Texture resolution is a real problem for me. Seems to impact characters the most. And what's odd is that the casual outfits seems to be lower rez than the combat ones. Which makes no sense to me since you see those upclose so much, and in parts of the game where there's no action, so there are no crazy particles or alpha covering the screen. You'd think they could spare the texture space (although it's probably a memory thing rather than framerate).
Also, the skyboxes... what's up with those? Some of those are insanely low-rez and pixelated, and that's an element that can often take up more than half the screen space.
Other than that though, I think it still looks pretty. Especially the environments.
I felt for a series driven by character development, making huge choices and having those impact the galaxy the ending just kind of made everything you chose irrelevant, including the big choices you make in me3. Things like choosing to cure the genophage they stress how large the implications of that could be but then it turns out everyone is being blasted back to the galactic stone age anyways so who cares. I guess I was surprised to see no matter what path you choose the mass relays are still destroyed. Though I guess its not made clear how big of a impact that may or may not have. It just surprised me they didn't paint the actual difference between the endings a little bit more besides lazer color!
Been playing this a little bit. Honestly, I had tons of fun just running around the citadel, talking to the NPCs, looking at the environment. I got the feeling I was in that world. Did anyone else get that feeling?
I'm almost wishing they made a game that takes place in the ME universe that had no combat. Just travel and trading and whatnot. Make it online too, and I know I'll play it.
I felt for a series driven by character development, making huge choices and having those impact the galaxy the ending just kind of made everything you chose irrelevant, including the big choices you make in me3. Things like choosing to cure the genophage they stress how large the implications of that could be but then it turns out everyone is being blasted back to the galactic stone age anyways so who cares. I guess I was surprised to see no matter what path you choose the mass relays are still destroyed. Though I guess its not made clear how big of a impact that may or may not have. It just surprised me they didn't paint the actual difference between the endings a little bit more besides lazer color!
2/3 choices didn't make your decisions irrelevant.
The control option leaves everything you worked for intact, but the military stranded at earth with the bulk of their species' stranded throughout the galaxy
The destroy option leaves all organic life intact, destroys the military (since they're all in space ships) and strands everyone on whatever planet they're currently on until they die.
The synthesis option undoes everything.
I liked the fact it's up to you to work out the impact of your actions, since you're always playing from Shepard's point of view, as soon as you choose..... that's pretty much it, how are you to know what happens?
Though yes, I would have liked them to make the "this is what happened" cutscenes longer, but excepting that, I have no complaints over the ending, it made me think long and hard about my decision and I've been troubled about stranding everyone I survived since I finished it!
Note: I might be wrong about options 2 and 3 since I picked 1, but that was my interpretation of what would happen before I made my choice.
Actually, now I've written this down I think they made a bad set of choices, the more I think about it, the more I realise that the control option is the only option I'd ever pick it makes me sad that there isn't a more level trade off. I discounted the destroy option the instant I heard it would kill the geth (and EDI) but leave organics alive, so the only two options I had were control and strand, or a hard reboot.
Sorry for the extreme use of spoiler tags :P
I also noticed the horrible gaping horrors of the skybox zeniths. That's really poor form from Bioware.
Then there was
Rannoch, Tali's homeworld
.. was anyone else extremely disappointed in how 'beautiful' it looked? We got there and it just felt like one giant
quarry
. Also I thought that in ME2 they said it was
uninhabitable due to their star dying and producing extreme solar radiation
. Or am I getting planets mixed up?
Why did shepard jump OUT of the shuttle to aim the laser at the reaper on Rannoch, that was undoubtedly the lowpoint of the whole game. What a dire boss fight, ugh. (this one http://youtu.be/Gp6A-4e1kg0?t=21m37s)
On the whole though the environments felt the best yet, they clearly beefed up the scale, everything felt way more grand.
One thing I'd like to comment about the entire series is that there's not enough direct communication with the reapers themselves, in the first game you talk to sovreign a few times, but that's about it. Those things were fucking awesome and in ME3
all you get is that 2 line conversation with the dying one on Rannoch.
I am really sad that Mass Effect is over. I can't see how they can do any new stories in the same universe what with the staggering impact of Shepards actions in all three games, they couldn't set anything after or during the Shepard arc without upsetting some fans who made X decision. I'd probably buy into anything they'd do with the ME galaxy but the fear of disappointment is huge, following ME will not be easy if they take that direction.
the synthesis option is actually the best one. That's where neither Humanity, the Geth, nor the Reapers get destroyed. But everyone gets an upgrade into a synthetic/organic lifeform, bringing about not only the end of the cycle, but also the next step in evolution.
It's pretty damn epic. Just a shame that it's almost impossible to get. I think you need stuff from ME2 to carry over for that.
The one thing I wish the game had as far as ending, and I wish lots of movies and games would have, is a good solid epilogue. Something to show what the world looks like after all is said and done. In the case of games, maybe even a playable one would be great. A little sandbox or something. They had that little single-frame scene at the end, but I wanted more.
One thing I've noticed is that the existence of most side missions seems to depend on what I've done in previous games - if someone or something died in ME1 / ME2, then that's one less side mission in ME3, and less 'readiness' for the final mission.
The number of side missions could be very small depending on how you played through the previous games
if I use PC ,I would download some save file from internet ...
i regret getting it for ps3, that I tought it was look like me2 that previous series is not that relevant ...
So I almost beat the game last night and came to the conclusion that I messed up really badly. I didn't do every single side mission, but most of them. I replaying a previous save to get more stuff and a less terrible ending I hope. I have a question though. How do you effect 'Readiness' (all ways at 50%), and why can I never interact with the galaxy tactical map? I'm sure my terrible ending had something to do with readiness.
I believe the way it works is that it's how many people you were able to recruit for your side. So you have to do all the missions, because lots of those will have characters pledging ships to your cause when the day comes. In addition, you can also gain some of that by completing the multiplayer objectives. So if you want to get everything, you gotta do the multiplayer, and do all the side missions, and get a save from the last game (where I believe you had to have saved the reaper base).
Oh right I see. So I guess (according to this) that you gotta play multiplayer for that. And your military strength is a percentage of the readiness and the war assets. So if you play single player and the readiness is at 50% and you get 5000 war assets, then you really only have 2,500.
Still at work so can't check it, but if that is not a Photoshopped picture of that character's extra outfit, then someone at Bioware has been kinda nasty
Just finished the game last night. Overall it's a great game, I was pretty happy with the ending. All 3 games as a whole Mass Effect has one of the better stories I've experienced in gaming. I'm glad they brought back some of the RPG elements (if you chose that mode). The game play felt pretty solid, except in some combat areas you really get confused as to where the enemy is coming from. What really bugged me the most was the drop in art quality from ME2 to ME3. ME2 had some of the most beautiful environment art I have seen, where ME3 felt like a different art team worked on it, especially the vistas. Also the lighting felt much darker and high contrast, which may have been chosen for the mood of the game. I think now that all 3 games are out I may replay through the series so I can choose a different story route.
Yeah, I just finished it as well. I would agree with what Bigjohn is saying about a proper epilogue. For a story that was as grand as this that stretched 3 games, I would have loved to see what all the other races did afterwards. I played a imported ME2 since I don't have my old saves from my old computer, and that save was a fresh run through of 2 so I didn't get to choose my options from 1. That third option is hard to get, I thought I did everything, apparently I didn't have enough readiness. I'll have to try with my old saves when I get home from school this summer.
I also echo what he said though, I'd still buy and play whatever new Mass Effect game they chose to make. As long as the same team of writers were working on it. Never has a game been able to not only fully immerse me like 3 has, but also make me feel some raw emotions such as the way they did throughout the entire game. Hats off to them for crafting a somber, powerful ending to the trilogy.
Haven't finished the game yet, but whatever the end is, ask yourself this question: would you rather get an epilogue, or more Mass Effect games in the future?
If FO3 got a DLC to give us an epilogue in full scale, surely EA and Bioware can scrounge up the cash from the millions of sales they have, to have a guy with a nice voice narrate over a couple of still images the 'gist' of what happened.
No need to tell us who died or lived, just say "Oh, and hope was restored as once again, the Quarians found a home, Shepard got so much booty he can drown his sorrows in, etc..."
I finally finished ME2 this weekend and only took 3 tries to get all my crew to survive. :P I noticed in 3 there is a lot more black and hard lighting which I also noticed transitioning from dragon age 1 to 2. I'm kind of curious why they went this route, if it's an engine thing or what. I'm just not a huge fan of black as it deadens things.
I finally finished ME2 this weekend and only took 3 tries to get all my crew to survive. :P I noticed in 3 there is a lot more black and hard lighting which I also noticed transitioning from dragon age 1 to 2. I'm kind of curious why they went this route, if it's an engine thing or what. I'm just not a huge fan of black as it deadens things.
It helps cover up 'issues' you might have shadows, and because it's the cool thing to do.
I'm not kidding, it seems like while the movie industry is still Orange/Blue crushing colors, the game industry moved away from Blooms and Browns to Bleach Post-Process.
I like the fact that as creative individuals we are able to talk about our disagreements, and debate with each other about how things ended with the game in a sane manner while the rest of the internet is foaming at the mouth.
Is there a way to play the game without origin or using any other digital distribution software? I need this because I can only play games on my work computer, but my company has banned origin from being installed.
Just finished it, and I have to say, dropping that joke about the Soviet anthem was a very unexpected Red October reference. Props.
Additionally tapping Clint Mansell to compose the score was a great move. The previous games suffered in the music department with tracks that set the tone in terms of style, but didn't deliver much else. The OST in this game had me feeling the music instead of just hearing it. Excellent work.
But... The ending was gutless. It works, and is a worthy ending especially where computer games are concerned, but it shows that Bioware didn't have the balls to really push any boundaries.
I took the middle option, and was hoping for a true fusion of organic and synthetic and the creation of new life. Instead everyone got circuitry on them. Before that I was hoping for an explanation of the reapers that would be alien, and something detached from the human mind. At a minimum something unknown. Instead it's just an extremely ironic machine-led anti-machine campaign. I was hoping for actual depth from the Illusive Man, perhaps even success in controlling the reapers, but it was exactly what you saw coming from the moment you saw Cerberus on Mars. The ending is conservative to a fault. I still like it a lot and it finished the series on an emotional note, but Bioware shouldn't have been afraid to hit people in the mouth and not apologize.
The indoctrination theory for the ending is actually an interesting one, since it subverts the whole thing and turns it into a much braver choice. It's a Blade Runner ending in a genre filled with things blowing up, and it's deliciously dark. If the intent was to foster that suspicion then I salute the writing staff. Just please don't make some bullshit DLC where Sheperd wakes up. :P
Anyways, this story is at rest. Thanks for all the hours of fun and for the atmosphere you crafted Bioware. You upped the ante on storytelling in modern AAA titles, and most amazingly you created a game which left me with the same sense of melancholy loss I feel when I've put down a decent book or seen a good movie. Few games have ever accomplished that.
It's not the fact that it's ending, or even the fact that it's a sad ending that has me a bothered. It's the fact that there's a ton of plot holes and things that don't make sense. The normandy abandoning Earth for no reason, your squadmates that were with you in front of the beam mysteriously teleporting back to the normandy, Anderson getting past you to the control console somehow, Shepard waking up in concrete rubble, english text on the walls in an area of the citadel that no organic has ever been, Shepard's odd trust in everything the starchild says... I think all of these things would make sense if the indoctrination theory is correct. If it is the case, then the guys over at Bioware are even bigger geniuses than I already knew they were.
I mean, think about it. So many things after Shepard got knocked out by the reaper beam don't make sense. And in the end scene, the "control" option symbolized by the Illusive Man is shown to be Paragon, while the "destroy" option symbolized by Anderson is shown to be Renegade. The colors are reversed. Also, you hear radio chatter stating that no one made it to the beam, despite the fact that you and Anderson both apparently got through.
What I think happened, is that after Shepard was knocked out by the Reaper blast, Harbinger attempted to complete the indoctrination process. Throughout the whole game, Shepard was showing signs of reaper indoctrination in the form of ghostly presences and nightmares of such. In fact, if you think about it, Shepard was the only one who saw the kid throughout the game.
I think the biggest teller for me is the fact that the scene of Shepard waking up in the concrete rubble only plays if you choose the destroy option. Hence, the indoctrination attempt was broken-- Harbinger's attempt at getting Shepard show sympathy for the reapers and their cause failed, and Shepard woke back up on Earth. And considering the position he was in in the rubble, one of his squadmates may have dragged him there while he was unconscious.
Can anyone confirm that I don't need to play multiplayer inorder to get the so called 'best' ending?
The entire thing of Militia, Readiness, etc which fills only via Multi, etc has me confused. I simply cannot believe (hopefully not) that Bioware would gimp the SP for the MP in an RPG based element.
Can anyone confirm that I don't need to play multiplayer inorder to get the so called 'best' ending?
The entire thing of Militia, Readiness, etc which fills only via Multi, etc has me confused. I simply cannot believe (hopefully not) that Bioware would gimp the SP for the MP in an RPG based element.
I've heard people say if you made all perfect choices in me1 and me2/3 it's enough. I just played a clean me3 with no import and did everything and was like around 4-5 multi games short of having enough points for the "perfect" ending though. So it seems likely pretty much everyone has to at least play a few to have enough.
Ace: spend about 4 hours in multiplayer and you'll have 100% galactic readiness. its really trivial. Its not a tacked on piece of crap either, its actually really good fun, me and my mates spent many hours playing the demo, its a blast. For the best ending you need to have played all the games and kept your saves, there are quite a few missions that only happen if you took 'non canon' choices.
Aigik:
The time to indoctrinate Shepard was long passed. It would have been useful earlier on to stop Shep from uniting the races, stopping sovereign, destroying the human reaper....
At the point where Shepard gets to the beam there is nothing at all to be gained by taking control of them, aside from stopping them from gaining access to the citadel.. which is what Harbinger was doing with its weapons.
Assuming that shooting Shep weakened them so that the reaper could take control what was the point? Why not just walk them out into the open and blast them? If shepard was under control they were no longer a risk, nor were they usefull (and could be disposed of)
If you don't play multiplayer, your readiness is at 50%, which means you'd need 10,000 war assets to get the 5,000 military strength you need for the perfect ending. And I haven't seen a guide or anything yet that shows you how to get 10,000 war assets... so it may not be possible.
One thing I do know is that there's a part where you gotta pick between the Geth and the Quarrian, and for a perfect score you need to get both, and the only way to do that is with a save from ME2.
Ace: spend about 4 hours in multiplayer and you'll have 100% galactic readiness. its really trivial. Its not a tacked on piece of crap either, its actually really good fun, me and my mates spent many hours playing the demo, its a blast. For the best ending you need to have played all the games and kept your saves, there are quite a few missions that only happen if you took 'non canon' choices.
Aigik:
The time to indoctrinate Shepard was long passed. It would have been useful earlier on to stop Shep from uniting the races, stopping sovereign, destroying the human reaper....
At the point where Shepard gets to the beam there is nothing at all to be gained by taking control of them, aside from stopping them from gaining access to the citadel.. which is what Harbinger was doing with its weapons.
Assuming that shooting Shep weakened them so that the reaper could take control what was the point? Why not just walk them out into the open and blast them? If shepard was under control they were no longer a risk, nor were they usefull (and could be disposed of)
How do you explain Shepard waking up in a pile of concrete rubble?
is a neat idea, but it doesn't jive with the little bit after the credits roll.
I'm guessing that's joker and his/edi's son? Looks like the same planet they crash landed on. Could also just be random people far into the future.
I chose the synthesis option, so not sure what other people saw after the credits with a different ending. I don't know why you'd bother showing stuff like that, and the ending seems pretty straight forward.
I don't think it's really a dream ending, mostly because the evidence for a hasty "oh crap we have no more money" wrap-up is also present, and bad writing and money constraints are everywhere in games.
-Citadel is just one tiny level with barely any detail, and it barely looks like the citadel. Considering all the intricate levels that came before, this is suspicious.
-No actual gameplay on the citadel, just a short walking sequence.
-There's no boss of any kind.
-Final choice feels very rushed. "Hey, welcome, pick a door, any door!"
-Normandy takes your squadmates away from earth. There's audio for the Normandy being on earth for the final mission, but they cut it, thereby creating the plothole with the crew magically appearing on it.
-Final cinematic is a token offer at best. Hell, the teaser from last year was better.
Additionally tapping Clint Mansell to compose the score was a great move. The previous games suffered in the music department with tracks that set the tone in terms of style, but didn't deliver much else. The OST in this game had me feeling the music instead of just hearing it. Excellent work.
Just FYI, Mansell composed like 2 tracks (mostly the main piano theme when Shepard leaves Earth on the Normandy in the beginning).
Most of the music is actually from Sam Hulick, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, and Cristopher Lennertz. AFAIK they've all worked on ME2 music, and the Kasumi/Overlord/Shadow Broker DLCs.
Not reading the thread don`t want any spoilers Game is good so far but suffers from consolitis on PC. Non-adjustable narrow FOV and some shocking texture resolutions (including characters). Also minigames are as stupid as ever - scanning/avoiding reapers bore feast>> wtf how is that supposed to be fun?!. They should get a clue how to do good minigames from bethesda, the lockpicking in skyrim is genius.
That said the rest of the game is awesome so whatever
I thought the decline of the minigames was very disappointing. Things like the hacking minigames in the first one were part of the small touches that helped me appreciate the game so much.
Just FYI, Mansell composed like 2 tracks (mostly the main piano theme when Shepard leaves Earth on the Normandy in the beginning).
Most of the music is actually from Sam Hulick, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, and Cristopher Lennertz. AFAIK they've all worked on ME2 music, and the Kasumi/Overlord/Shadow Broker DLCs.
That and we have stuff like the mass effect theme and the iconic galaxy screen music,
I'd say the music in the first mass effect was one of those things that really made the game.
Just FYI, Mansell composed like 2 tracks (mostly the main piano theme when Shepard leaves Earth on the Normandy in the beginning).
Most of the music is actually from Sam Hulick, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, and Cristopher Lennertz. AFAIK they've all worked on ME2 music, and the Kasumi/Overlord/Shadow Broker DLCs.
Makes sense. I listened to the whole OST on youtube, and the best tracks for me are the piano ones. The mission tracks are unremarkable for the most part, similar to ME1/2. I do wish Mansell has used more of the Mass Effect motif though.
for shits and giggles I installed ME3 on my samsung slate, its actually really playable. the only thing slowing it down is the graphics card (so 800x600 )
Two steps from hell's music wouldn't work on the long term. It's all designed to be short and overly dramatic and build up momentum very quickly and then there's nowhere to go from there. Just try to play it with some good action scene from your favorite movie and you'll see it just doesn't fit.
As for ME's music, as much as I like the first game I think a lot of people are a bit too nostalgic about it Most of the music isn't particularly memorable there either, the artwork hasn't aged well, and the unpolished gameplay elements and technical issues are so annoying that one has to wonder how it was received so well.
I think a lot of it was the excellent world building and the cinematic approach, by the way. Even if a lot of the ingame movies have horrible motion blur and camera work
Replies
Also, the skyboxes... what's up with those? Some of those are insanely low-rez and pixelated, and that's an element that can often take up more than half the screen space.
Other than that though, I think it still looks pretty. Especially the environments.
Krogan Gold Challenge
I thought they were pretty good.
Why didn't you like it?
The control option leaves everything you worked for intact, but the military stranded at earth with the bulk of their species' stranded throughout the galaxy
The destroy option leaves all organic life intact, destroys the military (since they're all in space ships) and strands everyone on whatever planet they're currently on until they die.
The synthesis option undoes everything.
I liked the fact it's up to you to work out the impact of your actions, since you're always playing from Shepard's point of view, as soon as you choose..... that's pretty much it, how are you to know what happens?
Though yes, I would have liked them to make the "this is what happened" cutscenes longer, but excepting that, I have no complaints over the ending, it made me think long and hard about my decision and I've been troubled about stranding everyone I survived since I finished it!
Note: I might be wrong about options 2 and 3 since I picked 1, but that was my interpretation of what would happen before I made my choice.
Actually, now I've written this down I think they made a bad set of choices, the more I think about it, the more I realise that the control option is the only option I'd ever pick it makes me sad that there isn't a more level trade off. I discounted the destroy option the instant I heard it would kill the geth (and EDI) but leave organics alive, so the only two options I had were control and strand, or a hard reboot.
Sorry for the extreme use of spoiler tags :P
I also noticed the horrible gaping horrors of the skybox zeniths. That's really poor form from Bioware.
Then there was
On the whole though the environments felt the best yet, they clearly beefed up the scale, everything felt way more grand.
One thing I'd like to comment about the entire series is that there's not enough direct communication with the reapers themselves, in the first game you talk to sovreign a few times, but that's about it. Those things were fucking awesome and in ME3
I am really sad that Mass Effect is over. I can't see how they can do any new stories in the same universe what with the staggering impact of Shepards actions in all three games, they couldn't set anything after or during the Shepard arc without upsetting some fans who made X decision. I'd probably buy into anything they'd do with the ME galaxy but the fear of disappointment is huge, following ME will not be easy if they take that direction.
The one thing I wish the game had as far as ending, and I wish lots of movies and games would have, is a good solid epilogue. Something to show what the world looks like after all is said and done. In the case of games, maybe even a playable one would be great. A little sandbox or something. They had that little single-frame scene at the end, but I wanted more.
At any case, I'm looking forward for ME4.
The number of side missions could be very small depending on how you played through the previous games
i regret getting it for ps3, that I tought it was look like me2 that previous series is not that relevant ...
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii215/Garbish/MassEffect32012-03-1123-35-11-74.jpg
Still at work so can't check it, but if that is not a Photoshopped picture of that character's extra outfit, then someone at Bioware has been kinda nasty
I also echo what he said though, I'd still buy and play whatever new Mass Effect game they chose to make. As long as the same team of writers were working on it. Never has a game been able to not only fully immerse me like 3 has, but also make me feel some raw emotions such as the way they did throughout the entire game. Hats off to them for crafting a somber, powerful ending to the trilogy.
Why not both?
If FO3 got a DLC to give us an epilogue in full scale, surely EA and Bioware can scrounge up the cash from the millions of sales they have, to have a guy with a nice voice narrate over a couple of still images the 'gist' of what happened.
No need to tell us who died or lived, just say "Oh, and hope was restored as once again, the Quarians found a home, Shepard got so much booty he can drown his sorrows in, etc..."
Count me in as well, in case anyone from BW is listening here
It helps cover up 'issues' you might have shadows, and because it's the cool thing to do.
I'm not kidding, it seems like while the movie industry is still Orange/Blue crushing colors, the game industry moved away from Blooms and Browns to Bleach Post-Process.
I don't think so, there are 'wholesome' ways to do it, mind you, but depends.
At first I was like come onnn but after reading more about people's thoughts I think I'm into it.
This guy explains it pretty well
http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mass-Effect-3/Mass-Effect-3-Story-and-Campaign-Discussion-Spoilers-Allowed/Mass-Effect-3-Ending-Explanation-9817450-1.html
no one ever likes endings to theses stories. Its the taking part that's enjoyable we all want to win but we don't want it to end.
also the chickens are restless I really hope Bioware ignore these idiots.
Additionally tapping Clint Mansell to compose the score was a great move. The previous games suffered in the music department with tracks that set the tone in terms of style, but didn't deliver much else. The OST in this game had me feeling the music instead of just hearing it. Excellent work.
I took the middle option, and was hoping for a true fusion of organic and synthetic and the creation of new life. Instead everyone got circuitry on them. Before that I was hoping for an explanation of the reapers that would be alien, and something detached from the human mind. At a minimum something unknown. Instead it's just an extremely ironic machine-led anti-machine campaign. I was hoping for actual depth from the Illusive Man, perhaps even success in controlling the reapers, but it was exactly what you saw coming from the moment you saw Cerberus on Mars. The ending is conservative to a fault. I still like it a lot and it finished the series on an emotional note, but Bioware shouldn't have been afraid to hit people in the mouth and not apologize.
The indoctrination theory for the ending is actually an interesting one, since it subverts the whole thing and turns it into a much braver choice. It's a Blade Runner ending in a genre filled with things blowing up, and it's deliciously dark. If the intent was to foster that suspicion then I salute the writing staff. Just please don't make some bullshit DLC where Sheperd wakes up. :P
Anyways, this story is at rest. Thanks for all the hours of fun and for the atmosphere you crafted Bioware. You upped the ante on storytelling in modern AAA titles, and most amazingly you created a game which left me with the same sense of melancholy loss I feel when I've put down a decent book or seen a good movie. Few games have ever accomplished that.
I mean, think about it. So many things after Shepard got knocked out by the reaper beam don't make sense. And in the end scene, the "control" option symbolized by the Illusive Man is shown to be Paragon, while the "destroy" option symbolized by Anderson is shown to be Renegade. The colors are reversed. Also, you hear radio chatter stating that no one made it to the beam, despite the fact that you and Anderson both apparently got through.
What I think happened, is that after Shepard was knocked out by the Reaper blast, Harbinger attempted to complete the indoctrination process. Throughout the whole game, Shepard was showing signs of reaper indoctrination in the form of ghostly presences and nightmares of such. In fact, if you think about it, Shepard was the only one who saw the kid throughout the game.
I think the biggest teller for me is the fact that the scene of Shepard waking up in the concrete rubble only plays if you choose the destroy option. Hence, the indoctrination attempt was broken-- Harbinger's attempt at getting Shepard show sympathy for the reapers and their cause failed, and Shepard woke back up on Earth. And considering the position he was in in the rubble, one of his squadmates may have dragged him there while he was unconscious.
The entire thing of Militia, Readiness, etc which fills only via Multi, etc has me confused. I simply cannot believe (hopefully not) that Bioware would gimp the SP for the MP in an RPG based element.
I've heard people say if you made all perfect choices in me1 and me2/3 it's enough. I just played a clean me3 with no import and did everything and was like around 4-5 multi games short of having enough points for the "perfect" ending though. So it seems likely pretty much everyone has to at least play a few to have enough.
Aigik:
At the point where Shepard gets to the beam there is nothing at all to be gained by taking control of them, aside from stopping them from gaining access to the citadel.. which is what Harbinger was doing with its weapons.
Assuming that shooting Shep weakened them so that the reaper could take control what was the point? Why not just walk them out into the open and blast them? If shepard was under control they were no longer a risk, nor were they usefull (and could be disposed of)
One thing I do know is that there's a part where you gotta pick between the Geth and the Quarrian, and for a perfect score you need to get both, and the only way to do that is with a save from ME2.
bullshit writing.(edit: thats pretty unfair, the writing in general was great, just didnt like that bit.)
Seriously aside from plot holes what logically make you think the reapers would act like that?
I chose the synthesis option, so not sure what other people saw after the credits with a different ending. I don't know why you'd bother showing stuff like that, and the ending seems pretty straight forward.
-No actual gameplay on the citadel, just a short walking sequence.
-There's no boss of any kind.
-Final choice feels very rushed. "Hey, welcome, pick a door, any door!"
-Normandy takes your squadmates away from earth. There's audio for the Normandy being on earth for the final mission, but they cut it, thereby creating the plothole with the crew magically appearing on it.
-Final cinematic is a token offer at best. Hell, the teaser from last year was better.
Just FYI, Mansell composed like 2 tracks (mostly the main piano theme when Shepard leaves Earth on the Normandy in the beginning).
Most of the music is actually from Sam Hulick, Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan, and Cristopher Lennertz. AFAIK they've all worked on ME2 music, and the Kasumi/Overlord/Shadow Broker DLCs.
That said the rest of the game is awesome so whatever
That and we have stuff like the mass effect theme and the iconic galaxy screen music,
I'd say the music in the first mass effect was one of those things that really made the game.
Makes sense. I listened to the whole OST on youtube, and the best tracks for me are the piano ones. The mission tracks are unremarkable for the most part, similar to ME1/2. I do wish Mansell has used more of the Mass Effect motif though.
for shits and giggles I installed ME3 on my samsung slate, its actually really playable. the only thing slowing it down is the graphics card (so 800x600
The stuff is excellent for trailers though.
I think a lot of it was the excellent world building and the cinematic approach, by the way. Even if a lot of the ingame movies have horrible motion blur and camera work