Why do people completely ignore how great 98% of Mass Effect 3 was and just focus on the ending?

[bojackx]

Woo I'm in the 2%, go me! Although, I didn't mind the ending, so whatever.

Although, as everyone else has said, the ending is not the only thing people are pissed about. I think people were pissed at things like Mordin's voice actor change and Kai Leng being a thing. I wasn't pissed about those things, so I'm all for it being GOTY.

 

[Acton Hank]

Oh please, you could do what he's doing with every story in existance if you examine every single detail with a microscope and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Interesting how the other videos are even SHORTER compared to the one with the last 10 minutes of the game (it took him 1 hour and 30+ minutes to go with every detail that its wrong) and lets not even begin how you can kill Spider Reapers with the Cain and never mentioned again during the playthough.

I know, so what? What's your point?

 

[Acton Hank]

Oh please, you could do what he's doing with every story in existence if you examine every single detail with a microscope and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Way to go disregarding it all in one shot. The guy even notes in one of his other videos that you can do the same thing with any work, but if the suspension of disbelief is crafted well enough, the audience won't care.

Here, he specifically notes that the game starts with nonsensical story elements and gets worse from there.

Also, the last time I checked, literary/film/gaming criticism was not "obsessive compulsive". I'd rather see someone take a work about piece by piece and say how it could be done better than the testimony of a blind fanboy who will never admit fault with anything.

Who says I'm disregarding it all? I saw some of his other videos and some of his points are good and some of them are so petty they're not worth mentioning and some of them are plain stupid.

What he's doing isn't criticism, it's a failed overblown attempt at objective analysis.

Oh wait, you live on " Only blind fanboys like Mass Effect 3" Avenue.

Conversation over.

 

[llew]

Put it this way.


Imagine you just sat down to a 10 course meal.

Every course is more delicious than the last.

You sit forward eagerly as the 10th course is placed in front of you, only to find a nice big dollop of excrement.


Those 9 courses before it may have been the best food you've ever eaten, but that of dollop shit is what is going stick with you.

and i was beaten to the food analogy... well done sir

 

[Acton Hank]

But the remaining 98% of Mass Effect 3 was a piece of shit ridden with fetch quests, forced multiplayer, fake decisions, Jessica Chobot and cardboard boxes. Honestly, if you like Mass Effect 3 you should consider choosing a different hobby.

Well thanks for the advice, but don't think you can tell me what I should and shouldn't like.

 

[M920CAIN]

Because Mass Effect 2 and 3 were 98% story with mediocre (at best) gameplay.

Don't know what you're talking about, most people I've seen recognize that the 98% is awesome, even under the long shadow cast by the 2%.

More like 97, or maybe 96, wait no, 95! Be serious now, the game isn't 98% anything and 2% rest. It's what it is. It has ups and downs in lots of areas of design. The people above stated wisely, autodialogue, crew interaction, linearity of missions, streamlining, all are concerns worth nothing. Yes, ME3 did a lot of things right, but it did a lot of things wrong. It ain't 98% perfect, it's a 50-50 draw between good & bad if you want to use numbers. For everything it did right, there's something it didn' do well at all.

The numbers we've collectively pulled out of our ass are just as legit as the ones from yours.

True enough. Only difference is that I'm being fair. We all agree on 1 thing regarding Mass Effect 3, it's a great game. The endings are controversial with many people, but due to these 2 markers, everyone forgets the other "nitpicky" things if you will. It's easy to say Mass Effect 3 is great because 98% is great or Mass Effect 3 is terrible because the ending is terrible, but without going into any extremes, Mass Effect has ups and downs in several departments and that 50-50 is the equilibrium between the good and the bad... not saying it deserves a 5/10, no, it deserves more than that, but just like ME2 over ME1, certain elements from ME3 were removed, elements that were enjoyed in previous titles. Most people expected only add-ons so to speak, not the removal of some mechanics and the reinventing of others, like people moan:
- removal of equipable heavy weapons
- apparently nerfed dialogue wheel
- auto-dialogue
- limited interaction with the crew, although crew seemed more dynamic when exploring the ship
- etc...
All of the elements stated are mostly frowned upon, I, personally, think they're good enough for ME3, but weren't balanced accordingly, therefore giving most fans the impression that Bioware "doesn't care anymore" or "Bioware is EA" or etc, when in fact the truth may be a lot more different than we care to realize.

 

[crazyrabbits]

Who says I'm disregarding it all? I saw some of his other videos and some of his points are good and some of them are so petty they're not worth mentioning and some of them are plain stupid.

What he's doing isn't criticism, it's a failed overblown attempt at objective analysis.

Oh wait, you live on " Only blind fanboys like Mass Effect 3" Avenue.

Conversation over.

Calm down, boy.

I don't care if you like the game - more power to you. What I do care about is people who overlook a lot of flaws in a project simply because of their fanatical devotion to a product.

Yes, some of the criticism can be nitpicky, but that's the whole point. It's nitpicky criticism for a nitpicky genre. If you really think it's stupid, prove him (and everyone else) wrong.

Last time I checked, no one was able to disprove any of the myriad complaints about the game without resorting to fanwanking and theories. The fact that so many people have produced detailed breakdowns of why the game failed should tell you that the complaints are much more widespread than you think.

 

[LetalisK]

snip

*sigh* This kinda goes for the thread as a whole...

The 98%-2% is an obvious exaggeration, one that was originally made to show how bad the ending was. I would also like to think that whenever someone uses said numbers, it's generally understood by that they're giving a ball-park assessment of how they experienced it.

Obviously, for me it's a fifty/fifty experience aka mixed bag, i'm just telling you not everyone think it's "90% plus fantastic with f... up 5 minutes".

And I never said everyone experienced it as such. I only related a common sentiment I had seen in my discussions about this. I don't discount people experience it differently.

Edit: Perhaps my use of the word "recognize" was ill-advised. I think that's the issue here. I didn't intend to apply an objective value to it.

It did come up that way at first... but it's cool, all understood now.

With that said, you have to keep in mind the message that words like fantastic, awesome and great...
What i'm asking, do you really consider it a fantastic, GOTY level game?

I would say it's good, very fun gameplay, nothing special in terms of story and roleplaying, it does have it's exhilarating and touching moments, but the overall... i don't know...

I just think people are very liberal with "awesome", "fantastic", when they should be using "very good".

No, it's not a GOTY level game. For me, it was a GOTY level game up until they dropped the ball hard at the ending. Hence the "Most of it's awesome, but..."

 

[TotalerKrieger]

To be honest, I thought the overall quality of Mass Effect 3 was sub-par. The final entry should have been the strongest, but in my opinion it was by far the weakest of the three games.

The plot wasn't great, it wasn't terrible, but the loss of Mr. Karpyshyn really showed in my opinion. How convient that a Prothean super weapon was just uncovered on Mars and that Liara just happened to be on planet studying these recent findings. Why didn't Harbinger play any significant role in the story? How is it that a seemingly unimportant character like Traynor has the ability to repeatedly drive the plot forward? Shepard's dream sequences were annoying diversions which added nothing to the plot while distorting the overarching tone of the series. Simple cutscences could have more effectively portrayed Shepard's guilt without going into all the artistic/symbolic nonesense. Mass Effect had always been a fairly literal space-opera, making the dream sequences and the ending rather jarring. The positive plot-points were based around already well-established lore and strongly written characters from previous games, so I wouldn't say the writers knocked it out of the park, merely provided satisfactory conclusions.

A great deal of the dialogue was awkwardly written and poorly delivered, although this had been an issue throughout the series. Why did the developers ditch the conversations with squadmates/crewmembers in favour of off-hand one-liners? The conversations found in the past two games provided organic in-depth character development, while these one liner's were shallow morsels which rarely followed any sort of logical progression. This was a huge let-down for me.

I would have prefered to deal with familiar faces on a regular basis rather than introduce a bunch of underdeveloped newbies. A number of characters from the previous games were not given the attention needed to give them any sense of participation or conclusion. EDI's physical form was just lame pandering in my opinion. I really enjoyed her character in ME2, but found her rather irritating in ME3, she really did not need to be introduced as a squad-mate.

The introduction of stand-in characters, Geth AI for Legion, generic Salarian-Scientist for Mordin, etc, was just lazy development, totally undermining the concept of a unique story based on the player's choices. A lack of consequence was an issue throughout ME3 actually. + or - X amount of War Assets is a pretty lame consequence in a story-based RPG. Why didn't Bioware include an epic "Suicide Mission" style sequence? They had a winning formula right there. The ending of ME2 was one of the most satisfying gaming experieces in recent memory.

I could go on and on with various nitpicks, but someone else could probably point out just as many positive examples which I would have to agree with (the weapon modifications was an exellent addition). Overall however, I left ME3 (ending sequence notwithstanding) feeling that it was an unfinished, unpolished and uninspired entry to the series. It simply lacked most of the charm and nuance of the first two games.

 

[sunsetspawn]

I could go on and on with various nitpicks, but someone else could probably point out just as many positive examples which I would have to agree with (the weapon modifications was an exellent addition). Overall however, I left ME3 (ending sequence notwithstanding) feeling that it was an unfinished, unpolished and uninspired entry to the series. It simply lacked most of the charm and nuance of the first two games.

Even the gameplay alone can't stand on its own two legs. I tried a bit of a second playthrough with my cuntfemshepinfiltrator and many of the actual combat sections of the gameplay are just weak. It makes Mass Effect 2 look like shooter of the decade.

It's become clear that the moniker "AAA" is really just a grade for production values, and if anything it should be a badge that instills caution in a buyer because you know the game was rushed by a giant publisher.


Also, and this is just a random thought I had, but if I bring one gun to a firefight and I pick up a "thermal clip," I get twelve rounds for that gun. If I bring five guns and I pick up that same clip, I get twelve rounds FOR EACH GUN. say what?

 

[Jarek Mace]

Sorry, I'm tired and I don't feel like writing out a full-length article on this; I do however feel like giving a list:

1) Import issues that were broken from launch and still don't properly work
2) Shoe-horned bullshit multiplayer
3) Removal of options in dialogue
4) Too much auto-dialogue
5) Squad mates with absolutely no development: Liara asked me for the 5th time if I was interested in her still, to which I responded yes to. She later asks me if I want to get with her for the first time. WUT.
6) ME2 DLC character interaction
7) Jessica Chobot bullshit, horrible voice actor, horrible character model.
8) Spurting your own fucking memes that got old YEARS before ME3 was even released
9) Insanely easy combat
10) Miserably low amount of content, I finished everything in 15 hours on my first playthrough. About 30 hours for Mass Effect 1 & 2. The fuck transpired there?
11) The god damned day 1 DLC
12) I was fighting more Cerberus than reapers, just endless drones of 'generic evil private army soldiers'.
13) Completely ignored choices, like the Rachni Queen or council member choice
14) Shoddy treatment of ME2 characters
15) James Vega
16) Kaiden and his idiocy
17) Kai Leng was a terrible villain
18) Kai Leng's atrocious amount of plot armour
19) TOO. MANY. CUT SCENES.
20) Deaths and choices that don't make sense "To give Geth personalities, I HAVE TO DIE. I'm not going to tell you why, I'm just going to die because emotional investment."
21) "HEY COMMANDER, LEGION USED THE WORD 'I' BEFORE HE DIED. HE'S REFERRING TO HIMSELF AS AN INDIVIDUAL. HE HAD HIS OWN PERSONALITY. HEY, WOULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN COOL FOR YOU TO FIGURE THIS OUT ON YOUR OWN? HA, WELL FUCK YOU."
22) The terrible introduction
23) The terrible ending and the terrible 'child'.
24) The stupid nightmare-trauma scenes
25) "Wahey, I just saved Kelly from death!" Oh cool, everyone on the Citadel is dead.
26) How do we beat the Reapers? BIG SPACE GUN.
27) "Instead of equipping our ships with Thanix cannons, we decided that a single big space gun we didn't know how to use would be better, also all of our ship tech seems to be weaker than ships in Mass Effect 1 despite rapid technological advancement due to the salvaging of poor ol' Sovereign.
28) "I blew up a planet with over 300,000 innocents. I've seen people turned into gloop. I've seen stacks of corpses piled up waist high. I've seen people impaled on spikes and turned into zombies. That's only scratching the surface. A KID JUST GOT KILLED?! FUUUUUUCK, MENTAL SCAR. BE UPSET PLAYER, BE UPSET, A CHILD GOT KILLED. BE SAAAAD."
29) Durhurr, EDI and Joker romance. Hurr.
30) The extended cut candy ass land endings. I wanted happy, not fucking rainbow farting choices! "Yep, now the Reapers are helping us to rebuild, and we're all happy and perfect now! We can all live the lives we dreamed of! We all wanted to be cyborgs! YAAAY! We've forgotten that these Reapers have killed not only hundreds of billions of innocents for a reason we don't even know, but they've killed literally hundreds upon septillions of innocents over millions of years! We love them!"
31) The final middle finger to the players who wanted Shepard to be, y'know, Shepard at the end and tell the star child he was bullshitting and that this wasn't part of Shepard's character. "NOPE, FUCK YOU, CHOOSE ONE OF OUR LAME FUCKIN' CHOICES OR COMPLETELY LOSE. WHAT'S THAT? YOU WOULD'VE BEEN HAPPY WITH THIS CYCLE LOSING BUT THE NEXT CYCLE BEING ABLE TO BEAT THEM CONVENTIONALLY? NOPE, THEY USE THE GUN. HAAAA. HAAAAAAAA. HAAAAAAAAAAAAA.".

So no, I don't think that Bioware deserve any credit, it was a god awful game and the list I've compiled isn't even a full list; I could come up with even more.

 

[sunsetspawn]

Also, and this is just a random thought I had, but if I bring one gun to a firefight and I pick up a "thermal clip," I get twelve rounds for that gun. If I bring five guns and I pick up that same clip, I get twelve rounds FOR EACH GUN. say what?

You're not picking up ammo; the guns create their own ammo. You're picking up the thermal clips, which cool off the heat that is generated in the process, and are universal to all guns.

I'll let you get back to me and apologize when you finally understand what I said.

Ready now, read caredfully. A SINGLE thermal clip provides ammo for every gun you're firing. ONE CLIP! Are you paying attention? Good, now let's keep going. That SINGLE clip would only enable a single weapon X rounds, however, if you are carrying five weapons, that SINGLE clip is somehow installed on all five weapons. Got it? This isn't about ammunition types as the codex clearly explains that the weapons use nanotech to shave wedges off of a metal block, this is about the fact that the more weapons you carry causes the thermal clips to actually be multiples of themselves.

I realized this when I tried completing a mission with a single handgun, and every clip gave me twelve rounds thus forcing me to spam incinerate on the mech at the end (snooze), but when I played the mission the first time I brought five weapons, so a SINGLE CLIP gave me twelve rounds for the handgun, sixty for the assuault rifle, five for the shotgun, three for the sniper rifle, and twenty four for the SMG. So that single clip multiplied into five clips just because I was carrying five guns, thus causing those people carrying around one gun vastly under-supplied because reasons...

er, broken gameplay mechanics.

If one clip really represents five heat sinks, than that single handgun should be getting sixty shots when I pick up the clip, because if I had five handguns it would supply twelve to each.


Am I getting through to you with any of this?



ME2 had the same stupid issue, but you always had a few guns so the issue never became glaringly obvious.

Apology accepted in advance.

 

[Paradoxrifts]

I've always had the suspicion that a lot people wanted a definitive and final ending for the Mass Effect franchise. A jumping off point if you will, so that they could get out while the going was good. Before EA could sink their barbed money grubbing tentacles into the flesh of yet another beloved PC-friendly developer and their assorted intellectual properties. Beginning a grim harvest of money from what had been a nice, mostly pleasant part of their lives.


By all accounts they did not get that.

And at some point the hate for the game took on a life of it's own, and spiraled out of all control or reason and in some corners descended into outright pettiness and bullshit. Many of the encyclopedic lists of complaints I've seen people compile have, at least to me, been the products of people who are uncomfortable with openly stating what their 'deal-breaker' was. So they have had to resort to alphabetizing a long list of grievances in order to fortify the position they took.

And I have absolutely no problem with people saying that they expect to be given the opportunity once and a while to jump off the corporate merry-go-round with a little class and dignity intact. It is perfectly alright for consumers to stand up and ask not to be perpetually milked until all good will has been exhausted from them, and their cracked teats produce nothing but blood.

 

[sunsetspawn]

And I have absolutely no problem with people saying that they expect to be given the opportunity once and a while to jump off the corporate merry-go-round with a little class and dignity intact. It is perfectly alright for consumers to stand up and ask not to be perpetually milked until all good will has been exhausted from them, and their cracked teats produce nothing but blood.

For all intensive purposes I think Bioware should've nipped this in the butt. All of the complaints are actually one in the same, so I could care less what expressions you get wrong. Now excuse me while I kiss this guy.

 

[LetalisK]

No, it's not a GOTY level game. For me, it was a GOTY level game up until they dropped the ball hard at the ending. Hence the "Most of it's awesome, but..."

I just think that's overrating it big time.

It was essentially a linear story, with some shoddy writing, no sense of exploration or mistery/investigation, everything spoonfed to you.
And it's big innovation, importing saves, didn't pan out for me...

Honestly, it doesn't raise the bar in any genre standards... I see people using "amazing" and "awesome" but everyone is failing to explain to me what´s so awesome about it?

Probably because it would be impossible due to drastic difference in perspective. A lot of the things you and others cite as bad(story, plot holes, combat, etc) either don't bother others nearly as much or they actually enjoyed it. So they give you the same list back that totals up to "Awesome" in their mind, but when you total it up in your mind it equals up to less than awesome, thus leaving you once again perplexed. I base my personal assessment on how much enjoyment I got out of the game and I got a lot of enjoyment out of ME3, more than I usually get out of games.