Mass Effect 3

[Drunkside]

Help me understand what you mean by "clumsy".

 

Edit response to Drunkside's edit:

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I think it would be more accurate to point out that the AI is an AI. It doesn't have a "mobile platform" the way Geth do, for instance. If you question this, ask yourself if EDI is a synthetic in ME2.

 

I figured synthetic means any artificially created being, that is able to come to cpnclusions by itself. And by clumsy i mean the way the dialog and what you acyually see dont correlate in any way, how they throw out their old rules of pseudo science, how they at the last minute change the focus of the series from people who have stuck with you for 5 years (thats longer than i have known most of my friends ffs!) to what to do with organic life, the godchild, how TIM somehow controls shepard even though it has been said many times in both me2 and 3 that he didnt install a control chip, the godchild, how you really have no idea what your last choice will actually do, the godchild, how the crew is suddenly back on the normandy that is running away for some strange reason, how hackett calls shepard and assumes he is on the citadel even though supposedly the entire assault unit was destroyed, the godchild, the stargazer thing, the godchild, how shepard just happens to faint on a platform that takes him to the, you guessed it, godchild. Oh, did i mention the godchild? I could go on, but im too tired, i just suggest you search youtube for mass effect understated nerdrage, through that you will find a long, long video that adresses almost everything about the end... The godchild!!!

[Achilles]

Mimi is determined to see this thread moved to Kavar's

 

Art is a form of expression. It can be written. It can be audible. It can be physical. It can be a combination of media.

 

I think "high art" versus "low art" is distinguished by the complexity of the idea expressed. Comedy tends to be taken less seriously than drama, however because one tends to be more palatable than the other, it's easier to say that one is "low art" while the other is "high art". I believe this easy interpretation is false, but that's the knee-jerk reaction that many people have.

 

It's the same knee-jerk reaction that some people have when it's suggested that video games are an art form. It's hard to look at Pong and see something artistic. For me it's hard to look at a Transformers sequel and see anything that resembles expression. However I can find it in PS:T. I can find it The Tree of Life (though I found parts of it intolerable). You can't simply look at the medium and determine whether something is art, or even high art or low art. It's how the medium is used.

 

Lastly, just because something is art doesn't mean it's good. Art can be crap. A lot of people don't like ME3. I don't like The Beatles. I acknowledge that The Beatles are/were artists, I just don't care for what they do. Those are my tastes.

 

Would any of you demand that your favorite artist go back to the studio and re-cut a new album if they released one that you don't like? If the suggestion sounds ludicrous when we discuss music (or a movie, or a book, etc), why isn't it when we're discussing a game?

 

I figured synthetic means any artificially created being, that is able to come to cpnclusions by itself.

And you still think that or...?

 

And by clumsy i mean the way the dialog and what you acyually see dont correlate in any way, how they throw out their old rules of pseudo science, how they at the last minute change the focus of the series from people who have stuck with you for 5 years (thats longer than i have known most of my friends ffs!) to what to do with organic life, the godchild, how TIM somehow controls shepard even though it has been said many times in both me2 and 3 that he didnt install a control chip, the godchild, how you really have no idea what your last choice will actually do, the godchild, how the crew is suddenly back on the normandy that is running away for some strange reason, how hackett calls shepard and assumes he is on the citadel even though supposedly the entire assault unit was destroyed, the godchild, the stargazer thing, the godchild, how shepard just happens to faint on a platform that takes him to the, you guessed it, godchild. Oh, did i mention the godchild? I could go on, but im too tired, i just suggest you search youtube for mass effect understated nerdrage, through that you will find a long, long video that adresses almost everything about the end... The godchild!!!

Re: crew mates - they spend 39 hours and 55 minutes addressing that. If you missed it, you weren't paying attention.

 

Re: "the godchild" -

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lo and behold the Citadel is an actually an enormous platform that houses an AI. The AI reveals 1) what the Reapers are 2) why they do what they do and 3) what can be done to stop them. It really seems to me that all three of these things are necessary in order to achieve *cough*closure*cough* for the trilogy (seeing as Shepards goal since the beginning of ME1 has been to prevent the Reapers from destroying earth). Based on your repeated reference to "the godchild", I can't help that you either a) don't understand the character's role in the story or b) object to how the character was portrayed.

Per my earlier comments, it may just be that this isn't in line with your tastes, which is fine, however that doesn't mean the character isn't explained or that the execution is categorically "clumsy".

[logan23]

Going to ignore the rest for now. Because this is my biggest "what."

 

What are you disagreeing with? Games are art? Games are entertainment? Or games are a product?

 

I happen to think games are all three. Don't get me wrong I am not comparing games to Vinvent van Gogh's Starry Night. But I do consider Games to be

 

Sorry,..I miss worded my statement.

 

I agree with you how games are art, entertainment,..etc

 

I was just saying personally I felt that games due to the interactive function that they are also part something else which places them sometimes in a hard to place slot at time. But I do agree with you.

 

 

Studios do not have infinite budgets. And not everyone agrees that the game was lacking content.

 

Please understand that there is a segment of the population that reads "content lacking" and cannot fathom what you mean.

 

Agree that studios don't have infinite budgets but when I saw how DA2 had those small i found something during my quest then hand it into some unknown NPC in the city,..then see that this mechanic is showing up for the i found something on planet XYZ- then get war asset it got me wondering. ME3 does allow you to over hear a conversation that triggers the side quest but its something that raised an eye brow during my second play through of ME3 as I'm looking into the technical and design mechanics.

 

I should have said I personally feel that there seems to be a lack of side quests. I was hoping during my scanning of systems for war assets that I would find side quests where i land and help NPCs survive a Reaper Husk attack or something more something that would make exploring pay off more. I don't recall coming across one of these but I could have missed it. The N7 missions/side quests were nice but that's just reusing the multilayer assets/level.

 

The game has a good deal of content that looks to be equal to ME2. I will have a better idea when I finish my second play through as i look at the amount of level content and missions in detail.

 

EA just makes me nervous that they will find a way to milk a franchise in a way without allowing the development teams time which would lead to smaller games. I wonder if EA will allow Bioware to build another Dragon age Origin size game or something the size of Skyrim.

 

 

This will be my last post in the mass effect 3 thread.

Maybe after they announce something in April, most likely at PAX, about what they will do with the endings,..but probably not.

[Achilles]

There are far more side quests than there are main quests. Where Bioware finally got it right (IMO) is that a fair amount of the side quests blended into the story in such a way that it might not be apparent that they are side quests (Tuchanka comes immediately to mind).

 

My chief complaint with ME1 was that I felt I was forced to choose between the story and the game. This was still a little present in 2 and almost non-existent in 3. I see vast improvement, but it sounds as though you preferred it the other way. Again, differing tastes, but that doesn't mean the game was lacking content or cohesion. My 2 cents.

[mimartin]

I'm not really taking this serious, it is more lol to me.

 

5 reasons Mass Effect is better than Star Wars: Why BioWare's sci-fi universe blows Lucas' to a galaxy far far away By CVG Staff.

 

Also for those that want to reward or punish BioWare for ME3, the Escapist is doing a Developers' Showdown. BioWare vs. Valve in the finals. So cast your vote, BioWare seems to care about this since they spammed Facebook about it.

[Salzella]

Engineer and Infiltrator (for the second time) promoted, Victory and Commendation packs presumably in the bag. Schweeet. N7 rank up to 201 now. Number 400 and something in the UK.

 

I really should be writing my essay.

[Sabretooth]

I'm not really taking this serious, it is more lol to me.

 

5 reasons Mass Effect is better than Star Wars: Why BioWare's sci-fi universe blows Lucas' to a galaxy far far away By CVG Staff.

 

Also for those that want to reward or punish BioWare for ME3, the Escapist is doing a Developers' Showdown. BioWare vs. Valve in the finals. So cast your vote, BioWare seems to care about this since they spammed Facebook about it.

 

I didn't think BioWare would make it to the finals, actually. But even without the ME3 controversy, I think Valve beats BioWare for me. They're consistent, make quality products and push the boundary. They're the Pixar of video games (pre-Cars 2, i.e.).

[DarthParametric]

[youtube=hd]qOqHUa2LfNY

 

Still a better ending than ME3.

 

Also looking forward to Mars Effect. It also has a better ending apparently, enough to list it as a feature. Also waist-high walls - gotta love those. http://marseffect.net/

[Q]

5 reasons Mass Effect is better than Star Wars: Why BioWare's sci-fi universe blows Lucas' to a galaxy far far away By CVG Staff.

These guys make some good points but they really need to learn English.

Also for those that want to reward or punish BioWare for ME3, the Escapist is doing a Developers' Showdown. BioWare vs. Valve in the finals. So cast your vote, BioWare seems to care about this since they spammed Facebook about it.

I notice that Blizzard Entertainment was conspicuously omitted from those proceedings.

[Boba Rhett]

Just finished ME3. What the **** was that. Those endings are just elaborate indoctrination dreams, right?

 

 

Right?

[Q]

OK, one of he most level-headed people on the forum has spoken.

 

Is this game worth a play-through, or should I dedicate my precious time to something else?

 

 

EDIT: Not saying the rest of you are batsh!t or anything...

[DarthParametric]

If you haven't felt compelled to play it before now then I'd probably wait a few weeks to see what they have in store for the future. At the very least I'd wait for the patch that is due out soon.

[Q]

Yeah, I'll probably wait awhile before I bother with acquiring it.

[Salzella]

for ****s sake the last five minutes does not make or break a game. everything up to that point is awesome whatever you happen to think about the ending...

[DarthParametric]

For you perhaps. Others would disagree. But what does it matter? If you enjoy it, more power to you. The fact that other people are unhappy with the ending (or love it for that matter) should be irrelevant to your personal enjoyment of the game.

[Salzella]

Right. and by the same token, other people's relentless disapproval shouldn't put others off it.

[DarthParametric]

I don't recall there being any posts intentionally to that effect.

[Lynk Former]

I'm just kind of disappointed that it didn't have drastically different ending scenes based on the many variables that occur throughout the three games. There are a few games that have done it before so it's not unheard of but Mass Effect would have been the first two do it over multiple games. Instead, while the events before the ending had differences, the ending itself all really just led to the same place to do practically the same thing. (Yes, I'm over simplifying that, different stuff happens to the galaxy based on that final decision) but to get there you have to go through a pretty narrow bottleneck instead of having the story branch out.

 

If the story had branched out due to all of those variables over the 3 games, it would've created great replay value for me and would have actually gotten me to go back and replay the trilogy all over again making different decisions to see where it would lead me to at the end of ME3.

 

I personally feel BioWare missed out on a great opportunity in this regard but am still pretty satisfied with the rest of the game.

[DarthParametric]

Leaving aside issues of the recoloured videos and the like, the larger problem for the franchise as a whole is the status of the universe for future games, assuming that future games are to be set post-ME3. The choices they did offer don't seem overly compatible with one another. Namely,

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there is a fairly large discrepancy between whether you chose synthesis over the other two, merging all organics and synthetics into some sort of composite life form. You can't really gloss over that easily, unless you set future games so far into the future (10s of thousands of years probably) that you just assume regardless of endings you have three type of 3 life form - organic, synthetic, and a hybrid of the two.

But by that point, is it even the ME universe any more?

[Lynk Former]

I hope there's no more Mass Effect... and I say that not because of anything to do with the ending... I just want BioWare to move on to other things.

[DarthParametric]

I can't see EA walking away from a franchise that hasn't been completely milked dry. Despite all the ending controversy, there's still plenty of money to be made from the ME franchise. Ditto Dragon Age.

[mimartin]

Blasto: The Game!

[DarthParametric]

Hell, I would pay for a direct-to-DVD season of that April Fools cartoon.

[Titanius Anglesmith]

Why you enjoy art and the one problem with Mass Effect 3

 

This guy is incredibly long-winded (and there are ending spoilers within, of course), but he sums up my displeasure with the ending rather nicely.

 

With that said, I don't regret going to the midnight release. I love everything else about this game, and I can see myself playing the hell out of it for a while.

[Prime]

Just finished ME3. What the **** was that. Those endings are just elaborate indoctrination dreams, right?

 

 

Right?

Not filling me with confidence Rhett!

 

I'm in Q's boat. I have the game and went through the opening into part. I'm having fun with other games right now and with all the complaining about the ending I haven't been compelled to drop everything and play it.