Mass Effect 3 Blues

[Aabglov]

So I started the final mission, had all the leg work done and was horrified when I got just about the worst ending possible. I realized later that my War Assets were halved because I didn't play multi-player first and this made my score too low to get a decent conclusion.

Then you didn't play with the Extended Cut.

The EC made it so all endings were possible, without playing any multiplayer.

I may have this all screwed up, but I read that the Extended Cut didn't get rid of the need to play multiplayer, it just dropped the minimum necessary for the best ending from 4000 to 3100. That being the case I still fell drastically short because I had only half of my original 4030. Then again, I had a really bad run on the last mission in ME2. I guess if you have 6200 assets you don't need it, but my Shep screwed way too much stuff up to get that many assets. So my choice was replay at least ME2 and ME3 or grind readiness.

On an unrelated note I realized today after grinding five hours of multiplayer yesterday that the readiness drops over time to encourage you to keep playing. I'm assuming it never goes below 50%, but that means that in two years from now if I want to pick ME3 back up and see a good ending I need to grind readiness all over again. But how long will the servers stay open to support ME3 multiplayer? The new xbox is probably coming out later this year and since backwards compatibility is supposedly not an option, the days of multiplayer for a lot of xbox 360 games is likely numbered. Now if I want to see the best ending in ME3 a few years from now I HAVE to replay ME2 first so that I can get the full 6200 assets. I'd probably replay ME2 eventually anyway, but forcing me to feels like a chore.

 

[CplDustov]

if I was going to complete it I was at least going to get the best ending possible.

If you mean happier ending and you take the endings at face value then then then other endings do cover that (as mentioned by others, Extended Cut has you covered for lowering EMS ratings) though I wouldn't say they are better per say in terms of story resolution, only different they are better though in happy tonality.

If you believe the Indoctrination Theory then the best doesn't necessarily correlate with the order (in EMS) that the ending are unlocked although certain extras tie into making one ending "better" by adding something. I won't ruin it but get the Ex Cut and then look for the theory on youtube if you haven't already.

OT: I often think back to the epic prison ship level where you recruit Jack. Great atmosphere. In fact the entire dossier mission part of ME2 and meeting new crew members pulls my heart strings. It's amazing how I care about almost all of them and meeting them was a treat. Also the interrogation in ME2 was really satisfying renegade all the way for me on that one.

 

[CT862]

Renegade Femshep is awesome!
5:36 I love the face she pulls!!

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

And this is why the Citadel dlc is awesome.


"Cuz I was on fire! You know, from the car. C'mon Shepard, keep up!"

 

[Goofguy]

There are a lot of great moments throughout the trilogy but you can pretty much relive them all in the Citadel DLC. Well worth the playthrough if you're a big fan of the series.

 

[Keith Fraser]

The first time I got to the end of ME3 I thought the extended cut had been pre-installed, rather than having to be downloaded. Boy was I annoyed when I got the excuse for a wrap-up in the original. And then to get the EC ending with the same Shepard I had to play through that annoying 'walking at a snail's pace' section again...

Anyway, great moments of the ME series:

-"They're actually going to let me eat you."
-"Get your own feces analyzer."
-"Badassfully: what the hell is this? Are you sleeping with my sister?"
"Slumber would be difficult, due to the energetic nature of our copulation."
-"Once saw a krogan drink a liquefied turian on a dare. No-one came out of that looking pretty."
-The conversation about the 'azure' ("Where?" "In the lower reaches, near the bottom." "I meant where on the asari body." "So did I.").
-Bringing everyone alive through the suicide mission.
-Using a Paragon interrupt to give Liara a Big Damn Kiss after killing the Shadow Broker. (Remember not to wear a helmet!)
-Stabbing Kai Leng, electrocuting Kai Leng, setting fire to Kai Leng, giving Kai Leng a papercut...
-Control ending (I know, I know). Dance for me, minions!

 

[putowtin]

I?d just like to point out for the 100th time that it was possible to get the good ending with the original endings without the multiplayer (you just had to make all the ?right? choices throughout the entire trilogy).

It depends on what you consider the good or best ending. Pre-extended cut it was impossible to get the 'breath' scene at the end of Destroy without the multiplayer or iPhone apps to boost your galactic readiness level. There simply wasn't enough War Assets in the game, even if you did a 'perfect' trilogy run.

I have to disagree, my first runthrough, no multiplayer, picked destroy (the only choice in my eyes) and got the breath scene.

Then again I had just spent three days scanning every planet for everyone who ever lost something, all my team survived the suicide run in ME3 so I got their points for completing there "hello were still here" quests. I cured the Genophage so got the Krogan support (you pick up the Salarian support later anyway) brokered peace between the Geth and Quarians (so I got two fleets there) I even got that bloody reporters full support (10 war assets!) because I didn't punch her in ME2!!! I also own all of the DLC from ME 1 & 2 and you pick up extra War Credit through these; for example the terrorist Balak from the "Bring Down The Sky" DLC is in charge of what is left of the Batarian military in ME3, reason with him and you can add that to your ever increasing list of war assets.

It was possible to get the breath scene (now considered the best ending by many) you just had to have had a near perfect run through, not only ME3, but the whole trilogy!

HOLY CRAP! You are a hardcore ME player. I had heard that the highest possible score was about 7000 and to get the "breath" scene you needed a score of at least 4000. With 50% galactic readiness you must have had about 8000 war assets. My god. It took me 20 hours to get 4030 which was then halved by the readiness.

Forget "no one gets left behind"

With me it's more "no quest gets left undone!"

 

[foxlovingfreak]

Recently got around to playing the citadale dlc yesterday it was a nice send off to the normandy's crew and to the series in general and was much more stasfing then the actual ending which i really never had a problem with to be honest.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Hey, this is a thread for appreciating Mass Effect. Take your bandwagoning elsewhere.

Really, look at it: Mass Effect had a dev cycle of probably about five or six years. ME2 had a dev cycle of about three years. ME3 had a dev cycle of about two years. It's no wonder that it didn't live up to expectations completely, but it's remarkable that it was as good as it was.

Yeah, wrong thread really. I just think the failure of ME3 was down to design choices/restrictions put in place by the suits, rather than a lack of time/resources. But I'll exit the thread now - I'm no ME3 hater, just someone who felt let down by it.

Fair enough, though apparently Bioware had utter creative control (with the possible exception of multiplayer). Personally, I think almost all the stuff that was lacklustre was due to the release date, and no sane game dev would give something of ME3's calibre a two-year development cycle.

To be fair, both factors are likely to factor in the shortcomings of the game. In fact it just goes to show what a talented, hard working group of staff the big-wigs at Bioware and EA have at their disposal. If the bigwigs could start making half-decent decisions based on quality and not purely sales who knows, they may become industry leaders again one day and actually earn that dollar which they are chasing anyway.

The MP issue was something I debated with Bioware staff on their forum - for me it's a set of resources which could, and should, have been allocated to making a better game. However they were of the opinion that, just because it's an external function + budget, that said budget and resources couldn't be allocated elsewhere. I still disagree.

Yeah. I'm hoping that the bigwigs can realize they're making bad decisions and just allow the people invested in the creative experience to design and make the creative experience, but this is EA we're talking about.

I never really had an issue with the multiplayer, honestly. I found it great fun, and all the money in the world can't buy more time, assuming that they could even use the money from the multiplayer for single-player.

 

[Dosbilliam]

Plus yeah, install the Extended Cut and it'll solve your bad endings problem - just knock off a few side quests here and there and you should have more than enough without having to play multiplayer. If you've got time though the multiplayer is worth having a go at, last I checked it was still getting reasonable traffic too.

Yeah, you just need to worry about people using aimbots to get 100% headshots. It's not AS bad as the equivalent in a PvP-style game, but it's still annoying.

 

[votemarvel]

I have to disagree, my first runthrough, no multiplayer, picked destroy (the only choice in my eyes) and got the breath scene.

Then again I had just spent three days scanning every planet for everyone who ever lost something, all my team survived the suicide run in ME3 so I got their points for completing there "hello were still here" quests. I cured the Genophage so got the Krogan support (you pick up the Salarian support later anyway) brokered peace between the Geth and Quarians (so I got two fleets there) I even got that bloody reporters full support (10 war assets!) because I didn't punch her in ME2!!! I also own all of the DLC from ME 1 & 2 and you pick up extra War Credit through these; for example the terrorist Balak from the "Bring Down The Sky" DLC is in charge of what is left of the Batarian military in ME3, reason with him and you can add that to your ever increasing list of war assets.

It was possible to get the breath scene (now considered the best ending by many) you just had to have had a near perfect run through, not only ME3, but the whole trilogy!

Then you somehow managed the impossible.

There is a thread on the BSN, I'll try and find it if I can, where someone had crunched the numbers and shown that at 50% Galactic Readiness it was impossible to get a high enough EMS to unlock the breath scene. And that was with getting every available asset in a 'perfect' run.

It was a huge issue at the time because Bioware had locked out single player content unless you played the multiplayer or iPhone apps.

So unless you played the iPhone apps or were playing with a modded coalesed.bin on the PC version, I don't see how with even a 'perfect' run you managed the impossible.

 

[TheDoctor455]

The Citadel DLC. Probably my favorite quote is from Mordin's message:

"Had broken Omega's one rule. In more ways than one." Bad Mordin >

haha that dlc keeps suprising me. ive played it twice and never heard that one

That comes up the morning after the party. There's a new datapad on the floor near the bed. Its from Mordin.

You're welcome.

OT:

Hmm... Yeah... the endings, even after EC... are still pretty awful. Not terrible, but not approaching 'good' either.

(quality of writing, I mean... not 'happy ending')

Starchild's existence turns all of Mass Effect 1 into a giant plot hole.

Even with the EC, the game seems to forget all of the assets you gathered at this point (seriously, where the fuck is my Krogan charge? What happened to the Rachni fleet? Why aren't I seeing more of the multi-species ground forces at work? Also... why is there almost no music playing during the space battle? Oh yeah... and why the fuck wasn't Harbinger a bigger presence in ME3? And... why is Admiral Hackett addressing the fleet when he basically put Shepard in charge because out of everyone under his command, Shepard is the one that can 'make people believe they can win this'... umm yeah... why isn't Shepard giving a speech to the whole fleet? Also... why is ME3 ripping off Deus Ex?)

 

[Ren_Li]

If you have the EC- which, of course, is free- it makes a big difference to the ending, and without ANY paid DLC you can get the best possible ending without playing multiplayer.
Which they should have done IN THE FIRST PLACE. But hey.

Personally I think ME3 was full of fantastic closure and character moments. Saving the rachni queen for the second time and then Hackett telling you what happens. Wrex calling you his brother/sister. Garrus being Garrus. Legion being... Well. MaleShep's voice acting reaching it's peak (finally!).
There's a lot of good stuff in there; I know it's hard to focus on the parts which impacted you the most after that ending, but don't lose sight of the journey just because the destination is shit.

And if you want an ending to wipe the bitterness of the actual ending from your mouth, get the Citadel DLC. It is fantastic. Just be sure to play it from a point near the end of the game.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I just finished the trilogy again a couple nights ago. In fact, this time it was special as it was the first time I played it with the Mass Effect Trilogy, which I never had access to before on the PS3, so it was the first time I could carry a single Shepard file through all 3 games.

Anyway, it was an emotional evening for me. I have far, far too many favorite moments to pick and choose, so I will just say that the ending of the whole experience was immensely cathartic. I have the Mass Effect blues myself, not because of any disappointment, but because it's the best video game series I've ever played. It's an experience unlike any other, getting to be Shepard and meet all these amazing people and do all these incredible things. The bittersweetness of finishing this journey is nearly indescribable.

 

[Mauler]

Yeah i totally agree that the original ME3 Ending was a letdown to most diehard fans and to an avarage player, BUT extended cut and all other DLC's(CITADEL ROX) were great...