Mass Effect 3 Catch-All

Whew, well - unlocked finally for us olde-worlders (after some fudging around with the files because Origin has some problems finding the Gamersgate version, apparently).

Love what I've seen so far, but going to dive in properly after work.

stevenmack wrote:

Whew, well - unlocked finally for us olde-worlders (after some fudging around with the files because Origin has some problems finding the Gamersgate version, apparently).

Love what I've seen so far, but going to dive in properly after work.

A flock of carrier pigeons carrying copies of ME3 from the US flow over my house this morning. A beautiful sight.

SpacePPoliceman wrote:
complexmath wrote:

I can see players who finished ME2 being confused though: "I did what now? When was this?" With ME2, the opening of the game was basically a playable prologue to fill the gap between ME1 and ME2. It would be nice to see somewhat of the same treatment with this.

I can, too, but that confusion shouldn't last long--it should, in fact, be the very next thought: "I did what now? When was this? Must have been after 2, but before now." The only playable prologue I'm aware of is the interactive comic that came with the PS3 version, and that was only good because it let me save Wrex, I'd hardly want it here.

I think he's talking about the beginning of ME2 where you get killed. One of the best game openings of all time. Unlike ME3, where the dude from Gear of War shows up and tells you to go to a meeting.

Here's a link to the ending of Arrival clears some things up I guess. Unfortunately you have to deal with the stilted voice acting of Mr. Manshep.

Just FYI, here's what the wiki says about Arrival.

A deep cover agent is missing in Batarian space, after reporting evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Shepard must travel to the edge of the galaxy, rescue the agent, and discover the truth behind the Arrival. Uncover new research and 3 new achievements in this spectacular new adventure for Mass Effect 2.
Higgledy wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

Whew, well - unlocked finally for us olde-worlders (after some fudging around with the files because Origin has some problems finding the Gamersgate version, apparently).

Love what I've seen so far, but going to dive in properly after work.

A flock of carrier pigeons carrying copies of ME3 from the US flow over my house this morning. A beautiful sight.

I don't know if it's the 2:45AM talking but I lol'd.

kuddles:

Your information is wrong. Firstly, I haven't finished the game yet and my raw score is already 6750, and I made bad choices that reduced that from the maximum it ought to be. My fleet bar is quite full up and has been for some time. In fact, I've been ignoring side missions since it maxxed.

LarryC wrote:

Your information is wrong. Firstly, I haven't finished the game yet and my raw score is already 6750, and I made bad choices that reduced that from the maximum it ought to be. My fleet bar is quite full up and has been for some time. In fact, I've been ignoring side missions since it maxxed.

That "raw score" is going to be cut in half at the end if you have a 50% galactic readiness rate. My information is not wrong as there are multiple threads on the BioWare forums confirming that getting the absolute "perfect" ending is impossible without multiplayer. People have already taken apart the coalesced.bin file on the PC version to figure out that there simply aren't enough war assets to do it.

Yep. If the readiness bar is full (which is more than possible without MP), you get the best ending.

Source: I dun it.

kuddles:

The score is already cut in half, it displays continuously on the WarTerminal. My green bar is maxxed, and it's half of what it should be. If I had something like 60% readiness, I would need less than 6750 to fill the green bar.

Your information is wrong. Don't take the Bioware forums as gospel; I signed on there and there's a ridiculous amount of misinformation circulating around the users there, especially in early days. I spend no small amount of time dispelling myths in those parts. During the ME2 cycle, it mainly centered around dispelling myths that Adept and Vanguard were unplayable on Insanity.

I'm going to make this as clear as possible: If you fill the readiness bar to the end, you get a "good" ending, provided you make the right choices. That is around 2800, an easily feasible score without multiplayer. But to get the absolute complete and ultimate ending, you need twice that amount.

kuddles:

Clear enough. I'm okay with that. It's a compromise.

kuddles wrote:

I'm going to make this as clear as possible: If you fill the readiness bar to the end, you get a "good" ending, provided you make the right choices. That is around 2800, an easily feasible score without multiplayer. But to get the absolute complete and ultimate ending, you need twice that amount.

I see you mentioned confirmation, but has anyone actually seen this?

kuddles wrote:

I'm going to make this as clear as possible: If you fill the readiness bar to the end, you get a "good" ending, provided you make the right choices. That is around 2800, an easily feasible score without multiplayer. But to get the absolute complete and ultimate ending, you need twice that amount.

Interesting, seeing how BioWare have confirmed you can get the best ending without touching MP once.

What we also know is that it requires way more effort and smart decisions in the previous games. But people complaining about how no one in the galaxy will help Shepard and humanity (thus no War Assets) after killing of the Rachni, Wrex, their entire ME2 squad or destroying the heretic Geth and the Genophage cure should maybe reconsider what a role-playing game is supposed to be.

I am looking forwards to the point when I can talk about the endings. :\

Thinking generally about after the trilogy and the MMO rumours, it seems to me like they've got a good universe for it, but the game that would originate the MMO would scupper it because of how the political situation can be quite flexible. To have a shared world, you would need some 'middle' solution to everything that works with the events of the trilogy and all the permutations of how they play out.

I'd be interested to see what a fully explorable Citadel would be like though, instead of a handful of disjointed areas..

Holy crap. I just got a 60% off coupon from EA for my first game in Origin. I wasn't going to buy ME3 until the price dropped but now, $24 ME3!

Slacker1913 wrote:

So... anybody else spent too much time listening to "Blasto 6" audio drama?

No such thing as "too much" Blasto.

Huh, I really do miss the film grain filter. It annoyed me when I first started playing ME1, but I guess over time it grew on me like a warm, fuzzy stocking pulled over my head...

Gah! Bug. Trying to go to Eden Prime, but all I here is the ambient background noise. No dialogue at all even though their lips are moving. And before I alt-tabbed out (the game locked once I got on the ground) the graphics were very very dark.

Had a "dark" bug with one of Liara's appearance options as well.

Boo!

I disabled the ME1 grain filter as it was a distracting static overlay, but the ME2 one was much more subtle.

Another thing that annoys me, I'm not sure if it's a bug or not, is that sometimes (particularly exploring the citadel) it takes a few presses to bring up the map.

Is it okay to talk about gameplay for a while? I played Soldier first because I had a feeling that it would be the most boring playthrough, so I did it first so the story would sustain my interest well past the gameplay.

I'm happy to report that this hasn't happened - the borefest, I mean. The AI portions of the game this time around is really, really good. The way the powers and the guns are designed also offer interesting developments.

For instance, the ammo powers no longer take cooldown away from your meter, so you can always, always switch ammo at the cost of a few seconds of activity. Moreover, the ammo powers this time around offer a lot more in terms of return, and are more distinguished from each other in terms of properties and how the game feeds enemies into them. For instance, in ME2, you only ever want Disruptor Ammo for geth. Not this time. Many geth enemies will not have Shields, and they will panic from Inciendary Ammo just like organics. It violated lore a little, but it does make ammo play more interesting since you don't just turn on disruptor ammo and call it a day.

Moreover, both squad AI behavior and enemy AI behavior are improved; they also feed into the much-improved map design. I can't help but feel that the MP team had a hand in this. The way the maps are designed in ME3 feel very MP-centric, and I mean that in a good way. There are interesting twists and turns and a lot of little tactical details in the various map portions. The aesthetic design and cover locations look organic and have varied properties (thickness for one). It's a far, far, far cry from ME2's GoW-centric "scattered crates" philosophy to map design.

What's the upshot? I CAN FLANK! Yes, I mean to shout that to the highest heavens. It's awesome. I used to play semi-competitive CS back in the day, and this is the very first SP map design and AI that recalls that experience. When I tell Garrus to secure a position, he holds it and he holds down designated enemies with suppressive fire. With the map allowing me access to flank options, I can then move around the enemy position to hit them from behind, usually with devastating results. It is awesomesauce with cherries on top. I was never this satisfied with Soldier play in ME2.

LarryC wrote:

Moreover, both squad AI behavior and enemy AI behavior are improved; they also feed into the much-improved map design. I can't help but feel that the MP team had a hand in this. The way the maps are designed in ME3 feel very MP-centric, and I mean that in a good way. There are interesting twists and turns and a lot of little tactical details in the various map portions. The aesthetic design and cover locations look organic and have varied properties (thickness for one). It's a far, far, far cry from ME2's GoW-centric "scattered crates" philosophy to map design.

Fully agree with this. I replayed the first N7 mission this morning with my Vanguard (forgot to pick up the sniper rifle mod) and was slightly miffed after I finally beat it. The combination of close quarters and enemies spawning literally behind me (of course always Guardians or Centurions) made for a lot of frustration. Since this is also a MP map, I know that I struggle on this one the most. I imagine this particular one will be a cakewalk for an Engineer or Sentinel. It sure feels like a lot of consideration went into the map design.

This sucks. Can't get any sound and the graphics are horrible (lots of black, so I can't see where I'm going) on the From Ashes DLC. And I don't have a save that is close...maybe 3 hours of play time before.

Did anyone else have any glitches with the From Ashes part (which takes place on Eden Prime, right)?

mwdowns wrote:

This sucks. Can't get any sound and the graphics are horrible (lots of black, so I can't see where I'm going) on the From Ashes DLC. And I don't have a save that is close...maybe 3 hours of play time before.

Did anyone else have any glitches with the From Ashes part (which takes place on Eden Prime, right)?

Here's a bug I encountered and how I solved it.

Spoiler:

There are two terminals you need to access before you can open the pod. If your game repeatedly crashes accessing one of them, try the other one first, then come back.

LobsterMobster wrote:
Slacker1913 wrote:

So... anybody else spent too much time listening to "Blasto 6" audio drama?

No such thing as "too much" Blasto.

I freely admit that I listened to the whole thing. As happy as I was that ME2 included clips of Elcor Hamlet, it was cruel of them to tease us with the concept of Blasto but then not let us hear it. Now, all is right in the world and the only way it could be righter is if they produced video for it as well.

Dear Bioware,

Thank you so much for implementing a quick save feature on the console version of this game.

Sincerely,

nel

P.S. - thanks also for customizing the codex entries according to my choices in the previous 2 games.

I get weird audio problem where the voice acting doesn't play for the end of sentences. The quest log is pretty terrible. Leveling up isn't as fun as in other RPGs, there's been a bunch of times where I haven't noticed. I like a big celebration when my numbers improve!

Combat has hit a sweet spot for me. When I tried to play an Infiltrator as I did in ME2 I died a lot. With improved AI (squad and enemy) and maps that aren't corridors, I have to actually infiltrate. Use my stealth to run around the battlefield and pick off dangerous targets with a well-timed headshot before moving to new cover. The last two missions were probably the best combat experiences I've had in any of the Mass Effect games.

I've noticed the occasional voice anomaly, I'm not sure if it's a code bug, or whether the scene isn't put together correctly and the engine is just doing what it's told (i.e. there's a big gap in the scene).

As for levelling, at least on my current playthrough with an imported character, I think that they start you at 30 takes away a bit. It's a trade-off really, either you have a head start, against appropriate enemies because you know what you're doing, just getting down to business, or you start from zilch and have to build up your supposed veteran of two games (again).

I guess they could have given you a choice, although I assume downleveling by editing a ME2 save might work. One of the big things about RPGs is developing your character and that increase in power as you progress, so I think they do lose something by boosting you. My sentry/drone tear stuff up, but I never got to see them grow.

I was not able to import my character over. I seem to have tried everything on the boards at Bioware. I think I'll just roll a new character and I assume I can pick decisions.

I had one crash/bug on an N7 Cerberus mission. I did a manual save right after the auto-save, but apparently there were already enemies on the map. After dying and reloading my personal save, the game CTD. So then I started the game back up, hit resume, loading that same save, and the map had no enemies on it. Goal of course was to secure the area or something, which I couldn't do with no enemies to kill. Then I reloaded the game's auto-save for the start of the mission, and everything went fine.

Only other bug I had was an invisible Garrus in a cutscene last night. Camera panned over to him and his voice came through loud and clear but there was no Garrus in sight.

I noticed folks mentioned there were more missions that have expiration timers... Does anyone know of a list of these, so I don't mistakenly sit on one too long?

NSMike wrote:

I noticed folks mentioned there were more missions that have expiration timers... Does anyone know of a list of these, so I don't mistakenly sit on one too long?

Pretty much all of the collection missions you get on the Citadel early... if you don't turn them in before one of the priority missions, that will trigger a different priority mission on the Citadel, and you can't turn them in.

Maybe the Cerberus-focused N7 side missions as well? I'm not sure though, as I have went ahead and done those before they had a chance to disappear.

Hopefully the wiki or a FAQ on gamefaqs will get updated as people figure out the full list.