PAX 2011: Mass Effect 3 Hands On

-Moonlight-

New member
Apr 15, 2009
9
0
0
Cleril said:
What I would like to know is how the hell an omni-blade even works...
It's pretty much confirmed at this point that omni-blades are made out of the same hard light that Sentinel tech armour is made out of. They're not kinetic barriers, because the way that kinetic barriers work is incongruous with how omni-blades seem to work (essentially, a sensor detects an object moving a certain speed towards it and creates a mass effect field to deflect it), and a demo showed that the Sentinel's heavy melee attack (dual omni-blades, and the creativity of that is questionable) shows that they extend from the tech armour. It makes sense within the fiction, and the concept of hard light has been around since the Sentinel's tech armour.
 
Mar 26, 2008
3,429
0
0
Purplecoyote said:
I'm actually kind of curious about that Turian, I looked up all the major Turians that have appeared in the games so far and his color/face paint doesn't match anyone, I can't think of any important Turians in the book either that aren't dead.

Also, It could never be Palin because he was killed by Geth in the battle of the Citadel.
Relative of Garrus? Most of the other significant Turians in Mass Effect are significantly darker "skinned" than Garrus. This one seems to have the lighter "skin" and blue facial markings of Garrus, just not in the same configuration. Same clan or something?
 

BrotherRool

New member
Oct 31, 2008
3,834
0
0
CalPal said:
1) Even when you were working with Cerberus, it was pretty clear that TIM wasn't going to be much of an ally, and especially not for the Reaper invasion. He tosses human lives away like he's playing an RTS, even though he fights for all that is good for humanity. He's much worse than Renegade Shepard could ever dream of being, and any Shepard wasn't going to have much luck uniting the galaxy to fight the Reapers by working with a guy like TIM. And ultimately, given TIM's history in the comics and what we've seen of him in the books, it's likely this was something that we should have seen coming from a mile away.

2) Mordin can change in the span of the 6 months or however long it is since he leaves the SR2 before you find him on the Salarian world again. Maybe you convinced him to work on the genophage for moral reasons, or maybe he saw the practical application of allowing Krogan numbers to swell and fight back the Reapers. Either one easily explains why Mordin suddenly wants to work on a Genophage cure.
You're actually right on both those points, completely and utterly. In fact I braved up and finished ME2 last night again (at least when you're vanguard the fights take 30 seconds each tops on normal also the final boss battle is even more stupid than I remember).

I guess it's less how the characters have been presented to us and more how the game has presented the dilemmas to us. One of the good things about ME2 (yes even I'll admit there was good points) is how well it managed the moral ambiguity. It really was presenting you with really difficult choices that had no clear right answer. And of those working for Cerberus and the Genophage were the best. By the end of the game I didn't have a clue what I'd do in their situation, Mordin seemed to have done everything right and without the Illusive man Shepard would have been dead and several hundred million/billion humans would have died. Heck as long as he didn't wipe out the entirety of earth he would have still have saved more lives than he took.

And now the game is screwing over all that again. It's pretending the one good thing they did in the first place never happened. The worst thing is, even without this it would still have been obvious because they actually starting messing it up in the very last scene of ME2. The final choice is a joke. Shepard spent the entirety of two games seeking out old bits of alien tech, exploring wrecks and trying to scrape what little advantage he could from 37 billion year old sites. Heck the second to last mission, the mission almost immediately before this one he'd just trawled a derelict reaper looking for the IFF, without which he could not have won and humanity would have been destroyed.

And then he's given a new, barely used complete base of alien tech and the only "right" option is to blow it up and the game will make clear you're being thick by keeping it. At the very worst Shepard should have gone pack to the Citadel and given the three unbelieving Council members a lift. It's not like they'd be willing to let Cerberus have it. Heck he could have blown it up then if he was still worried.

I agree with spoiler warning, the only decent reason was "Screw the Illusive Man" something which really didn't make a whole lot of logical sense. I just spent a whole game saying how he didn't control me, I was using him not working for him, I had no choice, I needed his resources saving the universe was more important and I didn't have to do it his way with no choice during the game to not do it like that. And now the game doesn't give us the choice to carry it on
 

CalPal

New member
Apr 25, 2011
64
0
0
It's not so much as the game is saying no one is ever going to remember TIM as the guy who did help save the rest of the human colonies from being completely wiped out, it's just that he never was the kind of guy one should trust in the first place. That's who he is as a person. Every step of the way, from when you first find out about Cerberus in ME1 to finishing business in the Collector base in ME2, TIM, and ultimately Cerberus, was a questionable allegiance. From a mile away, I could see TIM was likely going to ask me something big at the end of our fight, and I knew I could never say yes to that kind of person. The only proper way of dealing with Reaper tech is blowing it the hell up, and TIM was a pretty reckless person with his research into Reaper tech. That you can remember from how he reacted to the Derelict Reaper and his other interactions in the books and comics.

And hey, maybe if you keep the base alive, Cerberus does pass on information to the Alliance that could even up the odds for the Galactic Resistance BEFORE Cerberus betrays everyone (Remember, we still have about 6 months or so before the Reapers arrive). Again, Bioware has said that they don't want every former decision from both ME games to feel as though you should start thinking 'Paragon=good, Renegade=bad, the world is black and white'. We'll just have to wait and see how the Collector Base will ultimately fit back in with ME3.

As for the Council, remember that they still are very suspicious of your loyalty to Cerberus, never mind your refusal to drop the "Reaper" theory they're trying to dismiss. So to have a possible traitor come up to you and ask that you come see this base s/he found in the galactic core that is proof of Reaper tech? The council would never buy it, they would definitely never risk their lives to go into such a dangerous area, and even if they did for a second, you would likely be returning to see Cerberus ships roaming the base that you didn't destroy. That would definitely make them think that this was all an ambush, and they'd likely try and kill Shepard, or at least brand him a criminal on the likes of Saren.

I just spent a whole game saying how he didn't control me, I was using him not working for him, I had no choice, I needed his resources saving the universe was more important and I didn't have to do it his way with no choice during the game to not do it like that. And now the game doesn't give us the choice to carry it on
Self-justifications aside, why would you WANT to carry it on? Like I said before, Shepard can't unite the galaxy to fight the Reapers if he's working with a pro-human terrorist group that even Ashley - our xenophobe in the making - wouldn't dare go near. Some things in the game have to happen in order for the plot to make sense. ME1 - Shepard has to track down Saren and stop Sovereign; ME2 - Shepard has to stop the Collectors; ME3 - Shepard has to stop the Reapers and anyone allying with them. Maybe he's aware of what's happened and doesn't like it himself, but TIM is working with the Reapers, and as their tool, we have to stop him and Cerberus. From here, I'm going to trust the writers to have that make sense.
 

Avatar Roku

New member
Jul 9, 2008
6,169
0
0
SirBryghtside said:
Avatar Roku said:
It's a bit different. The Omni-Blade involves stabbing people with the actual hologram, which, despite story justifications, seems really stupid to me. And yes, a good deal of time has been spent in the codex explaining that it is JUST a hologram interface.
Eh, BioWare retcon a lot of things. Thermal clips in ME2, anyone?

Actually, I've never even glanced at the codex, but don't you press things on the Omni-tool? That implies that it's got some physical interface.

Anyway, this is looking awesome. It was a day 1 purchase anyway, but... wow. The only thing wrong with it is that my file will be missing half the characters :/
You don't actually press buttons, you touch the hologram at certain points and the computer figures out what you intended to do.

Just occurred to me what that kind of a lack of tactile feedback would be like. A nightmare.