Mass Effect 3 Review

[BlueInkAlchemist]

So a 12-hour head start has allowed you to see all the "bad endings, bugs, etc." and then start posting about them roughly, oh, 36 hours ago?

If you're implying I pirated the game, no dice. One, I don't own an xbox360, and two, the PC version wasn't cracked until last night anyway.

If you're implying that I'm an a******* who was drunkenly pissed off after talking to one of the guys with a space copy on BSN, most likely, guilty as charged.

It goes to show, don't drink and post, kids.

If the second half of your statement is true, then you're the most coherent inebriated poster I've ever seen.

Heck, he's more coherent than a lot of sober people I see 'round these parts.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I'm curious - have you not considered that an enormous factor in the content we publish is audience interest? We cover games that our audience is excited about, thus, we post a news story about the Mass Effect trailer, and not the World of Warplanes trailer.

If we only posted things about the games we personally cared about, this site would look very different, I assure you. Andy would write about nothing but weird Russian PC games, Grey would only write about shooters, and Justin would write about Baldur's Gate every day. Ok, every other day, alternating with Frozen Synapse, maybe.

In that case, Any and I would have something in common, but that aside: You're basically arguing audience appeal over fair and even coverage. While I understand the need to appeal to your audience, doing so at the expense of appearing biased for or against a game would be unacceptable. And, bluntly, that is what it looked like, and one of the reasons that, in my opinion, it made your review look tainted.

We don't have the resources to cover everything, so naturally when choices must be made, we err in favor of covering games our audience will enjoy. If you think that's a bad way to do things, I encourage you to put us in your rearview and find a gaming site that better suits your standards.

 

[Mike Kayatta]

Oh, and don't make it sound so easy. It was that or not get the job writing the story and not keep my house because my non-writing job took a turn for the worse. I've lived on the street. Pass on doing it a second time.

So, just to sum things up: You willingly worked for a mysterious publication that you considered to be unethical, by writing an unethical review (the same type of review you are baselessly accusing someone of writing now). This anonymous news(paper, site?) organization is big enough to be receiving gobs of money from EA that would somehow stop flowing the moment you didn't give Dragon Age 2 "Game of the Year" and a minimum score of "9 out of 10." But you were actually just a freelancer who, firstly, was actually told this deeply condemning secret (as a freelancer!), and offered the chance to review what was one of the biggest releases of the year (as a freelancer!)? Now, all of this happened, and yet you "don't remember which company it was" because it would take you a full day to go through a filling cabinet of what must be a massive number of writing gigs. And yet, I can't seem to find anything when I google your name. Funny, I am a freelancer, and have written almost nothing compared to my colleagues, yet my name seems to pop up in search engines quite a bit. And in my experience, which is clearly dwarfed by someone with a whole 24-hours-worth of writing gig files, you can bet I would remember the moment someone asked me to do something unethical like that. And if I hated EA as much as you do, I would have jumped at the chance to use all of my journalistic contacts to expose them. But this isn't about me, it's about you, and your totally legitimate work history and point against Susan.

Yeah this sounds totally real, and not at all like someone getting bagged by trying to force his point by calling on some anonymous unprovable insider knowledge.

 

[Llamazoid]

Couldn't be because we think the game is actually that damn good, could it?

And of course we're going to encourage people to go watch Gavin - why wouldn't we? He works for us, and our readers really love him. How would we look if we didn't tell people to go watch him?

I thoroughly enjoyed the spoiler-less review, thank you Susan. I'm currently waiting for my CE Edition to come in around the 9th, your description about it being the ending of the series that the fans deserved really hit home that this is the last of the series at least for awhile. So with your experience with the game, did you find the experience to be bittersweet? That despite it's being a good end to the trilogy that your torn about the time you invested to these games has finally ended.

It's also heartwarming to see such a strong working relationship between all your colleagues, you don't see alot of that these days. Keep up the excellent work that you guys and gals do here, it makes for good reading, listening and entertainment.

Also credit to Gavin for making another great piece, "Take it back" is a great song which is constantly on loop. You continually impresses me in how you manage to consistently deliver great pieces with different styles and at the same time keeping it fresh. Keep it up!

 

[BaronIveagh]

You were posting detailed complaints about the game on the morning of March 5 and "drunken rage" is the best you can do? Come on.

Not entirely sure which post you consider a detailed complaint on the morning of the 5th, since all I'm seeing is the the rambling thing about 'Commander Draigo and this is my favorite shop on the Citadel, now die xenos scum!'

I did make a comparison to Divergence Eve, which I've done about five times since the endings leaked, and a comparison to the nids, which I've done six times since the audio for Sheps big decision leaked.


As far as remaining coherent, it's a fine art involving sandwiches. And atm I'm cold sober, just tired. Very tired.

 

[Oro44]

I'm curious - have you not considered that an enormous factor in the content we publish is audience interest? We cover games that our audience is excited about, thus, we post a news story about the Mass Effect trailer, and not the World of Warplanes trailer.

If we only posted things about the games we personally cared about, this site would look very different, I assure you. Andy would write about nothing but weird Russian PC games, Grey would only write about shooters, and Justin would write about Baldur's Gate every day. Ok, every other day, alternating with Frozen Synapse, maybe.

In that case, Any and I would have something in common, but that aside: You're basically arguing audience appeal over fair and even coverage. While I understand the need to appeal to your audience, doing so at the expense of appearing biased for or against a game would be unacceptable. And, bluntly, that is what it looked like, and one of the reasons that, in my opinion, it made your review look tainted.

We don't have the resources to cover everything, so naturally when choices must be made, we err in favor of covering games our audience will enjoy. If you think that's a bad way to do things, I encourage you to put us in your rearview and find a gaming site that better suits your standards.

This brings up a good point that I don't understand. Why do people insist on making their dissatisfaction known (ie. Nerd Rage)? If you don't like it, don't buy it. Your blood pressure will thank you.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Couldn't be because we think the game is actually that damn good, could it?

And of course we're going to encourage people to go watch Gavin - why wouldn't we? He works for us, and our readers really love him. How would we look if we didn't tell people to go watch him?

I thoroughly enjoyed the spoiler-less review, thank you Susan. I'm currently waiting for my CE Edition to come in around the 9th, your description about it being the ending of the series that the fans deserved really hit home that this is the last of the series at least for awhile. So with your experience with the game, did you find the experience to be bittersweet? That despite it's being a good end to the trilogy that your torn about the time you invested to these games has finally ended.

It's also heartwarming to see such a strong working relationship between all your colleagues, you don't see alot of that these days. Keep up the excellent work that you guys and gals do here, it makes for good reading, listening and entertainment.

Also credit to Gavin for making another great piece, "Take it back" is a great song which is constantly on loop. You continually impresses me in how you manage to consistently deliver great pieces with different styles and at the same time keeping it fresh. Keep it up!

I was so, so, so sad to see the credits roll. Mass Effect 3 was a genuinely moving experience - I get choked up thinking about it. I actually had to redo the voice over for the video review because I was getting emotional about the game.

 

[kyogen]

Well, that sounded like genuine enthusiasm to me. I have no interest in Mass Effect other than as a pop culture phenomenon, so the reviewer's recommendation is not aimed at a gamer like me, but I don't think it's "tainted." My own journalism training was for straight-up general assignment reporting at bog-standard news outlets in which a low-key authorial voice was considered an essential part of projecting a sense of objectivity. The Escapist is not that sort of publication, it doesn't pretend to be, and reviews are not the same thing as news in any case.

 

[Murmillos]

I have decided to upgrade/replace my PC after I finish ME3 in a sufficient manner (A play thru with each of my 4 characters). Once I'm done with it, I'll upgrade and I'll never worry about Origin (or any lingering after affects) again.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Well, dammit I guess you convinced me, I will get it.

See, for some reason the whole series never really piqued my interest, although I will admit ME2 did look interesting. After reading and listening to the review I guess it's something I just can't ignore anymore, and if the story is that good that it evoked that many emotions and whatnot, then I have to get it.

The minute I get my tax return I'm going to get a decent PC and invest my time into this series.

 

[Dasick]

+1 to Andy Chalk trying to get BaronIveagh to fess up that he pirated (so that he can get banned?). Never-mind the fact that there is an entire games journalism community dedicated to helping people decide whether they like a game or not before they spend their hard earned $60.

On a more serious note, what the hell is going on here? I know that journalist integrity is a big thing, especially in the games industry as of late, and I understand that being called a sell-out liar is not cool, and I get that you all want to defend a colleague, but...

Wouldn't it be better proof of your integrity if you engaged in a discussion of why you feel the game is a kick-ass game and why someone else would feel differently? (Pirates, early copy "give-away"s, etc)

Here, I'll start:



BaronIveagh,

How is the score given by Susan inconsistent with your own experience with the game?
What are the high and low points of the game, what kind of gamers would enjoy it, and what score would you give it?



PS: I don't intend to buy(or play) ME3 for a variety of reasons. I, like krellen, enjoyed ME1 a lot more than ME2, and overall I don't like the direction ME3 is going to, based on the advertisement I've seen (mostly gameplay footage of the demo). Also, Origin. But this is a big game, and I feel a lot of important things are happening around it, so I'm interested in discussing it.

 

[Excludos]

Couldn't be because we think the game is actually that damn good, could it?

And of course we're going to encourage people to go watch Gavin - why wouldn't we? He works for us, and our readers really love him. How would we look if we didn't tell people to go watch him?

I thoroughly enjoyed the spoiler-less review, thank you Susan. I'm currently waiting for my CE Edition to come in around the 9th, your description about it being the ending of the series that the fans deserved really hit home that this is the last of the series at least for awhile. So with your experience with the game, did you find the experience to be bittersweet? That despite it's being a good end to the trilogy that your torn about the time you invested to these games has finally ended.

It's also heartwarming to see such a strong working relationship between all your colleagues, you don't see alot of that these days. Keep up the excellent work that you guys and gals do here, it makes for good reading, listening and entertainment.

Also credit to Gavin for making another great piece, "Take it back" is a great song which is constantly on loop. You continually impresses me in how you manage to consistently deliver great pieces with different styles and at the same time keeping it fresh. Keep it up!

I was so, so, so sad to see the credits roll. Mass Effect 3 was a genuinely moving experience - I get choked up thinking about it. I actually had to redo the voice over for the video review because I was getting emotional about the game.

Man, now I really want to play it. I'm just not sure I can suffer through game 1 and 2 to get the complete feeling of "an epic story"..especially after having watched Shamus and co tear both of them to pieces.

 

[Quad08]

Could have warned us about the fact that custom faces from the past two games don't work, and returning players have to re-create from scratch

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Spoiler free comments on the ending of the game itself?

 

[roguewriter]

Mass Effect 3 Review

The ending the series - and its fans - deserve.

Read Full Article

Is a good portion of Mass Effect 3 the kind of game the fans deserve? Yes. However, is it the "End" the fans deserve? Not even remotely. It is a bewildering mess of tragedy for tragedy's sake, poor ret-conning, and ham-fisted sudo-philosophical tripe I haven't seen the likes of since Lost and Battlestar Galactica came to a close.

Is the game worth purchasing on it's core merits alone, i.e. characters, dialogue, missions, romance, levity, and so forth? If you've been with the series since the beginning then you might as well get it just as I did. However, if you were were waiting for the series initial trilogy and Shepard's story to be complete before purchasing, do yourself a favor and don't bother.

There are many, many other games already released, or that are forthcoming, that will provide much of what ME3 does without dashing your expectations for a satisfying and heroic conclusion against a wall.

 

[Zydrate]

Anyone else finding the staff's zealous defense a bit unprofessional?

I mean, I'm sure I'll love the game when I eventually do get it, I'm not berating them for loving it or anything.

I'm just remembering how that one guy reacted to all those bad reviews of Duke Nukem.
Different situation, though a bit reminiscent.

I just feel calling forum users out personally is not very classy. Let's leave it to the rest of us plebs to eat them alive, yes?

Or pull a Jim Sterling. This weeks video was pure gold.

 

[BaronIveagh]

But this isn't about me, it's about you, and your totally legitimate work history and point against Susan.

Yeah this sounds totally real, and not at all like someone getting bagged by trying to force his point by calling on some anonymous unprovable insider knowledge.

Congrats, you can Google. What next, Wikipedia? Again, scroll up: did not get bylines, do not work in the field anymore and had my last gasp two years ago. As far as my filing cabinets and not naming names, one, the other records downstairs outnumber my writing about 50-1. Two, I put it out of my mind, because there's nothing I could do about it then, and there's nothing I can do about it now. As you know, without some proof, it's little better than libel, and I'm not terribly interested in being sued by EA.

On a more serious note, what the hell is going on here? I know that journalist integrity is a big thing, especially in the games industry as of late, and I understand that being called a sell-out liar is not cool, and I get that you all want to defend a colleague, but...

Wouldn't it be better proof of your integrity if you engaged in a discussion of why you feel the game is a kick-ass game and why someone else would feel differently? (Pirates, early copy "give-away"s, etc)

Here, I'll start:



BaronIveagh,

How is the score given by Susan inconsistent with your own experience with the game?
What are the high and low points of the game, what kind of gamers would enjoy it, and what score would you give it?

In all honesty, I can say my review wouldn't actually have been that much different. The score would have been 3 1/2 stars (7 out of 10), since I put a larger emphasis on story than she appears to, and it does not feel like a continuation of the previous games to me. Worse, there's a sudden and, in my opinion, poorly executed deus ex machina. To make a comparison the Madden crowd would get, it was like Bioware stumbled a bit, caught the ball, ran like hell, it looked like it was going to be a 75 yard touchdown, and then a fumble at the five yard line.


I a nutshell: I pointed out that given previous Escapist announcements, a positive review was unsurprising, related my own story, and stated that because of that I view similar seeming chains of events with suspicion. Which induced a sort of berzerk staff aggro and it turned into an issue of journalistic integrity both here and at other venues.

What was rather odd about the whole thing was they didn't stop and think 'Does this make us look like we have something to hide or what?'

Which was pretty much the only reason I kept at it, was to see if I could get one to say something incriminating. I had thought it might be Gavin, as he has most visible to gain, but forgot the time difference and he logged.

Personally I figure they're clean at this point, it was just timing and too strong a knee jerk reaction.

 

[LordOfTheDance]

If the controls are crappy and unintuitive on the 360 I can't imagine how terrible the controls have got to be on the PC.

Loved ME1 personally ME2 had some really good parts and some really bad parts. (notably the main plot which never really makes much sense, especially for sole survivors)

I would have picked the game up still just to see the ending and to enjoy the stronger parts...if only there was a digital distribution platform involved that was not origin.

I doubt I will ever pick it up now. Of course Shamus Young and company will probably eviscerate it on Spoiler Warning eventually.

 

[fozzy360]

We don't have the resources to cover everything, so naturally when choices must be made, we err in favor of covering games our audience will enjoy. If you think that's a bad way to do things, I encourage you to put us in your rearview and find a gaming site that better suits your standards.

Ok, I can understand if someone gets defensive when someone else calls them out on something they may or may not have done. I get that, but you can't just reduce your argument to "well if you don't like it, you could always leave". That's not the point, as least, from what I could gather from the various back-and-forths from this thread. It's a very dismissive and condescending attitude. On top of that, it does nothing to help your side of the argument if you're going to break off the discussion by suggesting the person leave and never come back.

This brings up a good point that I don't understand. Why do people insist on making their dissatisfaction known (ie. Nerd Rage)? If you don't like it, don't buy it. Your blood pressure will thank you.

Kind of sounds like you'd prefer that anyone with anything negative to say about anything shouldn't let their opinions known just for the sake of the fact that it's an opinion that you're not gonna like. Why shouldn't people let their dissatisfaction known? Of course, this is mainly intended for non-trolls, but if someone is really disappointed with something, why shouldn't they tell us? Plus, "don't like it, don't buy it" isn't good enough. Developers have to know why people are unhappy and why they are happy.

Anyone else finding the staff's zealous defense a bit unprofessional?

It just seems like the entire staff is taking this extremely personal. It's a bit....worrying.

 

[Andy Chalk]

I wouldn't say anyone "went aggro." You began by implying that we're on the take, then shifted to suggest that we're simply biased for reasons that may or may not be beyond our control, then claimed to be a corrupt journalist yourself with plenty of "missing bylines" and vague talk of full filing cabinets but absolutely zero specifics, then you fell back on the "I was drunk" defense before rolling out the classic "it was all a trap!" story, all while rather lamely dodging the question of whether you pirated the game - which, for the record, I believe you did. Did you seriously think you wouldn't get called out for that?

At this point I think all that needs to be said on this topic has been said. If you or anyone else has reservations about our integrity, you know where the door is. Please - please - don't let it hit you in the ass on the way out.

And now that this circus has (hopefully) drawn to a close, can we please get back to talking about Mass Effect 3?