tear up while watching it (just like I do when reading the ending of the Chain of Dogs - even if it's just that passage alone and randomly picked up).

[Nocturnal]

God, I cried my eyes out at the flashbacks of the team members that died, especially since I chose Destroy and there was EDI. Thank you, Bioware, for rubbing it in! D; And also Thane, whom my Shepard had romanced.

I liked the DLC, everything made more sense. But, my only complaint when I played the game the first time was that feeling that you went around the galaxy collecting the troops for nothing, since it still doesn't make much difference. I wish that you could at least have a few decisions about what to do with the Hammer forces, or at least have your squad do more (like in the Collectors' Base in ME2).
Well, never mind, I'm going to play a few more times through this DLC, but I'll have a hard time choosing anything else except the Destroy ending, I didn't like the other two at all.

[Garak]

Yeah I only chose synthesis whit my male Shep because I need to see EDI alive and well now and again. God my next replay is going to be painful - every time I'm going to encourage EDI to go ahead and be more human and such ..... and all the while she's marching to her death by my side. Synthesis still creeps me out however and control just bothers me as well. Amusingly enough I kinda like rejection simply for it's theme of dying on our own terms - well that and it amuses me that a lot of fans think that's a giant f*** you from Bioware. I'm speechless whenever I see someone going on about how we should be able to defeat the Reapers in a conventional war - because we all know that the armada of Mecha-Cthulhu give a flying crap about such things as conventional war.

[Gothos]

OK so the Extended Cut is... so-so. Not completely bad, but enough, I guess.

Playing a lot of MP lately. Fell in love with the Vorcha Sentinel since unlocking the bastard - slap Cerberus Harrier on that guy, utilize regen and flamer, and blast your way to 60k+ points in bronze randoms. Think I'll start bringing him to silver soon. Anyone in EU timezones wanna slap together a team for gold, perhaps?

[Morgoth]

So I downloaded the extended cut and Leviathan.

The extended cut was really all I wanted for the ending. No change to the heart of the end, with the choices given, but a much more elaborate final cutscene. The old one felt lazy at best so this turned it into a proper ending.

Leviathan was also well worth the money, though it pretty much spoils one of the big aspects of the games end, but as I've already played through it once it hardly matters.

Coming back to the game though, I find that the Mass Effect trilogy might be my favourite game experience of all time. I've never been quite so invested in the story and characters of a game before I think.

[acesn8s]

I finished 3 of the 4 EC choices. I'm working through a new game with Leviathan installed (I grabbed From Ashes as well, so the Javik stuff is new to me). Haven't gotten to the Leviathan portion yet.

[Loki]

Bioware Montreal are taking the lead on the next Mass Effect game - http://blog.bioware....oware-montreal/

[Defiance]

It'll be interesting to see where they go with this. Do they set it during/before the Reaper war, or do they commit to a timeline after the 3rd game? If the latter option, I really hope that BioWare chooses one of the 3 endings and sticks with it, rather than trying to combine parts from all 3 endings (which in the end makes nobody happy). Too many sequels try to satisfy everyone by combining end-game choices from previous games, which just completely cheapens the emotional impact they have (a classic example is the second Deus Ex game).

Another hope is that they take the series in a more RPG direction than in the last two games. While I love the trilogy, I feel that they strayed too far into the action genre at the expense of the RPG side of things. One thing I'm looking forward to is the fact that they now have a chance to further explore the society of many of the different races on a more personal level. We got a wide overview of things in the first 3 games, put with this next game BioWare has the potential to focus the narrative a lot more specifically. I'd like to be able to have some genuine exploration as well - how awesome would it be to able to have free roam in a fairly big sized portion of the Citadel or Omega or Illium?

Also, Retake Omega DLC should be interesting. I'm glad that it's coming, although its price tag puts me off a bit.

[Studlock]

I think I might be in the minority when I say I thought ME was the best 2.95 games I've ever played. But I think it's going to be really hard to a do a sequel without the fan base flipping out and hard to do a prequel because, for me anyways, the ME series was all about choices and it's kind of hard to making lasting choices in a predetermined event. Honestly I feel like I could handle some kind of bullshit space-time warp event in which all the endings happened simultaneously, but hopefully the cannon ending is destroy because that's the only way I see the series moving forward. It also would be a cool story hook, like two hundreds year have past and some relays have been fixed and some haven't and you're on a mission from the citadel to explore the 'lost' worlds to re-establish contact and like and because so much time has past you already a proper power base with all the big races from before (and hopefully the geth have a non-reaper back up that wasn't damage). So instead of a the game being focused so much on the reapers (which I must admit was my least favorite part of the games) it's being focused more on explorations and diplomatic missions and maybe a little action on the side. Haaa other than that game I know won't ever get made, I just hope I don't have to play during First Contact, the Krogan Rebellions or the Rachni Wars or anything to do with the Prothean. And also I get to pick my race since this story isn't just about how humanity is awesome anymore.

/rant

[Morgoth]

I've been listening to The Greatest Video Game Music v1-2, and the music from the Suicide Mission in ME2 makes me realise that yeah, the ME trilogy --faults aside -- probably is my best overall game experience.

This post has been edited by Morgoth: 22 November 2012 - 07:42 PM

[Defiance]

Omega DLC (beware of spoilers):

Spoiler

Bought the Omega DLC when it came out. Overall I was pretty disappointed with it. $15 was definitely too steep of a price tag given that you don't get any permanent editions to your squad or new areas to check out once it's done. LotSB was nifty because we could go back to the SB's ship and check it out, I figured we'd get to do the same with Omega...nope. Aria just returns to her place on the Citadel (which makes absolutely no sense...) and it's like nothing ever happened. The DLC spanned about two hours, which was too short for $15. Cerberus's motivations for being on Omega weren't compelling at all; I figured we'd get some further insight into their operations, but no, nothing.

What did I like? Seeing more of Aria was great, and Nyreen was fun while she lasted. "I'm back fuckers!" and "Don't fuck with Omega!" were great. That said, the dialogue during Aria's speeches was overall pretty poor - the speech was supposed to inspire all of the citizens to rebel against the Cerberus oppressors and apparently it worked, but I have no idea how given that the speech wasn't rousing at all.

This is the first time I've truly regretted spending money on DLC since Arrival. While every Mass Effect DLC hasn't been great, I've enjoyed everything that BioWare has put out (with the exception of Arrival). This, unfortunately, is the first ME3 DLC I have to give a negative rating to. I thought From Ashes was great since it gave us Javik and insight into the Protheans (even though it should have been in the game in the first place rather than being taken out to sell as DLC), Leviathan was alright but it was fun getting more insight into the Reaper's origins, and the Extended Cut fixed most of the problems I had with the endings (originally hated them, Extended Cut made me enjoy them...not great but it's something I can live with).

[Morgoth]

Not wanting to read spoilers- what did you think of it?

[Defiance]

Not worth $15. No way in hell. It's 2 hours long and there's absolutely nothing to go back to once it's done (unlike LotSB, where you could explore the SB's ship and such). There's some decent character development with Aria, but the storyline with Cerberus isn't compelling in the slightest.

While I didn't think From Ashes or Leviathan were fantastic, they both gave us some further insight into the world regarding the Reaper/Prothean origins, not to mention the former gave you a permanent squad member. The two squad members you get in Omega are only used for the DLC.

[Primateus]

I unfortunately have to agree with Defiance here. I have neither Arrival, From Ashes or Leviathan, so I'll have to go back to ME1 to find DLC that was equally worthless (Pinnacle Station).

Omega was too short, too boring and too expensive. Yeah, sure, it had its fun moments and I liked some of the new baddies, though not the "primary" baddie, the Adjutant, which was, to me at least, a sore dissapointment.

My advice, if you really want to know how Aria got ousted from Omega, buy it, but you have to be damn sure, because this isn't worth 15 dollars.

[Defiance]

Holy shit. So, beat the Citadel DLC a little bit ago, and it's left me in awe. Dammit, Bioware, this is how you make a DLC! If only Omega (and Leviathan, although I liked Leviathan better than Omega) had been half this quality, I would have been happy. Easily the best DLC Bioware has ever done, including all of the ME2 DLCs.

I'll review it with as few spoilers as possible


The breakdown:
+Includes a 2-3 hour mission. Full of combat and witty banter between squad-mates. This was great, and had the best boss fight in all of the games.
+Includes 2-3 hours of spending time with your squad mates. This includes all of your ME2 and ME3 squad-mates Everyone got on board for this, so you'll see Grunt, Miranada, Garrus, Liara, Zaeed, etc. etc. Note that Mordin, Thane, and Legion do not show up in person; however, the former two are acknowledged in a very cool way. Legion not even getting mentioned was my only complain about this DLC.
+Includes a new area of the Citadel to explore with some mini-games. You can return to this area even after you complete the DLC.
+Extra scenes with your love interest. This is fantastic, as I felt that LI's got shafted in 3.
+Has more humor than the rest of the series combined, AND IT WORKS.
+A few cameos that I won't spoil.

-No Legion. It make perfect sense given the rest of the story, but it still makes me sad.
-Stealth elements that appear for a few minutes aren't that great.

This DLC was one giant fan service. It's full of hilarious and bittersweet moments between your squad-mates It might come off as ridiculous and cheesy to some people, but for me it was perfect. Barring replays, this is the last time I will ever see Garrus, Liara, Wrex, and all of the other great friends I've made in this universe. DLC isn't my favorite thing in the world, but I can't imagine this being anything other than DLC. It's the perfect sendoff to an epic franchise, regardless of whether or not you liked the final 10 minutes. $15 was well worth the price of admission. 5-6 hours of gameplay with extra stuff to do (a combat arena with quite a few unlockables), plus it seems like it will have a good amount of replay value depending on how you choose to approach certain things.


All in all, the perfect closure to a fantastic series.

10/10

[beru]

having just played the Citadel Dlc i agree with Defiance. The DLC also offers the longest (optional) "quicktime" event ever with 183 buttonpresses (renegade and paragon "interrupts")

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Haven't played in a while. I didn't even know this DLC was out. After that review though, I'm totally gonna be downloading it at the weekend!