Mass Effect 3 - 3.5M Shipped Worldwide and More

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Don't worry we will get more of Bioware's lovely plot hole filled story's and lies where your choices will matter.

Oh, but your many choices do matter. They change so many little things. Yes, they don't change the main story significantly. Of course, they don't.

So far I'm having great fun with this game, some nice (and very shocking) choices to be made along the way, makes you feel very important. Then again with all the death and destruction going on in the galaxy how can people expect a happy Hollywood ending?! Will come back on the ending when I've seen it, now busy collecting fleets, troops and what else there is available to stop the Reapers.

Originally Posted by azarhal
Or BioWare just thought players had more brains. <= Contains spoilers for ME3 endings and lots of part of the game.

Sorry, but if it's not in game, it doesn't count. If they release a DLC that makes current ending "just a dream" then it does not matter if it was planned from the beginning or made after players outcry - it is abhorrent, unacceptable practice. If it was planned it is in fact way worse, as it means they knowingly released incomplete product and marketed it as a whole, complete game. Either way, it's very bad.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Oh, but your many choices do matter. They change so many little things. Yes, they don't change the main story significantly. Of course, they don't.

No, they do not. Choices from previous games do not count, except for maybe some cosmetic detail. For example, there will always be a rachni queen, whatever your choice on Noveria was. Then, on another level, all your choices in this game only matter as a number on your war assets page, which is not very satisfying. And ultimately, the ending invalidates it all, makes all the story and choices pointless.

Originally Posted by fungus
(…)
No, they do not. Choices from previous games do not count, except for maybe some cosmetic detail. For example, there will always be a rachni queen, whatever your choice on Noveria was. Then, on another level, all your choices in this game only matter as a number on your war assets page, which is not very satisfying. And ultimately, the ending invalidates it all, makes all the story and choices pointless.

Yep. Or as another example, whatever choice you made regarding the Quarian-Geths conflict in ME2, is also conveniently waved it seems, with a few line of dialog to "justify" that. I'm still playing the game and I hope, I really do, that I'll be proven wrong, but ME3 seems to prove that Bioware self-praise about the importance of choices & consequences was just PR BS.

Please stop posting spoilers about the presumably horrible ending(s). Ah, screw it. I'll just stop reading. From the tiny bits and parts I've read and pieced together, I already have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen. If I'm right, it will be a very satisfying end for me. But I need to stop delving into ME3 threads now, before there is no doubt and surprise left for me…

Originally Posted by Thaurin
A prequel could be interesting, though, with humanity first finding the Prothean ruins on Mars, and struggling to grow in power among the newly found alien races… hmmmm.

I'm halfway through my 2nd full play of ME1/2 to get "my" Sheperd prepped for ME3, but AFAIC the Protheans have pretty much lost any semblance of being interesting anymore.

First, as was discovered at the end of ME1, most of the really interesting tech wasn't created by them-- they just found it and used it like we did.

Second, they were basically failures, not only in elevator construction, but also in their ability to do anything, politically or militarily, to save themselves against the Reaper onslaught. As a PC, why would I want to go back and participate in that world, knowing that no matter what happened, they were doomed?

And 3rd, who wants to see humanity struggle to be respected by other aliens… Again… Been there, done that.

I'd like to see a game with new characters (or even Shepard if he isn't really dead, but I assume that's off the table) just going around and exploring, which to me has been the best part of the series. Landing on new planets, adding actual space ship-vs-ship combat, and if they want a huge story arc, have it deal with taking down Cerberus (or helping them, up to you), figuring out more about The Collectors, or even continuing the Reapers story as it seems there's a lot left to wrap up (so I'll soon find out).

A 4X space exploration game with planets that are actually unique and interesting to explore? Yes, please! But what about the First Contact War with the Turians. Creates the setting for space combat.

Originally Posted by fungus
Sorry, but if it's not in game, it doesn't count.

There's a lot of hints,. From squadmates, to interactions in some mission (people should pay attention to the Thessia mission dialogs!). Which mean it is in the game.

Lots of movies, games, japanese anime and books have ending like this, giving the reader/player/watch enough hints to realize what is going on if they pay attention. I never seen any of them getting "DLCS" to explain those endings either…

Yep. Or as another example, whatever choice you made regarding the Quarian-Geths conflict in ME2, is also conveniently waved it seems, with a few line of dialog to "justify" that. I'm still playing the game and I hope, I really do, that I'll be proven wrong, but ME3 seems to prove that Bioware self-praise about the importance of choices & consequences was just PR BS.

The Quarian-Geth conflict have 3 different outcomes in ME3. One of them is not available depending of what you did/didn't do in ME2.

Originally Posted by azarhal
There's a lot of hints,. From squadmates, to interactions in some mission (people should pay attention to the Thessia mission dialogs!). Which mean it is in the game.

Hints? Vague at best, but that's of course hard to discuss, as personal opinion here matters most. There is however the matter of Normandy, and then Stargazer that does rather strongly suggest the ending is quite real. Also, such oneiric ending does work in many cases, but does not fit in Mass Effect is mood and setting, at least for me. So I consider it a rationalization, as it often happens when much loved product falls short of expectations.

EDIT: But if you could link me to the hints on Thessia, I'd be grateful. I am willing to consider all the options

Oh fuck you. Don't we have a spoiler-free discussion forum, or something?

Originally Posted by fungus
EDIT: But if you could link me to the hints on Thessia, I'd be grateful. I am willing to consider all the options

I'm personally not saying that the ending aren't "real", only that some aspect in it are not what they seems.

I don't feel like finding an youtube video, So I'll write it by memory.

Originally Posted by Thaurin
Oh fuck you. Don't we have a spoiler-free discussion forum, or something?

Well they have the spoiler tags you must be blind not to see them.

Finished it, only complaint I could have about the ending(s) is that it should have an epilogue/vignettes to let you know what happened afterwards to the people whose lives you affected and consequences of your choices, the couple of generic cgi sequences we got are a bit cheap, no issues with the end choices/resolutions though.

Good game, does a lot more than ME2 and mostly does it better, was afraid it would drop the ball halfway through but it remained solid. Problem is there was nothing inspired about it and it doesn't feed the rpg craving -at all- so I'm pretty much done with the series/genre and completely lost my interest in Bioware (cept for occasional shit-flinging).