Poll: Why does everyone hate ME3 so badly?

[Corax_1990]

I am lost for words after that ending, that was a direct kick in the teeth from Bioware to all the series long term fans. This poses the question; For what?
What reason is there for anybody to have spent days playing through the series, getting the rewarding feeling that ME1 & 2 give you, to then have the series end like that. What the actual fuck people?
To summarise (spoilers),there are two endings, which are practically the same. In both, Shepard dies, all the mass relays are destroyed as well as an unknown amount of other technology (practically stranding all the aliens who came to help Earth and destroying the intergalactic community), all of your friends and love interest are seen to crash land on some random jungle planet and others are just not shown to have any ending. Thats it, no closure, no happy ending, just two equally bullshit endings that make all you have done in three games worth of play time for nothing, nothing you do matters, Shepard is always going to die and I will always remember Bioware as the developer who managed to destroy one of my favourite game series of all time with an ending worse than the OJ trial.

 

[RuralGamer]

Anyone been on Metacritic recently and seen how many reviews EA bought? Its scary. Never have I thought a game was worth 100%, so when I see a game get one, maybe two 100%s from semi-major companies, I don't think much of it; they really enjoyed it and are perhaps a bit biased towards it just now until the enjoyment factor wears off, okay; I don't even want to go back to Metacritic and see what its sitting on now; last I checked was seven; i.e. seven, unbiased, independent critics thought it was perfect, without a single flaw, because to me, that's what 100% gets and no game ever has or ever will deserve it.

 

[Ascarus]

i'm an enjoying the game so far, but as i said in a different post yesterday there are times when i wish the game would shut the fuck up and let me play. there is a tiring amount of dialogue. for example ...

slight

Spoiler

going to the citadel for the first time when you can actually go to more than two places i decided help aria get all the merc groups under her command. between that and just plain getting around the citadel and talking to everyone else i ran into, i spent a full fucking hour of game play pretty much just talking people. that is too much in my opinion.

 

[Shinclone]

I'm enjoying it at the moment. Had a few funny glitches like Shepards head tracking Liaras little helper when talking to her, making him look like something from the exorcist. Nothing game breaking though. My only real gripe is the bad photoshop that's supposed to be Tali. I'm not a tali-mancer but to hype the reveal of her face for so long then it turns out they didn't even try is a disappointment imho.

 

[Zen Toombs]

As a person who has yet to beat the game, I've enjoyed it so far. My shep does have a tendency to glitch through/on top of objects when not in combat, but i've yet to need to reload to fix it. I like the quasi-auto dialogue, as it makes things flow better. I've only once or twice heard Shep say something I didn't want to in Auto dialogue, and I'm over twenty hours in. In the first two games, I'd have run into far more problems.

I did have the game glitch out on me with the Aria sidequest to get Eclipse. I completed it, my Xbox decided that it wanted to take a short nap, and now Bailey acts like I still have to finish the mission, I can't talk to the psycho eclipse leader, and I can't find the second in command of eclipse to tell him to start a coup.

Can anyone tell me either how I can fix this (as I didn't notice the glitch until I had played for many more hours) or what the results in terms of readiness are for getting Eclipse/whether having all three gives an additional bonus/what things can affect their readiness so that I can play a bit of multiplayer to make up for it?

EDIT: Question, what's the "Broken Steel" DLC I've heard talk about?

 

[boag]

I loved the endings because they actually make sense with the story.

The Mass Relays and The Citadel were devices built by The Reapers to impose technological and social limits and force civilization down the path the Reapers chose, which is to say a dead end one.

While destroying the Mass Relays sets the galaxy back thousands of years it also free galactic civilization from never ending enslavement.

Leaving the Mass Relays would only means civilization continued to be slaves, and would stagnate one they hit the end of the Reapers path. But what is WORSE about it is that at that point they would now be willing slaves to a slave master who is no longer alive.

Post mass relay civilization now has a chance to go down the path that they choose for themselves instead of the Reapers path, the unfortunate problem is that civilization as it was, was already to far down The Reapers path to be fixed, it had to be destroyed.

Look I agree that the Ending makes sense from a storytelling perspective.

But the problem is that the only difference between it and the Game over screen, is that one will let Galactic Civilization Flourish thousands of years after the events and the other will keep the cycle going.

Those are the only 2 options in the gameend that even matter, and for all the work you do to try and make people happy and uniting the galaxy and such, it all falls flat since the long term effects override anything short term.

As a person who has yet to beat the game, I've enjoyed it so far. My shep does have a tendency to glitch through/on top of objects when not in combat, but i've yet to need to reload to fix it. I like the quasi-auto dialogue, as it makes things flow better. I've only once or twice heard Shep say something I didn't want to in Auto dialogue, and I'm over twenty hours in. In the first two games, I'd have run into far more problems.

I did have the game glitch out on me with the Aria sidequest to get Eclipse. I completed it, my Xbox decided that it wanted to take a short nap, and now Bailey acts like I still have to finish the mission, I can't talk to the psycho eclipse leader, and I can't find the second in command of eclipse to tell him to start a coup.

Can anyone tell me either how I can fix this (as I didn't notice the glitch until I had played for many more hours) or what the results in terms of readiness are for getting Eclipse/whether having all three gives an additional bonus/what things can affect their readiness so that I can play a bit of multiplayer to make up for it?

EDIT: Question, what's the "Broken Steel" DLC I've heard talk about?

Broken Steel was a Fallout 3 DLC, that changed the ending of the game, and let you carry on to an eventual final conclusion that wasnt as empty as the games original ending.

It's just general internet hate. In other words, negligible.

The game is excellent, one of the best games I've ever played.

And yes you will hear a lot of moaning about the ending, but that was always going to be the case.

Way to live with your head in the sand (or other, where the sun don't shine place, your choice) and way to simplify the negativity, which is not just "general internet hate", but very widespread, into something that you can dismiss without actually giving it thought.

OP:

People are having problems with Mass Effect 3 for a number of reasons. For Bioware lying to their audience, for the removal of numerous RPG aspects, for the removal of choice and the forced melodrama that Bioware has stuck into the game, effectively making the story from all previous games not matter one iota. For the lazy game design. For the day one DLC (which apparently was already on the disc, making Bioware's lies even more prominent). For the endings, which go directly against everything that Bioware has promised for years.

For taking a great franchise and running it into the ground, only to counter fanbase comments with nothing more than a shrug and "tough".

For alienating the people that made them rich. It's bad customer service, bad business and bad development.

See this is my point. Just hate spewing without actual backing up. You're the one lying here, buddy. There's more choice than ever and all of it matters to the galaxy. Lazy? Please. Everything you've done in the previous two games is referenced in some way. If you pay attention you can see the detail every conversation is crafted with.

That you don't want to see that is your fault, not the game's.

Now I remembered you. You were the one making this exact same "oh, they're just being internet stoopads for not liking it!" and then ran off the moment you were proven wrong with THESE EXACT SAME THINGS.

Retconning and simply brushing off things with a "hey, remember that thing?" is not good writing. There's no way around it. Taking choices that have been made and removing the consequences from them for the sake of telling the poorly written linear story (in a choose your own adventure themed game!) is not the way to go about it.

Now please, if you're going to be against something, at least have the backbone to stay in the argument and not run off to another thread to spout the same inane, unsubstantiated garbage, thinking that you're making some kind of a point. You're not.

Provide examples of each of your statements if you want to be taken seriously.

 

[SajuukKhar]

I loved the endings because they actually make sense with the story.

The Mass Relays and The Citadel were devices built by The Reapers to impose technological and social limits and force civilization down the path the Reapers chose, which is to say a dead end one.

While destroying the Mass Relays sets the galaxy back thousands of years it also free galactic civilization from never ending enslavement.

Leaving the Mass Relays would only means civilization continued to be slaves, and would stagnate one they hit the end of the Reapers path. But what is WORSE about it is that at that point they would now be willing slaves to a slave master who is no longer alive.

Post mass relay civilization now has a chance to go down the path that they choose for themselves instead of the Reapers path, the unfortunate problem is that civilization as it was, was already to far down The Reapers path to be fixed, it had to be destroyed.

Look I agree that the Ending makes sense from a storytelling perspective.

But the problem is that the only difference between it and the Game over screen, is that one will let Galactic Civilization Flourish thousands of years after the events and the other will keep the cycle going.

Those are the only 2 options in the gameend that even matter, and for all the work you do to try and make people happy and uniting the galaxy and such, it all falls flat since the long term effects override anything short term.

Really because I can count many examples from the first two games that mattered in the 3rd and at least 3 that matter post relay destruction.

 

[F'Angus]

Some people don't like some games, others do. Don't expect everybody to conform to your point of view.

 

[boag]

I loved the endings because they actually make sense with the story.

The Mass Relays and The Citadel were devices built by The Reapers to impose technological and social limits and force civilization down the path the Reapers chose, which is to say a dead end one.

While destroying the Mass Relays sets the galaxy back thousands of years it also free galactic civilization from never ending enslavement.

Leaving the Mass Relays would only means civilization continued to be slaves, and would stagnate one they hit the end of the Reapers path. But what is WORSE about it is that at that point they would now be willing slaves to a slave master who is no longer alive.

Post mass relay civilization now has a chance to go down the path that they choose for themselves instead of the Reapers path, the unfortunate problem is that civilization as it was, was already to far down The Reapers path to be fixed, it had to be destroyed.

Look I agree that the Ending makes sense from a storytelling perspective.

But the problem is that the only difference between it and the Game over screen, is that one will let Galactic Civilization Flourish thousands of years after the events and the other will keep the cycle going.

Those are the only 2 options in the gameend that even matter, and for all the work you do to try and make people happy and uniting the galaxy and such, it all falls flat since the long term effects override anything short term.

Really because I can count many examples from the first two games that mattered in the 3rd and at least 3 that matter post relay destruction.

Lets talk in spoilers then

I agree that a lot of events matter during gameplay, but after the end game scenario I fail to see how any decisions you made will affect the galaxy as a whole after the destruction of the relays, besides the obvious breaking of the cycle.

What consequences do your actions have on anyone that cant be retconned in the next game by saying "Well Time skip so this happened no matter what you did"?

 

[synobal]

What consequences do your actions have on anyone that cant be retconned in the next game by saying "Well Time skip so this happened no matter what you did"?

That is true for any fictional universe, so I don't see what your point is.

 

[Nimzabaat]

Personally I think Bioware is trying to lower our expectations. The first ME was awesome, the second boosted graphics at the expense of everything else. The third, their attempt to pacify the masses, comes off as slightly better than the second. I think the rage about ME3 is from a lot of Biowares hardcore fans (ex-fanboy myself) who are feeling alienated and therefore giving the game undeservedly poor reviews. While they believe that review-bombing the game will make EA/Bioware listen to them. The fact that they're putting in reviews means they (well we) bought the game and, whether it's good or not, EA made their money. The best strategy for dealing with this is to go out and buy another copy of Skyrim or two. Show your support for a company that is still all about giving gamers what gamers want.

Okay totally off topic... who wants to see Bethesda do a sci-fi game? I mean more sci-fi than Fallout 3? I know I do!

 

[Abedeus]

In terms of actual reviews, rather than anger at specifics like the Tali thing or the DLC thing, I've mostly heard that ME3 is quite excellent.

Snip

Regarding the Rachni Queen.

REALLY??? They did that? I was pissed enough as it is with letting her live, getting a nice little reminder that they are doing alright in ME2 only to meet them in ME3. I mean really? Seems 'extinct' is a term Bioware has not fully understand.

Oh my only real beef with this game at the moment right now is the disk changes.

I am always prompted to switch from Disk 1 or Disk 2 on the Xbox 360.

What is up with that?

ME3 SPOILERS AHEAD!

LAST WARNING


Yes, you meet Rachni half-way through game, and everyone is like "Wtf, you destroyed/saved the rachni queen, why are they attacking us?!". Turns out Reapers dug out some of the surviving rachni and transformed them into monsters, like they transformed Turians and Humans and Ardak-Yakshis. And if you killed the Rachni Queen, they make a "reproductor" that will either help you or you'll destroy him to ensure no more rachni for good.

Because making multiple plot paths without devaluing choices from previous games was apparently too much for Bioware...

 

[N7 Ruiz]

After the whole dlc and learning about the endings i decided not to get it I loved the concept of Mass Effect but sadly they kept making a game about MY decisions into a game about THEIR decisions I've watched some lets play vids and it looks good its like some one said the whole self sacirifice thing was retarded and the COLOR endngs Oh Noooosss

 

[guitarsniper]

There wasn't an option for "Best game i've ever played except for

Spoiler

the ending

so there wasn't a thing that actually fit my opinion.

 

[boag]

What consequences do your actions have on anyone that cant be retconned in the next game by saying "Well Time skip so this happened no matter what you did"?

That is true for any fictional universe, so I don't see what your point is.

The point is, this was the ending of a Trilogy, the ending closure is at direct contradiction with initial statement of the series, "Choices Matter".


If the choices you make ultimately play out to be null by an unavoidable event, then what is the point in even playing the game?

From a narrative perspective the ending is fine and makes total sense, but from an interactive perspective its a real bad idea to invalidate the players hard work by restricting all his options into 1 end game scenario that happens no matter what.

Lets compare ME 1 and ME 2s endings,

In ME1 the end game has you choose whether the council lives or dies, and who becomes the Councilor, these reflect immediate actions and set up the next game.

Starting ME 2 your choices begin to be reflected, and are continuously reflected through out the game, this is something that ME3 does very well in some aspects (Main Plot Characters referencing events from the 2 previous games) and very poorly in others (mail system tells you something you will never see happens and it doesnt reflect on the War Assets, EG Shiala).

The End game of ME2 is another set up, but with immediate repercussions to your end game in ME2, the decisions you make either keep characters alive or kill them, and the decision to destroy or keep the collector base affects on how the IM reacts to you in the last conversation.

Now ME3 starts off and does a lot of thing correctly, during the entire course of the game, your choices are reflected, like I pointed out before they are done well in some cases and poorly in others, However since the end game of the final Chapter of this game series does not give players a pay off, they will not see their choices come to matter in the final conclusion.

ME3 once again sets up for a sequel instead of giving the final pay off people were expecting, worse yet since the endings require a long time for anything to be set up again in the Galactic community of the in game universe, any choices you made can be completely made irrelevant by subsequent story rewrites. It resets most lore to 0, essentially ending the narrative universe that was created, but also setting up a sequel for the possibility seeing any result of your choices.

By Narrative terms, its an awesome idea, because you have basically established the lore of the future franchise with deep and rich meanings. However from an Interactive perspective, its asking people to buy the next game to see if any of the things you did in these 3 games will have even mattered.

That is what I find most disappointing, I wanted a pay off with the conclusion of this trilogy, not a set up to the next trilogy.

 

[Erttheking]

So is everyone Ready for the Mass Effect 3 Broken Steel DLC?

You know what? Yes I am, if it makes the ending tolerable the game will be catapulted back into the game of the years spot it was so cozily occupying for me before the ending popped up. Until then it's a mashup between bioshock infinite and Halo 4

... neither of which is even finished. Dont you see how superficial that statement makes you look?

And I can already tell that they'll be better.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Provide examples of each of your statements if you want to be taken seriously.

Seeing as most others have provided sufficient ones, I don't see why I have to reiterate their comments.

The game is all over the place.

The Rachni retconned
The Love Interests
The three endings (regardless of what you've done)
The companions bug
The missing Shadow Broker mission acknowledgements
The reaper base choice is meaningless

Everything that was an important choice in the previous two games is either retconned or devalued into meaningless tripe that is referenced in a passing statement or forced into a conclusion that removes each and every reason to actually play a game series built on choice mattering at all.

Yes because getting different war assets depending on what you did to the reaper base = meaningless?

 

[ozium]

I love it. I think it's an excellent game. The hate is purely to do with the day one DLC. People seem to think they are compelled to buy something that just unlocks a character and adds one mission to the game. the others hate it because they think its "dumbed down" which is a load of horse crap because ME1 was not in any way, shape or form a complicated game.

PS

I don't agree with the day one DLC or the fact that the DLC was originally a part of the final product but at least EA has the decency to tell us straight up that they are purely a business and that they don't give a crap about customers. At least we will know to keep our guard up when EA is the publisher.

 

[Andothul]

Me3 is a great game but like with DA2 as Bioware fans we expect more than great we expect the best like Mass Effect 2.

Idk to me the game seems rushed, shorter than both other Mass Effect games, less character development, and a retarded ending.

I liked Dragon Age 2's ending better than this crap.

I just feel like with Me3 and Dragon Age 2 going how they went we are seeing the slow decay of Bioware from its relationship with EA.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Me3 is a great game but like with DA2 as Bioware fans we expect more than great we expect the best like Mass Effect 2.

Idk to me the game seems rushed, shorter than both other Mass Effect games, less character development, and a retarded ending.

I liked Dragon Age 2's ending better than this crap.

I just feel like with Me3 and Dragon Age 2 going how they went we are seeing the slow decay of Bioware from its relationship with EA.

Ive been playing Bioware games since BG2 came out, and I can safely say Bioware's writing level hasn't changed at all.

The thing that has changed however are the people, and the way they have changed is that they now have nostalgia.

This nostalgia makes people believe that older games are SOO much better form the new ones even if they aren't.

And every year the nostalgia gets worse and worse, and reinforced by constant self-assurance from the person suffering from it.