Costco

Sorry, figured it was short enough. Though these are spoilers too depending on which decision you took and which one you plan to make the next time.

I didn't betray him but I watched on Youtube what happened if you did. That was awful. I don't know how anyone, no matter how renegade could be that much of an asshole.

Also, if you end up sabotaging the cure, Wrex finds out later. Since I knew I would never be able to make those decisions, I went ahead and watched what with Wrex later on. feels bad man.

Lightus

Yeah I went back after and watched all the sad stuff after I beat the game. I knew I wouldn't make those decisions as well. There are a lot of other messed up ones!

Costco

god damn this game. the writers are too good.

After the mission on Rannoch (spoilers ensue).... I never thought I could feel bad for a robot. Legion, NOOOOO!!!! Also a good touch that I almost missed was how Legion eventually referred to itself as "I" and not "we" right before sacrificing himself. man.

At first I was really mad to find that despite my efforts in ME2, the quarians still went to war with the geth. But everything went better than expected. Also, the cutscenes where the Geth Primes came to life had me generally worried.

finally, the two moments where you take down a Reaper in my playthrough so far.... wowza. I know they were smaller than Sovereign but still, a crazy thing to even imagine.

I am in awe of this game. Still haven't gotten to deal with Kai Leng yet. Can't wait. The last time I got so into the story of a game like this was Halo. Both were similar in the regards that they seemed to get better and better... at least until I stopped playing (Halo 3 was my last)

Lightus

It really is a great game. That's why it becomes annoying when people allow the ending to overshadow the rest of the game.

It sounds like you picked the right choices when doing that mission. It could have good pretty sour if you didn't. Spoilerish: I really liked the layout of that mission. Being "inside" the Geth consensus was very different from the rest of the game, yet still didn't feel out of place. It reminded me a lot of Overlord. The part when you are in the Geth ship and had to take cover to avoid the blowback was cool too. It (obviously) reminded me of Shadowbroker. Interesting how they reused some of that stuff, yet still managed to make it feel unique.

I'm 16.5 hours into my new play through of Mass Effect 1. Man, it's amazing how much you forget in a year! The inventory system is even worse than I remember. It's a skill on it's own just to not reach the 150 item limit. I also forgot that each power has it's own recharge time. Each recharge time is a bit long, but it evens out since you have like 6 powers (with adept at least).

I still like Vanguard way more, but Adept is pretty cool. Since you can use your abilities on anyone, regardless of shields etc you feel like a God once you get high enough level. It took me a bit to get the tactics down though, I'm used to doing all the work myself and just having my squad come along for the ride. Can't really do that with Adept.

I only have half my renegade bar filled up so far, I hope I get enough to make all the right decisions. I would chose the renegade option more, but a lot of them just sound arrogant or straight up dumb. I'm pretty level headed, so I guess showing a quick temper feels more awkward for me than most.

I just want to finish already so that I can get to ME2. Out of all the games, I played that one the least (mostly because I used to start a lot of new play throughs and quit half way into ME1 ).

Costco

I think the best part of ME1 was the Mako. The controls are so polished and it really is a lot of fun driving that thing over vast expanses of nothingness.












obviously, my friend pretty much stopped playing cause of the Mako missions. I'm tempted to go through and start ME1 again too... this time with a new male Shep, no checking the internet for the "right" decision, etc. whatever I do, fuggit.

I hate, hate, hated the inventory system in ME1. From what I remember biotics were pretty OP, meanwhile in ME2 defenses were too much. We've said this before but the ME3 combat system is really nice I think.

would be interesting to play mostly renegade... seems like a lot of the decisions are quite dickish. You end up losing a lot of main characters that are with you til the end (it seems).

I'm not a big RPG person... I do enjoy them but I stick mostly to shooters and racing games. I'm beating a dead horse at this point but there are so many things that this game just does right. Helps a lot with the immersion factor... like catching up/getting to know your crew better on the Citadel.

Lightus

I played a ton of MP last weekend. I leveled up a few classes pretty high and unlocked quite a few characters. I unlocked a Turian soldier and made him a sniper. He's so good.

Over a thousand points of shield and I have the Widow. Guardians/turrets are nothing now. I normally just sit back and take out key targets. It doesn't earn you as many points but it's crucial to surviving rounds (plus it's a lot of fun). The play style is pretty much the exact opposite of Vanguards.

Vanguards can kill normal enemies very easily (and quickly) but as soon as an Atlus or turret pops up you're dead. This sniper can take out lighter targets easily, but the reload time makes it in effective. Taking out Phantoms/turrets/Nemesis' are all relatively easy compared to Vanguards.

Multiplayer is great, I love how you build your character based upon a certain play style. It adds a lot of depth. I just hope they release some new maps, these are beginning to get old.

Costco

I hear ya, finally unlocked a quarian infiltrator and a widow, shit's beast.

Human sentinel is badass too. Spend most of my time with tech armor disabled, equipped with just a lightweight pistol.... set up warp + throw bombs and mop up with the pistol.

I just unlocked a krogan sentinel, I think I may try it. I played a couple of games (bronze though) where some guy just ran around with tech armor meleeing the shit out of everything. He'd even melee brutes. Like a boss.

Costco

I'm about to finish the game, I think. I'm on the final mission, where you assault the Cerberus base. Just have to get up to 100% readiness in multiplayer then I can see what the hype/hate is about this ending. I'll try and keep in mind the good times I've had the past half decade with this game and try not to let that ruin the game for me.

Costco

^lol, that wasn't the final mission... derp. dunno what I was thinking there.

About Kai Leng. The second time you actually fight him.

fuck that guy. jeez that fight was annoying. I don't know if I'd be able to finish that fight if I weren't a vanguard. Took me a few tries to get to the last part of the fight, but once I got there, a few more tries and I got it. Key is to destroy the spawned enemies ASAP...

I think the only fight that frustrated me more so far was the Harvester on Tuchanka. Maybe I was doing it wrong but it owned me almost where ever I went, and if I camped out the mobs would overwhelm me. Kai Leng by comparison was a lot more linear. On Thessia he was actually a semi-easy fight. Seeing him get owned was awesome though.

Time to save Earth.../end spoilers

Costco

quadruple post!

I beat the game after a gross marathon of playing. I'm not sure what exactly to say. All the good memories I've had playing this game came to me as the credits rolled by. I chose the middle ending.

Spoiler alert for those who know about the other endings: [click]

Costco

ok last post for now I swear. It's like I'm talking to myself

really useful trick for widow and claymore users.... on PC. Since it seems like at least with my Widow I some mobs don't go down in one headshot, even with the cloak damage bonus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bWQb...ature=youtu.be

I tried it and it works. Good for mopping up some of the weaker enemies, though it doesn't quite line up with my cloak cooldown

Lightus

I thought that was the last mission too, don't worry.

I felt Kai Leng and the Harvester were really easy. In fact, I kept getting annoyed when it wouldn't let me keep fighting him on Thessia because I was clearly dominating.

I always go for the weaker enemies first in boss battles and I was only playing on Veteran, so that may have something to do with it.

I didn't really know how to feel after I beat it either. By the way, Bioware said the extended ending should be out in summer. So far away!

TSXy Luster

Got the Perfect Red ending on my first run. Damn that was good.

I'm now sad to have finished this great trilogy.

I don't have a problem with how BioWare decided to finish it off. People complaining are the typical people who wants their own perfect version of the end, which would always lead to Hollywood endings and then they would still complain about that.

Lightus, I don't think there is anything else going on (ala fan's theory) because if there was, BioWare would've made it explicitly so. And I give BioWare a big high five for not bowing down to complainer's pressure and sticking to their guns. I think the Extended Cut DLC (free btw) coming out will just lengthen the ending to explain some stuff more but not to change the whole ending completely. I do wish they at least tell us what happened to Harbinger though....

Interesting how the both of you chose the middle ending...... I thought about it, but then Anderson's vision made me stay the path that Shepard started all along.

Costco

I'm torn between the green and red ending. For some reason I can't bring myself to go with the blue one. Though the thought of controlling the Reapers and making them rebuild the mass relays sounded plausible and tempting though.

Legion is one of my favorite characters in the entire trilogy. I couldn't bring myself to exterminate his entire race, especially after they'd become sentient, not to mention the numerous improvements they gave to quarian life. Plus I'd saved the rachni queen from certain extinction in the first game as well as ensured the continuation of the krogans, and saved both the geth and quarians so it didn't add up for me to go with the red ending.


massive spoilers concerning the ending:

But going with the indoctrination theory it seems like the Starchild could have been all just a hallucination during the conversation with the illusive man. The whole muddy/headache sequence made it seem like Shepard was being influenced. In this case the Reapers didn't want to be destroyed so of course they'd BS about the red ending.

/spoilers

Costco

multiplayer related, I'm pretty sure the human engineer's combat drone is bugged. It seems like half of the time a banshee or brute will just stand there looking at it, literally doing nothing else. made me the first few times I realized what was going on.

all of the classes feel fun to play. Soldier is the most basic as on my krogan and turian I avoid inferno grenades and concussive shot respectively, so it's really point and shoot.



and as far as the single player goes, ME2 was probably my favorite game overall. The story was solid, polished, and there were a lot of amusing parts. Even casual banter from NPCs was funny.

SRK85

I thought ME3 was way to short for the final game. I mean only 28 hours and I beat the game? I enjoyed it but ME2 was definitely the best in the trilogy.

Costco

Salarian infiltrator with claymore = stupid fun

nothing like going toe to toe with a phantom and blowing their flipping brains out. The proximity mine debuff lets me basically one shot ravagers and I can kill brutes in 2-3 shots on silver. I use this build:

http://me3multiplayer.com/category/m...n-infiltrator/

if only I had a higher rank Claymore...

Costco

Multi-player is beginning to frustrate me. I notice the host has a lot of impact on how smoothly the game goes. So I try to create a game, make everything random but make it a silver challenge. Takes like 5 minutes to get people to join in, and even then sometimes its a bunch of low level people.

TSXy Luster

on xbox? if so, what's your GT? I'll help you out.

Multi is fun with competent people. I've yet to beat wave 7 of Gold even with awesome people....just need some luck.

Lightus

I think Costco plays PC.

I'm playing Xbox if you wanna play some time. My GT is: lightus.

I don't have a mic though because the mic piece snapped off. I could hear what you are saying though.

TSXy Luster

Done.

Though I suspect this weekend I'll be playing the Ghost Recon: Future Soldier beta.

Lightus

Ugh, people keep kicking me from games whenever I play as my Adept. Normally I play crowd control with him. Just sit in the back and Singularity/warp combo everyone. This normally ends up putting me well in the lead point wise. I can see how that can get annoying as I'm taking all the kills, but how else do you play as Adept?

I guess I'll start playing more silver and gold matches to even the playing field a bit.

Costco

My friend got butthurt playing bronze because a Vanguard kept stealing his kills meanwhile he gets all excited when he steals someone else's kills

People don't understand that it's a co-op game. I'd rather finish last and contribute to our success rather than get the most points by a long-shot and end up failing on wave 6. I've blatantly held off on killing an enemy that was being attacked by someone else because I see people quitting when I get the kill.

Lightus

Yeah, I don't even notice when people take my kill (unless I'm a sniper). It's a team game, it doesn't matter.

A lot of the time when I'm playing sniper I'll only hit the key targets. I don't get many points but it helps out the team a lot overall.

P.S. - That geth plasma smg is crazy. I'd almost say it's overpowered, but it does nothing to armor. I have it equipped for about every character.

Costco

Found a few good guys to play with.... grouped up with them. We were doing really well on silver, so we moved onto Gold. Surprisingly made it to wave 10 against Cerberus, but we all spent most if not all of our rocket launchers and some medi-gels. Same thing happened against Geth the next round, except we narrowly won that time.

That Geth healing turret a teammate had saved our collective asses so many times. I think phantoms are by far the worst enemy between the geth and cerberus.... they're unavoidable up close and their stupid palm-beams make sure you can't get away.

I'd think banshees with ravagers behind them with the reapers would be just as bad.... I'll find out soon.




I died a lot by the end of the successful gold game it looked like we each got the 10 revives medal.

Costco

Geth SMG is indeed beast. Put it on my gethgineer and he tore up shields and health like mad.

TSXy Luster

Got my Ghost Recon: Future Soldier closed beta multiplayer code

and 3 more........ so if anyone on 360 wants to squad up and don't have a code, let me know.

Lightus

I just finished talking to Vigil on Ilos and I just realized a few things that I had previously forgotten.

Spoilers:

1. That the Protheans created a prototype mass relay of their own. It wouldn't be too far fetched to say that in the aftermath of Mass Effect 3, the races could unite to relatively quickly build their own as well.

2. This one is far fetched. That a few of the top Prothean scientists made it to the Citadel after the extermination. Is it possible that they actually survived and somehow created the technology for the three endings? It doesn't explain Godchild at all, but still interesting to think about.

3. This one is also far fetched. That we still no basically nothing about the Keepers. It is assumed that they were one of the first harvested by the Reapers and that they evolved over time to only respond to the Citadel signals. Is it possible, however, that they themselves created the Reapers and purposefully ignore organic life? They could have been the "mastermind" behind the whole cycle and changed their mind about it. Thus they created the three endings. Godchilld (lets assume he is a hologram) was created in order to communicate directly with organics as they may not have the ability to do so physically.


Again, these ideas aren't well founded or anything. I just thought them up and figured I'd throw them out there. From what I can tell, Bioware is sticking with the current ending and they would have left it to that if not for outrage. The follow up they are giving us in the Summer is being made because their hands are forced, so if they were to change it, it wasn't their idea (originally at least). But hey, it's still fun to speculate.

TSXy Luster

My thoughts on your thoughts:

1. Possible
2. No. It's origin was explained by "GC".
3. No. It was explained in the first game about who they are and how they came to be.

Bioware already said the new DLC won't change the ending. It'll just be an epilogue of sorts and probably just a longer cinematic ending.

Costco

The first theory sounds possible. But the Protheans were advanced even beyond any current race's level of technology. What I'm also curious about is what happens to colonies and systems that have been nearly mined out of resources and thus rely on neighboring systems through mass relays?

I'm having a ton of fun in multiplayer though. Joined a match with krogan vanguards (I was the lone krogan sentinel) and nearly every kill was from melee. When an atlas spawned we all went up and headbutted the crap out of it.

Also played in a match with a bunch of engineers... everything went down sooo fast for the first few waves. Chain overloads everywhere.

TSXy Luster

Finally! A weekend of gold madness!!

Lightus

I still haven't completed a gold match.


I've found a new favorite Character. I love the Asari Justicar. She's an excellent team player and can stand up for herself rather well.

Currently I have full Reave, Biotic Sphere, and Fitness. I have my biotic sphere to add 20% damage protection within sphere, 30% sphere radius, 25% damage taken to enemies within sphere and warp applied to 3 enemies that have entered the sphere. It is insane when you are playing with other biotics. I'll run straight into a mass of enemies, sphere them and let my team let loose the biotics. It turns into a giant biotic explosion frenzy. This is especially effective against heavy enemies.

In between the spheres just reave everyone in sight. It whittles away at their health and you get some extra damage protection.

TSXy Luster

don't go full justicar and put those points into lvl 3 pull to combine with reave for biotic explosions. effective when you run out of ammo or just long range.

Yumcha

Okay...so...like...I never played any of the ME games. I'm guessing from the reaction and reviews in here, I should...?

Yumcha

Do I need to play from Part 1 or can I pick it up easily with Part 3?

Lightus

I may do that. Long range would be useful but I use my Justicar as a close range combatant. It depends on what the last two Justicar levels do. I remember one boosts power damage, but I forgot the other one.

I just promoted my Adept class so I'll keep that in mind when I'm upgrading!

BTW: here is a good thread on biotic/tech combos.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to.../index/9629730

I would copy/paste but it's a bit long.

One thing I found interesting is that the Biotic Explosion damage only relies on the rank of the set up power and the detonation power, not the actual power damage.

TSXy Luster

You technically don't have to, but the feeling won't be the same. If you don't want to play all 3, I'd recommend to at least play #2 with all the DLCs and then #3.


Lightus, if you want help for Gold this weekend, I can contribute some.

Costco

Yumcha, the Mass Effect trilogy is one of my favorite fictional universes out there. If you're not so story driven I would just get the third game. He has a short attention span when it comes to reading so he skips over dialog or doesn't really pay attention to it. Also he couldn't get past the clunky vehicle controls and the open world exploration feel in the first game.... but he got the game after playing on my account several times.

It is a good game and the learning curve isn't so bad. But if you want to learn the intricacies of the game, it is slightly complicated but not necessary or overwhelming.

If you want a team-oriented shooter/RPG that rewards said teamwork, why not? They've dropped the price already.

Yumcha

Thanks, dude.

Is the "he" you're referring to a friend of yours...?

Costco

I finally unlocked the Krogan Vanguard the other day.

G7YeV.jpg

Salarian Infiltrator with a claymore is one of my favorite classes to play. I unintentionally killsteal all the time because lvl 5 proximity mine applies a 20% damage taken debuff, and the claymore deals a shitload of damage. Nothing like getting up close with a phantom and blowing her face off.