I guess this would be me cashing in on the "Superior Thread Clause", but I thought this game deserved a well put together thread. So here goes:

Mass Effect 3, the long awaited end(?) to the Mass Effect franchise that has been over five years in the making, has finally hit consoles.

Players in Mass 3 take upon themselves the role of Commander Shepard(as they do in previous titles) with either a newly built persona or one imported from the previous game's save data. From their role as Commander, players are once again thrown into the galactic battle between the races of the universe and the overwhelming might of the Reapers. Assuming the player has achieved the true ending to each game(there are default backgrounds should a character not be transfered from a previous title) they will be able to see each and every friend they have made since the very beginning as the universe begins to tear itself apart.

From a personal perspective, I waited outside my favorite Gamestop for four hours in twenty degree weather for this game, and I don't regret a single minute of it. I've been playing this game non-stop for three days and I haven't even broken the surface of the exceptionally deep and well written storyline. Mass 3 takes all of the charm that the RPG elements had in the first game, while at the same time creating fast-paced and lethal combat sequences.

Multiplayer is also, believe it or not, extremely fun in this game. You, along with four other friends, must survive wave after wave of oncoming enemies using your own unique abilities to aid you and your team. Each and every character archetype is present in multiplayer as it is in single player and even boasts a leveling system similar to the campaign's with talent trees and varying weapons to choose from. No matter how many times I play it, multiplayer still has me crawling back for more each and every time. It's addicting in the best possible way.

So, to conclude, would I recommend this game? Yes, yes I would.

i aswell think this is a great game. to tell you the truth this game at one point really did not bring a intrest to me until it was recommend to me. i persisded to play the demo( ween the multyplayer was still active). i think this is one game for the book one will look back and say " i know that game, it was that bad ass game". the single player game is ok even though i have not gone very far cuz of the multyplayer but i as well recommend it.

Mass Effect, eh? I've always been meaning to pick up on that series. I guess now is a better time to start than any.

Oh... I'm not actually sure this is true but...:

POSSIBLE SPOILER:

A friend of mine told me that in the end of the game, the entire series was just in some old guy's head, and he was telling the story to his nephew or something.

I got the collectors eddition, played a bit of it today. It was good, could pick diffrent "modes" of gamestyle Action/ RPG / Story (I picked RPG). One thing I didnt like was the fact that they really killed the dialoge system where you can pick what to say. From what ive played you just watch them talk and pick what to say every few mins. I kinda miss the first Mass Effect's style, 3 is more like Gears of War style of combat with biotic powers. They kept the Mass Effect 2 style so almost every thing is the same. Good but not awesome like Mass Effect 1 was.

I loved the first 2 Mass Effects. I downloaded Mass Effect 3, because I refuse to use Origin, played the first mission and half of the second and was bored completely. This is awful. Bioware is a sunken ship, and it's wreckage is impossible to salvage. If you want to play the Mass Effect series at it's best, play the first 2 and just imagine cool stuff happened in 3, instead of playing it.

>>4 Agreed. I was also a bit disappointed in the dialog system. They took all of the awesome RPG elements and burned them alive. Then shat out som form of, as you put it, Gears of War style of combat. I was a bit disappointed, but I'm glad to have played it nonetheless.

The endings are still terrible.

Yes, the gameplay is improved, but the Mass Effect series has also been characterized by the excellent story. And then this game came along and butchered the end. Hip-hip,hooray.

I was wondering how the Dollars would react to the horrific endings of Mass Effect 3. I'm a little bit surprised this hasn't picked up more traction, to be honest.

But anyway, I'm with everyone else that 99.9% of the game was absolutely amazing until the last ten minutes or so; I kind of deflated like a week old balloon being sat on by a laughing baby. Massive disappointment and it's stopped me from replaying the games because I know my choices have no impact.

Still, the combat was really smooth, the multiplayer was well executed (even if kind of arbitrary; a bit annoyed it affects your single player but it's not bad) and the story and characters were great as usual.

I heard of the indoctrination theory and finally realized what the endings meant. I was happy with the ending since. I loved the game and loved the experience. I played for 30 1/2 hours in 5 days. Tali for life!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E

Watch it.
So, which ending was your favorite? Mine was the blue one! *sarcasm*
But seriously, this ending was terrible. I played two games, waited years, made all of the decisions I wanted, and in the end it did NOTHING. (All of my rage)
So, the ending mirror Deus Ex, you choose the lighting color for the ending (that's the biggest difference) and somehow the two people I chose to come with me end up with Joker, abandoning me, to another planet. I went through a cutscene, and they abandoned me? How did they get across the galaxy in 5 minutes??? Really, this ending was everything bioware said it WASN'T going to be. Not to mention bioware promised a fulfilling ending, one that would have "wildly different conclusions", which it absolutely did not. Don't get me wrong, I still thought it was a good game, but was terribly disappointed at the end. If they release a $10 DLC that claims to "fix the ending" I may just throw my copy of the game out the window.

>>11 Sad to say I still haven't finished the game yet. But now I'm not sure I want to 0.o

I think I'm just going to stick with killing brain cells in multiplayer. Save myself some grief.

Gah! *>>10

Quickly before I forget again....
>>10 SPOILER ALERT(?)

I'm definitely in agreement that the ending was horrible, but even aside from the ending, I don't think that the game was as good as Mass Effect 2. They got rid of all of the loyalty missions, the citadel was the only non combat area, and overall it seemed like the campaign was shorter. I definitely am under the impression that BioWare rushed to get the game out and didn't spend the time that they should have on it.

Also, depending on your choices and decisions, you could end up with a very small selection of squad members. So my decisions mattered enough to only let me have 4 squad mates, thereby reducing the quality of my experience, but they didn't matter enough to significantly impact the ending? Bull crap.

I just finished my first run of ME3, and I kind of like the ending, except for the part where y*** ***ra*t*r **c**fic*** h**s**f a* t** **d. (sorry, spoilers)
That was kind of a let down, but it wasn't all that bad, when you look at it from an Epic Story point of view

whem Toonami aired on april fools day, TOM reviewed the game. he gave it an 8.5, describing the ending as "weak". what do you think.

Geez, you guys don't ever look for another thread like this? There is another ME 3 thread made before this one.

>>17 Geez, did you notice that this one is vastly superior with both a description and a picture? Learn how the boards work, then we'll talk.

well, for some reason i can not find the other thread, but all i remember was that there was more emphasis on changing the ending than anything. also, if there is another thread, but not too many people posting on it, a well made duplicate is preferred over the original, but if there are a ton of posts on it, then i think the original should be kept.

>>19 There was a thread created for Mass 3 a while ago(not the "Change the Ending" one, mind you) and it was one of those, "Hey guys do you like this game? Tell me!" threads with nothing about the actual game on it. After I created this one, the old one was saged(assuming I'm remembering correctly).

And the "Change the Ending" thread wasn't about the game either, just some butthurt fan wanting to do the impossible.

>>20 Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying this particular case a better duplicate was not needed, i was merely clarifying. 95% of the time, the better dupe will be embraced, but there is the rare occasion where a dupe is inconvenient, even if done well.

need help, im at the battle with the geth where at the final moments Shepard takes on a single Reaper and i have got it nearly destroyed but by the time the thing is right in front of me charging up to fire, i am seconds from locking on to it with the missile guider and then boom before i even fire im dead, HOW DO I AVOID THE FINAL SHOT?

>>22 The best advice I can give you is to time it better. I had the same problem the first time around, and that little split second means life or death. That, or circle strafe. Circle strafing always works.

I figured it out, see i assumed the blast was following me, the reaper fires directly at where you had been standing, one it fires you step to side and lock on in seconds. thanks for the advice >>23

bumping over crap

ok funny thing i figured out, if you are at a cut scene in which shepard's helmet will automaticly be removed, if you had the recon hood on your eye lashes will be an inch away from your face and you eyes will be over sized. its so weird.

Extended cut DLC here we go...

The Extended Cut is really good. I just finished it. I won't spoil anything though.

Spoilertastic time for the DLC! Just gonna copy paste from a Facebook rant/post I made.

SPOILERS for the new Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC!
You have been warned!

So I just finished playing through the final mission of ME3 with the new Extended Cut DLC endings and I decided to make some comments on it. So in ME2 and ME3 I decided to romance Tali Zorah (seeing as to how she is my favorite character/race) and I took her and Garrus with me on the final mission. IGN recommended that I play from attacking the Cerberus base to make sure I got everything out of the DLC, found out that the first new video that showed up for me was actually when Tali, Garrus and I were running down to the Conduit to head up to the Citadel.
The video actually made me tear up a little bit, with Shepard and Tali being torn away the way they were and Tali obviously not wanting to leave him despite being wounded (And as you know, a Quarrian with a suit puncture=slim chances of survival). I than proceeded to blow up the Reapers so that I could get best ending where Shepard lives.

I brought that video up for two reasons. 1.) It really moved me. 2.) It was the best video out of the DLC. The rest were mediocre at best.
The other videos, which were promised to have made the games ending more clear and our decisions more evident, were as they promised. To a degree. After the ending video, I was still left with almost all the same questions, the only two they answered was that yes, they could and would repair the Mass Relays and the Citadel and that the crew of the SR2 NORMANDY would get off that world they were stranded on. What about the other races? How did they rebuild, connect and get a long after that? Did they find Shepard? Etc.


Part of my annoyance was that in one of the videos, they show the worlds rebuilt/in a state of being rebuilt, however it's not so much a video as simply a painting or picture with some dust blowing in the backround, it's barely up to their standards either, looks like Fanart in some cases. This combined with the lack of answers made me come to think that this wasn't the ending I was expecting from the DLC and caused me to rage a bit against Bioware. But than I realized something.
How many other companies do you know, would be willing to listen to the opinions of the players and do something about it? Granted, it wasn't much, but it was something more than the others did.

All in all, I would give the DLC an O.K. rating. Not great, but not terribly bad either.

In my opinion however,if they had added a video of them finding Shepard and him returning with Tali to Rannoch I would have been quite a bit happier. I really wanted to see him build her a house like her promised...

Just finished my first extended cut playthrough. Not as good as I hoped, but not as bad as I feared. Without going into spoilers, I'll say that it left me feeling like it was a stupid ending, rather than feeling like setting EA execs on fire. So overall, a significant improvement, but nowhere near what it should have been.

I'm still never buying a game from EA again, but I am now willing to replay this one.

I thought the new endings were awesome. I liked the original endings too, they really didn't bug me like everyone and i've been playing Mass Effect since 2008. The order in which I liked them went like this(Warning: Spoilers for the Control Ending and Refusal Ending follow.):

1. Control - Because Shepard protecting the galaxy with the Reapers and using them to advance civilization and reconstruct the Citadel and Relays was just a badass way to go out. In this ending, he continued to be a hero after his apparent death.
2. Refusal - The fact that knowing the entire galaxies sacrifice was not in vain, and that the Reapers were ultimately destroyed in the next cycle, is one emotional way to end the series.
3. Synthesis
4. Destroy

I dont think you really need to download the EC cuz you can youtube them and it nothing will be too different besides the closure slideshow if you were to use your character

>>32 Glad to know that someone else other than me didn't hate the ending. :)