Mass Effect 3 Catch-All

Yeah, I don't like having multiplayer affect single-player so much, but maybe I should put aside my well entrenched misanthropy and give it a try.

I didn't play Arrival either, so starting the game in the detention ward on Earth was a bit of a WTF? moment. (Shephard is still a Citadel Spectre, isn't she? Can the Earth Alliance even do that?) Still, it was a minor thing and I was able to roll with it.

Side question, is James someone from said DLC? The game seems to act like I should know who he is but I have no clue.

I know they're going for an epic story, but at around 6 hours in I feel like I've had more cutscenes than gameplay. What is this, MGS?

OTOH, that opening sequence on Earth was amazing, cutscenes and all. Seeing Earth blown to crap is one of the more "Oh sh*t!" moments I've had in a game. And they introduced then killed a child character in the first 15 minutes. Yeah, this is gonna be a dark game.

The multiplayer actually isn't that bad as far as wave-based modes go, but I hope that someone finds a way to hack those readiness numbers, because it will suck if you want to play this game 3 years from now or something and you have to do every single side mission in all 3 games to get the best ending because there is nobody playing multiplayer.

Regarding the ME2 DLC, I think it's fair to say if you're going to put significant plot details that change the status of major characters, and it's outside of the 'core game content', you need to at least give a way to catch up those that don't have it. As I've said regarding From Ashes, charging extra for content that seems central to the core story, and you apparently assume everyone (or every 'true fan) will get, doesn't sit well with me.

They've already got a mechanism for this by the Codex, but I think it gets a bit lost in the notification spam you get sometimes. I agree that it's a bit separate by the nature of it being a text database in a game, but they would really benefit from finding a way to bring it into the game part better.

The other option would be to reduce the story scope of the game, or more specifically each game. I know ME is a trilogy and stories are going to continue through, but in an alternate universe I don't think ME would be too badly served by having the player be three separate characters in each game who may or may not need to relearn the backstory of every cog that plays a part in the overarching story.

Back on the animation: I really think they stumbled a bit on the polish aspect with ME3. It doesn't seem to be just a rare occurrence that there's a glitch, there's a good few immersion breaking problems. Personally it's not an ignorable problem that I could gloss over as "that's video games for you", and something I'd like to see them fix.

edit: Something else too - On my playthrough, I'm worried about accidentally 'critical pathing' it and getting a unsatisfying playthrough. I'm doing missions labeled "priority", because they're fairly obvious, and there's other side missions that sounded like they were time limited too. Is the other way you could read that, that "priority" is just 'primary plot mission' a better fit? I'm looking for the lightest of hints for what to look out for, are there obvious points of no return, etc, but not specifics of how the game works, at least not before I start figuring it out myself.

After reading all these replies i need some guidance. I finished me2 (and me1 for that matter) but played none of the dlcs. What should i do to understand wtf is goin on in me3? Just read all the new codex entries?

primer28 wrote:

After reading all these replies i need some guidance. I finished me2 (and me1 for that matter) but played none of the dlcs. What should i do to understand wtf is goin on in me3? Just read all the new codex entries?

Or the wiki.

There's really two DLCs that are important bridging ME2 to ME3, Arrival, and Lair of the Shadow Broker which deals with Liara.

kuddles wrote:

The multiplayer actually isn't that bad as far as wave-based modes go, but I hope that someone finds a way to hack those readiness numbers, because it will suck if you want to play this game 3 years from now or something and you have to do every single side mission in all 3 games to get the best ending because there is nobody playing multiplayer.

Giant Bomb reckon you can get the good ending without multiplayer.

Higgledy wrote:

Giant Bomb reckon you can get the good ending without multiplayer.

You can, but like I said, in order to get it, you must have done absolutely everything in all three games with the absolute best outcome to have a chance at doing that. There are people on other forums who said they did every single side mission in ME3 on a paragon level and gathered every asset they could find and are nowhere close to having 100% readiness.

I played a little bit of the multiplayer last night... What, exactly, does the multiplayer do for single player?

Found an amusing bug last night. Normally the monitors in Liara's room will track Shepard as she walks around. During dialog their logic got kind of screwed up and they started tracking Shepard's orientation. If I spun Shepard in a circle they would whirl all the way around too.

NSMike wrote:

I played a little bit of the multiplayer last night... What, exactly, does the multiplayer do for single player?

It increases the galactic readiness level which mostly just affects the ending.

liquid wrote:

As for the scanning of planets, you don't need to scan them manually like in ME2. Just hold the right mouse button long enough to see the white line, then rotate the planet a bit and click again until you find the dot. Doesn't take more than 5-10 seconds that way. As far as I know, there's no need to actively scan the whole planets in ME3, it's just one anomaly per planet. Right?

That's exactly what I did in ME2. But my point is that in ME3 you turn super slowly whether you are holding in the button or not.

And yeah, seems to be one per planet. You get a % on each system map, and another % for each sector when you're on the galactic map.

I will join up in the multiplayer action but I think I will do that either after I have finished the game or just before the final missions if I can't get the readiness high enough. I've played just a few games and it's already at 60%.

If only the MP had some chat options, since I don't use voice chat and turn that thing off immediately.

EDIT: For anyone that got the game from GMG, did you receive your Dragon Age Origins + DLC codes? My DLC code doesn't seem to be recognized by Origin. It has only 4 segments too, is this a mistake or is this how it's supposed to be?

Scratched wrote:
primer28 wrote:

After reading all these replies i need some guidance. I finished me2 (and me1 for that matter) but played none of the dlcs. What should i do to understand wtf is goin on in me3? Just read all the new codex entries?

Or the wiki.

There's really two DLCs that are important bridging ME2 to ME3, Arrival, and Lair of the Shadow Broker which deals with Liara.

I just finished reading up on Arrival on the wiki. Yeah, the beginning of the game makes a lot more sense now...

tanstaafl wrote:
Scratched wrote:
primer28 wrote:

After reading all these replies i need some guidance. I finished me2 (and me1 for that matter) but played none of the dlcs. What should i do to understand wtf is goin on in me3? Just read all the new codex entries?

Or the wiki.

There's really two DLCs that are important bridging ME2 to ME3, Arrival, and Lair of the Shadow Broker which deals with Liara.

I just finished reading up on Arrival on the wiki. Yeah, the beginning of the game makes a lot more sense now...

Noted. Thx i will do that

Thin_J wrote:

I had quite a few bugs pop up in ME2. My favorite was the one where I'd go into cover and then start levitating slowly toward the sky, unable to move once it started. Happened 10+ times easy in three plays of the game.

No issues so far in ME3.

Using shockwave and maybe throw a lot in ME2, and you'd knock enemies into geometry where you couldn't kill them. And when you couldn't kill them, you couldn't advance. So you'd have to restart from saves/checkpoints/missions.

Lars wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:
liquid wrote:

I'm torn on the multiplayer affecting ending part. I will try and do all the missions and quests anyway, but I do want the best ending I could get (like in ME2). This just discourages me from experimenting with options and just sticking to my paragon choices for the entire game. And MP making the SP easier? Ugh. The more I think about this synergy, the less I like it.

The coop is so fun, though. Join us. :)

This.

Play with some GWJers, and it's a very fun experience.

Would love to do some co-op. Have been doing random public groups so far. How are you all organizing? Mumble? Vent?

hbi2k wrote:

A thought: is this any different than needing to have watched Season 3 of Star Trek to know exactly what happened between Seasons 2 and 4?

Did anyone watch Return of the Jedi without having seen Empire Strikes Back and wonder, what the heck Lucas, now Han is in carbonite or something? When was this?

Or having to read the ME novels to know who the Raiden character is that Kamikaze referenced above.

Heretk wrote:

Would love to do some co-op. Have been doing random public groups so far. How are you all organizing? Mumble? Vent?

Steam group, in the multiplayer thread. Or just massive friending of each other on Origin.

The good thing about Origin is that it shows a little extra icon when someone is in coop ME3, not just single player. So you can see people are in a game from just looking.

hbi2k wrote:

A thought: is this any different than needing to have watched Season 3 of Star Trek to know exactly what happened between Seasons 2 and 4?

Did anyone watch Return of the Jedi without having seen Empire Strikes Back and wonder, what the heck Lucas, now Han is in carbonite or something? When was this?

Because I missed it the first time I skimmed to catch up the thread.

All of those, including ME are serials, DLC and the novels exist outside of those series, it's not as though that story content was retrofitted into the core game by a patch.

As I see it, a series is like a road, going from A to B, beginning to end. DLC is like a diversion, going sight seeing to have a better trip. Putting core story content into DLC and then expecting you to know it is like driving along that road and blacking out for a few minutes.

To offer an alternative options, consider Matriarch Benezia in ME1, you were given a good amount of background before you meet her, but I'd say it's not impossible for her to have a past. Also Saren/Anderson who have a past which was told in a novel outside the game, which is recollected by Anderson in-game if you ask him about it so you can get as much detail as you need for ME1 to make sense.

With Arrival (and other DLC) you've got content that applies to the core of the story they're trying to tell, but chopping it out. Something like Overlord on the other hand is truly a side-story that expands the fiction of the world, but you're not poorer for missing it.

Updates: My aim gets weird when I'm in particular kinds of cover. Could be my mouse, ME3, or the interaction between the two. Tbh, my mouse's more of a desktop rather than a gaming one. Maybe I should get an Orochi?

Updates: I have now maxxed the green bar that represents mission success, at 50% galactic readiness (no MP whatsoever), and I have not exhausted my sources of more points to pile on. This is on a Paragon Shepard that made all the usual "Paragon" choices in both ME1 and ME2. I saved a lot of guys in ME2 in anticipation of their being useful to me when the Reapers finally came knocking. ME3 gives you a chance to recruit the guys you saved, and it even gives you explicit convo options to reflect that the Shepard you control was probably thinking along the same lines when you "saved" people - it's to use them for the war, not out of some spiritual altruism.

"No, dammit! There will be no killing here. She is a war asset!"

Of course, not worded or presented that way, and "she" could be any of minor or major decision points made in ME1 or ME2. I feel I'm near the end so I'll be migrating to the spoiler thread soon, methinks.

There's a LOT of game here, and all of it is interesting. Even the scanning is actually interesting, amazingly enough. There's so much game in this game that you could just hock half of it out the window (either action or story modes) and you'd still have a ton of game.

I confess that I'm interested in seeing how the "canon" story plays out - you can find out by playing "action mode," where you're essentially playing a JRPG as opposed to a shooter married to a Dating Sim.

LarryC wrote:

Updates: My aim gets weird when I'm in particular kinds of cover. Could be my mouse, ME3, or the interaction between the two. Tbh, my mouse's more of a desktop rather than a gaming one. Maybe I should get an Orochi?

I find myself occasionally ending up with bad camera angles, or aiming straight into a wall.

Scratched wrote:
LarryC wrote:

Updates: My aim gets weird when I'm in particular kinds of cover. Could be my mouse, ME3, or the interaction between the two. Tbh, my mouse's more of a desktop rather than a gaming one. Maybe I should get an Orochi?

I find myself occasionally ending up with bad camera angles, or aiming straight into a wall.

Yeah, but that wall was a bastard. It totally had it coming.

kuddles wrote:
Higgledy wrote:

Giant Bomb reckon you can get the good ending without multiplayer.

You can, but like I said, in order to get it, you must have done absolutely everything in all three games with the absolute best outcome to have a chance at doing that. There are people on other forums who said they did every single side mission in ME3 on a paragon level and gathered every asset they could find and are nowhere close to having 100% readiness.

Readiness isn't the important measurement though. The green bar has to be full to get the ideal fleet solution at the end of the game. The readiness is the multiplier associated with your score. For instance, if I have a score of 1000 and a galactic readiness of 85%, my actual score is 850. If the maximum score is 800, I have a surplus of 50, so it doesn't really matter.

You don't have to play perfectly; only enough to get that bar to the top.

Scratched wrote:
LarryC wrote:

Updates: My aim gets weird when I'm in particular kinds of cover. Could be my mouse, ME3, or the interaction between the two. Tbh, my mouse's more of a desktop rather than a gaming one. Maybe I should get an Orochi?

I find myself occasionally ending up with bad camera angles, or aiming straight into a wall.

I have had similar issues on the PS3.

I like how your aim gets better when you are in cover. Some of the guns are well nigh uncontrollable until you are in cover at which point they are killing machines.

Does anybody else use the pistol 95% of the time? I am playing as a soldier and the only time I use something else is when I run out of ammo.

Kamakazi010654 wrote:

Does anybody else use the pistol 95% of the time? I am playing as a soldier and the only time I use something else is when I run out of ammo.

Nope! I'm a Vanguard and it's all shotty all the time. This is probably the most satisfying iteration of the Vanguard yet. The combo of Biotic Charge and Nova has you pin-balling around the battlefield, flanking entrenched enemies, and generally wrecking sh*t with a pump action. So goddamn much fun!

The ability to recharge your shields fully with a Biotic Charge means that when the situation gets tight it actually benefits you to advance on the enemy rather than retreat. I'll make the Krogan proud.

Which pistol? I found the pistols lacking in stopping power and kind of hard to use in close quarters. I almost never carry one. My loadout as a Soldier is a heavy AR and a heavy Sniper Rifle, with a light-modded SMG to use for low-priority targets. My current faves are the Indra for SR, the Geth Pulse Rifle, and the Hornet.

Is the "reset powers" for Shepherd and the squad members that's available for free in the med bay of the Normandy just a straight up respec option that just lets you respend your points?? Is it one time only, or a thing you can repeat over and over?

MannishBoy wrote:

Is the "reset powers" for Shepherd and the squad members that's available for free in the med bay of the Normandy just a straight up respec option that just lets you respend your points?? Is it one time only, or a thing you can repeat over and over?

First hit is free, gonna cost you after that.

MojoBox wrote:
MannishBoy wrote:

Is the "reset powers" for Shepherd and the squad members that's available for free in the med bay of the Normandy just a straight up respec option that just lets you respend your points?? Is it one time only, or a thing you can repeat over and over?

First hit is free, gonna cost you after that.

Is it expensive? I'm sure late in the game a character doing side missions will be loaded to where it doesn't matter.

LarryC wrote:

My loadout as a Soldier

*record scratch*

The more customisable skill lines do add a bit though.