Mass Effect 3 Review

[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?

 

[Oro44]

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.

Yeah, this was kind of my point. Constructive criticism is fine, it just bugs me how personal and flat out mean these things get

 

[Susan Arendt]

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.

You misunderstand my point. If someone innately disagrees with a core way we do things here, then they're simply never going to be happy here and would undoubtedly prefer the way another site approaches its content. That's quite different from simply having a different opinion about a certain game.

If, for example, you believe that out lack of coverage of certain titles indicates a bias, and that we're wrong to take our audience's preferences into account when choosing what to cover, then you'll inevitably find fault with our content. Thus the suggestion to look elsewhere.

 

[Susan Arendt]

anc[is]Spoiler free comments on the ending of the game itself?

Hmmm....no, I don't think I can do that. I don't want to color your experience in any way going in to the finale.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

anc[is]Spoiler free comments on the ending of the game itself?

Hmmm....no, I don't think I can do that. I don't want to color your experience in any way going in to the finale.

It's a bit late for that, the rest of the internet kinda beat you to the punch I appreciate the sentiment though.

 

[Susan Arendt]

anc[is]

anc[is]Spoiler free comments on the ending of the game itself?

Hmmm....no, I don't think I can do that. I don't want to color your experience in any way going in to the finale.

It's a bit late for that, the rest of the internet kinda beat you to the punch I appreciate the sentiment though.

I'm sorry. I take not spoiling games pretty seriously, so I'm sorry to hear you already know what happens.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

anc[is]

anc[is]Spoiler free comments on the ending of the game itself?

Hmmm....no, I don't think I can do that. I don't want to color your experience in any way going in to the finale.

It's a bit late for that, the rest of the internet kinda beat you to the punch I appreciate the sentiment though.

I'm sorry. I take not spoiling games pretty seriously, so I'm sorry to hear you already know what happens.

I don't know how, but I've managed to stay spoiler free.

Except I'm in the UK, so I have to wait until Thursday/Friday.

I hope the internet shows me mercy

 

[BaronIveagh]

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?

Sorry, you can call me out on it, but you'd end up shooting yourself in the foot.

I own a PS3 and a PC, but no Xbox. The PC crack came out late yesterday, but according you you I had to be playing it yesterday morning. So, how did I post specific complaints about the game six hours before it was cracked?


Answer: Research.

 

[Still Life]

Been playing it.

My. God.

It's pretty much everything I could have hoped for. I'm having a ton of fun!

On what system? PC getting a lot of bad word of mouth. I tried origin to try to get the demo and it wouldn't even start on my 64 bit windows 7 PC build.

I've heard Kinnect works with it, PS3 Move too?

Playing on PC with Windows 7 64bit. Haven't had a single issue running it, but PC is a funny thing at times.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

I'm sorry. I take not spoiling games pretty seriously, so I'm sorry to hear you already know what happens.

Don't be sorry, it's not your fault. And I don't know everything, just enough to... influence me. Oh well

 

[ZeroMachine]

I've been playing it all day...

This game... is like... if Awesome crapped out Awesome onto a silver platter made of Awesome and gave me two Awesome spoons to eat it with.

But... I threw the spoons away. Because it also gave me Awesome Biotics so I could eat the Awesome off the Awesome silver platter without my hands so I could continue playing Mass Effect 3 while eating the Awesome with my brain.

My one, ONE complaint so far, is that I don't have as much control in conversations as I would have hoped, ESPECIALLY near the beginning of the game. Control of Sheppard is taken away from me far too much for my liking.

But I don't care because the rest of it is AWESOME and totally makes up for it.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

I've been playing it all day...

This game... is like... if Awesome crapped out Awesome onto a silver platter made of Awesome and gave me two Awesome spoons to eat it with.

But... I threw the spoons away. Because it also gave me Awesome Biotics so I could eat the Awesome off the Awesome silver platter without my hands so I could continue playing Mass Effect 3 while eating the Awesome with my brain.

My one, ONE complaint so far, is that I don't have as much control in conversations as I would have hoped, ESPECIALLY near the beginning of the game. Control of Sheppard is taken away from me far too much for my liking.

But I don't care because the rest of it is AWESOME and totally makes up for it.

Would you say the game is:

A: Awesome

B: Awesome

C: Awesome

 

[ZeroMachine]

I've been playing it all day...

This game... is like... if Awesome crapped out Awesome onto a silver platter made of Awesome and gave me two Awesome spoons to eat it with.

But... I threw the spoons away. Because it also gave me Awesome Biotics so I could eat the Awesome off the Awesome silver platter without my hands so I could continue playing Mass Effect 3 while eating the Awesome with my brain.

My one, ONE complaint so far, is that I don't have as much control in conversations as I would have hoped, ESPECIALLY near the beginning of the game. Control of Sheppard is taken away from me far too much for my liking.

But I don't care because the rest of it is AWESOME and totally makes up for it.

Would you say the game is:

A: Awesome

B: Awesome

C: Awesome

D: All of the above, with a heaping helping of Awesome.

 

[Dasick]

...before rolling out the classic "it was all a trap!" story...

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.

I assume this is the "all a trap" defence you're referring to? Because it's part of a post which contains his opinion on ME3. And the ME3 stuff comes first. You might be sceptical about his story, but the best way to oust a troll is to make an intelligent point. If he has nothing of sustenance to say about it - you win, but the forums as a whole win as well. If the guy does have something of value to say - you and everyone else on the boards wins again.

So, bad endings, deus ex to boot, and a lack of meaningful impact from the choices you've made in the previous games. These all seem like the most common complaints with the game, looking through this thread.

Susan said that there are tons of call backs to your decisions in the first two games, but "call back" isn't the same as "impact". Which is it?

As for the ending, that stuff is pretty important. The ending is what makes or breaks any story. I don't care if you just preformed the entire Nutcracker in mid-air, it doesn't matter if you break your neck when you land.

 

[Dasick]

I've been playing it all day...

This game... is like... if Awesome crapped out Awesome onto a silver platter made of Awesome and gave me two Awesome spoons to eat it with.

But... I threw the spoons away. Because it also gave me Awesome Biotics so I could eat the Awesome off the Awesome silver platter without my hands so I could continue playing Mass Effect 3 while eating the Awesome with my brain.

My one, ONE complaint so far, is that I don't have as much control in conversations as I would have hoped, ESPECIALLY near the beginning of the game. Control of Sheppard is taken away from me far too much for my liking.

But I don't care because the rest of it is AWESOME and totally makes up for it.

Can you be more specific about what makes it awesome? So far you're just gushing.

 

[Harbinger_]

Not quite the end of the series as I believe Bioware said they'll be making more Mass Effect games it just that Shepherd won't be there.

 

[DonTsetsi]

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?

Sorry, you can call me out on it, but you'd end up shooting yourself in the foot.

I own a PS3 and a PC, but no Xbox. The PC crack came out late yesterday, but according you you I had to be playing it yesterday morning. So, how did I post specific complaints about the game six hours before it was cracked?


Answer: Research.

What does pirating have to do with the discussion? Having a pirated copy shouldn't change your opinion (at least not for the worse). If you're going to continue tossing insults and questioning each other's integrity, please stay within the original topic.

But seriously, this forum fight, while amusing, doesn't benefit anyone involved.