[Snow Blind]

 
Mass Effect 3 is finally here... Let's put all discussion in a nice, easy to find place.
 
Let's also try to keep thing's spoiler free by including *SPOILERS* in the begining of your post.
 

 

[Snow Blind]

I've been waiting all week to have time and sit down for full day and begin ME3... no distractions, just the game and some beers haha.  I'll be carrying over my Shepard from ME1-2 and going through as a paragon this first round.  Any initial tips or tricks on the first few hours?  Anything you really wished you did differently or places you got stuck/lost only to find the solution was staring you in the face, etc.?

 

[chicolom]

Quote:

 
Let's also try to keep thing's spoiler free by including *SPOILERS* in the begining of your post.
 

 
Head-fi also has a spoilers formatting option.  It's the little speech bubble icon.
 
It looks like this
 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Spoiler!

Mass Effect 3 has great sound!

 

 

[ibage]

Quote:

I've been waiting all week to have time and sit down for full day and begin ME3... no distractions, just the game and some beers haha.  I'll be carrying over my Shepard from ME1-2 and going through as a paragon this first round.  Any initial tips or tricks on the first few hours?  Anything you really wished you did differently or places you got stuck/lost only to find the solution was staring you in the face, etc.?

Do everything before going to the Citadel! When someone wants to talk to you, wait until you have all the main missions done. Also, playing MP isn't bad at all but it helps get you the "better" endings.
 
 

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Minor%20Spoiler%20if%20not%20just%20opinion

This game is amazingly fun spare for the ending. Get ready for disappointment there. 

 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I tend to play full Renegade, but with the War Assets and possibly Loyalty (is it still a thing?), I tendto make Paragon choices, so I don't lose potential War Assets, like that reporter (not Allers, but the one from ME2).

I'm just gonna play mixed alignment the first time around,making Renegade choices on missions, but Paragon choices on the Normandy and around potential War Assets.

 

[ibage]

Quote:

I tend to play full Renegade, but with the War Assets and possibly Loyalty (is it still a thing?), I tendto make Paragon choices, so I don't lose potential War Assets, like that reporter (not Allers, but the one from ME2).
I'm just gonna play mixed alignment the first time around,making Renegade choices on missions, but Paragon choices on the Normandy and around potential War Assets.

Loyalty is replaced by reputation sorta. It's an odd systemand you can play a mixture paragon and renegade if done right without backlash. I never figured out how how it worked completely. I'm just starting playthrough #2 after messing about a few days in MP. Just a warning though, be ready to grab as many points as you can before Rannoch. Not saying what goes down but I missed out my first time through.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm just scared to make Renegade actions and miss out certain War Assets.

I had saved before talking to the reporter, and did the Renegade action, and obviously didn't get her as a War Asset. I reloaded the game and did Paragon, and got the War Asset. That made me paranoid now. The last game didn't penalize you for making all Renegade actions other than when conversing with the crew on the ship for loyalty (always do Paragon unless they prefer Renegade, like Grunt).

 

[ibage]

Don't worry about it too much. You need ~5000 total strength to ensure you get the better endings. I suggest messing about in multiplayer if you're that concerned. But there were certain times paragon options got me hosed as well, especially with the more aggressive races. Pick and choose but you're not going to be missing too much if anything at all playing a mix of both. Just be sure that you finish all the main missions before each councilor requests you at the Citadel. That's far more important than your morality. 

 

[MuppetFace]

Mass Effect is one of my favorite (okay, my favorite) series of all time. I've been taking a really, really long time just exploring as much sideline stuff as I can in the third game before actually doing any missions. It's fun seeing all the cameos and hearing the banter that's written for fans of the series, inside jokes and whatnot.
 
Edit: I can't yet decide if the 3rd game has even more "constriction" than the 2nd or less. What I mean is, in the 1st game you had a lot more freedom to roam around, and everything felt more seamless and expansive. The second game was much more restrictive and compartmentalized in that sense. Rooms and hallways versus the randomly generated worlds of the 1st.
 
In the 3rd, I'm noticing that in some cases things are even more linearized (which makes sense from a pacing standpoint; one feels like cattle being corralled toward the slaughter house, very tension-building). Yet the worlds themselves feel more expansive, if still inaccessible. I suppose while it's still compartmentalized somewhat, there's a much grander sense of scale that helps even things out a bit.

 

[MuppetFace]

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Do everything before going to the Citadel! When someone wants to talk to you, wait until you have all the main missions done. Also, playing MP isn't bad at all but it helps get you the "better" endings.

 
When you say "do everything before going to the Citadel," do you mean before the counselors summon you? I like returning to the Citdel after every other mission just to do side quests and chat with crew members.

 

[ibage]

Quote:

 
When you say "do everything before going to the Citadel," do you mean before the counselors summon you? I like returning to the Citdel after every other mission just to do side quests and chat with crew members.

I should have worded it better. Yeah, when the members of the council ask you to come by, that's a shifting point moving the plot forward. Anything you have to do before that (as far as the main mission goes) will be lost and you'll be forced to continue.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm hoping you're referring to a later point in the game, as going to talk to the council is like the very first thing to do at the Citadel. Not many things to do at that point, lol.

 

[MuppetFace]

Quote:

I'm hoping you're referring to a later point in the game, as going to talk to the council is like the very first thing to do at the Citadel. Not many things to do at that point, lol.

 
At that point you're going to talk to the council on your own initiative. The previous posts were referring to the council members summoning you, so it's definitely later on, yeah.

 

[ibage]

Yeah. Sorry, I'm trying to keep things ambiguous to avoid spoilers

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Lol, talking to the council isn't much of a spoiler, lol. But thanks. I get paranoid when I miss something in a game. I'm mad that I chose to Kill Wrex from the first game. Considering I didn't get that far in ME1, and I'm playing on the PS3, I thought Wrex was a bad guy, not a party member in that game. That was until I played the demo to this game. ;_;