Game: Mass Effect 3

[KrayZ33]

Spoilers
Spoilers

Oh please don't pretend now that you knew what was going on, you chose destroy because you believed it would destroy them...guess what, it didn't; you chose destroy because you believed it would be acceptable to sacrifice the geth and EDI (even though she's not synthetic life). Believing and choosing control is just as much as a valid decision if you believed and chose destroy.

pretty much this

I went for red for only one reason: revenge.
if it turns out to be the right/paragon endingg, then even better

I didn't want to control them, for what reason would I want to control them, if I can wipe them out...especially since I have to give up everything else, I didn't want that
I wanted to be with Garrus, Tali and Liara even more. (man that last conversation with garrus, brings back a tear into my eye)
but killing the geth in the process made me feel guilty as fuck.

however, it never came into my mind that everything is just a dream when I stood infront of the device.
the only 2 things which were extremely fishy to me were

Anderson on the Citadel:
How did he get there, what the... he was not there..., how did he manage to reach the console before me, there was only a single way to reach that damn thing!

but I was like.. "meh poor writing"

and:

Child-holo= Device
Why does it look like a random dead kid on Earth.. did it read my mind and manifested as something I know/knew?

and I don't believe anyone who says that they came up with the indoctrination theory themselves :P
(it's probably not even true in the first place)

[Ryllharu]

Spoilers, obviously.


Not once have I ever said I came up with the Indoctrination theory on my own. I am just easily convinced by it given the plot holes left open in the ending. I stated explicitly that before I saw those videos (even with the myriad of flaws in some of their logic, like the stuff saying that Anderson isn't talking to the IM...right...) that everything felt off. Nothing specifically, just wrong. There are chatlogs on IRC to prove it, I thought the kid was a ghost of PTSD before DS sent me the link to the video (7 min version), I never considered Indoctrination as a possibility until I watched it (and described it as a "compelling" argument). The catalyst was manipulating you, but it didn't dawn on me that it was part of indoctrination, just simple, straightforward persuasive manipulation and lying by omission.

I believe the ending is the result of poor, last minute writing. One should always write a beginning, an end, and fill in the middle. Bioware has been pretty clear that they didn't do that. They were settling on an ending right up to the last minute. With all the odd statements coming out of Bioware regarding the uproar, perhaps it is by luck alone they left gaps enough for fans to come up with the Indoctrination theory, something that hopefully Bioware will adopt in their "clarifications" DLC.

The inky tentacles were more likely written to be the IM's full reaper-tech enhanced capabilities. Sure, he's indoctrinated, but all the Sanctuary, Collector Base, and other reaper tech he's found allowed him to turn himself into a half-assed Reaper, much like the ME2 human reaper was going to become. We know quite well that the smaller Reapers are controlled by the Dreadnought Reapers (such as Sovereign and Harbinger). Saren had similar levels of control over Benezia and the like, granted to him through Sovereign. His suicide (or dismay such that you get to shoot him) is just meant as an homage to Saren's, not some elaborately crafted allusion using Shepard's memories so Shep's subconscious can believe it has defeated the more obvious reaper indoctrination shadow to let his guard down.

The fact that Anderson gets there first? Sloppy writing to re-create the dramatic showdown scene. The parts of the citadel that remind us of previous things Shepard has done, similar to the way the Geth created a scene that Shepard could comprehend? Lazy reuse of assets. Something Bioware certainly has a reputation for by now (Both ME1 and DA2).

That nothing you did throughout the games is mentioned by the catalyst? The effect of last minute writing/coding. No time to pull in those flags and assets, since they ran out of time to write the ending (again, admitted by Hudson that they were going back and forth up to the last possible minute, and the game was delayed slightly anyway).

[Animeniax]

Spoilers:

I chose the blue ending, maybe because I wasn't aware of the full ME story background and importance of indoctrination, maybe because I liked the idea of controlling a vast reaper army to wage war on the universe. I didn't even realize there was a third option.

I'm not sure why so many people question how Anderson gets to the console before Shepard. Clearly he's in much better condition than Shepard at that point (Shepard is bleeding and dragging ass, meanwhile Anderson seems unhurt), so movement would be easier for him.

[KrayZ33]

its because there is only a single way to reach that console, and shepard is bound to see him when he's moving towards it.

that aside, he shouldn't be on the citadell in the first place, he wasn't with you when you charged towards the beam.

for the third ending, you'll only be able to choose it if you managed to get a certain amount of war assets.

[Animeniax]

The way Shepard described what he saw while talking to Anderson on the radio made it sound like Anderson was just way ahead of him in getting to the console. He mentions seeing areas that Anderson already talked about on his trek through the Citadel. Anderson charged in with everyone else, it was an all-out assault to get to the beam. I don't see why Anderson wouldn't have been charging too, though he's old and in command.

I had almost 100% war assets (only 50% galactic readiness because I didn't play MP), and completed every mission before the attack on Cerberus. The third option wasn't presented by the ghost boy, but I guess I could have walked into the beam anyway?

[Ryllharu]

I had almost 100% war assets (only 50% galactic readiness because I didn't play MP), and completed every mission before the attack on Cerberus. The third option wasn't presented by the ghost boy, but I guess I could have walked into the beam anyway?

Galactic readiness applies a multiplier to your war assets. 50% Readiness means you're going into the final battle with (War Assets x .5), effectively halving your strength. Or something like that. It's probably not that severe, but it is significant.

This is why people were a bit upset about MP's effect on SP. You're forced to play, or do every possible side quest to avoid the bad endings.
edit: Also that the number drops by 1% per day below 80%, and substantially faster above 80%.

[darkshadow]

you don't need to do every possible sidequest, you need ~5000 units with 50% or ~3000 units with 100%, I did everything I could while actually still missing 2 things and still got ~7000 units.

[Archangel]

Aye, the boring stuff is totally skipable. That said, you're a bitch if you don't do your best to have all of the galaxy at your side for your battle against Marauder Shields.

[EpyonNext]

edit: Also that the number drops by 1% per day below 80%, and substantially faster above 80%.

Chances are though if you took the time to play the 12-15 MP games that got you to 100% in the first place then you probably play regularly.

Also, the M99-Saber in Multiplayer is a fucking monster. It carries teams.

[TwisT]

It's funny but if you use weapons, Cerberus seems like the easiest. If you use Salarian Infiltrator, Geth seem easiest due to being synthetic. And if you use biotic powers Reapers seem easiest.

I personally feel Black Widow owns M99. I know M99 is strong but i feel BW have M99 beat on all accounts except the clip size. Better damage, better armor penetration, better accuracy and attachment to see though smoke. Only once i chose M99 for is Sentinel (and warrior if i chose to play it sometime) and since they nerfed the Falcon it might be my new weapon for my Engineer too. But that is basically just because i feel those classes should not be played with a weapon that zooms. if i could chose to remove the scope on the BW i would probably just go with that on them too.

[Ryllharu]

Chances are though if you took the time to play the 12-15 MP games that got you to 100% in the first place then you probably play regularly.

True, but it is a problem for people who can't play as regularly, like people with families for instance. I ran it up on a Saturday, then finished the game on a Sunday, and I could play it all day. There are a lot of gamers out there who can't play more than an hour a night nowadays. It's kinda hard to build it up for the SP finale when it keeps going down. It was a poor design decision to force people to keep playing MP. If it was like a week before it dropped, it wouldn't be a problem at all.

It's funny but if you use weapons, Cerberus seems like the easiest. If you use Salarian Infiltrator, Geth seem easiest due to being synthetic. And if you use biotic powers Reapers seem easiest.

Reapers are definitely easiest with biotics period, but I find Geth to be the hardest generally. Cerberus you need a mix of all three, mostly because of Guardians (most easily dealt with by biotic pull or statis) and overloads to quickly short Centurion, Nemesis, and Phantom shields. Guardians are a pain in the ass without a biotic, large sink of time and ammo to take out one unless you shoot through the mailslot or savage them with a M-300 point blank.

Geth on the other hand can be difficult even with techs. The mix of rocket troopers every wave and hunters nearly every wave make it hard for any team not actively and vigilantly managing their own defense. It can become trivial for the geth to get devastating crossfire on your team while hacking. Rocket troopers pin everyone down and then the hunters run through. Sure, super-solo capable Infiltrator makes it easy, but they make everything easy.

[darkshadow]

The black widow is great, but I still prefer the widow to everything else; the sheer damage on it is just crazy.
The N7 valiant is also an awesome sniper rifle which I prefer to the black widow, sure it doesn't have the crazy damage/penetration but it does have a lot of ammo, multiple clips in the round and a super fast reload.
I only tend to use assault rifles when I'm using the sentinel, otherwise it's just sniper or pistol; arc pistol/carnifex/paladin just wreck shit.

Also the salarian infiltrator and the asari adept are by far the 2 best classes in the game, those 2 have all the tools needed to ruin any enemy class. After that the human vanguard ofcourse, though that will probably change soon with the upcoming dlc that includes the krogan vanguard/geth infiltrator.

[KrayZ33]

Reapers are definitely easiest with biotics period, but I find Geth to be the hardest generally.Sure, super-solo capable Infiltrator makes it easy, but they make everything easy.

*Quarian* infiltrator

sabotage pyro/primes/rocket trooper

G_G so much fun, especially if there are 2 around, Geth Primes are the weakest of all the huge enemies (Banshee/Atlas/Prime)
3-4 hits are enough to finish them off as infiltrator on silver.
2000/2200 points ea. kill

Cebrberus is a problem because of phantoms, and the turrets
you can handle the turrets somehow as long as you don't rush things, but phantoms are fucking broken

good to handle with sniper rifles though, but still damn broken

The black widow is great, but I still prefer the widow to everything else; the sheer damage on it is just crazy.

do they have different damage-stats?

[darkshadow]

Yes, the widow does more raw damage, the BW has more shots before reload; just like the paladin has more raw damage, but the carnifex has a bigger clip.

[EpyonNext]

I prefer the Javelin to all the other sniper rifles. Sees through smoke and walls and penetrates walls/smoke by default.

[KrayZ33]

isn't the smoke part scope specific and the penetration part also true for the widow?

[darkshadow]

No, the other rifles need the sniper scope mod for seeing through smoke, the javelin also has the highest penetration but it does less damage per shot compared to the widow, it also shoots slower; that little charge up before each shot bugs me. Also seeing through smoke is highly overrated imo.

[EpyonNext]

I like the charge up. It keeps me from wasting a shot if the target jukes right before I fire.

[KrayZ33]

how does that help, it could happen 0,5 seconds later and the charge-up would be the reason why you missed the target
I haven't used it yet (neither SP nor MP) but a sniper-user with the same timing as you should be faster because of that.


do you guys play MP often?
Its pretty boring imho... its hard to play more than 2 games in a row, its so repetitive, it takes too long to buy spectre packs (~-30-40 minutes on silver.. 2x15-20mins for around 30k credits each).
its difficult to motivate myself to unlock more stuff,even less motivating when the store fucks up again and eats up my credits.

they should've made more game-modes, or at least more objectives.
on the long run, the MP is really a poor excuse... I should be glad that there is a MP part in the first place, but I'm not.... they shouldn't have wasted time on this and go for a better ending.

hell, even another L4D-clone would be fine by me... but this? I was able to get a few hours of fun out of it, but now, what can I say, I expected more.

and I'm still annoyed by the fact that I spent so much time rescuing squads and ships all over the galaxy just so they would add to some numbers in the war-room.

where was my geth-prime-squad during the assault on earth, my asari biotic commando.
Oh man, I went to earth, *totally* expecting something along Dragon Age 1 where I was able to call in reinforcements when things got ugly.
but things did not get ugly, "hardcore" is as easy as "medium" in ME2, even though they said things are going to be one step more difficult as in ME2 (Medium becomes Easy, Hard becomes Medium etc.) and I didn't see any of the dreadnoughts, Squads, Fighters I rescued.

and seriously now

+ weapon damage on armor
+ weapon damage on passive skills
+ weapon damage on active skills
+ weapon damage on passive upgrades
+ weapon damage on weapon mods
+ weapon damage on squad-power-bonuses
+ health / armor / shield / barrier damage on ammo-powers?

I went for the Vindicator and there was not a single reason to ever drop that weapon again.

1-2 burst were enough to kill any normal enemy in the game.
now after seeing how well the Mattlock preforms in MP I don't want to imagine the pain it can deal in SP

[Ryllharu]

G_G so much fun, especially if there are 2 around, Geth Primes are the weakest of all the huge enemies (Banshee/Atlas/Prime)
3-4 hits are enough to finish them off as infiltrator on silver.

I feel like it is class dependent. I've soloed Banshee's (while the rest of the team is doing other things, killing other things) with both Human Adepts and Human Engineers, the latter being substantially easier (did it at lvl 6 engineer). All you need is an SMG for the adept and a pistol for the Engineer, firing and backing away the whole time. Spam Warp once the barrier is down from SMG fire, or spam Overload while the barrier is up, and Incinerate when it's down. It goes faster if the Adept can get a biotic combo from some little grunt unit. Atlases are cake for the engineer too. Geth Primes aren't so much of an issue as the rocket troopers and hunters that always tag along. Their shields prevent hitting them with Singularity, and the Prime's drones catch the Overload more often than not.

Also seeing through smoke is highly overrated imo.

Yeah, but the feeling of nailing the Centurion in the head when he's prancing about thinking he's safe is worth it. The headless orange outline is priceless.