[chicolom]

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^I'm waiting for the EC to come out before I replay it, and I'm even tempted to replay the entire series in anticipation of the EC. With my luck the EC will be a very minimal change, but oh well.

 
What is "the EC?"

 

[AxelCloris]

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What is "the EC?"

Tali/Liara fanfic?
 
Don't look at me like that...

 

[J W]

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What is "the EC?"

EC is Extended Cut DLC announced for the summer.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I haven't touched this game since my initial playthrough. I'll be waiting until the EC or whatever. Not because I believe it'll really change anything, but because I don't wanna go through the game a third time for the extra stuff.

 

[Kukuk]

Just a reminder that the extended cut DLC comes out in two days.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Spoiler-free thoughts on the 'new' endings...

‎Four Mass Effect 3 endings. They fixed the fact that last time, the main 3 we're basically the same, leaving it to our imaginations as to what happens after. Now they actually SHOW what the last decision causes.

Its not much, and yes, they could've done a bit more in terms of as to what happens with the crew, but it wasn't unnecessary.

Bioware, you have my respect again. The ending/s overall, were great. One of the endings was particularly a surprise to me, as I thought it implied the end of everything LAST time, and I hated it then. Now, it's my favorite one.

I didn't care much for the NEW new ending, as it was a bit too brief, but I understood why they went that route.

 

[Kukuk]

Yeah, I liked the new ending sequences, and I'm really glad they didn't really change anything. I hate the thought of developers changing their artistic vision all because people complain. It was all a happy medium between my wanting to see the ending fleshed out, and my love of artistic integrity.

 

[MaZa]

Copy pasted my impressions from Hardforum.


Okay. I had not touched Mass Effect 3 for several months, to let my mind clean up and forget most of the details and so on. I did a fresh start with my "canon" Paragade Shep, to remind myself how good this game was at the beginning (I still say that despite some problems first 95% of this game is pure gold) and see how the new extended ending fits.


First thing I have to say is that if this would have been the original ending, very few would have complained or atleast backlash would have been much smaller. Except maybe about the synthesis ending, how stupid and suspension of disbelief breaking it is. But anyway...
It was good to see how my crewmates get wounded and picked up by Normandy, followed by heartwarming scene with my LI Tali who I brought along. Very nice. BUT did everyone forget that Harbinger was standing 300 METERS MAX FROM US? With clean line of fire? Normandy lingered there quite a while so are we supposed to believe that Harby didnt try to shoot it even once? If it were some random shuttle, I wouldnt have a problem and Harbie just would not have cared, maybe. But this was a god damn Normandy and Harbinger knows bloody well what it is!

Anyway, to the TIM. Not much was changed and I still dont understand how he was able to control Andersson. Shepard I understand thanks to his Reaper/Cerberus cybernetics, but Andersson is 100% human. Anyway, I still like this scene well enough.

Now the questionable part. I am dissapointed that Bioware was so hellbent on keeping the damn Starbrat. But it is a good thing that they did give some exposition, including hints about the Starbrats origin. (An insane AI with God complex who turned on his masters and forced them to follow his "solution". I can buy that, as thats something we have suspected about Reapers all along) Overall its more fleshed out. Still, his existence renders Sovereign in Mass Effect 1 meaningless!

As the dialog went on I noticed that I can tell Starbrat to go **** himself! Holy crap! And thats what I did first without second thought, resulting in the reject ending. It kinda fell flat, there should have been more to it like vids of people trying to win conventionally but ultimately losing. But it was a good addition. Next I was about to try the Destruction ending, but as I was walking towards the tubes I turned around and shot the Starbrat for ****s and giggles. I had no idea this would also trigger the reject ending! Fell from my chair from laughter! Well played Bioware! But anyway, Destruction ending was huge improvement over original and Galaxy wasnt left in such hopeless state, Joker didnt become a deserter nor did they become stranded anywhere, for long anyway.

There is still the question how it damages synthetics and electronics. A huge ass EMP or equivalent? All fixable damage, and Quarians probably do not bother fixing the Geth because their alliance was still new and unstable, easier that way and I can buy that. But why EDI is unrepairable? (meaning killed?)


Havent tried the Control yet, I leave that to my other "renegon" control freak Shepard. And I refuse to try the Synthesis completely because of how dumb it is. How the hell Crucible (a powersource) and Catalyst (Device to control Mass Relays/channel energy through them) is capable to turn every organic and synthetic life into hybrids with glowing tattoos? Its BS, pure and simple.


Anyway, I do applaud Bioware for making this. It does not restore my faith on the company, but atleast I no longer write the whole Mass Effect serie off completely. (depends on how much weight they put on the Synthesis thing, does that become "canon" on future games and so on) But it is a huge improvement over original and considering the circumstances that is good enough for me.

 

[MuppetFace]

Spoiler: Some%20thoughts%20on%20your%20thoughts%2C%20MaZa

 
 

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BUT did everyone forget that Harbinger was standing 300 METERS MAX FROM US? With clean line of fire? Normandy lingered there quite a while so are we supposed to believe that Harby didnt try to shoot it even once? If it were some random shuttle, I wouldnt have a problem and Harbie just would not have cared, maybe. But this was a god damn Normandy and Harbinger knows bloody well what it is!
 

 
I found it kind of questionable that ANYTHING would have survived Harbinger's blast at that range, considering the beam itself would have been about as wide as a subway tunnel given the previous frames of reference for it. I mean a dreadnaught-class Reaper beam can take down an entire starship with ease. A few makos would have been utterly vaporized. Oh well. Suspension of disbelief.
 
That being said, I'm not sure Harbinger would be shooting at the Normandy at that point given that Shepard had made it to the Citadel and was already in dialog with the Catalyst. It's likely the Catalyst was keeping the Reapers at bay until an agreement had been reached.
 
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Anyway, to the TIM. Not much was changed and I still dont understand how he was able to control Andersson. Shepard I understand thanks to his Reaper/Cerberus cybernetics, but Andersson is 100% human. Anyway, I still like this scene well enough.
 

 
Heh, not to get nitpicky, but "the TIM" is a bit redundant.
 
I see it this way: Anderson and Shepard were both inside the Citadel, which at that point had been "activated" and was therefore working Reaper tech. You know the effects of Reaper tech on organics. TIM isn't controlling Shepard because Shepard's Cerberus cybernetics are Reaper tech. If that were the case, he could have exercised way more control way earlier on, and he was quite clear in his not "tampering with who Shepard is" when he brings Shepard back from the dead. So yeah, Anderson can be controlled the same way Shepard can be controlled: somehow TIM is able to manipulate the indoctrination effect of the Reaper tech, perhaps the end result of all that Cerberus research. Only the end result still wasn't able to prevent him from being indoctrinated himself and he succumbs to his own treachery.
 
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Now the questionable part. I am dissapointed that Bioware was so hellbent on keeping the damn Starbrat. But it is a good thing that they did give some exposition, including hints about the Starbrats origin. (An insane AI with God complex who turned on his masters and forced them to follow his "solution". I can buy that, as thats something we have suspected about Reapers all along) Overall its more fleshed out. Still, his existence renders Sovereign in Mass Effect 1 meaningless!

 
 

 

 

 
Yeah, I'm not fond of the Catalyst, especially as they have to make it use that damn kid at the beginning of the game as an avatar. That child was just really cliche "pathos" BioWare attempted to inject into the game, and he's supposed to "represent all those people who died back on Earth" according to the developers. Great. Considering how much death Shepard has seen---of people far more important to her/him---it's still silly that Shepard would be fretting over this one random child so much. It would have been much much more effective in my opinion if BioWare had the Catalyst choose the squadmate you sacrificed back on Vermire as an avatar to speak with Shepard. Either Kaiden or Ashley. I mean come on, that should be obvious from a writer's standpoint!
 
Anyway, the Catalyst doesn't necessarily make Sovereign meaningless. If you recall Sovereign's "mission" was to activate the true potential of the Citadel to allow the Reaper fleets to pour in from dark space. They say the Citadel was "built by the Reapers" in ME1, and that too doesn't necessarily clash with the Catalyst, and it says the Citadel is only part of it. It's "home" in the sense that an AI can be uploaded to a mainframe. It doesn't necessarily have to originate at that location however. The Reapers are also controlled by the Catalyst, who evidently needs them to activate the Citadel anyway. The Catalyst's requiring Sovereign's aid in ME1 is no more silly than it requiring the Reapers do so in ME3, or to help it move the Citadel to Earth.
 
What strikes me as far sillier is the Human Reaper. See, the original writer of ME1 and ME2 planned for a totally different ending. The "Dark Energy" ending. In this continuity, the byproduct of the mass field effect is "dark energy," which threatens to extinguish the stars in the universe. This is what Tali was sent to investigate in ME2 when you meet up with her. The Reapers were originally supposed to have been created to solve this dark energy problem, and their harvesting of organics was in an attempt to utilize genetic diversity to come up with possible solutions. The Protheans were one of the most diverse races in the galaxy, but they resisted and their race was all but wiped out, the remaining members converted into Collectors instead. Then humanity came along. ME2 uses Mordin's recruitment mission as a chance to explain that humans are immune to the Reaper virus because of their vast genetic diversity. So that is the entire reason for the Reaper's interest in humanity and their obsession with Shepard. They start building the Human Reaper in private as a last ditch effort to try and carry out their assigned purpose. At the end of ME3 we were originally going to choose between killing off the Reapers and trying to solve the dark energy issue without them---a more humane solution but a bigger gamble----or go along with it and let them make their Human Reaper and have a more assured future for species yet to come.
 
By changing the ending to the whole "organics vs. synthetics" thing, BioWare has really invalidated ME2 way more than anything else. The entire mission Tali was sent on, bothering to explain human genetic diversity, the Human Reaper, the fixation of the Reapers on humanity, etc. Even carrying over into the third game, why would the Reapers make Earth their primary target----their biggest object of fixation---if we're using the "organics v. synthetics" and not "dark energy" plot? Why move the Citadel and Catalyst to Earth? What was it they were "planning" according to Anderson? Methinks this was left over writing from the original plot. I would bet they changed the ending at the last minute for some reason, and so it's much more of a mess than Karpyshawn's original script. The only viable explanation now for the Reaper's fixation on humanity is that Shepard, a human, killed Sovereign. You're going to have to put a lot of weight on that fact and say that Harbinger is making things pretty damn personal. If you're going to do that, then the lack of a showdown with Harbinger is even more disappointing. That, or the Reapers see humanity as the biggest threat now and so want to take care of them first. Perhaps a Human Reaper made in secrecy would have made the invasion that much easier? I dunno. It's a pretty shaky foundation to build a plot on top of compared to the original idea.
 

 

[MuppetFace]

Spoiler: Warning%3A%20Spoiler!

As for the "revamped" endings, Control is definitely my favorite. Synthesis was alright in a story-book happily-ever-after sort of way, but the suspension of disbelief required was a bit too high. The Destroy ending was the most unsatisfying for me. Kind of... boring, to be honest. The most conventional. I also don't really see how everyone could rebuild the relays without the help of the Reapers, so the Destroy ending seems to leave the galaxy in the worst state, moral implications of Synthesis aside.
 
The Refusal Ending was the most curious of the four for me. You're still making a choice in your refusal to make a choice, but I get the non cooperation aspect of it. It's bleak but interesting none-the-less.
 
So in order from favorite to least favorite for me personally:
 
Control > Synthesis > Refusal > Destruction
 

 

[MaZa]

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Spoiler: Some%20thoughts%20on%20your%20thoughts%2C%20MaZa

 
 
 
I found it kind of questionable that ANYTHING would have survived Harbinger's blast at that range, considering the beam itself would have been about as wide as a subway tunnel given the previous frames of reference for it. I mean a dreadnaught-class Reaper beam can take down an entire starship with ease. A few makos would have been utterly vaporized. Oh well. Suspension of disbelief.
 
That being said, I'm not sure Harbinger would be shooting at the Normandy at that point given that Shepard had made it to the Citadel and was already in dialog with the Catalyst. It's likely the Catalyst was keeping the Reapers at bay until an agreement had been reached.
 

I dont bother with spoiler tags because I think everyone here has played the game to the end by now. If not, then dont read past this sentence.


What I meant is that Harbinger was not firing Normandy when it was picking up your wounded squadmates. This was BEFORE Shepard entered Catalyst because he was there to say his goodbyes to his LI. Harbie just stood there, waiting till Shepard and squad has finished their talk, Normandy leaves and then he finally shoots Shepard tearing his armor to pieces. This "pause" on Harbingers assault kept bugging me and still does.
 
But thanks for your thoughts.

 

[MuppetFace]

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What I meant is that Harbinger was not firing Normandy when it was picking up your wounded squadmates. This was BEFORE Shepard entered Catalyst because he was there to say his goodbyes to his LI. Harbie just stood there, waiting till Shepard and squad has finished their talk, Normandy leaves and then he finally shoots Shepard tearing his armor to pieces. This "pause" on Harbingers assault kept bugging me and still does.

 
For some reason, I'm not recalling this scene. Is this something they added with the EC earlier on in the London mission? I only played the EC from the beam approach onward.

 

[MaZa]

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For some reason, I'm not recalling this scene. Is this something they added with the EC earlier on in the London mission? I only played the EC from the beam approach onward.

 
 
 
EC should be started from save before Cerberus base attack. In my game I took Tali and Javik on the final mission, and during approaching the beam both of them get wounded, Shepard calls Normandy for pick up, Javik and Tali limp inside and before door closing there are some final words between Tali (Sheps love interest) and Shepard. Thats what happened in my game.

 

[Cheapy]

Looks like there is also some new multiplayer content coming out soon too called "Earth" this time so guess what species all the new characters are?

Its meant to include a new difficulty mode too in  case gold was not impossible enough.

 

[J W]

So I guess that means no mention of any Single player content?