Mass Effect 3

Mindkiller

So did saving/killing the Rachni ever get referred to in this series? I've only played up until about half-way through ME2.

Kiith

Mr Freeze wrote: »

I have played no multiplayer and have my green war assets bar nearly full. Do I have to play multiplayer now to get a good ending or just plough on through and see what happens?

As far as i know, as long as you have a full green bar (over 4000 i think) you'll get the full ending. Not 100% sure on that though.

Mindkiller wrote: »

So did saving/killing the Rachni ever get referred to in this series? I've only played up until about half-way through ME2.

Yes. In both games.

Mr Freeze

Kiith wrote: »

As far as i know, as long as you have a full green bar (over 4000 i think) you'll get the full ending. Not 100% sure on that though.

Class, thanks for that. I have 5000 I think. Not 100% sure.

maximoose

Does the galactic readiness go down if you don't play continue playing the multiplayer? Got it up to 100% lastnight and continued on with the story, only to notice after a couple of hours my readiness was at 98%. That's bloody annoying if so

Deano7788

maximoose wrote: »

Does the galactic readiness go down if you don't play continue playing the multiplayer? Got it up to 100% lastnight and continued on with the story, only to notice after a couple of hours my readiness was at 98%. That's bloody annoying if so

Yeah it seems to. I generally play the multiplayer for a bit and then the main game after that but when I go back to the main menu afterwards it's dropped by a percent or two.

Mr Freeze

maximoose wrote: »

Does the galactic readiness go down if you don't play continue playing the multiplayer?

My Galactic Readiness is still on 50% cause I didn't play any online, so haven't got a clue.

Did you have to play tonnes of Multiplayer to get the readiness to 100%?

Kiith

Mr Freeze wrote: »

Did you have to play tonnes of Multiplayer to get the readiness to 100%?

Not really. It goes up between 3-5% every game. It's actually good fun, and i'd definitely recommend it.

Mr Freeze

Kiith wrote: »

Not really. It goes up between 3-5% every game. It's actually good fun, and i'd definitely recommend it.

Before heading for the endgame or after???

I think I am near the end of it now, and itching to complete it now.

maximoose

Mr Freeze wrote: »

My Galactic Readiness is still on 50% cause I didn't play any online, so haven't got a clue.

Did you have to play tonnes of Multiplayer to get the readiness to 100%?

Didn't take too long, and it is quite enjoyable. Well it was at the start, now finding it too repetitive!

mewso

The bioware forums quite clearly states that the multiplayer option is there only as an alternative to finding war assets and that you can simply concentrate on single player and war assets if you wish. Amazing how people get the wrong end of the stick.

marco_polo

Mr Freeze wrote: »

I have played no multiplayer and have my green war assets bar nearly full. Do I have to play multiplayer now to get a good ending or just plough on through and see what happens?

AFAIK all Galactic Readiness does is let you accumulate War Assets more quickly. Stupid and confusing inclusion, but by all accounts all it affects is the speed with which you can finish the SP campaign.

Mr Freeze

That's great Mewso, I have been doing the War Assets stuff, so might try the multiplayer when I have the single player exhausted.

marco_polo

mewso wrote: »

The bioware forums quite clearly states that the multiplayer option is there only as an alternative to finding war assets and that you can simply concentrate on single player and war assets if you wish. Amazing how people get the wrong end of the stick.

Its not particularly intuitive or well explained though, I was a good few hour in before i started to wonder why it wasn't going up at all.

quarryman

So I decided to sit down and try Mass Effect 1 on the PC after a failed attempt on the Xbox 360 a few years ago that saw me get about 20 hours in before quitting frustratedly.

My thoughts:

The loading and frame-rate on the Xbox 360 were so bad I eventually gave up. Not only are there load screens on the Rapid Transit system, but in elevators AND momentarily in corridors. Awful stuff.

Anyway, with ME3 out I decided to give the franchise another shot and to get around the technical short-comings on the console by moving to my PC.

Frame-rate is better and although the load-times are much shorter they still appear, regularly.

1. Movement. Aggh. Running away during a firefight seems to be a mini-game of avoid the walls or risk moving into "cover" and succumbing to the Krogan beatdown. It's just not a fluid system, I'm not asking for FPS levels of smoothness but surely there must be something better than the clunky character movement?

2. Level design. There seems to be no flow. Dead-ends, blocked corridors. It's very difficult to figure out if you are going the right way most of the time which leads me onto the:

3. Map. Maybe I'm missing something. I can't seem to find how to browse various levels on the map. So if my destination isn't on the level I'm on, how do I find it? I'm told I need to go to the "Lower Wards". I can't see a door or elevator on the map that shows me how to get there.

4. The AI. Awful stuff. Lots of my battles have been won by finding a gap or peeping around a corner to get just enough of a view for a headshot in on the enemy. Rather than reposition themselves or attack me they quietly sit there taking hit after hit until dead.

5. The loot system is dumb. There are just too many weapons. It's lazy stuff too, Kessler I, II, III etc. Then I need to cycle through each weapon for each class for each character comparing the very minor differences between each. Why not have less weapons and larger gaps in damage etc between each.

6. The Mako. Let's not let this disaster escape a mention. The physics on the Mako movement is like something from a Flash game coded by a 12-year old. Honestly, how did the developers playtest this and say "yep, that feels right". The slightest touch on the throttle can see you shooting off the screen tumbling to your death. Ridiculous acrobatics are achievable, mostly unintentional. I never feel like I'm really in control, it's a case of: point in the general direction you want to go and hope of the best.

I haven't mentioned too much on the combat, mostly because I still haven't got my head around it. My party members seem to act in helpful way until they are lying dead leaving me to deal with the mess.

There are obviously a lot of fans of the game, these complaints are not an effort to troll but to understand how it's held in such high regard - a game that, to me, seems so disjointed and lacking in so many areas.

me-skywalker

quarryman wrote: »

So I decided to sit down and try Mass Effect 1 on the PC after a failed attempt on the Xbox 360 a few years ago that saw me get about 20 hours in before quitting frustratedly.

My thoughts:

The loading and frame-rate on the Xbox 360 were so bad I eventually gave up. Not only are there load screens on the Rapid Transit system, but in elevators AND momentarily in corridors. Awful stuff.

Anyway, with ME3 out I decided to give the franchise another shot and to get around the technical short-comings on the console by moving to my PC.

Frame-rate is better and although the load-times are much shorter they still appear, regularly.

1. Movement. Aggh. Running away during a firefight seems to be a mini-game of avoid the walls or risk moving into "cover" and succumbing to the Krogan beatdown. It's just not a fluid system, I'm not asking for FPS levels of smoothness but surely there must be something better than the clunky character movement?

2. Level design. There seems to be no flow. Dead-ends, blocked corridors. It's very difficult to figure out if you are going the right way most of the time which leads me onto the:

3. Map. Maybe I'm missing something. I can't seem to find how to browse various levels on the map. So if my destination isn't on the level I'm on, how do I find it? I'm told I need to go to the "Lower Wards". I can't see a door or elevator on the map that shows me how to get there.

4. The AI. Awful stuff. Lots of my battles have been won by finding a gap or peeping around a corner to get just enough of a view for a headshot in on the enemy. Rather than reposition themselves or attack me they quietly sit there taking hit after hit until dead.

5. The loot system is dumb. There are just too many weapons. It's lazy stuff too, Kessler I, II, III etc. Then I need to cycle through each weapon for each class for each character comparing the very minor differences between each. Why not have less weapons and larger gaps in damage etc between each.

6. The Mako. Let's not let this disaster escape a mention. The physics on the Mako movement is like something from a Flash game coded by a 12-year old. Honestly, how did the developers playtest this and say "yep, that feels right". The slightest touch on the throttle can see you shooting off the screen tumbling to your death. Ridiculous acrobatics are achievable, mostly unintentional. I never feel like I'm really in control, it's a case of: point in the general direction you want to go and hope of the best.

I haven't mentioned too much on the combat, mostly because I still haven't got my head around it. My party members seem to act in helpful way until they are lying dead leaving me to deal with the mess.

There are obviously a lot of fans of the game, these complaints are not an effort to troll but to understand how it's held in such high regard - a game that, to me, seems so disjointed and lacking in so many areas.

Your right... but ain't it bloody fantastic!!

Burning Eclipse

Is anyone else surprised by how much they are enjoying the MP element to this game? I think it's great

Mr Freeze

@Quarry Man
Mass Effect 1 is a flawed Masterpiece.
I completely agree with all the comments, but the game is still class.

FutureGuy

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Is anyone else surprised by how much they are enjoying the MP element to this game? I think it's great

It's one of the most pleasent surprises of the last 12 months. For a mode that was completely slated on announcement and I think everyone was right to do so at the time), I think Bioware have reached a new level with their multiplayer. It is an experience that is completely enjoyable as a self-contained game mode, but one that paradoxically has a positive impact on your single player.

3-4 friends, mics on, super fun!

mewso

marco_polo wrote: »

Its not particularly intuitive or well explained though, I was a good few hour in before i started to wonder why it wasn't going up at all.

Intuitive and EA don't seem to go well together. No explanation on how to download 'From Ashes' (I only installed origin for this game), The Instruction Manual download is a series of epilepsy warnings in different languages (google found the real thing for me). Those forums seem to be a must to get any specific information.

As to the game I'm only starting out (thanks for the reveal about EDI above folks - my own fault I know) but I agree with most general complaints. I had a conversation with Liara there last night where both characters were looking away from each other. Very odd looking and shoddy really. Don't get me started on the face import which failed for me.

wes

mewso wrote: »

I had a conversation with Liara there last night where both characters were looking away from each other. Very odd looking and shoddy really.

This has happened to me a few times. It can be really bad at times. Surprised it wasn't mentioned in any of the reviews that I read.

Zero-Cool

Ya the cutscenes are very shoddy, lip synching is attrocious. Don't know how it passed quality testing.

Just passed the Citadel

attack

mission, where the hell is Tali already! Anyway, the citadel tasks are a joke! Wondering around hearing whispers and not having a clue what to do. Worst is having done all the stuff but not being able to find the person who to go to tofinish the quest as some of them won't appear on your map.

Half the time I don't know/care about what I'm doing in the side quests, I just want those shiny assets! Side quests are the weakest thing about this game so far.

AnCapaillMor

sheehy83 wrote: »

where the hell is Tali already! Anyway, the citadel tasks are a joke! Wondering around hearing whispers and not having a clue what to do. Worst is having done all the stuff but not being able to find the person who to go to tofinish the quest as some of them won't appear on your map.

Half the time I don't know/care about what I'm doing in the side quests, I just want those shiny assets! Side quests are the weakest thing about this game so far.

She turns up soon, was surprised it was late enough into the game.

You don't mind the side quests as there's so many plot based quests and most sides are handy enough although i did have 2 or 3 unfinished quests in the end.

klose

So i got caught up the me3 hype but instead of stupidly getting 3 i picked up 1 and 2 today for 30 quid, im liking 1 so far certainly my kind of game

Zillah

mewso wrote: »

The bioware forums quite clearly states that the multiplayer option is there only as an alternative to finding war assets and that you can simply concentrate on single player and war assets if you wish. Amazing how people get the wrong end of the stick.

This is basically a lie that bioware released after the horrible backlash to the announcement that you need to play multiplayer to get the special ending.

You need to have

5000

effective military strength, or

4000 if you save Anderson

to get the special little cutscene at the end, which means you need

10,000/8,000

total without playing multiplayer, which is impossible, and if it is not literally impossible, it is so difficult and unlikely that it is virtually impossible. The highest I have seen anyone posting anywhere is about

7200 total military strength

which is quite a bit more than I had and they claim they made all the right decisions through all the games and collected all the assets in ME3.

People keep linking to that Bioware post without testing it, it doesn't work. Out of curiosity, what is the highest total military strength anyone here has gotten? I collected all the assets in ME3 but made some less than ideal decisions and I had something like 5800.

Gunmonkey

Burning Eclipse wrote: »

Is anyone else surprised by how much they are enjoying the MP element to this game? I think it's great

Since my saves from 1+2 are on a PC doing in the country its all I can play from this game so far But I like survival co-op modes in games, better gaming experience than "LOLOLOL TEIM DETTTHMETCH SNIPERZ WARZ" most other games MP is.

The damn "BLOODY SCREEN, SO REALISTIC" drives me insane though, the one point you want a clear screen to try take cover is obscured by your destroyed jam reserves stuck in your eyes. Why is it here? You have a health bar, that was the reason this was introduced in CoD and such, the lack of an onscreen indicator for health.

sink

Zillah wrote: »

Out of curiosity, what is the highest total military strength anyone here has gotten? I collected all the assets in ME3 but made some less than ideal decisions and I had something like 5800.

I had around 6500. I had all the powerful races Asari, Turian, Salarian, Quarian, Krogan, Geth and all the minor ones Rachni, Volus, Elchor, Drell etc,.

I was missing some of the war assets from the treasure hunting quests, but I hate those one so I didn't bother with a lot of them. I had about 94% Galactic readiness.

maximoose

So, am I right now to say that in SP you gather together all the war assets and have a total military strength... but the % level of galactic readiness from the MP determines the effective military strength (and this is what matters, you need about 4k effective for the "good" ending?)?

Zero-Cool

Does multuplayer just give you a mulitplier for your war assets? If so, should you play MP during the game and not wait till you have as much assets as you can get?

18 hours in, just finished Citadel after

the attack

and it feels like the game is just starting. Have a ton of new quests from Citadel and see the Quarians are finally open for business. Plus Carnage, Vega's bonus power is savage! And it counts towards the Sky High trophy if you upgrade it enough.

maximoose

sheehy83 wrote: »

Plus Carnage, Vega's bonus power is savage! And it counts towards the Sky High trophy if you upgrade it enough.

I got that fairly quickly through just playing multiplayer, and I'm not even sure how! I played with an engineer the whole time just using Incinerate, Overload and Combat drone..but I was still getting points towards that achievement. Maybe the fully upgraded incinerate/overload knocks them over

downwithpeace

I'm loving EDI, she reminds me of a Red Dwarf bit:
"Kryten: Is this the human quality you call friendship?
Lister: Don't give me any of that Star Trek crap. It's too early in the morning."

Plus, 7 zettabytes of porn would keep any attacker busy.


(Got to unsubscribe again, until I finish it)